Five Arab Jerusalemites Indicted for Incitement

State Prosecutors filed indictments Monday in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court, against five Arab residents of Jerusalem for incitement. The suspects, including one minor, are charged with promoting terrorism, calling on others to carry out terror attacks and other crimes.

The prosecutor’s office said three of the accused called on Facebook for people to attack Israelis following the murder of two policemen at the Temple Mount on July 14.

Mohammed Makhaimer, 19, of Anata is accused of calling repeatedly for attacks on Israeli civilians and members of the security forces, beginning in September 2014. He is also accused of praising and supporting terror groups, including Hamas’ military wing Izz a Din al Kassem, as well as the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Spokespeople for the Jerusalem Police said that following the Temple Mount attack Makhaimer wrote on Facebook that “they thought the heroes had grown old, but they were still alive and they took them down in the alleyways and at the gates [to the Temple Mount],” and added a hashtag reading “Friday Belongs to Martyrs.”

Another suspect, 21-year-old Seif Abu-Guma’a of the a-Tur neighborhood in Jerusalem, is accused of praising the double murder on Facebook and calling for other attacks. “With stones, knives, axes and Molotov cocktails, we attack spontaneously and I don’t mean from a-Tur,” Abu-Guma’a wrote. “Three martyrs came from Umm el-Fahm… we are following you. We grew up on the ethos of holy martyrs.

Two other men, 26-year-old Sefian Mahmoud of Isawiyya and 23-year-old Muhamed Shemaasna from the Shuafat refugee camp, and an unarmed 17-year-old male were charged with similar crimes.

Police said that prosecutors have asked the court to extend the groups’ remand until court proceedings have been completed.