organization:palestinian parliament

In a democracy, Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar would be free - Haaretz.com | Gideon Levy | Jun 21, 2018 1:13 AM

▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-in-a-democracy-palestinian-lawmaker-khalida-jarrar-would-be-free-1

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The continued detention of Palestinian parliament member Khalida Jarrar can no longer be presented as a worrisome exception on Israel’s democratic landscape. Nor can the incredible public apathy and almost total absence of media coverage of her plight be dismissed any longer as a general lack of interest in what Israel does to the Palestinians. The usual repression and denial cannot explain it either.

Jarrar’s detention doesn’t only define what is happening in Israel’s dark backyard, it is part of its glittering display window. Jarrar defines democracy and the rule of law in Israel. Her imprisonment is an inseparable part of the Israeli regime and it is the face of Israeli democracy, no less than its free elections (for some of its subjects) or the pride parades that wind through its streets.

Jarrar is the Israeli regime no less than the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty. Jarrar is Israeli democracy without makeup and adornments. The lack of interest in her fate is also characteristic of the regime. A legislator in prison through no fault of her own is a political prisoner in every way, and political prisoners defined by the regime. There can be no political prisoners in a democracy, nor detention without trial in a state of law. Thus Jarrar’s imprisonment is not only a black stain on the Israeli regime; it’s an inseparable part of it.

A Palestinian legislator has been imprisoned for nothing for months and years, and no one in Israel cares about her fate; only a very few protest. None of her Israeli counterparts in the Knesset say anything, not even those from the hypocritical Zionist left; no jurist groups or even the enlightened High Court of Justice are working to get her freed.

There’s no point in reporting on the trivialities that the Shin Bet security service attributes to her, or to explain that she is innocent until proven guilty. There is no point in writing again and again about parliamentary immunity, lest this be considered delusional – how can a Palestinian have immunity? – nor is there any point in wasting words to describe her courage, though she is perhaps the bravest woman living today under Israeli control.

All these things fall on deaf ears. There are no charges and no guilt, just a freedom fighter in jail. The Shin Bet is the investigator, the prosecutor and the judge, three positions in one in the land of unlimited possibilities, in which a state can define itself as a democracy, even the only one in the Middle East, and most Israelis are convinced that this is the case, while the world accepts it.

Jarrar could end up spending the rest of her life in prison; there is no legal impediment to this since all the pathetic arguments used to justify her continued detention could be deemed valid indefinitely. If she’s dangerous today, she’s dangerous forever. Political prisoners, detention without trial and unlimited imprisonment define tyranny.

Of course, Jarrar is not an exceptional case; she isn’t even the only Palestinian MP in an Israeli prison. So the pretentious talk about Israeli democracy must be halted, given her imprisonment. Israel with Jarrar in prison is at most a half-democracy.

Therefore, the resistance should no longer be directed solely against the occupation. The resistance is to the regime in place in Israel. Her imprisonment is the regime and she opposes the regime under whose boots she lives. Many of the Palestinian resistance organizations, which are always defined as “terror organizations,” solely because of their means, rather than their goals, are opponents of the regime under which they were forced to live. Their goals are similar to those of others who resisted tyranny, from the Soviet Union to South Africa to Argentina. Just like the handful of Israelis who want to support Jarrar. They are not expressing only human solidarity or opposition to the occupation; they are opponents of the regime.

All those who support her continued detention, anyone who is silent while she remains in jail, and all those who make her detention possible are saying: Forget democracy. That’s not what we are. Get used to it.

#Khalida_Jarrar

The false arrest of Khalida Jarrar: Israeli ’justice’ put to shame - Opinion - - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
By Gideon Levy | Jun. 1, 2015
▻http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.659008

The charge sheet against the Palestinian legislator - in jail now for two months - ought to be studied in every law school: This is how you slap together false accusations and fabricate an indictment.

Here’s a case after which nobody will seriously be able to make any of the following five claims anymore: one, that Israel is a state of law; two, that the regime in its occupied territories isn’t a military dictatorship; three, that Israel has no political prisoners; four, that the military court system in the territories has any kind of connection, however weak, to law and justice; and five, in light of all of the above – that Israel is a democracy.

Does that sound overblown? Sometimes, one case suffices to prove a point.

Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian parliament, has been under arrest for two months already, yet virtually no one has uttered a peep. At first, Israel said it would deport her to Jericho for six months, but Jarrar refused to recognize the legitimacy of the one deporting her. The Israel Defense Forces folded.

