A Palestinian poet was convicted of “inciting violence” and “supporting a terrorist organization” by an Israeli court on Thursday for anti-occupation content she posted on social media.
Nazareth magistrates’ court found Dareen Tatour a Palestinian citizen guilty over a poem titled “Resist My People Resist Them” posted on Facebook. Prosecutors claimed that the poem incited violence.
According to the Israeli indictment Tatour also uploaded a video on her Facebook and YouTube accounts that shows footage of Palestinians throwing stones at the Israeli army troops with her reading in the background of her “Resist My People Resist Them” poem.
Analysts argued the poem had been misinterpreted by Israeli translators that the content was “artistic expression” rather than a call to violence and that the Israeli charges ran counter to the freedom of expression.
“The verdict violates the right of speech and freedom of expression. It is an infringement on cultural rights of the Palestinian minority inside Israel. It would lead to self-censorship and self-criminalization of poetry” her lawyer told reporters.
Tatour said after the verdict that her trial “ripped off the masks” of Israeli democracy and justice.
“The whole world will hear my story. The whole world will hear what Israel’s democracy is a democracy for Jews only. Only Arabs go to jail. The court said I am convicted of terrorism. If that’s my terrorism I give the world a terrorism of love” she said.
In an interview before the verdict Tatour told Middle East Eye she had already spent two and a half years flitting between custody and house arrest.
She said Israeli interrogators initially had little to question her about.
“First they accused me of incitement based on a poster I posted in 2014 which contained the words “I’m the next martyr”. The martyrs are the victims of the Israeli occupation who are being shot by soldiers” Tatour said. “The accusation was weak so they dug into my Facebook and found the poem.”
“Here they interpreted a line in the poem that says ‘Resist my people resist them Resist the settler’s robbery And follow the caravan of martyrs’ – as inciting people to be killed and be martyrs” she said.
PEN International strongly condemned the decision of the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court to convict Tatour of ‘support for a terrorist organization’ and ‘incitement to violence’.
PEN International President Jennifer Clement who met Dareen Tatour at her home in Nazareth last year said: “Dareen Tatour has been convicted for doing what writers do every day – we use our words to peacefully challenge injustice. I was incredibly honored to meet Dareen at her home last year and PEN will continue to call for justice in this case.”
PEN said it believes that Dareen Tatour was targeted for her poetry and peaceful activism and vowed to continue campaigning for her immediate release and for the charges against her to be dropped.
Tatour was arrested on 11 October 2015 about a week after she published her poem.
Tatour was arrested for three months and was interrogated five times by Israeli officers. Each interrogation lasted five to six hours she told the MEE.
In January 2016 Tatour was released after being fitted with an ankle monitor to a house arrest for six months at the home of her brother in Kiryat Ono neighborhood in Tel Aviv.
“They considered me a danger for Israelis but when they dictated the location of my house arrest they could not find a place more Israeli than Tel Aviv to do that. I find this ironic” she said.
She added that the house arrest was a harsh experience.
Far from her family in Reineh village she was not allowed to use a mobile phone or the internet or even to publish texts in the media. After four months of house arrest she was allowed to leave the house for two hours on weekends if accompanied by a relative.
More than 150 American literary figures have also called for Israel to free Tatour including nine Pulitzer Prize winners. The list included Alice Walker along with Claudia Rankine Naomi Klein and Jacqueline Woodson.
