Nazareth resident arrested for Facebook incitement

A Palestinian man living in the north of Israel was arrested Wednesday for posting photos to social media that police say incited violence against Israelis.

In a Facebook post, the man, 25, a former resident of the West Bank who currently lives in Nazareth Illit, praised suicide attacks, police said in a statement Thursday.

Alongside images of suicide attackers, the post included a picture of the man holding an M16 rifle. The accompanying message praised suicide attackers for their actions, police said.

During his initial interrogation, the man admitted to posting the message, the police statement added.

Israeli authorities say such incitement is a main cause of a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks over the past year.

On Monday, security forces arrested the teenage daughter of a Palestinian gunman who killed two Israelis in a Jerusalem shooting a day earlier, after she praised her father’s actions on Facebook.

The 14-year-old was held and questioned with her mother for more than an hour before being taken into custody, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

Prior to the arrest, a video of the teen praising her father went viral on Facebook.

“We deem my father as martyr,” the girl said in the video, according to Ma’an. “We hope he will plead for us before God on judgment day. … I am proud of what my father did.

“We’re very happy and proud of our father,” she also said. “My father is a great man. Our relationship, as father and daughter, was excellent.”

The Jerusalem gunman’s Facebook page was closed after authorities found many supportive and inciting posts following the attack.