Israeli-Arab woman accused of seeking to join Islamic State

Turkish police arrested an Israeli-Arab mother of five last month as she attempted travel to Syria in order to join the Islamic State terror group, the Shin Bet security service said Sunday.

Ayman Ahmed Mohamed Kanjou, 44, was indicted Sunday morning in the Haifa District Court for attempting to join the radical Sunni terrorist organization, attempting to travel to an enemy country and, contacting a foreign agent.

Kanjou traveled to Turkey without the knowledge of her husband, an imam in their home city of Shfaram near Haifa, according to Daoud Nafaa, her attorney.

She arrived in Turkey on August 19 with $11,000 (NIS 40,000) in order to make the trip, according to the indictment.

Kanjou holds a doctoral degree in Islam from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and admitted to Shin Bet interrogators she had been planning for months to join the Islamic State.

“For several years she has aspired to live under Muslim authority, which strictly adheres to Islamic law as the law of the land,” the Shin Bet said in a statement. “The Islamic State fit with her aspirations perfectly.”

Kanjou made contact with a member of the organization who promised to assist her in reaching Syria by way of Turkey.

“She left with her father to Turkey without her husband or children having any idea,” said Suzanna Zander, deputy head of the minorities department in the Israel Police Northern District’s interrogation division.

“When [her family] began looking for her, they went to the police but never filed a missing person’s report, once her father made contact with them and told them that she was safe and sound and had left with him for Turkey,” Zander said.

At a certain point, she said, Kanjou’s father lost contact with her. He returned to Israel on August 26.

Two days later, Turkish police captured Kanjou as she attempted to cross the border into Syria. Turkish authorities sent her back to Israel, where she was promptly arrested by security forces upon arrival in Ben Gurion International Airport.

“She decided to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State with the intent of teaching religious classes to the group’s fighters to strengthen their motivation to fight for the organization,” the Shin Bet said.

“This is an extraordinary occurrence: a mother of five who tried to travel to Syria,” Shunit Kedem Nimtzan, the prosecutor in the case, told Walla news.

“The phenomenon of Israelis traveling to Syria is fraught with legitimate danger to the security of Israel. Therefore Israel will do whatever it takes to eliminate this phenomenon,” Kedem Nimtzan added.

Over the past several years, the number of Palestinian and Israeli Arab volunteer recruits has increased among Syrian rebel groups, and the Shin Bet believes that more than 40 Israeli Arabs have joined the Islamic State in the last two years. Two residents of East Jerusalem were indicted last month, also for attempting to join the Islamic State by traveling through Turkey.

Her flight notwithstanding, Kanjou’s family was described as being “respected” within their community, Zander said.

“This is a woman who is articulate, educated, normal at first glance,” she said. “She has no criminal record. She was simply a family woman, but it seems that the ideology in her mind won out.”