Photo: Tomer Harpaz
Dareen Tatour
Photo: Tomer Harpaz

Israeli court convicts Arab poet of incitement

Dareen Tatour posted video of herself reading a poem she wrote accompanying footage of Palestinian rioters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails; verses include 'Follow the caravan of shahid (martyrs)... resist the settlers robbery'; Tatour insists her words were misunderstood.

The Nazareth Magistrate's Court convicted an Arab poet on Thursday of online incitement to terrorism after she used a poem as the soundtrack to images of Palestinians in violent confrontations with Israeli troops.



Dareen Tatour, 36, posted to Facebook and YouTube a video of herself reading out her poem "Resist, My People, Resist," accompanying footage of masked Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at IDF soldiers.


It was published in October 2015 during a wave of deadly Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis. The Israeli-Arab poet was arrested a few days later, and prosecutors said her post was a call for violence.


Dareen Tatour
Dareen Tatour










Tatour with her family in court
Tatour with her family in court










Online surveillance

Tatour's case became a cause célèbre for freedom of speech advocates in Israel. It drew attention to the advanced technology used by Israeli security agencies to trawl through social media to identify and arrest users suspected of incitement to violence or of planning attacks.


In her ruling, the judge came down against the defense’s interpretation of Tatour's words, pointing to a separate post in which Tatour had used "shahid" to describe a Palestinian assailant who had stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli.




 (Photo: Tomer Harpaz)
(Photo: Tomer Harpaz)








Tatour, who belongs to Israel's Arab minority, comes from a village near Nazareth in northern Israel. She is expected to appeal the verdict, her lawyer said.


"I am ready for everything and do not regret anything I have done. I have done nothing wrong," Tatour said at the Nazareth Magistrate's court.


Indictments for online incitement have tripled in Israel since 2014. Prosecutions by the IDF have also increased in the West Bank—most of those charged are young Palestinians.


The average sentence in incitement cases is nine months, though the maximum term that Tatour could face is five years. The court has not issued a date for her sentencing.



פרסום ראשון: 05.03.18, 19:23
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