Israel's Shin Bet undercover internal security agency and police said on Monday they had arrested and charged six Arab citizens, including four school teachers, with supporting and spreading the ideology of Islamic State.
The six, residents of the Bedouin Negev desert town of Hura in southern Israel, were charged with various offences and three were alleged to have planned joining Islamic State militants in Syria, a statement from Shin Bet said.
“The investigation uncovered that the suspects met secretly to discuss and promote Islamic State's ideology,” Shin Bet said.
“The hard core among the activists are employed at schools in the Negev. Some took advantage of their position and attempted to plead the case for ISIS among pupils and teachers on school premises,” it added.
The six appeared at Beersheba District Court and the statement said five of the six admitted the charges. Lawyers for the accused were initially unavailable.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett said he had ordered the immediate dismissal of the teachers.
“Terrorists will not be teachers in Israel … I have ordered the director general of the Education Ministry to revoke the teaching licenses of all those involved and to sack them immediately,” Bennett said on Monday.
Arabs, the majority of them Muslim, make up around a fifth of Israel's population. While often sympathetic to the Palestinians and resentful of what they see as entrenched discrimination, they seldom resort to violence.
Israeli security officials say a few dozen Arab citizens have left to fight with Islamic State in Syria, usually traveling through Turkey or Jordan.
Last year, an Israeli-Arab who spent three months fighting with Islamic State in Syria before quitting the group and returning home, was sentenced to a 22 month jail term.
