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Clinton’s Hypocritical Internet Freedom Speech

By Liu Dong | Global Times | January 22 2010

Unfettered cyber freedom is merely an impractical slogan, a Chinese expert on world politics told the Global Times Thursday.

“In the US, a country that boasts its Internet freedom, governmental supervision virtually infiltrates across the nation, and its influence further extends to worldwide servers,” said Wang Yizhou, deputy chief of the Institute of World Politics and Economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “The information-searching via Google and the online chatting through Windows Live Messenger are all under stringent surveillance, and the relevant agencies are tasked with compiling backups.”

Wang was responding to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made a speech Thursday on Internet freedom at the Newseum in Washington and called on China to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the alleged cyber attacks on Google and other US companies.

Google said January 13 that more than 20 users’ accounts were subjected to a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” originating in China in mid-December. The company later declared that it no longer would censor its Chinese language google.cn site and wanted to talk with Beijing about offering a legal, unfiltered Chinese site.

“I hope that refusal to support politically motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of American technology companies,” Clinton said, referring to the Google farce. “It should be part of our national brand. And when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what’s right, not simply the prospect of quick profits.”

Earlier Thursday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said that “the Google incident should not be linked to bilateral relations (between China and the US) otherwise that would be over-interpreting it.”

“The Chinese government encourages the development of the Internet in China, but there must be observance of Chinese law,” He said. “If Google or other foreign firms have any problems in China, these should be resolved according to Chinese law, and the Chinese government is willing to help resolve their problems.”

“Clinton’s so-called Internet freedom is a freedom that is dominated by the US,” Yu Wanli, an expert on international studies at Peking University, told the Global Times. “Ten of the 13 root name servers in the world are located in the US. They are the top hierarchy of the Internet, which means by controlling them, the US can define the freedom of the Internet. How can Clinton guarantee you a freedom if her country has the power to unplug you?”

January 22, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

Ma’an journalist enters week 2 in detention

Ma’an | 19 January 2010

As journalist Jared Malsin wrapped up one week in detention today, a Tel Aviv district judge indicated there were grounds for appealing an expulsion order issued last Tuesday.

District Judge Kobi Vardi sought further clarification of the explanation offered by the Israeli Attorney General’s Office that Malsin was denied entry for “refusing to cooperate” during an eight-hour interrogation at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

On Monday, Ma’an lawyer Castro Daoud filed additional information in response to allegations by the Attorney General’s Office, and insisted that Malsin be brought out of the airport to attend a hearing on the matter. Daoud argued that Malsin has a right to a full defense and, at the least, to be present at his own hearing.

The attorney general had requested that no hearing be scheduled, saying Malsin’s presence in court would complicate efforts by the Ministry of the Interior to deport the journalist, since moving him off airport property requires a change in visa status.

Daoud further contested the attorney general’s explanation, arguing the listed reasons for denial of entry do not constitute valid legal justifications, and that they certainly do not trump the unprecedented violation of press freedom that would accompany Malsin’s deportation.

According to court documents filed on Thursday evening, signed by an Israeli interrogator, Malsin was denied entry for “refusing to cooperate” and for violating visa terms.

Disturbingly, the documents also reveal that interrogators had gathered online research into the journalist’s writing history, which transcripts indicate included news stories “criticizing the State of Israel,” among other allegations he authored articles “inside the [Palestinian] territories.”

See the following for more information:

On the reaction of international press associations:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254583
On Jared’s fight to overturn the deportation order:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254021
On the timeline of Jared’s detention and questioning:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254589

For further inquiries, please contact:

George Hale (English)
+972(0)52.785-4907
Raed Othman (Arabic)
+972(0)59.925-8705
Nasser Lahham (Hebrew)
+972(0)59.925-8704

For the most updated version of this news release, click here:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=253864

January 19, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Proposed Web video restrictions cause outrage in Italy

Philip Willan | IDG News Service |01.15.2010

New rules to be introduced by government decree will require people who upload videos onto the Internet to obtain authorization from the Communications Ministry similar to that required by television broadcasters, drastically reducing freedom to communicate over the Web, opposition lawmakers have warned.

