[Gushalom] Struggling through the tunnel: Hass / PCATI / Grinberg / Rally
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Sun May 9 15:17:52 IDT 2004
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/
[] Silence in the court - by Amira Hass
[] Letter to General Finkelstein by PCATI
[] Grinberg case: do professors have the same rights to freedom of speech
[] Back to the Rabin Square
[In the following, a very disturbing article of Amira Hass about
Palestinian prisoners being beaten up in the courtroom in front of their
family members and lawyers. We let it follow by a not directly related
letter of protest (the most recent out of a near-daily series) by the
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.
And the case of Lev Grinberg is there to prove that violation of rights
and freedoms doesn't stop at the Green Line - for those who didn't yet
realize.
To end on a less somber note: it seems that the Likud hardliners have
given new energy to the Geneva Initiative: The Peace Now/Geneva
Initiative circles announced a mass rally at the Tel-Aviv Rabin Square
for coming Saturday evening.]
[] Silence in the court - by Amira Hass
Ha’aretz Friday, May 7, 2002
Silence in the court
Palestinian detainees who tried to greet their families in a military
courtroom were set upon and beaten by police guards, their lawyers say.
Here is their testimony
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/424687.html
Hebrew:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=424599
By Amira Hass
The lawyers who were sitting in the waiting room at the Military Court at
the Ofer Israel Defense Forces base, southwest of Ramallah, suddenly heard
a scream. This was on Sunday, May 2, at around 1 P.M. They ran out. "I saw
a heap of policeman, maybe eight or 10 of them, flailing and flailing, and
I could see some heads, legs, arms of the beaten detainees, maybe three of
them, or four, who were lying on the floor. The lawyers shouted `Why? Why?
Why?' and the police officer in charge shouted, `Guys, guys, get all the
lawyers out of here,' related attorney Khaled Kuzmar of Ramallah.
Attorney Faiz al-Shami of Be'er Sheva was inside the courtroom (which is
located in a prefabricated structure) when it all began, and tells this
story: "There were five detainees in the courtroom. The families were also
there. One of the detainees - I don't know his name - was talking to his
family, to his mother. He was standing there and speaking from a distance.
A policeman (prison service official) said to the detainee: `Don't talk.
Sit down. I decide what happens here,' and they began to argue. The
policeman sat him down forcibly, pushed him down onto the bench. After he
pushed him, the detainee stood up again. The other detainees stood up to
tell him to let him talk to his family and then about 10 policemen came
in. They attacked the people and a whole mess broke out. One of the
policemen, an older man, who came from outside, tried to calm things down
and spread his hands on one of the detainees to get him to sit down. But
the rest of the policemen got the detainees out of there by hitting them,
dragged them outside and closed the door. The family members were crying.
The judge wasn't in the courtroom. Only the military prosecutor, the
interpreter, the stenographer and some lawyers. We couldn't do anything to
get them to stop hitting."
Attorney Saleh Ayoub of Jerusalem was also in the military courtroom. "Six
detainees came in, and they were seated in their places. They were
accompanied by a police unit. One of the detainees who was sitting in the
middle stood up and waved hello to his mother, from a distance. There was
no chance that he could touch her. The detainees sit behind a low fence.
The families sit on the benches at the rear. There are soldiers separating
them. The detainee waved, the policeman grabbed him by the neck and sat
him down by force. The detainee asked: `What are you doing?' and the
policeman cried out, `They're rioting, they're rioting.' Reinforcements of
policemen came, and they beat them. The families, from a distance, were
crying. They couldn't do a thing. They too were immediately ejected."
Ahmad Yusuf, 18, of the Aida refugee camp, was among the detainees who
were beaten. He has been under arrest at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem
since March 25. On Sunday afternoon, lawyers Mohammed Shadsan of Al-Aroub
and Khaled al-Araj from Wallaja, transcribed what the beaten men had to
say about the sequence of events.
