nterview Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “What cows are to India, security is to Israel: when they call in security, human rights vanish"
Janan and her daughters at a courtroom hearing
Interview Janan Abdu-Makhoul, wife of Ameer Makhoul
Janan Abdu is the wife of Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a well-known human rights and civil society activist. Earlier this year, Ameer was convicted on various counts of having contact with enemies of Israel and espionage after a plea bargain agreement at his trial. The confession on which Ameer's conviction and sentencing were based, was admitted as evidence by the court, despite allegations that he was tortured during his interrogation. Ameer was arrested by the Israeli security services and police on 6 May 2010. Amnesty International raised concerns that his arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work. Ameer was brutally arrested at his home. Janan herself is a human rights activist and therapist for violated children and women. Following the sentencing of her husband, she has not been able to resume her work. We had a moving conversation with her in her hometown Haifa.
Who is Ameer Makhoul?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “Ameer is a well known human rights defender and political leader here in Israel..He is also the chairman of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms within the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, a representative body which includes all Arab political parties and municipality mayors of Arab villages/Towns in Israel and representative of other organizations. Ameer is the director of Ittijah, a union of Arab Community Based Associations including 85 NGOs. Ameer writes about his political views and his ideas of a one State solution and the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Maybe his influence as a human rights defender was too big, so Israel got scared.”
He was charged with espionage. Do you think it is related to his work as a human rights defender?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “Ameer was accused of spying for Hezbollah. But investigators who checked 30.000 of his phone calls since one year ago, could not find any call linking to Hezbollah! In his laptops they couldn’t find anything either, not a single e-mail or skype call or any other evidence linking him to Hezbollah. The security services already announced that they had been following him since one year and a half before his arrest and they never found anything. That is why they needed another kind of evidence and why they tortured him, to force him to confess.
The charge is ridiculous. I can only conclude that it is an excuse for intimidating him and other human rights defenders. They took a well-known leader of Palestinian civil society as a message to the rest of Palestinian civil society, to make us afraid to engage in legal, democratic human rights activism in Israel. Ameer was already found guilty by the media and Israeli public opinion even before his trail began, because of the holy security declared by the state. No Arab facing security charges was eventually found innocent in this country.”
When did this intimidation start?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “After the Israeli attack on Gaza in the beginning of 2009, General Security Services came to Ameer. They threatened him saying: ‘Next time we will catch you and you can say goodbye to your family for a long time.’ On 21 April, Ameer wanted to travel Jordan, but he received a travel ban because of security reasons. 3 weeks later, on the 6th of May, he arrived from al-Arakib, the Bedouin village that was completely destroyed by Israeli police. He had promised to bring international support to the village, as chairman of the Committee of political freedoms and director of Ittijah. On that day they came to arrest him. He disappeared for 2 weeks. Even his lawyer was not allowed to see him.”
How did they arrest Ameer?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “The way he was arrested, amounts to kidnapping. At 3am we heard knocking on the door. When we opened, we saw a large group of policemen and security personnel (GSS) in civilian clothing. They invaded our home and immediately took Ameer. I was in my sleeping dress. Police, 15 men and 1 woman, came into the bedroom and my daughters bedrooms. They were terrified. Police told me: ‘We are arresting your husband and searching your house.’ I know my rights, so I asked them to identify themselves. They refused to do so. I said: ‘Who are you? You are like thieves, coming to my house in the middle of the night, I want to see your police identification.’ They responded by laughing in my face.”
“One of them showed me his ID, but not long enough to read it. I also asked for the court order to search our house. They had one, but I received it just in the end of the search. It was dated 22 April. It means my husband’s arrest had not been not urgent. ŰIt means they planned it well in advance. It was pure intimidation, also because they did it in the middle of the night, in our private home. They could’ve arrested him in his office. It was a message to Ameer and to other Palestinian human rights defenders in Israel.”
How did police and security staff treat you and your daughters?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “While they some of them were searching the house, others had already taken Ameer away. 3 of them went to my daughters, and 3 stayed with me. They forced us to sit down and be quiet. When we resisted, they shouted: ‘If you want violence, you can get violence.’ I said: ‘What you are doing in our home is violence, violating the private sphere of our home, terrifying us.’ The dog was so scared that he urinated on the floor. I wanted to sweep it with a cloth, but they took it with force, twitching my arms. They stayed for 2 hours, until the morning. They searched the whole house and made a complete mess of everything. They forced my daughters to stay awake while they took me from room to room to search everything.”
