Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Nearly 100% conviction rate against Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli military occupation courts

Dear friends,
Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, has published a report revealing that Israeli military courts have an almost 100% conviction rate against Palestinians.  I highly recommend that this article be read in conjunction with my previous post, Stone Cold Justice, about Palestinian child political prisoners, as it confirms many of the observations made by John Lyons in his article.

In a comment piece on the Haaretz article and the IOF internal reported cited by Haaretz, Noam Sheizaf on  +972 magazine notes:  "Unlike Jews, Palestinians under Israeli control in the West Bank are tried in military courts, where the rights of defendants rights are minimal, and the prosecution enjoys a low burden of proof and – most importantly – wears the same uniforms as the judges – IDF uniforms. In a military court, the testimony of a soldier who arrested a Palestinian can be enough to send a minor to prison. The results are staggering: Palestinians have no chance to walk free from an Israeli trial".

Sheizaf goes onto point out that this conviction rate is constant, with little change in figures on conviction rates between 2006 and 2011.  For his full commentary and links to other articles and information on Palestinian prisoners, please click here.

Please feel free to share these two very important article with your networks.
In solidarity, Kim

---



  • Published Haaretz: 29.11.11

  • Nearly 100% of all military court cases in West Bank end in conviction, Haaretz learns

    Report shows the military appeals courts decidedly favor the prosecution, with judges accepting 67 percent of prosecution appeals, as opposed to only 33 percent of appeals filed by the defense.

    By Chaim Levinson Tags: Palestinians IDF


    Virtually all - 99.74 percent, to be exact - of cases heard by the military courts in the territories end in a conviction, according to data in the military courts' annual report, which has been obtained by Haaretz.

    The report also shows that the military appeals courts decidedly favor the prosecution, with appeals court judges accepting 67 percent of appeals filed by the prosecution, as opposed to only 33 percent of appeals filed by the defense.
    The military courts, headed by Col. Aharon Mishnayot, deal with all criminal and security cases involving Palestinians, from their detention through their appeals. Only very exceptional, usually symbolic cases are heard by Israeli courts.

    The military court system also includes committees that hear appeals against decisions by Israel Defense Forces commanders, committees that approve administrative detentions, and a committee that approves expulsion orders.
     
    According to the report, 9,542 cases were wrapped up in 2010, of which 2,016 involved hostile terror activity, 763 disorderly conduct and the rest Palestinians staying illegally in Israel, traffic offenses and criminal activity.

    The report states that 25 cases ended in full acquittal, meaning that the conviction rate is 99.74 percent. But 4 percent of the cases result in at least partial acquittal on one or more of the charges.

    The administrative detention panels, headed by Lt. Col. Shlomi Kokhav, handled 714 requests for administrative detention in 2010, of which 98.77 percent were approved.

    Only 51 percent of these requests were honored in full, however. The rest offset days the suspect had already been held, or put certain restrictions on the relevant military commander.

    Stone Cold Justice: Palestinian child political prisoners

    Dear friends, 

    please find below John Lyons' excellent article on Palestinian child political prisoners which appeared in the The Australian over the weekend. 

    Anyone who reads The Australian on regular basis will be aware of its heavy pro-Zionist/pro-Israel bent.   The appearance of Lyons' article is therefore a rare, but welcome surprise.

    in solidarity, Kim
    ***

    Stone cold justice


    Palestinian youths
    Four Palestinian youths and their guard in an Israeli courtroom. Picture: Sylvie Le Clezio Source: The Australian
     
    **
    YOU hear them before you see them. The first clue that a new group of children is approaching is a shuffle of shoes and a clinking of handcuffs and shackles. The door to the courtroom bursts open - four boys, all shackled, stare into the room. Four boys looking bewildered. 

    They wear brown prison overalls and they trail into the room where their fate is to be decided by a female Israeli army officer/judge, who is sitting at the bench, waiting. The look on the face of one of the boys changes to elation when he sees his mother at the back of the court. He blows her a kiss. But his mother begins crying and this upsets the boy. He begins crying too.

    We're sitting in an Israeli military court which is attached to the Ofer prison in the West Bank, 25 minutes from Jerusalem. Mondays and Tuesdays are "children's days". Hundreds of Palestinian children from the age of 12 are brought here each year to be tried under Israeli military law for a range of offences. The majority are accused of throwing stones and, as the court has close to a 100 per cent conviction rate, almost all will be imprisoned for anything from two weeks to 10 months. Some will end up in adult jails.

    Today, groups of children in threes and fours shuffle in; some cases last only 60 seconds, just long enough for the child to plead guilty and hear their sentence. Sitting in a room 50m away, more children wait. Despite their confessions, many insist that they did not throw stones or molotov cocktails, and the human rights group Defence for Children International estimates that about a third who pass through the system have either been shown or signed documentation in Hebrew - a language they cannot understand.

    Others are said to have confessed under coercion. Since January 2007, DCI has collected and translated into English 385 sworn affidavits from Palestinian children held in Israeli detention who claim to have suffered serious abuse: electric shocks, beatings, threats of rape, being stripped naked, solitary confinement, threats that their families' work permits will be revoked, and "position abuse" - which involves a child being placed in a chair with their feet shackled and hands tied behind their back, sometimes for hours.

    This courtroom has become a front line of one of the oldest conflicts in the world, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is Israel's conveyor belt of justice, but it is a world away from Israel: in Israel a child cannot be sent to prison until 14; in Israel there are laws against a child being taken away at night; and in Israel a child cannot be interrogated without a parent.