Yusuf: "I was standing in the detainees' block and I tried to talk to my
mother. The policeman yelled at me, `Sit down!' and pressed my body hard
until I sat. He tore my shirt. A group of policemen came and began to beat
me, dragging me and throwing me outside the courtroom. One of them shoved
me with his foot out of the courtroom. I bumped into the fence that is
opposite the gate, I was thrown into a corner and the policeman [Yusuf
gave his name, which he had read on his tag - A.H.] said to his colleagues
that I had caused the problem. They began to kick me all over my body, on
my face and on my chest. Then they handcuffed me and led me to the
vehicle, still beating me on the way."
Muhammad Karaja of Bethlehem, 19, who has been under arrest at the Russian
Compound since March 15, also tried to talk to his mother: "My hands and
my feet were tied. Because of the attempt to talk to my mother, who was in
the courtroom, I was attacked and hit hard. The policemen took me outside
and threw me down the stairs. I rolled on the floor so my face was down
and they hit me with their feet and stepped on me and I didn't have the
strength to resist so many policemen and their officer also participated
in the beating."
Adnan Nasser, 26, of the Balata refugee camp, has been under arrest since
March 11. He told the lawyers: "I was in the detainees' block. Next to me
was another detainee by the name of Ahmad Lutfi, whose mother was in the
courtroom, and he tried to talk to her. I also stood up, trying to talk to
my mother. And then the story began. When they ordered us to sit down and
stop talking several times, a policeman tried to press his body until they
made him sit down and they tore his shirt. Then other policemen came and
began to beat the detainees in the courtroom. The commander of the unit
asked me to sit down and while I was talking to him the policemen began to
eject us and hit us and throw us, one after the other, out of the
courtroom. I spoke to the commander and I tried to tell him that I have
had kidney surgery, and that the scars are clear, but he didn't answer me
and also hit me in the face. The soldiers continued to beat me, and I'm
lying on the ground. After that they tied my hands and dragged me to the
car, hitting me all the time and threatening us with weapons."
Munjid Suleiman, 23, from Beit Our al-Tahta, has been held at the Russian
Compound since March 18. He related that during the beating, one of the
policemen also cocked his weapon near him. "I was beaten on my right knee
and on my back and also in the area of my right eye," he said.
Ismail al-Farajin of Al-Aroub, 39, has been under arrest since March 18.
He told the lawyers that one of Ahmad Yusuf's relatives came into the
courtroom, Ahmad waved hello to him, and after him all the families came
in and we all waved to our families ... Suddenly the battle began. We
found ourselves forcibly ejected from the courtroom. I was pushed against
the wall opposite. At first I was hit once, but I didn't fall to the
ground. Only after they dragged us to the car did they beat me really
hard, especially on my right ear and on my back."
Iyad Abu Jouda, 32, of the Deheisheh refugee camp, has been under arrest
at the Russian Compound since February 24. He was sitting on a chair
outside the fenced detainees' block (where there is room for five, but
usually six detainees at a time are brought into the courtroom). "I saw
one of the two soldiers who were in the courtroom attacking Ahmad and
pushing him hard against the wall. All of a sudden, they all came in.
Another force came in and then they pushed me straight until they had
shoved me out of the courtroom. I fell on the ground, and before that one
of them aimed his weapon at me and cocked it and I was very scared. They
pulled me by my hair out the door of the courtroom into the cell [a small
room where the detainees are held - A.H.] and then they shackled my hands
with handcuffs. Until they put us into the vehicle they didn't beat me,
but I saw them beating the others. The commander of the unit who was with
me asked the soldiers (policemen) to stop hitting, but they didn't listen
to him."
Ofer Leffler, Prison Service spokesman: "The fighters of the Nahshon Unit
of the Prison Service, who are in charge of the terrorists, the security
detainees in the military prisons, overcame six terrorists who started to
riot in the Military Court at Camp Ofer. The six terrorists who were
present in the courtroom tried to make (physical) contact with members of
their families and this is contrary to the Prison Service standing orders
and regulations. As a result of the terrorists' activities, a disturbance
started in the courtroom. It was lead by the families and the terrorists.
After a brief struggle the terrorists were taken out of the courtroom and
transferred to the holding cells. The families were ejected from the
courtroom by the army. In light of the request by the president of the
court and after things calmed down, the terrorists were brought back into
the courtroom."
