Arab MK to face charge of beating cop

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided on Sunday to indict Israeli Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh for allegedly attacking a policeman during a demonstration at the West Bank separation fence in 2005. Barakeh, chairman of the Israeli Arab party Hadash, is suspected of assaulting a member of the Israel Prison Service's elite Masada unit at a protest in the West bank village of Bi'ilin.

The officer was taking a detainee to a police car at the time of the alleged assault.

Mazuz also considered including the crimes of offending a public servant and issuing threats on the charge sheet - offenses which Barakeh is alleged to have committed at two other demonstrations.

In one incident, Barakeh allegedly attacked a police officer during a 2006 protest in Tel Aviv, while in another he's accused of assaulting a passerby during a demonstration in Rabin Square.

Last year Barakeh reportedly met secretly with Hamas' political bureau chief, Khaled Meshal, at a conference in Abu Dhabi marking 60 years since the Palestinian Nakba or "catastrophe."

When asked about the meeting, Barakeh told Haaretz he was committed to unity with the Palestinians, but would not say whether or not the talks had taken place.

The MK said that he saw Hamas as an important component of Palestinian society, without whom national unity is impossible. He nevertheless acknowledged that he was critical toward the movement and its conduct in Gaza.