The Jericho Six

On 25 April, 2002, four Palestinians were tried in a kangaroo-court by the Palestinian Authority and sentenced to between 1 to 18 years in prison. The four were accused of involvement in the assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze'evi, on October 17, 2001. The four were tried in an impromptu Palestinian military court that violated all established principles of international law guaranteeing a fair trial with proper legal representation.

Violations of their detention include:

1. The four defendants were tried in front of a military court despite the fact they are civilians. This is in direct violation of Palestinian law.
2. The trial was presided over by Brigadier-General Ribhi Arafat who has no legal qualifications and no authority to act as a judge.
3. The detainees were not provided with proper legal defence, rather, a soldier with no legal training was appointed to act in their defence.
4. The trial took only 2 hours and a written charge sheet was not presented to the defendants or before the court.
5. The four were found guilty despite the fact there was no written evidence or confessions from them presented to the court. The only material presented before the court were notes written by unidentified people from discussions held with the four defendants while they were imprisoned in Ramallah before the siege. There were no signatures or written verification of the veracity of these notes from the four defendants. These notes were presented as affidavits yet they were not prepared during formal interrogation or by any authorized personnel.
6. The trial took place in the Presidential Compound in Ramallah while it was surrounded by Israeli tanks and heavily armed soldiers. It was held behind closed doors and was not open to the public.

The four detainees have no right to appeal their sentences.

Following sentencing the four political prisoners were transferred to a Jericho Prison under the control of US and British supervisors. In addition to the four, two other Palestinian detainees, Ahmed Sa'adat and Fuad Shubeiki, were also transferred to Jericho Prison. The latter have not faced trial or been found guilty of any offense yet they remain incarcerated in Jericho.

The trial of the four and imprisonment of the six are a severe violation of international and Palestinian law. They are being kept in draconian conditions under the supervision of the US and Britain. According to press reports, the person in charge of this "supervision" is the former head of the notorious Maze Detention Center in Northern Ireland.

Is this what is meant by "reform" of the Palestinian Authority, "democracy" or "respect for the rule of law"? Apparently this is the case for the US, British, Israeli and Palestinian governments.

SOURCE: http://www.addameer.org/addameer/campaigns/jericho/index.html

also: http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/553 (EXCELLENT SITE)

Reel News video: Gaza special

Trailer for the latest Reel News DVD Gaza special - over an hour of brand new films on the recent massacre, the history of the region, the amazing solidarity shown in Britain including the wave of student occupations and the unprecedented movements growing in the Middle East.

Letter from David Soul to the BBC

Regarding the BBC's unwillingness to support the appeal for relief to the people of Gaza:

It is unconscionable that the BBC refuses to make a distinction between "unbiased reporting" (which apparently means, bending to lobbying pressure) and supporting the humanitarian action that is so urgently needed in GAZA ... whoever may be responsible for causing the destruction.

Over 3,000 innocents in GAZA caught in the cross- fire are dead or wounded ... families have been decimated ... whole communities have been leveled ... infrastructure has been destroyed ... and you refuse to join humanitarian efforts to bring aid to them.

What is the matter with you people? Are you blind or just spineless?

Innocent people urgently need supplies of food, water, medicines, shelter ... yes, and limbs too ... as a result of the annihilation of GAZA. Meanwhile, the BBC puts its corporate tail between its legs and hides behind the thinly-veiled excuse of "impartiality".

What's the difference between supporting an appeal for aid to the victims of a Tsunami and supporting a relief effort to the innocent victims of war ... any war?

As an independent broadcaster, the public mandate of the BBC should be to place it squarely on the side of HUMANITY. That being so, the BBC should be at the forefront of reporting the whole story even as it supports the greater cause of HUMANITY.

Shame on you! You have lost my respect and until the BBC can show me true "impartiality", the BBC can have my TV license back.

Written by David Soul
Monday, 26 January 2009

Reported here.

Read also UN nuclear chief boycotts BBC over Gaza appeal and TV appeal for Gaza raises £1m despite BBC and Sky refusal.

If Britain were Gaza... 26,000 dead

Written by Robin Beste
Wednesday, 07 January 2009

Gaza has a population 1.5 million. Israel has slaughtered 650 Palestinians and injured 3000 more in the last eleven days. A proportionately similar death toll in Britain, with a population of 60 million, would be 26,000 dead and 120,000 injured. If Britain was Gaza, Israel would be condemned by the whole world for monstrous crimes against humanity and forced to stop the carnage. The mealy mouthed statements by governments so far are pitiful. Israel is only able to act in this barbaric manner because of the support it gets from governments who habitually turn a blind eye to its war crimes.

