Dareen Tatour sentenced to five months in prison over poem
An Israeli court has sentenced Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour to five months in prison for "inciting terrorism" in a poem she posted on social media.
On Tuesday, Tatour, 36, an Israeli citizen was sentenced by the Nazareth district court after having already served nearly three years under house arrest.
Tatour was arrested during an Israeli police raid in October 2015, a few days after posting on Facebook and Youtube a video of herself reading a poem titled "Resist, my people resist them" as the soundtrack to images of Palestinians in violent confrontations with Israeli troops.
Prosecutors said her post was a call for violence. She spent the following months under house arrest, during which time she was barred from publishing her work and accessing the internet.
Tatour's lawyer, Gaby Lasky, told Al Jazeera they will appeal the ruling and sentence.
"I don't think that writing a poem, even if it's against the government is a crime," Lasky said.
"It's regretful that in a country that believes in a democracy, will sentence to jail a poet because of a poem that she wrote. The prosecution wanted to send her to jail between 15 and 26 months [but] the judge decided to send her for five months which is still a long time in prison."
In May, Tatour was convicted of online incitement of "terrorism" for her poem. She has denied the charges.
In the video, which received less than 300 views, Tatour urged Palestinians to never "agree to a peace solution".
