Like Martin Luther King Letter from Birmingham Jail and Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol, Dirar Abusisi has written an appeal to the world concerning his continued detention without trial in Israeli prisons. The Gaza engineer kidnapped by Israel’s Mossad in collaboration with Ukrainian intelligence services, urges the world not to forget his plight and work urgently for his freedom:
All praise to Allah, and peace be upon the messenger of Allah… I am sending you those words – from a prison cell smaller than the restroom in any of your homes, trapped within the confines of four gloomy walls and iron bars – hoping that it might find a glimpse of faith or humanity in your hearts; I am certainly not reproaching Allah before you rather than blemishing the sick amongst you before Allah the All Mighty … can you even imagine the feeling of being in a confined cell which you leave for one hour a day, still being handcuffed and shackled and carrying garbage bags … seeing nobody and only seen by your warder. Then returned to spend the rest of that day in your temporary grave, obscured from knowing whether it is day or night, Friday or a Saturday, summer or autumn except the feeling of heat or cold… deprived from seeing any of your loved ones, your own children, or your family … and not seen by anyone.
You return to your homes after this Friday prayer, meeting with your loved ones and your children contented with their presence, while many people are deprived of this very basic blessing. The least I wish upon you is to supplicate to Allah in remembrance of us…and we only wish upon you to do what is in your capacity!?
And do you know why we wish you to do so? Just to grant you reply when standing before Allah the Almighty on judgment day if you would be asked about your deeds towards your brothers who are (living) in graves, so you would be able to say “we used to supplicate to you regarding them, oh Allah” … giving you a feeble excuse to present before Allah the Almighty. With a sincere heart, we fear for your wellbeing to be harmed by Allah’s wrath similar to what has happened to past nations who have forsaken our rights … and hereby I am telling your from my grave in Ashkelon: “ if you have forsaken us; Allah the Almighty is with us. And if you didn’t pray for us; we have the angels supporting us. And if you haven’t felt for us; then you should inspect your hearts to sense if it still bounding with life, we tell you all praise be to Allah then all praise be to Allah, then all praise be to Allah for His greatest blessing, and Islam is the utmost blessing of Allah.
May peace of Allah and its blessings be upon you,
Dirar Abu Sisi
Whatever grievous violations of basic decency Israel commits, it does so with the complicity of the US and the news media. Thank you for this post, Richard; it’s a stick in the eye of the Israeli government. May they remain apoplectic over their inability to silence you.
I agree with Mary. Blessings to you.
i dont get it all those rockets showering Southern Israel were perfected by this scum… At a time where Iran could only smuggle in explosives… this guy figured out how to take aluminium for humanitarian construction and diesel for generator power and make rockets! He also did all the electrical work underground bunkers for all of Hamas Power Grid all around gaza city… (think of a mini version of the ho chi minh trail) (he probably set up the electricity in the vary room shalit was held in… He thought that when he had enough that he would not have to pay for his many many crimes? Dont make me laugh…
It’s called resistance, Ben, and it is permissible under the Geneva Conventions. On the other hand, Israel’s siege on Gaza is collective punishment and is a violation.
its a chicken and egg thing… which started first the occupation of the Resistance? and which occupation or resistance are we referring too… (1948 1967 1988) because before the second intifada gazans and southern Israelis lived in relative peace… in the 1970’s Jews in kibbutz in the Sinai used to sell apples in gaza and gazans used to work in Israeli factories… it was not until the rise of the PLO influence and then Hamas that led to all this trouble. Plus this man was born in Jordan and his wife in Ukraine… he is not pal… furthermore the UN has sanctified the blockade on gaza from its results looking into the mavi Mara incident… So infact its a legal blockade according to international law… Now what is collective punishment which is illegal is what Hamas does to the Gazan people and what hamas does to the citizens of southern Israel.
Another hasbarist flying in from Ben Gurion airport to do hasbara duty. What a total faker you are…and gone.
The only one who is scum here is you. Dirar Abusisi wouldn’t know a rocket from a tube of toothpaste. He no more made rockets than my dog performs surgery. You’re an absolute moron. There’s no proof whatsoever for anything you say. You’re simply making it up. As did the Shin Bet before you. If they had any evidence to support their claims they’d bring him to trial & sentence him to life in prison. Why do you suppose they haven’t done that? Hmm. Are governments in the business of detaining alleged terrorists forever without trial when they supposedly have ironclad evidence against him? Not to mention that the courts offer an unblemished conviction rate in such so-called terrorism cases. They don’t go to trial because their evidence is fictional & concocted. Plus they rather him rot in jail than give him the decency of a real trial.
