Israeli court jails Palestinian poet over social media post

A court in Israel has jailed a 36-year-old Palestinian poet identified as Dareen Tatour, over her post on social media.

Tatour was sentenced to five months in prison for “inciting terrorism” in a poem she posted on social media, titled ‘Resist, my people resist them’.

According to reports, Tatour was arrested a few days after posting on Facebook and Youtube a video of herself reading the poem as the soundtrack to images of Palestinians in violent confrontations with Israeli troops.

Prosecutors said her post was a call for violence.

In his reaction, Tatour’s lawyer Gaby Lasky, told Al Jazeera they will appeal the ruling and sentence.

“I don’t think that writing a poem, even if it’s against the government is a crime,” Lasky said.

“It’s regretful that in a country that believes in a democracy, will sentence to jail a poet because of a poem that she wrote. The prosecution wanted to send her to jail between 15 and 26 months [but] the judge decided to send her for five months which is still a long time in prison.”