Dareen is back home – hard struggle still ahead

Tags

Dareen Tatour, Hana Sabagh, Nakhshon, Nazareth Court, Poetry is not a Crime, Reineh

After more than three months in jail and more than six months in house arrest on exile near Tel Aviv, after her unexpected detention yesterday (Monday, July 25, 2016), poet Dareen Tatour was allowed today to return to Reineh, still under house arrest and the same harsh conditions.

Celebrating Dareen’s return to Reineh: with writer Kim Jensen

But it was only at about 20:30 that Tawfiq, Dareen’s father, collected her from the street near Damoun prison on Mount Carmel. It was another crazy day showing how the whole judiciary, police, prosecution and the prison department are doing everything to make life unbearable for the Palestinians (and many other ordinary residents).

Yesterday judge Hana Sabagh, at the Nazareth low court, decided to send Dareen to prison, in spite of the agreement by the prosecution to let her go back to Reineh, just because the private company that is responsible to the electronic surveillance didn’t yet submit a written report. The hearing today was set to 13:00, and the defense lawyers, Juana Far, had the missing paper ready with her, so we expected a smooth sail.

Hearing  Problems

This time we were not waiting with Dareen, as she was held in a prison cell in the basement of the building, after spending the night in Jelemeh detention center. At about 14:00 she was brought to the isolated deck in the court room, carefully watched by two guards, a man and a woman.

As the judge started the hearing, noting the agreement between the prosecution and the defense, the prosecution lawyer requested to speak. At the last moment she tried to tighten Dareen’s detention restrictions. Some three month ago, the court allowed Dareen a small “window” in her house arrest: On Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week she is allowed to get out of the house, still accompanied by one of her supervisors, for two hours (from 17:00 till 19:00). This is less than the time that regular prisoners are allowed to go to stretch their body in the prison yard. Now the prosecution wanted to abolish this small window as a price for their agreement to Dareen’s return to Reineh. Luckily the judge frowned at this new complication and made it clear that the conditions stay as they are.

But just as we expected the judge to order the release of Dareen and that we will be allowed to go together out of court, he found a new way to torture us. Even that the only reason for Dareen’s arrest yesterday was the missing paper, he ordered now that Dareen will be taken back to prison until the surveillance company will complete all the technical arrangement.

Bureaucratic Nightmare

We started a craze race against time to get all the paper work done. They wouldn’t give you the necessary forms in court to fill, so the lawyer had to go back to her office to find the right forms and come back to the court house to let Dareen sign them in her prison cell.

After the first bunch of papers was ready, the company asked for another couple of forms to be filled. It was already 15:40 and the gourds, officers of the “Nakhshon” prisoners’ transfer unit, said that if we can get all the papers right until 16:00 or 16:30 we may get Dareen with us from the court. Otherwise they will return her back to prison.

So lawyer Juana hurried back to her office. But the surveillance company insisted that the forms should be sent to them from the court’s fax and not from the lawyer’s office. In spite of the strike we found some nice clerk in the court’s office that agreed to get the faxes from Juana and send them to the company. It was exactly 16:30 when we receive the fax delivery confirmation from the court’s office. We warmly thanked the clerk, wished her victory in the strike and run down to “minus 3” were the prisoners are held.

The guards were still there holding Dareen, but the surveillance company said they didn’t get the fax yet. We called the lawyers and requested them to call the company and see what the hell is going on with them. At about 17:00 the people at the company admitted that they received the fax, but said that they want somebody from the court’s office to call them to make sure that it was really sent from the court. We run back to the court’s office but there was nobody there. In the meantime it became clear that the guards are also gone with Dareen – the brave ones simply spirited away without telling us, leaving us waiting at the door and ringing the bell in vain.

Unwanted Prisoner

The next chapter is what I heard from Dareen after she was released.

She was taken by the guards. Initially they said that they will take her to “Ha-Sharon” prison, near Kfar Saba, some 90 kilometers away. Then, for unknown reason, they changed their mind and decided to take her to Damoun, the last prison where she spent time in her three month imprisonment.

The “Nakhshonim” tried to submit her to the prison officers, but those checked in their computers and found that Dareen was released and refused to accept here. Hearing that, the Nakhshonim decided that they have already lost too much time on this lost cause and just drove away, leaving Dareen there, standing at the gates of the Damoun prison – an unwanted prisoner.