    The Israeli Defence Forces, concerned at the growing debate about Israel's treatment of children, has given The Weekend Australian Magazine rare access to the court. They say too many journalists write about it without visiting it. They are keen for me to spend time with the army prosecutor in charge of the cases who will be my guide during three visits to the court. I have a briefing with him before the trials begin. The main point he wants to emphasise is that, two years ago, the army set up this military juvenile court to take note of children's needs. If a child needs a welfare officer or a psychologist, they are available.

    Inside the courtroom, the army's public relations unit wants the IDF guide to sit next to me to explain each case. I'm told I can quote him as "my guide" but not name him and we are allowed to photograph some of the older children but not the younger ones. Nor will they allow us to photograph children handcuffed and shackled trying to walk - "absolutely not," my guide says. The army obviously realises that such a photo would be enormously damaging. After September 11 I'd seen images of alleged terrorists walking like this but I'd never seen children treated this way. It's not surprising that Israel doesn't want this image out there - it would look uncomfortably like a Guantanamo Bay for kids.

    Several countries, led by Britain, are turning up the heat on Israel over the treatment of Palestinian children - not only the manner of their arrest and interrogation but also the conditions in which they're kept in custody. MP Sandra Osborne, part of a British delegation that recently visited the military court, said of the visit: "For the children we saw that morning, the only thing that mattered was to see their families, perhaps for the first time in months ... A whole generation is criminalised through this process."

    Gerard HortonGerard Horton outside Ofer prison in the West Bank. Picture: Sylvie Le Clezio  
    Source: The Australian
    Into this world has walked Gerard Horton, an Australian lawyer. Horton was a Sydney barrister for about eight years and his practice included contract disputes, building insurance cases and employment matters. In 2006, while studying for a masters in international law, he volunteered for three months for an organisation that represented Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank. He has worked there ever since.

    During his five years at Defence for Children International Horton says the office has increased its evidence-gathering capacity and will only pursue credible allegations based on sworn affidavits. He takes me through the arrest process: "Once bound and blindfolded, the child will be led to a waiting military vehicle and in about one-third of cases will be thrown on the metal floor for transfer to an interrogation centre.
    "Sometimes the children are kept on the floor face down with the soldiers putting their boots on the back of their necks, and the children are handcuffed, sometimes with plastic handcuffs which cut into their wrists. Many children arrive at the interrogation centres bruised and battered, sleep-deprived and scared." The whole idea, he says, is to get a confession as quickly as possible.

    DCI has documented three cases where children were given electric shocks by a hand-held device and Horton claims there is one interrogator working in the settlement Gush Etzion "who specialises in threatening children with rape". Some cases contain horrifying allegations, such as this one from Ahmad, 15, documented by DCI, who was taken from his home at 2am, blindfolded and accused of throwing stones. "I managed to see the dog from under my blindfold," he says. "They brought the dog's food and put it on my head. I think it was a piece of bread, and the dog had to eat it off my head. His saliva started drooling all over my head and that freaked me out. I was so scared my body started shaking ... they saw me shaking and started laughing ... Then they put another piece of bread on my trousers near my genitals, so I tried to move away but he started barking. I was terrified."

    In another case, Ezzat H, 10, who was interrogated but not charged, testified: "A soldier pointed his rifle at me. The rifle barrel was a few centimetres from my face. I was so terrified that I started to shiver. He made fun of me and said, 'Shivering? Tell me where the pistol is before I shoot you.'" Another boy, Mahmoud A, was taken by soldiers from his West Bank home in February, aged nine, after apparently playing near a boy who'd thrown stones at soldiers. His mother, Rana, said a soldier told her: "We are capturing him until you bring us the other boy." Now 10, Mahmoud says during the interrogation a soldier hit him "hard" in the face "four or five times" when he said he did not know the names of any stone-throwers. The day we visited his home a soldier shouted his name as we passed a checkpoint. Mahmoud began crying and locals told soldiers he had been doing nothing wrong.

    Yahia A, 15, accused of throwing stones, testified that he was tied to a metal pipe and beaten by a soldier, and that an interrogator placed a device against his body and gave him an electric shock, saying, "If you don't confess I'll keep shocking you." The interrogator, he said, gave him another electric shock - at which point he could no longer feel his arms or legs, had a pain in his head, and confessed.

    There are many other allegations: a boy kept in solitary confinement for 65 days; other boys kept in solitary confinement with the lights on 24 hours a day; a seven-year-old boy in Jerusalem taken for interrogation who says he was hit during the questioning. The boy's lawyer said that when his mother turned up looking for him, authorities denied he was there - even as he was being questioned inside.

    These sorts of reports are fuelling a clamour for change in Israel among groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Yesh Din, Defence for Children International, Hamoked, B'Tselem and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. DCI says that in 76 per cent of its cases children reported violence.
    Stone-throwing is a big problem in the West Bank, with the Israeli Defence Forces reporting 2766 incidents of rock-throwing against them or passing cars this year (up to November 14). Israeli police also say a crash in September that killed a man and his infant son may have occurred after a rock hit their car.

    But the central issue here is that Palestinian child prisoners in the West Bank are treated by Israel in a way that would be illegal in Israel itself. In Israel the maximum period of detention without charge is 40 days - for Palestinian children it is 188 days. In Israel the maximum period of detention without access to a lawyer is 48 hours - for Palestinian children it is 90 days. For the past 44 years a Palestinian was regarded as an adult at 16, compared to an Israeli at 18, but Israel recently lifted this to 18. About 83 per cent of Palestinian children before military courts are sent to prison, while 6.5 per cent of Israeli children before regular courts go to prison.

    Concern about the treatment of children prompted 60 of Israel's leading psychologists, academics and child experts to go public. They wrote: "Offensive arrests and investigations that ignore the law do not serve to maintain public order and safety. On the contrary, they inflict harm on a particularly weak population and widen the cycle of hostility and violence."