Blair, Bush could face probe at The Hague

TONY Blair could face the prospect of an International Criminal Court investigation for alleged coalition war crimes in Iraq.

The court's chief prosecutor said at the weekend that he would be willing to launch an inquiry and could envisage a scenario in which the British Prime Minister and US President George Bush could one day face charges at The Hague.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo urged Arab countries, particularly Iraq, to sign up to the court to enable allegations against the West to be pursued. Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations said that his country was actively considering signing up.

The US has refused to accept the court's jurisdiction and is unlikely to hand over any of its citizens to face trial. However, Britain has signed up and the Government has indicated its willingness to tackle accusations of war crimes against a number of British soldiers.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said it was frustrating that the court was viewed in the Arab world as biased in favour of the West.

Asked whether he could envisage a situation in which Mr Blair and Mr Bush found themselves in the dock answering charges of war crimes in Iraq, he replied: "Of course, that could be a possibility … whatever country joins the court can know that whoever commits a crime in their country could be prosecuted by me."

Human rights lawyers remain sceptical about whether charges will ever be brought.

Some Muslim countries have criticised what they claim is the court's reluctance to deal with offences committed by Western governments. Sudan has called for the court to investigate coalition actions in Iraq.

Reported here.

Tony Blair To The Hague For Trial - Do You Agree?

Tony Blair is out of office and Britain is a proud signatory nation to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Blair invaded Iraq without authorization from the United Nations Security Council and he lied to Britain about Iraq's non existent threat to Britain and Iraq's non existent weapons of mass destruction.



As a consequence, Blair can be charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of all British soldiers who got killed in his war against Iraq on false pretenses, his BIG LIES.

Blair took Britain into an illegal war of aggression, the supreme crime against humanity as defined at the Nuremberg trials, United States Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson presiding.


Blair can be charged with one or more of four charges: conspiracy to commit crimes alleged in other counts; crimes against peace; war crimes; or crimes against humanity.

He should be sent to the Hague for trial.

Reported here.

"Don't support the British Empire!"

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz (R) welcomes British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

November 3, 2008 (LPAC)--Under this title the leading Saudi international daily Asharq Al-Awsat posted a comment by Hussein Askary on November 3 under the report of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE to force them to back the "Britain Woods" dictatorship of the IMF.

In the 170-word-limited space for commentaries on the report, which was the main story in Asharq Al-Awsat, Askary wrote: "Don't support the British Empire! Anyone who harbors the illusion that America is the sole controller of the world and that it is the power which dictates to the Arab states their policies, should carefully study what Brown is doing. He is trying to save the international financial system which is controlled by the hedge funds based in the British islands, such as the Cayman Islands, through the creation of a world government under the umbrella of the IMF and run by Britain. This would supposedly be financed by the money from the Arabs which is not enough, and will never be enough to save the global financial system which was declared dead by Lyndon LaRouche a year ago. The British Empire is not a nation. It is not England. It is a group of financial and economic interests that need nations and armies to impose their control over all nations."

The publishing of this comment, although carefully reviewed, because it took hours to be posted, does not imply that the Saudis are saying "No" to the demands by Brown to pump money into the IMF. The Saudis have not said anything, but Brown, who was in Qatar on Sunday Nov. 2, after meeting the Saudi officials on Saturday, said that he was confident the Saudis will help the IMF.

To make sure that the Arabs get the point, Brown took with him the CEOs of BAE, Rolls Royce, and British Petroleum of the Al-Yamamah affair fame, among others . The BAE-Prince Bandar Al-Yamamah operations to support and manipulate international terrorism is also capable of reaching inside the palaces and bedrooms of the kings and Sheikhs of the region. So far, one Saudi king has been murdered in his own palace. A few weeks ago, the successors of the former King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz inaugurated a museum celebrating his life on the occasion of his assassination at the hands of a young member of the royal family in 1975 following the oil crisis of 1973. The assassin was studying in the U.S., and reportedly part of the MK-Ultra project.

One interesting irony is that Brown arrived to the region on November 2, the 91st anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, part of the Sykes-Picot plan, which promised the Jews of Europe a homeland in Palestine (see letter above, inked by James Balfour to Lord Rothchild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation, a private Zionist organization ). Since then, Southwest Asia has been a bloody cockpit of British geopolitics and destabilization, and the Jews of Israel have not enjoyed peace in the new homeland, exactly due to British policies.

Text taken from here.