The criminal case against former Knesset member Hiva Yazbek is expected to be closed, Israel Hayom learned. Last July, the attorney's office submitted an opinion to the ombudsman which suggested significant difficulties in being able to prosecute Yazbek for crimes of incitement and support for terrorism and that there is no reasonable chance of her conviction. The ombudsman is expected to make a final decision soon and there is a low chance that it will be contrary to the opinion of the attorney's office.
The difficulties are, among other things, that these statements were made several years ago and since then Yazbek has not repeated them, Yazbek has repeated some of her statements in support of terrorism and expressed regret, she has deleted them and also that the High Court of Justice, which discussed the request to disqualify Yazbek from running for the Knesset due to those statements, has already determined that She must be allowed to cope.
As a reminder, Yazbek's investigation was opened after the approval of the former ombudsman Mandelblit, following a complaint filed by Shai Glick, the CEO of an organization in Tselmo, regarding Yazbek's pro-terrorist publications.
The ombudsman in Rabbi Miara is expected to make a final decision soon, photo: Gideon Markovitch
In a post published by Yazbek on Facebook in 2013, she presented a picture of the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who in 1978 led the terrorist squad that carried out the attack on the coastal road in which 35 Israelis were murdered and wrote "Dalal Mughrabi lived 20 years and did all this. May the women of the resistance be blessed."
She published another post about the terrorist Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 murdered two Israelis in Nahariya, including a four-year-old girl, called him a "martyr" and wrote that "I did not return from Palestine but to return to Palestine."
Glick filed the complaint in September 2019, only in April 2021 did Mandelblit approve the opening of an investigation against Yazbek on suspicion of incitement and identification with acts of terrorism.
The investigation was conducted quickly and ended four months after it was opened and the case was transferred to the prosecutor's office for decision.
A year after the end of the investigation, the attorney's office forwarded its opinion to the Office of the Legal Adviser to the Government, four months later, no decision has yet been made.
Glick complained about this to the Attorney General's Office, who stated that "a situation cannot be accepted in which a decision in a criminal case - whether it is a decision to open an investigation, whether it is a decision to file an indictment or close the case - will take several years," she said. In view of the above and in view of the long period of time required to make the decision to open an investigation against Ms. Yazbek, it is expected of the prosecutor's office to speed up and advance the processing of the investigation file, now, at the stage where its decision regarding prosecution is being formulated, although as mentioned, on the formal level, at this stage the prosecutor's office meets the processing times of the case."
In February, the High Court qualified, on Kol's behalf, Yazbek's candidacy for the Knesset as part of the Balad party list.
Five judges who ruled that she should be allowed to compete (Uzi Fogelman, Yitzhak Amit, Dafna Barak-Erez, Manny Mazuz and Anat Baron) against four, including the President of the Supreme Court (Esther Hayut, Noam Solberg, David Minaf and Yosef Elron).
The majority of the judges determined with regard to Yazbek that given the small amount of material evidence, the passage of time, the lack of substantiation regarding a repeated action and especially in view of Yazbek's clarifications and statements backed up by personal affidavits as well as her expression of regret regarding some of the publications - a "critical mass" of clear evidence did not accumulate in her case, unequivocal and convincing that justify its disqualification according to the standards established in the ruling.
Balad, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The minority opinion, on the other hand, believed that the evidence detailed in Yazbek's case is not ambiguous and shows support for the most severe and horrific acts of terrorism committed against the State of Israel.
Therefore, according to the minority opinion, this is one of the exceptional and extreme cases in which the evidence presented is sufficient to establish a "critical mass" of convincing, clear and unequivocal evidence indicating Yazbek's support for the armed struggle of a terrorist organization against the State of Israel.
The previous ombudsman Mandelblit submitted his position to the High Court according to which Lisbek should be allowed to compete.
Mandelblit explained that some of Yazbek's statements bring her very close to the threshold of disqualification, but in view of her statements and clarifications before the Election Commission, this is not an infrastructure that justifies her disqualification by the Supreme Court. According to Mandelblit, Yazbek clarified in the affidavit she submitted to the Election Commission that she opposes to violence, and even explicitly emphasized that she did not call for and did not intend to harm civilians or IDF soldiers. Also, Yazbek expressed regret for some of the statements.
Shai Glick, CEO of Betselmo, said: "The decision to close the case is a stab in the back to the families bereaved by the attack in Nahariya.
If supporting someone who brutally cuts off a baby's head and calling him a martyr is not support for terrorism, then what is support for terrorism?
It is especially unfortunate that against right-wing people like Michael Ben Ari, an indictment was filed for much lesser things, which proves that there is something here and there.
We will not give up and even if this decision is made, we will petition together with the bereaved families to the High Court and ask for justice."
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