Tuesday, 3 April 2012

“Youth Against Settlements’” Badia Dweik: “While we were violently evicted, the army treats settlers with kid gloves.”

While Israeli PM and his ministers scramble to prevent the eviction of a Palestinian-owned house in Hebron that was taken over by Jewish settlers last week, a video documenting the violent eviction of Palestinian activists from a nearby house owned by the Hebron municipality two days ago, shows extensive use of force.

The eviction, which took place on Sundayy in the Old City of Hebron, was carried out by a large force of Israeli Border Police officers. During the eviction, the force heavily employed the use of tear-gas and a foul smelling liquid called “The Skunk”. Additionally dozens were physically assaulted, with at least five of the activists ending up at the hospital. The activists, members of the local group “Youth Against Settlements”, intended to renovate and take residence in the house in order to prevent it from being taken over by Israeli settlers.

The video documents Israeli Border Police officers storming the house, dealing blows to the completely peaceful activist using batons and their rifles. While a Dutch who was arrested was already unconditionally released yesterday, the detained Palestinian activist who is a coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements movement, Issa Amro, was only released today after depositing a 1,000 Shekels bond as bail.

The activists were evicted despite having acquired a written permission to use the premises from the Hebron Women’s Charitable Society, which rents the house from its owners – The Hebron Municipality. Only days earlier, when settlers took over a nearby Palestinian house, Israeli Authorities refrained from employing force, allowing the settlers to remain in the house. Badia Dwaik, an activist with “Youth Against Settlement”, who was inside the house during the eviction said, “The recent takeover of a nearby house by settlers brought about further restrictions on the already heavily constrained Palestinian movement in the area, including for those families living there. While we were violently evicted from a house we had legal rights to, the army treats settlers who took over a Palestinian house with kid gloves”

Background
Over the years, Israel established a number of settlement points in and around the Old City of Hebron, which had traditionally served as the commercial center for the entire southern West Bank. To perpetuate the settlements in the city, Israeli authorities impose a regime intentionally and openly based on the “separation principle”, as a result of which Israel created legal and physical segregation between the Israeli settlers and the Palestinian majority.

This policy led to the economic collapse of the center of Hebron and drove many Palestinians out of the area. The findings of a survey conducted B’Tselem and ACRI in 2007, show that at least 1,014 Palestinian housing units in the center of Hebron have been vacated by their occupants. This number represents 41.9 percent of the housing units in the relevant area. Sixty-five percent (659) of the empty apartments became vacant during the course of the second intifada. Regarding Palestinian commercial establishments, 1,829 are no longer open for business. This number represents 76.6 percent of all the commercial establishments in the surveyed area. Of the closed businesses, 62.4 percent (1,141) were closed during the second intifada. At least 440 of them closed pursuant to military orders.

The main elements of Israel’s separation policy are the severe and extensive restrictions on Palestinian movement and the authorities’ compliance with settlers violence directed at Palestinians. The city’s residents also suffer as a direct result of the actions of Israel authorities.

Restriction on Palestinian movement and the closing of businesses
During the first three years of the second intifada, Palestinians in the city center of Hebron were put under curfew for more than 377 days total, including a consecutive period of 182 days, with short breaks to obtain provisions.In addition, the army created a contiguous strip of land in the City Center along which the movement of Palestinian vehicles is forbidden. The middle of the strip contains many sections of road that the army forbids even Palestinian pedestrians to use. The strip blocks the main north-south traffic artery in the city, and therefore affects the entire city.The extensive prohibitions have led to the closing of hundreds of shops, in addition to those that were closed under military order.

Settler violence
Settlers in Hebron have routinely abused the city’s Palestinian residents, sometimes using extreme violence. Throughout the second intifada, settlers have committed physical assaults, including beatings, at times with clubs, stone throwing, and hurling of refuse, sand, water, chlorine, and empty bottles. Settlers have destroyed shops and doors, committed thefts, and chopped down fruit trees. Settlers have also been involved in gunfire, attempts to run people over, poisoning of a water well, breaking into homes, spilling of hot liquid on the face of a Palestinian, and the killing of a young Palestinian girl.Soldiers are generally positioned on every street corner in and near the settlement points, but in most cases they do nothing to protect Palestinians from settlers’ attacks.

Institutionalized aggression
The increased presence of Israeli soldiers and police in the Hebron city center regularly brings with it violence and harassment towards Palestinians. Violence, arbitrary house searches, seizure of houses, harassment, detaining passersby, and humiliating treatment have become part of daily reality for Palestinians and have led many of them to move to safer places.

