Mohammad Mansour targeted for standing against the occupation

By Harry
reprinted from his blog www.palestinepal.blogspot.com

I’ve been working with Mohammad Mansour, a Palestinian activist in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), since I began work here one month ago. He is to face a trial tomorrow. If found guilty, he could go to jail and quite possibly be tortured. What is his crime? He is an organiser in the non-violent resistance. He was charged with assaulting a soldier, throwing stones and encouraging kids to throw stones. But there is no evidence of this. He was at a demonstration where soldiers were filming and taking high resolution photographs, yet they have no evidence of this.

He is now being charged with involvement in an “illegal demonstration.” This so called “illegal” demonstration occurred in the Occupied Territories. Several times he has fronted to the Israeli Peace Court (actual name) in Jerusalem. Just getting to court is difficult; soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint have tried to stop him from attending his own hearings in the past, calling him a “security risk.”

Despite this, each time he goes to court the prosecution offers him a less unfair deal, with the judge encouraging him to accept it. He was offered to sign a piece of paper saying he wouldn’t be involved in any demonstrations for 2 years, and he refused. The prosecution even offered to drop the entire court case if he paid a small amount of money and despite having the money, he refused. Monsour told me he “refuses to pay one shekel to support the occupation. My friend is in a wheel chair after being shot at a demonstration and I am not going to fund a bullet so they can do that to someone else. I also don’t want to pay because I’m not guilty.”

These words come from a man who is in his mid-thirties, has 5 children, and has been in jail before. The longest he has been incarcerated for is three years, and despite describing to me personal experiences as chilling as Abu Graib prisoners’, he is prepared to go back. Some torture techniques were outlawed several years ago, but torture is still legal. Even those techniques that were banned may be reintroduced if they can prove the suspect is “a ticking time bomb.”

Asking Monsour why he doesn’t drop out of the movement he said, “It is my duty. We are living under occupation and I want to be free. And I will tell you something else: I and many [other] Palestinians have promised ourselves when we get our freedom we will go and help other occupied people, wherever they are.”

Palestinian Activist Mohammed Mansour on trial

When: Thursday February 15th 12.30pm

Where: Peace Court in the Russian Compound. Jerusalem

Mohammad Mansour, a Palestinian organiser for non-violent resistance to the occupation, faces trial tomorrow. He has been falsely charged with assaulting a police officer, throwing stones, and encouraging others to do likewise. He has also been charged with involvement in “illegal demonstrations”.

Mohammad said, “Despite the military having cameras to film the demonstration, they do not have a single shred of evidence that I did anything illegal, because I didn’t. They want to get me because I am standing up against the occupation, that’s it.”

Father of five, Mohammad has been offered increasingly better deals from the prosecution. The last offer from the Judge was to let him go if he paid the sum of his bail. Mohammed refused to pay because he said “I am not guilty and if I pay any money then I admit guilt for something I did not do. I do not want to give one shekel to the occupation”

Tomorrow Mohammed has another “final hearing,” and would appreciate the solidarity of anyone who would like to see his trial and witness the hypocrisy of the occupation.
For more information call:

The ISM Media Office 02-2971824
Mohammed Mansour 054-5851893
Attorney Leah Tsemel 0522-601-602

The anger at racist cartoons continues

18 February 2006 issue 1988
From Socialist Worker

From London’s Trafalgar Square to Ramallah in Palestine, from Lebanon to Austria, the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, first printed in a Danish paper, have sparked rage

Some 20,000 protesters filled Trafalgar Square in London on Saturday of last week for a rally against Islamophobia and incitement. The event was called at short notice by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and others in the wake of the cartoons row.

The protest was also supported by the Stop the War Coalition and CND. Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War, was warmly received by the crowd when she spoke at the rally.

She noted that it wasn’t only Muslims who find the cartoons offensive: “They offend me because they offend my politics – they are racist provocations from a racist newspaper.”

MAB spokesperson Dr Azzam Tamimi also drew cheers and applause for a fiery and uncompromising speech. “They say Muslims don’t understand that governments can’t control the media. Who are they bullshitting?” he said.

Kate Hudson, chair of CND, said she was proud to be “standing here in solidarity with the Muslim community”. She was one of many speakers to note how anti-Muslim racism is being used to cover up for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Respect MP George Galloway backed up this message of solidarity, noting that the anti-war movement today stood in a proud tradition of working people mobilising against racism and fascism.

Yvonne Ridley, political editor of the Islam Channel, attacked the mainstream media’s stereotypes about Muslims and double standards over “freedom of speech”.

She and others drew a direct parallel between contemporary anti-Muslim caricatures and the anti-Semitic caricatures of the 1930s that helped lay the groundwork for the Nazi Holocaust.

Throughout the rally, the speakers who made political connections between the cartoons row, racism and the “war on terror” were cheered and applauded.

In contrast, those who spoke more defensively about the need for “moderation” were received less well.

The same anger felt on the demonstration in London echoes through the streets of Ramallah, on the Palestinian West Bank, 1,500 miles away.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Palestine has joined the international chorus of criticism of the cartoons.

The movement, which brings together activists from around the world to stage non-violent direct action in support of Palestinians, released a statement denouncing the cartoons.

Israeli-Canadian peace activist and ISM founder Neta Golan spoke to Socialist Worker from Ramallah.

She said, “The Danish cartoons have sparked deep anger among the Palestinian people. Many feel that it is part of the discrimination, racism and disrespect that they have been suffering under occupation.

“By labelling the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist, they are labelling all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists.

“This disrespect reinforces the feeling that the life of a Palestinian is worth less than that of a Westerner, that Palestinians and Muslims are to be looked down on.”

