This article on the imprisonment of Palestinian human rights activists, reveals Israel's fear of non-violent activists, an international boycott and the Zapatistas. It also speaks of Elbit Systems, Israel's defense contractor. Elbit is the border wall/surveillance contractor at both the Apartheid border wall of Palestine, and at the US/Mexico border wall by way of a subcontract with Boeing.
ISRAEL RELEASES PALESTINIAN BOYCOTT ACTIVISTS
The Media Line
http://www.themedialine.org/news/print_news_detail.asp?NewsID=27721
International campaign ends in release of two prominent Palestinian activists.
Excerpts:
A prominent West Bank activist said by Palestinian groups to be the first Palestinian imprisoned for promoting an international boycott of Israel has been released after being detained by Israel for over 100 days without charge. Mohammad Othman, a 34 year old resident of the West Bank village of Jayyous, was released Wednesday after 113 days in Israeli custody.
Palestinian advocacy groups believe Othman to be the first Palestinian imprisoned solely for advocacy of the international boycott movement against Israel. "I was interrogated every single day for 75 days from 8am until 6.30pm and sometimes until midnight," Othman told The Media Line. "The entire time I was held in isolation. Physically they did not touch me, but it really damages a person to be in isolation. They also played all kinds of games, telling me they will arrest my brother, my friends and the journalists writing about me."
Despite being a legal resident of Jerusalem entitled to legal rights similar to those afforded to Israeli citizens, Juma was processed in Israel's military court system in the same legal procedures used by Israel for West Bank Palestinians like Mohammad Othman.
"This experience made it much clearer to me how much the non-violent Palestinian movement freaks them out," Juma told The Media Line. "They see how our movement is opening the eyes of the world to the oppression of the Palestinians and they are determined to stop it but they don't know what to do. They can't call us terrorists so they bring people like me into jail without any real legal way to charge us."
"They accused me of incitement and contact with terrorist organizations," he said. "It's so silly they even accused me of contact with the Zapatistas [laughing]. I told them 'Do you think that when I meet 60,000 people at conferences I ask everyone there 'Do you have a problem with Israel? Are you part of a terrorist organization?' In the end they dropped it of course and didn't charge me with anything at all because none of it made any sense."
Read article:
http://www.themedialine.org/news/print_news_detail.asp?NewsID=27721
By Benjamin Joffe-Walt on Thursday, January 14, 2010
1 comment:
The Israeli's depend on, in fact, require a violent Palestinian resistance, it makes it far easier to both hide and justify their own violence. The simple fact is that armed struggle has brought no gains, and the Israeli's fully appreciate that. Their real fear is certainly that newer and smarter forms of resistance could be far more successful, and especially internationally. Their deepest fear is for the world to see the truth.
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