Then she was put under administrative detention, as punishment for her refusal to be deported. But the IDF was frightened by the wave of international protests over its detention without trial of a legislator. So it decided to put her on trial.

The indictment, comprised of no fewer than 12 counts, ought to be studied in every law school: This is how you slap together false accusations and fabricate an indictment. This is how the system that dares to call itself a “legal system,” with “judges” and “prosecutors,” “verdicts” and “hearings,” actually behaves. Everyone plays along with this ridiculous costume party and takes their senseless roles seriously. And this is the result.

Jarrar, a veteran political activist who has no criminal history even according to the occupation authorities, who was elected in democratic elections and who fights for the rights of women and the release of prisoners, is accused of a plethora of crimes for which the words “grotesque,” “parody” or “farce” would be far too kind. Of what is she not accused? The fact that she opposed the occupation, visited a released prisoner and called for the release of the leader of her movement (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine); that she participated in a book fair and even “asked about the welfare of the activists and the success of the books at the fair”; that she gave interviews, speeches and lectures; that she participated in marches; and that maybe – it’s doubtful even according to the indictment – she once incited to the kidnapping of soldiers in order to bring about the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Twelve counts of shame for the authors of this indictment – one of the most ridiculous legal documents ever written here, even by the military legal system. A system where the judge salutes the prosecutor, who outranks him militarily, and both are skullcap-wearing Orthodox Jews, perhaps even settlers – purely by chance, of course; it would never influence their worldview, never affect their conduct. A legal system that doesn’t even bother to translate the judge’s words for the defendant, and in which the judge delays his decision to free her for 72 hours, which somehow turns into another week (!) of detention. But who’s counting?

So Jarrar passed this weekend, too, in prison. After even the military judge recognized the hollowness of this indictment and ordered her released on bail, the prosecutor appealed. The appellate court accepted his appeal and ordered her kept in prison until the end of the trial. The court knows why it overturned the decision of the trial judge, Maj. Haim Balilty: The IDF had announced that if the court ordered her freed, she would be put under administrative detention. The rule of law.

A feminist parliamentarian, a brave, determined and patriotic lawmaker, is being kept under false arrest – and it’s as if nothing had happened. A handful of Knesset members from the true left took the trouble to visit her and speak out on her behalf, but aside from that, there has been complete silence and apathy. The Knesset speaker didn’t raise an outcry; the Supreme Court president didn’t utter a word; the head of the Israel Bar Association kept mum. So did women’s organizations and most of the media.

One day, they will (perhaps) be asked: Where were you when Jarrar was rotting in jail? What did you do then? Did you understand that by your shameful silence, you contributed to turning Israel into a state of political prisoners – today Jarrar, and tomorrow yourselves?

Tensions between Hamas and Fatah overshadow work of reconciliation government -
Rivalry between Palestinian groups grows with mutual recriminations, perhaps fanned by recent poll showing huge popularity boost for Hamas.
By Amira Hass | Sep. 6, 2014 |Haaretz
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.614333

The regular tension, hostility and suspicion between the two largest Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, have resurfaced strongly again in recent days, despite declared intentions by both sides to maintain the reconciliation government of technocrats.

Tensions ramped up even more Thursday as anonymous gunmen fired on Hassan Khreisheh, a member of Hamas’ Change and Reform faction in the legislative council – the Palestinian Parliament – and its second deputy speaker. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was quick to announce an investigation into the attacks.

Mutual accusations, reports on arrests and persecution of activists from the other faction, and fierce rhetoric are now serving as the chilling background music as the first postwar aid attempts get underway: Care for the wounded; distribution of emergency aid funds to the needy; talks on rebuilding Gaza; and creating the committees necessary for assessing the damage and long-term planning.

The Fatah Central Committee accused Hamas this week of targeting and persecuting activists in the Gaza Strip during the fighting, and putting them under house arrest. It also claimed that Hamas government security personnel shot activists in the legs (the Hamas government has been officially dismantled, save for its Interior Ministry, which is responsible for security issues).

A source in Gaza told Haaretz that some 300 individuals – not just Fatah activists – were targeted for daring to express opposition to Hamas, and were quieted by gunfire in attempts to deter and silence others. Fatah has not published the names of its members that were attacked.

