Protesters at the Museum of Tolerance in LA

Yesterday in Manhattan and LA, protests were held at the Museum of Tolerance in each city.  The occasion was an event to honor the Freedom Riders, brave civil rights activists who put their bodies on the line in the 1960′s in the struggle for equality for African-Americans in the U.S.

The Museum of Tolerance has taken a position against the Park 51 mosque near Ground Zero, has helped foment Islamophobia in the U.S., and is building its museum–for tolerance!– on the site of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. While the Museum is celebrating the work of those fighting for civil rights decades ago, why does it not speak out for the equal rights of Muslim Americans today?

This is the question asked at today’s protests, sponsored by Jews Against Islamophobia in New York (whose members include JVP-NY, Jews Say No!, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and American Jews for a Just Peace) and JVP-LA and Code Pink in LA.

protesters outside the Museum of Tolerance in New York

Dinu Ahmed, of Women Against Islamophobia and Racism, was one of the featured speakers at the rally in New York.  We thought her beautiful, powerful speech was worth reprinting in its entirety:

April 6, 2011

Press Conference in front of the Museum of Tolerance

Dinu Ahmed

Thank you so much for having me here and thanks to all of you for coming out in solidarity with members of the Muslim community.  Today, the Museum of Tolerance honors the courageous Freedom Riders who put their beliefs about dignity and civil rights into practice. It is an incredible history of honorable people who stood up for a community under attack that the Museum of Tolerance pays tribute to today, a history that has profoundly affected the lives of Americans across the United States.

If I may, I’d like to share a story with you now. While briefly working as a community organizer up in Harlem, I co-facilitated a workshop on Islamophobia. Many of our members at this workshop had experienced race-based discrimination in the 1960s. We were talking about hate crimes and arson attacks on mosques taking place in the present day, when an older African-American who was not Muslim spoke up. Her voice was trembling and she had tears in her eyes, as she said, “I thought this period was over. I can’t believe people are still dealing with the struggles we dealt with and thought were behind us.”  We saw in each other, in the intimacy of that moment – that the roots of injustice against people because of the identities they carry in this world are really just the same.

The thing about a civil rights movement is, it is a struggle that must continually be engaged in. The communities that encounter aggressive scrutiny and discrimination may change, but the struggle remains the same.

Today, the Museum of Tolerance is setting up a videoconference so that high school youth can engage with Freedom Riders.  As a youth worker, I wonder if the Museum of Tolerance has considered the impact of their stance against the right of Muslims to worship in Lower Manhattan upon young Muslims in America. After worshipping at Park 51 some months ago with my 14-year old sister and her friend, a man hurled obscenities at us and told us to leave this country and go home.

Sadly, this is an occurrence that is happening to young Muslim Americans everywhere. They are being told that they are not wanted, that there are neighborhoods in this city that are off-limits, and the Museum of Tolerance, in their public stance against our right to worship in Lower Manhattan, holds responsibility in furthering such xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment. It has to be understood that the hate discourse around this one center has created a ripple effect around the city and the whole country, leading to zoning challenges around mosques in over a dozen states, hate speech and violence.  The Museum of Tolerance has played a role in this by condemning the Muslim community. Their hate is playing out not only in New York, not only in the U.S., but across the world in Jerusalem, as they plan to build a site upon the remains of Muslims. The question remains – why does the Museum of Tolerance want to erase our presence, our heritage, our institutions here in New York and Jerusalem?

In closing, I have to say that it dishonors the meaning of what those before us have contributed to the civil rights movement if we cannot relate their fight to the civil rights movement of today.  History is not like a dusty album we lay up on our shelves and appreciate once in a blue moon. The struggles of yesterday bleed into the struggles of today, and it is our responsibility to be ever conscious of the patterns of oppression, and stand on the right side of the fight for dignity and civil rights for all, here and now. Thank you.

On a personal note, I remember very clearly the weekend that Adeeb was arrested. I was still living in Israel, and a friend from Anarchists Against the Wall was arrested with him.  This friend was detained for over 24 hours, blindfolded, etc.  This was fairly harsh treatment for a Jewish Israeli, and he told me all about it on our way to visit Tristan Anderson.

It’s still amazing to me to think that Adeeb spent a year and a half in jail for doing EXACTLY what an Israeli spent 24 hours in jail for. It’s so thrilling to see him at home, but so infuriating that he was there at all….

Here’s Popular Struggle’s account of Adeeb’s release from Ofer Military Prison.