The decree is ostensibly an enactment of a European Union (EU) directive on product placement and is due to go into effect at the end of January after being subjected to a nonbinding appraisal by parliament.

On Thursday opposition lawmakers held a press conference in parliament to denounce the new rules — which require government authorization for the uploading of videos, give individuals who claim to have been defamed a right of reply and prevent the replay of copyright material — as a threat to freedom of expression.

“The decree subjects the transmission of images on the Web to rules typical of television and requires prior ministerial authorization, with an incredible limitation on the way the Internet currently functions,” opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Paolo Gentiloni told the press conference.

Article 4 of the decree specifies that the dissemination over the Internet “of moving pictures, whether or not accompanied by sound,” requires ministerial authorization. Critics say it will therefore apply to the Web sites of newspapers, to IPTV and to mobile TV, obliging them to take on the same status as television broadcasters.

“Italy joins the club of the censors, together with China, Iran and North Korea,” said Gentiloni’s party colleague Vincenzo Vita.

The decree was also condemned by Articolo 21, an organization dedicated to the defense of freedom of speech as enshrined in article 21 of the Italian constitution. The group said the measures resembled an earlier government attempt to crack down on bloggers by imposing on them the same obligations and responsibilities as newspapers.

The group launched an appeal Friday entitled “Hands Off the Net,” saying the restrictive measures would mark “the end of freedom of expression on the Web.” The restrictions would prevent the recounting of the life of the Italians in moving pictures on the Internet, it said.

The decree was also criticized by Nicola D’Angelo, a commissioner in the Communications Authority, which would be likely to play a role in policing copyright violations under the new rules. The decree ran contrary to the spirit of the EU directive by extending the rules of television to online video material, D’Angelo said in a radio interview.

He also expressed concern at the requirement for government authorization for the uploading of videos to Internet. “Italy will be the only Western country in which it is necessary to have prior government permission to operate this kind of service,” he said. “This aspect reveals a democratic risk, regardless of who happens to be in power.”

Other critics described the decree as an expression of the conflict of interests of Silvio Berlusconi, who exercises political control over the state broadcaster RAI in his role as prime minister and is also the owner of Italy’s largest private broadcaster, Mediaset.

They said the new copyright regulations would prevent Internet users from sharing snippets of popular TV shows or goals from the Italian soccer league, currently viewed online by millions of people.

Mediaset has successfully sued YouTube to obtain the removal of its copyright material, in particular video from the reality show “Big Brother,” from the online video-sharing platform. A judge in a Rome civil court ordered the removal of the material last month, and the new decree is seen as providing further protection for Mediaset’s online commercial interests.

Alessandro Gilioli, who writes a blog on the Web site of the weekly magazine L’Espresso, said the decree was intended to squelch future competition for Mediaset, which was planning to move into IPTV and therefore had an interest in reducing the number of independent videos circulating on the Web.

“It’s the Berlusconi method: Kill your potential enemies while they are small. That’s why anyone doing Web TV — even from their attic at home — must get

ministerial approval and fulfill a host of other bureaucratic obligations,” Gilioli wrote. He said the government was also keen to restrict the uncontrollable circulation of information over the Internet to preserve its monopoly over television news.

Paolo Romani, the deputy minister responsible for drafting the decree, insisted the text simply adopted the recommendations of the EU directive but said the government was prepared to discuss modifications. The decree did not intend to restrict freedom of information “or the possibility of expressing one’s ideas and opinions through blogs and social networks,” Romani told the ANSA news agency.

January 19, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | Leave a comment

Detainee Seriously Wounded Due To Torture

January 16, 2010 | By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News

The Detainees Media Committee reported that a Palestinian detainee was seriously wounded due to extreme torture by Israeli interrogators at the Salem detention camp in the northern part of the West Bank.

