Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar, one of the most prominent figures in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was released on Sunday after serving a two-year prison sentence in an Israeli jail. Israeli forces arrested Jarrar (58 years old) in October 2019 at her home in Ramallah during an operation targeting various Palestinian figures. This operation followed the killing of a 17-year-old Israeli girl in an attack in the occupied West Bank, which the Israeli army attributed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist movement classified as "terrorist" by Israel, the United States, and the European Union.
After being accused of participating in activities of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an Israeli military court sentenced Khalida Jarrar in March to two years in prison after she acknowledged the charge as part of negotiations over the sentence. She was set to be released in this time frame, considering the time she spent in custody before the verdict was issued. Upon her release from prison and transfer to Ramallah, Khalida Jarrar visited her daughter Suha's grave, a activist who died suddenly in July at the age of 31, according to a reporter from Agence France-Presse.
Palestinian NGOs had requested that Israel temporarily release Khalida Jarrar to allow her to attend her daughter’s funeral, but the request was denied. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine congratulated Khalida Jarrar in a statement as a "great fighter who embodied the most wonderful examples of patience and resistance." Several officials from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine remain detained in Israeli prisons, and Jarrar has been imprisoned multiple times before. She was previously arrested by Israel in July 2017 and placed under administrative detention for 20 months, a procedure that allows Israeli authorities to hold individuals for renewable months indefinitely without notifying them of the reasons.
