On Sept. 26, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition by the state to review a ruling by a district court that partially acquitted the Israeli Arab poet Dareen Tatour of incitement. The justices refused to even discuss the matter on the grounds that there were no new arguments or new evidence to justify an appeal. The Supreme Court's decision brought Tatour's legal journey to a close.

Tatour, who lives in Reniah, a village in northern Israel, had been a rather anonymous poet until her arrest in October 2015, when a wave of attacks by individuals erupted on the West Bank and on the other side of the Green Line, in Israel. A month later, Tatour was brought to court in Nazareth and accused of inciting violence and suspicion of terrorism, for a total of three counts.

The main complaint against Tatour was that she had posted to her Facebook page a photo of Israa Abed, a woman from Nazareth whom Border Police wounded with gunfire after she waved a knife in Afula at the central bus station. The police claimed that her erratic behavior had been grounds for suspicion of terrorism. Tatour added a caption to the photo that read, “I am the next shahid [martyr].” She later posted her poem “Rise Up, My People, Rise Up Against Them” on YouTube and Facebook.

Tatour’s indictment turned her into an icon of the struggle for freedom of expression. Many people came to view the judicial proceedings against her as nothing more than a show trial, intended to intimidate the Arab population at the height of the “intifada of individuals.” Tatour was initially detained for three months, then placed under house arrest, and finally convicted in May 2018 and sentenced to five months in prison. After being released, she appealed her conviction to the district court.