The Only Democracy? » Jesse Bacon

Protest around the world today for Ziad Jilani

Jesse Bacon — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:20:42 +0000

I have written early in an attempt to draw parallels between Trayvon Martin and the killing of Palestinian youths by settler vigilantes. Today we are protesting a killing done by “Border Police” in Israel. The name suggest an obvious link to police brutality in the United States: with an added twist, the people killed do not have full citizenship that their surviving loved ones can use to fight on their behalf. So it’s up to us. Please join the protests around the world today for Ziad Jilani.

A letter from his widow Moria Jilani from the Killing Without Consequence site

Dear friends,

June 11th will be two years since my husband Ziad Jilani was executed by Israeli border-policeman Maxim Vinogradov in Occupied East Jerusalem. The case against Maxim Vinogradov and his commander Shadi Heir Al Din was closed for lack of evidence despite an abundance of irrefutable evidence that Ziad was executed while he was wounded unarmed and posing no threat to anyone.

June 11th is also nine days before the Israeli State prosecutor must reply to a petition to the Israeli Supreme court by al Mezan center for human rights on behalf of myself and my daughters as to why he will not press charges against Ziad’s killer.

We need to let Israel’s state prosecutor know that the world is watching his decision and that ZIad will not be forgotten. We hope that this knowledge will help him to do the right thing.

This is not only about Justice for Ziad and our family, if we can pressure the Israeli government to press charges against Maxim, it will demonstrate to soldiers that there are consequences for killing Palestinians.

What we need from you:
-Attend a memorial on June 11th in East Jerusalem, LA or New York. If you can organize a memorial for Ziad on June the 11th email killingwithoutconsequence@gmail.com
-Sign and circulate this petition that IMoira will deliver to the state prosecutor.
-Contact us if you or your organization is interested in getting on board and working to make this happen. Email killingwithoutconsequence AT gmail.com

In solidarity,

Moira Jilani

Video: Israeli Army Invades and Closes University Community Media Center

Jesse Bacon — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:58:42 +0000

Sent to us by a reader.

Click here for the Facebook page of Al Quds educational TV (mostly in Arabic.)

Dr. Jamal Nusseibeh
Vice President for Jerusalem Affairs
Al-Quds University
April 2, 2012

For the second time in two months, the Israeli authorities have invaded, searched and prevented the functioning of Al-Quds University’s Institute of Modern Media. This time, they prevented skype contact for an event taking place simultaneously in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Today, at 12:55 pm local time, plain clothes police arrived at the offices of the Institute of Modern Media, at Al-Quds University, in the old city of Jerusalem. University faculty and students and invited guests had gathered at the location to launch Hona Al-Quds (“Jerusalem is Here” an online multi-media community network focusing on Jerusalem. After mingling with the guests for about fifteen minutes, without any warning, the police locked the office doors, shutting some guest inside and some outside, ransacked the offices, and collected the identification documents of all those inside the building. The building was by that time surrounded by soldiers. They presented those outside with an order in Hebrew, signed by the Israeli Minister for Internal Security, forbidding the launch event on the grounds that it was a “PA” event, i.e. organized by the Palestinian Authority. This was despite the fact that Honaalquds is clearly a part of Al-Quds University, since 1996, recognized as an independent NGO by the Israeli authorities. The Israelis arrested two Al-Quds University employees: Adel Ruished, Administrative Director of Jerusalem Affairs, and Mohannad Izheman, University security guard. Since then, Mr Izheman has been released with a summons to return tomorrow and Mr Ruished is being held at the central Israeli police station.

The University condemns this action as a violation of principles and agreements which protect free speech, academic freedom, and the freedom of the press. This is the second such invasion in recent weeks. On February 29, in the middle of the night, an Israeli military unit invaded the main office of the Institute of Modern Media in Ramallah, searched the offices, and removed the transmitter which the university used to broadcast educational TV programs, including Sesame Street and other programmes for very young children, and a wide variety of programmes for the benefit of the community. The University is an independent institution, neither administered nor governed by the Palestinian Authority. The Institute’s primary mission is to educate and train undergraduate students in media studies and to share university and local news with area residents, and to serve and educate the broader community.

