Israel keeps Palestinian ‘Gandhi’ imprisoned


by Newswire    
10:30 am - January 12th 2011

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Amnesty International has condemned an Israeli military appeal court’s decision to extend the prison sentence of a Palestinian non-violent activist, convicted over his involvement in organizing protests in the occupied West Bank.

Abdallah Abu Rahma, head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in, had his sentence extended from 12 months to 16 months by the Israeli Military Court of Appeals at Ofer in the West Bank on Tuesday, after the prosecution argued that his initial sentence was too lenient.

Detained since December 2009, Abdallah Abu Rahma, a school teacher, was supposed to be released on 18 November 2010, but has been kept in detention at the military prosecution’s request. He has now been in prison for 13 months.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:

By extending Abdallah Abu Rahma’s sentence the Israeli authorities appear to be seeking not only to punish him further in a case where the prosecution’s evidence was questionable to begin with, but to deter others from participating in legitimate protests.

Amnesty International believes Abdallah Abu Rahma to be a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and assembly. As such we call for his immediate and unconditional release.

Abdallah Abu Rahma was found guilty of “organizing and participating in an illegal demonstration” and “incitement” by an Israeli military court on 24 August 2010. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment on 11 October 2010.

Following the extension of his sentence, he will now serve an additional three months in prison, with the possibility of an administrative release after two months, in which case he would be forbidden from participating in any demonstrations.

In September 2007 the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling instructing the Israeli military authorities to reroute the fence/wall in Bil’in to give the villagers access to more of their land, but this ruling has yet to be implemented.

From a press release

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Reader comments


1. Trooper Thompson

They’ve still got the Palestinian Mandela as well – Marwan Barghouti.

2. Just Visiting

Not read much about Abdallah – not sure it’s not too realy to label him ‘Ghandi’…. but anyway.
If in terms of Middle East conflict, LC feels it’s news-worthy that his sentence has been extended 25%….

then isn’t this news from today also worth of a mention?:

An Egyptian Islamic cleric — at the world’s leading Sunni institution: says:

there can be no disagreement that offensive jihad is not totally prohibited, for two schools [of Islamic jurisprudence] have ruled that offensive jihad is permissible in order to secure Islam’s border, to extend God’s religion to people in cases where the governments do not allow it, such as the Pharaoh did with the children of Israel, and to remove every religion but Islam from the Arabian peninsula,

http://translating-jihad.blogspot.com/2011/01/islamonlinenet-offensive-jihad-is.html

3. Just Visiting

Or this in Egypt:

<blockquote:An off-duty policeman boarded a train and opened fire on Tuesday, killing a 71-year-old Christian man and wounding his wife and four others, the Interior Ministry said. …

It was not immediately clear whether the gunman knew his targets were Christians. But four of the five wounded were Christian women who stand out in the conservative south as they would probably not have been wearing headscarves as most Muslim women do…

The gunman allegedly checked passengers for the green cross traditionally tattooed on the wrists of Coptic Christians in Egypt. After identifying several Copts, he killed one of them and injured five others, several of them Christians, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

4. Just Visiting

Hey, I know I’m a stuck record – but what do LC folk think the impact of the Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments today will be:

Bringing together the words of ‘Islam’ and of ‘terrorism’ is the biggest injustice that can be made to Islam. We are aware that a global campaign is underway against Muslims and we know who is behind that campaign,”

He’s hinting there – does he mean the Jews….? Obama? Daily Mail ?!

Erdogan on Monday told a ceremony in the Kuwaiti capital where he was presented with the Outstanding Personality in the Islamic World Award of the Sheikh Fahad al-Ahmad International Award for Charity.

Erdogan said the anti-Muslim campaign in the West gained momentum particularly through the news media, saying “an insidious enmity” had been promoted.

“Is it possible to associate a religion with an inherent peaceful cause to terrorism? Those who kill in the name of Islam is gravely misguided and they stray from the religion itself,” Erdogan said.

He must know he’s lying, that Islam theology has killing enshrined in it: to start with: the death penalty for apostates and adulterers.

Erdogan said Turkey exerted sincere efforts to eliminate prejudices against Islam, however adding that Muslims should also do self-criticism.

Self criticism? Muslims should do self-criticism?
Funny that, I can’t find any web sites where islamic groups (or Turkish Premiers) do any kind of analysis as to what it is about Islam that so many suicide bombers, acid throwers, women abusers round the world are openly quoting from Islamic sources, and calling on Allah.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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