5 Israeli Arabs sent to prison for joining Islamic State
Defendants given sentences of 2-6 years after confessing swearing allegiance to terror group and planning attacks on Israelis
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Five Arabs from northern Israel were sentenced to multiple-year jail terms on Thursday for joining the Islamic State and planning to carry out attacks in Israel in the terror group’s name.
Karim abu Salah, 22, was sentenced to six years; his brother Sharif, 30, to three; Husam Marisat, 31, to four and a half; Fadi Bashir, 30, to three; and Muhammad abu Salah, 29 to two and a half.
The men had all confessed under a plea bargain arrangement, according to court documents.
The five were part of a seven-man group arrested in late 2014 for swearing allegiance to the jihadist organization and plotting to carry out attacks in Israel, including against the Arab Druze minority, according to the Shin Bet security service at the time.
The central member of the Galilee cell was identified as Adnan Ala a-Din, a 40-year-old lawyer from Nazareth, who, the Shin Bet charged, presented himself to the other members of the group as a “senior and official IS officer in Palestine.”
A-Din, who has yet to be sentenced, allegedly preached the gospel of Islamist ideology to the other members of the group, advocated strongly in favor of terror attacks against Israeli civilians, and had the members slaughter sheep in order to steel themselves and “prepare their souls” for the rigors of jihad.
Another alleged central figure was Karim Abu Salah of Sakhnin, who was arrested in July 2014 at Ben Gurion International Airport on his way to Syria. From prison, the Shin Bet alleged, Abu Salah sought to organize strikes against Israeli military targets and against Druze citizens of Israel.
The group would convene regularly for religious lessons, studying under an unnamed religious leader in the north of Israel, and maintaining contacts with Islamic State fighters in Syria, including several Arab citizens of Israel.
Over the past several years, the number of Palestinian and Israeli Arab volunteer recruits has increased among Syrian rebel groups. The Shin Bet believes that more than 40 Israeli Arabs have joined the Islamic State in the last two years.
Israeli authorities have made several arrests of such recruits.
In July two Arab men from northern Israel were charged with supporting the Islamic State, with each of them separately making plans to join the jihadist group in Syria. In that same month an Israeli-Arab mother of five was sentenced to 22 months in prison for trying to join the group in order to teach jihadist ideology.
In May, Hamis Salameh, 21, from Ramle, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to join the Islamic State in Syria.
In April, Amin Snobar, 24, from Kafr Yasif in the Upper Galilee, was sentenced to five years in prison after he traveled to Syria to join the al-Nusra Front and fight against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
The Times of Israel Community.