Arab Poet Can See Neither Rhyme nor Reason for Her Indictment

Charged with incitement to violence for her online poetry, Dareen Tatour
remains under house arrest, pending trial in September.

Jack Khoury 10.05.2016 06:28 Updated: 6:29 AM

Dareen Tatour in Nazareth District Court on May 8, 2016. "I never imagined
that poetry and writing would lead to my arrest and such serious charges," she
says.Rami Shllush
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As Dareen Tatour wandered around the Nazareth courthouse on Sunday, no one
there including the security guards and police officers would have considered
her a threat.
Wearing a shirt more appropriate for a teenage girl, Tatour walked excitedly
around with friends and acquaintances, all of whom had come to support her.
No one could have imagined that this smiling woman had been deemed dangerous
by the state, and that the only difference between her and the other people was
the electronic leg cuff around her ankle.
Tatour, 35, is from the village of Reine, near Nazareth. Seven months ago, she
was indicted for incitement to violence and supporting a terrorist organization.
The prosecution asked the court to remand her until the end of legal
proceedings against her, saying her charge sheet showed how dangerous she is.

She spent three months behind bars and was eventually released after a long
legal battle, but with restrictions: For example, she was placed under house
arrest in an apartment her brother rented for her in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv.
Tatour smiles and says that if she really is such a danger, why was she allowed
to go to Kiryat Ono?
On October 11, 2016, a week or so after the latest wave of violence broke out in
the West Bank and Jerusalem, police came to her parents home in Reine and
arrested her without any explanation. She was taken to the local police station in
Nazareth for questioning.
At the beginning, they called me things like a terrorist, and I didnt understand
what all the hubbub was about, she recalls. I also didnt think I would be
detained I thought it would be a matter of a few hours and then Id return
home.
Some three weeks after her arrest, though, she was indicted due to postings on
Facebook and YouTube. She posted a number of videos on the latter, including
reciting poems (in Arabic) she had written. The prosecution said the poems
called for committing acts of violence and terrorism, as well as encouraging,
praising and identifying with violent acts and terrorism.

Supporters of Dareen Tatour outside the courthouse in Nazareth, May 8, 2016.

Rami Shllush
The indictment quoted one of her poems, titled Resist, My People, Resist
Them:
Resist, my people, resist them. In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and
breathed my sorrows / And carried the soul in my palm.

For an Arab Palestine, I will not succumb to the peaceful solution / Never
lower my flags / Until I evict them from my land / I cast them aside for a
coming time
Resist the colonialists onslaught / Pay no mind to his agents among us / Who
chain us with the peaceful illusion.
In a Facebook post, alongside a photograph of a woman from Nazareth who was
shot in Afula bus station while waving a knife, Tatour wrote, I am the next
shahid [martyr].
On Sunday, some 30 people gathered outside the Nazareth court to show their
support, including the three Knesset members from the Balad party (part of the
Joint Arab List faction).
Tatour doesnt deny writing the posts and poems, but denies that she intended
to incite violence.
I wrote in a very difficult atmosphere mostly after the murder of the
Dawabsheh family [in July 2015] and Mohammed Abu Khdeir [the Palestinian
youth murdered by Jewish extremists in July 2014], and I asked who will be the
next shahid, who else would pay with their life? I have written poems from a
very young age, and in 2010 published a book. I never imagined that poetry and
writing would lead to my arrest and such serious charges, she said.
Tatours case was postponed until September. Until then, she will remain under
house arrest in Kiryat Ono.

Jack Khoury
Haaretz Correspondent
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.718854