The detainee was identified as Hatheefa Farid Ziyada from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

He was repeatedly beaten to several parts of his body, mainly to his head, leading a severe injury in his eye, likely leading to internal bleeding.

The committee voiced an appeal to different human rights groups and international humanitarian organizations asking them to intervene and save the lives of hundreds of detainees who are being tortured abused in Israeli interrogation facilities.

The detainee was held at the Negev detention camp, in the Negev desert, and was informed by the administration that he is being moved to Hadarim Prison.

He found out later on that this was a lie as he was moved to the infamous Petah Tikva interrogation center.

He was repeatedly imprisoned by Israel during the first Intifada and was also imprisoned during the second Intifada. In 2004 he was kidnapped again and spent three years in administrative detention without charges or trial.

Ziyada was released in 2007 but was kidnapped again just before the end of the same year and remained under administrative detention since then.

January 16, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Detention of top Ma’an journalist condemned

15/01/2010

Bethlehem – Ma’an – As Israeli authorities prepared to expel Ma’an News Agency’s chief English editor later this week, media rights groups have blasted his ongoing detention as an assault on freedom of the press.

Jared Malsin was originally scheduled to be deported without a hearing on Thursday morning. Protests by US authorities in Tel Aviv resulted in a temporary reversal, and an injunction filed by Ma’an delayed the expulsion until at least Sunday.

Reporters Without Borders “condemns the detention and imminent expulsion of US journalist Jared Malsin, who has worked for the past two years as an editor with Ma’an, an independent Palestinian news agency,” the group said on Wednesday in a statement, the first of many that it and others would issue on behalf of the top journalist at Ma’an’s English Desk.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors freedom of the press worldwide, urged Israel to refrain from taking punitive action against reporters over specific content in their work. “Israel cannot hide behind the pretext of security to sideline journalists who have done nothing more than maintain an editorial line that the authorities dislike,” the organization said.

Indeed, court documents indicated that Malsin’s detention was directly related to his work at the news agency, quoting airport officials as noting that he authored articles “inside the territories,” among them some which “criticized the State of Israel.”

“We are alarmed by the Israeli government’s efforts to deport Jared Malsin on vague security charges,” stated CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. “We call on the Israeli authorities to ensure that our colleague be allowed to carry out his work without further harassment.”

Full article

January 15, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Illegal Occupation | Leave a comment

Syria threatens retaliatory screening for US travelers

DPA | Jan 12, 2010

Damascus – Syria on Tuesday summoned a senior US diplomat in Damascus to protest new US security regulations calling for mandatory additional screening for citizens of 14 countries, including Syria.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned Chuck Hunter, the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Damascus, to deliver Syria’s ‘strong protest against the discriminatory measures against citizens from certain countries who wish to travel to the United States,’ Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.

The United States imposed tighter security screening on citizens of 14 countries as part of strict measures instituted following a Nigerian man’s failed attempt to blow up an aircraft over Detroit on December 25.

Syrian Foreign Ministry officials told Hunter that Syria considers these measures ‘unfriendly’ and a ‘double-standard,’ SANA reported.

Syrian diplomats reminded Washington that no Syrian citizen was linked to the Nigerian man’s plot.

Syrian diplomats asked the United States to reconsider the measures, and said it would find itself forced to reciprocate if the United States did not.

The United States lists Syria, Iran, Cuba and Sudan as ‘state sponsors of terrorism.’

Of the four, Syria has been on the list longest, since December 1979.

The US State Department in April justified Syria’s inclusion by saying that ‘Syria provided political and material support to Hezbollah and allowed Iran to use Syrian territory as a transit point for assistance to Hezbollah.’

The United States also cited Damascus’ hosting of leaders from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

‘The Syrian government insisted these groups were confined to political and informational activities, but groups with leaders in Syria have claimed responsibility for deadly anti-Israeli terrorist attacks,’ the US State Department said.