Many times, these conscientious objectors (COs) are imprisoned for refusing to serve in the army, as the military service is mandatory in Israel for all youth at the age of 18 for a period of 3 years for men and 2 years for women (There are parts of Israeli society that are automatically exempted from military service such as the Palestinian citizens of Israel and most Jewish-religious women).

In the coming month, two 18 year-old youth (one male and one female) will refuse to serve in the army, declaring that they can not take part in the violent oppression of the Palestinian people.

These brave youth each wrote a declaration explaining why they refuse to be drafted into the Israeli army, and would rather sit in prison than implement the violent policies of oppression of the Israeli army and government:

Noam Gur, an 18 year old women from the north of Israel, expected to refuse and be imprisoned on April 16th, explains:

For 64 years Israel is implementing a policy of Apartheid and occupation in all territories under its control, that includes among other things, ethnic cleansing, house demolitions, ongoing siege, violent attacks, discrimination of the non-Jewish citizens of Israel and so on. When I understood all of this, I decided to refuse.

My refusal comes as an act of support and transition to a non-violent struggle to promote a just peace in Palestine-Israel, that will be based on full human and civil rights for all residents and refugees. I choose to refuse publicly and am willing to pay the price that the Israeli army will choose to lay upon me, in order to try and raise awareness to this injustice both in Israel and in the rest of the world.”.

Alon Gurman, a 19 year old man from Tel Aviv expected to refuse and be imprisoned on April 16th, explains:

We have always been told that the Israeli military is meant to defend the citizens of Israel, when in reality, living in security has nothing to do with occupation and apartheid. The Israeli military acts in a way that is meant to embitter the lives of Palestinians, oppress any resistance to the occupation, and perpetuate a rule of terror, by applying extreme violence against civilian population, upholding an oppressive military “justice” system, a siege on Gaza, vast military operations and random house demolitions.

My refusal is an opportunity to raise awareness of the Israeli military’s racist crimes and to call upon the people of the world to stand by Palestinians in their nonviolent struggle against occupation and apartheid, and support their call for BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel, in solidarity with a society under occupation, striving for freedom, justice and equality.”

As Israel does not recognize the act of refusing military service, the army will sentence them as soldiers who refused an order: the order to become soldiers. They will be sentenced for disobeying an order in a military court, and sent to a military prison for a period of a few weeks after which they will be ordered again to become soldiers, refuse again, be sentenced again and imprisoned again. This my repeat itself for months.

Joining them is a reserved service officer who after serving in both the second Lebanon war and the attack on Gaza in 2009 (Operation Cast Lead), decided that he can no longer be a tool in the hands of the government implementing this injustice, and has declared his refusal to continue serving in the reserved service. Today, after ignoring his last order for reserved service, he is considered a deserter and plans to turn himself in with the two other young refusers.

Yigal Levin, a 25 year old man, burn in Ukraine and raised in Israel, expected be imprisoned on April 16th, explains:

Part of my ideology was that the state has to be wise, responsible, decent and protective. In Lebanon, I saw a war that started for no clear reason, where soldiers died in vain while also committing a massacre against the Lebanese.

The Israeli army is commonly considered to be ‘the people’s army’, an army of the people protecting the people,” writes Levin in his own statement. “But in fact, the Israeli army is simply a bourgeois army – a tool in the hands of a small clique, which does not give a damn about the people… Not willing to remain a mere tool, a traitor, and a hypocrite, I decided to terminate my participation in it.”

We will update about their imprisonment and ways to help in the coming weeks. For more information contact shministim@gmail.com.

For farther information about the refusers:

J’accuse: Israeli youth headed to prison for refusing the draft – Haggai Matar on +972 Magazine

Four young Israelis refuse army draft in new refusenik wave – Haggai Matar on +972 Magazine

Two Israeli refusers on why they support BDS –  Noam Gur and Alon Gurman on Mondoweiss

Interview with Israeli refuser Noam Gur  - Annie Robbins on Mondoweiss

“I can’t take part in these crimes”: Israeli refusenik interviewed – Jillian Kestler-D’Amours on The Electronic Intifada

All said and done it is merely a minor story about an illegal alien who stole a car, was injured in an accident, then released from
hospital to have cops dump him, still injured to die the by the roadside. What are the building blocks that lead to such an atrocity?

Omar Abu Jariban, a resident of the Gaza Strip, staying illegally in Israel, stole a car and was seriously injured while driving it. He was released from the Sheba Medical Centre while his treatment was still ongoing and handed over to the custody of the Rehovot Police station. The police were unable to identify him. He himself was bewildered and confused. The Rehovot Police officers decided to get rid of him. According to Chaim Levinson’s account, they loaded him onto a police van at night accompanied by three policemen. He was still attached to a catheter, was wearing an adult nappy [diaper] and a hospital gown. Two days later he was found dead by the roadside.

