Help a Palestinian organizer stay in Jerusalem

dezembro 28, 2010

Help a Palestinian organizer stay in Jerusalem

EXPELLED FROM JERUSALEM
FOR OPPOSING HOME DEMOLITIONS! WATCH THE VIDEO.

EMAIL THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE and ASK THEM TO INTERVENE.

NOT in the U.S.?
Follow this link to take action
via the Popular Struggle
Coordination Committee.

Dear Rogelio ,

Imagine being expelled from your city--the city where you were born, the city where you grew up, the city where you started a family and where you are raising your four children, the city where you have always lived.

This horrible expulsion edict has been issued by the Israeli authorities against Adnan Gheith, a Palestinian political organizer. The Israeli authorities have served him notice that they intend to banish him for four months from Jerusalem, his city, effective December 26th. That is the same day of a planned eviction of a Palestinian home and construction of a Jewish Israeli settlement in its place. The Israeli Supreme Court issued a last minute injunction, and Adnan's hearing is Wednesday. His crime?

You can watch the video and listen to Adnan himself explain it:

The reason I am persecuted by Israeli security:
I openly defy the policy of home demolitions.
I defy the policy of arresting children, and the policy of replacing the Arab residents of Jerusalem with settlers.

Please email the U.S. State Department today to express your concern about Adnan’s case. Forward this email to your friends and ask them to email and call before Wednesday.
Adnan resides in the historically Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. He is a member of the al-Bustan Neighborhood's Committee, an organization formed to fight plans for increased demolitions of Palestinian homes.
The expulsion order against Adnan is arbitrary and politically motivated. Adnan was unable to legally defend himself since no charges or evidence were presented against him. With his removal, the Israeli authorities are trying a dangerous new tactic to repress the rights of local residents to protest. A few days after Adnan was notified of his impending exile, he was also forbidden to attend a conference with a senior foreign diplomat or to appear in any press conference.
Adnan's banishment and the quashing of his freedom of expression are part of a larger pattern to "judaize" Silwan at the expense of its Palestinian residents. In recent years the Jerusalem municipality--in collusion with settler organizations--has intensified the policy of demolition of Palestinian homes in the neighborhood.

Adnan has spoken out against this and now is being penalized. He needs your help to stay in Jerusalem and continue struggling to protect his home and his community.

In Adnan's own words:

"On my part, I am going to fight and resist in all legal ways possible to stay in Jerusalem. It is the duty of the international bodies, the international communities, and human rights organizations to address this issue of exceptional danger."

Please heed Adnan's call. Stand by him and by the people of Silwan.

In solidarity,