Israel puts poet under house arrest
22 April 2016
One of her poems has indeed been translated recently, but not in the way she had hoped.
A Hebrew version of “Resist, my people, resist them” was read aloud by an Israeli police officer at a Nazareth court hearing on 13 April. Tatour has been charged with incitement to violence based on the contents of that poem, the Arabic original of which is available on YouTube.
Although the poem urges resistance to Israel, it does not call for specific acts of violence. Rather, it draws attention to violent attacks on Palestinians by Israelis.
The incidents include the arson attack that killed the 18-month-old baby Ali Dawabsha and his parents in Duma, a village in the occupied West Bank, last year; the killing of 18-year-old Hadil Hashlamoun by Israeli soldiers inHebron, also last year; and the kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khudair in Jerusalem during 2014.
Tatour was arrested in October last. After spending three months in prison, she was placed under house arrest in January. She is confined to an apartment in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
“It is ironic, but not surprising, that I was sent to jail for protesting the killing of my people whereas actual Israeli killers roam free,” Tatour told The Electronic Intifada.
While many Palestinians have been recently charged with incitement to violence because of statements they’ve made on the Internet, particularly on Facebook, Tatour’s case is unusual because she is being prosecuted over a poem.
