The Israeli government’s repression of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is growing ever more harsh. Domestically, earlier this month, “the Knesset plenum…approved in its first reading a ‘boycott law,’ which would levy harsh punitive fines on Israelis who call for academic or economic boycotts against Israeli institutions,” according to Ha’aretz.
While the anti-boycott bill is aimed at shutting up internal Israeli calls for BDS, much more punitive measures continue to be inflicted on Palestinian activists.
Jesse Rosenfeld, reporting for Alternet, has an exclusive report on the alleged torture of Mohammad Othman, a key organizer in the non-violent resistance campaign against the West Bank separation barrier. After returning from Norway in 2009, where he met with “Norwegian socialist movements and BDS activists, as well as members of the national Parliament, including the Norwegian finance minister,” Othman was arrested at the West Bank-Jordan border. The interview with Rosenfeld marks the first time Othman has spoken out about his conditions in prison.
Othman tells Rosenfeld that:
He was psychologically and physically tortured by Shin Bet interrogators. He highlighted how interrogators pressed him for details about his activities in the BDS campaign abroad, asked about the the grassroots Stop the Wall movement, and probed his meetings with Norwegian parliamentarians and activists.
In Israeli military court, the military prosecution tried unsuccessfully to prove that he was acting as an agent for Hezbollah. But Othman said that attempts to force him to confess to working with Hezbollah were merely a pretext to jail him and not what actually interested the Shin Bet.
“They spent over 25 days focused on trying to find out about my boycott contacts and activist contacts in Norway. They were particularly interested in talking about my work with a Jewish American woman in drafting a boycott call,” said Othman, who detailed the brutal methods his interrogators used to try to extract information and confessions from him. “I was told by an interrogator that if I’m released before their investigation is complete, that they would kill me, that they would shoot me in the head,” he recalled.
Kept in a tiny cell that could only fit a small mattress and subjected to extreme hot and cold temperatures, Othman says psychological terror gave way to physical torture. “At one point they tied me in stress positions for five hours. They showed pictures of my sisters and told me they would rape them. They threatened me with rape.”
Alex Kane, a freelance journalist based in New York City, blogs on Israel/Palestine and Islamophobia at alexbkane.wordpress.com, where this post originally appeared. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
If this is the consequence of peaceful protest, why not resort to terrorism?
Just in case anyone wonders, the answer is: because terrorism is unlikely to succeed and is immoral. Furthermore, even when ‘victorious’ in the sense of being part of the tactics of the winning side, it morphs into violence and militarism lingering long after the original war is over.
>> … terrorism is unlikely to succeed and is immoral. Furthermore, even when ‘victorious’ in the sense of being part of the tactics of the winning side, it morphs into violence and militarism lingering long after the original war is over.
Victorious terrorism morphs into violence and militarism long after the original war is over. Wow. Thank you for that devastatingly succinct description of Israel.
Furthermore, even when ‘victorious’ in the sense of being part of the tactics of the winning side, it morphs into violence and militarism lingering long after the original war is over.
Israel is a perfect example of this phenomena, but I think there are exceptions to the rule.
“Israel is a perfect example of this phenomena[sic, but I think there are exceptions to the rule.”
Ireland, perhaps.
(Pssst, tree! “Phenomenon” is singular. “Phenomena” is plural. It’s the same as criterion/criteria.)
For anyone who claims to oppose terrorism, it is hypocritical to act in ways that can only encourage terrorism. When the punitive reprisals for non-terrorism equal or exceed those levied against terrorists, the perceived advantages of refraining from terrorism disappear.
I can only conclude that Israel has no real interest in eliminating Palestinian terrorism, only in repressing Palestinians whatever they do.
Exactly. Terrorism committed by Palestinians serves Israeli interests. This has been clear for a long time.
Finkelstein says it so well:
“. it’s utterly hypocritical for Israelis to wonder aloud why Palestinians
don’t pursue a non-violent strategy. One obvious reason is that, whenever they
have, Israel brutally represses it.” (Norman G. Finkelstein, 11 September
2003)
And terrorism committed by Israel also serves Israeli interests. This also has been clear for a long time as well. So how do you take a state like Israel that has been weaned on its own terrorism that has morphed into excessive militarism and violence and turn it around?
