Marzel and his gang openly advocate the expulsion of the Arab population and are known for organizing (admittedly usually small) mob shouting “death to the Arabs”. On Election Day, their mob was mostly the official police, with special border guard and mass oppression units, sent by the state to force Israeli Jewish sovereignty by bringing letting the fascists in.
On the early morning hours the masses of Um elFahm residents, with some solidarity delegations, were waiting to confront the fascist on all entrances of the town. The police decided to avoid mass confrontation and let Marzel go away. But some hours later, they entered by deceit one of his co-fascists, Knesset member Eldad, to “manage” the designated election center. As the news spread of his presence there, people gathered to protest around that center, and the police had to take Eldad out. In the confrontation around the election center, our Comrade Samieh Jabbarin, as well as another Um elFahm resident, Ibrahim Mahajne, were arrested, and are held in detention till this day.
Samieh Jabbarin, film and theatre director and lecturer, aged 41, was active in Abnaa elBalad from his youth in Um elFahm. He spent many years in Germany, combining left and democratic activity with his specialization in theater and films. He came back to Palestine to live in Yaffa, the historic Palestinian port city on the Mediterranean Sea, where most of the original population was expelled in the 1948 ethnic cleansing. Yaffa is now surrounded by Tel Aviv; its remaining Arab population was reduced to lives in poverty marginalized by Zionist Apartheid on the verge of the prosperous Jewish city. Samieh had a pivotal role in organizing Yaffa’s poor Arab people against different attempts by the Tel Aviv municipality and various Israeli contractors to expropriate and expel them to make space for gentrification “development” plans for the rich Jewish elite. Samieh had an important role in organizing the Haifa conference for the right of return and a secular democratic state in Palestine (www.ror1state.org).
During the last massacres’ campaign by the Israeli army against Gaza, on last December and January, the Arab Palestinians inside the 48 territories held many mass demonstrations against the war. Abnaa elBalad took part in organizing and leading these demonstrations all over the country. In Tel Aviv and Haifa we participated in forging an alliance with the truly democratic elements in the Jewish society against the war, while the Zionist left was busy giving excuses to the massacre. During this period Samieh was called for several “warning” interrogations. He was clearly warned that on the next occasion he will be framed up and arrested.
Since the Gaza war the Israeli police and courts cooperate to tighten the oppression against political protest of the Arab Palestinians in the ‘48 areas. Many demonstrators from the war period are still under arrest. When Samieh and Ibrahim were arrested on February 10th, many policemen forged the charges against them on the very same day. On February 12 they were indicted on the Khedera court and the police requested their detention till the end of the “legal” proceedings. The Judge decided to prolong their detention “until any other decision” without even allowing the defense to object.
Free Samieh Jabbarin and Ibrahim Mahajneh!
Free all Palestinian political prisoners and freedom fighters!
Ma’an ‘Ala edDarb - Together on the road
Abnaa elBalad Movement for international solidarity
Please distribute this declaration to whoever may be interested.
Please send your protest to the relevant Israeli embassies, with copies to us.
For Solidarity letters:
Yoav Bar - yoav_bar@mail.com
Lina Ghana’em - jafra_1948@yahoo.com
Attached a letter by Samieh Jabbarin from Jelemeh Prison - translated to English.
For more material in Arabic and some images:
Article and photos about the Um elFahm demonstration and the arrests (Samieh’s with Che’s hat with the star)
http://www.abnaa-elbalad.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=628
Abnaa elBalad demonstration in front of Jelemeh prison
http://www.abnaa-elbalad.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=655
Letter from the prison - and Samieh’s image as he was arrested
http://www.abnaa-elbalad.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=652
—————–
Comrades,
We, in Abnaa elBalad, always denied the democratic pretensions of this occupation entity. For long decades we put a lot of effort to expose this fake mask before our Arab Palestinian masses. But the majority of our masses became victim to political positions that try to convince them that this democracy is possible and hence we should participate in this “democratic” game in order to “serve” our steadfasting Arab Palestinian masses.
The bearers of those positions never stop trying to convince our masses that the fact that this entity is “democratic” allows us to change it from within, through its own mechanisms, to make it better.
In some stroke of destination, came the 10th of February, the election’s day, the most symbolic day for any bourgeois democracy, to hit those false claims and expose it in front of the reality which proves exactly its contrary.
The Israeli authorities decided to allow the fascist Marzel and his partner in fascism Eldad to enter Um elFahm, in a clear provocation, exactly in the election’s day, the “festival of democracy”. This is a clear indication that this entity knows no shame, but it shows contempt and stamps on the feelings and dignity of a million and a half Palestinians, women and men, which are nominally regarded, and only nominally, a part of this fake democracy.
This permission proves that the Zionist authorities as a whole not only allow the development of fascist ideology, as the ideologies openly displayed by Marzel and Eldad, but those authorities stand beyond the fascist ideologies and clearly strengthen them. All the proceedings around the state’s attempt to bring the criminal Marzel as “election overseer” to one of the voting centers in Um elFahm can’t be explained simply as “political openness” in “lawful state”. There is no place to doubt that this attempt is another step in the chain of systematic steps taken by the Zionists to terrorize and expel our steadfasting people from their land.
This is proved by the political background to this attempt. Only about two months ago, Tsipi Livni (Israel’s foreign minister and leader of its biggest party - Kadima) spoke about the possibility of distancing our steadfasting Palestinian people from within to the future Palestinian “state”, as she claimed to care for “solving” the national problem of this people. This was followed by another declaration by Bibi Netanyahu (the designated next Prime Minister from Likud) claiming that the internal Palestinian demographic problem is more dangerous from Hamas, Hisballah and even Iran. This was followed by a new law, proposed by Limor Livnat (Likud) to abolish the status of Arabic as an official language.
Beyond that, as we have witnessed on the election day, Israeli “security” forces were protecting the fascists and terrorize, beat and arrest those that made an effort to stop fascism. Those who resist fascism are criminals and whoever is fascist or support fascism receives all the protection.
We do not believe in such a fake democracy. Our first patriotic obligation is to expose it and than boycott it on principled grounds. By taking part in this game we give it some sort of legitimacy and help it to fix it fake mask. Even more dangerous, taking part in this game will inevitably lead to ignoring and forgetting other means of mass struggle that proved as effective and honorable in peoples’ revolutions over the years.
Throwing us in your cold detention centers, your attempt to isolate and terrorize us will not succeed. On the contrary, it will deepen the roots of our convictions and our resolve to carry on our struggle till victory. You have your fake democracy and we have our honorable struggle and our steadfastness.
My Comrades, thank you for your support and solidarity.
We will not surrender.
Ma’an ‘Ala edDarb - Together on the road
Your Comrade Samieh Jabbarin
Jelemeh Prison
(Middle of February, 2009)
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