Iz al-deen and Trayvon

Jesse Bacon — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:15:01 +0000

Two young men, a few weeks apart, attacked by adult men. Both names exotic to white American ears. Iz al-deen Tamemi was not killed, “only” shot in the face. His attackers wore uniforms, while Trayvon Martin’s murderer was vigilante acting alone, though his behavior was sanctioned by law and he was not arrested. Iz al-deen was at a protest, Trayvon was returning home from an errand. Differences aside, I only hope the confluence of these two cases shows us that gated communities and climates of impunity lead every where to the same outcome.

The reality (Trayvon’s killer was a Latino man) is that the tendency to see someone else as a threat out of all proportion, sense, and empathy knows no nationality, ethnicity, or religion. It’s only a question of what uniform people wear, what security systems they have access to, what weapons they carry, and what laws privilege them over others or encourage their worse impulses. Add those things together and no group is immune. Take them down, disband them, and more kids like Trayvon and Iz al-deen can grow up.

The graphic pictures of Iz al-deen can be seen here.

you can take action for Trayvon here on his parent’s Change.org petition.

and here is an Arab man calling for solidarity with Trayvon prior to Iz al-deen’s shooting.

Update: here is another shooting from my home state of Wisconsin, which apparently has a similar law sponsored by ALEC.

Help save solar and wind power in the West Bank

Jesse Bacon — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:46:24 +0000

Ed’s Note: The Only Democracy? does not usually feature action alerts, but we have highlighted work of Comet-ME in the past and are proud to come to their defense.

Watch Elad’s action alert

Israel is threatening to demolish solar and wind power systems in rural communities in the West Bank. These systems are the only source of energy for more than 500 people. Located in area C under full Israeli control, these remote shepherd communities have no other source of power despite Israel’s responsibility to provide them with basic infrastructure. They depend exclusively on solar and wind energy for light, refrigeration and agriculture.

Over the last three years, Comet-ME has built 17 renewable energy systems in an area called South Mount Hebron in the West Bank. Thanks to energy produced by the sun and wind, children can now do their homework at night, and women don’t have to churn butter and do laundry by hand. Electricity allows villagers to stay on land they have lived on for generations. Without it, many of them may leave their homes, and in so doing alter the demographic reality of the region.

Comet-ME’s systems are built by Israelis and Palestinians working hand in hand – establishing a foundation of trust and friendship that is essential for the creation of a new future in Palestine.

We believes access to energy is not a luxury. It is as basic as food and medicine. Help us spread the word and pressure policy-makers to protect the communities and stop the demolitions.

Send this letter to Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, and call him to put an end to the demolition threat.

What more can you do?

Support the campaign against the demolitions by making a donation.
Share this with your friends and ask them to help.
Join us on facebook and twitter @CometMe to get real-time updates and share the cause.

For more information, visit www.comet-me.org

Updated: A year bookended by the death of unarmed activists

Jesse Bacon — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:28:08 +0000

On January 3rd, 2011 protester Jawaher Abu Rahmah was killed by a tear gas inhalation at an earlier march in Bil’in. At the time, the Israeli Army made some bizarre claims that her death was caused by cancer, which they later retracted. Now almost a year later on December 9th, another nonviolent marcher has been killed in their own village, this time Mustafa Tamimi. You can read eyewitness testimony of his shooting here. The short version to respond to @IDFSpokesman victim-blaming question of what he did to to shot: save a friend’s life.

Tamimi appeared in this TOD? post about the Israeli army criminalizing Palestinians having guests.. No word yet on the current excuses by Israeli Army, or how they intend to stop this from happening in the future, but these events are as good an illustration as any that the Israeli government learned nothing in 2011.

Mustafa Tamimi, a 28 year old resident of Nabi Saleh, was shot in the face yesterday, during the weekly protest in the village of Nabi Saleh. He sustained a critical head injury, under his right eye, and was evacuated to the Belinson hospital in Petah Tikwa. The severe trauma to Tamimi’s brain, caused by the shooting, left the doctors with little to do to save his life, and he eventually passed away at 09:21 AM today.

Tamimi’s funeral will take place tomorrow, leaving Ramallah at 10:00 AM towards Nabi Saleh, where it is expected to reach at around 11:00 AM.

Mustafa Tamimi (left) a moment before his injury. Circled in red are the barrel of the gun and the projectile that hit him. Picture credit: Haim Scwarczenberg

A photo of the incident shows Tamimi at a distance of less than 10 meters behind the semi-open door of an armored military jeep with the gun aimed directly at him. Clearly visible in the photo is also the tear-gas projectile flying in his direction.