“My daughter was in the middle of her exam period. They threw all her books and stuff on the ground. My daughter said she had exams. She asked the police to keep everything in its place. The policeman promised her to do so, but in the end he didn't. They confiscated all our mobile phones and laptops. We still don’t have them back. When the phone rang and I wanted to answer, police violently took the phone from my hand. Everything they do, they do with force. I was afraid this could be the medical staff of the hospital where my mother was hospitalized. I told the policemen she was dying. They didn’t even allow me to answer. Some weeks later she died. This was the worst month in my life. On 6 May Ameer was arrested, on 31 May my father died, on 14 June I lost my mother.”
What is the impact on your life?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “In our family, we talk of before and after 6 May 2010. Our lives changed completely. The state pushed us, not to the limit, but beyond. I can’t work anymore as a therapist, because I was myself experiencing trauma and I was investing all my time and energy in the campaign to free Ameer. When I’d treat Jewish women at the shelter where I work, I could be seen as ‘the wife of…’. I’m proud of Ameer, of what he is. I believe in him. So my basic income is gone. Our case was all over the media in Israel. Our privacy was taken away. Some websites even published our names, address and phone number. Even my daughters’ picture was in the newspaper. They are 13 and 17. I received threats over the phone and through letters. One letter had a picture of Hitler. I had to change my phone number.”
“Many of my friends say I should go to the police to report it, but I don’t trust the system anymore. How could I after what they have done to us, my daughters and husband. It’s all one system, the system that kidnapped and tortured my husband. We don’t have any protection against the overwhelming power of the State. The right to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, I doubt if the right to a fair trial, means anything here. Israeli courts legalize these violations of fundamental human rights and allow large derivations from it. What cows are to India, security is to Israel: when they call in security, human rights vanish. This is what makes us afraid, because human rights should be a protection against abuse of power by the State.”
“The order to search our home was given by a judge. There was a gag order for the press. Ameer did not get permission to see his lawyer for 2 weeks. The judge refused a blood test after he claimed to be tortured. How can I trust the legal system? I want to believe in justice. I am a social worker and all my life I worked to help victimes, children, women, Arabs and Jews. But now I became very suspicious of the system from my own experience.”
How do you deal with the situation?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “All this did not break us. I feel more motivated to struggle, to free Ameer, to expose the racism in the Israeli regime. We have nothing to hide or to be afraid of. We believe in our right to be free in our homeland, to live with dignity and without fear.”
How did the detention go?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “For 12 days Ameer was secretly held by Shin Bet (General Security Services) in Petah Tikvah prison without access to a lawyer. Even doctors from Physicians for Human Rights were not allowed. There was a gag (media reporting) order for 12 days. During those days he was tortured. ŰTorture in Israeli prisons looks like this: he was tied with hands and feet in a painful position to a small chair. Ameer is 1m90. He was forced to stay awake in that position for over 24 hours, during which he underwent ‘violent interrogations’. He had no feelings in his hands and fingers anymore. Every time he dozed off to sleep, they pulled his head back up by his hair.”
“He felt extremely weak. He feared they had drugged him one night. He smelled some kind of DDT through the air-conditioning. During torture he couldn’t remember how I looked like. It was a blackened period. At one point the interrogator said: ‘You feel you have to throw up, so do it.’ How did he know what Ameer was feeling? He must have known Ameer was given a substance. Ameer asked for a blood test after day 4, but it was refused even in court. There urgently needs to be a study about what is going on with political prisoners in Israeli prisons.”
What happened after those initial 12 days?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “After 12 days he was moved to Gilboa prison between Afula and the Jordan river after he was charged with all those charges. Now we could meet him once a week behind glass for half an hour. As a political prisoner he was not allowed to get Arab newspapers or books. We wanted to give him the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, ‘My way to freedom’, but it was refused. They have to wear prison clothes when they are brought to court or even at our meetings. Family cannot send food and clothes. He is forced to buy from the shop in the prison. He was refused even a hat to protect against the sun. The doctor needs to give him permission for that. The prison guards said: “You can stay inside if you suffer from the sun.”