The ISM has called on the newspapers that published the cartoons to apologise and is demanding Western governments condemn Islamophobia. Neta says these cartoons are a part of the demonisation of Arabs and Muslims:

“Racism against people in the Middle East, and towards their own Muslim citizens, has a long history in the West and underlies much of the current policies in the Middle East – whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Palestine.

“Most Western media are ignoring these facts while discussing the issue of free speech. They are reinforcing stereotypes that the Muslim world rejects Western liberties.”

How might we live?

By Laila El-Haddad
From a-mother-from-Gaza.blogspot.com
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The shells are falling again.

Interspersed with the occasional sonic boom. It’s like a mix and match Monday special. The army once compared it to a “hat of tricks”. Let’s see what we pull out today. There’s the sonic boom, which after a brief hiatus, is now making a terrorizing comeback. Then there’s the aimless tank shelling into empty fields in eastern and northern Gaza, so strong it can be heard and felt kilometers away here in Gaza City.

And of course the ever popular kill-a-Palestinian-herding goats-or a child who got lost-by the border fence technique. That outta really stop the rockets from flying.

They try different combinations each day-25 tanks shells in a row; a gunship rocket attack; 5 more shells at eastern Gaza; drones whirring incessantly at varying speeds. 10 shells; 10 minutes of silence; sonic boom; 20 shells, with more firepower, in northern Gaza. 10 shells; one hour intermission; Shoot at someone near the fence. Stop to make sure there is no outcry and promise an investigation.

Then it continues.

Yousuf is at a very sensitive stage, where he doesn’t quite understand what’s going on-and looks to me for confirmation of whether or not he should be scared when the shelling starts. Following the advice of a friend, I continue to re-assure and distract him.

Today, I tried a new technique. Yousuf loves to sing and dance, so as the shelling started, we listened to some music my friend gave him as a gift- Suheil Khoury’s Bass Shwai, a children’s CD from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM), where four children, ages
9 to 11 sing songs composed by Khoury using lyrics written by various Palestinian poets and writers. Each song deals with a theme relating to children.

We listened to a song that imagines how the world might be like in different forms; a song I think can be read in many way. Needless to say, it was very therapeutic, perhaps more so for me than him. Sometimes, you need to take a step back and look through the eyes of children. Strange is what you make it I guess.

What if the world was made of wood
Birds of wood
Flowers of wood

What if the world was made of wood
Moons of wood
Stars of wood

How might it be, I wonder?
How strange…how strange
How would it be, I wonder?
How strange, how strange…
…
What if the world was made of paper
Doors of paper
Fences of paper

What if the world was made of paper
Walls of paper

How might it be, I wonder?
How strange, How Strange…
…
What if the world was made of gold
Fishes of gold
Sands of gold

What if the world was made of gold
Snows of gold

How might we live?
How might we live?

Help Needed in Hebron

By Katie


Settler Grafiti on a Palestinian home in Tel Rumeida

There is enough drama here for 10 seasons of some ridiculous reality show. I really think that there should be such a show in Hebron because it would allow the rest of the world to see what is going on here. If people knew, they would find it unacceptable.

The reality of violence and intimidation is beginning to affect me in that I accept it as part of normal life in Hebron. Tell another person living in Palestine about some horrible situation you were in and they barely bat an eye, something equally horrible or worse happened to them the day before. And I’ve only been here a little over a month.

Here’s a typical story from Tel Rumeida: Last Saturday, Ahmad who is eleven years old was playing soccer outside his house with his brother. Like many houses in Tel Rumeida, theirs is adjacent to a settlement. Ahmad’s brother saw 6 or 7 adult settlers approaching, one about 55
years old, the rest in their 20’s. He yelled to Ahmad to run back to the house and the settlers began throwing rocks at the children. Ahmad was hit in the eye and on the head with two rocks, causing him to trip and fall as he was running away. He broke his arm when he fell.


Ahmed sitting between his brothers

His father took him to the hospital. His mother wanted to come with them but their daughter saw settlers approaching the house throwing rocks, so the mother took the daughter to a neighbor’s house, then went to the hospital.

What kind of place is this where a mother has to make sure her daughter isn’t in danger so she can go see her eleven year old son, who was just attacked by seven adults, in the hospital???

The family called the police when they got back from the hospital, but since the Israeli police have juristiction over Tel Rumeida, not the Palestinian police, it did not help.

Ahmad has nightmares now, and did not go to school for 5 days because he was frightened.

We need help here. We need your help. Please come to Palestine or find some other way to assist. Volunteer your time to an organization working for peace, donate money if you can, write letters to your representitives. This is normal, everyday life for people here and I wish it wasn’t. Right now I am working with 4 international volunteers in Tel Rumeida and we need at least 6.

See the previous post for more stories from Hebron.

We need people here in Tel Rumeida to protect children from violence, to encourage the soldiers to protect Palestinians from settler violence, who will stand up and not be intimidated when the Israeli special forces enter the neighborhood, demand our passports and take down the
information, like they did yesterday. The Israeli authorities deported an ISM volunteer a week ago. But we will not go away. We must continue to observe, intervene, record and write reports in the hopes that someday things will change.


ISMer(center) with Palestinain friends inTel Rumeida

You have more in common with these people than you realize. We are all human beings and in order for there to be peace in this region we must all let go of our prejudices and loyalties to our races, our religious groups, our nations or our cultures and allow ourselves to see every person in this world as our brother or sister. In this global and interconnected society what hurts Palestinians will eventually hurt us and what is good for Palestinians is also good for us.