Release Mohammad Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Adeeb Abu Rahmah from prison

Senior Solidarity Group for Palestine

c/o K. Helvig, Høyenhall plass 2B, N-0667 Oslo, Norway 

                                                                                                      Oslo, 17 December 2009

To

Israel's Embassy to Norway

israel@oslo.mfa.gov.il,

Copy:

The Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre and The Norwegian Embassy to Israel

sent as attachments to mail to: jonas.gahr.store@mfa.no , emb.telaviv@mfa.no

 

Release Mohammad Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Adeeb Abu Rahmah from prison

This is an appeal from a group in Norway, which is part of Norwegian Peoples' Aid (NPAID). We ask for the release of Mohammad Othman, Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Adeeb Abu Rahmah from jail. We are convinced that it is not in Israel's interest to act in disrespect of international rules and conventions, bringing criticism and condemnation from the international community. We urge the Israeli government to release these detainees and to act according to international law, to avoid being even more isolated from the rest of the international community than Israel is to day.

On Thursday 11th Dec 2009 at 2 AM, the Israeli military surrounded the Ramallah home of Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher and the Coordinator of Bil'in's Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and arrested him. Abu Rahmah is one of the leaders of the West Bank village of Bil'in's nearly five-year nonviolent struggle of protests, lawsuits and boycotts that aim to save the village's land from Israel's wall and expanding settlements.

Since June 23, 2009, 31 Bil'in residents have been detained by the military. A leading Bil'in activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah has been detained for over five months for organizing grassroots demonstrations. Another Bil'in protest leader, Mohammed Khatib, was released on bail after an Israeli judge found that some of the evidence against him was falsified. The prisoners from Bil'in and Jayyous are just some of the nearly 11,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

These arrests along with the arrest of Mohammad Othman from the West Bank village of Jayyous, who has been held without charges since September 22nd after returning from a visit to friends in Norway, are seen as an intensified Israeli campaign in order to try and crush the growing Palestinian nonviolent movement aginst the Israeli occupation. Othman is also an organizer of Jayyous' long campaign to save its land from Israel's wall and settlements, and an advocate of the global boycott campaign against Israel, modelled on South Africa's successful anti-apartheid struggle.

At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, which came hours after Abu Rahmah's arrest, President Obama said, "there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice... the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened of cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women - some known, some obscure to all but those they help - to be far more deserving of this honor than I." These three men are among them. We therefore ask for the release of these detainees.

In President Obama's June speech in Cairo, he called on Palestinians to resist nonviolently, and Bil'in's nonviolent and creative struggle has inspired tens of thousands of Palestinians, Israelis and people worldwide. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, explained during an August visit by the Elders to Bil'in, "The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled." We underscore that in September, 2007, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the government had to move the wall in Bil'in to allow access to more of the village's land. More than two years later, the Israeli government has yet to move the wall.

We urge the Norwegian government to work through diplomatic and governmental channels for the release of jailed Palestinians on political grounds, referring to the following: The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders -- a joint program of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) -- case ISR 001 / 1109 / OBS 162 (http://www.fidh.org/Ongoing-arbitrary-detention-of-Mr-Mohammad-Othman)

Greetings,

for Senior Solidarity Group for Palestine, Oslo, Norwegian Peoples' Aid (NPAID)

Siri Lill Thowsen /s

Trine Eklund /s