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<font size=4><b>Selective Law Enforcement Against Activist for
Bedouins<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>31.12.10 - 12:12 <br>
<a href="http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9355&Itemid=63" eudora="autourl">
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9355&Itemid=63<br>
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</a>Adam Keller – For PNN - The court this week has been especially
harsh with al-Okbi, because of his activism – so as "to send a
message to the Bedouins". Al-Okbi collapsed after the sentencing. He
is now hospitalized at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital under police
supervision, handcuffed to the bed.<br><br>
Nuri al-Okbi, head of the Association for Protection of the Rights
Bedouins in Israel and also active for the rights of the Arab residents
of Lod, many of whom were originally Negev Bedouins, was sentenced to
seven months imprisonment on charges of "running a business without
a license". <br><br>
The business in question is a garage which al-Okbi has been maintaining
since 1964 in Lod. Over the years, the Municipality of Lod's policy has
undergone unpredictable changes, with the garage getting a permit in some
years and being denied it in others. <br><br>
Following the verdict, al-Okbi said: "I have become the target of
politically-motivated discrimination and intimidation, with the intention
of gagging me, putting an end to my speaking out against the
municipality's policies - for example, the demolition of seven homes of
Arab residents about a week ago. The Police, Fire Department, the
Ministry of Interior and Ministry of the Environment all certified that
my garage conformed to all regulations. <br><br>
Nevertheless, the municipality had deprived me of a business license,
while granting one to people in my neighborhood whose businesses were
started after my garage. I am sure that if I had been ready to toe the
line dictated by the municipality, I would have had no problem in
obtaining a license. Their real problem is not my garage, but my public
activity."<br><br>
Following the harsh verdict, al-Okbi – who is 68 years old and suffers
from a heart condition - felt bad and was hospitalized at the Assaf
Harofeh Hospital, where he is hospitalized under police supervision and
his hands and feet handcuffed to the bed. The police also prevented
al-Okbi's son, who came to the hospital, from talking to him.<br><br>
Originally, the court seemed inclined to let al-Okbi perform community
service in lieu of imprisonment, and in fact he already made arrangements
with a Ramla soup kitchen which was interested in having him. At the last
moment, however, Judge Zachariya Yemini of the Ramla Magistrate's Court
decided to act severely and imposed a seven months' term - rather than
six months, the maximum term which under Israeli law can be commuted to
community service. In his verdict, the judge, referring to his human
rights work specifically noted that "treating the defendant
leniently would constitute a negative message to the public, and
especially to the Bedouins" – i.e. his activism on behalf of the
Bedouin community was the specific and explicit reason why he was treated
severely.<br>
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Adv. Avi Dubin, al-Okbi's lawyer, asked the court to delay implementation
so as to facilitate the lodging of an appeal, but the judge conditioned
such a delay upon the immediate depositing of thirty thousand shekels at
the court's treasury, a sum which al-Okbi could not raise – whereupon he
was immediately taken off to imprisonment.<br><br>
In addition to the prison term, the court imposed on al-Okbi a fine
amounting to forty thousand shekels, failure to pay which would lead to
his undergoing four hundred additional days in prison. Adv. Dubin filed
an appeal against this verdict. "I hope that in the deliberations of
a higher court, Israel's judicial system would show more consideration to
Nuri al-Okbi.<br><br>
There is no justification for the severe treatment meted to
him" says Adam Keller, spokesperson of Gush Shalom, who has long
followed Nuri al-Okbi's struggle for the rights of the Negev Bedouin
community.<br><br>
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