‘Israel’ convicts Palestinian elderly, arrested with soldier’s knee to his neck, of incitement

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- A Palestinian elderly who made headlines last month after an Israeli soldier was filmed kneeling on his neck during a farmers’ peaceful protest against land-grab in the village of Shufa, in a manner reminiscent of the killing of George Floyd in the US, has been convicted in an Israeli military court of incitement and publishing symbols of an illegal association.

Khairi Hannoun, 65, was arrested for what the Israeli authorities called “participating actively in a number of riots” and for incitement on social media, referencing five posts on his Facebook account. He was rearrested two weeks after his initial arrest went viral.

Hannoun signed a plea deal and was sentenced Wednesday to a month and a day’s imprisonment, conditionally suspended, and a fine of 1,000 NIS ($291), according to Haaretz.

Sahar Francis, director of Addameer, said that Hannoun’s arrest is “clearly political” and said that it had to do with the fact he had filed a complaint against the occupying soldier who was recorded kneeling on his neck.

“Social networks have become a means of control and repression, instead of a way to allow freedom of expression. All Palestinian human rights defenders who oppose the occupation suffer from similar harassment,” she told Haaretz.

Earlier in September, Hannoun and other farmers from the village of Shufa, Jbarah, and Ar Ras organized a peaceful protest against the Israeli land confiscation policy Israel’s plans to build an Israeli industrial area on their agricultural grabbed land.

Pictures and video footage from the protest showed Israeli soldiers attacking the elderly villager who was holding a flag using the knee-to-neck restraint technique, bringing to mind scenes of police brutality in different areas of the globe.

Amnesty International has warned that hundreds of police departments have been training in Israeli alongside military officers, who “have racked up documented human rights violations for years.”

Amnesty as well as the US State Department of Justice have cited incidences of Israeli security officials engaging in brutality against Palestinians.