Four Austalian pro-Palestine/BDS activists arrested in dawn raids

Dear friends,
as many of you will be aware things have started to heat up in Australia on the BDS front. Yesterday, Tuesday 9th August, the Victorian Police conducted morning raids arresting four pro-Palestine/BDS activists. The police attempted to execute 5 arrest but only ended up arresting 4 activists. The activists were arrested for breaking their bail conditions.

The activists were four of the nineteen activist who were arrested on July 1 when our peaceful BDS protest outside of the Israeli owned company, Max Brenner, was violently attacked by the Victorian police. At the time of their arrest 11 of those arrested signed bail conditions which would have prohibited them from entering two major shopping centres, including one which has a major train station and medical centres. On July 27 their bail was varied and they were prohibited from going within 50 meters of the two Max Brenner stores in the two centres.

Our next demonstration on July 29 was attended between 350 to 400 people, makig it the biggest pro-BDS activity so far in Australia. The action was completely peaceful (as was the action on July 1. The police were out in force but did not attack or arrest anyone.

Please find below, information on the arrest and the detention of activists yesterday, including a media release and an update on the arrests. All activists were released by 11.30pm Australia time last night, after paying surety.

In solidarity,
Kim

***




July 29 BDS action against Max Brenner and Israel, Melbourne


MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday 9 August

BAILLIEU GOVERNMENT ESCALATES ATTACKS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
Dawn raids see pro-Palestine activists arrested
Police demand activists be held in custody for weeks

Raids carried out at dawn this morning by police have seen several pro-Palestine activists arrested, in the most severe crack-down on civil liberties in decades. The activists are being targeted because of their involvement in protests against chocolate shop Max Brenner, a chain store with strong ties to the Israeli military. The protests are part of the worldwide Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which aims to draw attention to the ongoing genocide committed by the Apartheid regime in Israel against Palestinians.

Campaign organiser Omar Hassan:

“This crack-down on the right to protest should be of concern to all Victorians. The lengths to which the Baillieu government is going to eradicate criticism of Israeli Apartheid and criminalise dissent are unprecedented. We need to be clearly saying; demonstrating is not a crime. Taking action in support of Palestine is not a crime.”

The activists were arrested for breaching bail conditions imposed following arrests at a previous pro-Palestine protest at Max Brenner. The bail conditions, which prohibit arrestees going within 50 metres of a Max Brenner shop, are themselves a serious curtailment on the right to protest. The arrestees have been told they will be held until September the 5th.

As Hassan points out:

“Actions taken against South African businesses by anti-Apartheid protests were important in generating opposition to that racist regime. To outlaw similar actions today can only be motivated by a desire to protect the reputation of Israel, and represent an unacceptable attack on our right to express dissent and show solidarity with oppressed people around the world.”

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please circulate widely...

Police persecute Palestine solidarity activists to defend Israeli Apartheid

The Victorian Police and courts went to outrageous lengths to criminalise solidarity activism with Palestine today. For the crime of attending a peaceful demonstration against Max Brenner chocolate store and their support for Apartheid, four activists were snatched from their homes in the early hours of the day, locked in a holding cell, and made to pay a combined total of $16,000 in surety to be allowed to leave.

The four activists were part of the Max Brenner 19, peaceful demonstrators who were savagely attacked by police at a demonstration on the 1st of July. Some weeks after the protest the magistrates court imposed anti-democratic bail conditions on 11 of this 19. Which explicitly denied their right to assembly by prohibiting them on the threat of months of imprisonment from protesting against Max Brenner. This attempt to intimidate the Palestine solidarity campaign in Melbourne, has taken place in the context of a hysterical campaign by Zionist organisations, the Victorian Premier Ted Bailieu, and the Victorian Police, to silence protest calling for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel.

Today the courts and the police went out of their way to try to punish these four activists by any means possible, when none have been convicted of any crime. Indeed, no crime has been committed except to attend pro-Palestine demonstrations. The four activists were denied their right to phone calls when placed in remand, in an attempt to isolate and demoralise them. It was over 7 hours after their arrest that they were allowed to speak to their lawyers.

Once they were brought before a magistrate for a bail hearing, excessively punitive conditions were placed on their liberty for their alleged offenses. The magistrate chose the harshest possible conditions for bail. For the explicit purpose of preventing them from protesting at or even near Max Brenner. Three were made to pay $2,000 in surety each to be granted bail. One was singled out for far harsher conditions on the basis that she has been a public spokesperson at these demonstrations. For the crime of speaking their mind, they were made to pay $2,000 in surety plus another $8,000 the following week. A sum of money that is many times the maximum sentence for her alleged offense.

Once all four were granted bail on these conditions, they were further punished by deliberately delaying their release. Friends of the detainees have been made to wait over 5 hours to pay the surety for their release. Despite people being present at 5pm to pay for their release, it was 9:30pm before a single detainee was let out. At the time of writing this report only 2 had been released.

It appears that in the eyes of the courts, protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians struggle for freedom is a heinous crime, while Max Brenner's support for genocide and occupation is not.

Support the ‘Boycott Israel 19’ Defence campaign: Stand up for Palestinian human rights! Stand up for civil rights in Victoria!

Support the ‘Boycott Israel 19’ Defence campaign: Stand up for Palestinian human rights! Stand up for civil rights in Victoria! Oppose the criminalisation of protests in support of Palestine!

