Tag: Popular Struggle Coordination Committee - Page 6 - International Solidarity Movement

Military judge orders to keep Bil’in organizer jailed

22 November 2010 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

: Abdallah Abu Rahmah

Abdallah Abu Rahmah was scheduled to be released from prison last Thursday, after having served the one-year prison term he was sentenced to. He remains in jail after the Military Court of Appeals ordered today to keep him behind bars regardless, pending a decision in the Military Prosecution’s appeal of the sentence.

Judge Lt Colonel Aharon Mishnayot, the head of the Military Court of Appeals, accepted the military prosecution’s petition today to extend the detention of Abdallah Abu Rahmah past the term he was sentenced to, which ended last Thursday. The decision comes after a dramatic hearing last Thursday, on the Military Prosecution’s last minute petition to extend Abu Rahmah’s remand, which took place on the date of his scheduled release. The decision contradicts the jurisprudence of the Israeli Supreme Court on the issue, instructing that a prisoner should only be kept under arrest after his term was over in the most extraordinary of cases.

Adv. Gaby Lasky, Abu Rahmah’s layer said: “The decision to keep Abdallah Abu Rahmah detained even after his sentence has ended is a mockery of the very concept of justice, but comes as no surprise. The military prosecution and courts are a well oiled machine of politically motivated unfair legal process.”

Last month, on October 11th, Abu Rahmah was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for his prominent role in his village’s successful campaign against the construction of Israel’s Separation Barrier on its lands. Abu Rahmah was convicted freedom of speech charges, incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations, but was cleared of all charges connecting him with violence.

Abu Rahmah was declared a human rights defender by the European Union, and his conviction and sentence generated international outrage, and was denounced by human rights organizations and the international community alike, including EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.

In the similar case of Adeeb Abu Rahmah – another Bil’in activist – the Military Court of Appeals has recently ordered the Bil’in organizer under remand despite the fact that he served his sentence in full. The Court of appeals eventually dramatically harshened the one-year sentence originally imposed on Adeeb Abu Rahmah by the first instance, increasing it by half to 18 months imprisonment.

Click here to see the judge’s decision (in Hebrew)

Background
Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested last year by soldiers who raided his home at the middle of the night and was subsequently indicted before an Israeli military court on unsubstantiated charges that included stone-throwing and arms possession. Abu Rahmah was cleared of both the stone-throwing and arms possession charges, but convicted of organizing illegal demonstrations and incitement.

An exemplary case of mal-use of the Israeli military legal system in the West Bank for the purpose of silencing legitimate political dissent, Abu Rahmah’s conviction was subject to harsh international criticism. The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, expressed her deep concern “that the possible imprisonment of Mr Abu Rahma is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest[…]”, after EU diplomats attended all hearings in Abu Rahmah’s case. Ashton’s statement was followed by one from the Spanish Parliament.

Renowned South African human right activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called on Israel to overturn Abu Rahmah’s conviction on behalf of the Elders, a group of international public figures noted as elder statesmen, peace activists, and human rights advocates, brought together by Nelson Mandela. Members of the Elders, including Tutu, have met with Abu Rahmah on their visit to Bil’in prior to his arrest.

International human rights organization Amnesty International condemned Abu Rahmah’s conviction as an assault on the right to freedom of expression. Human Rights Watch denounced the conviction, pronouncing the whole process “an unfair trial”.

Legal Background
Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was acquitted of two out of the four charges brought against him in the indictment – stone-throwing and a ridiculous and vindictive arms possession charge. According to the indictment, Abu Rahmah collected used tear-gas projectiles and bullet casings shot at demonstrators, with the intention of exhibiting them to show the violence used against demonstrators. This absurd charge is a clear example of how eager the military prosecution is to use legal procedures as a tool to silence and smear unarmed dissent.

The court did, however, find Abu Rahmah guilty of two of the most draconian anti-free speech articles in military legislation: incitement, and organizing and participating in illegal demonstrations. It did so based only on testimonies of minors who were arrested in the middle of the night and denied their right to legal counsel, and despite acknowledging significant ills in their questioning.

The court was also undeterred by the fact that the prosecution failed to provide any concrete evidence implicating Abu Rahmah in any way, despite the fact that all demonstrations in Bil’in are systematically filmed by the army.

Under military law, incitement is defined as “The attempt, verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order” (section 7(a) of the Order Concerning Prohibition of Activities of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda (no.101), 1967), and carries a 10 years maximal sentence.

Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah sentenced to a year in prison

11 October 2010 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Bil’in protest organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment today, for his involvement in his village’s unarmed struggle against the wall.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced today to 12 months in prison, plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years and a fine of 5,000 NIS. In the sentencing, the judge cited the non-implementation of an Israeli High Court ruling which declared the current route of the wall on Bil’in’s land illegal as a mitigating factor.

