Palestine: Same soldiers, same lies.

Majd and Abdelateef - the Palestinian brothers who were arrested at the same time as me - have their military court hearing tomorrow. I have therefore spent my evening speaking to their lawyer. On Facebook. Through Google Translate. An interesting method of communication, leading to sentences like "In order that I understand material evidence by the military court initially ratified keep them with arrest"....yeaaah, not sure this is what online translation sites were designed for. 

But, the information that I managed to wrangle from the rather confused conversation is that the lawyer is hoping that there is a possibility that Abdelateef may be freed. He is the older brother, and has never been arrested before - by all accounts, he never goes to the demonstrations at all. The lawyer hopes that he will be able to argue that because we four internationals have been freed, Abdelateef should be also, because the same soldiers are telling the same lies about all of us. 

However, Majd is unlikely to be so lucky. He was arrested once before for going to the demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum and was only released in June this year...so in the eyes of the court, he is already evil and horrible. So although the evidence was doubtful for us, and may also be deemed doubtful for Abdelateef, Majd is another matter. Even though it's the same evidence.

Useful formulas:

Being international + fake evidence = 2 days prison, one week house arrest, then freedom
Being Palestinian + fake evidence  = enough to send you to jail. 
Being Palestinian + fake evidence + previous conviction = DEFINITELY enough to send you to jail. 

GB and I have permission to go to the military court hearing tomorrow. We and the other two internationals who were arrested with us have written a letter to the court, urging them to dismiss the charges against Majd and Abdelateef:

For the attention of Salem court:

We are three British nationals and one American citizen who were arrested in Kufr Qaddoum, on the same day as Majd and Abdelateef Obeid.  

We have serious doubt as to the charges against Majd and Abdelateef, and are concerned that their conviction would be a miscarriage of justice. We believe that Majd and Abdelateef are innocent of the charges against them. We are aware that in the Israeli court system, Majd and Abdelateef may be incentivised to choose a guilty plea. However, we do not believe that this would reflect the truth of the accusations.

We were also accused of throwing stones at the army. We did not throw stones. The judge in our hearing looked at the evidence and determined that the charges that the army made against us were doubtful. We understand that the evidence against us is the same as that which the army have provided regarding Majd and Abdelateef. 

If the charges against us are doubtful, there is reason to believe that the charges in their case are doubtful as well. It would be discrimination to charge Majd and Abdelateef with evidence that the Israeli court system would not charge British and American nationals with.

We urge you to consider the fact that false charges were made against us by the same army unit who are now accusing Majd and Abdelateef, and that these charges have already been deemed doubtful by an Israeli court.  

We urge you not to convict Majd and Abdelateef Obeid.  

Sincerely, Gordon Bennett, Eleanor Clayton, Aimee McGovern and Lauren Siebert

We hope that this will help highlight the discrimination inherent in the Israeli system and inshallah will help Majd and Abdelateef.

I have been spending most of my time recently hanging out in the olive groves. Majd should be there as well - the Palestinian olive harvest has begun, and like any good farmer, he would now be gathering his olives.I hope hope hope that he will be able to come and help his family with the zeytoun soon.