Arab Israeli accused of sending money to IS fighter in Iraq
Shin Bet says 25-year-old from Nazareth suburb wired NIS 5,000 to another Arab Israeli who joined Islamic State
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The Shin Bet security service arrested an Arab Israeli man earlier this month suspected of aiding the Islamic State in Iraq, after his brother was killed fighting for the terrorist organization there.
Fadel Saber Kananeh, 25, was picked up on March 2 after he transferred money to the terrorist group through a money changer in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Shin Bet said.
An indictment against Kananeh, who comes from Yafa an-Naseriyye in northern Israel, was filed in the nearby Nazareth District Court.
“Transferring money to terrorist operatives abroad advances their ability to carry out attacks and therefore the Shin Bet will continue to use all the means at its disposal in order to prevent this threat and bring to justice those involved in the activity,” the Shin Bet said.
According to the security service, Kananeh’s brother Muhammad traveled to Syria in 2014 and joined Islamic State.
In 2016, Muhammad Kilani, another Arab Israeli man who allegedly joined the terrorist group, contacted Kananeh to tell him that his brother had been killed in a battle in Syria.
According to the Shin Bet, on March 1 or 2, Kilani asked Kananeh to transfer money to Iraq, where he was fighting, to help him heal from a gunshot wound to stomach.
“In accordance with Kilani’s orders — and despite knowing that he was a terrorist operative of the Islamic State — [Kananeh] carried out the money transfer as requested,” the security service said in a statement.
According to the charge sheet, NIS 5,000 ($1,380) was transfered to the fighter.
The money changer in Jenin was not arrested in connection with the case, as he did not commit a criminal offense, the Shin Bet said.
In his interrogation, Kananeh also told investigators that he supported the idea of Islamic State, the Shin Bet said.
Over the past few years, several Arab Israelis have been jailed for trying to, and in some cases succeeding in, joining Islamic State.
Many have been arrested on their return to Israel, having come back to the country with the knowledge that they would be arrested.
“Interrogations of Israelis who returned from Syria and Iraq paint the opposite picture, of harsh living conditions and life under constant threat,” the Shin Bet said earlier this month.
Islamic State does not have widespread support in Israel, but the Shin Bet estimates that 50 Arab citizens of Israel have traveled to Syria or Iraq to join the group in recent years.
Last week, an Arab Israeli woman was sentenced to 50 months in prison after she traveled with her family to Iraq and lived in the terrorist group’s territory for a year, before they escaped. Her husband is being tried separately.
Earlier this month, Valentin Vladmir Mazlevski, a Belarusian-Israeli man who converted to Islam, was indicted for trying to join the Islamic State.
He was picked up at the airport with a one-way ticket to Turkey in January, with the goal of crossing the border into Syria and joining the terrorist group, according to the indictment filed against him.