I find this sort of propaganda deeply offensive because there are no facts to back any of it up. You’re violated a very basic comment rule here. If you wish to make a controversial claim you MUST provide evidence. If you don’t you will lose your comment privileges. As for comparing Abusisi to a rapist-murderer…you’ve richly earned a full ban. Go to hell. You sicken me.
What would be fitting would be for you to spend a month, let alone 2 yrs as Dirar has done, as a national security prisoner in Ashkelon. Just a month. Then you could come home to your family, unlike Dirar. Then we’d see how much you’d mouth off.
richard you are sick… you are saying that this man is like Martin Luther King when he is really like Robert Chambliss… go figure…
The way you’re raping truth and facts I’d say it’s you who are closer to Chambliss than either Abusisi or anyone forced to read your swill.
Ben, I understand your confusion.
It is a bit terrifying that the government we trust to protect our lives lies brazenly. But note that after a list of “Robert Chambliss” accusations was made public, the elements that could be independently verified were shown to be false, namely the alleged education of Dirar as rocket scientist. He was educated as a specialist on municipal power plants and surprise! work as the manager of Gaza power plant. People who wrote the indictment were not even aware that a Russian or Ukrainian is extremely unlikely to have name “Konstantin Petrovich” while this is a customary polite form to refer to a person with first name and patronymic (because Petrovich is a very frequent patronymic, it is not used as the last name. Academic record of Dirar in Ukraine is public and Ukrainian journalists published it with its modest glory. Electrical engineer, power generation.
Being an engineer, Dirar probably knows what a rocket is etc. However, being an expert on turbines and fuel for turbines does not convey any useful knowledge on rocket propulsion system. It is like asking a drummer to play saxophone. The indictment did not suggest any example of a product of the alleged Hamas Rocket Academy being ever used.
To recap, the reason that Dirar does not go to trial is that the evidence does not stand laugh test. Shin Beth can always furnish plausible stories and claim that they got them from super secret informers — unless the story is very implausible. Moreover, Hamas did not try to negotiate the release of Dirar when they had a chance. The simplest explanation is that he indeed is not a member. Dirar is kept in isolation because his case is a compromitation.
Do you know exactly where his legal procedure stands at present? Has he been formally charged? Is he going through a trial process(albeit slowly)? Or is he in administrative detention?
Has he been formally offered a plea bargain or are there just shabak threats to make him confess?
What gag orders stand at present?
Very few prisoners (if any at present) are in administrative detention for two years (there are too many for about 3 months to a year), but two years means he has had some sort of judicial review about 8 times, and even the hardest of judges will find it hard to justify such a detention.
Please note that in his emotional plea that you brought here no where does he claim innocence or miscarriage of justice, but only imploring god for help and stating the appalling conditions of his incarceration – why doesn’t he use this unique opportunity to state his case to the whole world?
There has been an indictment filed long ago. There have been no formal beginnings of any legal proceedings against him. No trial. There are many motions & counter motions basically demanding that the State share all relevant documents with the defense, which it’s refused to do so far. Those motions are going to the Supreme Court eventually.
He’s basically under permanent arrest (I guess not formally administrative detention) with little or no prospect for trial any time soon. As for a plea offer, yes, there was one a year ago or so. They offered something like nine years (or maybe it was 20) if he copped a plea. It appears that he refused. Which is why he’s in limbo. That’s what they do to you when you don’t play ball. They let you rot in prison until you despair, give up hope & take the plea. This is a way they avoid having future prisoners take his course. Make him an example.
The man’s lost 60 pounds, has kidney stones, a bad back, hypertension. It’s a wonder he can even put pen to paper, let alone write such a passionate plea. I don’t think in this statement he meant to write about anything specific like his alleged crimes or innocence or any of that. He meant this as an appeal to others not to forget him and his plight. I think it’s clear from the text that he assumes all those things that you feel he should’ve made explicit. But again, his brain may not be working quite as clearly as those of us who enjoy freedom, 3 square meals a day, & nice comfy beds.
