\u2018The conviction of Bil\u2019in resident, and one of the Leadership of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in West Bank,\u00a0 Abdallah Abu Rahmah, by an military court, charged\u00a0 for\u00a0 allegedly causing incitement,\u00a0 is part of the ongoing\u00a0 wave of repression of Palestinian Human Rights activists,\u00a0 by Israel.<\/p>\n
Since June, 2009,\u00a0 35 residents of the small village of Bil\u2019in have been arrested on suspicions related to\u00a0 anti-wall protest.\u00a0\u00a0 Also in several nearby villages, including \u00a0Nil\u2019in, many villagers have been arrested by Israel soldiers for carrying\u00a0 out peaceful \u00a0nonviolent resistance against the confiscation of their land, and for their human rights.<\/p>\n
The recent increase of repression upon the leadership of the popular struggle, is an Israeli illegal\u00a0 attempt to try to crush Palestinian grassroots organizing by heavy costs and long imprisonments.\u00a0 This is now the Israeli army\u2019s strategy of using illegal persecution in its attempt to try to destroy the Palestinian nonviolent popular peoples\u2019 movement.<\/p>\n
In a recent statement\u00a0 Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU\u2019s High Commissioner of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy , condemned Abdallah Abu Rahmah\u2019s conviction by a military court\u00a0 saying \u2018The High Representative is deeply concerned that the possible imprisonment of Mr. Abu Rahmah is intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the existence of the separation wall in a nonviolent manner\u2019.<\/p>\n
It is to be welcomed that the EU has recognized\u00a0 Israel\u2019s political motivation of the indictment against a Human Rights defender,and whilst the EU High Commissioner\u2019s statement has recognised the Palestinians \u2018Right to Protest\u2019 it remains to be seen what concrete steps the European Union, The Arab League,\u00a0 and International Community will now take to defend Human Rights activists, and people, in Palestine.<\/p>\n
Israeli soldiers have injured and killed many peaceful Palestinian protestors\u00a0 in their\u00a0 struggle for their rights, and have imprisoned over ll,000 Political prisoners, including women, children, sick people and elected politicians.\u00a0 \u00a0I myself was shot and injured\u00a0 with a metal tipped bullet in April 2007 in Bil\u2019in and tear gassed on several occasions in Bil\u2019in and Nil\u2019in \u00a0for peacefully protesting the continuing illegal annexation of Palestinian land, the building of this illegal wall, (which both ICJ and Israeli Supreme court have ruled illegal), and West Bank settlements.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0 know Abdullah Rahmah and many of villagers of Bil\u2019in and Nil\u2019in and have walked in peaceful human rights marches in both villages, all of which have ended up being violently attacked by Israeli soldiers.\u00a0\u00a0 I am \u00a0in admiration of Rahmah and the Palestinian villagers \u00a0commitment to nonviolence and justice \u00a0as they carried out their rightful resistance to Israeli annexation of their villages\u2019 land, building of this illegal wall, and West bank settlements.<\/p>\n
I call \u00a0upon Israel to release Abu Radmah and call upon \u00a0the\u00a0 EU, Arab countries,and International Community, to demand \u00a0the release of Abu Radmah and human rights activists (who have been imprisoned by Israel using illegitimately the courts and legal system to repress the Palestinian people), and\u00a0 put in place concrete actions to demand Israel uphold its International commitments to Human Rights and Law.\u00a0 Israel must not be allowed to feel it can do what it likes and act with impunity.<\/p>\n
While in Washington everyone talks about peace,\u00a0 on the ground for Palestinians it is business as usual, with Israeli occupation, settlement building,\u00a0 and\u00a0 siege of Gaza.\u00a0 Palestinian people cannot have hope, believe in peace talks, if they see no improvement in their own daily situation.<\/p>\n
Israeli demands security, but surely Palestinians have a right also to human rights,equality, and security, if they live in Occupied Palestinian terr., or Israel.\u00a0\u00a0 Peace negotiations must be based on the acknowledgement that Palestinians have a right to nothing less that justice based on Human Rights and International Laws.\u00a0\u00a0 This will produce peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis which is what everyone wants to see come above in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
3rd<\/sup> September, 2010<\/p>\n ___________________<\/p>\n Mairead Maguire won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her actions to end the violence in her native Northern Ireland. In the last 10 years, she has travelled to Israel and Palestine promoting human rights and nonviolent resistance. <\/em><\/p>\n Maguire is a founding member of the Nobel Women\u2019s Initiative and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.<\/em><\/p>\n PEACE <\/span>PEOPLE<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Fax:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0044 (0) 28 9066 3465<\/em><\/p>\n Email: info@peacepeople.com<\/em><\/p>\n www.peacepeople.com<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n 224 Lisburn Road<\/em><\/p>\n Belfast BT9 6GE<\/em><\/p>\n Northern Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n Join the BDS-Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions<\/em><\/span> <\/strong>campaign to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation, the apartheid wall, and its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people: DON’T BUY<\/strong><\/span> products whose BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong><\/span>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 7 2 9: BOYCOTT!<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nobel Peace laureate and TRANSCEND member, Mairead Maguire, calls upon the Israeli government to release human rights defender Abdallah Abu Rahmah and calls on the international community to take concrete steps to defend Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Palestinian human rights activists from Israeli repression and unlawful imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nobel-laureates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n Phone: 0044 (0) 28 9066 3465<\/em><\/p>\n \n\n
\n Fredheim<\/em><\/p>\n