Advent 3
Release the Prisoners
Isaiah 61:1-4; 8-11
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners.
Isaiah 61:1-2
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the nature of compassion, that it does not exclude confrontation. “You cannot set the captive free if you are not willing to confront those who hold the keys.” The Prophet Isaiah understood this too when he spoke to the poor and oppressed of Israel returning from captivity in Babylon. Like Jesus, he too was driven by God’s spirit and anointed by God’s authority to bring the good news to the defeated and marginalized, to bring them hope through constructive action and re-visioning. The good news emerges when the oppressed are freed, the grieving comforted, and the captives sent home. This was Jesus’ job description and I believe it is ours too.In these dark days of Advent, we too, who are working for the end of the occupation and for peace, are in need of a new vision, a road map for constructive action. As we near International Human Rights Day on December 10, let us seize the opportunity to recommit ourselves to upholding human rights in Palestine and Israel. International and humanitarian law can provide us a framework.
Criminal Justice?
To release over 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, to let the captives go free, we also need to understand how the criminal justice system in Israel works and how it serves the state. To confront those who have the keys, we need to understand their purposes and practices.
The main reason for locking up so many Palestinian men, women, and children is because of “security”. The majority of Palestinian prisoners are people who are considered ‘security threats” to the state. According to Horton from the Israeli organization, No Legal Frontiers, the army has to ensure that 500,00 Jewish settlers who live in the Occupied Territories can go about their business without interference with the over 2.5 million Palestinians. If there is interference or the threat of interference than people must be arrested, detained, or imprisoned. The fact that the settlements and the barrier wall are against international law does not seem to matter. Imprisonment and torture are elements in Israel’s "matrix of control" along with settlement building on confiscated land, the construction of a massive separation barrier, segregated roads, checkpoints, discriminatory laws, and overall economic de-development. Freeing the captive Palestinians involves more than just releasing them from physical prisons. It involves challenging the premises for the arrests and detentions themselves. Incarceration in Israeli prisons for more than 40% of the male population must continue to be an astounding and deplorable fact. "Price Tag" assaults on whole villages and arbitrary mass arrests must be called out as inhumane and torture a crime against humanity. Security or the need to maintain control trumps human rights and even Israel’s own civic laws. Palestinians are not tried under civic law but military law executed by military courts. The difference is pronounced. For example, in Israel, an Israeli may be held without access to a lawyer for 48 hours while under military law a Palestinian may be held for up to 90 days, and an Israeli may be held for 40 days without a charge while a Palestinian may be held for up to 188 days. Administrative detainees may be detained for six months, released, and then rearrested, without charges or a trial. Some have been held in legal limbo for five years or more.
Prisoners of Conscience
Participating in non-violent protests against the wall or fence is also considered a threat or crime under Military Order 101 which forbids a gathering of 10 or more people for political purposes without a permit. You must obtain a permit from the local military commander to hold a political demonstration. Needles to say these permits are rarely issued so those wishing to exercise their freedom of expression or freedom of speech rights are denied. This is what democracy looks like in the West Bank and increasingly more in our own occupied streets.
We, Ecumenical Accompaniers, are well acquainted with this form of human rights abuse. Every Friday afternoon throughout the West Bank in Area C thousands of protesters gather in villages or at the wall to protest the occupation or the expansion or development of yet another illegal settlement. Anyone can be arrested for simply attending these protests and many are after usually being tear-gassed or dispersed with piercing sound bombs. Release the prisoners of conscience means not only letting people out of the prisons but not arresting them in the first place.
Prisoner Swap
In mid-December, 550 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released in the prisoner exchange agreement that began in October between Hamas and the Israeli government. 477 Palestinian prisoners were released in October in exchange for the release of one captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Many of those released were not allowed to return home but were deported to neighboring countries or Gaza. This is against the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits occupying powers from forcibly transferring or deporting people from an occupied territory.
Joe Stork, Deputy of the Middle East at Human Rights Watch, hopes that the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas will mark the beginning of an era in which all parties will respect human rights. He hopes that Gaza’s civil rights will no longer suffer under the Israeli punitive blockade, and that Hamas will end abuses of detainees, whether Israeli or Palestinian. Stork’s words remind us that abuse is rampant on both sides and that a whole community is enslaved in Gaza as the result. Release the prisoners must include the multiple ways people are imprisoned including the open air prison of Gaza.
Child Prisoners----Stolen Youth
Yet there is another terrible reality that has emerged from the unbalanced prisoner exchange and that is that not one child has been released. Not one and there are hundreds incarcerated.
Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, Israel started administrative detention of children. Every year there are about 700 children under the age of 18 arrested. At the present moment there are about 164 in detention with 35 between the ages of twelve and thirteen. According to the Convention on Rights of the Child, the detention of children should be used only as a measure of last resort for the shortest period of time. Clearly this large number of detained children flies in the face of this humanitarian law. In addition, reports indicate that many of the children have been forced to sign confessions under duress or threats to their families. Many of these confessions are written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Wide spread physical and mental abuse continues to be reported. 
Release the prisoners is not an option but an imperative for building God’s beloved community. Freedom is a prerequisite. Confronting the powers who hold the keys is a mandate. Isaiah’s words should haunt, confront, and transform us. They were words not just for the One coming but all who wish to incarnate the good news. I believe we can’t celebrate the birth of a child without paying attention to the way we treat all of God’s children.
Prayer
God of Justice, rest your spirit upon us so we can join your anointed ones and work towards releasing all the wrongly detained and imprisoned Palestinian prisoners, including the children. Open our hearts so that we can pray not only for those who are captive but the captors too. Emmanuel, your presence and authority call us to intervene by standing up for international and humanitarian laws, by confronting those who hold the keys. Liberating God, send us to be your messengers of restoration and transformation.
Resources about Palestinian Prisoners
Jerusalem based Palestinian civil institution for prisoner support and human rights association http://www.addameer.org/
A-Haq: Defending Human Rights in Palestine http://www.alhaq.org/
Human RightsWatch http://www.hrw.org/
Resources about Child Prisoners
B’tselem Report: No Minor Matter: Violation of the Rights of Palestinian Minors Arrested by Israel on Suspicion of Stone Throwing, July 2011
Defense for Children International—Palestine Section
Palestinian Child Prisoners: The Systematic and institutionalized ill treatment and torture of Palestinian Children by Israeli Authorities
Send an appeal with UNICEF for release of Palestinian Child Detainees; on-line petition
Comments
Post a Comment