Arab from Umm El-Fahm Gets Eight Months for Incitement

By Ilana Messika/TPS

The Hadera Magistrates Court sentenced on Thursday Ahmad Jbareen, a 32-year-old father of three from of Umm al-Fahm, near Jenin, to eight months in jail for supporting the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group and inciting to violence and terrorism on Facebook.

“The law does not allow freedom of thought to be exploited against the security and safety of the public, or freedom of speech to be used to threaten the social order and the foundations of the rule of law and democracy,” stated the Court verdict.

Jbareen held a Facebook account under the pseudonym “Abed Jbareen Jbareen” which had more than a thousand “friends” and 744 “followers.” Between October 2014 and May 2015, Jbareen used the account to spread six posts praising Hezbollah and supporting terrorism. Posts included “Hezbollah are the victorious. May God protect [Hassan] Nasrallah and and bring him to victory against the Israeli and ISIS dogs.”

Jbareen also used his account as an tool to incite to terrorism in the public sphere, publishing 13 posts such as “Soon will come the time for Jihad in Occupied Jerusalem. Long live the Palestinian Resistance.”