Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 10)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 10)
- المحتوى
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HII
_ They Were Trying to Stop
[sraeli-Palestinian Cooperation
Interview with Michel Warschawsky, director of the Alternative Information Center(AIC), Jerusalem.
We interviewed Michel Warschawsky at the Vienna NGO
meeting in August-September 1989. The AIC had been closed
down by the Israeli authorities for six months in February
1987, and the case of the Israeli government vs. Warschawsky
and the AIC was still pending. Since then, in November, an
Israeli court found Warschawsky guilty of providing typeset-
ting services to the PFLP; he was sentenced to 20 months in
prison without parole, in addition to a 10-month suspended
sentence and a $5,000 fine. Today, he is a political prisoner
in Israel.
Can you explain the circumstances surrounding
the closure of the Alternative Information Center
(AIC), and the subsequent court order barring
you from continuing your work in the center?
The center was closed by an administrative order sub-
mitted by the General Commissioner of the Israeli Police,
claiming that the center was an office for and in support of
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. About 20
policemen and secret service officials entered the center and
took almost everything which was inside: machines, archives
and papers, and arrested everyone working in the center.
We denied immediately all the accusations. I personally
took responsibility as the director of the center and all other
workers in the center were released during the first 48
hours. I was interrogated by the Israeli Shin Bet (secret ser-
vice) and then taken before a judge. I was held for 10 days
and then for an additional five days, and then a charge was
submitted accusing me and later the center of rendering
printing services to an illegal organization - the PFLP - not
by printing directly for the PFLP, but by providing typeset-
10
ting services and printing facilities to women’s organizations
as well as student organizations which are allegedly linked to
the PFLP in the occupied territories. This was the legal basis
for the closure of the center.
What, in your opinion, are the reasons behind
the actions of the Israeli authorities against you
and the AIC?
There are two reasons. The first is that, as our name
indicates, we are an information center that has been work-
ing for one and a half years, efficiently providing informa-
tion to the Israeli media, as well as to the international
media, about what is taking place in the occupied territories,
in Israeli prisons, etc. We have been providing accurate
information from statements of political prisoners, reports
from inside the prisons, and reports about torture of Pales-
tinian political prisoners, which were quoted by the Zionist
media. As one interrogator told me, «What is the meaning
of closing down Al Mithaq (a Palestinian newspaper in Israel
which was closed down by the Israeli authorities in 1986) if
you are doing what they were doing?» I replied that we are
Israelis and should be protected by Israeli law, while Al
Mithaq was not. He then said, «If you are working with the
Palestinians, then you will be treated like a Palestinian.»
The second point is that the center, when opened, was
the first such one where both Israelis and Palestinians
worked together. Some of the Palestinians who worked in
the center and with the center had spent many years in
prison. Our aim was to give true information about what is
happening inside Israeli society and Palestinian society from
people reporting from their own communities. We are not
a center of ordinary journalists. First and foremost we are
activists - Israeli activists in the political movements in
Israel, and Palestinian activists in their national struggle;
and we never tried to hide this. We wanted to put out true
information, not «neutral» information about repression,
resistance and struggle. For that reason we needed people
from both sides, from the Israeli peace movement as well as
the Palestinian nationalist movement. My Shin Bet inter-
rogators used to tell me during the long interrogation ses-
sions that, and I quote, «As long as you act among Israelis,
you are protected by Israeli democracy. But if you work
with them - the Palestinians - there is no democracy because
it is occupation, and you will be treated like they are
treated; you cannot claim democracy and law under occupa-
tion.» What they were trying to do is stop Israeli-Palestinian
cooperation.
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 38
- تاريخ
- أبريل ١٩٩٠
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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