Palestinian MP freed after 14 months in Israeli jail

A prominent Palestinian lawmaker was released Friday following 14 months in an Israeli jail, and vowed to keep up her campaign for prisoners’ rights.

Khalida Jarrar, 53, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was arrested in April 2015 and later sentenced to 15 months in prison for encouraging attacks against Israelis, according to the IDF.

She was released a month early due to overcrowding in Israeli jails, according to the Israel Prisons Service.

“There are still many prisoners, more than 7,000 — including judges, parliamentarians, children and the sick,” Jarrar told reporters at her home in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

A handcuffed Jarrar had been brought by IPS officers to the Jabara checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank, where she was freed and walked a few meters (yards) on foot.

She was greeted by MK Ayman Odeh, the head of the Joint (Arab) List, and dozens of supporters.

In a Facebook post on his page, Odeh described Jarrar as a “freedom fighter and Palestinian member of parliament.” He wrote that he felt a “duty” to welcome her upon her release from prison and that he “had the honor of being next to her on her way to elections.”

Jarrar is a senior figure in the PFLP, a Marxist party considered a terrorist organization by Israel.

Many of its leaders are in custody and Jarrar has been jailed multiple times.

Despite her release, Jarrar still has a five-year suspended sentence, according to Palestinian rights organization Addameer.

Her husband Ghassan Jarrar, himself jailed multiple times, said he was only able to see his wife during the hearings of her trial in an Israeli military court.

“It was very hard for her,” he said, adding proudly that she “set up a school in prison and five girls were able to pass their exams through it.”

Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian parliament which has not met since 2007 after elections a year earlier were won by the Islamist terror movement Hamas.

Six members of that parliament are still held by Israel, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

— Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.