2 Israeli Arabs indicted for attempting to join IS

Two Israeli Arabs were indicted Thursday for allegedly attempting to join the Islamic State group in Syria in recent months.

Feras Sheritach, 19, from the Akev village near East Jerusalem, was arrested earlier this year when he returned to Israel following an unsuccessful attempt to cross into Syria from Turkey.

Along with his brother and cousin, Sheritach planned to enter Syria while visiting Istanbul in May; however his passport was expired and was denied entry into Turkey upon arrival at the Istanbul airport, the indictment said. Sheritach decided to return to Israel in order to renew his passport and was arrested by the Shin Bet security service and police.

Sheritach’s brother and cousin managed to cross into Islamic State-controlled areas in Syria. The Shin Bet did not release their identities.

According to the indictment, Sheritach said he decided to join the Islamic State after watching the group’s online propaganda and recruitment videos, including graphic footage of beheadings.

Sheritach was charged with attempting to join an outlawed organization.

A second Israeli man, Hamis Adnan Hamis Salameh, 21, from the central Israeli city of Ramle, was arrested last month when he landed in Ben Gurion Airport after Turkish authorities extradited him back to Israel, the Shin Bet said Thursday.

Salameh, an engineering student at Kinneret College, admitted to Shin Bet investigators that he too had begun planning to join Islamic State after watching recruitment and propaganda videos online. He made contact with an militant on Twitter, who convinced him to join the ranks of the radical group.

According to a Shin Bet statement, Salameh was arrested by Turkish police in the border town of Adana hours before he was set to cross the border into Syria.

He was indicted in the Lod District Court Thursday on charges of contacting a foreign agent and attempting to enter an enemy state.

Over the past several years, the number of Palestinian and Israeli Arab volunteer recruits has increased among Syrian rebel groups, and the Shin Bet believes that more than 40 Israeli Arabs have joined the Islamic State in the last two years.

Last month, five Israeli Arabs, including two teachers, were indicted for supporting the Islamic State and promoting jihadist ideology in their classes.

The indictment filed against Sheritach noted the rising trend of Israeli-Arab recruits to the Islamic State saying, saying the upward trend demonstrated a “real possibility that the ideological and military training would be exploited for the purpose of terrorist activity against Israelis.”

A bill approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and still making its way through Knesset seeks to crack down on Israeli citizens taking up arms with jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and will carry a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.