It’s a minor story. We have already read some like it and others where even worse. And when it is all said and done who is the subject of this story: an illegal infiltrator, from Rafah and a vehicle thief to boot. And at any rate it happened as long ago as 2008, there is a statue of limitation to consider. And we have other, fresher, more immediate matters which are more relevant for us to consider. (And beside all that, they started it, we offered them everything and they refused and don’t forget the terrorism.).

Ever since I read the story, I find it difficult to breathe the air here: I keep on thinking about that trip in the police van, as if some part of me had remained there, bonded on permanently and impossible to be prise out. How precisely did the incident pan out? it? What are the real, banal, tangible elements that coalesced together make up such an atrocity?

From the newspaper I gather that there were three cops there alongside Omar. Again and again I run the video clip mentally in my head: Was he sitting like them on the seat or was he lying on the floor of the van? Was he handcuffed or not? Did anybody talk to him? Did they offer him a drink? Did they share a laugh? Did they laugh at him? Did they poke fun at his adult nappy? Did they laugh at his confusion or at his catheter? Did they discuss what he was capable of while still
attached to the catheter or once he would be separated from it? Did they say that he deserved what was coming? Did they kick him lightly like mates do, or maybe because the situation demanded a swift kick? Or did they just kick him for the heck of it, just because they could, and why not?

Besides, how can someone be discharged just like that from medical treatment at the Sheba Medical Centre? Who let him out in his condition? What possible explanation could they put down on the discharge papers which they signed off?

And what happened when the van reached the Maccabim checkpoint [not far from Jerusalem -tr]?

I read in the newspaper that an argument ensued with the Israeli checkpoint commander, and that he refused to accept the patient. Did Omar hear the argument about him from within the van, or did they drag him out of the van and plonked him in front of the commander, replete with catheter, nappy and hospital gown for a rapid overall assessment by the latter? And the commander said no. And yalla! We are on our way again. So they returned to van, and they kept on going. And now the guys in the van are perhaps not quite as nice before, because it is getting late and they want to get back and wonder what have they done
to have deserved copping this sand nigger and what are they going to do with him now. If the Maccabim checkpoint rejected him, there was no way in which the Atarot checkpoint will take him. It is now pitch black outside and by the by, while traveling on Route 45, between the Ofer military base to the Atarot checkpoint, a thought or a suggestion pops up. Perhaps someone said something and nobody argued against, or perhaps someone did argue back but the one who came up with the original suggestion carried more weight. Or perhaps there was no argument, someone said something and someone else felt that this is
precisely what needs to be done, and one of them says to the driver, pull over for a moment, not here, it’s too well lit, stop there. You, yes you, move it, get your arse into gear you piece of shit – thanks to you our van stinks; you ruined our evening, get going! What do you mean to where? Go there.

And what happens next? Does Omar remain steady on his feet, or are his legs unable to carry him? Do they leave him on the side of the road, or do physically take him there, and how? Do the haul him? Do they drag him deeper into the field?

You stay here! Do not follow us! Do not move!

And then they return to the car, walking a little bit more briskly, glancing behind their shoulder to ensure that he is not pursuing them. As if he already has something infectious about him. No, not his injury. Something else is already beginning to exude out of him, like bad tidings, or his court sentence. Come on, let’s get going, it’s all over.

And he, Omar Abu Jariban, what did he do then? Did he merely stand on his own feet or did he suddenly grasp what was happening, and started running and shouting that they should take him with them? And perhaps he did not realise anything, because as we said, he was confused and bewildered, and just stood there on the road or in the field, and saw a road, and a police van driving away. So what did he do? What did he really do? Started walking aimlessly, with some sort of a vague notion that somehow being a little further away would turn out somewhat better? Or maybe he just sat down and stared blankly in front of him and tried to figure it, but it was clearly beyond his comprehension for he was in no position to understand anything? Or perhaps he lay down and curled up on the ground and waiting? Why? And whom did he think about? Did he have someone, somewhere, to think about? Did the thought occur to any of those police officers, at any time during that whole night that there was someone, a man, a woman or a whole family for whom Omar was important? Someone who cared about him? Did it occur to them that it was possible, with a little bit more of an effort to locate this person and hand Omar to them?

