[News] Bedoiun supporter targeted, imprisoned, shackled to hospital bed

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Selective Law Enforcement Against Activist for Bedouins

31.12.10 - 12:12
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9355&Itemid=63

Adam Keller – For PNN - The court this week  has 
been especially harsh with al-Okbi, because of 
his activism – so as "to send a message to the 
Bedouins". Al-Okbi collapsed after the 
sentencing. He is now hospitalized at the Assaf 
Harofeh Hospital under police supervision, handcuffed to the bed.

Nuri al-Okbi, head of the Association for 
Protection of the Rights Bedouins in Israel and 
also active for the rights of the Arab residents 
of Lod, many of whom were originally Negev 
Bedouins, was sentenced to seven months 
imprisonment on charges of "running a business without a license".

The business in question is a garage which 
al-Okbi has been maintaining since 1964 in Lod. 
Over the years, the Municipality of Lod's policy 
has undergone unpredictable changes, with the 
garage getting a permit in some years and being denied it in others.

Following the verdict, al-Okbi said: "I have 
become the target of politically-motivated 
discrimination and intimidation, with the 
intention of gagging me, putting an end to my 
speaking out against the municipality's policies 
- for example, the demolition of seven homes of 
Arab residents about a week ago. The Police, Fire 
Department, the Ministry of Interior and Ministry 
of the Environment all certified that my garage conformed to all regulations.

Nevertheless, the municipality had deprived me of 
a business license, while granting one to people 
in my neighborhood whose businesses were started 
after my garage. I am sure that if I had been 
ready to toe the line dictated by the 
municipality, I would have had no problem in 
obtaining a license. Their real problem is not my 
garage, but my public activity."

Following the harsh verdict, al-Okbi – who is 68 
years old and suffers from a heart condition - 
felt bad and was hospitalized at the Assaf 
Harofeh Hospital, where he is hospitalized under 
police supervision and his hands and feet 
handcuffed to the bed. The police also prevented 
al-Okbi's son, who came to the hospital, from talking to him.

Originally, the court seemed inclined to let 
al-Okbi perform community service in lieu of 
imprisonment, and in fact he already made 
arrangements with a Ramla soup kitchen which was 
interested in having him. At the last moment, 
however, Judge Zachariya Yemini of the Ramla 
Magistrate's Court decided to act severely and 
imposed a seven months' term - rather than six 
months, the maximum term which under Israeli law 
can be commuted to community service. In his 
verdict, the judge, referring to his human rights 
work specifically noted that "treating the 
defendant leniently would constitute a negative 
message to the public, and especially to the 
Bedouins" – i.e. his activism on behalf of the 
Bedouin community was the specific and explicit 
reason why he was treated severely.

Adv. Avi Dubin, al-Okbi's lawyer, asked the court 
to delay implementation so as to facilitate the 
lodging of an appeal, but the judge conditioned 
such a delay upon the immediate depositing of 
thirty thousand shekels at the court's treasury, 
a sum which al-Okbi could not raise – whereupon 
he was immediately taken off to imprisonment.

  In addition to the prison term, the court 
imposed on al-Okbi a fine amounting to forty 
thousand shekels, failure to pay which would lead 
to his undergoing four hundred additional days in 
prison. Adv. Dubin filed an appeal against this 
verdict. "I hope that in the deliberations of a 
higher court, Israel's judicial system would show 
more consideration to Nuri al-Okbi.

  There is no justification for the severe 
treatment meted to him" says Adam Keller, 
spokesperson of Gush Shalom, who has long 
followed Nuri al-Okbi's struggle for the rights of the Negev Bedouin community.




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