Immediately after the policemen stopped beating the detainees, the lawyers
at the military court declared a strike, in protest against detainees
being beaten on military court premises. Therefore, the lawyers do not
know whether the beaten detainees were indeed brought back into the
courtroom.
According to the lawyers, the vice president of the Military Court of
Appeals, Yoram Hanniel, recommended that they complain to the department
for investigating police actions. Attorney Ahmad Safiyya of Jerusalem
fears that the complaint will not be dealt with. According to him, about a
month ago, the lawyers wrote a letter of complaint to the president of the
Military Court after a policeman beat a detainee, and have received no
response. "It is the Military Court that is responsible for the fact that
on its premises and in front of their parents and their lawyers, policemen
beat detainees, unhindered and unrestrained," says Safiyya.
To the question of the responsibility of the Military Court for the well
being of the detainees, the IDF Spokesperson's Office replied:
"Sometimes verbal clashes take place between the detainees and the forces
accompanying them, which in rare cases result in the use of force.
Whenever such incidents do not take place before a judge, justification
for the use of force should be clarified through the usual channels.... by
submitting a complaint to the police, to the department for investigating
policemen or to the Military Police. Up to now, the court has received no
complaint concerning the beating of detainees by policemen. In the
incident of May 2, no soldiers were involved."
[] Letter to General Finkelstein by PCATI
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sun, 09 May 2004 12:14:45 +0200
From: Public Committe Against Torture in Israel <pcati at netvision.net.il>
Hebrew at request from <pcati at netvision.net.il>
<pcati at netvision.net.il> òáøéú òì ôé á÷ùä îàú
Our referenceS/41
(Please refer to this
number in your reply)
March 14, 2004
To:
Major General Menachem Finkelstein
Chief Military Prosecutor
Military Prosecutor’s Office
IDF
Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909
Dear Sir,
Re: Mr. Abdallah Jamal Se’ara, ID 950326421, aged 21, Hebron resident
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has received a complaint
from Mr. Se’ara. From the complaint the following transpires:
Mr. Se’ara was arrested at approximately 02:30 AM on June 18, 2003, at
his home in Hebron. IDF soldiers put on handcuffs, blindfolded his eyes,
and took him to the Etzion Detention Center.
Mr. Se’ara alleges that the IDF soldiers purposely broke his glasses at
the time of his arrest in spite of his urgent pleading not to do so.
Without glasses Mr. Se’ara can barely see anything from afar.
At Etzion, Mr. Se’ara alleges, he was badly beaten by the soldiers mainly
on his head. Afterwards he was left on the camp’s premises, exposed to
the elements, for almost a full day, from 06:00 AM to 03:00 AM the next
morning.
Mr. Se’ara alleges that he asked the soldier for food and water but they
refused to give him any. He was allowed to go to the toilet only once
during all those hours and that, he said, only after prolonged pleading.
Mr. Se’ara is currently being held at the Ofer Detention Facility.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel:
Determines that the alleged beating of Mr. Se’ara by IDF soldiers in the
Etzion Detention Center is contrary to the standing prohibitions embedded
in Israeli and international law, among them the Fourth Geneva
Convention.
Demands the investigation ofMr. Se’ara’s complaints and the arraignment
of the soldiers who participated in the beating and their commanders, if
found responsible.
Demands the investigation of Mr. Se’ara’s allegations concerning the
soldier who purposely broke his eyeglasses and the arraignment of the
soldier in question.
Determines that the conditions in which Mr. Se’ara was allegedly
incarcerated at the Etzion Detention Center, exposed to the elements,
without water or food and without being allowed to use the toilet for
about 24 hours, are in breach of the regulations embedded in the Penal
Code (Coercive Authority – Arrests) (Incarceration conditions) 1997 and
of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
Stresses that the complaint lodged by Mr. Se’ara joins a long line of
similar complaints in which detainees that were kept at the Etzion
facility were incarcerated outside under the open sky, limited in their
use of toilets, without food or water and being treated very poorly and
even violently by the soldiers.
