Israel Sentences Palestinian Woman over Hezbollah Contacts

An Israeli court on Sunday sentenced a Palestinian woman from east Yerushalayim to 30 months in prison, probation and a fine after she acknowledged aiding Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group over several years.

As part of a plea bargain, Yasmine Jaber was convicted after she admitted to charges of association with a foreign agent, membership in a terrorist organization and other terror-related charges.

The charge sheet said that she was in contact with two Hezbollah agents on various social media platforms. She was invited by one of them to attend a conference on the Palestinian cause in Beirut. She traveled there in 2015 and again in 2016 in violation of Israeli law, and maintained contact with Hezbollah operatives over several years, it said.

The Yerushalayim District Court judge said in her ruling that she was handing down a relatively lenient sentence because Jaber acknowledged her actions, took responsibility and has no prior record. The court sentenced Jaber to 30 months in prison starting August 4, 12 months of probation and a 5,000-shekel ($1,500) fine.

In August 2020, the Shin Bet internal security service said Jaber was recruited by Hezbollah operatives at a conference in 2015 and asked to recruit others in east Yerushalayim. It said she traveled to Istanbul on a number of occasions to meet Hezbollah operatives and communicated with them via social media.

Her family issued a statement denying the allegations.