    The Israeli Government would not discuss individual cases but did concede changes needed to be made. "There are many things that need to be improved," Israel's international spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said, adding that Israel was engaged in "slow reform and improvement" and was working with human rights groups. "This is a general problem that derives from the fact that the West Bank is under military jurisdiction and military law and there is obviously a discrepancy between the civil code in Israel and the military law in the West Bank. That is the root of the problem. But extending fully Israeli law to the West Bank would be tantamount to annexation."

    Israel is under pressure to at least allow filming of interrogations. "We want interrogations of children audiovisually recorded," says Horton. "This would not only provide some protection to the children but would also protect Israeli interrogators from any false allegations of wrongdoing."

    Australian diplomats have shown no obvious interest in the military courts despite our Ambassador to Israel, Andrea Faulkner, being told about the treatment of children a year ago. She refused to comment on the situation for this story. Says Horton: "It is disappointing that of all the diplomatic missions in the region, Australia has been conspicuously silent on the issue of the military courts."


    It's 10 o'clock on Monday morning and my guide and I take our seats in court. He asks me to report that the reason Israel brings children to court is for security. With us is an army public relations officer who says stones can be dangerous. I agree, telling him there was a case in Sydney some years ago of a truck driver who was killed by rocks.

    The judge - army officer Sharon Rivlin-Ahai - walks into the court. I'm shocked when the door opens and the first group of boys appears - wearing prison overalls, handcuffed and with feet shackled. The handcuffs are taken off before they come through the door but the shackles remain. The four are dealt with in minutes and the next batch is brought in. My guide must see me blanch when the door opens - one of the boys looks so young. He leans over to me: "He looks much younger than he is. He's actually 18." I tell him I simply cannot believe this - he looks 12 or 13. My guide examines the charge sheet. "He's actually 15." The boy waves at his mother. She breaks into tears, which makes him cry as well. "Throwing 10 stones," my guide says as one boy stands. How would soldiers in a fortified jeep know it was 10 stones? "They know," he says. Others are brought in. My guide must see my discomfort at how young they seem. He leans across: "They look very young but they're not."

    Then enters Moad, 15. "He's pleading guilty," my guide says. The judge quickly hands down her verdict: three and a half months' jail and a 2000 shekel ($525) fine. As child number 15 stands, something hits me: not a single child has pleaded not guilty.

    I tell my guide I've never seen any court where 100 per cent plead guilty. "The thing the indictment is based on is true evidence," he explains. "Usually the evidence is their admission to police."

    He seems pleased everything is going so smoothly. "It all moves quickly when there is agreement," he says. And he has high praise for the judge. "She's a very pleasant judge," he says. "Very pleasant." Pleasant judge aside, he senses I'm not convinced all this is fair. "The cases don't take long because there has already been agreement between the two sides," he says.

    Israeli human rights group Yesh Din found that in 2006 only 1.42 per cent of cases before the military courts had any evidentiary hearing. They reported: "Attorneys representing suspects and defendants in the military courts believe that conducting a full evidentiary trial, including summoning witnesses and presenting testimony, generally results in a far harsher sentence, as a 'punishment' the court imposes on the defence attorney for not securing a plea bargain."

    Another Israeli group, No Legal Frontiers, concluded: "No separation of powers exists within the military regime and thus the army is at the same time the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. These fundamental flaws are irreparable as long as the occupation persists."

    Horton says the military courts function as a system of control: "The army has to ensure that the 500,000 Jewish settlers who live in occupied territory go about their daily business without interruption from 2.5 million Palestinians... it is no coincidence that most children who are arrested live close to a settlement or a road used by settlers or the army."

    He says it's an effective system; quite often the children emerge scared and broken. But there is little recourse. From 2001 to 2010, 645 complaints were made against Israeli interrogators; not one resulted in a criminal investigation. "Sometimes if there is a group of children who throw stones and the settlers or soldiers are not clear exactly who has thrown them, the army can go into a village at two or three in the morning and five or 10 kids get roughed up and it scares the hell out of the whole village," says Horton. He adds that when the army arrests children they usually don't say why or where they are taking them.

    Former Israeli soldiers have formed Breaking the Silence, a group that has gathered more than 700 testimonies about abuses they committed or witnessed. Former Israeli army commander Yehuda Shaul says the army sets out "to make Palestinians have a feeling of being chased". "The Palestinian guy is arrested and released," Shaul says. "He has no idea why he was arrested and why he was released so quickly. The rest of the village wonders whether he was released because he is a collaborator."

    Fadia Saleh, who runs 11 rehabilitation centres in the West Bank dealing with the effects of detention, says: "Usually the children isolate themselves, they become very angry for the simplest reasons, they have nightmares. They have lost trust in others. They don't have friends any more because they think their friends will betray them. There is also a stigma about them - other children and parents say, 'Be careful being seen with him, or the Israeli soldiers will target you too.'"

    Back in the children's court, my guide says the judges are independent, "even if they are part of the army". He adds: "We have a couple of acquittals every year." When I say that's not very high, he says: "A couple of dozen or so acquittals."

    In comes Mahmoud, 15. "He's going to plead guilty," says my guide. I'm no longer surprised. "He threw one stone and the agreement is 45 days in prison and 1500 shekels [$400] fine."

    One of the last is Mohammed, also 15. He's charged with "attempting to throw 10 stones". I ask how anyone could know he attempted to throw 10 stones if he didn't throw one. "He wasn't able to do it but he attempted to," my guide answers. Mohammed is the closest we come to a not-guilty plea - he rejects the charge. From the back of the court his mother is trying to say something. The boy makes it clear he doesn't want her to speak but the judge rules that she can. The boy stares at the floor as his mother begins. "There are eight people living in our small house," she says. "They are difficult conditions and Mohammed has had a hard life. I ask that a sentence not be given."