Two days later they found his body. But I have no idea how much time had elapsed from the moment they dumped him by the roadside until he died. Who knows when it dawned on him that this was it; that his body did not have enough strength left to save himself. And even if could have summonsed the energy, he was trapped a situation from which there was no exit, that his short life was about to end here. His brother Mohammed, said by telephone from Gaza, “They simply threw him to the dogs”. And in the newspaper it says, “Horrible as it may sound, the brother accurately described what happened.” And I read it and the image turns into something real, and I try to wipe that image from my mind.

And in the police van, what happened there after they dumped Omar? Did they talk among themselves? About what? Did they fire each other
up with hatred and disgust at him, to retrospectively justify what they did? To justify what in their heart of hearts they knew stood in contrast to something. Maybe that thing was the law (but the law, they probably imagined, they could handle). But maybe it was contrary to something deeper, some deeply ingrained memory in them which they found themselves in, many years ago. Maybe it was moral tale or a children’s story in which the good was good and the bad was bad. Perhaps one of them recalled something they learnt at school — they did pass through our education system, didn’t they? Let’s say it was S Yizhar’s HaShavuy (The Captive).

Or maybe the three of them pulled out their mobile phones and spoke to the wife, the girlfriend the son. At such times you may want to talk to someone from the outside. Someone who wasn’t here who did not touch this thing.

Or maybe they kept quiet.

No, silence was perhaps a little bit too dangerous at that point. Still, something was beginning to creep up the van’s interior; a sort of a viscous dark sensation, like a terrifying sin, for which there is no forgiveness. Maybe one of them yet did suggest softly, let’s go back. We’ll tell him that we were pulling his leg. We can’t go on like this, dumping a human being.

The paper says: “As a result of the police Internal Affairs investigation, negligent homicide charges were filed in March 2009 against only two of the officers who were involved in dumping and abandoning Abu Jariban. Evidence has yet to be submitted in a trial of the pair but in the meantime, one of the two accused has been promoted.”

I know that they do not represent the police. Nor do they represent our society or the state. It’s only a handful or bad apples, or unwelcomed weeds. But then I think about a people which has dumped a whole other nation on the side of the road and has backed the process to the hilt over 45 years, all the while having not a bad life at all, thank you. I think about a people which has been engaging in a brilliant genius-like denial of its own responsibility for the situation. I think of a people, which has managed to ignore the warping and distorting of its own society and the madness that the process has had on its own national values. Why should such a people get all excited over a single such Omar?

Update x2: Clarification from the lawyers:
Khaled Zwahra was detained on 5.6.2011 during Naksa Day protests in Qalandia while blocking an army vehicle that was about to invade further into residential areas of Qalandia. He was taken to Atarot police station (in Qalandia industrial area, operated by the border police), where he was suspected of participating in an unauthorized demonstration and disturbing a policeman/soldier on duty.

Only the following day, 2 border policeman  - one of whom wrote a report on the day of arrest, incriminating Khaled only for the above mentioned offenses , “remembered” that he also threw sones, and gave a very weak statement against him.  Although there are several videos and photographs that show that Khaled was arrested while blocking the army vehicle, and despite the weakness of the border policemen’s testimonies, on June 12th he was indicted and charged also with  ”stone throwing”. The military court in Ofer ordered his arrest until the end of the proceedings. Khaled’s lawyers appealed against the remnand decision and the on June15th there was a hearing in the military court of appeals. We are currently waitingfor the appeals court decision regarding the arrest, and making an effort to get the decision as soon as possible. The first hearing in the trial itself (reading of the indictment and answering) will take place on July 13th.

Update: According to email sources, there was no hearing and the Israeli Army plans to keep into jail at least until July 13th.  At that point the detention could be extended up to 100 days.

From the Occupied Palestine blog comes this report of another nonviolent activist arrested.

Khaled Zawahre’s military hearing has concluded delayed ruling until Sunday they will either release him or keep him in custody for 101 days. We want to ask your support to keep sharing this information widely so the cases of arbitrary arrest by Israel get more media attention. For putting a unarmed civilian on trial for a military court after an arbitrary arrest without any proof is a severe  human rights violation

Khaled Zawahre was arrested in Qalandia while stopping in front of the Skunk Car he has been detained in Ofer prison and Military court extended his emprisonement with another 101 days of arrest until end of investigation they accused him of beating up a soldier and throwing rocks even though the films show he was standing non-violent infront of the car being skunked !

Earlier on May 15 2011, Khaled also got injured during a similar nonviolent demo and was hit with a rubber bullet and lost consciousness twice from the teargas (HRW May 20, 2011 issue) on the same day, Israel answered nonviolent protesters with great and disproportionate violence which caused 15 deaths.

