Awad Abdel Fattah released after being interrogated for hours on charges of "inciting terrorism"
Sid Shniad
"They are trying to silence us": Awad Abdel Fattah released after being interrogated for hours on charges of "inciting terrorism"
Police released Awad Abdel Fattah today after questioning him for several hours. Abdel Fattah was placed under house arrest for five days and required to post a third-party guarantee of 10,000 shekels.
Awad Abdel Fattah (Arab 48)
Israeli police released Awad Abdel Fattah, the former secretary-general of the National Democratic Assembly party, on Wednesday afternoon, after questioning him for hours on suspicion of "incitement to terrorism".
The police imposed house arrest on Abdel Fattah for 5 days and required a third party to provide financial guarantees of 10,000 shekels.
Abdel Fattah: They want to silence us and prevent us from expressing our solidarity with our people who are being subjected to genocide.
In an exclusive interview with Arab48 , Awad Abdel Fattah, the former Secretary-General of the National Democratic Assembly Party, recounted the details of the investigation he underwent for more than 3 hours, saying that "the investigation focused on the idea that I am in solidarity with Gaza, but from the institution's perspective, this means solidarity with terrorism. The investigator brought a collection of publications and articles and tried to prove that I support terrorist movements, according to their understanding, while the truth is that what is required is to silence us and prevent us from expressing our solidarity with our people who are being subjected to genocide."
Abdel Fattah added: "We are with the Palestinian people, we are part of this people and we will remain by their side, against killing, violence and wars, because we are the ones who most yearn for liberation from injustice and colonialism, and we will not back down from this position no matter what the pressures."
He pointed out that "they did not find any legal evidence against me during the investigation, and all they presented were articles and publications expressing human solidarity with Gaza. Even when I spoke about the prisoner Miqdad al-Qawasmi in a publication and praised his legendary steadfastness in his hunger strike, they considered that to be support for terrorism. I told them that this statement dates back to 2021, and that I wrote it because he was administratively detained without charges, and I showed solidarity with him as an oppressed human being."
Abdel Fattah continued, "Like all our people inside, we are subjected to persecution and intimidation attempts to silence us and prevent us from expressing the pain and suffering of what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank, and even within the 1948 territories, but we will not be deterred, and we will continue our work and make our voices heard inside and outside."
Speaking about the moment of the arrest, he said, "They stormed the house at dawn today. I told them that what they were doing was wrong, as they could simply call me to come for questioning, but they wanted to intimidate people and exaggerate the matter, and that is what they actually tried to do."
Abdel Fattah concluded by saying: "We will not be deterred from playing our role, and we will continue in what we believe in. What happened to me is but a small detail of the suffering that our people experience daily."
The gathering: His release is another failure of the intimidation campaign and the targeting of national activism.
The National Democratic Assembly issued a statement following Abdel Fattah’s release, asserting that “his release proves that his arrest was nothing more than a new episode in the systematic intimidation campaign waged by the Israeli authorities against the Palestinian national voice inside. He was arrested in a brutal manner, accompanied by a barbaric raid on his home and lengthy interrogations on flimsy charges in an attempt to undermine his national and intellectual stature, and through him to spread fear among the ranks of the strugglers and political activists.”
The statement from the group affirmed that "this old-new policy, based on intimidation and persecution, aims to silence every free national voice that rejects the crimes of occupation and ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people, and insists on continuing the political and democratic struggle."
He stressed that this campaign, "including the repeated arrests of national leaders, has failed in the past, and will fail now and in the future to break the will of our people, or to undermine our national and democratic project, which expresses our genuine belonging to the issues of our people, and our firm stand by them in the face of injustice, racism, colonialism and discrimination."
In the same statement, the National Democratic Gathering thanked “Lawyer Nimir Idlibi, who accompanied the activist Awad Abdel Fattah and took on his defense, and expresses its great pride in the broad support and unified stance shown by all political parties, movements and activists, confirming the unity of the national ranks in the face of policies of repression and persecution, and the collective determination to protect the freedom of national political action inside and to stand by our people and their just cause.”
The house was raided and Abdel Fattah was arrested.
Police had raided the home of leader Abdel Fattah in the village of Kawkab Abu al-Hija in the Galilee region, in the north of the country, and took him in for questioning on suspicion of "incitement to terrorism".
Local sources reported that "police officers searched the house, smashed some of the contents, confiscated a number of books and publications, a Palestinian flag, personal belongings, and wreaked havoc on the house's property."