After serving an eighteen month jail serving for organizing unarmed demonstrations in Bil’in, Adeeb Abu Rahmah is a free man. Before he had even reached the gate of Ofer military compound, Adeeb Abu Rahmah had his hands in the air in celebration. Abu Rahmah crossed the iron gate of the compound and walked into freedom after eighteen months in military prison. Despite the frigid mountain air, the warmth of Adeeb’s presence could be felt strongly by all present. He embraced his daughters immediately with tears in his eyes. With barely a moment to catch his breath, Adeeb kissed and hugged everyone that was present, occasionally throwing his hand high in the air with a peace sign and yelling out one of the many chants that are common on demonstration days in Bil’in.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah Moments After He was Released from Ofer Military Prision. Picture Credit:Oren Ziv/Activestills.org

A taxi driver and father of nine who has been active in the unarmed resistance in Bilin from its outset, Adeed Abu Rahmah was arrested in Bil’in on July 10, 2009 while taking part in one of the weekly Friday protests. The Israeli army accused him of participation in ‘violent demonstrations’ against the Israeli separation wall, presence in a ‘closed Israeli military zone’ and disturbing public order.

From the jail, a large procession of cars drove slowly towards Bil’in with music blaring, flags flying and lots of honking. Once in Bil’in, fireworks, dancing and chanting filled the winter air as the village broke out in celebration. Banners covered houses with pictures of Adeeb demanding a ‘release to the prisoners of the Popular Struggle.’ Among those greeting Adeeb were a handful of Israelis and internationals. As the wind and rain continued pounding Bil’in, the celebration moved inside. In the long battle of non-violence in the West Bank, a small victory was felt in Bil’in last night.

Unfortunately, Adeeb will be under a suspended sentence and under orders not to resume his human rights organizing. He was suspended from participating in any political activity for a period of four years, though there were hints this would be lifted sooner.. Should Abu Rahmah be caught within this period, he will be fined 6,000 NIS ($1600), around on charges of “incitement” and obstructing the work of the army by conducting  peaceful demonstrations against the Wall in Bil’in.

Here is him obstructing injustice by leading a protest in Bil’in August, 2008.

Photos of Adeeb’s release, by Hamdi Abu Rahmah.

Only a boycott will persuade Israel

by Ayala Shani & Ofer Neiman

“Israel won’t change unless the status quo has a downside” – these words were written by journalist Tony Karon, a Jew from South Africa. This sentence reflects the rationale behind the broad BDS campaign – which includes sanctions, institutional boycott, and divestment – which has begun trickling down into public consciousness in Israel. Instead of a defensive, self-righteous response along the general lines of “the whole world is against us”, it would be best to learn the facts about the campaign and peer into the collective mirror, which reflects grievous and systematic violations of human rights and international law.

The current movement originally started with a call to action issued in 2005, signed by more than 170 organizations from Palestinian society: citizens of Israel, refugees in exile, and Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza. The call to action was published in Hebrew, too, and citizens of Israel are requested to express their support of it. It is for this purpose that the Israeli group “Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within” was founded.

The BDS movement that has developed in response to the Palestinian call to action does not have any formal, focal leadership. Regular citizens around the world, including many Jews, initiate activities and take part in them. The goal of the movement is to demonstrate to Israel the international community’s disgust and rejection of its actions, so that Israel will act for the immediate termination of the occupation, for the end of discrimination against the Arab citizens of Israel, and for recognition of the refugees’ right of return, as phrased in United Nations Decision 194. Elements of the oppression which the movement wishes to put an end to match the legal definition of the crime of apartheid – systematic and institutionalized racial separation, as practiced in old South Africa.

The movement does not promote any specific political solution (one state or two, the return of any particular number of refugees), but rather, strives to change in a nonviolent way the balance of power that makes it possible for Israel’s governments to violently withhold the basic rights of millions of people, and to renounce their accountability with unfounded statements (“the Arabs are to blame for the refugee problem”, “the settlements are legal”, “there is no siege upon Gaza”.)

It will be stressed here that the boycott is not a personal boycott on Israelis but rather, a boycott of official Israeli institutions and of events taking place under their auspices. Thus, for example, there is no call to deny an Israeli researcher her right to lecture abroad. There is a call to avoid holding international conferences in universities in Israel which proudly proclaim their contacts with the military establishment.

