Palestine
I’ve written before about the thousands of Palestinians who are held as political prisoners or prisoners of conscience in Israeli jails. On April 21st, Ahmad Qatamsheh joined the approximately 7000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. He is an academic , writer and activist. He has been arrested before, tortured and interrogated and spent 6 years in administrative detention, which means that he was held without charge. He was released in 1998, the longest serving administrative detainee. His current arrest happened in the usual way that Palestinians are arrested: his home was invaded in the middle of the night by armed Israeli occupation soldiers, carrying American-made weapons. He is currently in Ofer prison, waiting for another administrative detention order. Once again, there will be no charges and under current Israeli law, 6-month administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely.
There was no need for legal niceties such as a subpoena signed by a judge, the necessity to have evidence as a basis for the subpoena etc. This was not even a police action but a military one, driving the point home that Palestinians live under martial law with a military commander who can make arbitrary changes to laws without notice for Palestinians who don’t have the rights of the Israelis who occupy them. Three women – his wife, daughter and niece, have given interviews and written articles talking about their experiences.
Ahmad’s wife is Suha Barghouti, a board member of the prisoner rights group Addameer and the Palestine Red Crescent Society. She recalled the earlier arrest and detention of her husband:
”A few days ago, when they arrested my husband, I found out that there are very deep marks on my daughter’s spirit. She was three years old at that moment [when they arrested her father in 1992], and the marks are still there. When the soldiers told her that [they] arrested her father again, she almost collapsed.“The difficulties of the administrative detention are more than the regular prisoners because you never know when they are going to be released. Every six months, I used to prepare myself, to cook, to prepare my daughter Haneen that [her] father is going to be released today. And then all of a sudden, they [would] renew for him another six months.
“It’s very important to put pressure among the governments, to put pressure on Israel and to make sanctions on Israel because they are violating basic human rights. It’s very important for the prisoners to have a fair trial and to cancel the administrative detention.”
She added that she hoped her husband would be released in time to see his daughter Haneen graduate from the American University in Cairo next January. He was trying to get permission to go to Egypt so he can participate in Haneen’s graduation ceremony,” Barghouti said. “He told me, ‘[For many] years I wasn’t watching her growing up. I wish I can be there the day that she will graduate from the university.’ It’s very important for us. I hope he can make it.”
Ahmad and Suha’s daughter Hanin was born in New York and raised in Ramallah and is now studying at the American University in Cairo. She was home for the Easter break:
Last week, on 21 April, Israeli soldiers invaded my home in Ramallah, held hostage all those present, and forced me at gunpoint to call my father, a writer and human rights advocate, in order to demand his surrender. This is common operating procedure for Israeli occupation forces. This time, however, they had taken hostage an American citizen willing to speak out. And I will not be silent.......just past midnight, my mother and I were chatting when we suddenly heard pounding on the door and someone shouting in chillingly familiar broken Arabic, “iftakh bab!” (open the door). We looked carefully from behind the slit-open curtain to realize that many Israeli occupation soldiers were surrounding the house, heavily armed and in combat formation. Shortly afterwards, they broke in and occupied the house..They pointed their machine guns at us and told us they wanted to search the house. My 14-year-old cousin, Nai, and 69-year-old aunt were sleeping inside. Without thinking, I rushed to my room to alert Nai so that she would not wake up with a gun pointed at her face. That was the most haunting experience in my own traumatic childhood, when Israeli forces arrested my father many years earlier.
The soldiers searched the apartment and did not find Ahmad. They went to the apartment upstairs, also owned by US citizens who were away, broke down the door and wrecked the home. They held the four women hostage, with guns pointed at them and did not tell them the reason that they sought to arrest Ahmad.
My father is a sixty-year-old political scientist, writer and human rights advocate who is widely respected in Palestinian society. This whole commotion took me back to when I was nine, anxiously waiting at the gates of an Israeli prison for his imminent release. He had been held for almost six years under “administrative detention,” without charge, without trial, without a chance to defend himself or even know what he was accused of. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations condemn the procedure as an affront to justice. I hugged him then like I was meeting him for the first time and asked him to promise not to be gone for so long again. Being impeccably honest, he said: “I wish I could. They must first get out of our lives before I can make such a promise.”The commander forced me at gunpoint to call my father, who was at his brother’s house. I did. He then grabbed my phone and shouted at him, “Surrender yourself or we’ll destroy the house!” My father shouted back, loudly enough so I could hear him, “You and your soldiers are tools of the occupation. You are violating our basic rights. You have no right to be in our home. Come arrest me here and leave my family out of this!”
