An Israeli Arab poet was sentenced on Tuesday to five months in prison after being convicted of inciting terrorism in one of her poems.
Dareen Tatour, 36, posted a video of herself reading out her poem "Resist, My People, Resist" on Facebook and YouTube, including the line "Go and follow the path of the martyrs," as the soundtrack to footage of masked Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli soldiers.
Tatour published her poem in October 2015 during a wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and ramming attacks on Israelis. She was arrested a few days later. Prosecutors said her post was a call for violence, an allegation she denied. Prosecutors said she also uploaded a post in which she expressed support for the Islamic State jihadi group and called herself the "next martyr."
Tatour was also charged with supporting a terrorist group.
Tatour said her poem was misunderstood by the Israeli authorities as it was not a call for violence, but for nonviolent struggle.
"I wasn't expecting justice to be done. The case was political from the start, because I am Palestinian and support freedom of speech," she told reporters at the Nazareth Magistrates' Court in northern Israel.
Tatour was sentenced to five months in jail plus a six-month suspended sentence, according to the Justice Ministry. Her lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said Tatour would appeal both the verdict and the sentence.
