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

Freedom Theatre targeted again

While I was away on vacation, four cases of the continuing slow death of Israeli democracy occurred. Taken together, they represent a good spectrum of the responses to democracy activists by Israel, all negative.

First, Matan Cohen, Israeli-American activist, member of Young, Jewish, and Proud, and one of the people behind the push for divestment at Hampshire College. He attempted to return home as he often does. He was taken aside on December 17 by Israeli security’s “Jewish division” and accused of “hostile terrorist activities,” ie nonviolent organizing. Here’s his account:

Dear friends,
I just wanted to update you about a recent experience I had…

Upon arrival at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, on Friday afternoon, I was detained for roughly 3 hours by Israeli secret service (Shabak)- the official charge being alleged involvement in “hostile terrorist activities” against the state of Israel. My luggage was thoroughly searched, but I was not questioned. I was let ago after, apparently, head of the “Jewish Department” in the secret service called the police and told them I could now be released, with no charges filed.

Although this isn’t the first time I am stopped, until this summer it was only done upon leaving the country, but never upon returning. This is definitely a step up in the level of political repression against anti-apartheid activists in general, and BDS activists in particular. We are now in consultation with our legal team regarding possible lines of action. And while this is a personal hassle, it is obviously a small price to be paying in comparison to Palestinian activists, and on the political level this sort of harassment should make clear to us that the state is helpless as for how to stop us, and resort to such tactics of intimidation.

No Pasaran, and thanks everyone for your concern.

Solidarity,
matan

Here is Ha’aretz’s Amira Hass on Israeli “anarchists” in the crosshairs.

Matan is correct that Palestinians still face worse repression, though of course that does not excuse the intimidation against him. But while he faced harassment for returning to Israel/Palestine, Jerusalem Palestinian organizer Adnan Gheith faced expulsion for resisting settlement takeovers in his Silwan neighborhood. In a temporary victory for democracy, the Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction today and there will be a  hearing on his case Wednesday. Here’s a Jewish Voice for Peace alert calling for Adnan to be able to stay in Jersulaem.

Please email the U.S. State Department today to express your concern about Adnan’s case. Forward  this email to your friends and ask them to email and call before Wednesday.

Adnan resides in the historically Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. He is a member of the al-Bustan Neighborhood’s Committee, an organization formed to fight plans for increased demolitions of Palestinian homes.

The expulsion order against Adnan is arbitrary and politically motivated. Adnan was unable to legally defend himself since no charges or evidence were presented against him. With his removal, the Israeli authorities are trying a dangerous new tactic to repress the rights of local residents to protest. A few days after Adnan was notified of his impending exile, he was also forbidden to attend a conference with a senior foreign diplomat or to appear in any press conference.

Adnan’s banishment and the quashing of his freedom of expression are part of a larger pattern to judaize Silwan at the expense of its Palestinian residents. In recent years the Jerusalem municipality–in collusion with settler organizations–has intensified the policy of demolition of Palestinian homes in the neighborhood.

Adnan has spoken out against this and now is being penalized. He needs your help to stay in Jerusalem and continue struggling to protect his home and his community.

In Adnan’s own words:“On my part, I am going to fight and resist in all legal ways possible to stay in Jerusalem.  It is the duty of the international bodies, the international communities, and human rights organizations to address this issue of exceptional danger.”

Please heed Adnan’s call. Stand by him and by the people of Silwan.

While Matan was ultimately not charged, Jonthan Pollak who does similar activism on behalf of the Popular Struggle Committee, who we often repost on this site. While he is often defending Palestinian democracy activists for wrongful imprisonment, he is now facing three months in prison “with his head held high” for riding his bike in a Critical Mass protest, like those that exist in many U.S. cities. I think it safe to say that no one in the United States would receive more than a fine for such actions, Israeli police took it as carte blanche to punish Pollak.

+972 magazine has Jonathan’s speech refusing to ask for leniency or express remorse upon receiving his sentence.
Here’s the Independent (UK) on Jonathan’s arrest for his West Bank resistance.

Joseph Dana on the links between Adnan Gheith, Jonathan Pollak, and Mohammed Abu Tir
Finally, Mazin Qumisyeh, a Palestinian academic who returned to help with protests against the wall in the village of Al-Walaje, was arrested on December 22, with several of his comrades. This is not the first time, but there was even more violence than usual. Here’s an account from his friend.

Mazin, Shireen and Abu Ammar were released late last night, the other five were supposed to get released today on a bail of around 100€ each – again, this for having stood in their village and having argued that the ILLEGAL destruction of their land was illegal.

When he got back, Mazin talked about yesterday on video, if you have a few moments, please have a look at it. I think, apart from the content, what the video shows is that the people resisting here are ordinary people, people, who have families, who try to live ordinairy lives, who have things to do and get disrupted when soldiers invade their villages and lives, who want to live, and in peace. Mazin is a professor and had things to do yesterday. We are students, farmers, teachers, workers, daughters, sons, wives, brothers, etc. and we are fighting for our right to live and to live freely and in justice. There’s more and more people in the world uniting, not only against the injustice, colonialization, Apartheid, occupation, oppression, that exists here but elsewhere, too. Yet, mainstream discourse still portrays the oppressor here as the victim, because of an immense crime that was committed by other people elsewhere.  We here, Palestinians, Israelis, non-Israeli Jews, people of other ethnicities and religions stand side-by-side in front of one of the strongest armies in the world and we are struggling to keep our sisterhood, dignity, solidarity, and humanity. I usually don’t write about how I feel about the things that are happening around me, but it’s the end of the year, I’m tired, I’m sad, and I’m really angry.

