verbalresistance:

Turkish judges approve demand for a sentence of a combined 18.000 years for former IDF chief of staff and other officers allegedly responsible for deaths aboard the Mavi Marmara cruise ship in 2010.

A Turkish court on Monday formally pressed charges against members of Israel’s military for the killing of nine people aboard a Turkish ship trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza in 2010, Turkey’s state-run news agency said.

The court in Istanbul voted unanimously to approve an indictment against Israel’s former military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, along with the former heads of its navy, air force intelligence,  and military intelligence,  Eliezer Marom, Amos Yadlin, and Avishai Levi, the Anadolu Agency said. They face nine consecutive life terms in prison for “inciting to kill monstrously, and by torturing,” the agency added.

It is unlikely Israeli military members will be brought before Turkey’s judicial system, since Israel does not regard them as criminals. If they are convicted in absentia at the end of the trial process, which could take months if not years, the Turkish court could issue an order for their arrest, but such a move would be symbolic and not binding.

A week ago, the Turkish newspaper “Sabah” first reported the upcoming indictments; however Israeli officials refused to comment on the reports until they were endorsed by the Turkish government, or until the indictments were delivered to the court.

The move comes just a few days ahead of the second anniversary of the May 31 raid. The ship had been part of a flotilla sailing toward Gaza to protest Israel’s blockade.

The court also agreed to press charges against several unidentified soldiers who raided the ship, the Turkish news agency said. No trial date has been set. Turkey has tried without success to get Israel to apologize for the attack, and to compensate those killed as a precondition for normalizing relations. Israel has solely expressed regret for the loss of lives.

Israel says its troops opened fire after coming under attack by activists wielding axes, knives and metal rods. It says soldiers rappelled on to the deck armed with non-lethal paintball guns as their primary weapons, and only resorted to using handguns after they were assaulted.

The indictment rejected Israeli claims that Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara acted in self defense, saying that Israeli commandos used disproportional force by firing with heavy weapons and automatic rifles on passengers who only carried “plastic flag masts, spoons, and forks.”

The indictment said some of the victims were shot dead from close range and from the back, the agency reported earlier.

According to Turkish news agencies, nine life sentences were demanded - one for each of the casualties aboard the Mavi Marmara – as part of the indictment, which calls for a combined 18,000 years of imprisonment for the four former officers, punishment for crimes committed during the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla. The indictment includes 490 victims and complainants, among them 189 were injured during the raid.

The charges against members of the Israeli military, included commandeering vehicles, voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder, persecution and causing damage to the ship, the agency said Monday.

A United Nations probe into the incident found Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza legally imposed “as a legitimate security measure” but added that the killing of eight Turkish activists and a Turkish-American was “unacceptable.”

Turkey has rejected the report’s findings, saying Israel had no right to raid the ship in international waters and said it would never recognize the blockade’s legitimacy.

Turkey has also slapped a series of sanctions on Israel, once a top military trading partner, which included expelling senior Israeli diplomats and suspending all military deals. It has also vowed to back the Palestinian bid for recognition of their statehood at the United Nations.

Haaretz

(via stay-human)

stay-human:

April 14th, 2012

According to Gaza TV News, British airline company Jet2 has cancelled tickets for those who were planning to fly to Tel Aviv Sunday April 15th, the day of the mass fly-in of pro-Palestinian activists to Israel (read more here).

The letter sent out from Jet2 reads:

“Dear ———-

Jet2.com is required by the Israeli authorities to provide Advance Passenger Information in relation to all passengers that it carries on flights to Israel. Advance Passenger Information includes a passenger’s name, date of birth, passport number and nationality.

In accordance with Article 7 of its Terms and Conditions, Jet2.com has provided Advance Passenger Information in respect of your flight from Manchester to Israel. As a result of providing that Information, Jet2.com has been informed by the Israeli authorities that you will not be not permitted to enter Israel. Consequently, if Jet2.com carries you to Israel, you will be refused entry and Jet2.com will be liable for both a fine and your return to Manchester.

As a result, and in accordance with Article 24 of its Terms and Conditions, Jet2.com: “may refuse to carry you where such action is necessary for reasons of safety and/or security and/or to comply with any applicable laws, regulations or orders of any country to be flown from, into or over including laws or regulations relating to Advance Passenger Information requirements.” We regret that, in light of the decision taken by the Israeli authorities, we are unable to accept you for carriage to Israel on this occasion and your booking with Jet2.com has been cancelled.

