Action Alert: Demand Non-Violent Activist be Released

Action Alert: Please Distribute and Join in Action

Non-Violence Threatens Israeli Army: Imprisons Non-Violent
Community Leader

Palestinian Non-Violent Resistance Violently Repressed by Israeli
Army and Government

"Instead of the fence, my friends and I managed to establish bridges
of trust between us and the Jews," he said to Judge Agassi. "We let
the world understand that there can be coexistence between us and
the Jews." Ahmed Awad, imprisoned for non-violent activities.

The Israeli Army and Israeli government continues to attempt to
crush Palestinian engagement in non-violent resistance that is
supported by a growing number of international peace activists and
Israelis. In the past few weeks violent repression of peaceful
demonstrations in Budrus, Kufr Thulth, Beit Awwa, and other areas in
the West Bank, by the Israeli Army has resulted in injuries and
arrests.

Ahmad Awad, a 43-year-old high-school teacher and father of six, was
arrested on October 21 in Budrus.

On October 27, The Shin Bet requested that Awad be put under
administrative detention, which allows authorities to jail a suspect
without trial. Although this action was cancelled in Israeli court,
the military appeal managed to overturn the cancellation and Ahmad
is back in prison.

We need to respond to the arrest and imprisonment of Ahmed Awad and
defend the right to non-violent, civil resistance:

Ahmed Awad, 42, is one of the leaders of the Committee for the
Popular Struggle against the Separation Fence and works closely with
Abu Ahmad. The illegal Israeli wall is being constructed in the
village of Budrus. The activity by the residents of that village a
year ago signaled the start of a grass-roots, non-violent
Palestinian struggle against the route of the fence and its
accompanying bulldozers, guards, military jeeps and soldiers.

But Awad will sit in administrative detention until the end of the
year for his actions. He has engaged in non-violence resistance
and is being punished, along with others who attempt to resist the
violence and control of the occupation. We need to raise our voices
and demand his release and condemn the violence of the army and
occupation.

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ISM Action Alert: Demand his release!

Please call the Israeli army judge advocate and the minister of
justice below and emphasize that Ahmad Hassan Khalil Awad is an
active member of the community and involved in non-violent civil
resistance and should not be detained.

Inquire about his treatment-demand that he be released now!

Demand an end to violent repression of non-violent resistance and
peaceful demonstrations!

Let them know we are aware of the injustice against Ahmad Awad!

Phone, fax or e-mail the officials below:

Judge Advocate (highest legal authority for the Israeli army)
AviChay Mandenblit
Phone: 972-3-569-2911
Fax: 972-569-4370


Minister of Justice, Yosef Lapid
Phone: 972-2-670-8511
Fax: 972-2-628-8618
e-mail: sar [at] justice.gov.il


If we all make one call, send one fax or one e-mail we can make a
difference for Ahmad and all who engage in non-violent resistance to
injustice!

For more information please call:
ISM Media Office: 972-59-6767-82
Attorney Tamar Peleg: 972-3-642-1859
______________________________________________________________

Read more:

Non-violence frightens the army
By Amira Hass

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/499602.html

Ahmed Awad is dangerous for public security. That's what the Shin
Bet thinks, that's what Col. Yossi Adiri thinks, that's what
military prosecutor Itai Pollak thinks. The three are responsible
for the issue of an administrative arrest order against him at the
end of October, meaning an arrest without trial, without any way to
respond to the accusations against him.

Military Judge Adrian Agassi, on the other hand, does not think Awad
is dangerous to public security. He ordered a cancellation of the
administrative arrest order. But the military judge in the military
appeals court, Moshe Tirosh, agrees that Awad is dangerous to the
public. On November 3, he ordered a cancellation of the cancellation
of the administrative arrest order.

The Shin Bet thought the danger from Awad was worth three months in
administrative detention. Adiri thought that he should be jailed for
four months, and the order he signed designated the dates as from
October 28 to February 27.

But Tirosh had the impression that two months' administrative
detention is appropriate, considering the amount of information and
its severity that he found in the request for the arrest. To the
decision to cancel the cancelation of the administrative order but
to shorten the time Awad spends under arrest, he added, "I hope that
the respondent will note that the current arrest is a warning of
what the future holds and turns away from the bad road with its
unhappy ending. He should pay attention to where he comes from and
where he is going, and that there is someone before whom he will
have to give an accounting."