Is Israel being singled out? As was true about white South Africa, the world is justly sensitive to situations where a population that has civil rights determines the fate of a population which has neither civil rights nor the right to vote. Fairness is not always a feature of international relations, but Israel enjoys many international privileges, such as membership in the OECD. The citizens of China, where grievous human rights abuses take place, have never been given the opportunity to express a lack of confidence in the government that forcibly suppressed the student demonstrations in 1989. In contrast, the citizens of Israel cast their votes again and again for parties (including Kadima and the Labor Party) and governments under whose administration settlements are built, people are tortured and arrested for years with no trial, unarmed citizens are shot, and land and water resources are plundered.

Many people around the world ask, therefore, whether there is good reason for a normalization with Israel. Port workers in Sweden and Norway, countries which have historically been very sympathetic to Israel, refuse to unload Israeli container ships. Artists wonder why they must perform here and enhance the sense of “business as usual” when the very fact of their performance will be portrayed as support of Israel’s policy.

A deep-reaching public discussion is needed at this time, not only about the question of whether the boycott is or is not justified but about Israel’s policy. Many Israelis acknowledge the heinous acts being done in our name, under our very noses. It is appropriate for an effective and nonviolent campaign against these actions should have their support.

The authors are active in the Israeli group: “Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within.”

This article was originally published in Hebrew in Haaretz Online, June 22 2010.

His wife, Janan, is an incredible feminist activist in her own right.  Nadia Hijab interviewed Janan  on the day of she and Ameer’s daughter’s graduation from high school, which was also Ameer’s 52nd birthday. Janan said, in part:

I have a reponsibilty to my family members, Ameer, myself and the things we believe in. I’m strong because I believe in Ameer and what he is doing. We have dignity and identity, we have the right to protect ourselves , we have nothing more to lose–they pushed us  beyond the limit . We need to keep going on and believing in what we are doing and in our rights, even if the personal price is so hard.

I’m afraid that Ameer was not the first and will not be the last one to be detained, to be harmed and suffer from persecution and torture, unless we all see the issue as our personal and collective issue. But  I’m positive when I see all the support and solidarity locally and internationally, and I want, on behalf of Ameer and myself to thank all who supported us and to ask them to continue doing that and believing in Ameer.

Ameer has published a letter from jail.  It is below in its entirety.

Letter from Gilboa Prison, Ameer Makhoul

May 30,2010

After being allowed to get a pen and a piece of paper, which has been banned for the last three weeks, and after being allowed to get out of my total isolation, it’s a moment to write a short letter from my jail (Gilboa).

It’s a great opportunity for me to express my sincere thanks, greetings & appreciation to all the colleagues, friends and solidarity groups, organizations & persons, internationals, Arabs in the region, Israelis & Palestinians in the homeland & in the Diaspora. A very special salute to all those who visited my family and supported them after the trauma they passed in May 6 & since that late night.

It’s a moment to express my great appreciation to all the international & local human rights organizations which raised their voices loudly.

Also to Ittijah partner organizations all around the world which supported my/our struggle for justice and for a fair trial in order to get to prove my innocence.

Physically I am still suffering very much but morally it’s a great feeling to know what solidarity means.

My story is that the Israeli intelligence, “the shabak”, assumed something without knowing & without any evidence. I was requested and forced to explain to them in a very detailed way how exactly I did what I didn’t do, ever. In case of any logical problem for them to complete the puzzle, they have the legal tools to fill it in by so-called secret evidence, which my lawyers and I have no legal right to know about.

According to the media in Israel, I’m already guilty, a terrorist & a supporter terror. The rule of the game here is that I’m guilty whether or not I prove that I’m not. This collective assumption is prior to court & trial procedures.

The abuse of evidence & fair legal procedures are crucial. The Shabak can tell lies to the court by so called “secret evidence”, “banning meetings  with lawyers”, “banning the publication of information,”  “imposing total isolation” & other very sophisticated ways of torture, which leave no direct evidence although it is very harsh. (See Adalah: www.adalah.org). I believe that my case is an opportunity to examine these tools as tools for the criminalization of human rights defenders.

I would like to highlight again your support & solidarity. I look to it as a very essential & crucial message of support the victim and to stop the oppressor.  Thank you. Let us continue with the way for justice, human dignity, human rights and ensuring an opportunity for a fair trial.

Sincerely,

Ameer Makhoul

If you’d like to send messages of support and keep up with Ameer’s case, his Facebook page is here.

Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the representative of Defence of Children International, Palestine Section puts Fadi’s terrifying experience in context:  approximately 700 Palestinian children and teenagers are arrested each year by the Israelis.