On 1 July 2011, the Victorian police viciously attacked a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration in Melbourne’s CBD. In one of the largest political arrests in a decade, 19 non-violent protesters were arrested during a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) action against Israeli-owned Max Brenner store. The chocolateria in the Queen Victoria Centre is owned by the Israeli conglomerate ‘Strauss group’; a company that provides “care rations” for the Israeli military, including the Golani and the Givati brigades – two of the key Israeli military brigades involved in Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza in December 2008/January 2009, which killed more than 1300 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilian, including over 300 children.




The peaceful picket was ‘kettled’ by police before leading activists were individually targeted in an unprovoked attack by the police riot squad. ‘Kettling’ is the tactic of completely surrounding a group of protesters. The majority of those arrested have been charged with “trespass” and “besetting”, while a small number of the demonstrators were also charged with “behaving in a riotous manner”. Video taken of the demonstrations shows that the pro-Palestinian activists were completely peaceful before being attacked by the Victorian police. If found guilty the activists face an incredible $30,000 of fines.


The protest against Max Brenner occurred as part of the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the apartheid Israeli state. Inspired by the South African struggle against apartheid, the BDSanctions campaign was launched by Palestinian civil society in 2005. Endorsed by more than 171 Palestinian civil society organisations, including political parties, women’s groups, trade unions, associations, the BDS campaign is conducted in the framework of international solidarity and resistance to injustice and oppression and calls for non-violent punitive measures to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and fully complies with international law.



The attack on the peaceful BDS action in Melbourne highlights increasing attempts to criminalise pro-Palestine solidarity activism both in Australia and internationally. Currently in the US, France and Greece, hundreds of pro-Palestine activists are facing criminal charges for non-violently standing up for Palestinian human rights. It also highlights the increasing attacks on civil liberties, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in Victoria by the Baillieu government. For instance, in June Bailleu’s government introduced new laws extending police powers, allowing the Victorian police to issue on-the-spot fines of up to $240 for using “offensive” language. The government has also established a new 42 member "Public Order Response Team”. According to the Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper, one of the primary functions of Baillieu’s new riot squad will be “breaking up public protests”.

Civil liberties lawyer Rob Stary in a media release issued by the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in the wake of the violent police attack on the peaceful BDS protest outside Max Brenner said the attack and arrests showed that “the new Victorian government is prepared to criminalise legitimate dissent."

We call on all supporters of human rights, freedom of speech and civil liberties to stand in solidarity with the 19 BDS/pro-Palestine activists who were beaten and arrested by the Victorian police on July 1. Support and/or join the "Boycott-Israel19" Defence campaign today!


How you can support the ‘Boycott Israel 19”

1.Add your name/groups name to this solidarity statement, circulating it among supporters where possible.
2.Check out www.boycottisrael19.wordpress.com for ongoing updates on the campaign. Email the campaign at boycottisrael19@gmail.com
3.Donate to the Boycott-Israel19 defence fund (very important)Palestine Solidarity CampaignCommonwealth Bank: BSB: 063-262 Account: 1052 9148Please tag your donation with the following identifier: DF19

Reality vs Propaganda: the truth about the An Nabi Saleh protests

Dear friends,
please find below my latest article. A version of the article has been published by Palestine Chronicle at:http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16755

As mentioned in the article, I recently produced about An Nabi Saleh, which includes interview with Naji and Bassem Tamimi. YOu can view the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FnaYdG2MJU (or below on this blog).

Please feel free to distribute the article and the video to your networks.

in solidarity, Kim

***

Reality vs Propaganda: the truth about the An Nabi Saleh protests
By Kim Bullimore

On 26 March, a piece of Israeli Occupation Forces propaganda masquerading as journalism was published by YNet, an Israeli news website, which publishes in both Hebrew and English. The Ynet article, headlined “Secrets of Nabi Saleh protests” purported to offer a “behind-scenes look at [the] most violent protests around” [1]. However, the article by Yair Altman did nothing of the sort. Instead it gave carte blanche coverage, with little questioning, to the preposterous and often ridiculous assertions by Israeli Occupation officials against the recently arrested non-violent Palestinian leaders from An Nabi Saleh's Popular Committee against the Occupation.

According to Altman, An Nabi Saleh village leader, Naji Tamimi, who was arrested on 6 March when the Israeli military raided his home at 1.30 am in the morning, was a “pied piper” who “organised [an] army of boys”. Quoting an unnamed Israeli military police official, Altman writes: "Tamimi oversees an army of demonstrators divided in an extremely organized fashion into regiments of 14-17 people”.


Naji Tamimi in An Nabi Saleh

According to Altman's unnamed military police source, Naji Tamimi is “a very charismatic and militant person and is well versed in the rules of the game – what's allowed and what isn't. He does nothing by chance. Every action is well planned – not a folksy protest. He excites them and directs them towards confrontations with IDF forces”.

Altman goes onto state, with absolutely no proof to back up his assertions, that Naji Tamimi directed the demonstrations by phone from “the roof of one of the village's structures”. Altman also asserts in the article that the shabab (young boys) of the village were under the command of another village leader, Bassem Tamimi, who was arrested on March 24 when dozens of Israeli military stormed his home.

When I first read Altman's article, I burst out laughing. I have known both Naji Tamimi and Bassem Tamimi, along with their families, for more than fifteen months. The men described in Altman’s article, along with the actions ascribed to them, bore little resemblance to the men I know or their activities in relation to the non-violent struggle being carried out by their village. Having spent large quantities of time with both men and their families and having attended numerous demonstrations in An Nabi Saleh, very little in Altman's article rang true. Instead it held the stench of unadulterated Israeli military propaganda.