Source

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Islamophobia, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

American Journalist and Partner Denied Re-entry to Israel – Deportation Imminent

IMEMC | January 13, 2010

…The English Desk at Ma’an News Agency, the largest independent news network in the Palestinian territories, is deeply concerned that its chief editor, Jared Malsin, an American citizen [and graduate of Yale University], was detained on Tuesday afternoon upon arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. He is slated for imminent deportation.

In what can only be explained as a retaliatory measure for Malsin’s reporting on Palestine, his long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, a two-year, registered volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, was also seized and placed in a holding cell pending deportation. Israeli security agents have prevented the couple from making calls, and lied to concerned American consular staff, denying that the two were even being held.

While the US Embassy is protesting both incidents, and is in constant contact with our staff on the ground, diplomatic officials say that there is little they can do when Israel cites “security reasons” for the denial of entry. Meanwhile, Israeli security officials have quietly expressed concern to Ma’an over this latest abuse of power by authorities at the Interior Ministry, skeptical that the professional journalist they know could be deemed a threat.

For its part, Israel has yet to specify any allegations against Malsin, who indicated – just before his phone was seized by airport guards – that during his hours of interrogation, security agents inexplicably questioned him over his supposed ties to international peace activists, with whom he has no relationship.

Ma’an scrupulously maintains its editorial independence and aims to promote access to information, freedom of expression, press freedom, and media pluralism in Palestine. It has no other agenda. Israel’s arbitrary detention of the head of its English Desk is an affront to professional journalists not only in Palestine, but also to journalists in Israel and abroad, who rely on Ma’an for its accuracy, impartiality, and independence…

Ma’an report:

Order of Events

Jared’s phone was confiscated by El Al security officials when he boarded a flight in the Czech Republic on 12 January 2010. He was denied the opportunity to make any calls to his consulate, his family or a lawyer between 11am (upon boarding) and 11pm (when his mobile was briefly returned).

In what can only be explained as a retaliatory measure for Malsin’s reporting on Palestine, his long-term girlfriend, Faith Rowold, a two-year, registered volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, was also seized and placed in a holding cell pending deportation.

At 4pm when the flight was disembarked in Tel Aviv, Faith used the phone of a fellow traveler, an Israeli national, in the restroom of the airport. She called her sister with a brief message saying she had landed but indicated that there were problems.

At 6:30pm, the office of US Citizen Services was contacted in Jerusalem. Officials called Israeli airport authorities, who assured them that there were no American citizens being held there at that time. The names of Jared and his companion, also a US national, were reportedly not flagged. The official suggested the couple were out having a good time in Tel Aviv and had simply not gotten in touch.

The official also said local police should be contacted if Jared were actually missing, but assured that his contacts at the airport were not holding him. Ma’an staff asked if the official could confirm whether or not Jared and his companion had in fact cleared immigration.

Jared used the mobile of a French traveler admitted to the detention hall at 8:30pm to call his Faith’s sister again and asked a colleague to immediately contact the US Embassy. He said he was being questioned and feared being denied entry into Israel; he provided passport numbers for himself and his fellow traveler.

The US Consulate official was contacted again with the information that Jared was not out in Tel Aviv, but had in fact been in Israeli custody since 11am that morning. The official immediately expressed concern and said he would call his contacts again at the airport.

The official called back at after 9pm and asked for more information on Jared and his fellow traveler: are they married, is she pregnant, is there a Palestinian connection, what newspaper does Jared write for, etc.

The consulate official was informed that Jared worked with Ma’an. He was also informed that while the US, EU and UK fund programs and productions with the Ma’an Network, that staff at each of the consulates consult the English Desk site daily, even hourly, the State of Israel does not recognize Ma’an as a news organization, and therefore denies its journalists press accreditation.

By 11pm, both Jared and Faith were informed that they had been denied entry. Their mobile phones were returned to them for two hours, and then confiscated just after midnight when they were transferred to holding cells.

