Jonathan
Pollak, an activist with Anarchists Against the Wall was sentenced to
three months in prison, that will be activated if he is convicted of a
similar charge again. Pollak was sentenced today after he was
convicted together with 10 other activists for blocking a road in Tel
Aviv in protest of the construction of the wall. He asked the Tel Aviv
Magistrate's Court to sentence him to jail time rather than community
service or a suspended sentence, saying he has no intention to stop
resisting the occupation. The ten other convicted activists were
sentenced to 80 hours of community service.
In his sentencing statement Pollak said,
"This trial, had it not taken place in a court of the occupation, in
the democracy imposed on 3.5 million Palestinian subjects devoid of
basic democratic liberties -- was supposed to be a trial of the wall.
The same wall defined as illegal by the highest legal authority in the
world; the same wall that serves as a political tool in the campaign
of ethnic cleansing Israel is running in the occupied territories."
"It was not us who were supposed to stand here in the dock, but those
who plan and carry into action the Israeli apartheid," Pollak
continued. He also stated that while he is not surprised by his
conviction, he does not recognize it as legitimate, explaining that is
the reason he refused community service or cooperation with the
probation authorities.
To end his statement Pollak asked that the court punish him with a
prison sentence and not a suspended one. "In a state of things where
any gathering in the territories is considered illegal because of a
widespread anti-democratic policy of closed military zones, any
suspended sentence given to me will quickly become a prison term,"
Pollak said. Then turning to the judge, Pollak said, "If your honor
believes one should be sent to prison for such acts, please take the
liberty and personally send me to prison here and now."
The state prosecutor quickly responded by asking not to send Pollak to
prison, but rather to pose a conditional sentence and a fine.
Jonathan Pollak's full sentencing
statement:
From the first moment of this trial we
took responsibility for our acts. We've never denied, even for an
instant, that we sat on the road. Quite the opposite -- we fully
admitted this, and we explained why we did so. The defense was
revolved around two central axes -- exposing the police's lies and
their invention of fictional accusations, which the court has already
addressed, and on the principals of civil resistance. In its decision,
the court stated that we were attempting to drag this court into the
political arena, which it should avoid like fire, lest it get burned.
In fact, the state prosecution was the one doing the dragging. In
every crime and in every trial, the question of motive is a central
one. Our so called crime is clearly a political one, and so are its
motives.
This trial, had it not taken place in a court of the occupation, in
the democracy imposed on 3.5 million Palestinian subjects devoid of
basic democratic liberties, would have been the trial of the Wall;
that same wall that was defined as illegal by the highest legal
authority in the world; that same wall that is used as a political
tool in the campaign of ethnic cleansing being undertaken by Israel in
the Occupied Territories; that same wall that in its previous
route, that route of the relevant days, was thrown out even by Israeli
courts! It was not us who should have been standing accused here, but
rather the architects and enforcers of Israeli Apartheid.
To our assertion that there is a duty to violate the law at times, the
court answered that in such times, one must accept the punishment as
well. This response contains an obvious moral failure. The correct
response would be that those who violate the law must expect
punishment. Expect it, but under no circumstances accept its
legitimacy.
I am not surprised that we were found guilty. But in spite of that, I
cannot accept the legitimacy of the punishment. That is the reason I
refused to cooperate with the parole agency, and I will refuse
community service as well.
I believe that at this stage of the trial the defense tends to state
that this is the defendant's first conviction, that he is a normal
human being, who is well within the bounds of civil society, that he
works a steady job and so on and so forth. I will argue otherwise. I
will state that while this is indeed my first conviction, it is
unlikely to be my last. I still believe that what I did was necessary
and morally correct, and that resistance to oppression is the duty of
every human being, even at a personal price.
It is customary to ask for leniency -- not to impose an active
sentence, and to be satisfied with a conditional sentence. I will ask
not to have a conditional sentence imposed on me, but an active
one, since as things are, any demonstration taking place in the
Occupied Territories is declared illegal assembly, according to the
extensive and anti-democratic system of closed military zone warrants.
In this state of affairs, any conditional sentence imposed upon me
will quickly become an active one. If your honor believes one should
be sent to prison for such acts, please take the liberty and
personally send me to prison here and now.
Jonathan Pollak,
a founder of the Anarchists Against the Wall, has been fighting
Israel's criminal Wall for the past years, and for the past two years
has participated in the weekly Friday demonstrations at Bi'lin. The
Anarchists against the Wall have stood in solidarity with
Palestinians, participating with them in demonstrations against the
wall in many villages.