We published this story yesterday in Kate’s list, but it is important to break it out and hope that Americans read it. A Palestinian photojournalist is arrested for describing Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, above, as mayor of occupied Jerusalem on his facebook page after Barkat appeared in occupied East Jerusalem. (“The only democracy in the Middle East,” notes Max Blumenthal, whose book documents the routine nature of this sort of repression in Israel and Palestine.)
Interrogators described the statement as a form of “incitement.” But countries all around the world refuse to recognize Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem, which was supposed to be internationalized under UN plans.
From the international news site NSNBC. And reported by Saed Bannoura at International Middle East Media Center:
Police in the Israeli occupied part of Jerusalem arrested the Palestinian photojournalist Abed Rabbo, for publishing a photo of the Israeli head of the Jerusalem City Council, Nir Barkat, describing Barkat as “Mayor of Occupied Jerusalem”.
The designation of Nir Barakat as “Mayor of Occupied Jerusalem” came in response to Barkat’s participation in an opening ceremony for a public center in occupied East Jerusalem.
The International Middle East Media Center, IMEMC, reports that Israeli police arrested Rabbo in the evening of Tuesday 18 February, after Rabbo had published the photo of the head of the Jerusalem City Council and the designation as “Mayor of Occupied Jerusalem” on his Facebook page.
The Palestinian photojournalist was moved to the al-Maskobiyya interrogation facility, west of Jerusalem, where he was interrogated for more than one hour, reports IMEMC., adding that the interrogators told Rabbo that they wanted to question him about the publication of the photo of Nir Barakat and the statement that he was the “Mayor Of Occupied Jerusalem”.
IMEMC quotes Rabbo as saying that the interrogators described his Facebook post as “incitement”. The photo and designation were published within the context of comments about the Jerusalem City Council head’s visit to the Palestinian town Sur Baher during the opening ceremony for a public center. The town is located in the outskirts of the Israeli occupied East Jerusalem.
After being released Rabbo stated that his arrest and interrogation are part of Israel’s ongoing violations against Palestinian journalists as well as Palestinian media in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories
Rabbo is a high ranking member in the PLO… Not some independent photojournalist as you would have your readers believe. He also has a checkered history of making wildly false allegations including a claim that Israel created mass graves in Jenin which was discredited by such pro Israel groups as the United Nations. Why would we believe a word he has to say about why he was detained or what happened during his interrogation?
Christ. Like they can deny reality.
I remember being on a bus to Ramallah from East Jerusalem when they were building the wall. And I didn’t have my camera. And the big wall slabs, all Jewish power and concrete, were lying flat on the ground, so imposing, the way Zionism projects itself. And some local had spray painted “Al Quds lina”- in Arabic – THE Palestinian slogan – Jerusalem is ours – on the base of one of the slabs. And it was going to be facing the ground when the wall went up. But it meant way more than that. They could build the wall but their authority would never be accepted. Bil marrah.
Heek, ya’ni.
That is why I love the Palestinians. They understand history and fate better than the bots do.
To Israel international law is an incitement an illegal annexation and colonialization of occupied territories a virtue. What did it actually learn from the Nuremberg trials?
Gee, if I claim that Northern Ireland is occupied will I be arrested.
Will I be arrested for saying Zionism is racism.
Or how about Israel is the third least liked or trusted nation on Earth.
Tell the truth, go to Jail.
The Zionist way.
So free speech is ‘incitement’ if it doesn’t conform to the zionists myths and fantasies, and their explicitly false versions of history. Thought crimes will be henceforth punished, and newspeak will replace public discourse. All citizens will be monitored.