    The judge thanks the mother then begins her summing up. You can see the mother tensing. The verdict: four months in prison. The mother bursts into tears. The judge adds: "Because of the severe economic situation of the family I have decided not to impose a fine."

    The case lasts six minutes - the longest "trial" of the day. Mohammed has been in prison for a month and my guide explains that had he pleaded guilty he would be free now instead of just beginning another three months. He is taken from court. His mother sits at the back of the court, crying.

    The judge - still very pleasant - closes the court for the day. The lawyers pack up. My guide had noted earlier that things were going smoothly. In fact, the whole day went extremely smoothly.


    Monday, November 28, 2011

    Two Schools in Nablus: 6 remarkable films about Palestinian students, teachers and education under occupation!

    Dear friends,
    please find below a series of outstanding films by film makers, Tom Evans and George Azar, on Palestinian education under Israeli Occupation.  The films were screened on Al Jazeera's Witness program and look at the struggle to get an education under occupation, following the fates of two schools in Nablus.


    Al Jazeera notes that: 
    Filmmaker Tom Evans spent several months inside two schools in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, at the close of 2007. Almost a full academic year on, as the exacting and crucial exam season approaches, he returned to the same schools and followed up on the stories of those he met a year earlier".

    How have the students balanced the demands of academia and occupation? How will they cope with the stress of the final exams which could determine their future?".

    The Two Schools in Nablus series offers a rare glimpse into the daily lives of those living under occupation

    Altogether there are 6 films  - each in two parts with 3 on the beginning of the school year and 3 on the end of the school year. Each story is approximately 22 minutes each (ie. a combined time length for both parts of each film).

    Having watched all 6 films, I highly recommend watching them all, as they are not only highly informative, but also very inspiring and moving.

    The films, bring back many memories for me of being Palestine when the Tawijhi exams were on and how important education is within Palestinian society.

    If you are interested you can also read my 2007 post, A Time for Celebration, about Palestinian education under occupation and the Tawijhi exams here. 

    In solidarity, Kim

    ****

    Two Schools in Nablus: Lessons on the frontline - Part 1



    Part 2 of  Two Schools in Nablus: Lessons on the Frontline can be viewed  here
    ****************

    Two Schools in Nablus: Learning under Siege - Part 1





    Part 2 of Two Schools in Nablus: Learning under Siege can be viewed here
    ******************

    Two Schools in Nablus: Learning to Die - Part 1

    Part 2 of Two Schools in Nablus: Learning to Die can be viewed here 


    *****************

    Two Schools in Nablus: The Return - Part 1


    Part 2 of Two Schools in Nablus: The Return  can be viewed here

    *****************

    Two Schools in Nablus: The Journeys - Part 1

    Part 2 of Two Schools in Nablus: The Journeys can be viewed here

    ****************

    Two Schools in Nablus: The Goal - Part 1

    Part 2 of Two Schools in Nablus: The Goal can be viewed here



    Friday, November 25, 2011

    Israeli Occupation Forces resume night raids against the village of An Nabi Saleh

    Dear friends,

     the village of An Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank has been raided for second night in a row.  On the night/morning of 23rd/24th November,the Israeli Occupation Forces invadedd the village at around 12 midnight and spent the next three hours raiding  25 houses, taking photos of residents and children and arrested 3, including a child.  Night raids against the village have happened regularly throughout the last year.

    Below is a photograph which was taken on the night of the first raid. The photo was taken in the home of my friends Bassem and Nariman Tamimi. Bassem, along with another friend, Naji Tamimi, are currently in Occupation military prison for the "crime" of being leaders of the non-violent resistance in Nabi Saleh.


    I have included below a video of the night raid taken by Bilal Tamimi and also an article by Noam Sheizaf on the impact of such raids on Palestinians.


    You can keep updated on what is happening in Nabi Saleh by following the Nabi Saleh Solidarity website here  You can also join the Nabi Saleh Solidarity facebook page by clicking here


    For more information on the campaign to Free Bassem and Naji Tamimi, please click here.
    in solidarity, Kim

    ********


    This is the house of my good friends Bassem and Nariman Tamimi. The photo was taken last night (24 Nov 2011) when the IOF raided the house yet again. Bassem is currently in Israeli Occupation military jail for the "crime" for being one of the leaders of the non-violent struggle in his village of Nabi Saleh.


    Video of night raid on Nabi Saleh by Bilal Tamimi
    ****

    Thursday, November 24 2011|Noam Sheizaf : 972 Magazine

    You can say that everything is okay, as many Israelis would. But you can also ask yourself – why do the soldiers come at night? Or why do they come at all? After all, you don’t normally take people’s photos in the event they might be involved in illegal activities. And from there, you can also start questioning the whole logic of a permanent situation in which the army runs civilians’ lives.


    Organized chaos and bare life (*): The non-story of the night raids
    There exists a general, intentional, cleverly constructed misunderstanding surrounding the true nature of the Israeli occupation. Some say it’s a simple dispute over land, like many others in the world; other think the conflict is about national independence for the Palestinians, prompting statements like, “The Basques and the Kurds aren’t independent either, so why do people pick on Israel?”
    But the occupation is something else. It is the ongoing military control over the lives of millions, and everything that comes with it: The lack of civil rights, the absence of legal protection, and perhaps more than anything else, a sense of organized chaos, in which the lives of an entire civilian population is run at the mercy of soldiers 18 to 20 years old. Most of the time, it’s almost hard to explain how bad it is for those who haven’t seen it with their own eyes.


