Jew World Order

Yesterday, I finished my dispatch with hopeful words. The ordeal of the two Palestinian activists, 28-year-old ‘Assaf and 24-year-old Ran, who were detained on Sunday, November 12, suspected of painting graffiti in solidarity with Gaza’s people in Haifa, seemed to be coming to a happy end. The state prosecution examined the contents of the graffiti and decided that it did not contain “incitement” (whatever that might be) or “identification with a terrorist organization.” Two remand judges on Monday and Tuesday agreed to extend their detention only for one day (each time) and cited a High Court decision declaring that solidarity with the suffering of the people of Gaza is not an offense. I finished reporting with the words, “The judge concluded that the interrogation was about to be exhausted and remanded until tomorrow.”

Today, we waited until noon just to know whether the police would ask for another remand. They did. A small group of family and friends gathered in the remand court where advocates Afnan Khalifa and Tamim Shihab requested for the couple to be released. The police claimed that they have twelve new “investigative activities” that they plan to carry out, including three that the suspects might disrupt if they are released. At this stage, all the investigation materials are still secret, but from the prosecutor’s answers to the defense lawyers, we could understand that they were referring to gathering testimony from possible eyewitnesses that the police do not know yet… but they said they might be able to identify some.

The defense lawyers explained to us that this is a well-known dirty trick by the prosecution – to invent illusionary investigative steps in order to keep suspects in jail. The real goal is to indict them while still in jail. If they succeed in finishing the investigation and file an indictment while the accused are still in jail, they can request a remand until the end of the trial. This would mean a long time in jail…

The judge, Ihsan Halabi, who spent many years as a prosecutor and a judge in the occupation’s military courts, was not impressed by the prosecution’s request. He concluded that, since the prosecution decided that there was no incitement, the offenses that are still relevant, vandalism of real estate and behavior that may violate public order, do not deserve prolonged detention. He gave the police a last chance to interview more witnesses until 18:00 p.m. and ordered the release of the detainees by that time.

Reviving the ghost of “dangerousness”

The police used the few hours that were left to file an appeal. It was heard at 16:30 before a judge named Ariyeh Ne’eman in the Haifa district court. Even before the hearing started, the judge made it clear that he was going to accept the appeal and remand the detention.

Lawyer Khalifa, who was representing both detainees in this hearing, had an impossible dilemma on her hands. She could involuntarily “agree” to the remand, giving legitimacy to the prosecution’s claims, in the hope of avoiding harsh words from the judge to enter the protocol. Or she could present her case to a judge who showed no intention to hear her and take the risk that his decision may adversely affect the next court hearings in the case. 

She tried to consult the detainees, who were “virtually present” only through a police cellphone, but they could hardly hear her. They were shocked and terrified by the idea that they were going to be sent back to the military prisons where they were held, and could not understand their lawyer’s tactical considerations. In the end, Khalifa, not ready to compromise in the name of her clients, rested her case, but to no avail.

In his decision, judge Ne’eman, as we were afraid, returned the whole case to the political framework of the big war that is now raging between Israel and Palestinians everywhere. Detailing the justifications for the remand, he wrote:

“There is also the reason of dangerousness: although the offenses attributed to the respondents are vandalism of real estate and behavior that may violate public peace, it is nevertheless a question of spraying inscriptions, some of which express identification in connection to the war that is taking place today. Although the state itself examined the case and came to the conclusion that there is nothing in the scriptures that were sprayed that constitutes incitement or support for terrorism. However, it is impossible to separate the offense itself attributed to the respondents (…) from the content of the writings and the circumstances. In view of the hard times, the war that plagues our region, the security situation, all these are relevant, and they should be taken into account and weighed when considering the reason of dangerousness.” (cited from the court’s protocol.)

This all-encompassing “dangerousness” that is attributed to Palestinians in the Israeli courts is the code word that opens the gates of hell. It means that the accused, never mind what they actually did, should be subject to the full fury of the colonizers.