I first met Naji Tamimi and Bassem Tamimi, when I attended the first demonstrations in An Nabi Saleh. In December 2009, An Nabi Saleh - a small village of just 500 people – began holding weekly non-violent demonstrations in opposition to the illegal Israeli colony of Halamish annexing and stealing of more of the village’s land. At the conclusion of the first demonstration I attended in the village, I was invited to visit Naji's home by his brother-in-law. At Naji's home, I was introduced to not only Naji and his family but also to Bassem and his family and other families who were also visiting at the time. In the weeks that followed, I visited the village many times, both on the days of the demonstrations and on days when there were no demonstrations. During my visits to the village, I spent time with Naji and Bassem's families. We spent our time discussing the impact of Israel's occupation on the village and the Palestinian people and the non-violent struggle of the village against the attempts to steal more of the village's land. During these visits, I also played games with the children, learning to bake bread and tried to practice and improve, with the help of my new friends, my limited and badly pronounced Arabic. Over the course of the next year, after I had returned back home, I kept in regular touch with both Naji and Bassem and their families. When I returned to Palestine recently, An Nabi Saleh was the first place I visited in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The focus of the dozens of conversations that I had with both men was the importance of the development of a non-violent model of protest. Both Naji and Bassem believed in the power of non-violent struggle and the challenge it provided, in stark contrast, to the brutal colonial violence meted out each week by Israel's Occupation Forces against their tiny village and its non-violent protests.
During the many demonstrations that I attended in An Nabi Saleh, myself and other internationals, as well as Israeli activists opposed to their government’s policies, would join with Naji and Bassem and other members of the village to walk unarmed and peacefully from the centre of the village, out onto the main street of An Nabi Saleh in order to make our way peacefully to the village’s land which were being stolen by the Israeli colony of Halamish.

As we marched peacefully onto the street, we would be hit almost immediately with a barrage of teargas and rubber bullets fired at the peaceful, non-violent demonstration by the Israeli military. On numerous occasions, live ammunition was also fired at us, despite the fact that this is in direct violation of Israeli military operating orders which forbid such actions when Israeli citizens are present at the demonstrations. The non-violent demonstrations would start at noon and the violent assault on the village by the Israeli military would continue for the next five or six hours until the Israeli Occupation Forces would finally leave the village at dusk.

As Bassem noted in a recent video interview I did with both him and Naji before their arrests, the Israeli military was determined to break An Nabi Saleh's model of non-violent resistance to the occupation [2]. The primary aim of the Israeli military, as Bassem noted, was to try and force Palestinians to engage in violent resistance to the occupation by crushing the non-violent resistance by increased Israeli military violence. This way, Israel could justify its continued occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.

A recent article by the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, similarly noted that the primary concern of the Israeli Occupation Forces, particularly in the wake of the recent Egyptian revolution, has been to contain and crush any possible Palestinian non-violent resistance to Israel's ongoing occupation. According to the February 18 Jerusalem Post article, the Israeli military were “concerned by the prospect of the Palestinians replicating [non-violent] Egyptian style mass demonstrations with dozens of simultaneous marches and protests in the West Bank [3]. The Jerusalem Post article reported that “the IDF is beginning to build rapid-response forces”, as the Israeli Occupation Forces Central Comment had assessed “that Palestinians could resort to so-called non-violent resistance, on a scale previously unknown in Israel, in the absence of peace negotiations”. The article went on to note that the primary aim of the rapid response teams would be to “quickly manoeuvre throughout the West Bank and arrive at the scene of a demonstration in its early stages in an attempt to contain it”, with this containment possibly “lead[ing] to a high number of casualties”.

The attempts by the Israeli state and its military to crush the non-violent Palestinian resistance is not new. In 2004, I interviewed the leaders of the non-violent struggle in the tiny village of Budrus about the attempts by the Israeli military to crush their non-violent resistance to the building of the Apartheid Wall. At the time, one of the village leaders told me that he had been informed by commanders of Israel's military that the Israeli Occupation Forces “would do everything in its power to stop the [non-violent] movement, even if it meant people died” [4].

Approximately two years ago, unable to stop the non-violent resistance by Palestinian villages against the building of the Apartheid Wall and the Occupation, the Israeli state and its military introduced its current tactic of arresting and jailing leaders of the non-violent struggle. In 2009, Adeeb Abu Rahma and Abdullah Abu Rahma, two of the leaders of the Bil'in non-violent struggle were arrested and jailed. This month, less than 10 days after the release of Abdullah Abu Rahma, after he had spent a year and half in Israel's prisons for his non-violent activism, Bassem Tamimi was arrested for his non-violent activism. Just twenty-four hours before his arrest on March 24, Bassem had met with leaders of the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall, one of whom had quipped “Now that Abdullah Abu Rahma has been released from jail, the Israeli soldiers and the honorable military tribunal judges will have time for Bassem Tamimi” [6]



Bassem Tamimi (centre) in Bil'in with Abdullah Abu Rahma (on left) after Abdullah's release from Israeli prison.

