Israeli Arab to go to jail for funneling terror funds to Hamas
Israeli citizen, Dar’am Jabareen, brought the funds from Hamas officials in Turkey to local Hamas officials originating in Qatar.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBUpdated: OCTOBER 9, 2018 04:38Palestinian Hamas militants attend a military drill in preparation to any upcoming confrontation with Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip March 25, 2018. (photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / REUTERS)
The Jerusalem District Court has sentenced an Umm el-Fahm resident to 42 months in prison for moving some 300,000 euros of terrorist funds to Hamas from Turkey.Though the sentence – as part of a plea bargain for financing terrorism and providing services for a terrorist group – was handed down on Sunday, the court spokesperson only announced the ruling on Monday.Though the Umm el-fahm resident, Israeli citizen Dar’am Jabareen, brought the funds from Hamas officials in Turkey to local Hamas officials, the origin of the funds was Qatar.Jabareen was fined NIS 20,000 and a further NIS 560,000 was seized by the state.Two Hamas officials in Turkey, Zahar Jabareen and Salama Marei, first requested Dar’am Jabareen’s help in smuggling terrorist funds to local Hamas chapters during one of his business trips to Turkey in 2016.Dar’am Jabareen had previously been in prison for some 15 years with an associate the two men knew who recommended him as trustworthy.He would typically bring such funds to Israel, hide them in a specific spot and transmit the location Hamas officials in Turkey, who would then arrange for the money to be collected.He continued smuggling terrorist funds on several occasions until January 2018 when he was arrested.The sentence was considered middle of the road.On the side of stringency, Jabareen had a prior conviction and initiated contact with Hamas on his own for all but the first meeting. On the side of leniency, he had not acted out of ideology or commitment to Hamas, but had received payment for his smuggling and had saved the prosecution time by cutting a deal.