The prison officers let Dareen make a telephone call (her telephone was taken from her when she was arrested). Luckily she remembered the number of her brother, who called her father. For a long time she just stood there, near the mountain road, waiting for her father to come and take her home.

Celebrations

At night, when they finally reached the family house in Reineh, there were happy celebrations with many people coming to congratulate Dareen on her return home after an ordeal that lasted more than nine months. There were fireworks, food and oriental sweets.

Vegan food in the celebrations of the home-coming of (vegetarian) Dareen – Mujadara

There was also music – it came out the Dareen is learning also to play the guitar – in addition to her love for poetry and photography. Holding her guitar she told us how the policemen that came to arrest her on October and confiscated her computer and smartphone asked about the guitar: Is it yours also? She replied: Will you take my guitar also?

As we left the house at half past midnight, the whole family was expecting a white night. The people from the surveillance company said they will come at around 02:00 to install the equipment. Despite judge Sabagh’s tireless effort, Dareen was left for many hours without active surveillance. And this time, in spite of all his efforts, he failed even to ruin our day.

Even as Dareen was celebrating her home-coming, we talked about the next phase of the trial.  If found “guilty” – which is what happens with about 99% of the people indicted in Israeli courts – she is expected to serve another prolonged period in prison. The struggle to #Free_Dareen_Tatour, like the bigger struggle for Palestinian human rights, has still a long way to go.

Dareen Tatour Returned… To Prison!

Tags

Dareen Tatour, House Arrest, Nazareth Court, Palestine 48, Poetic Injustice, Political Detention

How “security considerations” become means for torture…

(On Tuesday, July 26, at about 20:00, Dareen was finally allowed to go home. After more than 3 months in prison and more than 6 months in exile and house arrest, she will still be under strict house arrest at home, waiting a prolonged trial for one poem and two Facebook posts. If found “guilty” – which is what happens with about 99% of the people indicted in Israeli courts – she is expected to serve another prolonged period in prison. The struggle to #Free_Dareen_Tatour, like the bigger struggle for Palestinian human rights, has still a long way to go.)

We invited everybody to celebrate the return of poet Dareen Tatour to Reineh today, after more than three months in prison and more than six months in house arrest in exile in Kiryat Ono near Tel Aviv (more than 100 km from her home). Yes, we knew that she will still be in house arrest under harsh restrictions: confined with volunteer guards to the house, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with an electronic device attached to her ankle monitoring all her movement and prevented from any access to the internet. But at least she will be at home, surrounded by family and friends.

Dareen Tatour during a break in the hearing today just before going back to prison

But after a prolonged drama in the Nazareth court the result was that Dareen was arrested and returned to prison. She will probably spend the night in the filthy cells of the Jelemeh detention center, where she spent the first month of her detention. Tomorrow we will have another hearing in court, but as things go we can’t be optimistic until we will see Dareen fully free.

This cruel attempt to break Dareen’s spirit just as she expected her situation to improve reminds me of the case of Bilal Kayed. Bilal, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was sentenced to 14 and half years in prison for resisting the occupation. On the day that he had to be released, June 13, 2016, he was transferred instead to administrative detention for another six months, a period that can be extended arbitrarily and indefinitely. Today Bilal is on the 40^th day of hunger strike against his administrative detention, and there are many demonstrations in solidarity with him against the breaking of the few rules that were still respected in the relations between the occupation and political prisoners.

But what happened today in the Nazareth court?

Before our court hearing started, we were given a devastating evidence to the ground truth of the reality of occupation that is the real background to Dareen’s saga. Two young workers from the West Bank were brought before the judge on the accusation of crossing the walls illegally in search of work. He casually remanded their detention and sent them back to prison in less than 2 minutes, like somebody that eats a nut and throws the shell behind his back.

Delivering Injustice Slowly

The current request to alleviate Dareen’s detention conditions is almost three months old. It took a month to set a date and few more weeks to make the initial hearing, where the prosecution objected to the very hearing of the request. As an alternative they insisted that a special parole officer will examine the suitability of the proposed new guards to be with Dareen, which brought us up to last Monday, July 18.