One of the few positive things about Altman's article about the popular non-violent resistance in An Nabi Saleh is that it clearly outlines the ridiculous charges being levelled against Naji Tamimi by the Israeli Occupation Forces. According to Altman, the charges include “incitement, supporting a hostile organization, taking part in an illegal procession and entering a closed military area ...”. Of course, what Altman or the Israeli military fail to mention is the fact that an occupied people do not need the permission of their occupier to hold demonstrations, instead under international law they have the right to resist colonial occupation and repression and to engage in civil disobedience and demonstrations. While international law affords Palestinians the right, as an occupied people, to engage in armed struggle against their occupier, the people of An Nabi Saleh choose to engage in unarmed and non-violent struggle against their oppressors and occupiers. In addition, far from “entering a closed military area”, Naji Tamimi was simply in his own village and the Israeli military came to him and imposed a closed military zone on the streets and fields of his home.

Altman also points out in his piece that the Israeli Occupation Forces had arrested several boys from the village, all under the age of 16 and that their testimony was being used against Naji Tamimi and Bassem Tamimi. However, as Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist who is belatedly quoted in Altman's article notes, what the Israeli military police fail to mention is that the testimonies were extracted from the children via verbal, emotional and physical abuse. The testimony being used against both Naji Tamimi and Bassem Tamimi was obtained primarily from 14 year old Islam Tamimi, as well as his younger brother, 11 year old Kareem.

Islam Tamimi was kidnapped from his home at gun point at 3 am on 23 January by the Israeli military. He was kept incommunicado, beaten and verbally abused. Islam's parents and lawyer were denied access to him. In early February, Kareem was kidnapped from the streets of An Nabi Saleh and held for five hours during which the terrified child was verbally, emotionally and physically abused. The behaviour meted out to both boys was typical of the treatment visited on Palestinian child prisoners by the Israeli military


Islam Tamimi, 14 years old.

As a recent report issued by the UN in January 2011 points out in 2010 Israeli occupation forces regularly arrested children “at checkpoints, off the street or, most commonly, from the family home” [7]. The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, went onto note that “in the case of house arrests, large numbers of Israeli soldiers typically surrounded the family home in the middle of the night. Children were beaten or kicked at the time of arrest and put at the back of a military vehicle where they were subject to further physical and psychological abuse on the way to the interrogation and detention centre. Upon arrest, children and their families were seldom informed of the charges against them”. According to the UN report, “Children were often subject to abuse during interrogation”. The report noted that abuse of children in many cases included the children being given electric shocks and sexually assaulted and it was only after this treatment that the children provided their interrogators with confessions

The UN report noted that “each year, approximately 700 Palestinian children (under 18) from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli army”. The report went onto highlight the fact that Palestinian children are subject to a dual legal system which operates in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This dual system sees settler children, who are rarely apprehended in any violent acts they may have carried out, prosecuted in the Israeli civil courts, while Palestinian children are brought before a military court system, which impose higher degrees of accountability at lower ages.

In the weeks before I left Palestine, I spoke with both Naji and Bassem many times. They knew their arrests were imminent but the remained steadfast and committed to the non-violent popular struggle and the struggle of their village for human rights and dignity. As Naji told me, “we cannot live under the occupation ... we want, like all the people in the world, our rights. We want to build our state and we want a good future for our children”.



Non-violent protest in An Nabi Saleh - Photo by Oren Ziv.

Naji has now been in prison for three and half weeks. It took the Israeli military 19 days to finally come up with charges against him. The Israeli military court has also ordered that he will be kept under indefinite remand until the military legal procedures against him are concluded. No news has come through yet on Bassem since his arrest, but in the coming days we can expect to hear that similar preposterous accusations and charges, similar to the ones outlined in Altman's article against Naji Tamimi, will be laid against him.
Despite the arrests and the repression, the people of An Nabi Saleh are not bowed and they will continue their struggle against the occupation and the stealing of their land. As Bassem told me when I interviewed him before his arrest, “Our duty is to resist the stealing of our life and our land”.
“We are under occupation, the normal thing is to resist against the occupation. The non-normal thing is to be quite and not do anything”.

Kim Bullimore is a volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service in Palestine (www.iwps.info). Kim writes regularly on the Israel-Palestine conflict for the Australian newspaper, Direct Action (www.directaction.org.au) and has a blog at www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com

[1] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4047503,00.html
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FnaYdG2MJU
[3] http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?ID=208786&R=R1?
[4] http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/30781
[5] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/mighty-israel-and-its-quest-to-quash-palestinian-popular-protest-1.352248
[6] http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/report-of-special-rapporteur-to-the-un-human-rights-council-on-occupied-palestinian-territories/

Arrests in Sheik Jarrah: Not all tours end in arrest - but mine did.

Dear friends,

My friend Sarah is currently back in Palestine (she was there a few years ago as well) doing volunteer Palestine solidarity work. While she is there she is sending out regular updates to friends and family about her activities and what she witnesses during her time in Palestine.

Sarah's writing is informative and insightful and quite irrevent at times, highlighting not only the absurdity of the Israeli state's policies but also their heartbreaking and anger-inducing impact.

Sarah has given me permission to make public some of her emails, so I hope you find them as informative, engaging and as passionate as I do.

Recently Sarah was one of the internationals arrested in Sheik Jarrah, a beautiful old Palestinian neighborhood in Occupied East Jerusalem, when she and other international human rights workers were trying to stop illegal Israeli settlers from taking over a Palestinain house. This is her account of what happened.