For more photos and videos of Khaled and Qalandia, visit the Occupied Palestine blog. Khaled was previously seen on this blog in the video from the “Naksa day protests.”

From Gisha’s Gaza Gateway, more on the inadequacy of the new Rafah Crossing rules on the Egypt-Gaza border.

The top 10 reasons why the opening of Rafah Crossing just doesn’t cut it

Bassem Tamimi, the subject of an action alert by Jewish Voice for Peace, speaks up for freedom on the 44th anniversary of Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, June 5th, 2011.

Tamimi’s full statement:

Your Honor,

I hold this speech out of belief in peace, justice, freedom, the right to live in dignity, and out of respect for free thought in the absence of Just Laws.

Every time I am called to appear before your courts, I become nervous and afraid. Eighteen years ago, my sister was killed by in a courtroom such as this, by a staff member. In my lifetime, I have been nine times imprisoned for an overall of almost 3 years, though I was never charged or convicted. During my imprisonment, I was paralyzed as a result of torture by your investigators. My wife was detained, my children were wounded, my land was stolen by settlers, and now my house is slated for demolition.

I was born at the same time as the Occupation and have been living under its inherent inhumanity, inequality, racism and lack of freedom ever since. Yet, despite all this, my belief in human values and the need for peace in this land have never been shaken. Suffering and oppression did not fill my heart with hatred for anyone, nor did they kindle feelings of revenge. To the contrary, they reinforced my belief in peace and national standing as an adequate response to the inhumanity of Occupation.

International law guarantees the right of occupied people to resist Occupation. In practicing my right, I have called for and organized peaceful popular demonstrations against the Occupation, settler attacks and the theft of more than half of the land of my village, Nabi Saleh, where the graves of my ancestors have lain since time immemorial.

I organized these peaceful demonstrations in order to defend our land and our people. I do not know if my actions violate your Occupation laws. As far as I am concerned, these laws do not apply to me and are devoid of meaning. Having been enacted by Occupation authorities, I reject them and cannot recognize their validity.

Despite claiming to be the only democracy in the Middle East you are trying me under military laws which lack any legitimacy; laws that are enacted by authorities that I have not elected and do not represent me. I am accused of organizing peaceful civil demonstrations that have no military aspects and are legal under international law.

We have the right to express our rejection of Occupation in all of its forms; to defend our freedom and dignity as a people and to seek justice and peace in our land in order to protect our children and secure their future.

The civil nature of our actions is the light that will overcome the darkness of the Occupation, bringing a dawn of freedom that will warm the cold wrists in chains, sweep despair from the soul and end decades of oppression.

These actions are what will expose the true face of the Occupation, where soldiers point their guns at a woman walking to her fields or at checkpoints; at a child who wants to drink from the sweet water of his ancestors’ fabled spring; against an old man who wants to sit in the shade of an olive tree, once mother to him, now burnt by settlers.

We have exhausted all possible actions to stop attacks by settlers, who refuse to adhere to your courts’ decisions, which time and again have confirmed that we are the owners of the land, ordering the removal of the fence erected by them.

Each time we tried to approach our land, implementing these decisions, we were attacked by settlers, who prevented us from reaching it as if it were their own.

Our demonstrations are in protest of injustice. We work hand in hand with Israeli and international activists who believe, like us, that had it not been for the Occupation, we could all live in peace on this land. I do not know which laws are upheld by generals who are inhibited by fear and insecurity, nor do I know their thoughts on the civil resistance of women, children and old men who carry hope and olive branches. But I know what justice and reason are. Land theft and tree-burning is unjust. Violent repression of our demonstrations and protests and your detention camps are not evidence of the illegality of our actions. It is unfair to be tryed under a law forced upon us. I know that I have rights and my actions are just.

The military prosecutor accuses me of inciting the protesters to throw stones at the soldiers. This is not true. What incites protesters to throw stones is the sound of bullets, the Occupation’s bulldozers as they destroy the land, the smell of teargas and the smoke coming from burnt houses. I did not incite anyone to throw stones, but I am not responsible for the security of your soldiers who invade my village and attack my people with all the weapons of death and the equipment of terror.

These demonstrations that I organize have had a positive influence over my beliefs; they allowed me to see people from the other side who believe in peace and share my struggle for freedom. Those freedom fighters have rid their conscious from the Occupation and put their hands in ours in peaceful demonstrations against our common enemy, the Occupation. They have become friends, sisters and brothers. We fight together for a better future for our children and theirs.

