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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Palestinian lawmaker given 15 months for ‘inciting terror’ |
| 2015-12-08 |
| [IsraelTimes] Military court jails PFLP member Khalida Jarrar for urging abduction of IDF soldiers and violating an Israeli travel ban A military court in the West Bank on Sunday sentenced Paleostinian politician Khalida Jarrar to 15 months in jail for "inciting terrorism" by calling for the abduction of IDF soldiers, and for violating an Israeli travel ban. Jarrar, a senior member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine and a well-known political figure, accepted a plea deal and confessed to the 12 charges leveled against her. Those included violating an IDF travel ban, membership in an illegal organization -- Israel considers the PFLP a terror group -- participation in illegal protests, and incitement to kidnap Israeli soldiers. "Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months on the charges she was tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! for a few months ago, including incitement of terrorism," an army spokesperson told AFP on Monday. In April, Jarrar was arrested and given a six-month term of detention without trial for violating an IDF order issued in August 2014 restricting her to the Jericho area. The period of incarceration since April will be counted toward her sentence, meaning she is likely to remain in jail until next summer. At the time of her arrest, the IDF said she posed unspecified "substantial security risks." The Paleostinian prisoner rights group Addameer said she had also been fined NIS 10,000 and given a five-year suspended term. Israel's coalition of Arab parties, the Joint List, slammed Jarrar's sentence and said the charges brought against her were politically motivated. "This government has nothing to offer other than scaring Israelis and oppressing and dispossessing Paleostinians," MK Aida Touma-Suleiman said in a statement on behalf of the party. Touma-Suleiman said Jarrar's actions were a justified defense of the rights of Paleostinians living under Israeli occupation, and that she planned to rally Israeli MKs and parliament members from other countries to petition Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan for her release. "Her place is not in prison, her place is in the legislature," Touma-Suleiman said. Issa Qaraqe, the Paleostinian minister for prisoner affairs, also condemned the trial, calling it "arbitrary and legally unjustified." "This is a political arrest. The charges against her are fabricated and ridiculous... there are no security reasons as claimed by the Israeli authorities," he told AFP. The Paleostinian parliament, of which Jarrar is a member, has not met since 2007, after elections a year earlier were won by the Islamist movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,. In August 2014 she was ordered to leave Ramallah within 24 hours and to move to Jericho, but announced at the time that she would disobey the order. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |