Marwat Al-Azza is a Palestinian woman who lives, quite comfortably, in east Jerusalem, under a secure government of laws, so different from the rule of the Hamas dictators in Gaza or the dictatorship of Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. She has recently been employed by NBC as a freelance journalist. In the days following October 7, she posted four times on social media — her Facebook page — praise of Hamas, expressing solidarity with the terrorist organization whose operatives had been reported as having murdered “more than a thousand” Israeli (and other) civilians, in an orgy of rape, torture, and murder of babies, children, and adults, and of having kidnapped 240 others. She encouraged other Palestinians to go and do likewise. Now she has been arrested, as of Nov. 16, by Israeli authorities, on suspicion of inciting terrorism and identifying with a terrorist organization. More on this admirer of Hamas atrocities can be found here.
Marwat Al-Azza, a 45-year-old journalist, employed by the NBC television network and living in east Jerusalem, was arrested after four recent posts on her personal Facebook page regarding the October 7 terror attack by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, in which at least 1,200 people were murdered and 240 taken hostage.
The police claim that Al-Azza “arrived ready for arrest,” without a mobile phone, and even wrote phone numbers on her leg.
She no doubt has given her phone to some other Palestinian to hold onto; she wouldn’t want the Israeli police finding out with whom she has been in communication; some of them might also be admirers of Hamas, after all, and that needs to be kept secret.
In her investigation, she admitted to what was attributed to her.
“These are very serious offenses during a time of declared war when the respondent lives and makes a living in the same country that is under attack and yet chooses to incite and glorify the horrible acts committed against civilians,” a police representative concluded at yesterday’s hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
“This is a normative [sic] woman, engaged in journalism, and her role is very important to everyone,” her defense attorney claimed. “She was asked in her investigation about her work. I believe that in the things attributed to her, she cooperated fully. She did not try to hide, saying ‘I had a hacker.’
“Even when she did not have a phone, which is the main tool, she said, ‘Indeed, these are my posts,’ and this eliminates a thousand disruptive actions,” her attorney said. “There is her statement—that is why I believe that the investigation has exhausted itself. I ask that she be released under whatever conditions the court deems appropriate. She is from a very respectable family.”
The defense lawyer’s argument on behalf of his client is this: look, Marwat Al-Azza — “from a very respectable family” — has owned up to doing everything she is accused of doing. She did, repeatedly, praise Hamas and urged others to emulate its operatives. Those posts on Facebook “are my posts,” she admitted. She did not try to blame a hacker. She did all these things, so there is no need to further investigate, and because she has admitted to everything, her lawyer has the audacity to suggest, that she deserves to be released. This argument is preposterous. Some minor leniency in sentencing might be allowed given her full admission, but when have you ever heard of someone getting off scot-free because they admit to their crime? It doesn’t happen anywhere else, and it shouldn’t happen in Israel.
Despite her lawyer’s request, her detention was extended at the end of the hearing for four more days.
Last month, the police requested permission from the prosecutor’s office to interrogate the journalist, and permission was granted last week.
The journalist was arrested on Friday next to a Jerusalem district police station.
Support for the “war crimes” of Hamas, a mortal enemy of Israel, should be considered a kind of betrayal, albeit not at the treasonous level of Lord Haw-Haw. Give her time — a year or two — to ponder the matter in a mild Israeli jail, and once she’s served her sentence, send her to an Arab land where, I suspect, she will soon long for a return to Israel.
by Hugh Fitzgerald