In solidarity,
Kim

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Not all tours end in arrest - but mine did.
From Sarah:

I am volunteering with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). This is an Israeli human rights group with a focus on house demolitions both in solidarity with the Palestinians who suffer the devastation of losing their home, but also to debunk the Israeli myths about actions based on security: Destroying peoples homes can have no security justification- instead it is a tool in what the convener of the group, Jeff Halper, describes as the 'matrix of control'.

For a detailed account of the strategy of settlement, this article by ICAHD is pretty exhaustive: http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=3&id=805

As I mentioned in an earlier email there is a hotly contested area in East Jerusalem called Sheihk Jarrah - it has even made it on to Obama's radar, with specific mention. There is a group of fanatical setters who want to create a new settlement complex in this neighbourhood, which means first expelling all the Palestinian residents, taking over their homes, then eventually razing the area for this new settlement.

Everytime settlers move into a neighbourhood means the Army also moves in to protect them, Palestinians are restricted from moving in the area, and the flavour of the neighbourhood of course changes. This is already a heartbreaking situation for Palestinians who's national aspirations both depend on East Jerusalem as capital for any future economically viable state, but also who's very cultural desire is tied up in this city.


Photo take on day of Sarah's arrest - settlers broke into Palestinian house with the protection of the Israeli military

The other point is that every home taken away from Palestinians is one less home available for Palestinians - not just in that neighbourhood, but in toto. They do not have the option to buy somewhere else in Jerusalem or Israel so they become homeless, or squish in with over-crowded relatives. In some cases, as per the policy design, they will give up their Jerusalem residency and privileges and job opportunities, and instead move to the West Bank. As my Israeli tour guide said yesterday, "we politely make it impossible for them to live here".

So. As the tour was almost finished, we got a message that settlers were in the process of occupying a home in this neighbourhood, which we were just about to pass. We jumped off and proceeded to the house (with a little difficulty as the neighbourhood, unlike the new settlements, is still somewhat like a refugee camp and does not really have addresses).

The home in question is claimed to have been bought by American bingo centre millionaire Irwin Moskowitz, who is integral to the fanatical settler movement (see this article by Israeli peace group Gush Shalom: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/press_releases/1212262803). The sale is disputed by the locals who have a court case pending. This means the settlers should not take any action until the court has made a ruling on the 'sale', but they have tried to move in on several occasions since the legally protected woman living there died recently.

This time they had turned up with the police and when we got there they were already taking to the house with sledge hammers, and putting up a tin fence (not actually demolishing, apparently just renovating). Neighbours watched helplessly. The police are notorious for helping the settlers, and often pretend not to know about court orders until they are presented with a new emergency injunction when a demolition has already started - then they declare the house structurally unsafe and the demolition continues on this new logic!

This was the first time I had observed a demolition, and it really made me so sad. I could feel my heart in my chest, and the tightness of my throat. I wanted to cry with the Palestinians watching the process from the sidelines.


Sheik Jarrah

Anyhoo, 6 of us from ICAHD and ISM (International Solidarity Movement) sat down at the front of the alley way and linked arms to block the path of a small earth mover. After about 20 minutes the police told us to move, we didn't move, so they bodily removed us one at a time. They were very efficient. Five of us were put in a police van and taken to the station (4 internationals, 1 Israeli).

So far, pretty normal Israeli police response to non-violent action here. We expected to be held for a couple of hours and then released on condition not to return to the area for a few weeks. A lawyer paid by the Rabbis for Human Rights arrived and began negotiating for our release.

Three more ISM activists arrived. They had been arrested 2 hours after us for taking photos. They had walked into the area without being stopped, took some photos, the settlers told them not to, they asked why, the police told them not to, they asked why, the police told to leave, they started to leave, they were arrested.

Meanwhile we were separated and interrogated. Some people got good cop, some got bad cop. Israeli girl of course got a major grilling, told she has ruined her life with an arrest, asked why she is a self-hating Jew etc etc. She has to go through a similar spiel with pretty much every single cop, guard, driver, gaol officer, and paper-work processor we encounter, and then again after shift change. Some just ranted at her, several actually seemed to listen to her perspective.

I got bored cop. I confirmed my name and nationality (he had my passport, it was moot), and then for each question I answered "I have no response for that question" - ranging from "what's your mobile number here" to "did you come to Israel to disrupt the police". He told me I was held on suspicion of disrupting the peace and hindering police (I think - his English wasn't great). Then he asked with a sigh if I would sign a document about our interview, I said I wouldn't as it was in Hebrew and I didn't understand it.

After interrogations we were eventually put in a holding area with the police lockers, and were allowed to talk to each other. Our lawyer asked if we would agree to release on condition that we not enter the area for month, we said we would if ICAHD supported it, which they did... then nothing. Apparently the chief decided during these negotiations that we were being held overnight and our lawyer left.

Several people had their phone confiscated at the beginning but I still had mine and had credit, it was our link outside.

Then a new, mean cop came into our holding area and yelled at me for playing solitaire. The Israeli girl translated this as "NO! you don't play cards here, this is not a fun fair. Would you play cards in the police station in Australia?"... well, firstly the police would not have already held me for 5 hours, and if they had, and I had cards, well yes - I would play with them!

When we received a phone call he really spat the dummy and yelled at the other cops "what kind of a police station are you running here? you let them keep their phones all this time?". So that was that... my phone gone, I was now in communication silence. Sorry to panic my boyf with my sudden dropping off the radar there!