If released by the judge will I be convinced thereby that justice still prevails in your courts? Regardless of how just or unjust this ruling will be, and despite all your racist and inhumane practices and Occupation, we will continue to believe in peace, justice and human values. We will still raise our children to love; love the land and the people without discrimination of race, religion or ethnicity; embodying thus the message of the Messenger of Peace, Jesus Christ, who urged us to “love our enemy.” With love and justice, we make peace and build the future.

Background
Bassem Tamimi is a veteran Palestinian grassroots activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah. He is married to Nariman Tamimi, with whom he fathers four children – Wa’ed (14), Ahed (10), Mohammed (8) and Salam (5).

As a veteran activist, Tamimi has been arrested by the Israeli army 11 times to date and has spent roughly three years in Israeli jails, though he was never convicted of any offence. He spent roughly three years in administrative detention, with no charges brought against him. Furthermore, his attorney and he were denied access to “secret evidence” brought against him.

In 1993, Tamimi was falsely arrested on suspicion of having murdered an Israeli settler in Beit El – an allegation of which he was cleared entirely. During his weeks-long interrogation, he was severely tortured by the Israeli Shin Bet in order to draw a coerced confession from him. During his interrogation, and as a result of the torture he underwent, Tamimi collapsed and had to be evacuated to a hospital, where he laid unconscious for seven days.

As one of the organizers of the Nabi Saleh protests and coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Tamimi has been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. Since demonstrations began in the village, his house has been raided and ransacked numerous times, his wife was twice arrested and two of his sons were injured; Wa’ed, 14, was hospitalized for five days when a rubber-coated bullet penetrated his leg and Mohammed, 8, was injured by a tear-gas projectile that was shot directly at him and hit him in the shoulder. Shortly after demonstrations in the village began, the Israeli Civil Administration served ten demolition orders to structures located in Area C, Tamimi’s house was one of them, despite the fact that it was built in 1965.

We just produced a 5 minute film about Hagar,  our school and Jewish-Arab community in Beersheva. I thought it might be something you would like to distribute as a kind of site of hope and light in these dark times.”

The theater has helped Palestinian youths deal with the hardships of life under Israeli occupation by expressing themselves through the arts—film, photography, art, and most predominantly, the stage. Khamis had recently directed his students in a production of Alice in Wonderland.

Born to a Jewish mother and an Arab Christian father in Israel, Khamis was a well-known actor who appeared in a number of films. He opened the theater after its predecessor, founded by his mother, was destroyed in the 2002 Israeli assault on Jenin. Khamis was carrying his infant son when he was shot to death. He was just steps away from the Freedom Theatre. In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, who is pregnant with twins.

We’re joined now by two guests. On the line from Jenin, Nabeel Raee is with us. He is the director of the Acting School at the Jenin Freedom Theatre, where he closely worked with Juliano for many years. And here in New York, Constancia “Dinky” Romilly. She is the founder and president of the board of the New York-based Friends of Jenin Freedom Theatre.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s go directly to Jenin. Nabeel, what happened yesterday? First, our condolences.

NABEEL RAEE: First, I want to say that it’s a big loss for Palestine and for the Palestinian culture, artists, the people who believe in art, and big loss for the children of Jenin refugee camp, the students that they are studying at the Acting School of the Freedom Theatre, staff of the Freedom Theatre. It’s is a big blow that we lost Juliano Mer-Khamis, the revolutionary, the thinker and the fighter.

What happened is more than we can imagine. It’s a murder. It’s a crime. The criminal was hiding behind his mask. When Juliano went out of the theater, when he was reading a text for a new play, a new production that we planned to do, and he stepped out of the theater, and like few meters out, the criminal came and shot him while he was holding his son. And next to him was the babysitter. And he got like more than six bullets in his chest. And he was trying to protect his son in the same time. So he died, and he protected his son.

This is more than a crime. This is like unusual. This is unbelievable. And excuse me for my words; I cannot really find words to describe my—the situation more than this. I mean, we’re all in shock, and we all really—this is what happened. It’s a crime. It’s a crime against all of us, against the humanity, against someone who tried to build with us, step by step.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there a sense who did this?

NABEEL RAEE: Sorry. Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there a sense, Nabeel, who did this?

NABEEL RAEE: We don’t know. The Palestinian Authority, the PA, the police, the friends, all the people, they’re investigating, and they’re trying to find out who did it. But until now, nothing is clear. And what I can say is, whoever was the criminal is someone who doesn’t know Juliano Mer-Khamis, doesn’t know—he, this person, I think if he knew this person, he wouldn’t do it. And I’m telling the people who’s behind him that they’re mistaking of killing him, because in this way they are not going to kill the spirit, because the spirit is there, and we’re going to continue after him.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Juliano Mer-Khamis in his own words. This was a promotional video he did for the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Juliano talked about the theater’s mission to help Palestinian youth resist occupation in a creative way.