We’re trying to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, here, amid the thousands of tourists that come to the supposed birthplace of Jesus, often without knowing anything about this city that holds three refugee camps… I’m struggling to end this on a positive note, except maybe on the wish (though not hope) that the next year will be much much better, where they will not launch a new massacre on Gaza as they are announcing already, and with gratitude to being surrounded by so many brave people that try to stand together, in spite of all, and love.

Here’s the Popular Struggle’s account of Mazin’s arrest in Al-Walaje as Israel ramps up construction of the wall.
Video of Mazin talking about his arrest:

Amira Hass quotes Palestinian Agriculture Minister Ismail Daiq as saying that “The year 2009 was the quietest for Israelis from the security point of view and the most violent for the Palestinians from the point of view of attacks by settlers in the West Bank.” This simple equation shows us that the Palestinians are not being punished for their own actions, rather for their simple existence.
Hass backs up Daiq’s quote with data from the Palestinian Monitoring Group for a single day.

That Wednesday, a total of 212 occupation-related incidents were recorded. Examples include: four physical assaults (which took place in the West Bank, and included civilians being beaten in Nablus and Jerusalem); one injury (a civilian hurt in a clash in Daan); eight military shooting attacks (two of which took place in Gaza, two were in the midst of raids, and one came from a military outpost; 39 army raids (one in Gaza); 28 arrests; and 12 detentions at checkpoints and in residential areas. The items on the checklist include home demolition (none that day), the leveling of agricultural land (one, in Gaza), and construction of the separation wall (at 22 locations).
The report also includes categories for property destruction (seven cases, including the destruction of wells and crops); checkpoint closure (eight cases at five checkpoints, including instances of impeded access); mobile (“flying”) checkpoints (23); permanent closure of village access roads (seven); closure of main roads (40, (including four in Bethlehem and 14 in Hebron, and the village of Jaba east of Ramallah); closure of main crossing points (four, including the permanent blockade of Gaza); disruptions at school (three cases, including the throwing of two tear gas canisters); violence on the part of settlers (one, in Sheikh Jarrah); demonstrations (one, in Hebron). The checklist also includes Palestinian attacks (none on that day).”

Hass identifies the things the report leaves out.

No statistics can express the emotional and social distress that accompanies every event and non-event, such as the incarceration of 1.5 million people inside the Gaza Strip or the fact that tens of thousands still have not been able to reconstruct homes that were damaged during the Israel Defense Forces offensive in the winter of 2008-2009.

The statistics do not include the practical difficulties that stem from this discrimination or the permanent insult it creates.”

Nor do these statistics include the discrimination of Palestinians inside Israel or the loss of freedom for all Israelis as their democracy contracts.

She goes on to cite similarly horrifying statistics about homes demolished and children detained on spurious charges or no charges at all. Her final paragraph is quite applicable to any US news article about the conflict.

Any news item we report that deals with Israeli rule over the Palestinians is misleading. It creates the impression that whatever has been reported is all that has happened on the Palestinian side and that otherwise everything is normal, or even flourishing. Any news item that is published in Israeli papers is a sign of what is missing, what no one wants to know.”

Here at The Only Democracy?, we want to know. And we also want to give you the stories of the people working to make sure there are no more such statistics.

Amira Hass traces the nibbling away of much of the land of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour for Jerusalem municipality and settlement expansion; the abandonment of an Israeli military base in 2007 opening the door for construction of a playground and hospital for Beit Sahour residents; and recent military orders declaring the area once again a closed military zone, and allowing construction of a guard tower there.  Both the settlers and Beit Sahour residents agree that the reason for the re-opened military zone is not, as the military claims, for security, but is the result of a vehement settler campaign to “stop Arab Construction” in this largely Christian town outside of Bethlehem.

For their part, the settlers say the tower will eventually be integrated into a Jewish city that will connect the Gush Etzion settlement bloc with the Jewish settlement of Har Homa in East Jerusalem. The Beit Sahur residents have no reason to doubt either the settlers or the Har Homa neighborhood committee chairman, who declared that, “This could become a reality, just as Har Homa spilled beyond what was planned and expected.”

According to Amira Hass,

“Interior Minister Eli Yishai has banned Palestinian geographer Khalil Tufakji, a resident of Jerusalem, from traveling abroad for six months, citing unspecified security concerns.

The ban was issued on the recommendation of the Shin Bet security service and is based on 1948 Emergency regulations.

“Having been convinced that there is real concern that the exit of Mr. Khalil Tufakji from Israel may harm the security of the state, I order that he be banned from exiting the country until 2 August, 2010,” the order reads.

Tufakji, 60, was summoned last week to a meeting at Jerusalem police headquarters in the Russian Compound. There, a man in civilian clothes calling himself Shadi, gave him the order.

The Shin Bet said that the man was a policeman.

Tufakji has for years been researching Israel’s settlement policy and the ways by which Palestinian land is taken over, as well as planning policy which discriminates against Palestinians.

He heads the cartography department of the Arab Studies Society, established in 1980 to document the social, political and cultural history of the Palestinians.

Since 1992 Tufakji has been part of Palestinian negotiating team on property borders, land and settlements. In addition to his research, he lectures in Israel and abroad and is often interviewed by journalists.”

I hope those of us who are concerned with Israel’s security have better things to worry about than a cartographer and participant in peace negotiations. But if your goal is to deny democracy to people, an academic with a map of the gradual theft of Palestinian land by settlements is a much bigger threat than a fighter with a gun.