At 8am, the US consular official was contacted, called security at the airport and was informed that Jared and Faith were set to be deported at 6am on 14 January 2010, on the next direct flight to Prague, where they had been vacationing a week before.

For further comment, please contact:

George Hale (English)
+972(0)52.785-4907

Raed Othman (Arabic)
+972(0)59.925-8704

Hakim Abdul Salah (Hebrew)
+972(0)59.895-1151

Full story

January 13, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Illegal Occupation, Solidarity and Activism | Leave a comment

Interview: Disabled activist continues struggle in Bilin

Live from Palestine, 11 January 2010

Rani Bornat (Multaqa.org)

The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre recently interviewed Palestinian activist Rani Bornat about his life after being shot by the Israeli army.

Rani Bornat: My name is Rani Abdelfatah Ibrahim Bornat, and I’m 29 years old. I’m from the village of Bilin, west of Ramallah. I was shot in the throat on the first day of the second intifada.

Jody McIntyre: How was your life before you were injured?

RB: Before it happened, my life was like any other young person. I used to study, go horse riding, herd my goats, ride donkeys … do all the things farmers do. My dream was to finish school, but I was deprived of it. I was to become an electronic engineer, and I was also deprived of that. God willing, I will be able to help my children study to become engineers instead.

It was while I was waiting to hear back from universities about continuing my studies, when the al-Aqsa intifada broke out in Palestine …

JM: Tell me about how you were injured.

RB: It was Saturday, 30 September 2000, the first day of the uprising. We marched to one of the checkpoints near Ramallah to protest against Sharon’s entering of the al-Aqsa mosque. It was a nonviolent demonstration, like the ones here in Bilin, with people chanting and holding up posters. But the soldiers didn’t respond with tear gas or rubber bullets, only live ammunition, because it was their aim to kill as many Palestinians as possible.

I wasn’t shot with a normal bullet, but a special “butterfly” bullet, so-called because of the way it spins as it flies through the air. It entered my throat and cut the artery that connects and nourishes my body and brain. Now I have an artificial artery. Because the artery was cut, and I had a blood clot in my brain, they had to tie two ends of the artery together. I had a stroke on my left side, and my right arm was left paralyzed.

It was a very dangerous situation — I was taken to a hospital in Amman, where I stayed for seven months. For the first two months I was in a coma. I was operated on many times … life-threatening operations. Everyday, people were just waiting for the moment I would die. At first, on the news they said I was a martyr; my father heard on the radio that his son had died. Later, they changed the report, and said that I was a “living martyr.”

When I recovered from the coma, I was struggling to speak, I had lost my memory and I couldn’t move my arms or legs.

JM: How did your family and other people from the village react to what had happened?

RB: When the people from the village saw me come home, still alive, they were so happy, because everyone thought that I would die from my injuries. Some of the family were crying with joy! All my friends were coming to visit me and stay with me … sometimes I had to tell them to leave because I was tired and wanted to sleep! I told them to act like before, so that I could continue with my life as normal.

JM: Do you participate in the demonstrations at the wall here in Bilin, or are you too scared after your past experiences?

RB: Firstly, I would like to tell you that I have been shot many times in the demonstrations in Bilin. Secondly, I would like to tell you that the best person to ask is Jody; he will tell you if I’m scared or not!

JM: So you’re a little bit scared?

RB: I’m not scared.

These are peaceful protests; if we don’t fight for our land, then who can? If we don’t fight for the truth, then who can? If we don’t stand side by side and resist this occupation together, then who can? Peaceful demonstrations don’t hurt or kill anybody; they are only there to serve the oppressed. We must tear down this wall, so that we can live with peace … and freedom.

JM: Has your wheelchair ever been broken during a demonstration?

