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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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30 May 2010 By Stephen Lendman
This writer's earlier article
exposed how Israel restricted free expression protests
to suppress opposition to its Gaza war. It covered
efforts by the police, State Prosecutor's Office,
General Security Services (GSS), the courts, and
academic institutions to support arrests and
imprisonments of Israeli Arabs and Jewish protestors,
to keep nonviolent resistance from spreading.
See the complete article at:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/01/isaeli-prohibitions-against-free.html.
A mid-April article stayed on the
theme in discussing state persecution of Israeli
journalists, Anat Kam and Uri Blau.
For the complete article, see:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/accelerating-fascism-in-israel.html.
On April 28, the Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) covered more recent
abuses by Israel's West Bank proxy, Fatah's General
Intelligence Service (GIS) against Muhannad Salahat, a
writer and human rights activist. Also, writer Walid
al-Hodali's Preventive Security Service (PSS) arrest,
confiscation of his personal computer, and refusal to
return it after his release. These actions violate
international human rights standards, the Palestinian
Basic Law, and other relevant PA ones.
Salahat was arrested, prevented
from traveling, and summoned to appear before GIS
interrogators. He explained what happened as follows:
On March 28 at 10PM, he was
arrested at the Jericho Palestinian Crossing and
Search Center, interrogated several times, and not at
first given reasons. He was then asked about his
writings and documentary films for Al-Jazeera
television - "crimes and grave errors that he
committed against the Palestinian national project,
represented by the Palestinian Authority."
During detention and
interrogation, he was mistreated and forced to let GIS
read his incoming emails. After release on April 12,
GIS kept his laptop, camera, and external hard drive
containing documentary film footage. They also
required him to call "all his friends and ask them to
end the media campaign that they had launched against
the Palestinian Authority."
On April 15, GIS returned his
belongings, after deleting 23 hours of video from his
hard drive. On April 19, he tried to cross from
Jericho to Jordan, was stopped, then allowed to enter,
but prevented by a Jordanian officer who said the PA
prohibited his entry. On April 26, he was ordered to
appear before the GIS on May 1 with a warning that
"failure to appear at the specified time and on the
specified date, would result in the issuing of an
arrest warrant against him."
Besides his writing and
filmmaking, Salahat is a member of the Palestinian
Association for Human Rights (RASED). His persecution
continues.
On April 26, al-Hodali was
arrested at his Ramallah home. His property was also
searched and his personal computer confiscated. He was
then taken to PSS headquarters, interrogated about his
political affiliations, and released. He reported that
as of late April, his computer hadn't been returned.
PCHR expressed "grave concern
(about) the re-occurrence of attacks against the right
to freedom of expression and press freedoms." It
stressed the importance of protecting journalists, the
media, and human rights activists, "and of taking all
necessary measures to allow them to perform their work
freely."
The Palestinian Basic Law and
international standards affirm free expression and
opinion. So is the freedom of movement principle.
Violating them by or for Israel or any other authority
is unacceptable any time, under any conditions, for
any purpose.
Knesset
Legislation to Conceal Information and Stifle Dissent
An Adalah Legal Center for Arab
Minority Rights in Israel April 29 press release
discussed Israeli human rights groups' response to a
proposed Knesset bill to suppress information exposing
serious international law breaches, calling it a
danger to democracy.
At issue is a proposed
Associations (Amutot) Law (Amendment - Exceptions to
the Registration and Activity of an Association),
introduced on April 28, that if passed, will prohibit
the registration of any NGO if:
"there are reasonable grounds to
conclude that the association is providing information
to foreign entities or is involved in legal
proceedings abroad against senior Israeli government
officials or IDF officers, for war crimes."
Existing NGOs will also be
subject to closure under the proposed law.
It's contrary to international
criminal and humanitarian law standards. If enacted,
it will be "an official admission (by Israel) that it
is committing war crimes." It will also force human
rights organizations (and other public voices) to be
silent and cease efforts to prevent the continuity of
such actions, or face prosecution.
The bill validates other Israeli
crackdowns against human rights organizations in
recent months. More on that briefly below.
"The legislation also seeks,
contrary to all constitutional principles, to restrict
the freedom of expression and freedom of association
of these organizations, and also creates public
de-legitimization of their educational, legal and
public role."
Further, the bill will impede
efforts of victims to seek redress by excluding them
from Israel's legal system. It tells Palestinians and
the world that their lives and rights don't matter, a
message well understood in the Territories.
