State indicts 4 from east Jerusalem for identifying with Hamas

The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office filed indictments against four east Jerusalem Arabs on Monday for identifying with Hamas and a known terrorist during a November 23 pre-wedding party in a precedent-setting indictment. Although recent years have seen some indictments for calls for violence against Jews on Facebook by Israeli Arabs or for protests that identified with terror groups, these indictments filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court were the first relating to a wedding. The indictments come at a critical juncture for the state prosecution, as there is a parallel case at the trial stage against a group of Jews from the “Hate Wedding” in 2016. In that case, a major contention by the Jewish defendants has been that Jews are being singled out for indictment for incitement at a wedding, whereas they say the prosecution has looked the other way when Israeli Arabs have acted similarly at weddings. They have also said that there are 17 cases where Israeli Arabs engaged in incitement at weddings, but were not prosecuted and the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court dealing with that case has ordered the prosecution to provide the defense with those case files. In contrast, the prosecution has said that the acts at the Hate Wedding went beyond, in terms of stabbing and attacking pictures of the Palestinian Dawabshe family killed in the 2015 Duma terror attack. Regardless, with the filing of the indictments against Rami Fahuri and three others attending the pre-wedding party, the prosecution not only says that it is enforcing the law, but it will also be able to argue in the Jewish “Hate Wedding” case that it is being consistent. According to the indictments, on the evening of November 23, Fahuri organized a pre-wedding party in honor of his marriage to Iman Abu Sabiach, daughter of terrorist Musbach Abu Sabiach, which would occur the next day. Musbach Abu Samiach shot and murdered police officer Yossi Kirma and civilian Livneh Malihi on October 9, 2016, after which he was killed on the spot. With around 300 to 400 people in attendance at the Rawan events hall in the Azaria village near Ramle, the singer invited by Fahuri sang songs and displayed symbols that supported Hamas. Among those in attendance were also members of Hamas and of Shabab al-Aqsa, a group identified with Hamas and which undertakes activities relating to causing friction on the Temple Mount. Fahuri himself is also a member of Shabab al-Aqsa, which is currently defined as a terror group by law. The indictments stated that the three other defendant-attendees held and waved the flag of Hamas, and created an atmosphere to egg on the wedding attendees to support Hamas and Musbach Abu Samiach. A statement by the Justice Ministry said that other attendees' actions were still being reviewed for violations. Asked where the prosecution drew the line between free speech and incitement, or identification with Hamas and terrorists that it would act to prosecute, a spokeswoman said that both in the cases of indictments for Facebook posts and in this case, there was a large crowd to influence. While not formally committing to policy guidelines, she implied that the prosecution would not be indicting individuals for small-time symbolic acts in support of Hamas if those acts had limited exposure to the public. The spokeswoman also suggested that the Jewish Hate Wedding incident had been even worse because of the clearer calls for violence against Arabs, but that this case still was sufficiently grave to warrant an indictment.

State indicts 4 from east Jerusalem for identifying with Hamas

The indictments stated that the three other defendant-attendees held and swung the flag of Hamas.

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