Freiheit für Mohammad Othman

Der palästinensische Menschenrechtsaktivist Mohammed Othman ist vor einigen Tagen von israelischen Soldaten an der Allenby-Brücke, die Jordanien mit dem Westjordanland verbindet, „verhaftet“ entführt worden. Othman kam gerade aus Norwegen. Dort war er u.a. mit Finanzminister Kristen Halvorsen zusammengetroffen. Hier der Text einer im Netz zirkulierenden Online-Petition, die u.a. auch von Pax Christi, Deutschland, unterstützt wird:

*Free Mohammad Othman Now!*

On September 22, Mohammad Othman was arrested by soldiers on the Allenby Bridge Crossing, the border from Jordan to Palestine. He is now being held in Huwara prison as a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights work.

Mohammad, 33 years old, has dedicated the last ten years of his life to the defense of Palestinian human rights. He has campaigned with the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign against the dispossession of Palestinian farmers and against the involvement of Israeli and international business in the violations of Palestinian human rights.

His village, Jayyous, has been devastated by the Apartheid Wall and Zufim – a settlement, built by Lev Leviev’s companies. These companies are facing a successful boycott campaign because of their violations of Palestinian rights.

Mohammad was returning from one of his trip to Norway, during which he met with senior officials, including Norwegian Finance Minister Kristen Halvorsen. Norway’s national Pension Fund recently announced that it had divested from Elbit, the Israeli company which provides both Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other military technology for Occupation forces, as well as security systems for the Wall and settlements.

This is not the first time Palestinian human rights defenders have been arrested after trips abroad. Recently, Muhammad Srour, an eye witness at the UN Fact Finding Mission on Gaza, was arrested on his way back from Geneva. This arrest was a clear act of reprisal against Srour for speaking out about Israel’s violations of international law. Arresting Palestinians as they return from travel is yet another Israeli tactic to try to silence Palestinian human rights defenders. It complements the overall policy of isolation of the Palestinian people behind checkpoints, walls and razor wire.

*We call on international solidarity and human rights organizations to act immediately to bring attention to this case and advocate for the release of Mohammad Othman*

Please go to the Take Action wordpress.com/take-action/> page to find out what you can do.

You can also leave a message for Mohammad wordpress.com/write-to-mohammad/>.

For more information contact: freemohammad@stopthewall.org stopthewall.org>

Mohammad Othman represents only one of the 11,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. More than 800 are being held in “administrative detention,” meaning that they are imprisoned (indefinitely) without charge. International solidarity and governments have to hold Israel accountable and achieve an end to the large scale repression and mass imprisonment of Palestinians as part of their efforts to bring about an end to the occupation and the restoration of Palestinian rights.

Wenn man bedenkt, dass in dem Text oben der Fall des Muhammad Srour erwähnt wird, der zu jenem Fact-Finding-Team gehörte, dass wesentliche Ergebnisse für den Goldstone-Report lieferte, fällt es schwer, nicht an eine bewusst veränderte Strategie israelischer „Ordnungs- und Sicherheitsorgane“ im Umgang mit Demonstranten und Aktivisten gegen Okkupation, Siedlungs- und Mauerbau und Landraub zu glauben. Othman scheint mir ein weiteres Opfer dieser Politik zu sein. Aber, da der Goldstone-Report ja nach dem Geschmack der US-Regierung bzw. UN-Botschafterin Rice ohnehin als unfair zu bewerten ist – who cares?

Hinterlasst Eure guten Wünsche und Kommentare auf der verlinkten Mohammed-Othman-Website!

http://freemohammadothman.wordpress.com/take-action/

Wir sind für die Freiheit für Shalit und Othman und 11.000 andere palästinenser – auch wenn man nicht vergessen sollte: Einen israelischen Soldaten mit einem palästinensischen Menschenrechtsaktivisten in einen Topf zu werfen, ist nicht fair