Ezra Nawi Sentenced

As reported earlier, a judge found Ezra Nawi guilty of assaulting two members of the Israeli border police during the 2007 demolition of a Palestinian house. Nawi, a human rights activist, was finally sentenced on October 21. According to www.supportezra.net, Nawi will serve one month in prison and must pay a fine of 750 shekels, plus 500 shekels in compensation to each police officer involved. Additionally, Nawi will serve a six-month suspended sentence if arrested again within the next three years for  “unlawful assembly” or for “interfering with a policeman carrying out his duty.”

David Schulman notes in the aforementioned BR article, “[Nawi] will not be the first imprisoned for defending the defenseless.” Today we salute not only our veterans but peace activists who work to make suffering and war unnecessary. Read more about the current state of Israel’s peace movement in “Peace Out” by Helena Cobban, from the July/August 2009 issue of Boston Review.

Ezra Nawi’s Sentencing Postponed

In BR’s web-only feature, The Trial of Ezra Nawi, David Schulman reports that peace activist Ezra Nawi was scheduled for sentencing on September 21. According to Nawi’s support site, the sentencing has been postponed. Nawi faces incarceration for an act of civil disobedience in 2007: resisting Israeli border police who were bulldozing a Palestinian home in Um al-Kheir. BR will stay abreast of Nawi’s sentencing and notify readers once it is rescheduled.

Meanwhile, Obama’s meeting on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reached no firm conclusion. Speaking to the UN, Obama insisted that peace negotiations should resume without preconditions–thereby sidestepping the Palestinian demand for a freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. Obama impatiently pushes ahead, but might do well to consult another piece from the BR archive (one of my favorites): Joseph Levine’s History Matters, in which he dissects the historical claims and current status of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Contrary to the U.S.’s current easing up on Netanyahu, Levine asserts:

As the occupier and principal aggressor, Israel must demonstrate good faith by taking significant actions to meet Palestinian demands. If Israel does not enact such measures, then the world community, especially the United States and the United Nations—the external parties chiefly responsible for the terrible situation in the first place—must employ sanctions to ensure Israeli compliance.

Strong words, but I encourage you to read the rest of Levine’s argument and reflect as we wait for negotiations to commence.