Protestbrief gegen die Festnahme des Menschenrechtsaktivisten Daoud al Ghoul
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Protestbrief gegen die Festnahme des Menschenrechtsaktivisten Daoud al Ghoul

Protestbrief gegen die Festnahme des Menschenrechtsaktivisten Daoud al Ghoul

Human Rights Groups: Germany, Austria and the EU Must Intervene to Free Daoud al Ghoul

We, the undersigned human rights and civil society organizations in Germany and Austria, are extremely alarmed by the arrest of Daoud al Ghoul, an internationally respected Palestinien human rights defender, who was taken by Israeli forces from his home in Silwan, East Jerusalem, on December 10th, 2021. Daoud al Ghoul is a political scientist and tour guide, and is deeply involved in the struggle for human rights and justice.

This October, our organizations hosted Daoud for a series of public talks in Germany and Europe. Daoud has provided invaluable first-hand information about the ongoing forceful evictions of Palestinian residents from their native homes East Jerusalem, which attracted international attention in the spring of 2021 (with campaigns like #FreeSheikhJarrah). The Israeli police have taken an active role in protecting and supporting armed Jewish settlers seeking to take over Palestinian homes. That surge of violence then continued in the form of country-wide pogroms against Palestinians, and the Israeli massive bombardment of Gaza, taking many human lives.

Daoud’s arrest comes right after Israel’s decision to criminalize six leading Palestinian human rights organizations, a decision met with outrage by the international community. This arrest is undoubtedly part of strategy to undermine the Palestinian civil society and its ability to defend human rights and hold the Israeli regime accountable for war crimes and human rights violations.

This is not the first time that al Ghoul’s freedom has been taken by the Israeli forces. Like many Palestinian human rights defenders, he faces the violence of the military occupation on a daily basis. In 2020, he was arrested for the sixth time. In 2014, the Israeli forces expelled him from his lifelong home in Jerusalem for 6 months on the grounds of being a “security threat”, without any evidence and based on a “secret file.” Soon afterwards, he was also banned from the West Bank.

Germany and the European Union are already heavily involved in the Middle East – economically, politically and military – and are complicit in the Israeli occupation and its crimes against the Palestinian people. Their claims of a commitment to peace contradict their de facto acceptance of violations of international law. It is unacceptable that human rights defenders coming to report to us first-hand on ongoing atrocities are then detained and arrested upon their return home.

We call on the German government, the European Union and the United Nations to intervene and demand that Israel immediately release Daoud al Ghoul, and all political prisoners. Countless reports have exposed the abusive nature of the Israeli military courts and persecution, torture, and imprisonment of Palestinians, including indefinite administrative arrests without charges. The international community must no longer be complicit through its silence. It is now time to act.

Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost e.V.
Palestine Speaks Coalition
Palestine Speaks Freiburg
Palestine Speaks Hamburg
Palestine Speaks Berlin
Palestine Speaks Hanover
Palestine Speaks Munich
Palestine Speaks Stuttgart
Palestine Speaks NRW
Duisburger Netzwerk gegen Rechts
Salam Shalom Arbeitskreis Palästina-Israel e. V.
Frauen in Schwarz München
Palästinakomitee Stuttgart e. V.
Palästina Solidarität Österreich
Palästina Solidarität Tirol
Palästina Solidarität Steiermark
Steirische Friedensplattform
Antiimperialistische Koordination (AIK)
Frauen in Schwarz Wien

Fritz Edlinger, Society for Austrian-Arab Relations
Dr. Matthias B. Lauer, Chairman of ACUS Österreich
Gerhard Summer, BDS Austria
Iman Shaker, BDS Austria
Jussuf Windischer, former General Secretary of Pax Christi Austria
Annette Groth, DIE LINKE, former Member of German Parliament

Links:

Livestream: Daoud al Ghoul, event by the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East in collaboration with Palestine Speaks - October 7, 2021

AIC Interview with Daoud al Ghoul - January 29th, 2015