[GushShalom] Bad day at court+Visiting prisoner families (report of a long day)

Fri Aug 20 04:55:14 IDT 2004

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033  www.gush-shalom.org/

August 19, 2004

Two reports:
--Bad day for anti-Wall struggle at Supreme Court
--Visiting prisoner families in East Jerusalem

--Gush Shalom on Likud vote

			~~~
äåãòä ìòéúåðåú òì àåúå äðåùà îöåøôú

--Bad day for anti-Wall struggle at Supreme Court

The mainstream media presented it as a brilliant success for the liberal 
lawyers: the Supreme Court ordered the state to give within thorty days 
its detailed response to the ruling of the International Court in The 
Hague, according to which any building of the Separation Wall/Fence in 
the occupied territories rather than on Israel's own soil is inherently 
illegal. But a hall full of activists (Jerusalemites were joined by some 
twenty Gush Shalomers bused in from Tel-Aviv) started soom to feel uneasy.

Though the proceeding began with rather an embarassment for the 
government, the army general present had good reasons for coming out of 
the courtroom  with a smile on his face. Catching the headlines with the 
Hague reference, the judges handed down a series of less conspicuous 
"interim technical rulings" allowing the army to go ahead with building 
the wall in several disputed locations. The state did undertake to 
"restore the original situation" should the final decision go against 
them. In vain did lawyers Dahle, Sfard and el-Ajou point out that for 
many inhabitants it would be too late. 

"When the fence deprives a family of the land on which their herds are 
grazing and they have to sell the animals and live on the money until it 
is finished - what will they do even if they get back the land in a year 
or two? When the wall cuts off merchants in a bustling city street from 
their customers and they go bankrupt - what will it help even if the wall 
is torn down in a year or two?"

The state took full advantage of last week's bombing, in which a militant 
from Jenin blew up two Palestinian bypassers at A-Ram while intending to 
hit soldiers: "A-Ram has become a major throughfare for terrorists and 
suicide bombers; any further delay in building the wall will cost lives."
The general didn't actually say "and you, your honours will be blamed".
And who cares that, as lawyer Fatma el-Ajou of ACRI pointed out, a 
determinded terrorist would still find a lot of holes to slip through and 
that the Wall ways most heavily on pupils who daily have to get to their 
schools and anyone needing urgent medical treatment.

				~~~

--Visiting prisoner families in East Jerusalem

[Hebrew attached - òáøéú îö"á ]

The Gush Shalom bus brought a depressed group from the antisceptic 
Supreme Court halls to the Red Cross Compound in East Jerusalem. 
Alighting we picked up the signs, in Hebrew, Arabic and English: 
"Fair Treatment to the Prisoners of War!"
Under the shady trees were sitting some forty or fifty people, men and women and quite a few 
children, clutching the framed photographs of their imprisoned dear ones (many of them 
painfully young). We were invited to sit by a dignified old man in traditional clothes. Soon 
afterwards a young woman got up and burst out: "Our sons and brothers are in danger. Minister 
Hanegbi wants them to starve to death." "I remember Hanegbi from more than twenty years ago" 
remarked somebody. "Already as a student in the university he was a thug, with a vile mouth 
and violent behaviour."

"In 1967, I was crippled by a bomb from an Israeli plane", told 65-year old Yaser Jit. "It was very

difficult and painful to wait hours in the heat at the prison gate, and then they just close the do
or 
in my face and tell me that I can't see my son, no reason given." He is clutching the membership 
card in the Israeli Handicapped Association, with the Hebrew inscription "We call upon all 
authorities to give assistance to the bearer of this card."

"The Palestinian prisoners are prisoners of war, and as such they deserve minimal standards of 
treatment. Certainly, they have the right to family visits and to embrace their children. Certainly
, 
they have the right to a minimal cell space per person, and to read and study while imprioned" 
said Uri Avnery. Then he referred to the TV-footage purportedly showing Marwan Barghouti 
breaking the strike. "They watch him with cameras every day. These pictures of him eating, it 
could have been so easily taken from the archive." 

Latif Dori concluded (speaking his native Iraqi Arabic). "The Israeli public gets completely one-
sided information, all from the Prison Authority and the Security Service. People don't realize tha
t 
it is in israel's own interest to treat well the prisoners, that sooner or later we will find many 
of 
them at the negotiation table." 

Strange as it may sound, the mood on the way home from there was much better.
				~~~

--Gush Shalom on Likud vote

Text of weekly ad in Ha'aretz, August 20

[Hebrew attached - òáøéú îö"á ]

THE GREAT SHOW

The extreme rightists who voted against Sharon in the Likud Central Committee played their part 
in the show: they enabled Sharon to present himself as a man of the moderate center. The Labor 
Party plays the part of the Left.

This show has nothing to do with reality. Sharon has remained a man of the extreme right, as he 
has been all his life. Even if the so-called "disengagement" would take place, the occupation 
would still remain in place.

Gush Shalom,
Help us with donations to
P.O.Box 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033,

# On August 19th California's Gambling Control Commission will vote on the casino license 
application of Irving Moskowitz, the leading funder of militant Israeli settlers.
See what you can do about it at: 

http://www.stopmoskowitz.org/letter0804.shtml

# Truth against Truth - opposite views on the history of the conflict
  in 101 steps 

Hebrew / òáøéú
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Heb.pdf

English
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf

# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
  Now also with list of settlements

Hebrew / òáøéú
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm

English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm

--
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

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