Palestinian human-rights field researchers have tried to obtain more information – names, dates and types of injuries – but their efforts have so far proved futile. One Fatah member from the West Bank told Haaretz that he knows for certain that the reports are true, from colleagues in Gaza, and that the movement apparently did not want word to get out during the fighting, to avoid harming public morale.

During the fighting, the same Fatah member stated that his Fatah contacts in Gaza all expressed support for the armed struggle led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and even complained that Hamas did not allow them to join in the fighting.

Fatah’s central committee also accused Hamas authorities in Gaza of confiscating donated materials coming in from the West Bank (clothing, mattresses, water, food, etc.) and distributing them alone. At least during the fighting, Hamas complained that aid distribution was not coordinated with high-ranking officials that were nominated during its single rule and are now officially part of the reconciliation government, but rather with Palestinian Authority officials who had been inactive during the seven years of Hamas government. Therefore, officials from the former Hamas Social Affairs Ministry took charge of the distribution of aid.

Behind the mutual recriminations is both sides’ desire to monopolize the role of aid distributors and benefactors, though the accusations also reflect the political-bureaucratic difficulties facing the government of technocrats.

Hamas spokespersons have repeatedly stated that the reconciliation government is responsible for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, and that it is dragging its feet. In response, government officials have complained that Hamas has not allowed four ministers – all Gaza residents – to fulfill their duties in accordance with their appointment and in coordination with Ramallah. Meanwhile, many in Gaza – not only Hamas supporters – are wondering why Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah have not yet gone to Gaza.

In recent weeks, Palestinian Authority security personnel have forcefully dispersed Hamas protests in Gaza, which have been marked by an abundance of green separatist flags. Over the last week, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank arrested 10 Hamas activists – some of them university students; broke into Islamists’ homes and offices, including the offices for the student movement associated with Hamas at Al-Quds University; and summoned another seven activists for questioning.

Hamas has claimed this constitutes political persecution. A statement published on Wednesday read, “These arrests and attacks are done as part of Fatah and Palestinian Authority attempts to slander and distort the victory of the resistance [the armed factions] in the Gaza Strip, and an attempt to steal from it [the resistance] the fruits of victory.”

There may be a connection between the heightened tensions and a poll released this week by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), attesting to a drastic increase in public support for Hamas and its leaders.

Based on interviews with 1,270 men and women, Fatah representatives and PA officials received the lowest ratings in the poll. Only 35 percent rated Hamdallah positively, with 39 percent positive for Abbas and 36 percent for the Palestinian Authority in general. On the other hand, 78 percent of respondents rated positively the performance of exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, 88 percent rated Hamas positively, and 94 percent expressed satisfaction with Hamas’ military performance.

If an election was held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would be voted president, defeating both Abbas and imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, and Hamas would defeat Fatah in a parliamentary election. At the same time, a press release from PCPSR highlighted that previous wars also led to increases in support for Hamas that eventually returned to their preconflict levels.

Most of the respondents – 72 percent – believe that the armed struggle in Gaza should be replicated in the West Bank in order to achieve statehood.

According to the poll, the public is showing more support and optimism regarding the reconciliation government than it did during a similar poll in June about its chances of survival (69 percent today, as opposed to 26 percent then).

Every day, the PA “Voice of Palestine” radio station devotes two hours to a program called “Bridges to Gaza.” Various experts are interviewed about the aftermath of the war, and they highlight the damage, destruction, loss of life and psychological damage, particularly among children, rather than victory.

According to the poll, 79 percent of the Palestinian public believe that Hamas defeated Israel during the war, 3 percent believe that the victory was Israel’s, and 17 percent believe that both sides lost.

The poll was conducted in the West Bank and Gaza, starting on the last day of the war, August 26, until August 30, when Hamas media outlets and Al Jazeera hailed the cease-fire agreements as victory. But even then, respondents’ answers about the cease-fire were more reserved: 63 percent believed the cease-fire was in line with Palestinian interests, and 34 percent believed the opposite. Fifty-nine percent of respondents stated that the balance between the agreement’s achievements and the loss of life and property in Gaza was reasonable, while 31 percent said it was not. At the same time, 86 percent would support renewed rocket fire on Israel if the blockade on Gaza is not lifted.

It is difficult to reconcile this last response with reports coming from Gaza residents, especially as the heightened tension between the two factions in the Strip adds to the harsh prevailing mood there and increases fears of renewed warfare.