Free Israel's anti-apartheid prisoners

Free Israel's Anti-Apartheid Prisoners! January 6, 2010 Recently, Israel has been increasing its repression of nonviolent activists for Palestinian human rights, especially those involved in promoting boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns. The three Palestinian civil society leaders below are being held without trial for their nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid. Click here to have the United States demand the release of these nonviolent activists by sending an email to the U.S. Consul General in East Jerusalem, Daniel Rubinstein. Mohammad Othman was arrested on September 22, 2009, at the Allenby Bridge crossing, while returning from addressing the Norwegian national pension fund about divestment from Elbit Systems, a major Israeli military contractor. Mohammad has now been held in administrative detention-without charge-for 106 days.   Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a leader of the weekly nonviolent protests against the Apartheid Wall in Bil'in, was arrested in his home in the early morning hours of December 10, 2009-International Human Rights Day. He has been slapped with a phony weapons possession charge for collecting tear gas canisters shot at him and other peaceful demonstrators by the Israeli army.   Jamal Juma', coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, was arrested on December 16 and is being held without charge. On January 4 his administrative detention was extended for a further 3 days. He has now been held for more than 20 days.   A few weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major speech on human rights policy, pledging the Obama Administration to hold itself accountable to universal human rights standards: "By holding ourselves accountable, we reinforce our moral      authority to demand that all governments adhere to obligations under international law; among them, not to torture, arbitrarily detain and persecute dissenters, or engage in political killings. Our government and the international community must counter the pretensions of those who deny or abdicate their responsibilities and hold violators to account." Israel's arbitrary detention and persecution of dissenters such as Mohammad, Abdallah, and Jamal-Palestinians who are leading a nonviolent movement of protest against Israeli apartheid and in support of campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel-stand as a crucial test of whether the Obama Administration singles out Israel for a special exemption from its human rights rhetoric. Tell the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem to press Israel to free these and all Palestinian political prisoners by clicking here. Jamal, Mohammad, and Abdallah aren't the only Palestinian grassroots figures being targeted by the Israeli military. They join hundreds of other Palestinians being held without charge in administrative detention, and thousands of Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli jails. The villages of Jayyous, Ni'lin, Bil'in, and al-Ma'sara, as well as Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and other East Jerusalem neighborhoods, are facing collective punishment for their nonviolent resistance to the Wall and eviction. Learn more about this campaign of repression by watching this report from the Real News Network, and demand the release of Israel's anti-apartheid prisoners by clicking here. Israel's attacks on nonviolent resistance and its imprisonment of Palestinian grassroots leaders is a violation of international law and human rights and a violation of the Obama Administrations stated policy objectives in Israel/Palestine. As Secretary of State Clinton said in her Dec. 14 human rights address: "Believing in human rights means committing ourselves to action, and when we sign up for the promise of rights that apply everywhere, to everyone, that rights will be able to protect and enable human dignity, we also sign up for the hard work of making that promise a reality." Help make that promise a reality by sending a letter to U.S. Consul General Daniel Rubinstein asking him to press Israel to free Palestinian political prisoners such as Mohammad, Abdullah, and Jamal by clicking here. Take Action! 1) Send an email to the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem to demand the releease of the anti-apartheid prisoners by clicking here 2) Follow us on Twitter and help us send messages to the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and the State Department by clicking here 3) Learn how to start and intensify BDS campaigns in your local community by clicking here 4) Support the important BDS and anti-apartheid work of the US Campaign by clicking here 1 Support Our Work: Join the Olive Branch Club: Follow us on: ABOUT | TAKE ACTION | GET INVOLVED | STORE | DONATE | RESOURCES | MEDIA | SUBSCRIBE |UNSUBSCRIBE US CAMPAIGN TO END THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION | PO BOX 21539 | WASHINGTON, DC 20009 202-332-0994 | USCAMPAIGN@ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG | WWW.ENDTHEOCCUPATION.ORG

 

	Free Abdallah Abu Rahmah Abdallah Abu Rahmah keeping his daughter Luma from harms way On the night of International Human Right Day, Thursday December 10th, at 2am, Abdallah Abu Rahmah was arrested from his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Seven military jeeps surrounded his house, and Israeli soldiers broke the door, extracted Abdallah from his bed, and in front of his wife Majida and their three children — seven year-old Luma, five year-old Lian and eight month-old baby Laith — they blindfolded him and took him into custody for organizing peaceful demonstrations. For Abdallah's wife, Majida Abu Rahmah's account of the arrest see her blog in the Huffington Post Abdallah is a source of inspiration to us all, but now he needs your support. Please take a minute to show him that people from all over the world care about him and his cause by sending him a letter. Your support will strengthen Abdallah's morale and be presented to his judge, proving that the international community is watching. ____________________ This message was sent to talhrn@zahav.net.il by Popular Struggle Coordination Committee Popular Struggle Coordination Committee | Amarat alRamouni | Ramallah | Occupied Territories unsubscribe					This letter from Bil′in′s Abdallah Abu Rahmah was conveyed from his prison cell by his lawyers. Please circulate widely. January 1, 2010 To all our friends, I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope. I know that Israel's military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel′s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment. Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commitment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed grassroots resistance to the Occupation. The price I and many others pay in freedom does not deter us. I wish that my two young daughters and baby son would not have to pay this price together with me. But for my son and daughters, for their future, we must continue our struggle for freedom. This year, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee will expand on the achievements of 2009, a year in which you amplified our popular demonstrations in Palestine with international boycott campaigns and international legal actions under universal jurisdiction. In my village, Bil'in, Israeli tycoon, Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel, the corporation he controls, are implicated in illegal construction of settlements on our stolen land, as well as the lands of many other Palestinian villages and cities. Adalah-NY is leading an international campaign to show Leviev that war crimes have their price. Our village has sued two Canadian companies for their role in the construction and marketing of new settlement units on village land cut off by Israel's Apartheid Wall. The legal proceedings in this precedent-setting case began in the Canadian courts last summer and are ongoing. Bil'in has become the graveyard of Israeli real estate empires. One after another, these companies are approaching bankruptcy as the costs of building on stolen Palestinian land are driven higher than the profits. Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons or army, but we do not need them. The justness of our cause earns us your support. No army, no prison and no wall can stop us. Yours, Abdallah Abu Rahmah From the Ofer Military Detention Camp