Ameer Makhoul, Director of

Seen as part of a long line, in the past year, of arrest and persecution that includes Ezra Nawi (who went to jail on Sunday for protecting a Palestininan home from destruction), the campaign against the NIF and human rights organizations in Israel, the arrests of Jamal Jum’a and Mohammed Othman, and the ongoing arrests and raids and arrests in villages like Bil’in and Ni’alin, it is clear that Israel’s strategy in the face of its human rights violations and crackdown on dissent, is to attack, persecute, and attempt to destroy those who speak out.

What follows, in its entirety, is a press statement from the family of Ameer Makhoul on his arrest and treatment, titled, “We Accuse.”

Today is the 21^st day since the arrest of Ameer Makhoul at his home in Haifa, Israel, under the cover of darkness, by the International Crimes Investigation Unit and General Security Service (GSS or Shabak) officers. The arrest was conducted in a brutal and terrifying manner. Our house was raided, its contents ransacked, and various pieces of equipment and objects of special value to us were confiscated. Violations of our fundamental rights to human dignity and privacy were committed, and physical, verbal and psychological violence were employed against us and in front of our two daughters. On this day we, Ameer’s family, announce that we are extremely worried about what is happening to him and about the conditions of his detention.

We know that Ameer has suffered and continues to suffer from acute pains in his head, his back and in both of his legs as a result of the severe torture he was subjected to, in breach of his most basic human rights. These include the rights to sleep, drink and eat, and the rights to dignity and not to be exposed to humiliating and degrading treatment. His complete isolation from the outside world, the control exercised over him by the GSS interrogators, and his interrogation for hours and days on end without sleep, while in shackles and bound by his hands and feet to a low chair in a way that did not allow him to move, causing him severe pain, from which he still continues to suffer now, all resulted in his losing his sense of time and ability to think and concentrate, and in his mental disorientation. These methods are illegal under Israeli and international law.

Until today, 26 May, the court refused to allow Ameer’s attorneys to read the medical report written by a doctor who visited him twice during the interrogation. It also refused to allow an independent doctor sent from Physicians for Human Rights – Israel to examine him, as demanded by Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. These refusals raise concerns and questions about the information that the GSS, with the backing of the court, wants to conceal regarding his conditions of detention and their methods of interrogation. What, we wonder, is the GSS hiding and why is it stalling? Is it in order to hide signs of the physical and psychological violence it has inflicted on him? And why has the court given its consent to these procedures?

What particularly worries us is that Ameer continues to complain of acute pains, and his eyesight has deteriorated, which has compelled him to ask for a stronger pair of glasses. The question is how and why this severely diminished eyesight was caused during his detention, and what the methods of interrogation were that led to this deterioration and to the pains he is complaining of.

The bigger questions are: What is the Israeli security establishment trying to cover up? Why is the court colluding with the GSS and concealing the conditions of detention and methods of interrogation/torture that have been used against Ameer?

Why did the court block the publication of the details of Ameer’s affidavit as it relates to the illegal methods of interrogation used against him, and which he spoke of before his lawyers in his initial meeting with them, held after around two weeks of being banned from access to legal counsel?

We appeal to the local and international communities and to individuals to continue to act quickly to put pressure on the Israeli government and legal system to open an independent investigation into the methods used by the GSS interrogators against Ameer, and to demand the indictment of those responsible for the use of torture against him. We also call on the local and international communities to consider any indictment by the GSS to have been fabricated and extorted under torture and gained solely by obstructing democratic freedoms and human rights. These acts are invalid and illegitimate, and in flagrant violation of international law.

We call for demands on the Israeli authorities to immediately call off this trial, which is based on an investigation in which Ameer was prevented from defending himself in any genuine manner. Ameer was denied the basic human rights to which he is entitled under Israeli and international law. The independence of the judiciary and democratic freedoms were dangerously subjected to the dictates of the GSS in this case.

We greatly appreciate the community, institutional and individual solidarity with Ameer, local and international, and all efforts to defend his freedom. We are aware of the importance of the role played by all political movements and political parties in challenging the circumstances of Ameer’s arrest, and this attack against the Arab public and its leadership, and on democratic freedom and human rights. We are also aware that the clear strategic choice of the Arab public in Israel has been and continues to be the that of unyielding and legitimate political struggle.

