In December 2016, he was stripped of his diplomatic immunity and arrested after he was caught on video providing convicted Palestinian terrorists with cell phones and SIM cards.

At the age of 22 he was elected Deputy Leader of the town council as a member of Rakah, which later became Maki.

[1] He then helped found Brit Shivyon, a short-lived Jewish-Arab movement, before becoming a founder member of Balad in 1995.

On 22 December 2016, hours before a planned Knesset vote to strip Ghattas of his parliamentary immunity, Ghattas voluntarily relinquished his parliamentary immunity and was arrested shortly after police found 12 cellphones and 16 SIM cards on Palestinian security prisoners whom he had visited.

[4] Ghattas faced charges of aiding terrorists, complicity in committing a felony, deceptive practices, breach of trust and violation of the Prison Service code.