Ramallah: The occupation’s Jerusalem Magistrates Court sentenced a Jerusalemite to eight months in jail and a six month-suspended prison sentence on Tuesday on charges of “incitement” on social media.
Palestinian sources close to the case branded the sentence a violation of freedom of expression and an Israeli attempt to seal the mouths of all Jerusalemites.
The court found Sami Jamal Faraj Doais guilty of charges of incitement on his Facebook page. Doais was one of ten Jerusalemites Israel arrested for their Facebook comments.
Amjad Abu Assab, who heads the (occupied) Jerusalem Prisoners’ Committee, criticised the court ruling. “Arresting Jerusalemites and Israeli attempts to bury freedom of expression has become a phenomenon in the holy city,” he told Gulf News.
“Several Jewish youth groups have been writing on Facebook day and night calling for kicking Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims out of the historic Palestine and for killing them, and none of the members of those groups has been arrested, charged or convicted,” he said.
Israel’s new justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, herself is accused of incitement after she posted a comment on Facebook last summer calling for the killing of the mothers of “little snakes”, referring to Palestinians who resist the occupation.
Abu Assab said that only a couple of weeks ago another of the Jerusalemites arrested, Islam Al Natsha, was given a five month-administrative sentence on similar charges.
In the Israeli security operation related to the case, ten Jerusalemites — Mahmoud Assilah, Omar Al Shalabi, Fouad Rowaidi, Mosabah Abu Subaih, Odai Ribhi, Nasser Eisa Al Hadmi, Sami Jamal Faraj Doais, Ebrahim Abdin, Tareq Kord and Islam — were arrested for putting comments on their Facebook pages.
“Charges cannot and should not be based on political activism and freedom of expression, but the Israeli occupation forces have been arresting Jerusalemites on no grounds at all,” he said.
Families of the Palestinian detainees visited the premises of the Red Cross in Shaikh Jarah in occupied East Jerusalem where an official letter was submitted to the management urging the international organisation intervene to secure the release of the detainees.
The families said in their letter that what the detainees addressed on their Facebook pages were developments in the Palestinian territories and that their topics were no different from those other media sources have addressed.
The detained Jerusalemites were charged with incitement against the Israeli regime.
