The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Sunday sentenced Bayan al-Jouba, an independent Palestinian media activist from East Jerusalem, to 20 months in prison for incitement and support for a terrorist organization. She was also given a six-month suspended sentence for three years and fined 5,000 shekels.
Among other things, posts she published glorified the eliminated Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, as well as the terrorist who murdered the child Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simcha.
Al-Jouba specialized in covering events on the Temple Mount and at Al-Aqsa Mosque. She regularly reported on tensions, clashes, police raids and entry restrictions during Ramadan and other sensitive periods. Her reports, published in Palestinian and Arab media outlets, focused on the Palestinian view of the struggle over the holy sites.
What was Bayan al-Jouba convicted of?
Al-Jouba, 37, a mother of three, was arrested on February 28, 2025, after leaving Al-Aqsa Mosque during a reporting assignment. She spent more than a year under house arrest, with a ban on using social media. The indictment, investigation and conviction were based on posts she published on Facebook and Instagram.
Among the prominent posts she uploaded was a video about Yahya Sinwar, the eliminated Hamas leader, with the caption: “He wanted to die as a martyr.”
In another post, she uploaded a photo of Izz al-Din al-Masalma holding a weapon alongside Palestinian Authority security forces. Al-Masalma was the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack on a bus at the Tunnels Checkpoint near Jerusalem in December 2024, in which 12-year-old Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simcha was killed and three others were wounded.
Alongside a photo of Hassan Qatnani, an operative in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, she wrote: “Put the cameras on your shoulder and document the situation.”
In additional posts, she uploaded videos with the caption “Only Allah can make them lay down their weapons,” alongside photos of terrorists from Palestinian Islamic Jihad praising the “fighters against the occupation.”
