Israeli left-wing activist Ezra Nawi, who is now under police investigation. Photo: Wikipedia.

Israeli police arrested a left-wing activist at Ben-Gurion International Airport as he was attempting to flee the country, the Hebrew press reported on Monday evening.

His arrest came as Israeli law enforcement announced a probe of Ezra Nawi and his extreme left-wing organization Ta’ayush, which was exposed recently for having been ensnaring Palestinians in the West Bank attempting to sell their land to Jewish buyers.

The investigation was launched, police said, as a result of “complaints lodged” after the broadcast of Ilana Dayan’s “Uvda” program, an Israeli version of CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which aired Thursday evening on Channel 2.

As was reported by The Algemeiner on Sunday, the documentary revealed that self-described human rights activist Nawi, an Israeli – with the help of a Palestinian member of the foreign-funded Israeli NGO B’Tselem — has been conspiring with the Palestinian Authority to prevent Jews from buying land in territory it controls.

The show’s host, Dayan, has since been criticized by many on the Israeli Left for producing the program, whose content was enabled by the infiltration of a right-wing provocateur group called “Ad Kan,” posing as Nawi sympathizers.

In the program, Nawi is taped on a hidden camera openly admitting that the Palestinians he turns in – usually after entrapping them by pretending to be a prospective buyer – subsequently come to serious physical harm and even death.

“There is no choice but to have the police investigate B’Tselem, Ta’ayush, Ezra Nawi and his partners,” Ad Kan said, according to Channel 2. “Such open and active cooperation with the Palestinian security services led to torture and suspicion of murder.”

Meanwhile, according to Hebrew news site nrg, Ad Kan filed a formal police complaint for purported threats the group has received since Thursday’s “Uvda” broadcast.

According to nrg, the existence of the clandestine organization, which was established three years ago, was revealed for the first time on Thursday evening, as a result of its having provided the hidden-camera footage that was the basis for the expose of Nawi’s activities.

In a conversation with nrg, Ad Kan founder Gilad Ach, whose face was exposed on the broadcast, said that the details shown on “Uvda” are merely the tip of the iceberg.

“The net extends far beyond Ta’ayush,” he said. “We have been working on this for three years and it’s just the beginning. It’s cooking.”

An additional concern for Ach, however, is the revelation by the website of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz of the identities of two Ad Kan activists who appeared under assumed names on “Uvda.” This, he told nrg, has led to threats against them.

“We are doing all kinds of things to protect them,” said Ach, who told nrg that he was happy to hear that the police had opened investigations into Nawi and into threats received by Ad Kan.