TEL AVIV – An Arab Israeli supporter of the terror group Hezbollah was sentenced to eight months in prison on Thursday for inciting violence against Israeli Jews on Facebook.
32-year-old Abed Jabareen, a father of three from the northern city of Umm el-Fahm, had close to 2,000 friends and followers on his Facebook account, which he used to urge fellow Arabs to support Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the Times of Israel reported.
“Hezbollah are the victors. May God protect them and let Hassan Nasrallah [the organization’s secretary-general] and Hezbollah achieve victory over the dogs of IS (so-called Islamic State) and Israel, and say amen!” Jabareen wrote in one post.
Another was posted from the location “Umm el-Fahm, Occupied Palestine,” while a third featured Jabareen waving a Hezbollah flag underneath which the caption read: “Awake, from victory to victory until the occupied Syrian Golan is liberated.”
Jabareen also posted a photo of Hezbollah commander Jihad Mughniyeh, who was killed in an Israeli strike last year. Jihad’s father, Imad, was killed in 2008 in Damascus, Syria, apparently in a joint Mossad-CIA operation. Jabareen called on followers to “avenge” the killing.
Comments on the posts included a prediction that “all the lands will return to the people, including the Golan, and we’ll liberate Jerusalem, with the help of God.”
Jabareen also posted footage of a vehicular terror attack in Jerusalem, describing it as a “courageous act.” The following day Jabareen posted the call to action: “Let’s go back to being opponents/terrorists.”
After the attempted assassination on Likud MK and Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, Jabareen posted, “Residents of Jerusalem, make the lives of the Jews hell. In the end, they’ll run away. Jerusalem is ours.”
From October to November 2014, Jabareen wrote 13 posts which, the prosecution argued, had “real” potential to provoke acts of violence or terror.
In his defense, Jabareen, who has no previous criminal record, told police that he was illiterate and copy-pasted posts from other people without being fully aware of their content.
Jabareen quit school after nine years because of learning difficulties and worked in construction, although he had trouble holding down a job, the report said.
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