In the meantime the international pressure to release Dareen mounted, with hundreds of poets and writers from all over the world signing a petition in her defense. The prosecution softened its position a bit, now agreeing to Dareen’s return to Reineh. But still another week was allocated for the adjustment of the electronic device to work in Dareen’s house in Reineh – and the hearing was postponed to today, Monday, July 25.

In the meantime Dareen’s lawyer prepared seven proposed volunteer guards – much more that the number usually required, as he had a long experience of the prosecution failing any proposal to alleviate the detention conditions. Judge Hana Sabagh, the vice president of Nazareth low court, agreed to hear only four custodians. They all passed the interrogation perfectly. But then the judge noticed that three of the four guards, Dareen’s father and two brothers, work, and only her mother will stay with her at daytime. And what will happen if her mother will have to get out? The next in line were Dareen’s sisters in law – but they also work outside the family house. In the end the judge agreed to accept as a fifth guard one sister in law that works part-time. I wonder about what “dangers to the public” the judge was thinking when he invested all this time to create a perfect shield around Dareen that is never applied to really dangerous criminals.

Crisis and Arrest

Then it came out that the approval from the operators of the electronic surveillance device was missing. First everybody thought that it was only a problem of communication. The court’s clerks are still on strike and they put off the fax machine where such documents are regularly sent. The judge even tried to show leadership and said that “we will find a way to get the approval without breaking the strike”.

But when the lawyer called the operator again it became clear that the approval is not ready. It is a private for-profit company that received the responsibility for operating electronic handcuffs from the government through a special contract. They were supposed to do their job within five work days – and that’s why the Judge postponed the hearing for a whole week. But they visited Dareen’s house only yesterday. And though the professional team that checked the place said that everything is OK, today on the phone they insisted that, according to their contract, they have another five days now to write their conclusions.

Abed, Dareen’s lawyer, suggested that Dareen will be allowed to go to Reineh anyway, until the final approval will come. After all, she was allowed to be with her family on Eid Al-Fitr (albeit only for one day), and once again when there were court hearings day after day. They Judge objected, saying that he couldn’t allow Dareen to go to Reineh for a few days least there will be a negative reply from the operators of the device and he will be forced to send her to prison…

Dareen told the court that there is no way that she will go back to Kiryat Ono. The Judge didn’t wait to hear why and ordered the guards to take her. But then everybody stood up and shouted, and the judge said he will set the next hearing for tomorrow, maybe the operator will make up his mind in the meantime.

Dareen’s lawyer tried to convince the judge that if there is only one night until the next hearing, he doesn’t have to be any braver than the previous judge that let Dareen spend one night at home before. But then the lawyer for the prosecution began to shout, saying there is no reason to allow this. She mentioned the fact that Dareen didn’t infringe in any way the conditions of her detention over the last half year as a proof that there is no problem with her staying more in Kiryat Ono. Judge Sabagh apparently decided that he’s more afraid from the prosecution’s fury and ended the hearing without any decision except for setting the next hearing for tomorrow at 13:00.

Dareen went out and inspected her options. After some time she went back to the judge with her family and lawyer and repeated her position that she simply can’t go back to Kiryat Ono. The judge ordered the court guards to arrest her and give her to the police. Now Dareen is in prison again for very good reasons: As the judge said, he wouldn’t want to arrest her if there will be a negative response from the operators… and as the prosecutor said, she never infringed the conditions that were imposed upon her… The State of Israel was spared another great threat to its sacred security!

 

Dareen Tatour Solidarity Gaining Momentum

Tags

Dareen Tatour, Nazareth Court, palestine, Palestine 1948, Poetry is not a Crime, Political Detention, Political Persecution, Reineh, Tal Nizan

But will it make a difference?

It is more than 9 months since Dareen Tatour, the Palestinian poet from Reineh, was arrested and accused of inciting violence… all for one poem, two statuses and sharing the image of Israa Abed. She spent three months in three different prisons and is now confined to a small apartment in a suburb of Tel Aviv, more than a hundred kilometers away from her home and friends.

When I wrote the first article about Dareen’s detention (in Hebrew), published in “Siha Mekomit” (local call), on April 16, I concluded:

“The fact that a poet was arrested and tried under such baseless accusations is the result not only of the racist system (police, prosecution, judiciary), but also of the indifference of public opinion. Where are the poets and writers when we need them to protect the freedom of expression?”