In accordance with Article 26.3 of its Terms and Conditions, Jet2.com is a non-refundable airline and we will therefore be unable to offer any refund, with the exception of a refund of the applicable taxes paid, as a result of the decision taken by the Israeli authorities.

Jet2.com would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of your booking, which we hope you will appreciate is totally beyond our control.

Yours sincerely

Jet2.com Customer Care Team”

Lufthansa airlines has also cancelled tickets of passengers to Israel telling their customers:

“Israel has produced a list of names of persons to whom this country denies entry. Yours is on it, which brings us to cancel your ticket and we immediately after will refund to your credit card.”

According to Gaza TV News, Brussels Airlines and Air France have also cancelled tickets of those participating in the fly-in.

RAMALLAH, West Bank —

A Palestinian woman accused of defaming the president on her Facebook page has been detained for two weeks while an investigation is carried out, activists said Monday, in what they say is a growing crackdown on writers who criticize the West Bank government.

Palestinian security forces arrested Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, a West Bank university lecturer, last Wednesday after they found writing on her Facebook page accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of being a traitor and demanding he resign, said lawyer Issam Abdeen of the Palestinian rights group al-Haq.

Abdul-Khaleq’s detention is the latest in what activists say is the Palestinian authorities’ increasing intolerance of criticism and a worrying trend of mining Facebook to spy on Palestinians.

“We are genuinely concerned about tightening limits on freedom of expression and on the media,” Abdeen said. “We don’t want reporters to second-guess what they write on whether they will be punished or not.”

Abdeen said the Palestinian public persecutor’s office was particularly harsh in ordering the prolonged detention of those accused of defamation. Abdul-Khaleq is a single mother of two children.

In other recent cases, newspaper reporter Yousef al-Shayeb has been held for eight days for allegedly defaming public officials. Al-Shayeb was expected to be released Monday after a court ordered him freed on $8,000 bail after a public outcry.

Two other reporters were interrogated last week, one for his Facebook posts and the other over a story he was researching.

A Palestinian spokesman said he could not comment on the cases because the judiciary was independent of the government.

Defaming the president and other high-level officials is a crime in the Palestinian Authority.

“These expressions go beyond freedom of expression,” said public prosecutor Ahmed al-Mughani.

She is also accused of calling Abbas a “traitor” and saying he partied with prostitutes on the graves of slain Palestinians. Abdeen said Abdul-Khaleq denied she wrote those things.

(Source: warriorsrise)

stay-human:

23rd March, 2012

The Israeli authorities should immediately release a Palestinian detainee or charge her with a recognizable criminal offence and promptly try her, Amnesty International said amid fears that the woman could die in detention after 37 days on hunger strike.

Hana Shalabi, 30, from the village of Burqin in the northern West Bank, is allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement but has never been charged with a criminal offence.

She was transferred to Meir Hospital in the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba on Tuesday night, but remains under Israeli custody and constant armed guard.

“When her lawyers and independent physicians have been given access to her, Hana Shalabi has reported that Israel Prison Service officers have handled her violently while transferring her to hospital or the military court, and consistently pressured her to end her hunger strike,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. 

Under administrative detention, Israeli military orders allow the authorities to detain Palestinians from the occupied West Bank without trial indefinitely if they are deemed to be a “security threat”.

Hana Shalabi began her hunger strike in protest against ill-treatment during her arrest on 16 February, and continued in protest against her detention without charge or trial after receiving an administrative detention order five days later.

A doctor from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR) who saw her on Monday reported that she was at risk of death because she could suffer from heart failure at any moment, and called for her immediate hospitalization.

According to PHR, she has lost 14kg (31lbs) since her arrest, and suffers from impaired thyroid functions and severe pain, weakness and dizziness.

A military judge has yet to rule on the appeal against her four-month detention order, even though the Military Court of Appeals held its first hearing more than two weeks ago on 7 March.

Hana Shalabi was one of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed from Israeli jails as part of a deal to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in October and December last year. Before she was re-arrested in February, she had planned to study nursing at al-Rawda College in Nablus.

Prior to her release in October 2011, she was held for 25 months without charge or trial in HaSharon prison, under administrative detention orders that were repeatedly renewed.

