JERUSALEM — A military court in the Gaza Strip convicted three Palestinian peace activists of “weakening revolutionary spirit” on Monday for their role in holding a video call with Israelis in April, but it ordered the authorities to release the two who remained in jail. The activists belong to the Gaza Youth Committee, which organized the virtual discussion as part of a bridge-building initiative that they named “Skype with your enemy,” although they used Zoom to hold the calls. The Palestinian military court sentenced Rami Aman, the head of the committee, to a year in prison, but decided to “halt” the implementation of his sentencing, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, the organization representing the activists. The court released the second activist, whose name has not been made public, on the basis of time served, the group said. The ruling came in the wake of human rights organizations’ repeated calls on Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, to free those two defendants, who spent more than six months in the custody of Hamas authorities.

Source: New York Times October 26, 2020 17:48 UTC