The trial of 11 Israeli anarchists ended yesterday, March 18, 2007, with the announcement of a surprisingly harsh punishment of several days’ incarceration to be meted out to one of the defendants. In February 2004, on the first day of the Hague Tribunal on the Separation Wall, Eran Nissim and ten other anarchists blocked the road outside the Tel-Aviv building of the Israeli Defense Ministry for a short while in protest the construction of the Apartheid Wall.
Eran Nissim, center, at court with att. Gaby Lasky and some of the other defendants
Nissim was singled out for incarceration following a prior conviction – also in connection with an ideologically-motivated demonstration. The prosecution in this case dropped earlier charges of assault and obstruction, settling finally on “illegal assembly” and vandalizing public property (spraying graffiti), with most defendants given symbolic punishment in form of several hours of community service. Nissim’s prior conviction, however, meant he was forced to pay an NIS 750 NIS fine, with a stipulated further NIS 5,000 if he is indicted on a similar charge in the next two years, which he has refused to pay.
“I have no problem with communal work or doing time,” Nissim says, “but I will not pay a fine which is the equivalent of financial support for the court – the same institution that has indicted and criminalized me and other activists for social justice. I have supported it enough in the three years our trial has gone on”. On the stipulated fine if he attends further political demonstrations, he said, “I have no intention of committing to abstain from such actions”.
Nissim is set to serve three days for each of the two fines, apparently at the Abu Kabir detention facility. While six days’ incarceration may seem trivial, the punishment must be viewed as part of the larger picture of the institutionalized harassment of Israeli and Palestinian political activists. Recurring arrests, hours of detention, grueling trials at high costs, fines and communal work time – all put an unbearable strain on the work of social justice activists. Surprisingly, even Justice Muki Landman, the presiding judge in this case, has repeatedly alluded to his own opposition to the defendants’ indictment. The fact that he is lawfully obliged to convict them presents further proof to the complete divergence of the ideas of law and justice in Israeli law today.
Anarchists against the Wall supports Nissim’s choice of prison time over the fines and stands behind his claim that they would represent financial support for the court and its perpetuation of the Israeli the occupation of Palestine. We steadfastly support him in his stand against the system, and will accompany him on his way to prison at a date to be published later.