To be honest, the response was more than anything I expected.

Through the last month, we had not only a hearing of Dareen’s request to alleviate the conditions of her detention on Monday 27/6, but also a demonstration in Yaffa (Saturday 25/6), a poetry night in Tel Aviv (also 27/6) and another in Haifa (Thursday 30/6) and high profile media cover.

And then was published an amazing petition calling for the release of Dareen, signed by many important poets and writers!

But let’s start with Dareen’s news…

No News from the Northern Front

Since her transfer from prison to house detention, Dareen is held in very harsh conditions. The prosecution waged guerilla warfare to prevent or delay her transfer and refuse any option that was proposed to the court, appealing against any decision that went a small step in Dareen’s way. The result was that Dareen is now closed 24 hours a day in a small apartment that her brother was forced to rent in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv. She wears an electronic device on her ankle that monitors all her movements. But her two volunteer guards are still obliged to stay with her 24 hours a day “to make sure she doesn’t connect to the internet”, or they will pay a high fine and Dareen will be returned to jail. They both have to work opposite shifts and had to stop their studies. The lives of three people came to a standstill for unlimited period.

Dareen’s lawyer, Abed Fahoum, submitted a request to the Nazareth court, to transfer Dareen’s detention back to the family’s home in Reineh. As the prosecution refused, for different reasons, all proposed “guards”, the new request listed six possible new guards, in addition to Dareen’s parents. It took more than a month till the court set the date to study the request on June 27.

The prosecution position was very sharp. There is no reason to even hear the request, as there is nothing new in the case. After half a year of house detention the prosecution will typically agree for softening the conditions – but not in Dareen’s case. Judge Idris is already traumatized after the many hearings he already held about Dareen’s detention and after several of his decision were overturned on appeal. He clearly wanted the prosecution to soften its position, but as there was no sign of it he left Dareen under the same harsh conditions until a second hearing on July 18.

Dareen burst in tears in the court as she heard of the decision. She said before that if her conditions are not alleviated she may request to go back to prison. But now she will hold her breath until July 18.

The lawyer also requested to let Dareen to spend the Eid al-Fitr next week with her family. The prosecution lawyer requested to call his superiors, and then requested to answer that request in writing within two days. The written answer, apparently from the higher circles in the Nazareth prosecution, was sharp objection. In the end the judge decided to let Dareen stay with her family only a day and a half of the Eid’s three days…

From Yaffa’s clock square to Haaretz Editorial

The first vigil in solidarity with Dareen was help in Nazareth on April 13. It gave a great push to the media coverage of the case.

A second vigil was initiated in Yaffa (Jaffa) by local Palestinian activists. It concentrated on Dareen’s case but raised also the issue of administrative detention of Palestinian activists. Some fifty activists took part with significant presence of the media, including Al-Jazeera and Haaretz.

On Sunday there were two articles in Haaretz: one by Vered Lee contained many interviews that she held in the vigil, including with Dareen’s father; the other about the planned poetry events. On Monday morning, the day of the hearing concerning Dareen’s detention conditions, Haaretz editorial in Hebrew and English called for Dareen’s release.

The Hebrew Poet’s Letter

As the case drags on in court, there was time enough for many poets to wake up and take a stand. At the initiative of poet Tal Nitzan, the following letter was written:

We, poets, writers and members of the academy, are shocked and appalled by the arrest of Dareen Tatour and the charges she is facing for publishing a poem online and status updates on Facebook. Dareen Tatour, an Israeli citizen, has been imprisoned for three months and is now under a severely limiting house arrest awaiting her trial,  for publishing a poem online.
http://bit.ly/1W8xN7v

This is a clear case of unjust silencing and a severe violation of freedom of speech and protest, a new and grave stage in the deterioration of human rights in Israel, and a shameful proceeding that is befitting a totalitarian state and is unacceptable in a so called democratic state.

This prosecution of an Arab poet is particularly disturbing considering the law enforcement authorities disregard for the violent, racist and much more extreme content posted by Jewish citizens daily. This is a practice of double standard and a biased oppression, intolerable in a state that presumes to practice equality before the law. http://bit.ly/1Jf17Sp

As writers, deeply committed to freedom of speech and human rights, we will not stand by. We demand freedom for Dareen Tatour and withdrawal of the charges against her.

