Israeli police on Monday released former Palestinian-Israeli lawmaker Haneen Zoabi, a day after six officers detained her from her home in Nazareth for alleged terror offences.
Zoabi - the first Palestinian woman to be elected to the Knesset in 2009 - was arrested on Sunday on charges of "incitement to terrorism and support for terrorist organisations" for comments she made at an international conference last year.
She was granted unconditional release following questioning, though police have referred her case to the public prosecution ahead of a possible indictment, according to reports in local Arabic media.
Speaking after her release, Zoabi stood by on her comments and suggested she was targeted for being pro-Palestinian.
"The investigation is purely political, and revolves around my speech I made at a conference held in Vienna a year ago, regarding Israel’s war. I was questioned on the pretext of incitement to terrorism, but the comments were about the extermination of our people," she said.
"Israel is trying to cement its narrative of being the victim, which is virtually impossible. We are now entering a phase in which Israel must be held accountable," she continued.
Zoabi also said that the international community has failed Palestinians by not acting to prevent Israel from carrying out its genocidal campaign in Gaza.
Since October 2023, the Israeli military has killed at least 65,344 Palestinians in a brutal assault that has left almost the entire territory in ruins.
More than 90 percent of the population has been forcibly displaced multiple times, and hundreds of thousands of people are on the verge of starvation.
"It was not Hamas that resisted, but the Palestinian people," Zoabi said at the Vienna conference in comments reported by Israeli media.
"Yes, it is impossible to separate Hamas from the Palestinian people. Those who entered on 7 October did not enter the Israeli border, but entered their own land. This is their land."
Israeli media also reported that Zoabi has, in recent days, called Israel a "racist, fascist" state and called on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to rise up and support civilians in Gaza.
Zoabi joined Azmi Bishara's Arab nationalist Balad party in 2001 and was first elected to the Knesset in 2009.
She served in the Israeli parliament for Balad and the Joint List coalition of Arab parties before retiring from politics in 2019.
A frequently outspoken pro-Palestinian voice in Israeli politics, Zoabi left the Knesset swearing-in ceremony in 2009 before the Israeli national anthem was played, stating it did not represent her and that she "preferred leaving rather than being a hypocrite".
She also rejects the notion of "a Jewish State of Israel", which she describes as "racist in nature".
In 2019, she was suspended by the Knesset ethics committee over her remarks.
Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, there has been a sharp uptick in arrests against Palestinians living both in Israel and in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli police regularly detain Palestinians who protest or speak out against the war, which has been determined to be a genocide by the UN, leading human rights groups and hundreds of genocide scholars.