Thanks to Michael Levin for creating this wonderful poster which illustrates the hypocrisy or at at least obliviousness of those campaigning for Gilad Shalit‘s release who neglect the fact that there are 7,000 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons as well. They all await their freedom. Please do your very best to circulate this image around the web and send it to your friends via e mail and social networking. I hope it can become as visible on the web as posters about Gilad Shalit circulated by his own Israeli supporters.
Among the newer additions to our The Await Their Freedom project is Abdullah Abu Rachmeh, a non-violent campaigner from Bilin, who organized the anti-Wall demonstrations there. An Israeli Kangaroo judge recently extended his jail sentence at the behest of the military prosecutor for no other reason than Israel finds the Bilin protests a nasty thorn in its side. This week a relative of Abdullah’s, Jawaher Abu Rachmeh, was murdered by IDF tear gas at a similar demonstration. Alas, she cannot even be part of our our campaign to free the prisoners because she never even made it to an Israeli prison. She was a victim of CS gas, one of the most lethal tear gas formulations that exists. It smothered her and caused her death, which the IDF is now shamefully trying to blame on an imagined case of asthma.
I regret to say that during the time we were creating this poster Prisoner X went from an incommunicado detainee held in Ayalon Prison to a murdered one.
It is time for Israel to free its prisoners and time for the Palestinians to release theirs. It’s also long past time to resolve this entire conflict with compromise on both sides that are just and fair.
Silverstein has published Tikun Olam since 2003, It exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He lives in Seattle, but his heart is in the east. He publishes regularly at Middle East Eye, the New Arab, and Jacobin Magazine. His work has also appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Truthout and other outlets.
when gilad gets a trial and is allowed to see an atty and/or his family and/or a red cross rep, then a comparison can be made…until then….
and as for the “murder” victim….the events leading to her death are not so clear
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=202095
there has yet to be one photograph or vid that shows her at the protest, or being injured.
Nonsense. Israel holds many, many more prisoners than the Palestinians do & treats them all universally shabbily & not acc. to international standards. It’s held numerous prisoners w/o trial for yrs. Israeli Palestinian CITIZENS uniformly are tortured, denied counsel & contact w. family. This is precisely what happened to Ameer Makhoul & Omar Said & countless others. And these are citizen of the friggin’ country. You’re pathetic as usual.
Oh pls. you link to Jerusalem Post, mouthpiece of the IDF & intelligence services & expect anything written there to be taken seriously…
Now, you’re claiming she wasn’t even at the protest & was felled by some mystery. I’ve had it w. you. I moderated you a long time ago for comment rule violations. I’ve warned you countless times since then that you were on the verge. I didn’t take any action because I thought it was important to let such a naysayer as you continue to have access to these threads. But now, you’ve simply gone over the edge. A woman died & you claim she wasn’t killed in the way every person who was there or read the stories about the incident KNOWS she was killed. You offend decency, you offend common sense. Be gone.
Someone may want to play Taps or say Kaddish for poor Ol’ Uncle Joe. RIP.
Gilad’s Howitzer position massacred a family of 7 Palestinians picniking on the Gaza beaches in 2006. Why should he be released unscath?
I don’t believe this is true & would like to see any evidence you have for this. As far as I heard he was manning a watchtower.
For the same reason palestinian terrorists should be released. Sometimes justice takes second place to peace.
Jawaher Abu Rahmah never got to see the New Year. She never got to see a free Palestine. Her brother was killed by a tear-gas canister projectile shot to his chest.
This brave woman, who dared to demand her rights peacefully after the death of her brother and unjust imprisonment of two other relatives whose only crimes were also peaceful protest, now lies in a grave next to her brother and you have the audacity to post this offensive, callous garbage.
Good riddance and bravo, Richard!
I will definitely circulate this image. I’ve seen the spelling of the imprisoned political activist’s name spelled this way: Abdallah Abu Rahmah, are you certain of the spelling of his name?
Actually, this article is very significant because aside from the death/murder of Prisoner X and the inhumane, barbaric solitary confinement (amongst other treatment) he was subjected to for so long without recourse, visitation, nothing; other prisoners have also died in Israel’s prison system from dubious causes.
Perhaps, this is part of the reason:
“the isolation wings at the Ayalon and Shikma prisons are not fit for human habitation and “look more like a dungeon,” while most solitary cells in prisons across the country are “crammed, rancid with smells of sewer and mold, and infested with insects.””
“”Many isolated inmates testified to have developed paranoia, a tendency for uncontrollable fits of rage, and eyesight problems because of the lack of natural light through most hours of the day,” the lawyers wrote.”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/groundbreaking-report-details-israel-s-inhumane-conditions-for-isolated-prisoners-1.333107
Rahmah, Rahmeh or even Rahma is correct. There is no “e” in Arabic, but the “a” is pronounced more or less “e”-like according to the surrounding consonants. There is a final “h” which is often not transcribed in European languages, as they don’t pronounce it. “Rachmah” is NOT correct, the ‘ch’ is a Hebrew manner of transcribing the Arabic strong “h”, and would be pronounced either as the “shin” (‘s’ with three dots’) either as the “kha” (‘h’ with a dot above).
Abdallah Abu Rahmah is the most correct.
Is there a ha at the end of Rahma? If not, I would not consider it correct to transliterate it as Rahmah, but as Rahma, or Rahme,
I’ve been told the family uses “Rahme.”
There are various spellings of the name. Abu Rahmah, Abu Rahmeh, Abur Rahme are only some of them, mostly because spelling of Arabic names into English is done phonetically.
Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed in 2009 by a tear gas projectile which hit him in the chest so hard that it caused massive bleeding and stopped his heart. He led the weekly demonstrations in Bilin. He is Jawahar’s brother.
I have heard that a new kind of tear gas was being “tested” on the people at the Bilin demonstration.
Sorry, Mary, I didn’t see your post before responding. Welcome back 🙂
To call for prisoner release is one thing. To actually get it is another.
If all those 7000+ Palestinians were close copies of Abdullah Abu Rachmeh, then the faint possibility of them being freed in the near future might be a tenable position to hold. However, as things stand, the likelihood of that happening must be about as close to zero as it gets.
Even if such a sudden change of policy were contemplated, what guarantee would there be that the future would not simply become a repetition of the past, just another futile replay of all that has gone before?
No advancement, no improvement in a situation where all previous attempts to correct its course and modify its behaviour have collapsed in failure.
Unless a society can adapt to new ideas and see potential in different points of view, it must perish, much as have so many examples in the past.
Adaptation, change, renewal. Never the easiest of tasks at the best of times. And at the worst, always the most difficult of positions to take.
We have all been circling this problem for far too long. Surely the time has come to go in for the kill, Or have we grown to love it so much that we cannot bring ourselves to end its spell, this strange fascination it has for so many of us?
“And all men man kill the thing they love, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!” (Oscar Wilde: The Ballad of Reading Gaol)
My own personal preference is for the pen. But, either way, the thing has got to be done and in whatever fashion can be best applied.