Jew World Order

Palestinian peace activist Issa Amro was convicted by an Israeli military court on Wednesday on charges relating to his nonviolent activism in the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank. 

An Israeli judge at the Ofer military court — a court that boasts a 99 percent conviction rate against Palestinians —  convicted Amro on three counts of protesting without a permit, two counts of “obstructing” an Israeli soldier, and one count of assaulting an Israeli settler in Hebron. 

Amro, a co-founder of the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements (YAS) group and internationally-recognized nonviolent activist, has been on trial since 2016, when Israeli prosecutors brought forward 18 charges against him relating to his activism. 

Amro was indicted in 2016 on charges of assaulting a public officer; obstructing a soldier; incitement; entering a restricted area; participating in an illegal march; assaulting a soldier; assault; property damage and insulting a soldier. 

The six convictions on Wednesday could result in significant prison time for Amro, though his legal team said they plan on filing an appeal after Amro’s first sentencing hearing, scheduled for February 8th. His hearing on Wednesday was attended by representatives of the British, European, EU and Canadian consulates. 

Amnesty International has described the case against Amro as “politically motivated” and the charges against him as “baseless,” expressing concerns that convicting Amro could pave the way for further suppression of Palestinian activists and human rights defenders. 

Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky, Amro’s attorney, accused the court of convicting him on “ridiculous charges,” which she said “would not be under discussion at all if he were not a person living under occupation.”

“The military court is just an organ of occupation. The [indictment for nonviolent protest] is an example of how the courts are used in order to deter the important voices of human rights defenders,” Lasky said. 

Amro released a statement following the hearing, saying “today Israel announced that Palestinians are not allowed to peacefully protest the Israeli occupation without a permit from the occupier.”

“This conviction is the military system against the Palestinian nonviolent resistance. It aims to suppress my voice and end all activism against the Israeli occupation.”

‘It’s a political injustice’

For Palestinians in Hebron, Issa Amro is a household name. He, along with dozens of other nonviolent activists in Hebron, have led the resistance against the Israeli occupation of their city for decades, often facing persecution from soldiers and settlers as a result. 

Amro’s group, YAS, organizes nonviolent activities, demonstrations, and protests in the Old City of Hebron, where a few hundred ultra-nationalist settlers and thousands of Israeli soldiers control every aspect of life in the city. 

The group’s mission is “dedicated to ending the occupation through pure nonviolent methods,” and using community engagement to “work against the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the resulting expulsion of Palestinian residents.”

As a result of their work, Amro and his fellow activists routinely face violent physical attacks and harassment from Israeli settlers, and are routinely arrested and detained by Israeli soldiers and police in the area.

Amro believes that he is being targeted for his nonviolent activism and for bringing attention to the Palestinian cause and the situation in Hebron, and that the Israeli state is attempting to silence him by throwing him in prison. 

“The charges that have been brought against me are totally baseless, some of them from 10 years ago,” Amro told Mondoweiss, adding that in regards to some of the assault charges, Amro himself was actually assaulted first by the settlers and soldiers who accused him. 

One of the 18 charges initially brought against Amro that he was later acquitted of, involves a settler who claimed that Amro broke his camera — it was later found that on the date and time that the settler claimed the attack happened, Amro was actually in jail, under the custody of Israeli authorities. 

The six charges Amro was convicted on in Wednesday’s trial are related to the following events, as described by Amro’s legal team:

1. Amro’s participation in the peaceful “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration in 2016 (Two counts: participating in a march without a permit and obstructing a soldier)
2. Amro’s participation in the nonviolent “I Have a Dream” demonstration from 2013 in which participants wore masks of Obama and Martin Luther King (two counts: participating in a march without a permit and obstructing a soldier)
3. A nonviolent sit-in protest in 2012 calling to re-open the old Hebron municipality building (one count of obstruction)
4. And one count of “assault” by “shoving someone” related to a previously-closed case from 2010. Amro says that the soldier who brought the claim against him actually assaulted him, but his complaint against the soldier never materialized into punishment for the soldier. 

 “If they had any real evidence against me, they wouldn’t have released me over and over again all these years. I would have been in prison a long time ago and never let out,” Amro said. “It’s a political injustice.”

Amro described the military court as  “a kangaroo court,” saying “the military court is another tool of occupation, it exists to prolong and protect the occupation. It’s not a legitimate court,” adding that dozens of the witnesses who were called by the military prosecution during the trial to testify against him, had actually attacked, assaulted, and harassed him in the past. 

“I think they want to send a lesson and use me to scare other human rights defenders, and tell Palestinians that we can’t even use non-violent resistance against the occupation,” Amro said.  

“They want us to give up our rights and accept the occupation. Its not about Issa, it’s about the military ocupation system against Palestinian freedom and the struggle against apartheid and discrimination.”

Amro called on the international community and supporters of the Palestinian cause to hold Israel accountable for its crimes, saying “statements and condemnations are not enough.”

“We want the international community to make occupation costly and expensive for the occupier. The occupation is escalating, and is becoming more harsh on the Palestinian people every year,” he said. “The world needs to do something.”