American Jew says she hates what Israel is doing

Want to feel the teargas and see the effect it has? Join a protest at the West Bank town of Bil'in in the spring of 2010 starting at 23:00 of the video below.

But above all, listen to the Israeli from Tel Aviv who participates in the protest. Listen to the Australian and the American who have come so far from home to support justice by way of the International Solidarity Movement.

The American, a Jew, says (at 31:25)

I'm ashamed of it (the American flag)...the way we aid Israel, give them carte blanche and we don't do anything for the Palestinians except spew a lot of rhetoric.

INTERVIEWER: Why would you come here?

A couple of reasons. I'm Jewish, so I hate what Israel is doing especially because they claim to be the home of the Jewish people and it isn't, it's Zionism. It's everything against what Judaism stands for so I come to put a different face on Judaism and I believe we are supposed to stand for the oppressed wherever they are...and as an American because my money is used against the Palestinians and so it's important for me to come and stand with the Palestinians and work with them.

The first half of this video is a visit to the home of a Palestinian slain while protesting in 2009. The video is one of almost 100 videos called Sleepless in Gaza and Jerusalem - something anyone who wants to get to know the Palestinians and their situation should watch.

On it goes at Bil'in

The weekly demonstrations against the separation wall running through Bil'in continue. I've covered it before. It's one thing to demonstrate once or twice, quite another to keep it up for years.

What follows is an email I received from someone who knows what it means to keep up the effort. What he says about the violence of the IDF, the arrests, and the so-called justice of the military courts are even more reason to respect the steadfastness of the Palestinians...

Dear Clif,

At the threshold of the New Year, I write to wish you a new year of freedom and liberation. This has been an unbelievable year for me in both highs and lows. A year during which I have witnessed how, despite repression, ordinary people all across Palestine take to the streets for freedom.

In my village, Bil'in, thousands of people marched on the Wall today to take it down. During the demonstration, one protestor, a 36 year old resident of the village, Jawaher Abu-Rahmah, was critically injured by severe tear-gas inhalation. She is currently hospitalized in Ramallah, unresponsive to medical treatment as the doctors are fighting for her life.

UPDATE: Jawaher died, the second of her family to do so from demonstrating. Her brother was killed by a tear gas projectile last year.

Bil'in has been struggling for almost six years against the Wall that was built on our lands. The illegality and absurdity of this wall has been recognized worldwide, and even by the Israeli Supreme Court, which ruled it must be dismantled over three years ago. Yet the Wall still stands. We, the people of Bil'in, the people of Palestine, have waited enough. Today was therefore declared by the Bil'in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements as the last day of the Wall. Together with our supporters, we managed to bring a substantial part of the wall down but we still have a long way to go.

On a personal note, the beginning of 2011 also strikes notes of fear. In just a few days, on January 3rd, 2011, my trial in front of an Israeli military court will draw into conclusion. Captain Sharon Rivlin, the soldier-judge presiding in my case, will hand down my verdict. If found guilty of "incitement", my next letter will likely be written from inside a prison cell; If found guilty, despite having proved that evidence against me was falsified, I will proudly join my friend and comrade, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, who is now spending his second new year's eve behind bars. PSCC's media coordinator, my friend and brother in struggle, Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, will also be going to prison, again, for three months on January 11th, for protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza.

We are all facing tremendous challenges, as individuals and as a movement. It is our pride and strength that keeps us going. It is your support and involvement, which is becoming more crucial than ever. Join us – take our struggle forward, so that the year of 2011 will become an historical year of Palestinian liberation and a just peace.

In solidarity,
Mohammad Khatib

countries in the courtroom - but not U.S.

You may recall my posting on Adib Abu Ramah, another Palestinian languishes in prison, with a video showing him in non-violent action protesting the Israeli wall cutting through Bil'in (bee-il-EEN) , a town in the West Bank about 10 miles NW of Jerusalem.

Another protester from the same village, Abdallah, was an organizer of the weekly protests at Bil'in.

In prison since December of last year, on August 24, 2010 Abdallah was sentenced under military law for "incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations". His additional time in prison will be announced soon. UPDATE 10/15/2010 - Abdallah has been given another year in prison

From a report on the verdict:

incitement is defined as "The attempt, verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order" (section 7(a) of the Order Concerning Prohibition of Activities of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda (no.101), 1967), and carries a 10 years maximal sentence.

Military law defines illegal assembly in a much stricter way than Israeli law does, and in practice forbids any assembly of more than 10 people without receiving a permit from the military commander.

How could any law be more sweeping than that? Not only does the military put people under arrest, it is also the military that judges!

Yes, it's outrageous. That's why, per the report, diplomats from France, Malta, Germany, Spain and the UK, as well as a representative of the European Union were in attendance to observe the trial.

Notice a glaring absence - that of anyone from the United States Department of State? The world's superpower and defender of freedom of speech is not allowed by the Israel lobby to be there. Other countries are not so intimidated.

Here is the statement from the Spanish Parliament on the verdict -

STATEMENT FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY INTERGROUP FOR PALESTINE ABOUT ABDALLAH ABU RAHMAH'S CONVICTION (The Intergroup for Palestine is an official body of the Spanish Parliament, in which all political parties are represented. Its decisions and statements are achieved by full consensus)

On August 24, 2010, the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee (West Bank), Abdallah Abu Rahmah, was convicted of incitement and of participating in and organizing demonstrations by an Israeli Military Court.

This sentence comes after an eight months trial, during which the defendant has been bereft of freedom.

He is now awaiting his sentence, which could carry several years in prison.

The Parliamentary Intergroup for Palestine considers the Bil'in peaceful struggle against the construction of the Separation Wall, which was declared illegal, as a defense of the primacy of law and international law in the face of arbitrary decisions, which ignore not only the reiterated resolutions of the United Nations’ political bodies, but also Israel's own legal organization.

The peaceful opposition to the occupation and the construction of the Wall is in and of itself a defense of the individual and collective human rights of the Palestinian People, which deserves the protection of the international community.

It is on these grounds that Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union, has issued a statement on the issue on August 24, to which the Intergroup subscribes.

Therefore, we express our deep concern that Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s potential incarceration aims at preventing him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the Wall in a non violent manner.

Spanish Congress of Deputies Hall, August 30, 2010.

You can get a full account of the history of and reason for the demonstrations at Bil'in.

Abdallah was released in March 2011