Poetry Evening in Tel Aviv

Tal Nitzan also collaborated with colleagues in organizing two poetry events in Tel Aviv and in Haifa. The event in Tel Aviv was held in the “Sipur Pashut” (simple story) library in Neve Zedek. A long list of poets, writers and academics announced their participation. I copy it here for you from the event’s page on Facebook:

Poetry evening in “Sipur Pashut”

Dr. Ilana Hammerman

Tal Nitzan

Liat Kaplan

Yael Gluberman

Diti Ronen

Dr. Anat Matar

Alma Miriam Catz

Reading a poem for Dareen (in Haifa)

Dana Amir

Noam Partom

Eli Hirsh

Sheikha Hilawi

Rachel Peretz

Esti G. Haim

Roy Chicky Arad

Raanan Ben Tovim

Meytal Nadler

Eitan Boloken

Maki Hacham Neeman

Hila Aharon Brik

Arlet Mincher

Stav Almagor

I succeeded to arrive there after the court hearing, and, though being completely tired, I was very impressed both with the dense presence – people literally climbed one above the other to find a place – and by the thoughtful selection of texts and special words that were prepared for the event.

At the end of the evening Tal Nitzan read a thank you letter from Dareen to all the people that support her in her hard experience.

If you know Hebrew you can read a detailed report about the event in a site called Mako that covers cultural activities.

Another Poetry Evening in Haifa

The first poetry event in solidarity with Dareen was actually held back in May 5, 2016, in Haifa Al-Ghad club, at the initiative of Herak Haifa. Five young Palestinian poets participated, reading theirs and Dareen’s poetry.

Gathering in Al-Yakhour

But now the initiative came from Hebrew writing poets and they didn’t want it to be confined to Tel Aviv alone. We looked for a place that will be more identified with the Jewish society in Haifa and agreed with “Isha L’Isha” (Woman for Woman) feminist center to host the event. Later on the organizers received threats from right wing activists and we had to find a new place at short notice. We went back to Palestinian Haifa, where Al-Yakhour youth hostel was happy to host us and the right wing activists didn’t even bother to call.

Being in Haifa, there were Arab and Jew poets, all gathering in the open air entrance of Al-Yakhour for the event. Here is the list of the readers from the invitation:

Rasia Feru

Lee Mamman

Some of the participants in the Haifa event

Lilach Galil

Turkey ‘Amer

Sigal Ben Yair

Heiam Abu Zuluf

Meital Nissim

Sami Mhanna

Oren Agmon

Sabrina De Rita

Rajaa Zoabi Omari

Lilach Weber

Shira Cohen

Ali Mawassi

Yehya Atalla

Majd Sgheir

Some of them didn’t really show up – but the virtual participation meant making a democratic stance in support of Dareen and Free Speech.

Poet Lilach Weber even wrote a special poem called “The Right Side of History” about Dareen’s persecution for poetry, which she published in Ha-Oketz and read to us in that evening.

I had the honor to thank the participants in the name of the organizers. I emphasized that our solidarity with Dareen Tatour is not because her case is so special but mostly because her case is an example of the similar fate of hundreds of Palestinian youth that are persecuted for expressing their resistance to Israeli racism and occupation. I added that even the general repression of the right of expression and free speech is not the heart of the problem but more like a symptom. When you hold millions of people without basic human rights and no democratic way to control their lives or decide their future, resistance and repression are the natural results.

More Poetic Solidarity

The poetry world has its own ways to express solidarity.

A Hebrew poetry magazine named “Maayan” (spring) decided to give Dareen its prize for “Poet in Struggle” – with an attached check of 500 shekel.

A site named “Arab Literature (In English)” published a translation of the poem for which Dareen was indicted, and continues to publish translations of more of her poems. (Here and here).

Finally came also the heavy armory of literature, in the form of the following press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2016
Contact: Naomi Dann | naomi@jvp.org | 845-377-5745

Nine Pulitzer-Winners among 150+ Literary Figures Calling for Israel to Free Palestinian Poet
Poetry is Not a Crime: Alice Walker, Claudia Rankine, Dave Eggers, Natasha Trethewey & hundreds of others join solidarity campaign for Dareen Tatour imprisoned for a poem.