RB: Once, we had a demonstration in Bilin for disabled people, which I organized. Normally, we would protest right up at the wall, but on this occasion, the soldiers started shooting tear gas before we were even within sight. They started to shout that “after today, there will be no more demonstrations in Bilin” … it was because the week before, they had shot an Israeli lawyer who was participating with us. So they wanted to stop the demonstrations because they were afraid of killing Israelis, not Palestinians! But that was a few years ago, so they haven’t done a very good job on the “no more demos” promise …

It was a very powerful symbol of the occupation, to see the Israeli army shooting at the blind and people in wheelchairs. They shot three tear gas canisters at my wheelchair and broke it completely.

JM: Do you think that the Israeli army deal with you differently because you are in a wheelchair?

RB: They treat me exactly the same. They don’t care if I am in a wheelchair or if I’m walking — according to them, I am a threat to the State of Israel, as ridiculous as that may sound.

Maybe they think I want to take revenge for what has happened to me, but I want to tell them that I am a man who wants peace. Even if they destroy my whole life, I only want to make peace.

JM: How do you envision the future?

RB: I am married now, and we have just welcomed three beautiful children, triplets, into the world. I want to start a new life.

Everybody living under the occupation is pessimistic, but I have hope that we can end it. I want to be able to live in freedom, to be able to travel without seeing walls or checkpoints — those are the real things that restrict my movement!

JM: Are you happy to see someone in a wheelchair from London going to demos with you?

RB: When I first saw you, I loved you, because you’re in a wheelchair like me. But it’s not important if you’re in a wheelchair or not … what’s important are the ideas, the resistance, that’s in your mind.

Jody McIntyre is a journalist from the United Kingdom, currently living in the occupied West Bank village of Bilin. Jody has cerebral palsy, and travels in a wheelchair. He writes a blog for Ctrl.Alt.Shift, entitled “Life on Wheels,” which can be found at www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk, where a version of this article was originally published. He can be reached at jody.mcintyre AT gmail DOT com.

Source

January 12, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Charges of Palestinian Child torture in Israeli prisons

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Palestine, January 9, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) – Defence for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI/PS) on Wednesday submitted 13 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for investigation.

The cases relate to the ill-treatment, and in some cases torture, of Palestinian children being held at the notorious Al Jalame Interrogation and Detention Centre near Haifa, in Israel, between February 2008 and March 2009.

In each case, boys between the ages of 16 and 17, report being held in ‘Cell No. 36’ at the Interrogation Centre. ‘Cell No. 36’ is described as measuring approximately 2×3 metres in which the child is forced to sleep on a concrete bed or a thin mattress on the floor. Meals are passed to the child through a flap in the door depriving him of all human contact. One child reports being held in solitary confinement in ‘Cell No 36’ for 65 days.

The walls of ‘Cell No. 36’ are reported to be grey in colour with sharp protrusions preventing the child from leaning against them for support. Perhaps more disturbingly, ‘Cell No. 36’ does not have any windows and only a single dim yellow light which is kept on 24 hours a day. Some children report suffering pain behind their eyes and adverse psychological effects after being detained in ‘Cell No. 36’.

It appears that the dominant purpose for detaining children in ‘Cell No. 36’ is to break their spirits in order to extract confessions. This conclusion is supported by the testimony of one child who states that ‘on the 10th day of interrogation and because I was under so much pressure, I decided to confess so as to get out of the cell.’ All of the children report being kept in ‘Cell No. 36’ between lengthy interrogation sessions in which clearly prohibited techniques were utilised, such as excessive shackling of the legs and hands as well as position abuse.

Children held in Al Jalame for interrogation are denied access to a lawyer and do not receive family visits, in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and multiple human rights treaties. No education is provided to the children at this facility. Further, the detention of Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory in Al Jalame is in clear violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), which states that an occupying power must detain residents of occupied territory in prisons inside the territory i.e. in the West Bank.

DCIP-alestine has requested that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture investigates and reports on the allegations of ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children at the Al Jalame facility.
There are currently 306 Palestinian children being held in Israeli detention facilities. For further information please see DCIP-alestine’s latest report on child detainees.