In the final analysis, I believe the court found us guilty of something along the lines of obstructing the peace and we are not to go within 500m of Sheikh Jarrah for 3 weeks - if we are caught there we will be deported and the Rabbis for Human Rights will pay NIS 5000 (AUD$2000 - more than they can afford). The prosecutor wanted us to be banned from the whole of Jerusalem and be forbidden from entering Israel for "some time" but our lawyer was very good at presenting case law from right-wing demonstrations where the perpetrators who threw rocks at Palestinians were only banned from the precise location (not a whole neighbourhood) and only for 15 days. She also made the prosecutor look a fool as he could not supply any examples of us being violent, and he could not demonstrate that police were obstructed as the work was completed on the day as planned.

The judge berated the police for holding us overnight which is good for precedent.

The earthmover did go in and do its business, but the media attention meant that the court injunction was rushed and the settlers must now stop (or at least the police will stop protecting them). Last night settlers tried to evict another family in the neighbourhood. There were internationals there, a group was mobilised to attend (not me) and media arrived. The police, with their recent admonition and the pressure of a US delegation apparently visiting the area yesterday, told the settlers to leave. A stay of execution, and a small victory.


Back to me!

Why were we held for so long? (24 hours till the court case, and then another 3 until we were released, then another hour until we got our stuff back)...

Either the police chief was in a bad mood. Or they were trying to scare internationals from taking actions, for fear of spending a night in gaol. In which case they failed because goal is only marginally skankier than my hostel and is mostly just boring. In any case the judge has pretty much put paid to that precedent for a while.


Sarah and Abbey leg shackled together in prison

Timeline of my incarceration (kind of vague, I wasn't really noting times):

12:15 - arrive at Sheikh Jarrah
12:45 - bodily removed by police
1-3pm - separated, interrogated, fingerprinted, waited, read my book, interrogated, advised of 24 hour arrest, paperwork
3-6pm - sit around and chat, phones removed. Fed at 5:30pm (bread, creamcheese, Israeli couscous).
6-7:30pm - ankle shackled to Abbey from Ireland
7:30pm - driven to Russian Hill gaol. Boys processed, girls wait in that room where you can talk through a phone to your loved ones (if they're there, obviously).
8:30pm - bags removed, we're moved to holding pen with gross bathroom. I pee while still shackled to Abbey, sticking my right leg under the door on the left and balancing so I don't actually touch the rim. gross. Female guard who we've been waiting for to search us takes one look and decides she has a call to be somewhere else.
9pm - back to phone room and unshackled. Paperwork starts again. My jewellery and watch are removed (in case I use them as currency to buy chocolate, says the guard).
10pm ? - back to holding pen and individually strip searched
10 - 11pm ? - questioned by doctor to make sure we're fit to be in gaol (are you pregnant, do you need drugs, are you healthy?)
11pm- 12:30pm ? - back to phone room. We're a novelty, they seem to enjoy keeping us there. Eventually our bags are individually searched, each valuable itemised and sealed.
12:30am - issued with prison goody bag: towel, sheet, 2 small soaps, shampoo, shaving cream (no razor)
1am (confirmed by guard) - shown to our cells - I share with Abbey and a Palestinian woman who was arrested because of a visa problem (I think her East Jerusalem ID had expired?). No toilet paper. No blanket, airco too cold. I slept on the top bunk with my skirt as a sheet, but had to eventually crawl under the sheet, directly on the not too skanky mattress.
5am? - lights on, stand up, be counted. That's when it really hit me that we're in prison!
8am (confirmed by guard) - breakfast (white bread, boiled egg, weird jam, olives, triangle cheese). Back to sleep.
10am - due in court, told that we are not going to court yet. Chat with Abbey.
11am - hand cuffed and ankle cuffed. Wait in phone room
12pm - driven to court 100m away (which seemed excessive, until I realised how much those ankle cuffs hurt)
12:15 - 1pm - court case
1pm - back to phone room. Observe 2 old Palestinian men brought in hand and ankle cuffed and also blind folded. Nice.
1:30pm - un-cuffed, back to cell... I have a "shower" under the pipe from the wall. The pressure is good but I have some complaints about the temperature adjustment which got very hot. I do some yoga. We're told we missed lunch because we were in court. Excuse us our foolish schedule! but we have bread remaining from breakfast - bread and water! prison!
3pm - moved to police office next door (no cuffs!) to be photographed, and have prints taken (Right hand, each finger and thumb, thumb again, whole palm and fingers. Left hand, repeat).
4pm - lurk around gaol window waiting for the hilarious guards to drip fee us our personals.
5pm - THE END!

I called my parents who sounded... annoyed. I had promised I wouldn't go seeking trouble and here I am getting tear-gassed on Friday, and arrested on Sunday. But in neither case did I feel that I was in an unusual or dangerous situation. This is the normal functioning of the Occupation. Apologies for those who were worried about me, but really I am fine, and being safe.

Most Israelis would be horrified to think of the tax shekels wasted in processing, feeding, sheltering and guarding us, plus court costs (or in fact it should be Americans horrified that their tax/ aid dollars are wasted this way).

It's time to tell our governments to join the Boycott, Sanction and Divestment campaign, until Israel complies with international law!

Hugs,

Convict Sarah.