There are also reports that the Israeli authorities may be considering force-feeding her, which could constitute cruel and inhuman treatment. As a general rule, hunger strikers should not be forcibly fed.

Her family has yet to receive permits to visit despite repeated requests by international and local organizations. They have not seen her since her arrest on 16 February. 

More than 20 other Palestinian detainees and prisoners held in several Israeli prisons have declared open-ended hunger strikes against the policy of administrative detention, some for more than three weeks.

To Amnesty International’s knowledge, they have not been allowed access to independent doctors, and some may also have been denied access to lawyers, isolated, or punished in other ways following their decisions to go on hunger strike.

More than 300 Palestinians, including more than 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, are currently being held in administrative detention.

Amnesty International

stay-human:

From two days ago (March 15th, 2012);

Palestinian detainee’s health in danger; hunger strike spreads

More than twenty Palestinian administrative detainees have joined Hana Shalabi’s hunger strike. Beginning a fifth week with no food, doctors gravely fear Shalabi’s health.

Today is the 29^th day of Hana Shalabi’s hunger strike, and her physical condition is worsening. Shalabi, a 29 year old woman from the West Bank village of Burqin, was formally held for 25 months in administrative detention, was released last October in the Schalit prisoner swap, and re-arrested within four months of her release. Since her second arrest Shalabi is refusing to eat in protest against of her continued detention without charges or trial. The IDF claims it has intelligence indicating Shalabi might endanger regional security.

Shalabi, who only drinks a little water with some salt, is refusing not only to eat but also to be treated by Israel Prison Service (IPS) doctors. Following a Petah Tikva district court ruling, ordering IPS to allow Physicians for Human Rights to examine her, a doctor from the NGO met with her twice in the recent week and is reporting her condition is deteriorating. A joint report by PHR and Addmeer states:

The doctor’s first examination of Ms. Shalabi on March 8^th revealed that she is undergoing muscle atrophy and wasting, which occurs after the body has used up the fat reserves at its disposal as an alternative source of energy. This process may also affect the heart muscle. Ms. Shalabi feels weak and suffers from dizziness and periodic losses of consciousness… The doctor’s second examination on March 12^th indicated an additional deterioration in Ms. Shalabi’s condition…

Following her visit the doctor emphasized: “One cannot predict the body’s response to long-term fasting. Many scenarios are possible. Among the dangers are acute heart failure, liver failure, muscle breakdown accompanied by multisystem failure, and acute life-endangering infection due to a weakened immune system”.

Yesterday (Wednesday) an IPS committee discussed the option of force-feeding Shalabi, and eventually rejected the use of this extreme measure. Meanwhile Shalabi is still waiting for a ruling on the appeal she filed against her detention order to the military court of appeals. Last week the court suggested that an agreement be reached between the military prosecution and Shalabi’s attorney’s, like in the case of Khader Adnan. However, no such agreement has been struck so far.

Spotlighting administrative detention

Over the past two weeks, 23 more administrative detainees, out of 309 currently  in Israeli prisons, have joined the hunger strike, all protesting against Israel’s extensive use of this draconic legal tool of administrative detention.

As the hunger strike grows longer more and more voices of dissent join the choir against administrative detentions. A clip released by Palestinian human’s rights NGO Al-Haq shows the solidarity tent set up in Burqin, and has Shalabi’s mother (whose name is not mentioned) talking about her daughter’s experiences in the past two and a half years. The mother tells of the tension and expectation she and her daughter had whenever an administrative warrant expired, and how they kept being extended. She also speaks of the four months of freedom Hana Shalabi enjoyed, and how long it took her to get re-accustomed to life on the outside, and how she hardly dared to leave the house or the village. As she speaks, the camera surveys the detainee’s room, filled with drawings of hearts and with several dolls.

This short clip is being disseminated as part of a growing international campaign for the release of Shalabi and all administrative prisoners. Earlier this morning Palestinians demonstrated outside Ofer prison demanding the  release of the detainees, and were dispersed by the army with tear gas. A Facebook page started in Edinburgh is calling people across the world to join a one-day solidarity hunger strike on Friday, and hundreds have already joined the cause, including Israelis and Palestinians. It seems that very soon Israel will have to decide – just as it did with Khader Adnan – what to do with Shalabi, before she reaches the point of no return in her hunger strike, and perhaps also – to reassess its use of administrative detention.