Our friend Issa Video

Our friend Issa Amro, a nonviolent Palestinian organizer, is on trial in an Israeli kangaroo court. Will you tell John Kerry to raise Issa's persecution with the Israeli government?

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Our friend Issa Amro, a nonviolent Palestinian organizer, is on trial in an Israeli kangaroo court. Will you tell John Kerry to raise Issa's persecution with the Israeli government?

. TAKE ACTION . . .

Yesterday we spoke with Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights activist we work with in Hebron. (You can find the video on our Facebook page). Issa is a true friend to many of us at JVP, and he’s facing a military trial next week, having been arrested dozens of times for his work as a nonviolent activist.

It may feel like you get a lot of emails from us, but we do it for a reason. The last few months have proven to us that international outcry can make a real difference on the ground in Israel/Palestine. When we spoke up for the village of Susiya, which was facing demolition earlier this year, the pressure we brought help put a stop to those demolitions (for now). Today, we need your help to bring pressure for Issa.

Issa Amro, who has been recognized for his work as a human rights defender by the European Union and the United Nations, is facing an Israeli military “trial” on September 25. He’s being prosecuted on trumped-up and politically motivated charges, in a “court” with a conviction rate for Palestinians of over 99%.

We need to speak up -- and we need Secretary of State John Kerry to speak up for Issa.

Click here to sign our petition to John Kerry. Tell him to raise Issa’s case with the Israeli government.

Issa is being singled out for his leadership -- and the way he works with young people from Palestine and activists from around the world to shine a light on the brutality of apartheid and occupation.

He’s a pioneering organizer, and the founder of Youth Against Settlements, a grassroots organization that campaigns nonviolently against occupation and displacement. Through the simple act of filming and sharing videos, they bear witness to the routine abuse and harassment that Palestinians experience at the hands of settlers. And with bravery and defiance, they peacefully march and organize sit-ins in for their human rights in Hebron, where racist laws that try to bar them from the streets they walk down.

For this, Issa has been beaten. He’s had his wrist and nose broken. He’s been shot three times. He’s been pelted with stones, and arrested more times than he cares to remember.

And now he’s being put on trial.

Nonviolent activists like Issa deserve praise and respect, not trial and punishment. Sign our petition for Issa Amro here.

Let me be abundantly clear: this trial is Israel’s latest way of trying to silence Issa, and stop nonviolent resistance in Palestine. Each time Issa has been arrested on trumped-up charges, there’s been no further action. Until now.

He’s being prosecuted specifically because of his political leadership -- for charges like staging an illegal demonstration in 2013. He wasn’t prosecuted for any of these alleged “crimes” in 2013; charges were dropped each time Issa was arrested by occupying forces. But now -- now that Issa has a real international platform to share his lived experiences of occupation -- suddenly he’s a threat. Suddenly trivial non-offences deserve the full might of Israel’s court system.

Here’s the truth, as Issa himself put it: “I spread a lot of video footage that embarrasses [the IDF].” Issa helps young people in Palestine produce video evidence of the brutal reality of Israel’s occupation, and for that he’s being prosecuted.

We need to speak up for Issa -- and all Palestinian human rights defenders. Click here to sign our petition to Secretary of State John Kerry -- he must intervene!

Secretary of State John Kerry can play a powerful role to bring this pressure to bear, and if we can persuade him to speak up for Issa, it won’t go unnoticed.

Onward,

Granate

Granate Sosnoff
Communications Strategist

Jewish Voice for Peace is a national membership organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all the people of Israel and Palestine. Become a JVP Member today.

www.Jewishvoiceforpeace.org

1611 Telegraph Ave. Suite 1020 Oakland, CA 94612

(510) 465 1777

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