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Dareen Tatour
 Dareen Tatour (Arabic: دارين طاطور, born 16 April 1982 in Reineh) is a Palestinian poet, photographer, and social media activist from Reineh, Israel, who writes in Arabic, her mother tongue.[1] She was tried, convicted, and sentenced to five months in prison by an Israeli court in 2018 for "inciting violence" and "supporting a terrorist organisation" in postings on social media, one of which was a video that included a reading of her poem.[2][3][4] Following her appeal, the conviction for the post containing the poem was overturned the following year, but the conviction for her other posts was upheld. [5][6] In 2019, she received an Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression.[7] Social media posts and arrestShe has published her work on Facebook, and YouTube.[8] In October 2015, Tatour published a poem on YouTube and Facebook titled "Qawem Ya Shaabi Qawemahum" ("Resist my people, resist them"),[9] where the words were cited as the soundtrack to images of Palestinians in violent confrontations with Israeli troops.[10] This led to her arrest and indictment for incitement to violence and for support of a terrorist organization. A full translation of the poem as made by a police officer is cited in the indictment document. The rest of the indictment relates to three Facebook publications: (i) the picture of Israa Abed, a woman from Nazareth, laid on the ground of the central bus station in Afula after she was shot by Israeli soldiers and guards; (ii) a profile picture with the Arabic writing "Ana Al-Shahid Al-Jay" ("I am the next martyr"); and (iii) a post citing the call by Islamic Jihad for Intifada in the West Bank and calling for Intifada inside the green line for Al-Aqsa.[8] ReactionsTatour's poem was viewed more than 200,000 times before her trial.[11] The posts coincided with the so-called "Knife Intifada", a wave of daily Palestinian stabbings which had begun in 2015, had killed dozens of Israelis in a matter of months, and had been widely attributed to social-media encouragement.[12][13][14] Israeli investigators asserted that: "The content, its exposure and the circumstances of its publication created a real possibility that acts of violence or terrorism will be committed."[8][11] At the same time, Tatour's prosecution elicited widespread international condemnation. According to the BBC, by 2018 "the poet's case has become a cause celebre for free speech advocates and has drawn attention to a recent rise in Israeli arrests - of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank - accused of incitement or planning attacks online"[12] The PEN American Center condemned her arrest and sentencing in 2016,[15][16] organized letter-writing campaigns on her behalf,[17] and following her conviction in May 2018 stated that the conviction “relies on a wanton mischaracterization of her work and is an unacceptable attack on freedom of expression in Israel”.[18] Her arrest was also condemned by the American anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace.[19] Trial, sentence and successful appealTatour initially denied authoring the posts and poem, but after switching attorneys she admitted to having done so, and instead began claiming the poem had been mistranslated.[8][11] The prosecution's argument emphasized her denial, reversal, and subsequent blaming of others, asserting that a person "confident of the justice of his path and purity of his intentions consistently admits to publishing the things attributed to him, and explains the underlying intentions."[8] Tatour's defense argued that she was being tried to "intimidate and silence Palestinians in Israel" and that "criminalization of poetry… derogates from the cultural richness of all society."[11] She was convicted on May 3, 2018,[20] and on 31 July 2018 sentenced to five months' imprisonment.[8] She was released in September, 2018.[5] In May 2019, the Nazareth District Court overturned her conviction for the poem, though not the convictions for other social media posts.[6] The court ruled that the poem did not "involve unequivocal remarks that would provide the basis for a direct call to carry out acts".[6] The court noted that Tatour was known as a poet and that "freedom of expression is accorded added weight when it also involves freedom of artistic and creative [expression]".[6] External linksReferences
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