The above photo shows Abdallah Abu Rahmah (far right) with Ela Bhatt, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Fernando Cardoso, Mary Robinson and Gro Brundtland of the Elders visiting the grave of a Bil’in resident who was shot dead by the Israeli military during a protest, a nonviolent protest.
Apparently, murder is now an officially sanctioned act to stop nonviolent protests by Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals who gather weekly in the Palestinian village of Bi’lin in order to protest Israel’s occupation and the confiscation of lands. These weekly nonviolent protests have taken place over the past three years.
In the latest attempt to stop the Bil’in protests, it was recently learned that an organizer of the protests, the very same Abdallah Abu Rahmah shown above, was arrested.
This report is from Mondoweiss (Adam Horowitz),
Bil’in leader arrested as part of ongoing Israeli crackdown on nonviolent Palestinian protest
December 10, 2009
At exactly 2 AM last night, seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s residence in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate school in Birzeit near Ramallah and is the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements. A previous raid targeting Abu Rahmah was executed with such exceptional violence on 15 September 2009 that a soldier was subsequently indicted for assault.
Abu Rahmah’s arrest is part of an escalation in Israeli military’s attempts to break the spirit of the people of Bil’in, their popular leadership, and the popular struggle as a whole – aimed at crushing demonstrations against the Wall. Recently, Adv. Gaby Lasky, who represents many of Bil’in’s detainees, was informed by the military prosecution that the army intends to use legal measures as a means of ending the demonstrations.
(snip)
Since 23 June 2009, 31 residents of Bil’in have been detained by the military. The Army has pursued Popular Committee members in its arrest operation, but all three detained members were released for lack of evidence. In the case of another member, Mohammed Khatib, the court even found some of the presented evidence to be falsified.
In addition to committee members, a leading Bil’in activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has been detained for over five months, is not suspected of committing any violence, but was indicted with a blanket charge of “incitement”, which was very liberally interpreted in this case to include the organizing of grassroots demonstrations.
There was a time during the second Intifada when Palestinians who retaliated against killings of innocent civilians and children in the territories were called “terrorists” because of the gruesome results of suicide bombings on civilians inside Israel. The word was, if only, if only the Palestinians had resorted to passive resistance ala Gandhi, they would have had their state already. Although such claims demonstrate ignorance of the intents of Israeli colonialism, the Palestinians did indeed take up the Gandhi approach.
Now we learn that even Gandhi is a threat to Israel. How pathetic.
wondering what in hell is wrong with Egypt?
The Guardian headline was: Egypt building underground metal wall to curb smuggling into Gaza
Egypt later denied it was building this iron wall, but then subsequent news like on the BBC continued with their story about this development. One has to wonder if the US isn’t using its leverage, yearly billions in aid, to get Egypt to help Israel tighten the screws on Gaza.
I have to wonder what will happen when the Gaza Freedom March gets to Rafah and demands entry into Gaza. 1200 activists will be arriving there at the end of the month, in coordination with 50,000 Israeli Palestinians marching to entry points to Gaza inside Israel.
I have to believe that all of this will happen, as it has in the past, below the radar of the American press, a radar that is intentionally turned off when it comes to pro{alestinian peace and humanitarian efforts.
The completion of the biggest concentration camp the world has ever seen is imminent. It will pass largely unnoticed and uncared about in Foxville and NYTimesham.
However if one rocket dares to pock mark the hallowed lands of Israel well just await the furious media response.
The Gaza Freedom March is presently en route to Gaza. It consists of over 1,000 activists from over 40 countries. But are we hearing anything about it in the US press?