The Nazareth District court has sentenced Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour to five months in prison over a video clip of herself, which she posted on Facebook in October 2015, reading her poem.
The Israeli prosecution accused Tatour of inciting violence and supporting a “terrorist” organization through her poem "Resist, my people, resist them."
The indictment said that the woman posted the video clip in October 2015, accompanied by pictures of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
The posts came as a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence was erupting, including Palestinian knife attacks.
The poem contains the following lines: "For an Arab Palestine, I will not succumb to the 'peaceful solution,' Never lower my flags, Until I evict them from my land, Resist the settler's robbery."
Judges said that 35-year-old Tatour has expressed support for Islamic Jihad and has incited violence.
Tatour, from the Arab village of Reineh near Nazareth, was arrested on October 11, 2015. She has since been under house arrest.
She belongs to Israel's Arab minority, which comprises mainly descendants of the Palestinians who remained on their land after the 1948 creation of the state of Israel.
She is expected to start her sentence on August 8 but her lawyer Gaby Lasky would likely appeal the verdict.
"I wasn't expecting justice to be done. The case was political from the start, because I am Palestinian and support freedom of speech," she told reporters at the court following the sentencing.
Her prosecution has drawn international criticism.
International writers group Pen has defended Tatour, saying she "has been convicted for doing what writers do every day -- we use our words to peacefully challenge injustice."
