Mohammad Mansour, a Palestinian organiser for non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, faces trial Thursday for allegedly engaging in an ‘illegal protest’ with the International Solidarity Movement in 2004.
In a press release issued Wednesday, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said that Mansour has been falsely charged with assaulting an Israeli police officer, throwing stones, and encouraging others to do likewise.
He has also been charged with involvement in "illegal demonstrations".
Mansour was quoted as saying, "Despite the military having cameras to film the demonstration, they do not have a single shred of evidence that I did anything illegal, because I didn’t. They want to get me because I am standing up against the occupation, that’s it."
Mansour was initially arrested in June 2004 at a non-violent demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in ar-Ram near Jerusalem.
A father of five, Mohammad has been offered increasingly better deals from the prosecution. The last offer from the Judge was to let him go if he paid the sum of his bail. Mohammed refused to pay because he said "I am not guilty and if I pay any money then I admit guilt for something I did not do. I do not want to give one shekel to the occupation".
The International Solidarity Movement has been termed an ‘illegal’ organization according to Israeli authorities, although none of its members have ever engaged in violence. The focus of the organization is on non-violent protest and civil disobedience involving Palestinian, Israeli and international solidarity against the Israeli military occupation in Palestine, and the internationally-condemned Wall that Israeli forces continue to build on Palestinian land.