    Joseph Dana posted this picture today, of a military raid on the home of an imprisoned Palestinian activist in Nabi Saleh. This is a non-story in the West Bank: The army enters Palestinian homes as it pleases, day or night. No warrant is needed, just like you don’t need a warrant to arrest a Palestinian (even a minor). Once the soldiers are in the house, the nature of the interaction between them and the family living there depends on their good or ill will – and in the 44 years of the occupation, we have had everything: from “polite” visits, to beatings and cursing, all the way up to the murder of civilians in their beds. A Palestinian is never safe – not even in his own home. He can never know what’s coming, the way most of us can even during unpleasant encounters with the authorities. The important point is that both the Palestinian and the soldier know that.


    To illustrate this issue, here is a video from a couple of weeks ago. It was taken in Nabi Saleh, the same village where the picture above was taken. The soldiers enter a man’s house at night, and demand he wakes up his children, so they can take their pictures in order to keep them for identification in case of stone-throwing. I think that it is the calmness of the entire scene, the fact that the soldiers are polite and that nothing “horrifying” happens, which makes this video truly shocking.




    

    I wonder what is the real effect of this scene, on all parties involved: The kids who are being awakened in the middle of the night; the humiliated father; the soldiers, who know that they can do whatever they want to this man and his family. And what is the effect of this scene taking place again and again and again, for 44 years?

    Most important is to truly ask ourselves whether we can imagine the same thing happening to us, the same army visit taking place in our home. Would we respond so calmly? Probably not, because we have a different understanding of our existence than the Palestinians and soldiers in this clip. In many ways, we live in a different world.
    ————–
    * Bare life: A term associated with the work of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, describing a state of existence outside the political and legal order, in which a person is stripped of all forms of protection.

    Sunday, November 20, 2011

    Dear friends,
    please find below a video of my friend Rafeef Ziadah peforming "We teach life, Sir". 

    Rafeef is Palestinian refugee and activist, as well as a unionist and spoken word artist.  She is a member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), as well as being a founding member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) which promotes the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestement and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Canada and an organizer of the international Israeli Apartheid Week.

    Rafeef was our key note speaker last year in Melbourne at the first national BDS conference to be held in Australia in October 2010.

    in solidarity,
    Kim

    ***
     








    Friday, November 18, 2011

    Video: Real News on the Palestinian Freedom Rides and Israeli apartheid


    Dear friends, please find the "Real News" excellent report on the Palestinian Freedom Rides. 

    in solidarity, Kim

    Thursday, November 17, 2011

    Press Statement on the arrest of the Palestinian Freedom Riders

    15 November 2011 - Media Release - Palestinian Freedom Ride Campaign
     
    Earlier today, seven Palestinian Freedom Riders were violently arrested while attempting to ride on segregated Israeli public transportation taking settlers from inside the West Bank to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

    Asserting their own aspirations for freedom, justice and self determination, six Freedom Riders boarded a settler bus at 3:30 pm in the occupied West Bank near the illegal Jewish-only colony of Psagot. In a scene reminiscent of the early U.S. Civil Rights Movement, border police and the army surrounded and shut down Jerusalem Bus 148, blocking the Freedom Riders at the Hizmeh checkpoint.

    The action clearly highlights the injustice and dispossession that Palestinians face under Israeli occupation and apartheid. The six freedom riders who boarded the bus originally (as well as an additional rider) were arrested and are currently at the Israeli Atarot police station.

    Badee' Dwak from Hebron, who was arrested during the ride said: "Companies operating Israeli buses, like Egged and Veolia, are directly complicit in Israel's violations of our rights. They transport settlers in and out of our occupied land, on roads that we often can't use into places that we can't reach, including Jerusalem. They need to be divested from and boycotted. Not just here, but around the world. It is a moral duty to end complicity in this Israeli system of apartheid."

    In December 2010 Human Rights Watch released a 166-page report (i) on the "two-tier" legal system that Israel uses to administer in Area C and East Jerusalem. The report made clear that Israel's legal system enables and facilitates the theft of Palestinian land and openly discriminates against Palestinians. West Bank Palestinians are prohibited from driving on certain roads and are limited in their housing choices. Police and army brutality are a fact of life.

    Huwaida Arraf, also among those arrested, stated: "The U.S. Congress repeatedly claims it is for the rights of people around the world facing oppression and injustice. But when it comes to Palestinian rights and Israel's decades-old denial of them they are notably silent. In fact, they continue to provide Israel with the most deadly weapons, money and diplomatic cover to maintain its oppression and protect it from international sanctions. Too many lack the courage to even criticize Israel for the racism on display here today."

    Basel al-Araj commented prior to his arrest: "The settlers are to Israel what the KKK was to the Jim Crow South – an unruly, fanatic mob that has enormous influence in shaping Israeli policies today and that violently enforces these policies with extreme violence and utter impunity all over the occupied Palestinian territory, especially in and around Jerusalem."

    Hurriyah Ziada, one of the event's organizers said: "Israel's occupation and apartheid system must end and all of Israel's Jewish-only colonies that sit on stolen land must be dismantled. As the Arab Spring spreads across the region, rekindling hope for freedom, social justice and democracy to replace tyranny and repression, we struggle on the ground for the basic, comprehensive rights of the entire Palestinian people. We call on people of conscience around the world to compel Israel into complying with international law by applying creative, sustainable, and context-sensitive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) initiatives. We too deserve freedom and justice."

