Israeli Arab Arrested for His Poems About Uprising

An Israeli Arab poet was placed under house arrest Tuesday and faces trial on charges that his poems about the Palestinian uprising incite violence by Arabs against Jews.

Shafik Habib is the first Israeli Arab citizen to be arrested for his writings, according to Jamal Kawwar, chairman of the Palestinian Israeli Writers’ Union.

Judge Eitan Magen on Tuesday ordered the house arrest after Habib was charged with identifying with a terror group through his writing. Israelis usually mean the Palestine Liberation Organization when they refer to an unspecified terror group.

Magen said Habib must stay at home until more hearings are held on a police request that he be jailed until trial. No trial date was scheduled. The Israeli news agency Itim said Habib’s passport was seized and that he was ordered to pay a bond of $5,000.

Police originally detained Habib last week. They charged that in a collection of poems titled “Return to the Future,” he calls for continuation of the 30-month-old Arab uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied territories and appeals to Arabs to use firearms and “kill the Jews.”

“This is a very serious move against an Arab intellectual. This lit up a red light for all of us,” said Habib, a father of six who lives in the northern Israeli village of Deir Hanna.

Habib, who defines himself as a “Palestinian Arab living in Israel,” said he used to write love poems until the uprising began in December, 1987. Anger over the methods used to crush the revolt prompted him to change subjects, he said.

In one of his poems, “News Bulletin,” he writes about alleged army brutality:

“The commander has issued an urgent order . . . break arms and legs, smash necks, crush skulls and chase them, leave them as corpses rotting in the soil.”

But he denies his work incites violence.

“I see something on television, and I write a poem about it. But it’s impossible to encourage stone-throwing. And I know not to cross the red line. I’m a responsible person,” he said in a telephone interview from his home.

Habib also said all the poems in the “Return to the Future” collection were previously published by Israeli Arab newspapers, which are subject to censorship. The army routinely reviews material submitted to Arabic-language newspapers in Israel and the occupied lands, and it frequently bans publication of items.

Israeli Arab leaders said the charges against Habib violate free speech and contradict Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s pledge that his new right-wing government will seek peace.

“This regime is very weak if they are afraid of words. We are not talking about stones or bombs,” said legislator Abdul Wahab Darousha.

The charges against Habib come at a time of growing identification among Israel’s 650,000 Arab citizens with the revolt of their 1.7 million brethren in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Last month, after a deranged Israeli killed seven Palestinian laborers, rioting erupted in many Arab towns and villages in Israel. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, tactics they often use in the occupied lands but rarely in Israel.

On Tuesday, despite scattered clashes, most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was relatively calm.