JULIANO MER-KHAMIS: My name is Juliano, and I’m the director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp. The Freedom Theatre is a venue to join the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation. We believe that the Third Intifada, the coming intifada, should be cultural, with poetry, music, theater, cameras and magazines.

This place never had a theater. This place never was exposed to these arts. So, actually, we are building everything from scratch. We are building capacity, building of actors. We are building capacity, people of audience. You know, sometimes it’s easier to create actors than audience. We are dealing with the young generation to expose them to these arts.

The location of the Freedom Theatre—and don’t let this view to deceive you—we are sitting in the mid of the most attacked and poor refugee camp in Palestine: the refugee camp of Jenin. We are talking about almost 3,000 children under the age of 15 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It means they pee in their pants when they are 11. It means they cannot concentrate. They cannot deal with each other without violence.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, that was Juliano Mer-Khamis in his own words. I wanted to turn now to “Dinky” Romilly. She is the president of the board of the New York-based Friends of Jenin Freedom Theatre. You worked closely with Juliano. Your thoughts today?

CONSTANCIA ROMILLY: Well, of course, we are heartbroken and horrified. The young people in the theater came pouring into the theater yesterday. And their message was, they won’t let this stop the important message of the Freedom Theatre, which is fighting against both the occupation, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and against the negative Islamist culture that is also oppressing people in the Jenin refugee camp and throughout the West Bank. They will carry on, and we will support them.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to end with Nabeel Raee, director of the Acting School there in Jenin at the Freedom Theatre. The latest news, Palestinian Authority security officials arrested a Hamas operative in Jenin suspected of involvement in Juliano’s murder. Several other suspects were arrested Monday night following the murder, many were released, IDF and PA security forces investigating the circumstances. Any more news, Nabeel?

NABEEL RAEE: Amy, I can tell the Palestinian Authority arrested more than 20 person to interrogate them. And I cannot tell—now, really, we cannot say that some of the groups, the Palestinian groups, is behind this, unless we find out who is the person. And through the interrogation, we will find out who did that. But, I mean, without this, you cannot really tell who is behind it, who planned it, and what was the reasons. This is all the news. I mean, we’re holding ourselves as much as we can to know—

AMY GOODMAN: Nabeel Raee, we’ll have to leave it there, and “Dinky” Romilly, thank you so much for being with us. Our condolences, all.

From Gisha’s Gaza Gateway, what it would actually take to end just the closure of Gaza, although not the entire Occupation.

Image from Gisha's photo report one year ago

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister said last week that the continued smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip threatens further implementation of the “easing” of the closure. Israel of course has the right to prevent the passage of arms shipments (as it did this week at sea). But why weapons smuggling should prevent easing the closure is not entirely clear, as we (and 1.5 million residents of Gaza!) are asking that civilians and civilian goods be permitted to pass through the border crossings (where they undergo Israeli security checks).

So what exactly are we asking for? That the welcome but unfortunately limited measures taken to ease the closure be expanded, so that civilians and civilian goods can enter and leave Gaza. This week, we present three easy steps for how Israel can lift the closure while protecting legitimate security interests:

Step #1: Lift restrictions on exports from Gaza:

Recently, Israel allowed the export of tomatoes for sale in Europe. This was in addition to the permission given in the last two months for the export of strawberries, flowersand peppers, to the tune of an average of four trucks per day of exports – as opposed to the 400 trucks per day promised by Israel in 2005. Israel should now lift restrictions on the export of all goods, subject only to appropriate security checks. Export should be allowed not only to Europe (a market with limited profitability), but also to markets in Israel and the West Bank. Export is vital in order to inject money into the private sector in Gaza and consequently to lower unemployment (currently at 37.4%) and raise consumption. Only then will the entire economy recover – industry, agriculture, trade and services.

Step #2: Cancel the ban on the transfer of construction materials:

As part of the package of measures to ease the closure, presented by Prime Minister Netanyahu a month ago, Israel promised to allow the entry of 40,000 tons of gravel into the Gaza Strip, about 1000 truckloads, as an exception to the ban on the transfer of building materials. Approximately 400 trucks have already entered through the Sufa crossing in the last week. This should only be the first step however: we note that since the “easing” of July 2010, Israel has allowed just 4.4% of the building materials (gravel, cement and steel) needed by Gaza residents – not nearly enough to rebuild.