The fact is that Ameer Makhoul does not belong to any specific political party. Rather, he reserves for himself an independent position, which is a clear indication that the main target of this attack is the Arab Palestinian public and their leadership, their rights and freedoms. Defending the freedom of Ameer and his rights as a detainee, and rejecting incitement against Arab citizens in light of his detention, are not an individual or class issue, but a national, democratic mission.

The real indictment is against the GSS and the Israeli establishment, which are trampling on democratic freedoms and human rights and resorting to illegal methods of interrogation and torture.

Janan Abdu, Partner of Ameer Makhoul (+972-54-756-2171)

Issam Makhoul, Brother of Ameer Makhoul (+972-50-551-0433)

Well, it seems  the fact that it was Noam Chomsky (who is on JVP’s advisory board)  who  got denied entry to the West Bank because of his politics, the story has broken through to the mainstream media (though not to the New York Times ). Yet again, we have to say: “the only democracy in the Middle East?”

UPDATE:  Ethan Bronner has now posted an article, which also lists several examples of similar ideological denials of entry.  He quotes Mark Regev, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman, but not any of the individuals who have not been allowed in, including Chomsky.

Pheel  was by all accounts a very special person, as the video below makes very clear.  It is somewhat long, but worth watching. Pheel is one of six peaceful Palestinian demonstrators who have been killed in the villages of Bil’in and Na’alin alone in the last year and a half.

A few nights ago I had dinner at the home of a dear friend, Ra’ed, the director of the Bedouin-Jewish environmental organization BUSTAN.  In the course of the meal, I heard a story that illuminates so many of the overlapping historicaland political factors that contribute to the injustice of the Bedouin story in Israel.  It goes like this:

A couple of weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, a few young men from the Bedouin town of Qasr al-Sir went walking on the hills just outside their village. Without warning, shots were fired from the other side of the hills, and one of the young men was killed, another wounded. The shots were fired by Israeli soldiers, who were practicing within a military firing range.

A simple, unfortunate tragedy?  Not quite.

The village of Qasr al-Sir

Qasr al-Sir is a Bedouin village in the Negev that was “recognized” by the Israeli government in 2003.  The residents of Qasr al-Sir are actually originally from the area which is now the Israeli town of Dimona, but in the aftermath of the 1948 war, they were forcibly moved to other lands.  Dimona became an Israeli “development town” for new immigrants, specifically those from North Africa, and in later years, from the Soviet Union.  Dimona, of course is mostly  famous for the “secret” nuclear plant that is located right outside it.

Qasr al-Sir was an “unrecognized” village in its new location—meaning it didn’t appear on any maps, didn’t receive any basic services like water, electricity, paved roads, sewage treatment, or garbage collection, and its homes could be destroyed at any time. The group of villages that were “recognized” in 2003 are controversial, because in return for the recognition, they gave up the right to the rest of their territorial land.

For Qasr al-Sir, this means that while the village itself now has some “amenities”–such as a school, some paved roads, and protection from home demolitions–it is still dealing with conditions that are unthinkable in Jewish communities in Israel.  One of these problems is that right up to its very boundaries, unmarked, is a military training zone where soldiers can fire freely. The village is literally fenced in by the military.

This is no coincidence on a systemic level, as 85% of the Negev (or Naqab in Arabic) has been either requisitioned as a closed military zone or nature preserve.  This is one of the ways that the Bedouins in the Negev have been forced to relinquish more and more of their lands, forced into isolated urban and rural areas with minimal, if any services.

The young man who was killed was a member of BUSTAN’s new eco-building training program.  He was 19 years old.  There was next to no media coverage of his death–one paragraph in YNET (the website of Yediot Ahronot, the largest Israeli daily paper) which mistakenly called the village “unrecognized” and implied that the men were trespassing–and nothing more. Similarly–no real investigation.  When folks from BUSTAN called the local police chief to see why not, he was irritated and dismissive of their concerns.

No one thinks the boy was killed on purpose.  It was Friday afternoon, almost Shabbat, a time when it should have been quiet and it would have been safe to walk the hills.  In that sense, it was a “mistake.”  But it was a mistake that speaks entire worlds.

Was the village in an uproar? I asked Ra’ed.  No, he replied matter of factly.  Two others had been killed this way two years before.

PS.  One other  tidbit from that evening:

Terrabin, the unrecognized Bedouin village that abuts Omer, one of Israel’s wealthiest communities, finally gave in to years of pressure.  Homes have been repeatedly destroyed, and last year checkpoints were set up where residents were harrassed going in and out of the village.  The residents agreed to move to different lands for compensation.  Omer will expand.