But Awad doesn't have a clue what he must beware of and what is the
bad road to which Judge Tirosh was referring. Tirosh, after all, was
basing his decision on secret material on which the Shin Bet
grounded the request for an administrative detention: the exact same
secret material in which Agassi found no evidentiary basis for an
arrest.

Awad's lawyer, Tamar Peleg, from Moked, the Center for the Defense
of the Individual, also has no way to advise him how to "turn away
from the bad road with its unhappy ending." She also is not allowed
to see the classified material against her client

Awad, 42, is a high school teacher, father of six and one of the
leaders of the Committee for the Popular Struggle against the
Separation Fence, which went up in the village of Burdus. The
activity by the residents of that village a year ago signaled the
start of a grass-roots, non-violent Palestinian struggle against the
route of the fence and its accompanying bulldozers, guards, military
jeeps and soldiers.

Tear gas, beatings and shootings did not deter them. Quite a few
Israelis joined their struggle, and ties of friendship and trust
have been formed between them and the residents of the village.

The struggle bore fruit. A spectacular olive grove that sprawls over
a few hundred dunam was saved. The defense establishment decided to
move the route of the fence westward, so as not to harm the trees.
About 100 dunam of farmland remained that the fence was going to
swallow up. The village decided to show self-restraint, to concede.
They understood their victory was impressive. But then it turned out
that the bulldozers deviated from the route that was agreed upon in
the compromise between the army and the court. So the villagers
resumed their demonstrations.

To prevent their demonstrations, the army and Border Police have
been operating in the last three months with considerable aggression
and violence against all the residents of the village. The
demonstrations have been dispersed with more violence than usual.
For 15 days the army imposed a de facto curfew on the village. The
minute the children reached their schools, the troops fanned out in
the village, took up positions, and did not allow people to leave
their homes. The children were too frightened to leave school on
their own.

That's when Awad was arrested. As opposed to the other members of
the committee who belong to Fatah, Awad, as he admits, spent a year
in prison in 1997 for belonging to Hamas. Last year he was actively
involved in developing the non-violent approach to the struggle.

"Instead of the fence, my friends and I managed to establish bridges
of trust between us and the Jews," he said to Judge Agassi. "We let
the world understand that there can be coexistence between us and
the Jews."

According to the Shin Bet, military prosecution and Judge Tirosh,
the danger referred to in the classified material does not refer to
his activity against the fence but to "other activity." Peleg was
only allowed to cast doubt upon the severity of the secret, "other
activity." The open activity, the grass roots activity, she said,
contributes to security and public order; it persuades young
Palestinians that there is another way to fight for their rights,
without going to the Carmel Market to blow up.

But now the despair has been reinforced. Awad will sit in
administrative detention until the end of the year. It is difficult
not to think that the "good way" he and his colleagues chose in the
popular committee is what bothers some elements in the army so much:
fraternization with the Israelis, the recognition of a joint
Palestinian-Israeli struggle against the occupation, the popular
struggle's success at changing the military decisions, the refusal
to be dragged into violence compared to the violence of the army and
occupation.

________________________________________________

Background information:

Court annuls administrative detention of anti-fence activist

By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/496766.html

A military judge annulled Tuesday an order for the administrative
detention of a Palestinian resident of the village of Budrus near
Ramallah, saying that the order was instated as a result of the man?
s record of anti-separation fence activities.
The military prosecution appealed the judge's ruling.

Judge Adrian Agassi said the main motive for the administrative
detention "is the widespread activity in the village against the
separation fence... the detainee... even encourages people -
including minors - to protest against the construction [of the
fence]... I find that such activity does not warrant holding a man
under administrative detention."

The trial marks the third time a judge has annulled the
administrative detention of a resident of Budrus who was arrested
for anti-fence activity since the start of the year.

The village of Budrus, near the Green Line and west of Ramallah, is
spearheading an ongoing struggle of civilians who are protesting the
route of the separation fence, which has caused damage to local
residents? olive orchards.

As a result of the demonstrations, the route has been moved west of
the orchard, but the fence south of the village will still causing a
loss of a significant amount of land.

Ahmad Awad, a 43-year-old high-school teacher and father of six, was
arrested on October 21 in Budrus.

On October 27, The Shin Bet requested that Awad be put under
administrative detention, which allows authorities to jail a suspect
without trial.


END