    Among prominent international figures who have endorsed the Palestinian Freedom Riders campaign, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker wrote: "Board the buses to Everywhere. Sit freely. Go into Jerusalem with my blessing. Like many of my country people, I have witnessed this scenario before and know where it can lead. To a straightening of the back and a full breath taken by the soul. Some of us have shed blood, others have shed tears. Some have shed both. All sacred to the cause of the dignity we deserve as beautifully fashioned citizens and Beings of this Universe."

    BACKGROUND: 
    Several Israeli and transnational companies, among them Egged and Veolia, operate dozens of lines that run through the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), many of them subsidized by the state. They run between different Israeli illegal settlements, connecting them to each other and to Israel. Some lines connecting Jerusalem to other cities inside Israel, such as Eilat and Beesan (Beit She'an), are also routed to pass through the West Bank.

    Almost no limitations are imposed on the freedom of movement of Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory. On the contrary, the Israeli government allows and even encourages its citizens to settle in the West Bank (especially in and around East Jerusalem), in violation of international law. Palestinians, in contrast, are not allowed to enter Israel without procuring a rarely granted special permit from Israeli authorities. Even Palestinian movement inside the Occupied Territory is heavily restricted, with access to occupied East Jerusalem and some 8 percent of the West Bank in the border area also forbidden without a similar permit.

    While it is not officially forbidden for Palestinians to use Israeli public transportation in the West Bank, these lines are effectively segregated, since many of them pass through Jewish-only settlements, to which Palestinian entry is prohibited by military decree. This is one aspect of Israel's regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid (ii) against the Palestinian people.

    The buses that the Freedom Riders boarded are operated by Egged, the largest Israeli public transportation company. Another prominent public transportation company in the Occupied Territory is the French transnational company Veolia. Both companies are complicit in Israel's violations of international law due to their involvement in and profiting from Israeli's illegal settlement infrastructure. Palestinian Freedom Riders endorse the call for boycotting both companies, as well as all others involved in Israel's violations of human rights and international law. (iii)

    In July 2011, an Egged subsidiary won a public tender to run bus services in the Waterland region of the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam. The company makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians and has been a target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which is endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society. The Freedom Riders call on the people of the Netherlands to sever all dealings with companies, like Egged, involved in human rights violations.

    Veolia has been a target of an international divestment campaign for running bus lines through the West Bank connecting illegal Israeli colonies to Jerusalem and for its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail which connects illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem to the western part of the city, thereby directly servicing the settlement enterprise. (iv)

    Israel has laid its military control over 42 percent of the occupied West Bank for the building of illegal Jewish settlements and their associated regime (v), including the wall which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, depriving local communities of access to their water resources as well as agricultural lands. Settling Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention (vi) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. (vii)
    Settlements' infrastructure includes hundreds of kilometers of segregated roads that are forbidden for Palestinians to use. They carve deep into the West Bank further separating Palestinians and their cities and villages from each other.

    Notes:
    i HRW report: Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal; Available at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/18/israelwest-bank-separate-and-unequal
    ii In its most recent session in Cape Town, South Africa, the eminent jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine concluded that, "Israel's rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid." http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa
    iii Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call.
    v B'tselem Report: "By Hook and By Crook, Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank, July 2010; summary available at: http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook.
    vi See "Israel's settlement policy is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention," The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza, highlighting the relevant articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention to support the determination that settlements are a war crime, at http://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Settlements.conv.htm; see also "Demolitions, new settlements in East Jerusalem could amount to war crimes – UN expert," UN News Centre, June 29, 2010, at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35175&Cr=Palestin&Cr1.
    vii Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits "[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

    PHOTOS: Palestinian ‘Freedom riders’ board settler-only bus in Occupied West Bank


    Dear friends,

    please find below photos from the activists at ActiveStills of the Palestinian Freedom Ride.  This photo essay was first published on +972 Magazine.

    In solidarity,

    Kim

    **

    PHOTOS: Palestinian ‘Freedom riders’ board settler-only bus in WB

    On November 15, six Palestinian activists boarded an Israeli bus in the West Bank in effort to call attention to Israel’s policies of segregation and restricted freedom of movement for Palestinians. Drawing inspiration from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement’s “Freedom Rides” of the 1960s, the activists rode the bus before being forcibly removed by IDF soldiers. 

    All photos by ActiveStills
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Freedom riders November 15, 2011 (Photo: ActiveStills)
    Read More:

    Six Palestinian Freedom Riders arrested traveling on Israeli-only bus

    Dear friends,

    please find below a report on the Palestinian Freedom Riders by Adam Horowitz from Mondoweiss.  Included in Adam's report is the statement issued by the Palestinian Freedom Rider's media team just before they boarded the bus explaining the action and calling for solidarity.

    In solidarity, Kim 

    **

    freedomriders
    freedom riders Huwaida Arraf and Fadi Quran on Israeli Bus 148. (Photo: Activestills)

    The following statement was made at the start of the Freedom Ride protest this morning:

    My name is Hurriyeh Ziadah. I am the media spokeswomen for the Palestinian Freedom Rides campaign. Thank you all for being here today.

    Fifty years ago brave African American civil rights activists challenged the racist and unjust laws of Jim Crow by boarding buses to the segregated South, thereby embarking on a campaign of civil disobedience and direct action.
    onthebus
    In less than an hour, Palestinian activists, taking inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides, will embark on a similar civil disobedience campaign to challenge Israel’s regime of colonial Apartheid in Palestine.

    Although the tactics and methodologies differ, both white supremacists and the Israeli occupiers commit the same crime: they strip a people of freedom, justice and dignity. In undertaking this action we do not seek the desegregation of settler buses, as the presence of these colonizers and the infrastructure that serves them is illegal and must be dismantled. As part of our struggle for freedom, justice and dignity, we demand the ability to be able to travel freely on our own roads, on our own land, including the right to travel to Jerusalem.