From this clarification it seems he is in prison until the end of the proceedings against him (cynically called in Arabic “an open cheque – “cheque maftuah”), having been disallowed bail. This will have been subject to appeal, and if he has already been in prison for two years will need the AG’s decision to keep him in prison. All these proceedings would include showing actual evidence to the defence and judges to justify the incarceration. At this stage, unlike administrative detention, Shabak sources and arguments are not permitted, but rather the test is whether if all the evidence was put to the court could this be enough to find guilty? Thus the fact that he is in prison means there is some substantial eveidece against him and not acomedy of errors
“share all relevant documents” probably means the security documentation concerning his abduction from the Ukraine, which neither Israeli nor Ukrainian security will want revealed, and will claim to be irrelevant to the charges against him.
In fact defense lawyers often deliberately prolong proceedings with irrelevant pleas to various courts with the ultimate aim of coming to the actual trial with the defendant having been a substantial time in prison, hoping to force a plea that will be limited to time served.
You still mean to claim that there is some sort of legal process that is iron clad, and that he MUST be guilty of something or else they’d let him go? That’s rich. I’m assuming you’re Israeli. Does the government put something in your water to keep you so far from reality, or is this willful denial on your part? Or are you just doing your part for Israel? “actual evidence” is nothing more than the re-presentation of the rubbish made up against him, or a few embellishments. Although not the same as administrative detention, the procedure is similar. The “substantial evidence” is manufactured.
I’m sure I have much more experience, yes I am Israeli, and just because you want to believe that anything Israeli must automatically be bad you must assume that even evidence must be manufactured. Well it might just be that some people of the Palestinian nation actually might be guilty of a crime here and there and some may even lose their halo my mistake. You also must have a hard time being so righteous.
Yes, some people seem to have developed a pathological attitude towards Israel. The way it is expressed, the obsession, the singling-out, the scapegoating, the total one-sidedness is all too reminiscent of other periods in the Jewish history. What that led to we all know and importantly, the perpetrators themselves came to hugely regret it later on – wished it has never happened given what disrepute it brought upon them and resulting grave damages (alongside the shame).
George Santayana: “Those who don`t learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes”.
People are waiting for that moment, which I’m beginning to think may never come, when Israeli authorities acknowledge their crimes based on racist thinking and institutions, and move to change the situation in substantial ways.
When do you think that might happen, Tibor?
Castellio, the way you tend to respond to arguments reminds me of the following tale from the days of the USSR: A group of American tourists arrive at the Moscow metro accompanied by the usual “official guide”, who praises the metro and in particular its frequency and precision, boasting that a train arrives every 5 minutes sharp. After 20 minutes of no train one tourist loses patience and complains, to which the guide angrily retorts: How dare you criticize us, did you solve all the problems with the black people in the US…
I had to laugh, Tibor, you’re busying perfecting the non sequitur, and here is yet another.
My point is simple: you can’t claim anti-Semitism when faced with informed and valid criticism of institutionalized Israeli racism. Well, you can claim it, but it is less and less effective, and is seen, correctly, as a diversionary tactic.
It has nothing to do with trains, nothing to do with the USSR, nothing to do with the Blacks in the US.
Tibor & Ben
The hasbarat always tries to start the conversation, in this case Ben, while another will try to finish the conversation, in this case yourself. So it looks like the hasbarat has the upper hand. Unfortunately what you say is always the same old rubbish. “The rockets, the rockets” and “they started it. It was peaceful before that.” No mention of Israeli war crimes, the white phospherous, the cluster bombs, the home invasions, the bulldozing of homes and the destruction of olive groves, Rachel Corrie, the blocking of aid because that’s all fair and reasonable. We’re just teaching the Palestinians a lesson. And then the final piece de resistance that you love so much,”Remember the holocaust. We are the victims here”. Guess what? I reject your comments out of hand and you didn’t get to finish the conversation. You may want to add some more from your online Hasbarat cheatsheet but we’ve seen it all before. It’s best you go off in an indignant huff which is how these things usually end. You’ve done your job and it wasn’t very good.
In fact if you look at it more carefully you would see that I am not claiming anti-Semitism. Just alarmed how similar are the characteristics of that past phenomenon and what takes place now vis-à-vis Israel. In addition, Israel happens to consist of the remnants of those… Go and figure out.