Solidarity with Samieh Jabbarin

Dear Friends,

For a start, I would like to thank every one of you personally for manifesting your solidarity with me while I was being held under house arrest. I often think that the impact of this solidarity on me goes way beyond mere gratitude. Especially because your letters and phone calls have, more than anything else, imparted sincerity and honesty. There is no doubt in my heart that having and feeling you around was a severe blow to the solitude I was meant to feel and experience during these long months.

Some of you I do not even know personally - a fact that has touched me all the more, knowing that personal acquaintance must not necessarily stand as a condition for human and political solidarity. Moreover this has opened a great door for new friendships and acquaintances. To say the least, considering that among the motivations standing behind imprisoning me and later putting me under house arrest was an attempt to isolate me from my friends and others, your solidarity has neutralized this repressive objective and given me a rather warm feeling of being free and among friends. Thank you for that.

Nevertheless, I was just one among thousands of Palestinians who more often than not, are prosecuted and harassed for no crime but claiming their natural right to practice protest against occupation, racism and discrimination.

Mohammad Othman, a Palestinian activist, was detained on 22 September 2009 at the Allenby Crossing as he attempted to return home to the Occupied West Bank from Jordan. To this day there are no official or specific charges against him except for the fact that he is a prominent Palestinian activist and an outspoken advocate of the nonviolent boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in Palestine. In about a week it will be two months since he was arrested.

Thinking of the great solidarity I have been privileged to experience, I cannot think of any reason why other victims of political harassment should not get the same acknowledgement and recognition. In a way, they stand in the dark and cold for our sake. It is they who are punished, humiliated and tortured for trying to generate a change and a better reality. It is exactly that which makes them “dangerous” for the system. It is they who get thrown in cages where there are no rules but the rule of breaking the human spirit.

Mohammad Othman is one of the new numerous tragic cases of the harsh and inhumane reality that Palestinians experience day by day. There are more than 11,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. I think they all deserve our deep and consistent solidarity. Let us not stand aside and watch while human rights and human dignity get trampled.

Our solidarity will surely give Mohammad Othman and the other prisoners a real feeling of not being alone in their struggle. Let us be the ones who give them hope and strength to go on struggling for a better and a just reality.

Last but not least, I have to thank the great guys whose huge efforts made this solidarity campaign possible. It was rather a pretty small group but with amazing energies, conviction and vision. They have worked very hard to make my case widely known and recognized.

I owe them very much for that. So, Ira Avneri, Nurit Yaari, Tal Itzhaki, Tal Haran, Avraham Oz, Lena Ghanayem, Igal Azrati, Ofra Yeshua-Lyth thanks very much.

Let us raise our voices loud,

No Pasaran,

Your friend and comrade,

Samieh Jabbarin

Yafa, Palestine