Lawyer Idlibi: The arrest was neither necessary nor justified
From in front of the police station between Shafa'amr and Kiryat Ata, after providing legal advice to the leader Awad Abdel Fattah, the lawyer appointed to defend him, Nimir Idlibi, told " Arab 48" that "the arrest of the former Secretary-General of the National Democratic Assembly Party took place this morning at six o'clock, after the police raided his house pursuant to an arrest warrant and searched the house and confiscated some books and documents before taking Abdel Fattah for investigation."
Idlibi added, “The arrest warrant was issued on October 29, a week before it was carried out, but it was delayed for a week. This clearly shows that the arrest was neither necessary nor justified. If there were genuine suspicions or fears of interference with the investigation, it would have been logical to carry out the warrant immediately, not wait for days. This indicates that the procedure was carried out for other, illegal motives.”
The defense lawyer explained that "the suspicions against Abdel Fattah consist of identifying with a terrorist organization and inciting terrorism, based on posts and articles he wrote via social media networks."
Idlibi added, "My client denies these accusations completely. What he published does not go beyond the framework of political analysis and intellectual discussion. Abdel Fattah presented political visions and analyses, not incitement or glorification of any party as the police are trying to suggest, and he is confident in the soundness of his position."
He explained that "the investigation will begin in a few hours, and may extend for a long time depending on the nature of the questions and publications that Abdel Fattah will be asked to clarify. We hope that he will be released after the investigation is completed, but the decision will be made at the end of the session, and if the police submit a request to extend the detention, it will be discussed today in court."
He pointed out that "this incident is a continuation of the policy of pursuing critical voices in Arab society. The last two years have witnessed similar arrests targeting students, doctors, lawyers, journalists and political figures, such as what happened with Hanin Zoabi, for example, was a recurring pattern: arrest from home followed by hours of interrogation before release, in a scene that confirms the policy of silencing voices."
Idlibi concluded by saying, "These practices reflect a clear trend to restrict freedom of expression. Every post or article that criticizes the state or its policies, or expresses a humane reading of what is happening in Gaza, is immediately interpreted as incitement or identification with terrorism. What happened today could have been easily avoided through an official summons for investigation, not an arrest aimed at intimidation."
Idlibi reported earlier this morning, after Abdel Fattah was arrested from his home in the village of Kawkab Abu al-Haija and taken for questioning, that he had sent an official letter to the police demanding clarification of the reasons for the arrest and the legal background to it.
The group is following up on the arrest case.
Youssef Tatour, the deputy secretary-general of the National Democratic Assembly, told Arab48 that "the police stormed the home of the former secretary-general of the National Democratic Assembly, the leader and comrade Awad Abdel Fattah, and informed the family that Abdel Fattah had been taken to the police station in the city of Shafa'amr."
He confirmed that "we, in turn, contacted the Adalah Center for Human Rights and lawyer Nimir Idlibi, who took on the defense of the leader and comrade Awad Abdel Fattah."
Tatour concluded his remarks by saying, "We will follow this political arrest case to the end, and it will prove that it is political persecution, as happened with the leader and comrade Hanin Zoabi, the leader in the Sons of the Land Movement Raja Aghbaria, and the journalist Saeed Hassanein, on the grounds of opposing the war of extermination against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the aggression in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem."
Follow-up: The arrest of Awad Abdel Fattah is an escalation of political persecution and repression.
The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens condemned the arrest of political activist, former Secretary-General of the National Democratic Assembly Party, and former member of the Follow-Up Committee leadership, Awad Abdel Fattah, after his house in the village of Kawkab Abu al-Hija was raided on Wednesday morning and ransacked before he was taken for questioning on charges of so-called "incitement to terrorism".
The follow-up said, “A government that includes those convicted of supporting terrorism and who control the police force, a government that constitutes a political title for terrorist settler gangs, cannot define what terrorism is, because it is the one that practices and encourages the terrorism that our people suffer from in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
The statement added that "the arrest of comrade Abdel Fattah is another episode in the series of persecutions and political repression, aimed at silencing the voice of our masses against the policies of war, occupation and racism, but we are determined to thwart this goal, and we continue to perform our national and moral duty in defending our national rights in all aspects."
The Gathering: The arrest of Awad Abdel Fattah is political persecution, targeting the national approach and implementing Ben Ghafir's agendas.
The National Democratic Assembly condemned the arrest of the national leader and former Secretary-General of the party, Awad Abdel Fattah, on Wednesday morning from his home in the village of Kawkab Abu al-Hija, in continuation of the political persecution he has been subjected to since he was a boy due to his ongoing struggle.
