Israel Police detained former Arab Knesset member Haneen Zoabi on Sunday morning on suspicion of incitement and publicly expressing help for a terrorist organisation.
The arrest follows complaints about remarks Zoabi made on the Palestine Congress in Vienna in October 2024, the place she justified Hamas’s October 7 assault.
“It wasn’t Hamas that resisted; it was the Palestinian individuals. And sure, you can’t separate Hamas from the Palestinian individuals,” Zoabi mentioned in her speech. “After they entered on October 7, they didn’t enter Israeli territory; they entered their very own land. That is their land.”
Police mentioned her feedback raised suspicion of “publicly expressing help for a terrorist organisation and incitement to commit an act of terrorism.”
In an announcement, Israel Police mentioned, “After receiving the report, accumulating proof, and reviewing it with the related authorities, it was decided that her statements had been suspected of constituting the offence of publicly expressing help for a terrorist organisation and incitement to commit an act of terrorism. Israel Police will act firmly towards anybody who praises or identifies with terrorist organisations or enemy states and encourages their actions throughout wartime, whether or not on-line or wherever else, to guard public safety.”
Hadash, a joint Arab-Jewish political social gathering, condemned the arrest, calling it “political persecution” aimed toward silencing opposition to the Gaza battle.
Roughly 1,200 individuals had been killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners had been taken hostage in Hamas’s assaults on Israeli communities close to the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 48 remaining hostages, about 20 are believed to be alive.
Zoabi, who represented Balad within the Knesset from 2009 to 2019, has lengthy been a controversial determine. In 2010, she joined the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara flotilla, which led to violent clashes with Israeli naval commandos. In 2022, she was convicted in a forgery case involving social gathering donations and acquired a one-year suspended jail sentence and a NIS 75,000 ($22,400) tremendous.