    We also aim to expose two of the companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policies and encourage global boycott of and divestment from them. The Israeli Egged and French Veolia bus companies operate dozens of segregated lines that run through the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. Both companies are also involved in the Jerusalem Light Rail, a train project that links illegal settlements in East Jerusalem to the western part of the city. By facilitating population transfer into occupied Palestinian territory, Egged and Veolia are actively and knowingly complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise, which the International Court of Justice has determined to be a breach of international law.
    Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

    We urge the people of the world not to accept the evil that is our occupation, dispossession and oppression, and to divest yourselves and your governments from the corporations that enable Israel to continue doing this to us. Egged and Veolia are two transportation companies that serve Israel’s segregated, colonial, infrastructure. By passively accepting their presence and not protesting against them, you are all indirectly complicit in the crimes they commit against us, and the profits they make from the violation of our rights; violations that the Freedom Riders will expose today.

    Our rights will not voluntarily be handed to us, so we are heading out to demand them.
    We know that in undertaking this action we risk arrest, vicious attacks by Israeli settlers, abuse by Israeli soldiers, and even death. We take this risk upon ourselves as a step towards ensuring Freedom, Justice, and Dignity for future generations of Palestinians and all people in the region.

    The six Freedom Riders who were arrested are Nadeem Al Sharbate, Badee Dwak, Huwaida Arraf, Basel Al Araj, Fadi Quran, and Mazin Qumsiyeh. They were all take to the Atarot prison. Here are some background and updates there were posted on the Palestinian Freedom Riders Facebook page:
    Nadeem Alshirbaty, one of the arrested Freedom Riders from Hebron, is 33 years old and one of the founders of Youth Against Settlements group. He visited Jerusalem 14 years ago, and when asked why is he riding the bus said "This is our duty to defend our rights and land, even if it is the last day of our lives."
    Basel Al-a’raj , another freedom rider was arrested. Basel is 28 years old pharmacist and a youth activist from Walajeh village in Bethlehem district. Today Basil tried to disturb the settlers road traffic, his friends heard him shouting as he was arrested “lets boycott Israeli... Freedom to Palestine”
    Bassel Al Araj's last words before arrest: "I am Bassel Al-Araj, a Palestinian Freedom Rider. Boycott Egged Boycott Veolia!"
    Fadi before arrest: Please divest from all companies that benefit from the Apartheid regime!
    Fadi Quraan , one of freedom riders was also arrested. Fadi is a 23 old Palestinian from Ramallah. He was born in Jerusalem and he is currently a graduate student at Birzeit University finishing his master degree in Democracy and human rights. This morning when he his asked about his motivation for riding the bus , he said: “ I believe that our generation will free Palestinian through every possible way of popular resistance.
    Badi’ Dweik, one of Freedom Riders, 38 years old and from Hebron detained is one of the founder of the International Campaign to Revive the Shuhada Street in Hebron. When asked why is he boarding the bus, he said that this is a means of resisting the Israeli occupation…he said: “ I am a believer in the justice of our cause, we will be free if we each do our duty…we should try all resistance means to end the occupation"
    Mazen Qumseyeh from Beit Sahour, is 54 years old. He is a Professor and researcher at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities. He was several publications on Palestinian struggle and Popular resistance in Palestine.
    Huwaida Arraf, one of the arrested Freedom Riders, is 35 years old and a member of the International Solidarity Movement. She is the coordinator of the Freedom Flotilla and is responsible for the "Free Gaza" movement that initiated the Freedom Flotillas demanding to lift the siege over Gaza.

    Monday, November 14, 2011

    Palestinian Freedom Riders to Challenge Segregation By Riding Settler Buses to Jerusalem

    Dear friends, Palestinian activists today will courageously re-enact the famous freedom rides of the US civil rights movement by boarding segregated Israeli public transport (ie. settler buses) from the Occupied West Bank to travel to Occupied East Jerusalem. 

    Please find below the original press release issued by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, as well as an updated media release which includes more information on the campaign, as well as background information about the apartheid policies that the Palestinian Freedom Riders will be challenging.  The Palestinian Freedom Riders will be joined by internationals and Israeli activists. 


    As the second release notes, the aim of the rides is not "desegregation" (as was the aim of the US civil rights movement campaign) but instead a dismantling of the apartheid system and the infrastructure that supports it.  It also seeks to shine a spotlight on companies profiting from Israeli apartheid and occupation. 

    In 1965, similar style freedom rides took place in Australia to highlight the racism and segregation faced by Aboriginal Australians. 


    50th anniversary memorial to US Civil Rights freedom rides


    Charles Perkins on the Australian Aboriginal Freedom Rides in 1965


    Media Advisory
    Monday, 7 November 2011


    Palestinian Freedom Riders to Challenge Segregation By Riding Settler Buses to Jerusalem

    Palestinian activists will reenact the US Civil Rights Movement's Freedom Rides to the American South by boarding segregated Israeli public transportation in the West Bank to travel to occupied East Jerusalem.



    When: Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
    Meeting point:
    the Ramallah Cultural Palace at 1:00 PM



    Next Tuesday, Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli public transportation headed from inside the West Bank to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s.

    Fifty years after the U.S. Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right for liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience.


    The Freedom Riders seek to highlight Israel’s attempts to illegally sever occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and the apartheid system that Israel has imposed on Palestinians in the occupied territories.


