Islamic Movement deputy leader under house arrest for incitement

Deputy Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel Sheikh Kamal Khatib was placed under house arrest Tuesday on suspicion of inciting violence.

Khatib was arrested on Monday night by the Northern District Police after intelligence indicated he urged followers to take violent action over "the danger posed to the Al-Aqsa mosque by Israel's actions on the holy site."

Khatib was arraigned before the Nazareth Magistrates' Court on Tuesday morning. The police sought to remand him to custody, but the court denied the motion, placing him under house arrest for five days and imposing restrictions on whom he could contact during this time.

The court did, however, allow Khatib to leave his home to pray at a nearby mosque.

"I was arrested because they [the police] said what I wrote on my Facebook page was incitement to violence," Khatib said following his arraignment. "This is additional proof that the Israeli government and its police force are trying to silence people and infringe on the Arab sector's freedom of speech. I have the right to express my opinions on Facebook and anywhere else."

Also on Tuesday, Eliraz Fein, 24, from the northern Judea and Samaria settlement of Yitzhar, was indicted on suspicion of inciting violence against Israeli soldiers.

Presenting the indictment to the Petah Tikva Magistrates' Court, the prosecution argued that in April 2014, following violent clashes between Yitzhar residents and security forces carrying out eviction and demolition orders pertaining to illegal structures in the settlement, a private online group, of which Fein was a member, began debating the legitimacy of harming -- and even killing -- Israeli troops "under certain circumstances."

The exchange saw Fein express her explicit support for confronting IDF soldiers. "I'm all for throwing stones (at Jews, obviously, there’s no question about Arabs) in certain situations, even if the stone leads to a soldier's death," she wrote.

The prosecution further argued that Fein wrote several inciting Facebook posts.

Following the July 2014 murder of 16-year-old east Jerusalem resident Muhammad Abu Khdeir in retribution for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens, she wrote, "I’m proud to discover that some Jews can no longer stand on the sidelines and keep silent."

In another post, following the arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma in 2015 (in which three members of the Dawabsheh family were murdered), Fein wrote, "I see this as an appropriate act."

Fein denied the allegations against her. "The thought of harming IDF soldiers never occurred to me. I pray no one believes this slander," she said.

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