There is an urgent need in the Gaza Strip to build schools, hospitals and homes, some of which have been in ruins for two years, following Operation Cast Lead. If we really want to rebuild Gaza, we need to end the ban on construction materials and re-open closed crossings to allow for their transfer. Israel argues that Hamas will use cement to build bunkers but meanwhile, the government in Gaza buys cement freely through the tunnels. Rather, it is international organizations and poor families who wish to rebuild their homes who are unable to purchase cement.

Step #3: Allow people to travel into and out of the Gaza Strip subject only to individual security checks:

In the last few months, Israel has indeed allowed more businessmen (but not women!) to leave the Gaza Strip for commercial purposes, which certainly aids the recovery of Gaza’s economy. However apart from businessmen, travel between Gaza and the West Bank remains limited to “exceptional humanitarian cases”. Israel must now increase the number of exit permits for all kinds of commercial purposes (men and women alike!), allow students to travel to study in the West Bank, let educators and academics travel for professional courses and training and, in fact, allow travel between Gaza and the West Bank subject only to individual security checks.

Guest Post by Aharan Eviatar

The recent ghastly events in Arizona, especially the killing of Christina Greene, gunned down by a political lunatic at age nine, lead one to think of the phenomenon of political killing of children and what it implies for society. In particular, I would like to bring up along with Christina, two other cases of killing of little girls, one in Arizona and the other in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The story of Christina is well known and documented in all its horror by the media. The other two cases are less well known.

• Brisenia Flores, like Christina Greene was 9 years old, and she also lived in Pima County, Arizona, not far from Tucson. Like Christina, she was gunned down in cold blood by killers with strange ideas about society and politics. A quote of some detail from Will Bunch in his blog County Fair on the site Media Matters:

‘As her mother tells it, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores had begged the border vigilantes who had just broken into her house, “Please don’t shoot me.” But they did — in the face at point-blank range, prosecutors allege, as Brisenia’s father sat dead on the couch and her mother lay on the floor, pretending that she too had been killed in the gunfire.”

• Abir Aramin was 10 years old and lived in the town of Anata in the Occupied West Bank. In January 2007 she was killed by a rubber bullet to the head fired by an Israeli Border Policeman (the Border Police are really ordinary soldiers who serve in this capacity) as she was going home from school. The Army has consistently denied that she was killed by a soldier despite pathology reports and concocted a cock and bull story that she was hit by a rock during a riot. In fact there was no riot at the time.

It might appear to the cursory glance that these cases are similar. In fact, there are important differences between them, While the seriously warped mind of Christina’s Tucson murderer, Jared Lee Loughner, is beyond a layman’s understanding, the motives of one of Brisenia’s alleged killers– a woman named Shawna Forde — are pretty clear: She saw herself as the leader of an armed movement against undocumented immigrants, an idea that was energized by her exposure to the then-brand-new Tea Party Movement. The anonymous killer of Abir was motivated purely by blood lust and while Loughner and Forde are in custody awaiting or facing trial, the murderous soldier is being shielded by his commanders and by the legal and military establishment in Israel.

Arizona is not the loveliest state in the Union. For decades it refused to recognize the birthday of Martin Luther King as a legal holiday and last year enacted racist legislation against immigrants. Nonetheless, it has put Forde on trial for murder despite the fact that the victims are of Mexican origin. Even Arizona, fascist and racist as it may be, has red lines with respect to the rule of law that it refuses to cross.

In Israel, on the other hand, it took Bassem and Salwa Aramin, Abir’s parents, three years to fight the Israeli court system with the aid of the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din and a devoted human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard. Eventually they won some semblance of justice for Abir. Initially police investigators closed the file on their daughter’s death without attributing blame for it.The child’s mother, Salwa, who had always contended that her child had been killedby a police rubber bullet, broke down in tears when she heard that there was to be no prosecution, feeling “that they had killed her again”. Then, when they contested the police decision in the High Court, it refused to re-open the case on the grounds that she could have been killed by a stone thrown by Palestinian rioters.

The family’s subsequent civil suit succeeded last August when Jerusalem District Judge Orit Efal-Gabai declared unequivocally in open court:

“Abir and her friends were walking down a street where there were no rock-throwers; therefore there was no reason to shoot in their direction. It is clear that Abir’s death, caused by a rubber bullet shot by border guards, was due to negligence…”

Judge Efrat-Gabai gives the Border Police the benefit of the doubt with respect towhy Abir was shot and the Army will certainly continue to drag its feet forever in investigating the case. Let us all pray for the day when Israel progresses to the level of Arizona in terms of respect for the rule of law and the accountability of the holders of power for the lives of those of the “wrong” ethnicity.