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ISRAEL ARRESTS LEADERSHIP OF PALESTINIAN POLITICAL GROUP
by Workers Action (US)
Friday August 01, 2003 at 02:26 AM
sf_adam@rocketmail.com (email address validated) Detroit and San Francisco USA
The apartheid regime of Israel arrested five leaders of Abnaa el Ballad (Sons of the Land) group, a legal political organization struggling against discrimination and for the right to return. PLEASE POST A MESSAGE DEMANDING THEIR FREEDOM ON ISRAEL INDYMEDIA! www.indymedia.org.il >> Message from Socialist Workers League of Palestine Below.
We support the immediate release of the arrested members of Abnaa el Ballad. Far from the "terrorists" Israel�s Channel 10 and Ha�avertz portrayed them has, we know them to be advocates of Palestinian self-determination and both Palestinian and Jewish working class liberation. The fact that they struggle for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and for a democratic secular Palestine where Palestinians and Jews can live as equals, is their real crime in the eyes of Sharon and company. There could be no better testament to the power of their program then the campaign of lies and arrests that have been undertaken against Abnaa el Ballad. It will not only fail, but strengthen the resolve of all those who fight for a justice.
Futhermore we commit publicizing this case in the United States.
Workers� Action (US)
http://www.workersaction.org
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Message from the Socialist Workers League/Palestine
URGENT APPEAL:
ABNAA EL BALLAD LEADERS ARRESTED!
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Five leading members of the Abnaa el Ballad ("Sons of the Country") movement, including its general secretary Muhamad Kanaane and Yoav Bar, were arrested today in the morning in the summer camp the movement has in the town of Kabul. [Note: in Israel/Palestine�not Afghanistan.]
Abnaa el Ballad has conducted a summer camp for years; this year it was held in the northern town of Kabul, in the Galilee, where more than 300 hundred children and youth assisted. Coincidentally with the summer camp, a political meeting was held yesterday, where Jewish and Arab members of the movement and other left activists, including members of the SWL, participated in order to promote common activities between the Palestinian and Jewish masses within Israel against the national and social oppression of the Zionist regime.
Yesterday, the Israeli television Channel 10 released a blood libel about the summer camp, arguing that the organizers teach the children to be suicide bombers and act as apologists for Hamas. Today�s edition of the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz also presented a similarly vicious slander. Later in the day the police arrested some of the leading comrades of Abnaa el Ballad.
The police and the security services have been carrying on a campaign against Abnaa elBallad for years, especially after the demonstrations held in October 2000, when 13 Arab demonstrators were killed by the police. This is another step in the persecution of the Arab population in Israel and its political parties. Let us just recall that the leaders of the Islamic movement, a legal political organization, have been imprisoned for several weeks already, and that today the Knesset is debating a racist law denying the Israeli citizenship to the sons of couples where one of the partners is an Israeli Arab and the other a Palestinian from the Occupied Territories.
We demand the immediate release of the arrested comrades and the end of the political persecution against Abnaa elBallad, and ask all our comrades and sympathizers to conduct a campaign of solidarity. A note to this effect posted immediately in Indymedia Israel (http://www.indymedia.org.il) would be very helpful.
Socialist Workers League (Palestine)
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Workers Action
http://www.workersaction.org
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Abnaa elBallad
http://www.abnaa-elbalad.org/
8/1/03 Update
by Workers Action
Friday August 01, 2003 at 08:20 PM
sf_adam (at) rocketmail.com (email address NOT validated)
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The facts of the arrest of the Abnaa el Balla leadership, updated 8/1/03.
There were four are being held until Monday. The arrests were made in front of hudreds of Arab children at a summer camp, an act designed to frighten and terrorize them, and to drive a wedge against any political solidarity between Jews and Arab workers against the Zionist Apartheid state of Israel.
1. Muhamad Kanaane, General Secretary
2. Jameel Safouri
3. Yusuf Abu Ali
4. Yoav Bar
Monday is the day of the court date for these comrades.
Workers Action
http://www.workersaction.org
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Report on the Arrests of Abnaa el Ballad leaders in Israel 8/1/03
Four leading members of the Abnaa el Ballad ("Sons of the Country") movement, including its general secretary Muhamad Kanaane, Jameel Safouri, Yusuf Abu Ali and Yoav Bar, were arrested today in the morning in the summer camp the movement has in the town of Kaool. They were accused in "incitement for terrorist actions & revolt and identification with a terrorist organization - the Hezbollah (??!)". The court of Akka has prolonged their detention until Monday, August 8, 2003.
Abnaa el Ballad has conducted a summer camp for 16 years; this year it was held in the northern town of Kabul, in the Galilee, where more than 300 hundred children and youth assisted. Coincidentally with the summer camp, a political meeting was held yesterday, where Jewish and Arab members of the movement and other left activists, participated in order to promote common activities between the Palestinians and Jews against the national and social oppression of the Zionist Apartheid regime.
At Wednesday, the Israeli television Channel 10 released a blood libel about the summer camp, arguing that the organizers teach the children to be suicide bombers and act as apologists for Hamas. Thursday and Friday editions of all Hebrew daily papers and other mass media means also presented a similarly vicious slander. Later in the day the police arrested some of the leading comrades of Abnaa el Ballad.
On Thursday afternoon (around 18:00) police forces including the special anti- riot forces surrounded the summer camp, and began to detain all the adults, including visitors. They detained as 20 people, including the brother of the Channel 10 TV reporter, who came to the summer camp with his brother!. They took all those detainees to the nearby police station (including 2 volunteers that were dragged from between the children chained into the police car) and accused all them, too, in incitement for terrorist actions & revolt(??!!!). But at midnight, after 4 hours of interrogation, all those "dangerous" detainees were released without any bill! because all those accusations are faked & lies.
Meanwhile, in the summer camp were not more than 3 adults who tried to fix buses for sending the children home & to deal with hundreds of panicked children (3 of them fainted, and other cried and shivered with all their bodies when they sow the anti- riot unit hanging around their tents...). So most of the work with the children was done by 15 - 16 youth who should care for the smaller children. (When I went back to the camp after I was "released from detention" and was shocked to see the camp like after an occupation - plates half full with food on the tables, everything inside messed & ruined.)
Anyway, the 4 that were arrested earlier stayed in detention, and the court today prolonged their arrest in more 4 days. The police and the security services have been carrying on a campaign against Abnaa elBallad for years, especially after the demonstrations held in October 2000, when 13 Arab demonstrators were killed by the police. This is another step in the persecution of the Arab population in Israel and its political parties. Let us just recall that the leaders of the Islamic movement, a legal political organization, have been imprisoned for several weeks already, and that today the Knesset is debating a racist law denying the Israeli citizenship to the sons of couples where one of the partners is an Israeli Arab and the other a Palestinian from the Occupied Territories.
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