The military prosecution is likely to appeal this sentencing – as they did in the case of Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who was also sentenced for 12 months on similar charges but is still in prison after 15 months, pending the decision about the prosecution’s appeal. The defense attorney, adv. Gaby Lasky, is considering an appeal against Abu Rahma’s conviction.

Today’s sentencing hearing was attended by diplomats from the United Kingdom, the European Union, Belgium, Germany along with representatives of UNSCO and Human Rights Watch.

“The Israeli army, which served as prosecutor, judge and jury in this case, is try to use Abu Rahmah to set an example that will deter people from protesting. They have even said so themselves”, said Mohammed Khatib of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee. “Their message falls on deaf ears, as we have no choice but to continue struggling for our lands, our freedom and our dignity”, he added.

Background

Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested last year by soldiers who raided his home at the middle of the night and was subsequently indicted before an Israeli military court on unsubstantiated charges that included stone-throwing and arms possession. Abu Rahmah was cleared of both the stone-throwing and arms possession charges, but convicted of organizing illegal demonstrations and incitement.

International human rights organizations Amnesty International condemned Abu Rahmah’s conviction as an assault on the right to freedom of expression. Human Rights Watch denounced the conviction, pronouncing the whole process “an unfair trial”.

Legal Background

Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was acquitted of two out of the four charges brought against him in the indictment – stone-throwing and a ridiculous and vindictive arms possession charge. According to the indictment, Abu Rahmah collected used tear-gas projectiles and bullet cases shot at demonstrators, with the intention of exhibiting them to show the violence used against demonstrators. This absurd charge is a clear example of how eager the military prosecution is to use legal procedures as a tool to silence and smear unarmed dissent.

Path of the Wall in Bil’in to Be Moved

11 February 2010

Two and a half years after an Israeli Supreme Court decision deeming the path of the Wall on the lands of Bil’in illegal, preliminary infrastructure work to reroute the barrier in accordance with the ruling has finally began. Since the ruling, the state has twice been found in contempt of the court, for not implementing the decision.

Mohammed Khatib, the coordinator of the West Bank-wide Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and a member of the the Bil’in Popular Committee, said today that “The Supreme Court had already ruled this should happen almost three years ago and it should not have taken so long. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the only reason that this is finally happening now are the five years of persistent struggle and the scarifies the people of my village have made. While we are happy for the lands that do return, we do not forget the lands and crops that remain isolated behind the Wall. Our struggle will continue until all of our lands are returned and the Occupation is over.”

Following initial construction of Israel’s wall on Bil’in’s lands in February 2005, residents organized almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Garnering the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for Palestinian popular resistance. Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to hold weekly Friday protests.

In addition to grassroots demonstrations and nonviolent direct actions, Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006; providing a forum for villagers, activists and academics to discuss strategies for the unarmed struggle against the Occupation.

Realizing the limitations of the appealing to Israeli court and the legal remedies possible to achieve through them, the village of Bil’in commenced legal proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec In July 2008. The appeal was filed against two Canadian companies, Green Park International Inc. and Green Mount International Inc., for their involvement in constructing, marketing and selling residential units in the Mattityahu East section of Modi’in Illit.

As part of a recent campaign to quash grassroots resistance to the Occupation, 37 residents of Bil’in have been arrested in connection to anti-Wall protest since June last year. Among those arrested are also five members of the village’s Popular Committee, which organizes the demonstrations. They have all been arrested on suspicions of incitement – a blanket charge for organizing demonstrations. Similar arrest campaigns are carried by Israel across the West Bank, targeting grassroots organizers.

Free Abdallah Abu Rahmah

On the night of International Human Right Day, Thursday December 10th, at 2am, Abdallah Abu Rahmah was arrested from his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Seven military jeeps surrounded his house, and Israeli soldiers broke the door, extracted Abdallah from his bed, and, after briefly allowing him to say goodbye to his wife Majida and their three children — seven year-old Luma, five year-old Lian and eight month-old baby Laith, they blindfolded him and took him into custody.

Abu Rahmah did not find himself behind bars because he is a dangerous man. Abdallah, who is amongst the leaders of the Palestinian village of Bil’in, is viewed as a threat for his work in the five-year unarmed struggle to save the village’s land from Israel’s wall and expanding settlements.

Last summer Abdallah was standing shoulder to shoulder in his village with Nobel Peace laureates and internationally renowned human rights activists. Now, as you read these words, Abdallah Abu Rahmah is incarcerated in an Israeli jail.

As a member of the Popular Committee since its conception in 2004 and its coordinator, he has represented the village around the world. In June 2009, he attended the village’s precedent-setting legal case in Montreal against two Canadian companies illegally building settlements on Bil’in’s land. In December of 2008, he participated in a speaking tour in France, and on 10 December 2008, exactly a year before his arrest, Abdallah traveled to Germany on behalf of Bil’in, to accept the Carl Von Ossietzky Medal for outstanding service in the realization of basic and human rights, awarded by the International League for Human Rights.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s arrest is part of an escalation in Israeli attempts to break the spirit of the people of Bil’in, their popular leadership, and the popular struggle as a whole. In the past six months, 31 of Bil’in’s residents have been arrested for protesting the Wall. Recently, Adv. Gaby Lasky, who represents many of Bil’in’s detainees, was informed by the military prosecution that the army intends to use legal measures as a means of ending the demonstrations.

