www.assopace.org
Mon, 4 Apr 2011 01:08:57
Freedom for Bassem Tamimi! End Israeli occupation!
By Luisa Morgantini
former Vice President of the European Parliament Spokeperson of Italian Peace Association
The Italian Peace Association calls for the immediate release of Bassem Tamimi .
Tamimi, 44 years old, is one of the leaders of nonviolent resistance committees against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and coordinator of the Popular Committee of Nabi Saleh. He was arrested on March 24th 2011 and indicted by the Ofer Military Tribunal seven days later.
Tamimi is charged with incitement, organizing marches without permission, solicitation to throw stones, disobeying the duty to report to questioning; he is also charged with obstruction of justice, for allegedly giving youth advice on how to act under interrogation by the police in the event that they are arrested.. The next hearing will take place on April 10th, 2011.
Tamimi's arrest is part of the systematic arrest of protest leaders all around the occupied Palestinian territories, as in the case of the villages of Bil'in and Ni'ilin.
The repression of Israel against the Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement continues to grow, in the shameful silence of the media and of the international community.
Tamimi is promoter of popular mobilization against the occupation of Nabi Saleh, to prevent settlers taking over the village lands.
Main witness against Tamimi is Islam Dar Ayyoub, 14, who was arrested by armed soldiers in Nabi Saleh, the night of January 23rd. During the interrogation, the boy allegedly reported that Bassem and Naji Tamimi used to organize the young people in “brigades” for the demonstration, and that some of the youths were tasked also with throwing stones.
Islam’s interrogation was held to be in violation of the IsraeliYouth Law’s rights. During a proceeding, motioning for Islam's testimony to be ruled inadmissible at the trial, it was proven that the boy’s interrogation was fundamentally flawed.
European diplomats were expected to visit Nabi Saleh in the next weeks; it was hoped that the proximity of the international guests would have helped to stop the harsh Italian Peace Association calls the European Union and European Parliament, to put pressure on the Israeli government to release Bassem Tamimi without delay and Amnesty International to adopt Tamini a prisoner of conscience.