The incident took place in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh today, when dozens gathered for the weekly demonstration in the village, protesting the theft of village lands by the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Nabi Saleh. After the army dispersed the peaceful march, minor clashes erupted followed by a severe response from the Israeli forces. Several people were hit with rubber-coated bullets and directly shot tear-gas projectiles. Three were evacuated to the Ramallah hospital for further treatment, including a 14 year-old. One protester was arrested.

In complete disregard to the army’s own open fire regulations, soldiers often shoot tear-gas projectiles directly at groups of protesters or individuals. Rubber-coated bullets are indiscriminately shot at protesters from short distances on a regular basis. The Israeli army also resumed the use of high velocity tear-gas projectiles in Nabi Saleh, despite the fact that they have been declared banned for use, after causing the death of Bassem Abu Rahmah in the neighboring village of Bil’in, in April 2009, and the critical injury of American protester Tristan Anderson in Ni’ilin in March of the same year.

The demonstrations, which have been held regularly for the past two years have seen hundreds of injuries to protesters by Israeli forces, as well as dozens of arrests carried out by Israel with the aim of suppressing dissent.

Statement of the Palestinian Freedom Riders

Jesse Bacon — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:51:32 +0000

As of now, 6 Palestinian Freedom Riders are about to be arrested just inside Jerusalem. Read why the Palestinian human rights activists boarded segregated buses below.

My name is Hurriyeh Ziadah. I am the media spokeswomen for the Palestinian Freedom Rides campaign. Thank you all for being here today.
Fifty years ago brave African American civil rights activists challenged the racist and unjust laws of Jim Crow by boarding buses to the segregated South, thereby embarking on a campaign of civil disobedience and direct action.

In less than an hour, Palestinian activists, taking inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides, will embark on a similar civil disobedience campaign to challenge Israel’s regime of colonial Apartheid in Palestine.

Although the tactics and methodologies differ, both white supremacists and the Israeli occupiers commit the same crime: they strip a people of freedom, justice and dignity. In undertaking this action we do not seek the desegregation of settler buses, as the presence of these colonizers and the infrastructure that serves them is illegal and must be dismantled. As part of our struggle for freedom, justice and dignity, we demand the ability to be able to travel freely on our own roads, on our own land, including the right to travel to Jerusalem.

We also aim to expose two of the companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policies and encourage global boycott of and divestment from them. The Israeli Egged and French Veolia bus companies operate dozens of segregated lines that run through the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. Both companies are also involved in the Jerusalem Light Rail, a train project that links illegal settlements in East Jerusalem to the western part of the city. By facilitating population transfer into occupied Palestinian territory, Egged and Veolia are actively and knowingly complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise, which the International Court of Justice has determined to be a breach of international law.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

We urge the people of the world not to accept the evil that is our occupation, dispossession and oppression, and to divest yourselves and your governments from the corporations that enable Israel to continue doing this to us. Egged and Veolia are two transportation companies that serve Israel’s segregated, colonial, infrastructure. By passively accepting their presence and not protesting against them, you are all indirectly complicit in the crimes they commit against us, and the profits they make from the violation of our rights; violations that the Freedom Riders will expose today.

Our rights will not voluntarily be handed to us, so we are heading out to demand them.

We know that in undertaking this action we risk arrest, vicious attacks by Israeli settlers, abuse by Israeli soldiers, and even death. We take this risk upon ourselves as a step towards ensuring Freedom, Justice, and Dignity for future generations of Palestinians and all people in the region.

Click here for Jewish Voice for Peace’s Solidarity with Freedom Riders campaign

New Sheikh Jarrah Video from Just Vision

Jesse Bacon — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:17:24 +0000

Just Vision, the folks I interned for last spring, are out with, “Home Front is a new series of four video portraits chronicling the resolve of a neighborhood, and the support it receives from the most unexpected of places.” It documents different Israelis and Palestinians involved in the Sheikh Jarrah movement, including a Palestinian teenager whose family who was evicted. TOD’s own Amir Terkel worked on the film. It is a wonderful primer on the movement, well worth the half hour or so to watch all four.

The mother of Sara Benninga, who has been featured on this site, appears in the second video.

You can read more interviews on the Home Front site.

Video: Democracy Now! footage from Freedom Waves Flotilla

Jesse Bacon — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:53:19 +0000

Israel has boarded and detained the latest Freedom Flotilla heading for Gaza. See the last footage they were able to transmit from on board the boat here.

