Livni pushing law to prosecute Israelis who join foreign jihadis

Israelis who join Syrian rebel groups that espouse radical Islamist philosophies could be prosecuted under soon-to-be proposed anti-terror legislation, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said Wednesday night.

The law would ban Israeli participation in the activities of a non-state armed organization in a foreign country and would carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

“This law will make it possible to put on trial any Israeli citizen who takes part in a terror organization out of fanatical Islamic ideology,” Livni said. “They will be put on trial because that is what needs to be done in order to defend ourselves against terror. That is what every Western nation is doing today.”

The Justice Ministry said the initiative comes in response to a growing phenomenon of Israelis joining in the activities or training of rebel forces in Syria, sometimes under the auspices of terror groups. The ministry noted that the trend is a security threat to Israel and is likely to produce a terror infrastructure within the state.

The Defense Ministry would determine which groups were blacklisted under law, with the agreement of the foreign minister and the Knesset Legislation Committee.

Livni made the comments at a Hatnua party event for the upcoming Jewish new year, which falls later this month.

Last week the Israel Hayom daily cited Shin Bet security service sources who said 10 Israeli Arabs had left the country to go and fight with the Islamic State group. IS has conquered swaths of Syria and Iraq, where it brutally suppresses opposition by executing prisoners.

In May, the Shin Bet announced that an Arab citizen of Israel from the Negev town of Hura was arrested in late April for helping two family members leave Israel, enter Syria, and join the ranks of the Islamic State.

Earlier this week Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino said police were determined not to allow young people to be influenced by the messages of the extremist Islamist group.

Danino said IS had not physically reached Israel, but its influence could still stretch across the border via the Internet.

The commissioner’s comments came several days after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, following recommendation by the Shin Bet, designated the Islamic State an “illegal organization” under Israeli law.

Ya’alon also placed the al-Qaeda affiliate Abdullah Azzam Brigades in the same category.