Propaganda, Democracy and War: justifying Israel's war crimes in Gaza

Propaganda, democracy and war: justifying Israel’s war crimes in Gaza
(published as Gaza: Propaganda does nothing for peace, indeed)
By Kim Bullimore
www.palestinechronicle.com

In the midst of Israel’s massacre of more than 800 people in Gaza, including more than 200 children and 100 women, as well as 3000 injured, apologists for Israel’s war crimes have sought to defend the Zionist state. Not only have many of them sought to blame the Palestinian people for Israel’s massacre in Gaza, ignoring the fact that Palestinians have suffered 60 years of non-stop aggression at the hands of the Israeli Zionist state, many of them have also sought to paint Israel as the beacon of democracy and pluralism in order to silence Israel’s critics.

A recent example of this can be found in the article which appeared on January 9 in Australia’s only national newspaper, The Australian. In the article, Propaganda Does Nothing for Peace, Niv Horesh - an Israeli-Australian – seeks, in part, to shut down critics of Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza by regaling us with examples of Israel’s supposed democratic credentials [1]. In the article, Horesh writes, “There are very few countries in the world that would allow demonstrators to denounce their government while hoisting enemy flags in the midst of war. Yet, this is precisely what happened last week in Tel Aviv: not a single Israeli flag was in sight amid hundreds of Palestinian, communist and anarchist banners. Such is the strength of Israeli democracy that not a single incident interrupted the demonstration”.


Protest in Tel Aviv

What Horesh and other Israeli apologists conveniently leave out is that the Israel’s security forces have been dragging in for questioning Palestinian citizens of Israel who have opposed the war, as well Israeli Jewish activists, who have taken a stand against the brutal massacre in Gaza. In the past two weeks, hundreds of Palestinian Israeli and Jewish Israeli activists and citizens opposed to the war have been arrested, jailed and prosecuted for speaking out and taking a stand. According to the Haifa based, Mossawa Centre, which advocates on behalf of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, more than 200 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship alone had been arrested by the Israeli state for demonstrating between December 27 and December 31 [2]. On January 6, Palestinian News Agency, Maan News, reported that the number had increased substantially and that more than 300 Palestinian Israeli youth had been arrested by Israeli police. Maan noted that “the youth had been placed for the most part in administrative detention [detention without charge or trail] or put away on minor charges for short periods of time” [3]

On January 2, this beacon of democracy arrested and jailed for almost three days more than 20 Israeli anti-war demonstrators, who demonstrated outside Sde Dov airbase. The Israel state, claiming that the anti-war demonstrators were a threat to the security of the state, sought to have the three day incarceration extended until the end of legal proceedings, which could take several weeks or months to conclude. The request for the extension, however, was over ruled by the presiding judge [4]



19 activists arrested after blocking entrance to Israeli air force base protesting the killing in Gaza. Tel Aviv, Israel, 2.1.09
Photo by: Yotam Ronen/ Activestills.org


19 activists arrested after blocking entrance to Israeli air force base protesting the killing in Gaza. Tel Aviv, Israel, 2.1.09
Photo by: Yotam Ronen/ Activestills.org

At Haifa University on January 6, hundreds of Israeli Border Police – the Israeli security force that regularly brutalises Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – stormed the campus, attacked students, arresting 15 anti-war student activists [5] According to students who were at the demonstration more than 250 Border Police attacked the anti-war protest without provocation.

Israeli anti-occupation group, Anarchists Against the Wall, who were recently jointly awarded the Carl Von Ossietzky Human Rights medal in Berlin with the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, have reported that many of their members and supporters, as well as other Israeli anti-occupation activists are being harassed, arrested and had their houses raided by the police as a result of being involved in anti-war activism.



Protest in Haifa

On January 7, in an editorial titled “The Right to Express Protest”, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper noted that “in the last few days, the Shin Bet security service questioned dozens of Arab Israelis, while others were subjected to warnings aimed at deterring them from participating in demonstrations against the Israel Defense Forces operation in the Gaza Strip” [6]. The editorial went onto note that Israeli “security services are using intimidation tactics to prevent legitimate protest against the current campaign [in Gaza].

Just one day after the editorial appeared, Haaretz ran a news article which outlined how four Palestinian citizens of Israel, aged between 19 and 26 years, had been arrested by the Israeli state for holding a demonstration outside the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv. According to the January 8 report, Israeli state prosecutors sought to restrict the movement of the anti-war protesters, saying their protest during a time of war “damages national morale” [7].


Demonstration in Israel against the War

Israel far from being a “beacon of democracy” has sought to harass, intimidate, threaten and brutalise its own citizens, who have spoken out against not only the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories but also the massacre taking place in Gaza. Those who seek to wave Israel’s democratic credentials in the face of those who oppose the mass murder in Gaza of hundreds of civilians ignore this, just as the conveniently ignore the fact that Israel’s current war is a direct result of the refusal of Israel, the USA and the international community, as well the leadership of the Fatah party in Palestine, to accept the democratic will of the Palestinian people.

In 2006, the Palestinian people elected Hamas to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority in what were the most democratic elections ever to be held in an Arab country. In these elections, Hamas won 44% of the vote to Fatah’s 41%, giving them 76 seats of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since Hamas’ democratic election, however, the Israeli Zionist state sought to put the Palestinian people, in the words of senior Israeli government advisor Dov Weisglass, “on a diet”. In the past three years, Israel has sought to strangle and starve the Palestinian people into submission for their democratic choice, deepening their occupation and initially placing all of the Occupied Palestinian Territories under siege. Israel was only to release its grip slightly on the West Bank, when Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, eagerly took on the role of Israel’s quisling in the territory. In doing so he abandoned completely his people in Gaza to the capricious dictates of the Israeli state.

