Two days ago, while wandering around facebook,I bumped into a story shared by a woman named Roni Barkan, who wrote about the history of Palestinian activist Mouhammad Ameerah (known from the riots of Ni’ilin in 2008 and later violent events in the area), who was framed by another youth, mentally handicapped, a testimony that got Ameerah arrested in 2009. The post was published under the title “Support Mouhammed Ameerah” and unfolded the above story in a rather dramatic way.
To cut a long story short, Ameerah was arrested again this week’ but this time it was a just plain, non political crime- Setting to work in Israel without a work permit. The post calls to support him by donating money to cover a 4,000 shekel fine he has to pay in replacement of 4 more months in prison.
Even assuming the story is full and true- Which I can’t, as I found absolutely no coverage of it in neither Israeli nor international press- I still find it disturbing. I tried to contact both the post original creator and those who reposted it for more information, but non replied to my inquiry for confirmed details -As far as we know this could be a scheme purposed to extract money from people with less understanding of the situation.
But, that’s not even my point. It seems that the activists supporting Ameerah don’t exactly see formal law as an instrument worthy of respect. The fact that Ameerah was caught working ilegally without a work permit has absolutely nothing to do with his background as an activist (a riot leader, in fact) – It has to do with him being a criminal by state law. Describing the fact he was a caught by the Police in Tel Aviv as a mere “misfortune” reflects an attitude: Breaking the law is only bad if you get caught. And I’m afraid that a motto for BDSers.
Read More:
BDS Gone Bad
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