Israel convicts Arab Israeli for joining ISIS

An Arab Israeli citizen was sentenced Monday to 22 months in prison for joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Israeli court documents showed, according to Agence France-Presse.

Ahmed Shorabji, a 23-year-old resident of the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, travelled to Syria on Jan. 16 “illegally with several others and with the help of people smugglers” via Turkey, according to the verdict, seen by AFP.

Shorabji joined Syrian rebels claiming to belong to a group called the “Army of Mohammed” and was “a week later recruited by ISIS,” the text said.

The text also said that Shorabji underwent weapons training in Syria, before contacting a “defence official” in Israel on April 16 saying he wanted to return.

Israeli authorities arrested Shorabji upon his return on April 20.

Other Israeli fighters

Last month, an Arab Israeli doctor had been killed fighting for ISIS, Israel’s domestic security service, the Shin Bet, said.

Security authorities say they know of about 30 Arab Israeli citizens who have made their way to Syria to fight for militant groups against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

But only “a few joined ISIS, mostly those of a Salafist-jihadist background”.

Arab Israelis number around 1.4 million, some 20 percent of Israel’s population.

They are the descendents of 160,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained on their land when the Jewish state was established in 1948.

Israel and Syria are technically still at war following their 1967 and 1973 conflicts.

[With AFP]