Abdallah Abu Rahmah (far right) with Ela Bhatt, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Fernando Cardoso, Mary Robinson and Gro Brundtland of the Elders visiting the grave of a Bil’in resident who was shot dead by the Israeli military during a protest.
From the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, a new coordination body of many of the popular committees in the West Bank:
At exactly 2 AM last night, seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s residence in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate school in Birzeit near Ramallah and is the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements. A previous raid targeting Abu Rahmah was executed with such exceptional violence on 15 September 2009 that a soldier was subsequently indicted for assault.
Abu Rahmah’s arrest is part of an escalation in Israeli military’s attempts to break the spirit of the people of Bil’in, their popular leadership, and the popular struggle as a whole – aimed at crushing demonstrations against 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.
Following Abu Rahmah’s arrest, Adv. Lasky, stated that "My client’s arrest is another blatant illustration of the Israeli authorities’ application of legal procedures for the political persecution of Bil’in residents. The Bil’in demonstrators are being systemically targeted while it is the State that is in contempt of a High Court of Justice ruling; a ruling which affirmed that the protesters have justice on their side and instructed 2 years ago that the route of the Wall in the area be changed, which has not been implemented to date."
Since 23 June 2009, 31 residents of Bil’in have been detained by the military. The Army has pursued Popular Committee members in its arrest operation, but all three detained members were released for lack of evidence. In the case of another member, Mohammed Khatib, the court even found some of the presented evidence to be falsified.
In addition to committee members, a leading Bil’in activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has been detained for over five months, is not suspected of committing any violence, but was indicted with a blanket charge of “incitement”, which was very liberally interpreted in this case to include the organizing of grassroots demonstrations.
So where is the Palestinian Gandhi, Witty?
I have nothing but admiration for Gaby Lasky, Michael Sefarad and other Israeli lawyers who have dedicated their lives to defending Palestinians and opposing Israeli injustice, through the Israeli courts – civil and military – but I can’t help thinking of Felicia Langer, who fought the good fight for so many years and finally gave up, emigrating to Germany. Langer explained her decision as follows: “I decided that I could not be a fig leaf for this system anymore. I want my quitting to be a sort of demonstration and expression of my despair and disgust with the system… because for the Palestinians unfortunately we cannot obtain justice.”
It’s a good point. Working within the system implies that the system is redeemable, which clearly is not the case here.
It’s a tough call. There are small victories here and there, which can make a world of difference in the life of an individual or a family, and can a person of good conscience just abandon these people to the hostile courts, and lawyers who sell them out for a few shekels, adding insult to injury? Phil and Adam have given us three stories today about poignantly human Palestinians treated as so much less. It makes you want to scream.
Are we reminded of Gits’s leave-taking at the end of Chinatown?
The only democracy in the ME? Witty?
The question that needs to be raised is, “Where is the Palestinian Authority militia when the Israeli occupiers make their nightly raids (or daily ones) for that matter?
They are no better than the Jewish kapos who collaborated with the Nazis in the concerntration camps, if not worse, because they armed. What I am unable to understand why this has not become an issue and why these vende patrias are not publicly condemned..
It’s hard for me to blame the PA militia/police for not standing up to the IDF, because as soon as they start doing that, Israel will respond with white phosphorous and targeted attacks on West Bank hospitals and schools. I mean, it’s what they did in Gaza, after all.
…Still no comment from Richard Witty here. Gee. What a shocker.
I thought that I was clear that I do not post on topical issues that I can’t verify or even think about the significance of.
Don’t bother yourself with disappointment or confrontation.
Its neither agreement with you nor disagreement.
Way to fight that settlement activity you so strongly disapprove of. I mean, we have photos and first hand testimony and everything on this thread and you’re a denier. Meanwhile, that tunnel the IDF bombed on November 4th last year? No doubt in your mind that Hamas was digging a tunnel for EEEVIL!
Wittypocrisy.
Oh, I’m sorry. I mixed this thread up with this one over here, where you had naught a word to say either.
Oh, no sorry. I meant THIS one. My mistake.
I also need a clarification. If you’re a humanist, and you don’t consider the imprisonment of nonviolent protestors to Israeli occupation and colonization to be “significant…” does that mean you don’t consider Palestinians to be human? I mean, logically, that’s the only way your perspective becomes self-consistent.
link to ynetnews.com
Too bad it was only 150 people. More people here: link to haaretz.com
All honor to Yesh Din, but I can’t help wishing a medal had gone to a Palestinian – perhaps to Mohammed Othman.
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