What are you doing to resist?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “We established a Committee for the Defense of Ameer. Its members are activists and public figures. We organize solidarity evenings, international and local campaigns to free Ameer. People send solidarity letters and cards to Ameer. The prison authorities need to read everything. They said that my letters are too long. They even suggested me to summarize it. I write articles and reports about Ameer’s humiliation and what the prison authorities do. I expose this in meetings with people who are interested in Ameer's case and political prisoners issues, I am working to keep the issue on the agenda of the international community, I am asking Amnesty to keep following Ameer's case. We need a website updating and reporting on his situation, but I need help with that. It's important to have all the material published in English,”
Do you receive a lot of support?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “We feel so much support, also from Amnesty International and other international groups and organizations, Ameer was nominated by some of them for a human rights award. People that me me or Ameer didn’t know before send solidarity cards, It helps me to keep the courage. Despite everything, I am getting stronger. I feel I have nothing more to lose. I have no choice but to keep fighting for Ameer’s freedom and to keep believing in him and his right to be free. Everytime Ameer is taken to court there are demonstrations supported by Arabs and Jewish Israelis."
"There were many demonstrations. A lot of web pages are dedicated to Free Ameer Makhoul. There is also a facebook page which has 4000 members. Jewish American groups support the campaign. I don’t only get threat letters from Jewish Israelis. I received letters of support from Israeli and American Jews, even from rabbis, saying they are ashamed. I answer them that we don’t blame Jews, but the State that is harming democracy. It’s a problem of Israel, but Palestinians are paying the price. If things like this can happen in Israel, then it should stop calling itself democratic.”
A democracy also applies the principles of a fair trial. How did the legal procedures go?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “When he was in pre-trial detention he wasn’t allow to see his lawyer for 12 days. During those 12 days he was tortured and taken to court (to renew the detention order) by the same security services staff who also tortured him. He had to face the judge sitting next to his torturers without the presence of a lawyer. Lawyer and detainee weren’t allowed to be in the court room at the same time. First the lawyer gets in, then he goes out and the GSS and Ameer come in. What kind of a hearing is this when the lawyer can't be there for his client?”
“The evidence brought against him is secret, so our space to influence the court is so limited. This treatment is reserved to political prisoners because they are said to be out to harm Israeli democracy. So, violations of the fundamental democratic right to a fair trial are legalized by the judge. It is against any principle of the rule of law and the right to a fair trial. His lawyer Husen Abu Husen and staff from Adalah (legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel) defended Ameer, but they boycotted the trial because they were not allowed to visit him. When they were eventually allowed to visit him and saw Ameer, it was not him. They were chocked to see him. He seemed very tired. He had yellow spots on his skin due to lack of sleep. In court he was absent.”
Are you still in contact with him?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “Every week I am writing him letters, but during Sukkot (Jewish holliday) and other Jewish holidays he didn’t get any letter for 1 month. So far I have written him 21 letters. Every letter is 20 pages long. I am explaining him about family life, to keep him up-to-date on daily life things. All these letters go through censorship at the prison. They have to read every word of every letter, so I can’t write personal things or feelings. Sometimes they take certain pages from the letters. Ameer, as a political prisoner, can send 2 letters every month, each one maximum 12 pages. Normally political prisoners can meet family members directly when someone in the family of the prisoner is dying. When both of my parents died within one month after Ameer’s arrest, I needed support of my husband. But we wasn’t allowed to have this direct meeting. The claim was that they were my parents, not his. I need to forgot that he exist.”
There are about 7000 Palestinian political prisoners like Ameer in Israeli jails. Israel calls them Security prisoners. 7000 similar stories, 7000 families destroyed. Amnesty International is concerned at the broad definitions of espionage in Israeli law and by the Israeli courts’ practice of admitting statements which have been allegedly been obtained under duress. It also condemns the practice of prohibiting “security suspects” from meeting their lawyers for specific periods. Following Ameer Makhoul’s arrest on 6 May 2010 he was prevented from meeting with his lawyers for 12 days, during which time he was interrogated by the General Security Service (GSS, also known as the Israel Security Agency or ISA) in Petah Tikva.
Ameer Makhoul had previously told his lawyers that during his interrogation he was subjected to sleep deprivation, forced into painful stress positions, and threatened. AI would consider such methods to amount to torture, inhumane and degrading treatment. During his interrogation Ameer Makhoul was also prevented from seeing an independent doctor. AI is also concerned by the use of gag orders to initially restrict information concerning the arrest and interrogation of Ameer Makhoul.
