Arab-Israeli woman sentenced to 50 months for joining Islamic State

An Arab-Israeli woman was sentenced Tuesday to over four years in prison for her involvement with the Islamic State terror group in Iraq.

The Haifa District Court convicted Sabrin Zabidat from the northern Arab town of Sakhnin, sentencing her to 50 months in prison.

Zabidat, 30, had traveled to Iraq with her husband, Wissam, and three children and spent over a year with the jihadist group before the family eventually escaped and made their way back to Israel, the Shin Bet security service said in a statement in October, after charges were filed against them.

The couple were tried separately, and Wissam’s legal proceeding are still ongoing.

During one of his own hearings, he reportedly told Channel 2, “I decided to return to Israel of my volition, but that does not mean I regret what I did.”

While her husband fought in the Islamic State ranks in Mosul, Sabrin worked in one of the terror group’s area hospitals. Their three children (aged 3, 6 and 8) were placed in a local school.

The couple were charged with maintaining contacts with a foreign agent, illegal travel from Israel, membership in an illegal association, illegal military training and service on behalf of an illegal association. They confessed to the crimes during their interrogations.

In addition to the prison sentence, Sabrin was fined NIS 8,000 ($2,200). In explaining the severity of the punishment, the presiding judge, Avraham Elyakim, said that in her case, “it is necessary to deter many people from committing offenses akin to those carried out by Zabidat.”

During the course of the trial, Elyakim also determined that Sabrin would not be allowed appear in court wearing the traditional all-concealing Muslim garment known as the niqab.

The Shin Bet investigation into the couple discovered that they flew to Romania with their children to attend a family event in June 2015. From there, without the knowledge of their extended family, they continued on to Turkey where they made contact via Facebook with an Arab-Israeli from Umm al-Fahm who had joined IS in 2013.

Israeli Judge Avraham Elyakim Haifa District Court refused to allow a Muslim woman Sabareen Zabidat to stand trial with her niqab/burka. pic.twitter.com/f6lN8Y1Zh4

— daniel grisaru (@grisaru) November 4, 2016

With his assistance they contacted smugglers who took them across the border into Syria, where they met up with IS members. Their Israeli passports were immediately confiscated and they were taken to the Syrian city of Raqqa, considered the IS capital.

Wassim was separated from his family and sent to a camp in Iraq, where he was given lessons in religious studies and Islamic State ideology. He then took part in IS operations, guarding the group’s facilities near combat zones and participating in raids on Iraqi army posts.

The family eventually reunited in Mosul, living in cramped, unsanitary conditions without running water or electricity. Their children did not receive any education for a long period and spent time with other children who were sick with infectious diseases.

By June 2016, the Zabidats decided to return to Israel. They contacted family members who paid thousands of dollars to smugglers and others to enable them to make it back to Israel.

After several abortive attempts to cross the border, they made it into Turkey, where they were arrested and put in a detention camp.

Over the past few years, several Arab-Israelis have been jailed for trying to, and in some cases succeeding in, joining Islamic State.

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.

Stuart Winer and AP contributed to this report.