– windowintopalestine

January 10, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Amnesty urges Israel to release or try three Palestinians

By Agence France Presse | January 09, 2010

Amnesty urges Israel to release or try three Palestinians

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Human rights group Amnesty International urged Israel on Friday to release or fairly try three Palestinian jailed for protesting against the West Bank separation barrier. The three, two of whom are held without charges, may be “prisoners of conscience, held for legitimately voicing their opposition to the fence/wall,” Amnesty said in a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

“These men have all been involved in campaigning against the building of this construction, much of it on the land of the occupied West Bank, and we fear that this is the real reason for their imprisonment,” said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.

“If this is the case they must be released immediately and unconditionally,” he said.

Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign, has not been charged with any offence since his arrest on December 16 and has not had access to his lawyer.

He is held under Israeli military law, which applies to the occupied West Bank.

“As someone who holds a Jerusalem ID card, according to Israeli law his case should be handled under the country’s civil, not military, legal system,” the London-based human rights watchdog said.

Mohammad Othman is also held without charge since September 22. He was arrested upon his return from Norway where he met activist groups and campaigned against the wall, Amnesty said.

Abdullah Abu Rahma, who heads Popular Committee Against the Wall in the West Bank village of Bilin, was arrested on December 10.

He has been charged with incitement, stone-throwing, and possession of arms, the latter for collecting spent cartridges and tear gas grenades used by Israeli forces to disperse anti-wall protesters.

“These three men are all well known for their defense of the human rights of Palestinians. In the unlikely event that there are genuine grounds to prosecute these men, they should be charged with recognizable criminal offences and brought promptly to trial in full conformity with international fair trial standards,” said Smart.

January 9, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Afghan Prisoners Challenge Indefinite Detention

By William Fisher | January 08, 2010 | Excerpt

On Thursday, the D.C. circuit court heard oral arguments in a case known as Maqaleh v. Gates – the first legal challenge in U.S. courts on behalf of prisoners detained at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan.

The case was brought by the International Justice Network (IJNetwork) on behalf of two Yemenis and one Tunisian citizen, each seized outside of Afghanistan from third countries and held without charge or trial in U.S. custody for more than six years.

Evidence suggests that each man was shuttled through U.S.-run secret prisons (“black sites”) for torture and interrogation, prior to ultimately being transferred to Bagram – itself the site of well-documented human rights violations – where they continue to be subjected to indefinite detention under sole U.S. military custody.

During the entire six-year period he has been in U.S. custody, Maqaleh has not been permitted to see his family and has been denied any access to lawyers or a court of law. Because he is being held virtually incommunicado, his father authorized IJNetwork to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. court seeking his release.

Though his case has now been pending for over three years, the government continues to refuse to allow Maqaleh to communicate with his attorneys.

In April 2009, Judge John D. Bates ruled that Maqaleh and two other petitioners in the case, Amin al-Bakri and Redha al-Najar, have a constitutional right to petition U.S. courts for a writ of habeas corpus.

Judge Bates’ decision was based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush, which established that detainees held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo had a constitutional right to file habeas corpus petitions in U.S. courts.

But before any of the Bagram detainees could have his day in court, the Barack Obama administration appealed Judge Bates’ decision, arguing that none of the 600 detainees at Bagram have any rights under U.S. law.

As the organization representing the Bagram detainees, the IJNetwork has called on the Obama administration to end the practices of rendition, torture, and indefinite detention and provide fundamental human rights to all individuals held in U.S. custody – including at Bagram.

Though President Obama has vowed to close Guantanamo, the Department of Justice continues to defend the George W. Bush administration’s position that individuals held at other U.S.-run military facilities have no legal rights.

Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, arguing for the government, said the circumstances surrounding detention of prisoners at Bagram are unique and do not match the circumstances at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. Katyal noted that Bagram is in the middle of a war zone.

But Tina Foster, executive director of the IJNetwork, who argued for the Bagram detainees, told IPS, “Our clients are three innocent men who have been imprisoned without charge for seven years and haven’t even been told why.”