What better argument for
exercising universal jurisdiction, the right of all
nations to investigate and prosecute foreign nationals
who commit the most serious crimes, especially related
to war and against humanity - Israel's specialty, yet
they, in fact, used it to convict and execute Adolph
Eichmann for his holocaust crimes, only indirectly
connected to Israel.
Universal jurisdiction doesn't
supersede national prosecutions. It complements them
as an authority to act when criminal nations won't,
and implicit in the principle is they must to assure
the rule of law and not let its worst abusers go
unpunished.
The following Israeli human
rights groups responded to the proposed legislation:
Adalah, B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel (ACRI), Bimkom, Gisha, Hamoked, Physicians for
Human Rights - Israel, the Public Committee Against
Torture in Israel (PACTI), and Yesh Din.
They accused Israel of breaching
international law, saying:
"Instead of defending democracy,
the sponsors of this bill prefer to reduce it to
ashes. This bill is the direct result of irresponsible
leadership that is doing all it can to undermine
democratic values and the institutions that are the
backbone of a democracy: the Supreme Court, a free
press, and human rights organizations," supporting
rights that nations and others violate.
If enacted, this measure will
represent "an unprecedented moral nadir within the
Israeli house of parliament," that in recent years has
become increasingly hard line, embracing a doctrine
typical of fascism.
For months, Israel security
forces, politicians, and extremist groups have been
targeting the above human rights organizations and
others (including Breaking the Silence, Rabbis for
Human Rights, and international ones) for supporting
Goldstone Commission findings and demanding
accountability.
In February, 2010, activists were
arrested, held in prison and then deported, including
Spanish journalist Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian
student Bridgette Chappell. Both women belong to the
International Solidarity Movement, yet an IDF
spokesperson said they were "involved in illegal riots
that obstruct Israeli security operations."
Thirteen human rights
organizations condemned this and similar abuses,
B'Tselem among them (on February 2) saying:
"A democracy must not silence
critical voices; protecting human rights is vital."
Hagai Ed-Ad, Executive Director
of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
added:
"Human rights organizations are
the moral conscience of our society. Their activity is
a critical element of a healthy democracy. A
democratic country does not support the deliberate
silencing of the critical voices that operate within
it but deals honestly with what needs to be
corrected."
Netanyahu's government has
accelerated Israeli fascism with a supportive Knesset,
its most racist in history according to a recent
Mossawa Advocacy Center study, including passing laws
in violation of Supreme Court rulings as well as
international norms and standards.
In Israel and the Territories,
extremism and repression occur daily. In a May 2 press
release, the West Bank-based "Friends of Freedom and
Justice - Bilin" highlights one of many abuses,
saying:
"Iyad Burnat, a leader in the
popular struggle against the Israeli wall, was banned
by Israel's military from crossing (into) Jordan on
Saturday."
Burnat heads the local anti-Wall
committee in Bilin, where organized protests have been
ongoing for five years, despite repressive violence,
arrests, and unprovoked killings.
He called this latest incident
"just another episode of Israel's aggression on
us....soldiers detained me for three hours and then
told me to go back (saying it was) for security
reasons."
In 2009 and recent months,
Israeli security forces killed 29 Palestinians during
nonviolent protests against the Separation Wall,
including Bassem Abu Rahma, shot at close range in the
chest with a high velocity tear gas bomb. Dozens of
others have been targeted, arrested, brutalized during
incarceration, and held up to 10 months for their
activism and popular resistance.
On April 30, in honor of
International Workers' Day by the Union of Palestine
Workers, Bilin protestors gathered at the Wall.
Straightaway, they were attacked by tear gas, then
arrests, including an international activist (roughed
up, thrown to the ground, and injured), a female
journalist, and Al-Jazeera cameraman, Haitham al-Khatib,
struck in the stomach by a tear gas canister.
In March 2010, the IDF declared
the area between Bilin and the Separation Wall a
closed military zone from 8AM - 8PM on Fridays, the
day protest marches and demonstrations occur.
Nonetheless, Burnat says:
"We will not be silenced, we will
continue to resist, we refuse to die in silence, we
will continue to cry out for peace and justice to a
world whose ears are deaf to the agony of Palestine,"
as well as to increasing harshness against Jews and
others who expose Israeli crimes and demand
accountability.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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