What can you do?

1. Contact your representatives

Ask your ambassador in Israel to send an official inquiry to the Israeli government about Abdallah. Demand that they apply pressure on Israeli officials to release Abdallah Abu Rahmah and stop targeting the non-violent popular resistance.

To write the American ambassador to Israel, click here

For a detailed list of embassies in Israel and their contact information see here. Feel free to use this sample letter.

2. Donate

The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee is in need of funds in order to pay for legal fees, the support of prisoners and their families, and the expenses of grassroots organizing. Please consider making a donation

3. Send Abdallah a letter of support

Show Abdallah that people from all over the world care about him and his cause by sending him a letter. Your support will strengthen Abdallah’s morale and be presented to his judge, proving that the international community is watching.

4. Endorse the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

The Coordination Committee was created by key activists from popular committees across the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Committee supports and organizes non-violent, direct actions against the Israeli military occupation. Calling on Palestinians to strengthen the grassroots organizing, the Committee has been engaging Palestinian residents and activists, Israeli and international supporters. Please consider lending your name to the struggle by endorsing the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee.

5. Organize

Organize demonstrations in front of Israeli embassies or other events in your community condemning Israel’s ongoing arrest campaign and stand in solidarity with those who remain in Israel’s prisons. Please let us know of any planned event.

A message of non-violent resistance from within Israeli prison

Majida Abu Rahmah | The Huffington Post

9 January 2010

On Tuesday, January 5, I attended the trial of my husband Abdallah Abu Rahmah in an Israeli military detention camp. Ofer Military Base is a dark and dehumanizing place, but I was happy to go there because it meant that I would finally see my husband.

I joined my friend Fatima, wife of Adib Abu Rahmah in the crowd of families waiting outside the gates of the base hoping to be admitted. Fatima’s husband is another committed nonviolent activist from Bil’in who, like my husband, is being accused of incitement, that is, of encouraging demonstrations against the Wall. Adib and Fatima have nine children. He has been in detention for over six months now.

Diplomats from the US, Germany, Sweden and Spain who know Abdallah also came to support him.

Just one month ago these diplomats had visited Abdullah in Bil’in and had seen for themselves how Israeli settlements and the Apartheid Wall have stolen over 50% of our village’s land. They promised then that they would do what they could to help our popular struggle and here they were, true to their word. The Spanish consul who represents the new president of the European union tried to shake Abdullah’s hand but the soldiers wouldn’t let him.

We spent most of the day waiting. Finally, When we where allowed into the room they call a “military court” my husband was brought in by the soldiers shackled with chains on his arms and legs. We were not allowed to speak to each other, but he told me everything I needed to know just by looking at me. When I came home I slept well, without bolting awake in terror, for the first time since my husband was taken from our home on December 10th. Abdullah has visibly lost weight but his eyes still smiled when he looked at me.

Abdullah is a school teacher and a farmer from Bilin, our village in the occupied West Bank. He is also the coordinator of our village’s popular committee against the wall and settlements.

This letter was conveyed from my husband’s prison cell by his lawyers:

January 1, 2010

To all our friends,

I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the Occupation′s holding cell I greet the New Year with determination and hope.

I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel’s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment.

Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commitment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed grassroots resistance to the Occupation.

The price I and many others pay in freedom does not deter us. I wish that my two young daughters and baby son would not have to pay this price together with me. But for my son and daughters, for their future, we must continue our struggle for freedom.

This year, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee will expand on the achievements of 2009, a year in which you amplified our popular demonstrations in Palestine with international boycott campaigns and international legal actions under universal jurisdiction.

In my village, Bil’in, Israeli tycoon, Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel, the corporation he controls, are implicated in illegal construction of settlements on our stolen land, as well as the lands of many other Palestinian villages and cities. Adalah-NY is leading an international campaign to show Leviev that war crimes have their price.

Our village has sued two Canadian companies for their role in the construction and marketing of new settlement units on village land cut off by Israel’s Apartheid Wall. The legal proceedings in this precedent-setting case began in the Canadian courts last summer and are ongoing.

Bil’in has become the graveyard of Israeli real estate empires. One after another, these companies are approaching bankruptcy as the costs of building on stolen Palestinian land are driven higher than the profits.

Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons or army, but we do not need them. The justness of our cause earns us your support. No army, no prison and no wall can stop us.

Yours,

Abdallah Abu Rahmah

From the Ofer Military Detention Camp

To send my husband a letter of support click.
Jewish Voices for Peace have initiated a letter writing campaign Tell President Obama to demand that Israel free Abdallah. To write President Obama click.