On Ameer Makhoul Amnesty International sent out two statements
Israel must stop harassment of human rights defender (2010-05-12)
Palestinian human rights activist jailed (2011-01-30)
More information
http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=436
http://www.acri.org.il/eng/…story.aspx?id=553
http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=551
http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/skira90-99
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44auLB4VTU
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-05-06/ameer-makhoul-israels-repression-of-its-palestinian-citizens-unites-us-in-struggle/
Janan Abdu is the wife of Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a well-known human rights and civil society activist. Earlier this year, Ameer was convicted on various counts of having contact with enemies of Israel and espionage after a plea bargain agreement at his trial. The confession on which Ameer's conviction and sentencing were based, was admitted as evidence by the court, despite allegations that he was tortured during his interrogation. Ameer was arrested by the Israeli security services and police on 6 May 2010. Amnesty International raised concerns that his arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work. Ameer was brutally arrested at his home. Janan herself is a human rights activist and therapist for violated children and women. Following the sentencing of her husband, she has not been able to resume her work. We had a moving conversation with her in her hometown Haifa.
Who is Ameer Makhoul?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “Ameer is a well known human rights defender and political leader here in Israel..He is also the chairman of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms within the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, a representative body which includes all Arab political parties and municipality mayors of Arab villages/Towns in Israel and representative of other organizations. Ameer is the director of Ittijah, a union of Arab Community Based Associations including 85 NGOs. Ameer writes about his political views and his ideas of a one State solution and the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Maybe his influence as a human rights defender was too big, so Israel got scared.”
He was charged with espionage. Do you think it is related to his work as a human rights defender?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “Ameer was accused of spying for Hezbollah. But investigators who checked 30.000 of his phone calls since one year ago, could not find any call linking to Hezbollah! In his laptops they couldn’t find anything either, not a single e-mail or skype call or any other evidence linking him to Hezbollah. The security services already announced that they had been following him since one year and a half before his arrest and they never found anything. That is why they needed another kind of evidence and why they tortured him, to force him to confess.
The charge is ridiculous. I can only conclude that it is an excuse for intimidating him and other human rights defenders. They took a well-known leader of Palestinian civil society as a message to the rest of Palestinian civil society, to make us afraid to engage in legal, democratic human rights activism in Israel. Ameer was already found guilty by the media and Israeli public opinion even before his trail began, because of the holy security declared by the state. No Arab facing security charges was eventually found innocent in this country.”
When did this intimidation start?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “After the Israeli attack on Gaza in the beginning of 2009, General Security Services came to Ameer. They threatened him saying: ‘Next time we will catch you and you can say goodbye to your family for a long time.’ On 21 April, Ameer wanted to travel Jordan, but he received a travel ban because of security reasons. 3 weeks later, on the 6th of May, he arrived from al-Arakib, the Bedouin village that was completely destroyed by Israeli police. He had promised to bring international support to the village, as chairman of the Committee of political freedoms and director of Ittijah. On that day they came to arrest him. He disappeared for 2 weeks. Even his lawyer was not allowed to see him.”
How did they arrest Ameer?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “The way he was arrested, amounts to kidnapping. At 3am we heard knocking on the door. When we opened, we saw a large group of policemen and security personnel (GSS) in civilian clothing. They invaded our home and immediately took Ameer. I was in my sleeping dress. Police, 15 men and 1 woman, came into the bedroom and my daughters bedrooms. They were terrified. Police told me: ‘We are arresting your husband and searching your house.’ I know my rights, so I asked them to identify themselves. They refused to do so. I said: ‘Who are you? You are like thieves, coming to my house in the middle of the night, I want to see your police identification.’ They responded by laughing in my face.”
“One of them showed me his ID, but not long enough to read it. I also asked for the court order to search our house. They had one, but I received it just in the end of the search. It was dated 22 April. It means my husband’s arrest had not been not urgent. ŰIt means they planned it well in advance. It was pure intimidation, also because they did it in the middle of the night, in our private home. They could’ve arrested him in his office. It was a message to Ameer and to other Palestinian human rights defenders in Israel.”
How did police and security staff treat you and your daughters?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “While they some of them were searching the house, others had already taken Ameer away. 3 of them went to my daughters, and 3 stayed with me. They forced us to sit down and be quiet. When we resisted, they shouted: ‘If you want violence, you can get violence.’ I said: ‘What you are doing in our home is violence, violating the private sphere of our home, terrifying us.’ The dog was so scared that he urinated on the floor. I wanted to sweep it with a cloth, but they took it with force, twitching my arms. They stayed for 2 hours, until the morning. They searched the whole house and made a complete mess of everything. They forced my daughters to stay awake while they took me from room to room to search everything.”
