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Agorism
11-07-2010, 11:12 AM
http://josephdana.com/2010/11/british-foreign-secretary-meets-with-palestinian-activists-in-a-show-of-solidarity/
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William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, met with leading Palestinian grassroots organizers this afternoon in an unequivocal show of support in face of ongoing Israeli repression. This is a clear message that parts of the international community are aware of the grassroots non-violent work against the occupation among sectors of Palestinian society. Israeli officials expressed dismay at the meeting but did not file an official complaint with the British government.

In line with the European Union and Britain‘s denouncements of the recent conviction and sentencing of Bil’in protest leader, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, met with Palestinian grassroots organizers. Hague held the Ramallah talks with activists from the villages of al-Ma’asara and Ni’ilin, whose residents hold regular protests against Israel’s separation barrier and settlements, and with a representative of the Holy Land Trust, a Bethlehem organization that promotes the use of non-violent strategies by Palestinians.

The meeting comes in the midst of an ongoing wave of repression against the Palestinian civil resistance movement by Israel. In the past two years, faced by the steady growth of the movement and its growing importance in Palestinian political discourse, Israeli forces have killed at least ten unarmed demonstrators, six of them in anti-wall protests. The Israeli military has also detained and imprisoned hundreds and hundreds of people for their part in protesting the construction of Separation Barrier, mostly apprehending them from their homes in nighttime raids – especially targeting the villages of Bil’in, Ni’ilin, Budrus and Jayyous.

During the meeting Hague voiced his and Britain’s support to Palestinian nonviolence, saying that it is this kind of resistance that can gain Palestinians the insistent support of the international community.

“With negotiations at a perpetual standstill for lack of real Israeli interest in a settlement, civil resistance to the Occupation is the only viable alternative to violence Palestinians have at hand today. It is a growing movement that Israeli is terrified of”, Said Mahmoud Zwahara from the al-Ma’asara Popular Committee after the meeting. “But for such a movement to prevail, its repression by military might, as Israel is engaged in today, must carry a price in the form of international pressure. This is exactly what we asked Mr. Hague to continue doing today”, he added.

Agorism
11-07-2010, 11:15 AM
Background on

Israel Crushes A Palestinian Gandhi: Bil’in Organizer Sentenced to 18 months


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Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a protest leader from Bil’in, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment by the Military Court of Appeals, for his involvement in organizing demonstrations. The decision dramatically aggravates the one-year sentence originally imposed in the first instance.

Judge Lieutenant Colonel Benisho of the Military Court of Appeals accepted the Military prosecution’s appeal in Adeeb Abu Rahmah’s case today, which demanded to harshen the already heavy-handed one-year sentence imposed on him by the prior instance back in July. The court sentenced Abu Rahmah 18 months of imprisonment with bail of 6,000 NIS and suspended sentence of 1 year. An appeal filed by the defense both on the severity of the punishment and on the conviction itself was denied.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah’s sentence is the first to be handed by the Military Court of Appeals in a series of recent trials against high-profile Palestinian anti-Wall grassroots organizers. The harsh and imbalanced decision is likely to affect other cases, most notably that of Abdallah Abu Rahmah – the Bil’in organizer declared human rights defender by the EU – who was too recently sentenced to a year in jail by the first instance of the military court.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah’s case relied heavily on the forced confessions of four minors arrested in nighttime raids by Israeli soldiers. The four attested in court to having been coerced into incriminating Abu Rahmah and other organizers during the course of their police investigations. They were also questioned unlawfully, denied consol and without their parents being presents and, in some cases, late at night.

The ruling in the appeal concludes 15 months of unfair legal procedures, held amidst a massive Israeli arrest campaign, which ended with an upheld conviction of incitement, activity against the public order and entering a closed military zone.

YouTube - Adib Abu Rahma protest - Bil'in - 8-2-08 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-St2hn_qPwE)

HOLLYWOOD
11-07-2010, 12:04 PM
18 months for protesting... Sounds like a Nazi or Communist regime.

Remember.... this is the NEW British Foreign Secretary and not the years of warmongering propaganda Zionist snake David Wright Miliband, who is not even a native born Britain and his wife is dual citizenship in the US. There's much more, nut I won't waste the time on the same rigged game.