Nai Barghouti is a ninth grade student, Suha Barghouti's niece and veteran of the tactics of arrest by occupation soldiers:
That night of terror -- and defiance -- is unforgettable. It brought back memories of an earlier invasion, when Israeli soldiers came to occupy our apartment and tried to expel us. I was five then. I felt powerless, terrified and sick, and my knee kept shaking. I asked my mother what to do to make it stop, while my father was busy confronting the soldiers: “You will not take our home while we’re alive,” he said. “We are unarmed except with our rights and our dignity.” He kept repeating this, over and over, so it stuck in my mind. I was so worried that they might hurt him, and my knee kept dancing. Mama suggested that I walk up to one of the soldiers and look him in the eyes. I hesitated at first, thinking she must have gone crazy; that guy’s gun was literally bigger than me. But I finally did. To my surprise, he immediately took his eyes down, avoiding any eye contact. I triumphantly said, “Yes!” and my knee stopped shaking. I learned the true meaning of the word defiance - tahaddi, in Arabic.I asked the soldier to close the door, as it was terribly noisy upstairs. The soldiers were breaking down the neighbors’ door, although Suha told them they are away in the U.S. “You go close it yourself,” he said. I was too nervous to get up, to be honest. I dug in the yellowish couch I was sitting on, trying to hide that I was literally shaking. I felt my skin was turning into the couch’s color. “You're the ones illegally breaking into people’s homes!” I shot back. “Shut the fuck up,” he yelled, again, in a thundering tone. I did, but I felt really bad, afterwards, that he succeeded to shut me up. I started finding excuses for my behavior—they are big and armed, and we are all alone. They could hurt us if we challenged them. I couldn't speak. My mouth was beat-boxing, as my trembling lips could not produce proper sounds. Then finally, I learned how to overcome my fear.
My old memory of my encounter with the soldiers in our apartment flashed back, and I felt empowered. I decided not to shut up, no matter what. Our obedience has never made Israeli soldiers any less ruthless, I thought to myself.
The women were afraid but decided not to show their fears. It became apparent that the soldiers were nervous and that encouraged them to resist in their own way, alternately ignoring the soldiers and talking and laughing among themselves and then challenging the soldiers about their actions. Brave Nai had hidden her mobile phone while all the other phones were confiscated, and began playing ‘Li Beirut’ by Fairuz, a song which that celebrates the beauty of Beirut and its resistance to the invading Israelis. It was confiscated. Nai continues:
We started asking them questions, non-stop. “We hope you won’t steal our valuables from the rooms?” “We never take anything that is not ours,” one shouted indignantly. Hanin replied, “Other than stealing our land every day, you have stolen precious items from Palestinian homes during previous invasions!” Their commander appeared again, giving them new orders. I could not resist saying, “You so remind me of sheep. He’s your shepherd, and all of you are just mindless followers.” One of them pointed his M16 at me, and said: “Shut the fuck up!” So I said: “If you hate the truth so much why don’t you refuse to follow his orders? Why do you insist on terrorizing us?” He repeated his favorite insult and moved closer, with his rifle pointed at my face. Suha jumped and shouted at him, “She is only 14, do you have anything human left in you?”I was boiling with anger, but I refused to give them the pleasure of watching me cry. They were not only humiliating me, they were also trying to make me a silent victim. I didn’t want to shut up. And I didn’t want to be submissive in anyway. I have had enough already. I wanted them out, now. I was very tired and sleepy. But I still wanted to show them what a Palestinian teenager is made of! Images from Tunisia and Egypt filled my head, and I felt proud.
This is merely one story of thousands, when you consider that over 750,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel since 1967. So this story of horror has been repeated thousands of time over the last 44 years.
Bahrain
Reprisals against protesters and alleged protesters continue in Bahrain. According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights:
Bahraini authorities arrested two former members of Parliament from AlWefaq political party: Matar Matar and Jawad Fairouz. MP Jawad Fairuz is known for highlighting government corruption and unfair distribution of lands as he attempted to bring the case to parliament. Matar Matar has been documenting violations and cases of disappearances and arrests through the AlWefaq office
Furthermore 23 doctors and 24 nurses have been charged with a string of offences, including refusing to aid those in need, embezzlement, assault, weapons possession, inciting hatred against the government, taking part in illegal protests and other charges. Since four protesters have already been sentenced to death and others to life imprisonment, convictions on these charges may well lead to a death sentence. Other Bahrainis are being fired from their positions and several promiment Bahrainis have been arrested and disappeared. The horror does not look like it will stop. The government is succeeding in getting the people to shut up. With Saudi Arabia there to buttress the Bahraini government, there appears to be no appetite in the international community to respond to the horrific treatment of its citizens by the Bahraini government.
Syria
The international community appears to taking small steps to respond to Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown against the protesters. Since Russia and China could veto UNSC action, western countries are imposing unilateral sanctions. The US has already begun the process and the EU is discussing sanctions against the Syrian government and Bashar himself:
The European Union on Friday launched preparations for an embargo on the sale to Syria of weapons and equipment that might be used for internal repression.The bloc said it would also "urgently consider further appropriate and targeted measures with the aim of achieving an immediate change of policy by the Syrian leadership", said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
EU diplomats said other measures that could be imposed on the regime include an assets freeze and travel bans against officials blamed for the violent repression of anti-government protests.
Hafez...oops I mean Bashar al Assad has continued to crack down on protesters in Syria. Deaths of civilians are now in the hundreds and it appears the regime is starting to show signs of uncertainty:
The beleaguered Syrian authorities are seeking negotiations with opposition leaders to end six weeks of unprecedented street protests that threaten to topple the Assad regime, according to Western diplomatic sources. They say that Bouthaina Shaaban, a top adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, has been placed in charge of exploring ways to launch a dialogue.But amid a harsh crackdown on protesters, a rising death toll, and reports of thousands of people detained and missing, the regime is struggling to find anyone in the opposition who wants to talk.
My view is that this is another attempt to put a fig-leaf on the brutality of a regime that is killing its own people, engaging in door-to-door raids, detaining and mistreating journalists and shutting off access to cities and towns and refusing to allow the Red Cross access Deraa. So far, the Syrian people have refused to shut up.