For the past two years, Israel has been tightening the noose on Gaza, cutting off power, electricity, fuel supplies, medicine and food in the hope it would turn the Gazan population on their democratically elected representatives. When this didn’t work, Israel began its most recent bombing campaigning, killing indiscriminately in order to teach the Palestinian people that “real democracy” - the type that Israel, the US and the international community support - consists of bowing to the dictates of their occupier and oppressor, never defending themselves and dying silently while they are starved, beaten, abused and bombed to death.


Demonstration in Yaffa against the war in Gaza

And for those supporters of Israel, who seemed surprised at Israel’s current behaviour and lament the corrosion of Israel’s democracy as a result of its mass murder in Gaza, it is time to point out to them that Israel’s supposed democratic record during so-called “peace time” is equally appalling. For the past 41 years, “the only democracy in the Middle East” has been engaging in a military dictatorship in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, which suspends indefinitely the right of Palestinian people to democracy and human rights [8]. For the past 41 years, the 5 million Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem have been subject to military law, which allows the Israel state and its military to do whatever it likes, including removing democratically elected officials from office, forbidding the election of trade union officials, as well as being able to control and oversee the election of trade union officials (including being able to demand a list of nominees and removing nominees from running). The very undemocratic Israeli military dictatorship in the Occupied Palestinian Territories can also prohibit the publication of anything political in any medium, including painting, videos, films, poems and novels, whether it pertains to Palestine or not. This same military dictatorship also has the power to prohibit the display of the Palestinian flag and can arrest and detain anyone displaying it and to censor and prohibit what books are utilised by Palestinian schools (in recent years, up to 60 books have been prohibited by the Israeli military and state). In addition, the Israeli security forces can and does use “arbitrary detention” to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trail. Those detained, along with their lawyers, have no right to know what they are charged with or what evidence there is against them.

Under Israel’s military dictatorship in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian people have no input or democratic protection regarding Israeli military law, including how or why these laws are written, how or why they are implemented, how or when they come into effect. There are also very few avenues for appeal against these laws or for review of them.


Police arrested a resident of east Jerusalem who works as a reporter for an Iranian television station under suspicion of reporting of Israel's entrance into Gaza against standing orders.
Photo by Nir Landu/ Activestills.org


Within Israel itself, where supposedly democracy for all prevails, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are systematically discriminated against. Many people are not aware that Israel has no constitution; instead it simply has Basic Laws, which supposedly act a mini-bill of rights. However, these Basic Laws do not explicitly protect the right to equality and Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are regularly discriminated against. Instead as Adalah, the Israeli Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel notes since its creation Israel has never sought to integrate its Palestinian citizens, instead it has treated them “as second-class citizens and excluding them from public life and the public sphere” [9]. In 2001, in a report to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Adalah identified more than 20 Israeli laws which result in the systematic and institutionalised discrimination against Palestinian Israelis, including in the areas of education, culture, employment, land, economics and political participation.

In the broader democratic arena, over the years, Israel has also sought to introduce legislation which has restricted the political participation of anyone who does not agree with the “Jewish character” of the Israeli state. Since 1985, when Israel amended its Basic Laws, no political parties or political candidate are able run for political office if they advocate that Israel become a secular, democratic state with equal rights for all its citizens.

The apartheid nature of the Israeli state and its discriminatory and undemocratic policies, which are enacted both inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are regularly and systematically ignored by Israel’s apologists.
Instead, they seek to silence critics of Israel’s occupation policies, human rights abuses and war crimes by waving the “democracy” card. A democracy in the modern sense of the word, however, can be defined as a system which guarantees basic human rights for all it citizens, including equal rights in the civil, social, economic and political spheres, while also guaranteeing freedom of speech, expression and assembly and allows religious freedom for all its citizens. To argue that Israel meets these requirements, either in times of war such as now or so-called peace times is nothing short of propaganda. And the one thing that Niv Horesh does get right in his article is that “propaganda does nothing for peace”.

-Kim Bullimore has recently spent 12 months living and working in the Occupied West Bank with the International Women’s Peace Service www.iwps.info . Kim writes regularly on the Palestine-Israel conflict for the Australian newspaper, Direct Action www.directaction.org.au and has a blog at www.livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

[1] Horesh, N., Propaganda does nothing for peace, The Australian, 9 January, 2009 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24889002-7583,00.html
[2] Mossawa Centre http://www.mossawacenter.org/default.php?dp=2&fl=27&lng=3&pg=1
[3] Israeli police arrested 300 Palestinian-Israelis since Gaza attacks began, Maan News, 6 January, 2009 http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34668
[4] Police arrest 21 left-wing activists protesting Gaza op at Sde Dov IAF base, Jerusalem Post, 2 January, 2009 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1230733142300
[5] Clashes break out between Arab students and police in the Israeli universities, Menassat, Arab Media Network, 8 January, 2009 http://menassat.com/?q=en/alerts/5671-clashes-break-out-between-arab-students-and-police-israeli-universities
[6]The Right to Express Protest, Haaretz editorial, 7 January, 2009 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052995.html
[7] Edelman, O., (2009) Tel Aviv judge defends right of Arab anti-war protesters, Haaretz, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053790.html
[8] Kirshbaum, D.A., (2007) Israeli military oppression and exploitation of Palestinian society in Gaza and the West Bank: How it works.
http://www.geocities.com/savepalestinenow/israelmilitaryorders/essays/israelimilitaryordersessay.htm
[9] Adalah http://www.adalah.org/eng/backgroundhistory.php