Keeping the organizers under arrest
There were some 30 of us, standing at the entrance of the Jalame prison in the ice cold rain, shouting slogans for the release of all political prisoners.
Jalame is an old English (implying constructed during the British mandate) prison somewhere quite in the middle of nowhere in the north of the country. Rain, ice-cold winds at at some point a dramatic rainbow formed the drizzled backdrop for our demo.
The public: some 15 prison guards and some visitors on their way to visit their loved ones, also imprisoned inside. It's reportedly an ancient prison with very bad conditions, like many of the country's "establishments".
Since the onset of the the war on Gaza, several demonstrations have taken place against that war and against the continued blockade of the Gaza strip since the violence stopped.
Many of the organizers have been arrested and interrogated. Almost all of those arrested have been Palestinians. Samih Jabareen, a Jaffa based theatre student, is still under arrest on some cooked up charges of "participation in an illegal demonstration and attacking a policeman". Sandard charges faces by many of us at one time or another. Bullshit charges, made to threaten us and "keep us under control". Until now files have always been closed. The police knowing we are not criminals abnd they have nothing to go by, nor was a crime committed.
But Samih has been in prison for almost two weeks now. The prosecution want to keep him under arrest until the end of the procedures against him, which may take months. And that is new. From a legal point of view they have nothing to stand on. Yet for some reason the judge is going on with it.
This is a very new development. Until now that kind of "treatment" has been "reserved" for Palestinians from the occupied territories, no longer so.
The cooked up charges against Samih have all the looks of the fake trial Tali Fahima went through. It looks as if we are at the beginning of a more sinister era. Is the l;aw being abused to limit the right to protest and to criticize?
All Samih did was protesting, shouting, screaming in Um El Fahm (his town of birth) on election day. Democracy or farce?
Jalame is an old English (implying constructed during the British mandate) prison somewhere quite in the middle of nowhere in the north of the country. Rain, ice-cold winds at at some point a dramatic rainbow formed the drizzled backdrop for our demo.
The public: some 15 prison guards and some visitors on their way to visit their loved ones, also imprisoned inside. It's reportedly an ancient prison with very bad conditions, like many of the country's "establishments".
Since the onset of the the war on Gaza, several demonstrations have taken place against that war and against the continued blockade of the Gaza strip since the violence stopped.
Many of the organizers have been arrested and interrogated. Almost all of those arrested have been Palestinians. Samih Jabareen, a Jaffa based theatre student, is still under arrest on some cooked up charges of "participation in an illegal demonstration and attacking a policeman". Sandard charges faces by many of us at one time or another. Bullshit charges, made to threaten us and "keep us under control". Until now files have always been closed. The police knowing we are not criminals abnd they have nothing to go by, nor was a crime committed.
But Samih has been in prison for almost two weeks now. The prosecution want to keep him under arrest until the end of the procedures against him, which may take months. And that is new. From a legal point of view they have nothing to stand on. Yet for some reason the judge is going on with it.
This is a very new development. Until now that kind of "treatment" has been "reserved" for Palestinians from the occupied territories, no longer so.
The cooked up charges against Samih have all the looks of the fake trial Tali Fahima went through. It looks as if we are at the beginning of a more sinister era. Is the l;aw being abused to limit the right to protest and to criticize?
All Samih did was protesting, shouting, screaming in Um El Fahm (his town of birth) on election day. Democracy or farce?
Posts
3 comments:
http://multimedia.heritage.org/content/wm/Lehrman-092706a.wvx
http://multimedia.heritage.org/content/wm/Lehrman-092706a.wvx
the link doesn't play, at least not on my comp, but i understand from its title, the only thing coming up, it is some anti-Islamic drivel.
Now, one wonders why posting this as a comment on a post about Israel's democracy being in danger....
Sadly amusing how, when i talk about the dangers to Israeli democracy, which is dear to my heart and i fear for it, the right-wing goof balls always come up with anti Islam BS. They truly are that silly?
Post a Comment