“My daughter was in the middle of her exam period. They threw all her books and stuff on the ground. My daughter said she had exams. She asked the police to keep everything in its place. The policeman promised her to do so, but in the end he didn't. They confiscated all our mobile phones and laptops. We still don’t have them back. When the phone rang and I wanted to answer, police violently took the phone from my hand. Everything they do, they do with force. I was afraid this could be the medical staff of the hospital where my mother was hospitalized. I told the policemen she was dying. They didn’t even allow me to answer. Some weeks later she died. This was the worst month in my life. On 6 May Ameer was arrested, on 31 May my father died, on 14 June I lost my mother.”
What is the impact on your life?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “In our family, we talk of before and after 6 May 2010. Our lives changed completely. The state pushed us, not to the limit, but beyond. I can’t work anymore as a therapist, because I was myself experiencing trauma and I was investing all my time and energy in the campaign to free Ameer. When I’d treat Jewish women at the shelter where I work, I could be seen as ‘the wife of…’. I’m proud of Ameer, of what he is. I believe in him. So my basic income is gone. Our case was all over the media in Israel. Our privacy was taken away. Some websites even published our names, address and phone number. Even my daughters’ picture was in the newspaper. They are 13 and 17. I received threats over the phone and through letters. One letter had a picture of Hitler. I had to change my phone number.”
“Many of my friends say I should go to the police to report it, but I don’t trust the system anymore. How could I after what they have done to us, my daughters and husband. It’s all one system, the system that kidnapped and tortured my husband. We don’t have any protection against the overwhelming power of the State. The right to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, I doubt if the right to a fair trial, means anything here. Israeli courts legalize these violations of fundamental human rights and allow large derivations from it. What cows are to India, security is to Israel: when they call in security, human rights vanish. This is what makes us afraid, because human rights should be a protection against abuse of power by the State.”
“The order to search our home was given by a judge. There was a gag order for the press. Ameer did not get permission to see his lawyer for 2 weeks. The judge refused a blood test after he claimed to be tortured. How can I trust the legal system? I want to believe in justice. I am a social worker and all my life I worked to help victimes, children, women, Arabs and Jews. But now I became very suspicious of the system from my own experience.”
How do you deal with the situation?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “All this did not break us. I feel more motivated to struggle, to free Ameer, to expose the racism in the Israeli regime. We have nothing to hide or to be afraid of. We believe in our right to be free in our homeland, to live with dignity and without fear.”
How did the detention go?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “For 12 days Ameer was secretly held by Shin Bet (General Security Services) in Petah Tikvah prison without access to a lawyer. Even doctors from Physicians for Human Rights were not allowed. There was a gag (media reporting) order for 12 days. During those days he was tortured. ŰTorture in Israeli prisons looks like this: he was tied with hands and feet in a painful position to a small chair. Ameer is 1m90. He was forced to stay awake in that position for over 24 hours, during which he underwent ‘violent interrogations’. He had no feelings in his hands and fingers anymore. Every time he dozed off to sleep, they pulled his head back up by his hair.”
“He felt extremely weak. He feared they had drugged him one night. He smelled some kind of DDT through the air-conditioning. During torture he couldn’t remember how I looked like. It was a blackened period. At one point the interrogator said: ‘You feel you have to throw up, so do it.’ How did he know what Ameer was feeling? He must have known Ameer was given a substance. Ameer asked for a blood test after day 4, but it was refused even in court. There urgently needs to be a study about what is going on with political prisoners in Israeli prisons.”
What happened after those initial 12 days?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “After 12 days he was moved to Gilboa prison between Afula and the Jordan river after he was charged with all those charges. Now we could meet him once a week behind glass for half an hour. As a political prisoner he was not allowed to get Arab newspapers or books. We wanted to give him the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, ‘My way to freedom’, but it was refused. They have to wear prison clothes when they are brought to court or even at our meetings. Family cannot send food and clothes. He is forced to buy from the shop in the prison. He was refused even a hat to protect against the sun. The doctor needs to give him permission for that. The prison guards said: “You can stay inside if you suffer from the sun.”
