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Israel police question ex-Arab MK over old Facebook posts

July 6, 2021 at 2:10 pm

Heba Yazbak, member of the Knesset [Wikipedia]

Heba Yazbak, a former Arab Member of the Israeli Knesset, was questioned by Israeli police yesterday over Facebook posts dating back to 2015 and accused of incitement.

The allegations relate to posts published by the former MK between 2015 and 2017 when she was not in office.

Yazbak slammed the investigation as “political and illegitimate”, Ynet News reported, stating that the posts in question were “already discussed in the Supreme Court.”

Israeli police said that Yazbak’s investigation was carried out with the approval of the Public Prosecutor and with the assistance of the Northern District Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Yazbak has previously faced criticism over a Facebook post in 2015 in which she praised Lebanon’s Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese militant who served 30 years in an Israeli prison for murder. In another post, she welcomed the end of a nine-year sentence for Amir Makhoul, who pleaded guilty to handing over sensitive information to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Yazbak was also criticised for statements she made that some have read as condoning violence against Israeli occupation soldiers.

Yazbak was an MK in 2019-2020 but failed to be re-elected in the March 2021 election, as she was seventh on the Balad slate and the party only won six seats.

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