· Three-year sentence for assisting terrorist group
· Legal secretary wanted to 'understand Palestinians'
Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Friday December 23, 2005
The Guardian
An Israeli woman was jailed for three years yesterday after pleading guilty to meeting one of the most wanted Palestinian militants and spending time in the West Bank town of Jenin.
After a unusual prosecution Tali Fahima accepted a plea bargain deal from prosecutors and is expected to serve about 10 months in prison because she has already been in custody for more than a year. Fahima, 29, was arrested last year after repeated visits to Jenin refugee camp to meet Zakaria Zubeidi, the leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis. She was charged with offences including providing information to the enemy and assisting a terrorist organisation, which carry the death penalty. The prosecution said it would seek a life sentence. Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister, who signed the detention order, said Fahima "took part in planning a terrorist attack in Israel".
Following her arrest Fahima was vilified as a traitor and the security services leaked claims to Israeli newspapers alleging that she was Mr Zubeidi's lover, prompting stories calling her "the terrorist's whore". But by the time the case came to trial last month, the government had retreated from some the most serious accusations, such as assisting with bombings.
Fahima's lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, said her client agreed to confess to charges of revealing information to the enemy, contact with a foreign agent and a ban on Israeli civilians entering Palestinian towns, in order to get out of prison.
Fahima, a legal secretary who voted for Ariel Sharon's Likud party in the last election, began to question the established Israeli view of the conflict three years ago.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1673243,00.html