The group stressed that “the pretext that Israel is promoting this time is what is called ‘incitement to terrorism,’ which is the ready-made charge that the Israeli establishment has begun to use to criminalize national political thought, and to try to silence the voices that refuse to accept the racism, bloodshed and fascism that prevail in Israel.”
The group added: “This arrest is a purely political step, falling within the context of the systematic persecution of anyone who expresses a national and moral stance, and an extension of a police campaign led by the fascist Ben-Gvir, which is escalating and targeting Palestinian political leaders and intellectuals inside with the aim of intimidating Palestinian society and the national political leadership and breaking their will. The manner in which the leader Awad Abdel Fattah was arrested reveals the true face of a regime that now considers the word and the political stance an existential threat that must be suppressed.”
The group views this arrest as "part of the political persecution of the national project and the political leadership, an attempt to silence voices, intimidate society, and criminalize speaking the truth in the face of Israeli crimes in Gaza and the West Bank and political thought."
The group added that "the police statement claiming that the arrest came 'because of inciting publications' is a weak and politicized statement, aimed at covering up the systematic persecution practiced against Palestinians inside and our entire Palestinian people."
The gathering concluded by saying, “Awad Abdel Fattah’s positions and his broad and well-known struggle over decades against racism and colonialism, and for justice, freedom and equality, can only be understood within the framework of his legitimate political and intellectual struggle, and have no connection to any incitement as the police claim. Anyone who knows Awad Abdel Fattah, what he has gone through in terms of persecutions, the firmness of his positions and the methodology of his national work, knows that this type of arrest will only increase his determination.”
The Front and the Communist Party: Israeli authorities escalate the attack on Arab citizens by arresting leader Awad Abdel Fattah
The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and the Communist Party issued a statement against the arrest of the former Secretary-General of the National Democratic Alliance, Awad Abdel Fattah, and demanded his immediate release.
The statement read: “This arrest comes as an expression of the systematic authoritarian escalation of the attack against Arab citizens and their leaders, with the aim of breaking the national position that rejects the policies of occupation, fascism, and racism. Just as we are confident that this fascist arrest and the accompanying attack on the home and family of Abdel Fattah will not shake him, we are confident that the masses of our people will thwart all plans of domestication in order to strengthen the joint struggle of the Arab masses and the progressive Jewish forces for peace, equality, democracy, and justice for all, which will not be achieved except by recognizing the rights of the Palestinian Arab people.”
The people of the country condemn the arrest of Abdel Fattah and demand his immediate release.
The Sons of the Country Movement condemned the arrest of the former Secretary-General of the Tagammu Party, Awad Abdel Fattah, and considered it "an unacceptable political targeting and a serious infringement on the freedom of national action."
The movement asserted that this arrest constitutes "a flagrant violation of human rights and principles of justice, and an attempt to silence voices and narrow the political space."
She added that "attacking national leaders is an attack on all the vital forces in our people, and that these practices will not deter free people from continuing their legitimate struggle for freedom and social justice."
She demanded his immediate release, calling on national forces and human rights organizations to unite against policies of repression and political targeting.
The Loyalty and Reform Party: The arrest of Awad Abdel Fattah is political persecution, and we demand his immediate release.
The Loyalty and Reform Party, in a statement it issued, condemned the arrest of Professor Awad Abdel Fattah, the former Secretary-General of the National Democratic Assembly Party, by the Israeli police, considering it “part of the series of political persecutions of symbols and leaders of our community inside Palestine.”
The party asserted that the arrest comes within the framework of "attempts to silence national voices and muzzle dissent," demanding the immediate release of Abdel Fattah and all prisoners of conscience and speech.
The statement stressed the need to stop "the policy of repression pursued by the Israeli establishment against our people inside and throughout the Palestinian territory."
Police accuse Awad Abdel Fattah of "inciting terrorism and identifying with a terrorist organization."
The police issued a statement saying that "as part of an activity by the Northern District Police, a suspect from the North was arrested on suspicion of incitement, based on posts he published on his social media account."
She added that "following a report received by the Northern District Police regarding posts published by a resident of the North on his personal social media account, which raised suspicions of incitement offenses, police officers began investigating the incident. After obtaining the necessary permits, the suspect - a 68-year-old resident of Kaukab Abu al-Hija - was arrested on suspicion of incitement to terrorism and identification with a terrorist organization, and was transferred for investigation to the Galilee District Crime Unit. Based on the results of the investigation, decisions will be made regarding the continuation of his detention."
Israel's police threatened that they "will continue to act decisively against anyone who incites, glorifies, shows support for terrorist organizations, or encourages their actions, whether online or elsewhere, in order to maintain public safety and security."