What Next?

Tomorrow, Sunday, July 17, at 4:00 pm, there should be another of the main trial against Dareen, with more policemen coming to testify about the “confessions” that they extracted from her, from her computer and from her cellphone.

Israa Abed – shot by Israeli soldiers in Afula central bus station. Posting her picture is one of the indictment articles against Dareen Tatour

On Monday, July 18, at 9:00 am, judge Idris is expected to decide about Dareen request to go back to Reineh, even if under strict house detention.

We all hope that the public pressure so far (and some common sense) will be enough at least to let the court counter the prosecution’s pressure and allow Dareen to return home. Otherwise Dareen may prefer to go back to prison – at least her detention period in prison (unlike house detention) may be counted in case that she will be sentenced for more time in prison.

Later, in September, the court will start to hear the defense case. A lot is at stake there. The defense will state that Dareen’s poem and Facebook statuses are perfectly legitimate artistic and political expressions. Can you convince an Israeli judge to recognize this? Farther more, the defense will claim that the whole prosecution apparatus in Israel is systematically targeting Palestinians for legitimate expression of political opposition while it totally ignores severe incitement for violence by right wing Zionists against Arabs. It is a lot to prove – and there is plenty of evidence to support it – but will the court be ready to hear it?

If Dareen Tatour is finally convicted, which is a very possible result, the accusations against her can carry up to 8 years in prison. By the latest cases in Israeli courts sentences of around 1 year of imprisonment seem to be quite common.

We have a long and hard struggle for Dareen and for Democracy ahead.

 

Celebrating the Failure of the Turkish Coup

Tags

Arab Spring, Erdogan, Gulen, Kerry, Ocalan, Social Media, Turkey Coup

We went to sleep with images of soldiers shooting people in the main streets of Istanbul… and awakened to the view of civilians celebrating their control of those streets from the top of liberated tanks. What an amazing piece of history!

The initial response

What do you do when you hear about a military coup?

Many of us will think hard whether to run for a cover or take out to the streets. It could be the difference between life and death – or between (relative) freedom and long years of dictatorship.

As I was following the news last night, US secretary of state John Kerry was also hedging his bets. For him the question, of course, was different… Supporting the coup or defending Turkish democracy? What he said at the time (as reported in the LA Times) was “We’ve heard reports that others have heard. I don’t have any details at this point in time. I hope there will be stability and peace and continuity within Turkey, but I have nothing to add on what has transpired at this moment.” If some of the coup plotters understood this as a green light from the US they couldn’t be blamed.

I’ve also noticed that some Facebook friends were following the news about the coup with some hope… Apparently some people are so hostile to political Islam that they are ready to give up all the principles of democracy and human rights and didn’t learn anything from the disastrous experience of Al-Sisi in Egypt. So I wrote (in Arabic) “يسقط يسقط حكم العسكر!” – “Down, down with Military Rule!” – this famous slogan of the Arab Spring – and went to sleep.

Victory to the People

The failure of the coup is a big victory for the people – first and foremost because it is the people that went out to the street at night, unarmed in the face of tanks and helicopter gunships, that won their freedom and democracy again, in the price of hundreds of martyrs and thousands wounded. Many soldiers defied orders from their superiors and joined the people, another victory for humanity over the system.

It is also a victory for Turkey’s civil society, where all the political parties took a stand against the coup, and many members of Parliament hurried at night to occupy and defend it under the threat of tanks. This unity in defense of democracy is especially significant if we remember the sharp divisions within society and between the parties, not least Erdogan’s military oppression against the Kurds and his attempt to criminalize the HDP – the main party of the left.

The failure of the coup is an important optimistic note in the ongoing argument where does new technology, and especially new media, take us. On one side repressive regimes use intensively the new options for surveillance, intimidation and control. On the positive side, new media is giving new powers to the people to report, argue and publish at real time. After the coup plotters took control of the official media, Erdogan himself used social media to call the people to go out and take control of the streets.

We all learn by examples. The success of the Assad regime to cling to power by bombing his citizens and the success of the military coup in Egypt to topple the first democratically elected president are very dangerous precedents. Now the failure of the coup in Turkey will restrain the appetite of similar coup plotters elsewhere.

