<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Palestinian human rights activist jailed in Israel | Amnesty&nbsp;International]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="date-display-single">30 January 2011</p>
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<p>Amnesty International has urged the Israeli authorities to end  their harassment of Palestinian human rights activists after a  well-known campaigner in Haifa was jailed for nine years and given an  additional one-year suspended sentence earlier today.</p>
<p>Ameer  Makhoul, a longstanding Palestinian activist, was convicted on various  counts of having contact with enemies of Israel and espionage after a  plea bargain agreement at his trial. He was originally charged with an  even more serious offence, &#8220;assisting an enemy in war&#8221;, which could have  carried a life sentence, but that was dropped by the prosecution when  he agreed to a plea bargain.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ameer Makhoul&#8217;s jailing is a very  disturbing development and we will be studying the details of the  sentencing as soon as we can,&#8221; said Philip Luther, Amnesty  International&#8217;s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ameer  Makhoul is well known for his human rights activism on behalf of  Palestinians in Israel and those living under Israeli occupation. We  fear that this may be the underlying reason for his imprisonment.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We  are also extremely concerned by allegations that he was tortured and  otherwise ill-treated following his arrest on 6 May last year in a dawn  police raid on his home in Haifa, by the fact that he was not permitted  to see his lawyers for 12 days after his arrest, and by the gag order  that prohibited media coverage on the case during this time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Under  the Israeli penal code, people can be charged with &#8220;espionage&#8221; even if  the information passed onto an &#8220;enemy agent&#8221; is publicly known and even  if there is no intent to do harm through passing on the information.</p>
<p>The  prosecution claimed that a Jordanian civil society activist who Ameer  Makhoul was in contact with was a Hizbullah agent, and that he gave this  person information on the locations of a military base and General  Security Services offices.</p>
<p>The confession on which Ameer  Makhoul&#8217;s conviction and sentencing were based was admitted as evidence  by the court, despite allegations that this statement was made under  duress and that he was tortured during his interrogation. It also  appears that the information allegedly conveyed by Ameer Makhoul was  publicly available.</p>
<p>Ameer Makhoul&#8217;s sentencing comes at a time  when human rights activists are coming under increasing pressure in  Israel and being accused by some in the government and by members of the  Knesset of being &#8220;anti-Israel&#8221; and unpatriotic because of their  reporting on and campaigning against human rights violations in Israel  and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.</p>
<p>Ameer Makhoul is the director of Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations, based in Haifa.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/palestinian-human-rights-activist-jailed-israel-2011-01-30">Palestinian human rights activist jailed in Israel | Amnesty International</a>.</p>
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