JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH: An Israeli military court last week found the former mayor of the West Bank city of Jenin guilty of aiding Hamas militants and sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment, the army said yesterday.
Hatem Jarrar, 62, was arrested with several other Hamas officials as part of a crackdown on the Islamist group after Gaza militants kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
“The accused put his services at the disposal of a murderous terrorist organization, and using his senior position he extensively aided the organization’s activities,” a military judge wrote in the Aug. 21 sentence, according to the army statement.
Egypt is mediating a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel but progress has been blocked by disagreement over the scope of a deal. Hamas has said it will release Shalit only after Israel agrees to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, but the Jewish state has expressed reservations about releasing Palestinians it accuses of violent attacks against Israeli citizens.
Meanwhile, Israel police yesterday arrested an Israeli peace activist who had sailed to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s blockade of the coastal enclave. They accused Jeff Halper, who also has US citizenship, of violating a ban on Israelis entering Gaza.
Halper was among 44 “Free Gaza” activists from 17 countries who sailed in two boats from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip on Saturday in defiance of the blockade.
The activists plan to sail back to Cyprus today and have vowed to take several Palestinians with them, including students prevented by Israel from leaving Gaza to study abroad. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israel had not yet decided whether to prevent the Palestinians from sailing from the Gaza Strip with the activists.
Halper spent three days in the territory before entering Israel through the Erez border crossing, where he was arrested. “He is being questioned at the police station in Sderot for entering the Gaza Strip in defiance of a military decree banning Israeli citizens from doing so,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Israel allowed the activists to sail to the Gaza Strip, the first foreigners to reach the territory by sea since travel restrictions were tightened after Hamas’ takeover more than a year ago, saying it wanted to avoid a public confrontation.
Israel says it will keep its crossings with Gaza closed for a second straight day in response to a rocket attack by Palestinian militants this week. Israel’s Defense Ministry will not say when the crossings into the Palestinian territory will be reopened.
Also yesterday, the Israeli Forces Central Command chief, Gadi Shamni, issued three restraining orders against settlers residing in the West Bank settlements of Yitzhar and Adi-Ad, banning them from the area pending the conclusion of the upcoming Palestinian olive harvest.
Early yesterday morning, the men — all known right-wing activists — were presented with the warrants, banning them from the West Bank from several months. According to Israeli defense establishment sources, the warrants were issued at this time despite the harvest being scheduled for October, since the army had accurate intelligence suggesting the men intend to hinder both the harvest and the preparations for it.
— With input from Mohammed Mar’i
