Israeli police arrest former Palestinian lawmaker for statements made at ‘anti-Israel conference’

Israeli police arrested former Palestinian lawmaker Haneen Zoabi from her home on Sunday, on suspicion of alleged incitement to terrorism for remarks she made at an international conference.

According to an attorney at the rights group Adalah, six police officers turned up to Zoabi’s home in Nazareth, arresting her on the grounds that she was wanted for questioning before taking her to a police station in Tiberias.

Police said that her arrest was due to comments she made "during a speech at an anti-Israel conference abroad".

They added that the comments aroused suspicion of "crimes of publicly identifying with a terrorist organisation and inciting an act of terrorism".

The police referred to an event Zoabi attended last October in Vienna, where she said: "It’s not Hamas that resisted, it’s the Palestinian people. You cannot differentiate between Hamas and the Palestinian people".

She also said: "Those who entered on 7 October, they didn’t enter the Israeli borders. They entered their own land. They entered; they went to their own land".

Zoabi’s attorney confirmed that she does not know why she was arrested, adding that her arrest was another publicity move by the far-right extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and an example of his efforts in pressuring police to take action against Palestinians.

Jabreen called Zoabi’s arrest "illegal," noting that police could have called her in for questioning and did not need to detain and transfer her to a police station.

Her arrest was also condemned by the Hadash party, which said that her arrest was "intended solely to silence voices opposing the occupation and the war of annihilation in Gaza".

The party further called for her release and demanded an end to "political persecution directed by Meir Kahane’s disciples".

This is not the first time Zoabi has been arrested. In the month following the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, she was detained by police for planning an anti-war protest.

She resigned from the Knesset in 2019 after she was suspended more than once for statements made, which the ethics committee opposed.

One of the remarks she made, which triggered her suspension, included calling Israeli soldiers murderers for bombing civilians areas and restricting aid into Gaza.

Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, there has been a sharp uptick of 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 leading rights group Amnesty International, among others.