Poet Dareen Tatour joins hundreds of Palestinians arrested over the past year because of their social media posts. The simple act of expressing resistance to the Occupation is enough for Israel to target Tatour and others as part of its ongoing repression against the Palestinian people.
In October 2015, 33-year-old Dareen Tatour, Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested by Israeli police on charges of ‘’incitement to violence’’ for Facebook postings and a poem called “Resist, my people, resist them” posted on YouTube.
She reportedly posted a picture of Israa Abed, a Palestinian woman shot by Israel soldiers at a bus station in Afula, with the comment “I am the next martyr”. Her poem came out against background images of Palestinian youth clashing with Israeli forces as last autumn’s unrest was spreading from Jerusalem throughout the occupied territories.
‘’Being a poet or holding Israeli citizenship is not something that rises above how the state of Israel views Palestinians and their resistance as a fundamental threat ’’, noted Charlotte Kates, Coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
Whether in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem or in the 48 territories, Palestinians live under Israel’s apartheid system facing all kinds of oppression on a daily basis. In a context of ongoing violation of rights, house demolitions, confiscation of land, ethnic cleansing, mass detentions and violence at the hands of the Israeli authorities, if there is anything that would instigate violence around the Palestinian population is the Occupation.
‘’Charging and jailing a Palestinian for incitement because she shows sympathy for the liberation of her homeland and supports efforts towards that is particularly egregious’’, Samidoun coordinator commented.
The absurdity here is deeming ‘’violent’’ not Israel’s system of oppression against Palestinians but the act of resistance by the occupied people against the occupying power.
What is also absurd is to suggest that Palestinians possibly decide whether they should resist the occupier based on posts on social media, rather than finding enough reasons from their everyday life.
What’s revealing about Tatour’s prosecution is that Israel explicitly intends to intimidate and silence all Palestinians by seeking to suppress any form of expression, political but also artistic. Worried about the contents of statements circulated by activists as well as poetic verses or artistic works shared online, Israeli authorities find troubling the very idea that Palestinians can access the Internet and communicate directly with one another.
Tatour’s story is not the only one of its kind. Between last October and July of this year, some 400 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces for writings and social media posts, particularly on Facebook. The year 2015 saw an increase in the number of Palestinians charged of “incitement through social media’’, according to The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media.
Such mass arrests took place as Israeli officials blamed social media for inciting a wave of violent attacks by Palestinians that began in October 2015 amid widespread confrontations with Israeli armed forces around Jerusalem and beyond. Despite the law on social media incitement applies to all citizens and residents, the vast majority of charges have been directed at Arabs in Israel.
Hundreds of Palestinian youth are serving sentences in Israeli jails simply for expressing in writing their rejection of Israel’s oppressive policies and colonial practices.
While in jail, Tatour met a girl who was detained after she wrote a private letter to her sister about personal and family concerns, and because she mentioned the word “suicide” in the letter she was thrown in prison for three months.
‘’There is growing repression in Israel/Palestine, Dareen has been made an example to dissuade other Palestinians in this current crackdown on social media activity. Her case is outrageous’’, voiced Granate Sosnoff, Social Media and Communications Strategist of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
For Sosnoff, artists and cultural workers like Tatour are targeted because they speak in first person about people, real life, emotions. That leaves Israel sufficiently challenged to inflict political and cultural repression against whoever stands defiant to the occupation regime, even through artistic or literary expression.
Imprisoned for three months then placed under house arrest in an apartment near Tel Aviv, Tatour has continued since July her house arrest in her family’s home near Nazareth. Israel’s decision to allow the poet to return to her hometown came thanks to a successful petition organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and Adalah-NY. Around 300 writers, among them prominent literary figures such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Alice Walker, signed an open letter urging the Israeli government to release the Palestinian poet.
The solidarity campaign including the letter has helped improve Tatour’s situation. At the beginning, she was detained for several months away from her family, required to remain indoors, completely isolated from people and heavily guarded. Now the poet is close to her family however she remains under very strict house arrest, forced to wear an electronic monitoring device around her ankle, with no access to the internet, and she is only allowed to leave her home three days a week, for two hours each day.
Tatour’s case is still pending, and the trial is due to resume on 6th September. She faces a sentence of up to eight years in prison if convicted on all charges.
It was not until Tatour’s story gained international attention that the location of her detention was changed easing her conditions. It will take more public pressure to get her free.
‘’International pressure is all we have, our campaign is working, we must continue to bring pressure’’, said JVP’s communications expert, ‘’Supporting people in Israel/Palestine who are being prosecuted is not an easy quick win, but we have to do it’’.
‘’Incitement charges are political attempts to suppress Palestinians’ freedom of expression and their right to exist, so public pressure is critical’’ Kates added.
Originally published in Perspektif Magazine