    Several Israeli companies, among them Egged and Veolia, operate dozens of lines that run through the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. They run between different Israeli settlements, connecting them to each other and cities inside Israel. Some lines connecting Jerusalem to other cities inside Israel, such as Eilat and Beit She'an, are also routed to pass through the West Bank.


    Israelis suffer almost no limitations on their freedom of movement in the occupied Palestinian territory, and are even allowed to settle in it, contrary to international law. Palestinians, in contrast, are not allowed to enter Israel without procuring a special permit from Israeli authorities. Even Palestinian movement inside the Occupied Territories is heavily restricted, with access to occupied East Jerusalem and some 8% of the West Bank in the border area also forbidden without a similar permit.


    While it is not officially forbidden for Palestinians to use Israeli public transportation in the West Bank, these lines are effectively segregated, since many of them pass through Jewish-only settlements, to which Palestinian entry is prohibited by a military decree.

    ****

    Palestinian Freedom Riders to Ride Settler Buses to Jerusalem

    FREEDOM RIDERS
    Sunday, November 13, 2011
    For Immediate Release


    Palestinian Freedom Riders to Ride Settler Buses to Jerusalem
    Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the US Civil Rights Movement Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler buses to occupied East Jerusalem


    [Ramallah] Groups of Palestinian Freedom Riders will attempt to board segregated settler buses heading to Jerusalem through the occupied West Bank this Tuesday November 15, in an act of civil disobedience that takes its inspiration from the US Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders aim to challenge Israel’s apartheid policies, the ban on Palestinians’  access to Jerusalem, and the overall segregated reality created by a military and settler occupation that is the cornerstone of Israel’s colonial regime. While parallels exist between occupied Palestine and the segregated U.S. South in terms of the underlying racism and the humiliating treatment suffered then by blacks and now by Palestinians, there are also significant differences. In the 1960s U.S. South, black people had to sit in the back of the bus; in occupied Palestine, Palestinians are not even allowed ON the bus nor on the roads that the buses travel on, which are built on stolen Palestinian land.
    In undertaking this action Palestinians do not seek the desegregation of settler buses, as the presence of these colonizers and the infrastructure that serves them is illegal and must be dismantled. As part of their struggle for freedom, justice and dignity, Palestinians demand the ability to be able to travel freely on their own roads, on their own land, including the right to travel to Jerusalem.
    Palestinian activists also aim to expose two of the companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policies and encourage global boycott of and divestment from them. The Israeli Egged and French Veolia bus companies operate dozens of segregated lines that run through the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. Both companies are also involved in the Jerusalem Light Rail, a train project that links illegal settlements in East Jerusalem to the western part of the city. By facilitating population transfer into occupied Palestinian territory, Egged and Veolia are actively and knowingly complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise, which the International Court of Justice has determined to be a breach of international law, and particularly Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting an occupying power from transferring part of its population into occupied territory.

    This Tuesday, Palestinian Freedom Riders will head to Jewish-only bus stops in the West Bank and attempt to board the settler buses. Palestinians understand that this act of nonviolent disobedience may result in violent attacks and even death at the hands of Israeli settlers that are to Israel what the Klu Klux Klan was to the Jim Crow South, or the authorities that protect them. Nonetheless, the Freedom Riders believe that this act of civil resistance is necessary to draw the attention of the world to the immorality of Israel’s occupation and apartheid system as well as to compel justice-loving people to take a stand and divest from Egged, Veolia, and all companies that enable and profit from it.

    The Freedom Riders will be joined by activists from all around the world who will stage activities in their cities that highlight the systematic oppression of Palestinians and the need to divest from Egged and Veolia.

    For inquiries send an email to palestinianfreedomriders@gmail.com
    ###



    Background
    The buses that the Freedom Riders will be boarding are operated by the Egged, the largest Israeli public transportation company, and by the French transnational company Veolia. Both companies are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law due to their involvement in and profiting from Israeli's illegal settlement infrastructure. Palestinian Freedom Riders endorse the call for boycotting both companies, as well as all others involved in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.[1]

    In July 2011, an Egged subsidiary won a public tender to run bus services in the Waterland region of the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam. The company makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians and has been a target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which is endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society. The Freedom Riders call on the people of the Netherlands to sever all dealings with companies, like Egged, involved in human rights violations.

    Veolia, has been a target of an
    international divestment campaign or running bus lines through the West Bank connecting settlements to Jerusalem and for its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail which connects Israel’s illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem to the western part of the city, thereby directly servicing the settlement enterprise.[2]

    Over 42 percent of Palestinian land in the West Bank has been taken over for the building of Jewish settlements and their associated regime[3] (including the wall which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004), depriving local communities of access to their water resources as well as agricultural lands. Settling Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention[4] and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[5]

    The occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip constitute only 22 percent of the Palestinian homeland from which over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948 when the state of Israel was created. Since then, Palestinian refugees have been languishing in refugee camps and other places of exile, denied the right to return to their homes.

    Settlements' infrastructure includes hundreds of kilometers of segregated roads that are forbidden for Palestinians to use. They carve deep into the West Bank further separating Palestinians and their cities and villages from each other.



    [1] Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call.
    [3] B’tselem Report: “By Hook and By Crook, Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank, July 2010; summary available at: http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook.

    [4] See “Israel’s settlement policy is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention,” The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza, highlighting the relevant articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention to support the determination that settlements are a war crime, at http://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Settlements.conv.htm; see also Demolitions, new settlements in East Jerusalem could amount to war crimes – UN expert,” UN News Centre, June 29, 2010, at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35175&Cr=Palestin&Cr1.

    [5] Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

    Facebook: Friends, please like and follow this page for updates from the Palestinian Freedom Rides campaign: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Palestinian-Freedom-Rides/262016243850607