Palestinian professor given 7 months in incitement case
Imad Barghouthi suspected of having ties to Hamas terror group; could be released in a month due to time served
A Palestinian astrophysics professor accused of inciting violence was sentenced to seven months in prison on Sunday by an Israeli military court, a Palestinian NGO said.
Imad Barghouthi, 52, was arrested in April and imprisoned without trial for an initial three months, under a controversial Israeli procedure known as administrative detention, which allows for a suspect to be held in custody without being charged.
Israeli authorities assert that Barghouthi has ties to the Hamas terror group and he has been accused of inciting violence against Israel
His lawyer said he was arrested for comments posted on his Facebook page. He appealed after his arrest to an Israeli military court, which in May ruled that he should be freed.
However, military prosecutors opted to put him on trial, leading to his sentence on Sunday.
He was also given a fine of NIS 2,000 ($525), according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. He could be released in a month if he is given credit for time served.
Barghouthi is a professor at a university in the West Bank, which Israel has held since capturing it in the Six Day War in 1967.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for information.
YouTube videos of Barghouthi speaking at Hamas rallies show he was not just a critic of Israeli policy in the West Bank, but also a vocal supporter of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
In a video published August 11, 2014, in the midst of Israel’s 50-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Barghouthi can be seen speaking at a Hamas rally in downtown Ramallah calling on West Bank Palestinians to “take up arms to defend their homes.”
During a speech two months later at his university, Barghouthi praised the actions of the Qassam Brigades and called on listeners to devote themselves to the “resistance” and to “liberating Al-Aqsa and the holy places” — a reference to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Barghouthi earned his doctorate at Utah State University, and worked in Jordan and Saudi Arabia before moving to al-Quds University in 2000. He was previously detained on unknown charges by the Israeli Border Police while trying to cross into Jordan in December 2014 and set free the following month.
His 2014 detention was protested by international academic groups, including the French Association of Academics for the Respect of International Law in Palestine, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, and the US-based Committee of Concerned Scientists, as a breach of freedom of speech and right to travel.
Administrative detention allows Israel to hold prisoners deemed security risks without trial for periods of up to six months, renewable indefinitely.
About 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, more than 10 percent of them in administrative detention.