Who sent the army against the people?

The very fact that some foolish army officers dared to try a new coup is a symptom of the crisis that Turkey is going through.

Most people take a partisan view to the crisis, ignoring facts, contradictions and constant changes. Most people tend to be either “Pro Erdogan”, blaming everybody else with plotting against him, or “Anti Erdogan”, blaming him and his party for whatever they do or don’t do.

The biggest contradiction in modern Turkey is its forced control over the Kurdish people. Here comes a most overt example of Marx’s saying that people who oppress other people can’t be free.

For many decades the army that was deployed to fight the Kurdish “enemy within” was using its powers to terrorize Turkish society as a whole. The Islamists, as a popular current within society, were also defined as an enemy and oppressed. In his first ten years in power Erdogan knew that the main danger to his rule came from the dictatorial tendencies within the army.

At the same time Erdogan tried some limited steps toward peace with the Kurdish people, led by the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan even steered the PKK toward another program, putting democracy and pluralism for Turkey (and the region) as a whole at the center of the Kurd’s agenda instead of the quest for a fully independent Kurdistan.

But recently, mostly after the success of the HDP in the parliamentary election limited his AK’s power, Erdogan seems to turn most of his fury against the Kurds, probably believing that the army was already tamed. By deploying the army to oppress Turkey’s citizens Erdogan put in danger the hard won democratic achievements of the last years.

Propaganda

On the other side, much of the western propaganda against Erdogan is pure racism and Islamophobia…

Turkish people take to the streets in Ankara, Turkey, late Friday, July 15, 2016. Turkey’s armed forces said it “fully seized control” of the country Friday and its president responded by calling on Turks to take to the streets in a show of support for the government. A loud explosion was heard in the capital, Ankara, fighter jets buzzed overhead, gunfire erupted outside military headquarters and vehicles blocked two major bridges in Istanbul. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

One example is the issue of the Gulenists – supporters of US based Islamist Fethullah Gulen. They constitute a right-wing secret religious organization embedded in the security forces and the judiciary. They were an essential help for Erdogan in his first years in power, helping to avert a military coup, sometimes using not-very-democratic tricks. But when they turned against Erdogan, and he tried to purge their power, the western media was full of cries about the danger to democracy. What is more democratic after all: An elected president or a secret society manipulating the state apparatus?

Comprehensive and balanced judgment is also required for other aspects of Turkey’s policy and crisis.

Erdogan is not a socialist, but his “nationalistic” capitalist policy to steer the economy away from servitude to the Western multi-nationals and toward more internal development and relations with 3^rd world countries led to fast economic development.

Another hot and controversial issue is Erdogan’s new normalization of relations with Israel. While we call for complete boycott of the Apartheid state, there is still a lot of difference between Erdogan that tries to get some alleviation of the siege for the people of Gaza and others that take part and enhance the siege.

The biggest issue, of course, is Turkey’s position toward the Arab Spring in general and the civil war in Syria in particular. Each of Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, absorb much more Syrian refugees, and is paying much higher price for the Syrian conflict, than all of rich Europe put together, without much less xenophobic uproar. Erdogan’s Islamic roots put him in a position to support the Syrian’s people struggle for freedom, but his enmity to the Kurdish people is an imminent obstacle.

While we celebrate the failure of the coup, we still have a hard struggle ahead to solve the underlying problems. The defense and enhancement of true democracy in Turkey and the region are not a one-night affair but a prolonged historic task. It requires every one of us to go beyond his religious (or secular), ethnic or political tribe and form a new type of pluralistic society.

Nine Pulitzer-Winners among 150+ Literary Figures Calling for Israel to Free Palestinian Poet

Tags

Adalah-NY, Dareen Tatour, International Solidarity, Jewish Voice for Peace, palestine

Press release by Jewish Voice for Peace and Adalah-NY, July 12, 2016

Poetry is Not a Crime: Alice Walker, Claudia Rankine, Dave Eggers, Natasha Trethewey & hundreds of others join solidarity campaign for Dareen Tatour imprisoned for a poem

July 12, 2016–Over 150 renowned writers, poets, translators, artists and literary figures signed an open letter in solidarity with Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. Susan Abulhawa, Rae Armantrout, Carl Dennis, Dave Eggers, Carolyn Forché, Jorie Graham, Naomi Klein, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Naomi Shihab Nye, Claudia Rankine, Tracy K Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Ayelet Waldman, Alice Walker and Jacqueline Woodson were among the award-winning literary figures who joined the call for the immediate release of the Palestinian poet who was imprisoned for her poetry. (The full list of signers is available here).

