Israeli artists, writers and intellectuals held on Sunday a demonstration against the cabinet's approval of a controversial amendment to the citizenship bill, requiring non-Jews seeking citizenship to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state....
The Protest was about the new law requiring non-Jewish new citizens(only) to take an oath to Israel as a Jewish state.
Author Sefi Rachlevsky said that "a country that invades the sacred space of the citizen's conscience, and punishes him for opinions and beliefs that are not in line with the authorities ... ceases to be a democracy and becomes a fascist state." ... Haaretz
A country that sentences a protester to a year of prison for a crime of working "to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order" has ceased to be a democracy. Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher, has been sentenced to One year imprisonment by the Israeli courts. His crime? organizing the community for change.
On a pitch black early December night, seven armored Israeli military jeeps pulled into the driveway of a home in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Dozens of soldiers, armed and possibly very scared, came to arrest someone they were probably told was a dangerous, wanted man - Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher at the Latin Patriarchate School and a well-known grassroots organizer in the village of Bil'in.
Every Friday, for the past five years, Abdallah Abu Rahmah has led men, women and children from Bil'in, carrying signs and Palestinian flags, along with their Israeli and international supporters, in civil disobedience and protest marches against the seizure of sixty percent of the village's land for Israel's construction of its wall and settlements. Bil'in has become a symbol of civilian resistance to Israel's occupation for Palestinians and international grassroots....
Israel's occupation, like any other military operation, speaks only the language of violence and brutality when dealing with Palestinians, whether facing armed militants or unarmed protesters.
Fearing a paradigm shift to grassroots resistance, Israel reacted in the only way it knows - with violence and repression....
Jonathan Pollak, Jewish Israeli activist (written in December, when Abdallah was arrested, and has since been imprisoned)
Abdallah Abu Rahma, to be sentenced tomorrow, was convicted based on questionable testimonies by minors
Tomorrow, the Ofer military court will pronounce the sentence of Abdallah Abu Rahma, a prominent activist in the struggle against the Separation Barrier in the West Bank village of Bil’in. Abu Rahma, who has been under arrest since December 2009, was convicted of inciting demonstrators to throw stones and of organizing and participating in an illegal demonstration, according to Military Order 101 of 1967 that the army recently reinstated. Abu Rahma was acquitted of the charges of stone throwing and possession of arms. The latter charge pertained to used tear gas canisters that Abu Rahma kept in his home to illustrate the measures employed by the army against demonstrators .
Abu Rahma’s conviction was based solely on testimonies of several minors from the village of Bil’in, who were arrested in nightly arrest raids for allegedly throwing stones, and were then denied the right to legal counsel. The court itself acknowledged that there were severe shortcomings in the way the minors were questioned. A conviction based on dubious testimonies taken from minors in an improper procedure is weak at base, and raises serious doubt that due process was followed
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Abu Rahma’s conviction should be viewed in the context of the army’s recent efforts to quell demonstrations against the Separation Barrier in the West Bank. As part of this attempt, security forces have arrested many demonstration organizers, have used violence to disperse demonstrations, and have deported several foreign activists .
Regarding Palestinian protesters, since the beginning of 2010, the army has also used another measure: Military Order No. 101 of 1967, which effectively prohibits demonstrations in the West Bank. From the beginning of the Oslo process to this year, the Order was not enforced, except for its provisions regarding incitement. Under the Order, an assembly, procession, or vigil of ten or more persons requires a permit from the commander of military forces in the region, if the assembly is for the purpose of "a political subject, or which might be construed as political, or to discuss such a subject," or, in the case of a procession, "for a political purpose or for a matter that might be construed as political." Such a sweeping definition greatly limits freedom of speech, in all aspects. The penalty for breach of the Order is harsh – ten years’ imprisonment and/or a heavy fine .
The assumption underlying Order No. 101, signed some two months after the start of the occupation, is that residents of the Occupied Territories have no given right to demonstrate or to freedom of expression. Even non-violent resistance and civil protest, including a peaceful gathering, are prohibited under the order. The order conditions virtually any form of expression of personal opinions on advance receipt of a permit from the army, and imposes far-reaching and vague restrictions on the content presented in gatherings or publications. The order imposes a disproportionate obligation to secure permission, to the point that a modest gathering of ten persons without prior permission is considered prohibited, even if it takes place in the private domain. -B'Tselem
There is some cause for hope here. The Israeli military had demanded that Abdallah be sentenced to 2 years. I think the One year sentence is due to the fact that international pressure has made a difference.
Obviously international pressure has not nearly been enough. Israel can easily arrest many more on the similar charges, and even if their sentences are short (or they simply are allowed to languish in prison without the benefit of trial, and then released) the consequences for these individuals and their families is often devastating, and this will destroy the unarmed movement to end the occupation and the continual dispossession of the Palestinian people of their land and homes and farms.
In response to these troubling developments, what's the US official response? Of course... Congressional resolutions supporting Israel's human rights record.
What about the rest of us? Those of us that support human rights and peace based on justice for all?
When the US official policy was "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa (what was really a way to say that US corporations were free to profit off a system of injustice, while lip-service was given to change or modifications were necessary for the apartheid regime), the people rose up and demanded change, and we not only freed Nelson Mandala, we destroyed the system of apartheid in South Africa. It took decades of effort, from college campuses to union resolutions and from town resolutions to what later became State resolutions, to finally a congressional law, backed by Cong. Ron Dellums.
Nothing less will be required now.
Israeli academics go out on the street to protest... yet what does all this say about our country that gives diplomatic cover for gross human rights violations and violations of international law and the official silence (or actual support for the repression) that is common in government and academia? Not only is the US leadership failing the Palestinian people, it is failing to support those Israelis who do not wish to live in an anti-democracy that oppresses Palestinians. Not only that, they are failing to support US ideals that again are abandoned for reasons of political expediency.
It is time for civil society to step up and make a difference.
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