Reports of abuse

‘Assaf was held in the Megiddo “security” prison, and Ran was held with “security” women Palestinian prisoners in the Ha-Sharon detention center near Natanya. Today, both were brought to the Haifa police station for further interrogations. As they were currently held by the police, they could only “attend” both hearings by WhatsApp, a common practice “in these hard times.” 

In the appeal hearing, as they just appeared on the cellphone screen, they both complained emotionally about the harsh conditions in the “security” prisons. They said they had no clean drinking water and had to drink filthy water, which caused them vomiting, stomach aches, and headaches. They requested to receive clean water and to be examined by a doctor.

When the judge started to write his decision, and they understood that they were going to be sent back to the security prisons where they were held before, Ran burst into tears, begging for her life. She said that the prison guards in Ha-Sharon were threatening the women prisoners with rape. She said that she met many prisoners who had severe signs of beating on their limbs and that the guards threatened to beat her, too.

The prosecutor objected that her complaints would be written in the protocol. She said it is against the conventional procedure that a detainee would speak after the judge started to write his decision. But the judge allowed it to be written. For him, it was just formality, nothing to be concerned about.

At the end of his decision, he wrote: 

“It was brought before me that the respondents have claims regarding the conditions in the detention center as detailed above by their attorney. I instruct the prisons’ authority to check the claims and respond accordingly, including their request to see a medic and/or a doctor, all in accordance with the prisons’ authority procedures.”

Looking for Jamal

‘Assaf and Ran are very lucky relative to other prisoners. The offenses attributed to them are minor. They come from the activists’ community, and they have friends and family that follow the case. Even within ’48 Palestine, where Palestinians are formally citizens of Israel, there are many prisoners in much harder situations.

I have a friend from the neighborhood, a hard-working father of a big family named Jamal (not his real name), and I try to follow his case. On the morning of October 7, like many others, he woke up to the pictures of cheering Palestinians from Gaza toppling the walls that imprisoned them for decades. He posted some verses from a poem on his Facebook page, praising the toppling of the border. When he heard of the bloody events that followed, he quickly removed the post.

Days later, he was arrested and charged with support for terrorism. He had a Jewish lawyer from the state’s public defender office who did not even understand Arabic. Only a few weeks later, after he was indicted, the public defender’s office found an Arab lawyer for him. He is also held in Megiddo prison. While virtually attending court hearings, he complained of harsh conditions and systematic beating of the prisoners. In the last hearing, as his detention was remanded for more than a month, he said that he would not survive.

The lawyers from the public defender do not care to visit the defendants that they represent. Jamal has already been in Megiddo for more than a month, and he did not meet a lawyer even once. I requested a lawyer friend to visit him. His mother signed the necessary form, and the lawyer officially requested to visit him. More than ten days passed, and he did not receive any response.

The last time that I spoke with the lawyer, he told me about another prisoner from Megiddo whom he requested to visit, and after more than two weeks, the response was that the responsible authorities were “still checking” whether they could allow such a visit. He filed a complaint to the court, but he does not know when it will be heard.

Stories to follow

Here is some more news from the last few days:

• Zionist student organizations have organized public campaigns to monitor Arab students’ posts on social media and snitch to the university authorities, who then actively persecute those students. Now, some universities are going a step further and turning to the police to arrest their Arab students. I will try to follow this new wave of detentions in future dispatches.
• Israel’s war minister found the time “in this harsh period” between genocide in Gaza and fighting on the Lebanese border to issue an administrative detention order against a Palestinian from Qalansawe in the Triangle. As being subject to administrative detention is the ultimate proof that you did not break any law, it made me wonder who this man is who did not write anything on Facebook and did not even try to protest against the war… You must admit it is suspicious.
• Two Palestinian members of the Knesset, Aida Touma-Sliman, from Hadash, and Iman Khatib-Yassin, from the United Arab List, have been suspended. They have also received a two-week suspension of their salary by Israel’s Knesset Ethics Committee on Wednesday. The ban on Touma-Sliman was imposed because of a post on X which read: “And they still insist: The ‘most moral army in the world’ does not harm innocents and does not attack hospitals!”

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