What are you doing to resist?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “We established a Committee for the Defense of Ameer. Its members are activists and public figures. We organize solidarity evenings, international and local campaigns to free Ameer. People send solidarity letters and cards to Ameer. The prison authorities need to read everything. They said that my letters are too long. They even suggested me to summarize it. I write articles and reports about Ameer’s humiliation and what the prison authorities do. I expose this in meetings with people who are interested in Ameer's case and political prisoners issues, I am working to keep the issue on the agenda of the international community, I am asking Amnesty to keep following Ameer's case. We need a website updating and reporting on his situation, but I need help with that. It's important to have all the material published in English,”
Do you receive a lot of support?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “We feel so much support, also from Amnesty International and other international groups and organizations, Ameer was nominated by some of them for a human rights award. People that me me or Ameer didn’t know before send solidarity cards, It helps me to keep the courage. Despite everything, I am getting stronger. I feel I have nothing more to lose. I have no choice but to keep fighting for Ameer’s freedom and to keep believing in him and his right to be free. Everytime Ameer is taken to court there are demonstrations supported by Arabs and Jewish Israelis."
"There were many demonstrations. A lot of web pages are dedicated to Free Ameer Makhoul. There is also a facebook page which has 4000 members. Jewish American groups support the campaign. I don’t only get threat letters from Jewish Israelis. I received letters of support from Israeli and American Jews, even from rabbis, saying they are ashamed. I answer them that we don’t blame Jews, but the State that is harming democracy. It’s a problem of Israel, but Palestinians are paying the price. If things like this can happen in Israel, then it should stop calling itself democratic.”
A democracy also applies the principles of a fair trial. How did the legal procedures go?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “When he was in pre-trial detention he wasn’t allow to see his lawyer for 12 days. During those 12 days he was tortured and taken to court (to renew the detention order) by the same security services staff who also tortured him. He had to face the judge sitting next to his torturers without the presence of a lawyer. Lawyer and detainee weren’t allowed to be in the court room at the same time. First the lawyer gets in, then he goes out and the GSS and Ameer come in. What kind of a hearing is this when the lawyer can't be there for his client?”
“The evidence brought against him is secret, so our space to influence the court is so limited. This treatment is reserved to political prisoners because they are said to be out to harm Israeli democracy. So, violations of the fundamental democratic right to a fair trial are legalized by the judge. It is against any principle of the rule of law and the right to a fair trial. His lawyer Husen Abu Husen and staff from Adalah (legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel) defended Ameer, but they boycotted the trial because they were not allowed to visit him. When they were eventually allowed to visit him and saw Ameer, it was not him. They were chocked to see him. He seemed very tired. He had yellow spots on his skin due to lack of sleep. In court he was absent.”
Are you still in contact with him?
Janan Abdu-Makhoul: “Every week I am writing him letters, but during Sukkot (Jewish holliday) and other Jewish holidays he didn’t get any letter for 1 month. So far I have written him 21 letters. Every letter is 20 pages long. I am explaining him about family life, to keep him up-to-date on daily life things. All these letters go through censorship at the prison. They have to read every word of every letter, so I can’t write personal things or feelings. Sometimes they take certain pages from the letters. Ameer, as a political prisoner, can send 2 letters every month, each one maximum 12 pages. Normally political prisoners can meet family members directly when someone in the family of the prisoner is dying. When both of my parents died within one month after Ameer’s arrest, I needed support of my husband. But we wasn’t allowed to have this direct meeting. The claim was that they were my parents, not his. I need to forgot that he exist.”
There are about 7000 Palestinian political prisoners like Ameer in Israeli jails. Israel calls them Security prisoners. 7000 similar stories, 7000 families destroyed. Amnesty International is concerned at the broad definitions of espionage in Israeli law and by the Israeli courts’ practice of admitting statements which have been allegedly been obtained under duress. It also condemns the practice of prohibiting “security suspects” from meeting their lawyers for specific periods. Following Ameer Makhoul’s arrest on 6 May 2010 he was prevented from meeting with his lawyers for 12 days, during which time he was interrogated by the General Security Service (GSS, also known as the Israel Security Agency or ISA) in Petah Tikva.
Ameer Makhoul had previously told his lawyers that during his interrogation he was subjected to sleep deprivation, forced into painful stress positions, and threatened. AI would consider such methods to amount to torture, inhumane and degrading treatment. During his interrogation Ameer Makhoul was also prevented from seeing an independent doctor. AI is also concerned by the use of gag orders to initially restrict information concerning the arrest and interrogation of Ameer Makhoul.
On Ameer Makhoul Amnesty International sent out two statements
Israel must stop harassment of human rights defender (2010-05-12)
Palestinian human rights activist jailed (2011-01-30)
More information
http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=436
http://www.acri.org.il/eng/…story.aspx?id=553
http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=551
http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/skira90-99
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44auLB4VTU
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-05-06/ameer-makhoul-israels-repression-of-its-palestinian-citizens-unites-us-in-struggle/
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