Iran TV's Palestinian correspondent is a foreign agent

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said Tuesday that a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, who is working as a correspondent for Iran’s state-run Press TV in Israel, is the "definition" of a foreign agent.

Ibrahim Husseini has worked as an English-language correspondent for Press TV, the first Iranian international news network broadcasting in English, for the past year in Jerusalem, although he is not the first person to fill the post, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

When he approached MK Aryeh Eldad for an interview, Eldad refused, and turned to the Government Press Office and legal adviser, lawyer Yehuda Weinstein, to establish the legality of Husseini's journalistic activities in Israel, according to the Israel Radio report.

“It seems to me that this is really the definition of a foreign agent,” Eldad told Israel Radio.

“He is not really an Iranian, he just represents the TV station that is owned by the Iranian regime. It seemed very strange to me that a journalist that works for such a station is able to work freely in Israel, and I am turning to the legal adviser of the Israeli government to check the legality of his activities, and to weigh up steps in terms of his status as a citizen, and whether it is right to take him to court over the fact that he represents an official Iranian body in Israel,” Eldad added.

Government Press Office Director Oren Helman told Israel Radio, “this is a legal question, I have never come across this issue before, I think that it is very rare.”

“I received an inquiry from MK Aryeh Eldad that we will later pass on for legal revision to see if there is any way we can, or should, act in legal terms,” Helman told Israel Radio.

"There is no doubt that there is no point in him turning to the Government Press Office, even if the Iranian regime were to give him an official letter asking to give him a journalist permit here,“ Helman added.

Husseini did not want to be interviewed, but in conversation with Israel Radio he said he did not understand the problem.

“There is no harm in my work, it even promotes understanding between the countries,” Israel Radio reported him as saying.

Source: Haaretz