EU 'concerned' by conviction of anti-separation fence activist

By Natasha Mozgovaya
Haaretz.com


The European Union's top diplomat yesterday criticized Israel over the conviction of a leader of Palestinian protests against Israel's West Bank separation barrier, calling the activist a human rights defender.

In a strongly worded statement, Catherine Ashton said she was deeply concerned by the conviction of Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, an organizer of weekly marches from the West Bank Palestinian village of Bil'in to the barrier nearby.

Israel started taking a harder line against demonstrations in the West Bank late last year, arresting activists and keeping protesters from reaching the barrier. Abu Rahmeh, a 39-year-old schoolteacher, is among the most prominent of those detained in a string of arrests.

Jailed since December, he was convicted in a military court Tuesday of inciting protesters to attack Israeli soldiers and for participating in protests without a legal permit. The case has drawn international attention, and foreign observers and reporters attended the court session.

The EU views the route of the barrier as illegal and views Abu Rahmeh as a human rights defender committed to nonviolent protest, Ashton said.

Ashton suggested the conviction was intended to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to nonviolent protest against the separation barrier.

Ashton's statement drew a sharp rebuke from Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, who said Israeli law guarantees freedom to protest and that the EU diplomat's interference with a transparent legal procedure is highly improper.

The General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the United States also condemned Abu Rahmeh's conviction "in the strongest possible terms."

Abu Rahmeh's lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said the charges could carry a prison sentence of several years. Sentencing is scheduled for next month, after which Abu Rahmeh will appeal the conviction, she added.

Lasky noted that Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the rerouting of the barrier at Bil'in. "They prosecute a person who organized protests against a fence that is itself illegal. This is an unfitting use of legal measures," she said.

The barrier, which Israel began building in the midst of a wave of attacks by suicide bombers from the West Bank, runs through the village's farmland. Palestinians view it as an attempt by Israel to seize land in the West Bank.

The Bil'in protests, attended by villagers as well as by Israeli and international activists, usually involve a mix of marching, chanting and throwing rocks at Israeli troops. One man from Bil'in and five people from the nearby village of Na'alin have been killed and hundreds of demonstrators have been injured by soldiers since the protests began in 2005.

Dozens of Israeli soldiers and police officers have also been injured.