Demands the investigation of the conditions in which detainees are kept
at the Detention Center and the immediate improvement thereof so as to
bring them up to par with the regulations embedded in law.
We should be grateful for a rapid and efficient response and look forward
to receiving
the results of your investigation as soon as possible.
Respectfully yours,
Hannah Friedman
Executive Director
Cc:
MK Yossi Sarid
Attorney Louie Ouka
[] Grinberg case: do professors have the same rights to freedom of speech
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sat, 08 May 2004 08:07:54 +0200
From: Lev Grinberg <lev at bgumail.bgu.ac.il>
Subject: Haaretz and Maariv on Freedom of Speech
This week-end have been published two big articles on the academic
freedom debate provoked by the Minister of Education pressure on BGU
administration to "punish me" for my article "symbolic genocide". The
combination of both articles present a fair picture of the debate, Haaretz
giving me a voice, Maariv attacking me but also criticizing Livnat.
It seems to me that the next step of this struggle is very clear: the
attempt to limit in a bureaucratic style the academic freedom by making a
distinction between it and freedom of speech. This is the initiative of my
University, and also of Prof. Assa Kasher that suggested to write an
"ethic code" to the academic freedom (maariv). Very interestingly he is
the same professor that wrote the "ethic code" for the military behaviour
in the occupied territories.The same person that legitimized the targeted
killings now offers his philosophic services to legitimize limitations to
the freedom of speech.
It seems to me very positive that Kasher volunteered, because it
facilitates to make the direct linkage between the physical repression and
killing of Palestinians and the anti-democratic need to silence critics
within Israel.
I am not pessimistic. Let's try to keep our Universities free of State
intervention, as an autonomous basis of the civil society, and let us open
the debate on the evil policies of the Government against the
Palestinians. This is are two levels of one repressive regime. I assume it
is the same case in the US to silence critics (as it is mentioned in both
articles): there is a close linkage between the physical repression of the
Iraqis and the symbolic repression of academicians, intellectuals and
social movements criticizing the US Government.
Here are the URLs first in English, after in Hebrew:
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=7049
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/424123.html
http://images.maariv.co.il/cache/ART705759.html
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=424031&contrass
ID=2&subContrassID=13&sbSubContrassID=0
Yours,
Lev Grinberg
[] Back to the Rabin Square
http://www.peacenow.org.il/English.asp?Redirect=5&ActivityID=556
Hebrew:
http://www.peacenow.org.il/Default.asp?Redirect=5&ActivityID=555
# Ongoing struggle
how to link up with anti-Wall struggle, refusnik news etc.
#Against the Wall
contact addresses daily struggle / eye-witness reports
#Refusniks (prisoner addresses & links to constantly updated sites)
updated refusniks lists / support to five long-time incarcerated
#Against the Wall
*
ðåëçåú éåîéåîéú áëôøéí îàéîéí ò"é äçåîä ìúàí òí
àééáé 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
àøé÷ 050-607034 info at rhr.israel.net
Day to day presence at villages threatened by route of wall.
Contact:
Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
Arik Asherman 050-607034 info at rhr.israel.net
*
Daily eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories:
http://www.machsomwatch.org
(Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php
(internationals throughout OT)
#Refusniks
Constantly-updated refusniks lists:
English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/
English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.newprofile.org/
For the latest news about the five:
http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html
Letters of support to
Noam Bahat / Haggai Mattar / Matan Kaminer
AGAF BET
Ma’asiyaho Prison
P.O.B 13
Ramla - Israel
Adam Maor / Shimri Tzameret:
Hermon Prison
P.O.B 4011
KFAR M’RAR - Israel
--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)
with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more
N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish
In order to receive Gush Shalom's Hebrew-language
press releases mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece
of paper to:
Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel
or ask us for charities in your country which receive
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom
Please, add your email address where to send our
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at
request only.
--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)
with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more
N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish
In order to receive Gush Shalom's Hebrew-language
press releases mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
If you want to support Gush Shalom you can
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece
of paper to:
Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel
or ask us for charities in your country which receive
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom
Please, add your email address where to send our
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at
request only.
More information about the gush-shalom-intl
mailing list