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Thursday 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 among the leaders of the West Bank village of Bil’in’s nearly five-year nonviolent struggle of protests, lawsuits and boycotts aiming to save the village’s land from Israel’s wall and expanding settlements. Abdallah Abu Rahmah joins Mohammed Othman from the village of Jayyous, Adeeb Abu Rahmah from Bil’in and many other Palestinians who are currently jailed by Israel for working for justice.
At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, 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."
Abdallah Abu Rahmah is one of those people. In President Obama’s June speech in Cairo, he called on Palestinians to resist nonviolently, though Bil’in’s long 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, “Just as a simple man named Gandhi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”
Abdallah Abu Rahmah (far right) with Ela Bhatt, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Fernando Cardoso, Mary Robinson and Gro Brundtland of the Elders visiting the grave of a Bil'in resident who shot dead by the Israeli military during a protest
Abdullah Abu Rahmeh’s arrest is part of an intensifying Israeli campaign to crush the growing Palestinian nonviolent movement of grassroots protests and boycotts against Israeli apartheid. Mohammad Othman from the West Bank village of Jayyous has been held without charges since September 22nd. Othman is one 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, modeled on South Africa’s successful anti-apartheid struggle. 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.
In September, 2007, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government must move the wall in Bil’in to allow access to more of of the village’s land. More than two years later, the Israeli government has yet to move the wall. Lev Leviev, the owner of one of the companies that has built settlements on Bil’in’s land, has been the subject of an international boycott campaign due to settlement construction. Another Leviev company is building the Zufim settlement on Jayyous’ land.
Israel’s efforts to crush all forms of Palestinian resistance and Israel’s continued settlement construction stand as a direct challenge to the US and to the entire international community. Write to President Obama to tell them to demand that Israel free Abdullah Abu Rahmah, Mohammad Othman, Adeeb Abu Rahmah and all Palestinian political prisoners. Your letter will be cced to the US Consulate in Jerusalem. Also, please call the State Department in Washington at (202) 647-5291 and demand that they take action.
Send your letter via the Jewish Voice for Peace website:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/9047/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1882
(Note: Abdallah Abu Rahmah's name is also sometimes transliterated as Abdullah Abu Rahme or Abu Rahmeh)