Gideon Levy : Even a Political Trial Can't Budge Israel's Silence of the Ewes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even a political trial can't budge Israel's silence of the ewes - Opinion

Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar was jailed because of her political beliefs, but few Israelis seem to care.

haaretz.com

What is left of concepts like solidarity, sympathy or protest here? And who is left to express them? What could remain of those words when a military court sentences a Palestinian parliamentarian to a prison term for her political activity – and Jewish-Israeli society looks on with complete disinterest?

It’s unlikely that the Israeli public even heard of it. No man cried out, no woman either. There is not a righteous man in Sodom, nor a righteous woman.

The banishment, arrest and trial of Khalida Jarrar, not to mention the verdict against her, are among the abominations of the occupation. There have been greater abominations, but this one should have raised some kind of storm in Israel – as it did in the rest of the world – because it concerns an elected official, a fighter for human rights and social justice, a feminist and, of course, an opponent to the occupation.

She was sentenced to prison solely due to her political activity. That, surely, should have awakened someone here? But we’re only shocked by the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, where there’s a military dictatorship.

Here’s a brief history of the abomination. A banishment order from the city she lives in; imprisonment without trial; a fabricated indictment, produced in response to the international criticism of her arrest and incarceration, consisting of grotesque charges that even the military prosecution never dared to concoct; the prosecutor’s threat before the court that she would be locked up without trial if it dared release her; and a verdict of 15 months in prison.

The occupation’s clerks, disguised as prosecutors and military judges – imposters to all intents and purposes - did their job well. This is exactly what is required of obedient bureaucrats in uniform, some of them in skullcaps too.

The mission was accomplished and Jarrar was neutralized. She will remain in prison for at least seven more months. Her husband, Ghassan, manufactures fur toys. Israel has arrested him 14 times and the furthest he has been allowed to travel in his 55 years is the Ketziot prison in the Negev. He and their daughters, Yaffa and Suha, doctoral students in Canada, will continue to weep, as they did in several court sessions.

The only person who tried to stop this abomination was IDF Judge Major Haim Balilti, who ordered Jarrar’s release from prison. But Chief Military Advocate Lt. Col. Morris Hirsch threatened that Jarrar would be imprisoned in any case, regardless of the court’s ruling. That had the desired effect on judge Lt. Col. Ronen Atzmon of the appeals court, who did his duty.

That is how Israel teaches the subjects of its occupation the only lesson it wants them to learn – you must not resist the occupation in any way, on any account, neither with violence nor politics, nor guns nor words. Bow your heads obediently under the boot, raise your hands in subservience and surrender. If you don’t, you will be punished.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the most sophisticated and impressive political movements, is seen by Israeli despotism as a “prohibited organization.” It also has a military wing, with which Jarrar had no contact. Even Jarrar’s visit to a Palestinian book fair was registered as an offense for which there can only be one verdict.

A lawmaker is banished, arrested, imprisoned without really doing anything wrong or committing a crime – and Israel is silent. Her parliamentary peers – male and female members of the Knesset who grandstand about the “only democracy,” are silent. Apart from MK Aida Touma-Sliman, who visited Jarrar in prison, there was no display of protest or solidarity.

Where are the MKs, especially the female ones? Hello, Merav Michaeli? Stav Shafir? Meretz? The silence of the lambs, mainly of the ewes. The women’s organizations are silent, the feminists are silent and the legal experts are silent. And, of course, the media, which didn’t even bother to report the verdict, except for Haaretz. Why? What happened? A “terrorist” was sentenced to prison? What’s the story?

But this is a big story and it should trouble many Israelis, even those who aren’t concerned with the fate of the Palestinians. It won’t stop with Jarrar; it never does.

Gideon Levy