Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian poet and citizen of Israel, was convicted by the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court on May 3, 2018 on charges of incitement to violence and support for terror organizations. Tatour has spent more than two years in jail or under house arrest since October 2015. She is currently awaiting her sentencing hearing, which has been postponed until July 30, 2018. The prosecution previously asked for her to be sentenced to between 15 and 26 months in prison.

PEN has carefully reviewed the charge sheet and the evidence against Tatour, and concludes that she has been prosecuted exclusively for her poetry and peaceful activism. Tatour’s conviction is mainly related to a video, which Tatour posted on YouTube, in which she recites one of her poems entitled,‘Qawim ya sha’abi, qawimhum (Resist, my people, resist them).’ 

We uphold our previous calls upon the Israeli authorities to end the judicial harassment of Tatour and immediately and unconditionally release her.

For more information on Tatour’s case, see our last action here  

See also PEN International interview with Tatour here.

Take Action!

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Please send appeals to the Israeli authorities:

  • Calling them to end the judicial proceedings against Tatour as she is being held solely for her peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of expression;
  • Urging them to release poet Dareen Tatour from house arrest immediately and unconditionally.

Write to: 

Minister of Justice
Ayelet Shaked
Ministry of Justice
9 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010
Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 5438
Email: [email protected]

Attorney General
Avichai Mendelbilt
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010
Israel
Fax: +972 2 530 3367
Email: [email protected]

Ministry of Justice The Office of the Deputy Attorney General (International Law)
 Alisa Gannel, Adv.
P. O. B ox 929 9 
Tel Aviv 6 1 092
Israel
Fax: +97 2-3 -68 99 80 1
Email: [email protected]

Please copy your appeals to the Embassy of Israel in your country. A list of embassies can be found here: http://www.allembassies.com/israeli_embassies.htm.

Please also send us copies of your letters or information about other activities and of any responses received.

Publicity

PEN members are encouraged to:

  • Publish articles and opinion pieces in your national or local press highlighting Dareen Tatour’s case;
  • Organize public events, press conferences, poetry readings, or demonstrations;
  • Join the Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee in translating Tatour’s poetry, available in the original Arabic here and other languages here:
  • If you have not already done so, consider signing this petition for Tatour: https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/dareen/

Solidarity

Consider adopting Dareen Tatour as an Honorary Member of your Center. Details of how to campaign for honorary members may be found in the Writers in Prison Committee Handbook, available here.

For any further information, please contact Nael Georges, PEN International, Koops Mill Mews, 162-164 Abbey Street, London SE1 2AN | Tel: +44 (0) 207 405 0338 | Email: [email protected]