I don’t think its anything that the Palestinians can do alone. They are essentially powerless because the rest of the world does nothing or, worse, it excuses the terrorism that Israel unleashes daily. BDS by the world community is the only answer I see to stop the violence and injustice. The world, and most especially the US, has been complicit so we need to act. Palestinians don’t have the power to affect the outcome, and the Israelis are trapped in a belief that might makes right, and the biggest bully on the block deserves the spoils. The only way it can end well is if the rest of the world stands up for justice and equality.
In the case of the 50 mortars, it serves both Israel’s and Hamas’ interest. Your statement maybe true clencher, but it goes both ways. If you can’t recognize that there are major flaws in the left’s argument.
Oh, great, another right wing hack. Find any WMDs in Iraq yet?
Yes it is immoral, but Israel stands a monument to the success of terrorism.
Does the world care to know how many Palestinians like him have been through the dungeons of the Shabak and the military?
Under Administrative Detention, the military and the so-called ‘security’ apparatus need not prove anything about a Palestinian to imprison him/her for prolonged periods of several months or years.
Administrative Detention starts at 6 months and can be extended by a simple request to the district commander.
The prisoners aren’t people who were picked up in the alleged battlefield, as US authorities continue to claim in regard to Guantanamo Bay, despite evidence to the contrary. These are Palestinian civilians who are picked up in the middle of the night from their own homes, villages, towns, and thrown in prison, no proof needed.
B’Tselem on Torture.
Jonathan Cook on Facility 1391
Cryptome Photos
Excerpts from Jonathan Cook:
[...]
[...]
Palestinian terrorism has captured the world’s attention but Israelis have used this tactic to their advantage. It serves Israel’s interests more than than those of the Palestinians. But when Israelis answer peaceful protests such as BDS and Mavi Marmara with savage violence they expose the fascist nature of their state. The Palestinian current of nonviolent protest will increase the strength of BDS and prompt more of the convulsive thrashings we see out of Israel and its supporters. Let’s hope this will continue to inspire a watching world, citizens and nations alike, to mobilize towards a just settlement. Otherwise, Palestinians will again, inevitably, resort to terrorism.
A great report thanks Alex. to me this is the most shameful part of the whole miserable untouchable alliance, that we are now associated with the most horrible of torturing tinpot regimes.
It wasn’t that long ago that we were hunting down and prosecuting torturers. Now we are all doing it.
The last time I mentioned this, several contributors pointed out that the longer this goes on unpunished and uncensored, the more it spreads. This is so true, and getting worse by the week. I am sure that everybody has been following Glenn Greenwalds denunciation of the continuing torture of Mr Manning with horror. Manning is a hero, and I now accept that while Mr Obama is less bad than shrub, he still has no real principles. Bah.
This must be that wonderful self governance Witty banging on about. And he has the gall to label BDS as violent.
I think BDS is interesting because it’s building up momentum outside the Zionist space, where Israel is powerless to do anything. Israel controls absolutely everything inside the space but it can’t tell the goys outside how to think. The thuggish behaviour of the Shin Bet would be enough if there weren’t an internet. But there is. And it’s probably a crime to talk about apartheid in Israel. And they can hunt down and torture everyone who says it within the space. But that power stops at the border. And BDS just keeps on replicating.
RE: “Palestinian anti-wall activist tortured, threatened with rape and execution by Shin Bet because of BDS activities…” – Alex Kane
‘OLD SNARKY’ SEZ: So Othman was tortured and threatened with rape and execution by the ‘Jewish State of Israel’™. Big deal. After all, remember the Holocaust®*!
* Holocaust® is a registered trademark of the ‘Jewish State of Israel’™
SEE: Eden Abergil: ‘I’m B-A-C-K’, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 03/18/11
SOURCE – link to richardsilverstein.com