If you are in New York City, there will be an emergency action.

TODAY, November 4
5 – 6:30pm
across the street from the Israeli Consulate
(800 2nd Ave, between 42nd and 43rd Sts, Manhattan)

Freedom Theatre attacked yet again

Jesse Bacon — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:49:46 +0000

Missed this item last week because of earthquake/hurricane, but the Freedom Theatre was attacked again on August 22nd:

Rami Hwayel on stage, "waiting for Godot or a Shin Bet decision" photo: Emily Smith

Freedom Theatre targeted again

After the Israeli army targeted the theatre twice during the last month, arresting three of its members, today at approximately 02:00 in the morning of the 22nd August the Israeli army again surrounded The Freedom Theatre and the Nagnaghiya family home.

Jacob Gough, the Acting General Manager at The Freedom Theatre left the office at about 01:45: “As I literally entered my home I got a call from neighbours of the theatre saying the army had surrounded the theatre.”

Jacob then returned to the theatre and as he drove into the courtyard was confronted by armed soldiers who forced him to turn around threatening violence if he didn’t. After a second attempt to get closer to the theatre he was forced to strip at gunpoint before being detained, he was told “To shut up or you will get a proper beating” by one soldier.

During this, the army were inside the home of Mohammed Naghnaghiye, the security guard at the theatre and brother of Adnan Nagnaghiya. Here they beat Mohammed before taking him away in handcuffs then proceeded to ransack all 3 floors of his family home leaving them in disarray. As the army left the area they fired live ammunition in an attempt to disperse the crowds of youth that had gathered and were throwing rocks.

These events come after a military court hearing that took place yesterday (21st August) in Jalame prison outside of Jenin. At the court hearing it was established that the three previously taken members of The Freedom Theatre had no connection to the murder of the theatre’s late director Juliano Mer Khamis and must be released within the week.

“This behaviour is mounting to systematical harassment of The Freedom Theatre by The Israeli army, it is scandalous. This proves that the Israeli army and security apparatus is either lost in their investigation or that they have the actual intention of damaging the theatre. It also seems that after the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis The Freedom Theatre is no longer exempted from the kind of oppression the palestinian society is subjected to in general.” says Jonatan Stanczak, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre.

For more information on latest developments, click here.

You can support the Freedom Theatre in an emergency campaign here

Freedom Theatre Update: First rule about being arrested by Israel is..

Jesse Bacon — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:26:18 +0000

`Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

`No, no!’ said the Queen. `Sentence first–verdict afterwards.’
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Here’s an update about the latest arrest at the Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp. The previous arrests were covered here, but you can’t read about the latest on in Israel. The democracy has forbidden reporting on it within the country.

Acting Student Rami Hwayel Taken By Israeli Army

by: The Freedom Theatre

Press Release

August 6, 2011

Today at approximately 15:00 hrs one of the third-year graduating students at The Freedom Theatre was taken by the Israeli army at the Shave Shomeron checkpoint between the Palestinian cities Jenin and Nablus. The student’s name is Rami Awni Hwayel, age 20. He was travelling from Ramallah to Jenin together with his fellow students.

Batool Taleb, one of the female acting students who was in the car with Rami describes what happened: “When they got to our car, they took all our IDs and when they saw Rami’s ID they told him to get out of the car. Once he was out they immediately handcuffed and blindfolded him and put him in the army jeep.”

The students had been rehearsing for their final graduation project directed by the Israeli-American Director Udi Aloni in Ramallah.

“This is devastating, Rami is playing the main role in ‘Waiting for Godot’ and doing an amazing job, he’s so dedicated to the work. He just left rehearsals today for the weekend to see his family for Ramadan. It’s terrible, we want our Pozzo back!”, says Udi Aloni.

Rami is the third member of The Freedom Theatre that has been taken by the Israeli army recently. On the 27th of July at 3:00 in the morning the Head Technician Adnan Naghnaghiye and the Chairperson Bilal Saadi were captured by a large group of Israeli soldiers.

The consequences of these actions only result in more damage to The Freedom Theatre. The theatre once again calls on its friends and supporters around the world to act in order to stop this outrageous harassment by the Israeli army against a cultural establishment.

Israeli military censorship has of now also placed a gag order on reporting on this arrest inside Israel, a violation of free speech and a show of how free media in Israel really is.