Israeli State Terror Targets Palestinian Lawmaker Khalida Jarrar

by Stephen Lendman

On April 2, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association reported Jarrar's arrest.

She's a Palestinian Legislative Council member, a civil society leader, and PLC Prisoners Commission head. She chairs Addameer's board of directors.

Israeli goon squad thugs raided her Ramallah area home pre-dawn. She was abducted and taken to an undisclosed location.

Israeli authorities targeted her earlier. They tolerate no opposition to their ruthlessness.

In August 2014, they ordered her expelled from Ramallah to Jericho for six months - reduced to one month following an intense solidarity campaign, as well as international and diplomatic pressure on her behalf.

She defied Israel's order, stayed in her home, and said "it is the occupation (that) must leave our homeland."

She erected a protest tent outside the PLC's Ramallah headquarters. She lived and worked there.

She enlisted Palestinian and international support. Thousands of individuals and groups opposed Israel wanting her lawlessly transferred from her home area. Doing so grossly violates Fourth Geneva.

Her daughter, Suha, called her "an influential leader, feminist and activist. She speaks strongly and loudly against colonization and oppression."

"Her arrest is a reflection of Israel’s ongoing tactics to attack freedom of speech and silence those who speak freely against occupation and apartheid."

"She's a threat because she speaks the truth. That is why she was targeted before and continues to be targeted now."

Jarrar suffers from chronic medical issues. Israel denied her permission to travel outside Palestine for treatment. She's been prohibited from traveling abroad since 1998 - except for one time to Jordan for medical care.

Addameer called her arrest "an attack against Palestinian political leaders and Palestinian civil society as a whole."

"It also constitutes one arrest in the context of continuous arrest campaigns against Palestinians."

Addameer called for her immediate release. As expected, Israel refused.

At the time, Maan News reported her detention "came just one day after Muna Qadan, a political affiliate of Islamic Jihad, was sentenced to 70 months in prison by Israeli authorities for alleged illegal political activity."

Code language for wanting to live free from Israeli persecution.

Jarrar is one of 17 illegally detained Palestinian lawmakers - for belonging to the wrong political parties and speaking forthrightly about Israeli ruthlessness.

Nine are held uncharged and untried in administrative detention - a repressive way Israel holds hundreds of Palestinians indefinitely.

It accuses Jarrar of being a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member - a heroic resistance group.

Israel outrageously calls its members "terrorists." It considers all forms of legitimate resistance "terrorism."

Rogue states operate this way. Israel is the region's most ruthless.

State terror is official policy. Racist persecution exceeds the worst of South Africa's apartheid regime.

Israeli-installed PA president Mahmoud Abbas aided and abetted Jarrar's arrest. Addameer explained saying:

"Allowing Israeli occupying forces to enter Ramallah means that in effect the so-called 'security coordination' between Palestinian Authority security forces and Israeli occupying forces allowed for the expulsion of an elected representative of the Palestinian people, an elected representative who has continuously called for an end to such 'coordination.' "

Abbas and other Judas PA officials actively collaborate with Israel in maintaining occupation harshness.

They willfully and systematically betray their own people for special benefits they derive - traitors by any standard.

On April 5, Maan News reported Jarrar was sentenced to four months administrative detention.

She can be held forever this way if Israel wishes. Some Palestinian administrative detainees are lawlessly held for years - out of sight and mind, uncharged and untried.

All Israeli prisoners suffer horrifically under gulag conditions. An Israeli IDF spokeswoman lied claiming Jarrar is a "terrorist organization" leader - encouraging "terror activities."

Palestinian Prisoners' Society head Fares Qaddura condemned her arrest - calling it a "revengeful act" for her refusal to obey Israel's lawless relocation order.

In April alone, seven other Palestinians were illegally sentenced to administrative detention.

Any Palestinian heroically struggling for justice faces vicious Israeli persecution - including imprisonment, at times longterm.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Center for Studies, Israel administratively imprisoned  319 Palestinians this year - threefold the number over the same timeframe in 2014.

They remain persecuted, uncharged and untried. What's ongoing reflects Netanyahu's stepped up terror campaign against anyone challenging his ruthlessness.

It shows what Palestinians have been up against for decades - now worse than ever under Netanyahu's fascist government.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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