“The fundamental question at issue in these cases is whether the United States government can seize individuals from peaceful countries anywhere in the world and imprison them without charge indefinitely, based solely on the location of the prison facility where the government decides to detain them,” Foster said.

She added, “The position of the Obama administration is that it can do so, as long as it uses Bagram, instead of Guantanamo, as its legal black hole. This is an extreme position – and one that allows the president to do exactly what the Supreme Court said was unconstitutional in the Guantanamo cases.”

IPS

January 8, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

Wave of arrests continue in Burqa village

File photo

International Solidarity Movement | January 8, 2010 

The Israeli army has abducted another young man from the northern West Bank village of Burqa. Muhammad Samir, 21 years old, was stopped outside the village by soldiers as he returned from his workplace in Tulkarem and arrested. Arrests and military invasions have surged this past month in Burqa, with Samir becoming the 22nd person taken since the beginning of December.

Samir was returning from his work at the Tulkarem offices of the Palestinian Authority at 10am yesterday morning when he was stopped at a flying checkpoint between Burqa and the neighbouring village of Bisaia. Upon checking his ID he was immediately place under arrest by soldiers. He was released from prison just two years ago, serving a two-year sentence from the age of 17.

The wave of arrests, primarily carried out in night raids on the village, have robbed Burqa of 22 young men in the past month alone. The village’s 4,000 residents sleep uneasily now, unknowing of who may be taken the next time the military comes. It is the standard story in hundreds of cases of its kind: young men, generally aged 16 or 17 and in their last year of school, arrested and charged with throwing stones at military jeeps when they enter the village.

International solidarity activists have initiated a nightly vigil in Burqa, joining local residents in keeping watch until the early hours of the morning in the hopes of documenting and de-escalating the violence of the night raids. During the invasions soldiers enter either by jeep or on foot, surrounding the homes of wanted people and preventing residents from leaving their home. Residents report extreme violence at the hands of the soldiers during invasions, with shots fired as the family is usually forced in to the bathroom for several hours and their home torn apart by soldiers, searching for weapons or other incriminating possessions.

Burqa has long been a target for Israeli Occupation Forces and its residents are no strangers to the senseless violence meted out by soldiers. The village itself became a training ground for Israeli soldiers preparing for battle in the 2006 war with Hezbollah, the village’s topography resembling that of southern Lebanon. Residents recall almost nightly invasions during the period, with soldiers storming the homes of families who were forced out in to the street, handcuffed and ID’d, only to be informed that they were participating in an Israeli military training exercise.

Atop the mountain overlooking Burqa sits Homesh, an Israeli settlement built on the village’s lands and evacuated by the military in 2005 as part of Ariel Sharon’s disengagement from 4 West Bank settlements and the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza. Not that Burqa’s farmers have been permitted to recommence work on their lands – the area was declared a military zone following the settlement’s original evacuation, and so it has remained.

Nor has the evacuation of settlers from Homesh been maintained in the years following the disengagement. A campaign of reclamation, spearheaded by the extremist “Homesh First” organisation, has been growing ever since and has ensured a significant settler presence still active in the area. Despite the military’s repeated attempts to disperse the settlers, nothing has successfully prevented the Homesh First supporters from attempting to repopulate the area, particularly during Jewish religious holidays when settlers converge in their thousands on the site. Thus Burqa farmers’ goal of land reclamation is not just borne of the legitimate desire for vital lands to be returned to their legal owners, but also out of a real fear of resettlement of the site by ideological Israeli settlers.

Farmers of Burqa continue live under constant threat of violence at the hands of the settlers, vengeful in their attempts to lay claim to the stolen land. Over 5000 fertile dunums remain inaccessible to the Palestinian population. For the last two years the village has co-ordinated an annual trip to the contested area, re-planting and cultivating 95 dunums of land. Settlers have descended each time on the area soon after to destroy the farmers’ work, uprooting trees and destroying new wells built for irrigation. 25 dunums of the original 95 remain.

January 7, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture | Leave a comment

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