An Israeli court charged seven citizens of Arab descent for conspiring to attack security forces in an Islamic State-inspired group Thursday.
Charges included “belonging to an illegal group, contact with a foreign agent, conspiring to commit a crime and arms dealing,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The men are all in their 20s and native to various majority-Arab parts of northern Israel. Four are from Nazareth and the surrounding area, and the other three from Fureidis, a town outside the majority-Jewish city of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. (RELATED: Desperate ISIS Gets Back In The News By Denouncing Syrian Refugees)
Police arrested them in August, stating that the men had trained with weapons and “collected intelligence on military and police bases in order to carry out attacks under the ISIS flag.” They also reportedly planned to attack stores selling alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam.
One of the men, slightly older than the rest, was charged for providing them information from prison, where he was serving an unrelated murder sentence. (RELATED: An Unlikely Israeli Business Deal Has Fueled The Fight Against ISIS)
Islamic State’s recruitment has proven effective at galvanizing the grievances of young Muslims far from its heartland in Syria and Iraq. The group’s messaging primarily focuses on enmity with America and Shiite powers such as Iran, rather than with Israel — a common target for armed Islamist groups.
The number of Arab Israelis who have emigrated to Islamic State’s own territory is estimated around “several dozen.”
So-called “Arab Israelis” constitute about 20 percent of the country’s population, and have full rights as Israeli citizens. Most of them are Muslims, though they also include members of the Christian and Druze religions. They should not be confused with Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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