Hanin Zoabi arrested on charges of inciting terrorism

Israeli occupation police arrested the leader and former member of the Knesset from the National Democratic Assembly, Hanin Zoabi, at her home in the city of Nazareth in the Galilee, in the occupied interior, this morning, on charges of “incitement to terrorism”.

Director of the Adalah center, lawyer Dr. Hassan Jabareen, told Arab48 that “the police arrested Hanin Zoabi from her home in Nazareth this morning, and up to this moment we do not know the details of the investigation, but they told her, as she informed me, that they took her to Tiberias for questioning on suspicion of incitement to terrorism and supporting terrorist organizations.”

Jabareen added that “it is clear to me that this detention is illegal because it would have been possible to summon her in a normal manner and set a time and place for questioning without arresting her or coming in the early morning hours to her family’s home accompanied by six police officers to detain her on allegations of this kind.”

The Adalah director concluded by saying that “the legality of the detention will be a central part of this case, if the authorities request an extension of the detention.”

The Democratic Front and the Communist Party condemned “the arrest of the former MP and leader in the National Democratic Assembly, Hanin Zoabi, this Sunday morning at the hands of the police forces, which in the last two years have intensified their role as a political police; and are now implementing the orders of their minister, the Kahanist element Ben-Gvir.”

The statement said, “The arrest, according to what has been published, is on what is called ‘incitement to terrorism’ at a time when Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and its ruling coalition are full of elements with terrorist backgrounds, some of whom have been convicted in Israeli courts of supporting terrorism. We reject these alleged charges against comrade Hanin Zoabi, which serve as a cover for intimidation and political prosecutions, criminalizing political activity among our Arab masses, and also among progressive forces opposed to the occupation and the war of extermination.”

The Democratic Front and the Communist Party warned against “the ruling establishment’s escalation, through its two arms—the political police and the General Security Service (Shin Bet)—in continuing to tighten the noose on our natural right to political activity and to struggle against this government and its crimes. We call for the release of comrade Hanin Zoabi and an end to all these prosecutions carried out at the instigation of followers of Meir Kahane.”

The Israeli police alleged in a statement issued immediately after Zoabi’s arrest that “in an operation by officers of the Northern District Police, a woman from Nazareth was detained shortly ago for questioning on suspicion of incitement and identification with a terrorist organization.”

They claimed that “in recent months, the Northern District Police received a number of complaints about statements made by a 59-year-old woman from Nazareth during a speech she delivered at an anti-Israel conference held outside the country.”

The police added that “after receiving the report, evidence was collected and examined in cooperation with the relevant authorities, where it was found that the statements raised suspicions of committing offenses of public identification with a terrorist organization and incitement to carry out a terrorist act.”