Khalida Jarrar, member of the illegal terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has been sentenced on a series of charges, including encouraging violent attacks against Israelis.

By i24news

A prominent Palestinian lawmaker has been jailed for 15 months by an Israeli military court, the military confirmed on Monday.

Khalida Jarrar – Photo: AFP

Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a well-known political figure, was sentenced on Sunday at the Ofer military court near the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.

She had been arrested in April on a series of charges, including encouraging attacks against Israel and violating a travel ban.

“Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months on the charges she was arrested for a few months ago, including incitement of terrorism,” an army spokesperson told AFPon Monday.

The period since April will be considered part of her sentence, meaning she is likely to remain in jail until next summer.

The Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer said she had also been fined 10,000 shekels ($2600, 2400 euros) and given a five-year suspended sentence.

Israel considers the PFLP a terrorist organisation and at the time of her arrest the Israeli army said she posed unspecified “substantial security risks”.

Issa Qaraqe, Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs, condemned the trial, calling it “arbitrary and legally unjustified.”

“This is a political arrest. The charges against her are fabricated and ridiculous… there are no security reasons as claimed by the Israeli authorities,” he told AFP.

Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian parliament which has not met since 2007 after elections a year earlier were won by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Addameer said that five of the 132 members of that parliament are currently detained by Israel, including Marwan Barghouti — among the most prominent Palestinian leaders. Qaraqe condemned what he said was a “campaign” to prosecute parliamentarians.

In August 2014 Jarrar was ordered to leave Ramallah within 24 hours and to move to Jericho, but announced at the time she would disobey.

Condemnation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian official in charge of peace negotiations, for paying a condolence visit to the family of a Palestinian man killed while carrying out a shooting attack near Jerusalem.

PM Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting that Erekat, rather than condemning such attacks, praises the perpetrators, giving “backing and encouragement to acts of terror.”

Erekat visited the family of Mazen Aribe on Saturday. Aribe was an officer in the Palestinian Authority’s security services who shot an Israeli soldier and bystander in an attack near the Hizme checkpoint in the West Bank on Thursday, causing light to moderate injuries to the victims. Aribe was shot and killed by Israeli security forces at the scene.

Images posted by the Palestinian Alawael news agency show Erekat pictured alongside the governor of Jericho and other local Fatah officials sitting with the family of Mazen Aribe, according to The Times of Israel web site.

Ofir Gendelman, the spokesperson to the Arab media for the Israel Prime Minister’s Office, tweeted pictures of the meeting on Saturday.

In the tweet, Gendelman said Erekat’s visit amounted to support for terrorism:

Saeb Erekat visits home Mazan Aribe, who was killed while carrying out an attack at the Hizme checkpoint – Twitter

PA/Israel relations

The Fatah Central Committee met in Ramallah on Sunday to discuss “defining security, economic and political relations” between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Palestinian President Abbas makes rude gesture during news conference with Malta’s Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi July 16, 2008. – Photo: Xinhua/Reuters

A statement released following the meeting, which was chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel’s measures amounted to “war crimes” and accused Israel of sabotaging the two-state solution while working toward a one-state solution with an “apartheid” system.

The statement also accused Israel of carrying out “summary executions, ethnic cleansing, desecrating Islamic holy sites and house demolitions,” and hailed the Palestinians killed in the recent wave of violence as “martyrs and heroes.”

On Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, also chaired by Abbas, met to discuss the changing nature of the PA’s relationship with Israel.

The two meetings come amid PLO accusations that Israel has failed to live up to its agreements and is “stepping up its dangerous assaults” on the Palestinians, according to the Jerusalem Post report.

Overnight Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

Israeli warplanes Sunday night launched airstrikes against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for several gunfire attacks at Israeli troops over the weekend.

Israel Air Force F-16 – IDF Spokesperson’s Office

The military spokesperson’s unit said the Israeli aircraft attacked a terrorist network that’s part of the Hamas group – the coastal territory’s de-facto ruler – in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

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