Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, arrested in ‘Qatar-gate,’ says he’s being unfairly prosecuted for his reporting

(JTA) — The editor of the Jerusalem Post said he was being unjustly punished after police arrested him amid a sweeping investigation into illicit ties with Qatar.

Zvika Klein was released from house arrest on Thursday after being questioned under caution by police days ago in “Qatar-gate.” The scandal revolves around spokesmen for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who were allegedly being paid to represent Qatar, the longtime home of Hamas’ leadership.

Unlike the other two people arrested in the probe, Eli Feldstein and Yonatan Urich, Klein does not work for Netanyahu. And his arrest has raised eyebrows, and sparked protest from other Israeli journalists, because of a reporting trip he took last year to the wealthy Gulf state, where he interviewed the country’s leadership.

Journalists for papers across Israel’s political spectrum have condemned his arrest or worried that it infringes on freedom of the press.

Amit Segal, a commentator for Israel’s Channel 12, decried the “criminalization of journalism.” Haaretz’s Josh Breiner said in a TV appearance, “I really hope this interrogation was justified, otherwise in my opinion this is an earthquake: If they took a journalist into the interrogation room just because he dared to speak with officials in Qatar, and that becomes [the crime of] contact with a foreign agent, that’s a very severe event for democracy.”

Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said Klein was not brought in for his journalistic activity and had not initially been considered a suspect. But she said he was questioned under caution because of a suspicion that he was involved in the illicit Qatari payments.

“During his testimony, significant suspicion surfaced that the journalist was, together with the prime minister’s advisers, part of the mechanism of receiving benefits from Qatar in exchange for promoting its interests,” she said, in a statement first reported by Israel’s Channel 13.

In a column published Thursday in the Post, one of Israel’s most prominent English-language papers (and a syndication client of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency), Klein denied that charge and said he was held in “harsh” conditions for hours without being able to contact his children while his wife was abroad. He wrote that he traveled to Qatar as a journalist interested in learning more about a regional power, and that he received no benefits from the Qatari government.

“I understood this was a rare journalistic opportunity,” he wrote. “I reached out to officials representing the Qatari government and, after some back and forth, I became the first Israeli journalist to interview the prime minister of Qatar. The full story was proudly published in this paper.”

Klein, who was interviewed in other Israeli and international media about the trip, has written previously that Feldstein set up some of those interviews.

“I received nothing in return. No benefits, no payment, no promises. I came back to Israel, and apparently one fact puzzled the police: I got nothing in return,” he wrote on Thursday. “A public relations official connected to the delegation offered to promote the article in other media outlets. I agreed.”

He continued, “This case will not intimidate me. It will not intimidate my dedicated team. It will not intimidate any journalist working with integrity and courage. We are not beholden to anyone, do not serve foreign interests, and owe nothing to anyone.”

Klein, who was born in Chicago and moved with his family to Israel as a child, reported on the Jewish Diaspora for years before becoming editor-in-chief of the Post in 2023. His reporting on Qatar included its leaders’ framing of the country’s role in the Middle East — as well as criticism of that outlook.

“Their efforts, they assert, are in alignment with the broader objectives of global powers like the US and Israel, aimed at fostering stability in a tumultuous region,” he wrote. “Yet, there’s a palpable undercurrent of skepticism about Qatar’s true intentions. Their financial support to Gaza, often labeled as aid to Hamas, as well their policy of allowing that group’s top leaders to reside in their country, is a focal point of contention.

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