2023-10-31 18:51:38
His post read, on a black background: “There is no winner but Allah,” followed by a Palestinian flag emoji. Dalal Abu Amneh is a Palestinian singer and citizen of Israel, followed by 350,000 people on social networks. She had not imagined that this message, published on October 14 by her communications team, would lead to her arrest. “The police came to her house on October 16, when she had gone to file a complaint against all the insults, death and rape threats she had received sincesays his lawyer, Abeer Bakr. Officers told her she was under arrest. They handcuffed her. On the way to the police station, they asked him: “So, you’re not singing for the children of Gaza?” »
After two nights in police custody, Dalal Abu Amneh was released on bail, placed under house arrest and banned from speaking about the war for 45 days. “The authorities accused her of representing a disturbance of public order by encouraging hate speech and inciting violence, but there is nothing illegal in saying that only God will win in the end . It’s freedom of expression.” protests Abeer Bakr who denounces a political use of the arrests: “Because she is famous, they wanted to make an example of her case. »
More than 100 people arrested
His story is not isolated. More than 100 people have been arrested and 24 charged in three weeks of war, according to a press release published on October 20 in which the police affirm their policy of “zero tolerance for incitement to violence and support for terrorism”. So many actions carried out within the framework of emergency laws which leave room for a broad and subjective interpretation of signs of “support”. The phenomenon mainly affects Palestinian citizens of Israel. These “Israeli Arabs” represent 20% of the country’s population and their complex identity makes them immediate suspects in the eyes of many Jews.
Adalah, the legal aid center for the Arab minority, has seen requests for assistance explode since the war began on October 7. Beyond the arrests, around fifty Palestinian employees who are citizens of Israel have been fired or suspended because of their online activities: doctors, nurses, lawyers, etc.
Also in the viewfinder, Arab students and professors. Education Minister Yoav Kish released a letter saying schools must “Immediately suspend any student or employee who supports the barbaric terrorist acts to which the State of Israel is currently being subjected. »“Some Jews are engaged in a veritable witch hunt by checking the profiles of all Israeli Arabs and reporting to the management of academic institutions what can be interpreted as support for Hamas, says lawyer Abeer Bakr. LPeople no longer dare to share anything, write or like. The slightest sign of empathy turns you into an enemy. This is a very dangerous drift. »
The Israeli left taken to task
“The objective is to frighten, deter, punish in advance and silence all voices that criticize the war” , estimates Nadim Nashif, co-founder of 7amleh. This center, which works for the digital rights of Palestinians, is located in Haifa, a city where a peaceful demonstration to denounce war crimes in Gaza, bringing together Jewish and Arab citizens, was recently banned by the police.
The Israeli left and its affiliates are also being attacked. Nurit Peled-Elhanan, professor of language and education sciences, almost got fired from the training center where she teaches. To a professor who called in a WhatsApp group for a “second Nakba” against Palestinian “Nazis,” she responded that it was “more relevant to compare the Palestinians to the Algerians who rebelled against French colonialism, and that we should not speak of Nazism when we massacre Palestinians. » The leadership accused her of legitimizing Israel’s worst enemy, but recognizing her freedom of expression, only gave her a warning. Nurit sighs: “Having a critical speech about Israel was already frowned upon, so with the war, we can say even less about it. »
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