Dareen Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, is one of over 400 Palestinians arrested by Israel since last fall for political statements on social media. Tatour’s ordeal began in October 2015, when she was arrested in the middle of the night. She has been charged with incitement to violence and terrorism based on Facebook postings and a poem posted to YouTube called “Qawim ya sha’abi, qawimhum” (Resist my people, resist them). Tatour spent the first three months of her detention in three different prisons before being transferred to house arrest. The court has insisted that she be kept 40 km away from her home because of the ‘danger’ she posed to the public. Tatour’s brother was obliged to quit his job and his studies in order to fulfil his role as the court appointed ward in an apartment in Tel Aviv rented for that purpose for the duration of her legal proceedings. Tatour will appeal to be allowed to transfer to house arrest in her hometown at a hearing on July 18. Her hearings are scheduled to continue to until September, when she could be sentenced to additional time in prison if convicted.

The letter signed by literary notables marks the launch of an international solidarity campaign organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and Adalah-NY to demand the release of Tatour and to draw attention to thewidespread arrests and detentions of Palestinians for political expression on social media, as well as Israel’s targeting of Palestinian writers and artists.

The signers of the letter are some of the most respected and renowned individuals in the arts and literary worlds: including nine Pulitzer Prize winners, several National Book Award recipients and United States poet laureates, many Guggenheim Fellowship recipients, an NAACP Image Award winner, many Lambda Literary Award winners, and scores of recipients of the highest U.S. writing, poetry, translation, and arts honors: including Tony Awards, Grammy Awards, Obie Awards, PEN/Open Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Kenyon Review Award, Pushcart Awards, LA Times Book Awards, and MLA Prizes.

The letter states: “We believe in the rights of artists and writers to freely express their artistic vision, and share work freely. The Israeli government’s actions reveal a desire to silence Tatour, part of a larger pattern of Israeli repression against all Palestinians.  Expressing resistance to oppression and Occupation through poetry is by nature non-violent and should not be criminalized by any government.”

Award-winning poet, songwriter, and novelist, Naomi Shihab Nye, referred to the way Tatour’s use of the word “resistance” has been criminalized: “The word “resist” – when it is resisting oppression and inequality – will always be a gleaming, beautiful, positive word.  In fact, it needs to be said more often.”

Stefanie Fox, Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, noted, “It is heartening to see such luminaries of the literary world speak out against this blatant injustice. Writers and poets around the world know that poetry is not, and must not be, a crime. Israel has made it clear that it would rather imprison a Palestinian poet for a poem that is critical of governmental policies than change those policies. Israel has chosen to silence Palestinian cultural workers rather than heed their calls for freedom, justice, and equality. Tatour’s case is a powerful example of the need to continue fighting for fundamental change.”

Mohammad Hamad from Adalah-NY commented, “The criminalization of Dareen Tatour’s poetry and political expression is, sadly, routine for Palestinian cultural workers, both for citizens of Israel and residents of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. We could name a dozen more examples. We are encouraged by the response from the literary community to Dareen’s case and hope it signifies to all people of good conscience that the time has come to stand on the side of justice for Palestinians.”

Dareen Tatour recently told the Israeli daily Haaretz: “I never imagined that in a democratic country, I would not be allowed to write and publish….I cannot live without poetry. For me to be a poet without a pen and without feelings. But if I cannot mourn for my compatriots who are being killed, how will I be able to be a poet?”

The full list of signers of the open letter is available here and will be updated as new signatories join. A video of Dareen Tabour speaking about her case will also be available.

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Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace  according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for  all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters,  over 60 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an  Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S.  intellectuals and artists.

Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel is a local, grassroots, non-hierarchical volunteer-only group of concerned individuals that advocates for justice, equality, and human rights for the Palestinian people. Adalah-NY organizes in support of the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society to maintain non-violent means of protest — including boycotts, divestment, and sanctions — until Israel respects Palestinians’ fundamental rights.