Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Support Imprisoned Israeli Anarchist

Doctor John Q. Z. | 17.01.2011 11:16 | Animal Liberation | Palestine

We are calling on all our allies in radical struggles the world over to send letters of support to political prisoner Jonathan Pollak, currently serving a three-month prison sentence in Israel.


SUPPORT JONATHAN POLLAK, IMPRISONED ISRAELI ANARCHIST

We are calling on all our allies in radical struggles the world over to send letters of support to political prisoner Jonathan Pollak, currently serving a three-month prison sentence in Israel (see background below).

Jonathan, longtime activist in anarchist, anti-occupation and animal rights struggles, has been imprisoned since January 11th, after a blatantly political trial stemming from his participation in a protest against the siege on Gaza .

Best known for his prominent role in the "Anarchists Against the Wall" initiative, Jonathan has been serving for the last two years as media coordinator for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, a Palestinian umbrella organization designed to garner media attention for the unarmed struggle in the West Bank .

UPDATE, JAN 17TH, 2011:
Jonathan is incarcerated at Hermon Prison in the Lower Galilee, where he is expected to serve his full sentence, as repentance and "accepting responsibility for one's crime" seem to be a requirement for getting time off for good behavior (though he might still get a 14-days earlier "administrative release"). Through the prison's canteen he is currently able to purchase a wide enough variety of vegan food items to maintain an adequate diet, and so far he has not run into any problems, either from other inmates or from the guards. Generally speaking, he can be said to be in good spirits, and has expressed his wish to hear from fellow activists and radicals.

PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO WRITE HIM A LETTER OF SUPPORT.

Letters can be sent via regular mail to this address:
Jonathan Pollak
Hermon Prison , NS Wing
P.O Box 4011
Maghar 14930
Israel

Alternately, you can write him through the following email address (letters will be printed and passed on to him):
xfreejonathanx (at) gmail.com

Please note that he is only allowed to receive letters, so please don't send books, magazines, stamps, IRCs or any other items.

Thank you. =)

BACKGROUND:
On January 31, 2008, some thirty protesters participated in a Critical Mass bicycle ride through the streets of Tel Aviv in protest of the siege on Gaza . During the protest, Pollak was arrested by plain-clothed officers who recognized him from previous demonstrations and assumed he was the organizer of the action. In fact, Pollak was accused simply of riding his bicycle in the same manner as the rest of the protesters (no one else was arrested and the protest was allowed to continue with no further incidents or detentions). His conviction by a Tel Aviv Magistrates court judge activated an older three-month suspended sentence, imposed on Pollak in a previous trial for protesting the construction of the Separation Barrier. An additional three months prison term was also imposed for the current conviction, which is being served concurrently.

The arrest and consequent indictment appears to be the result of police vindictiveness, rather than of Pollak's behavior at the time of the event; as stated, Pollak was but one in a group of protesters who behaved exactly like him, yet he was the only one to be singled out. Moreover, environmental Critical Mass events take place in Tel Aviv on a regular basis, but have never been met with such a response. Other protests, which have caused far more severe obstruction of traffic did not result in arrests, and surely did not lead to criminal charges and imprisonment.

On his conviction, Pollak argued for his sentence, saying "I find myself unable to express remorse in this case [...]. If His Honor decides to go ahead and impose my suspended prison sentence, I will go to prison wholeheartedly and with my head held high. It will be the justice system itself, I believe, that ought to lower its eyes in the face of the suffering inflicted on Gaza's inhabitants, just like it lowers its eyes and averts its vision each and every day when faced with the realities of the occupation."
Jonathan's full statement:  http://popularstruggle.org/content/pscc-media-coordiantor-sentenced-3-months-prison-tells-judge-ill-go-prison-my-head-held-high#statement

RELEVANT LINKS:

Jonathan Pollak interviewed about the trial by Democracy Now! (Video):
 http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7732151-jailed-for-riding-a-bike/video/69485187

Shameful Imprisonment (editorial in Haaretz, daily Israeli newspaper):
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ayed-morrar/not-just-a-friend-one-pal_b_802468.html

Not Just a Friend: One Palestinian's View of Israeli Activist Jonathan Pollak (Huffington Post):
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ayed-morrar/not-just-a-friend-one-pal_b_802468.html

Photographs of Jonathan entering Hermon Prison, as well as of the Critical Mass ride protesting his incarceration the very same day (Activestills Flickr):
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/page3/

Anarchists Against the Wall:
 http://awalls.org/

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee:
 http://www.popularstruggle.org/

Doctor John Q. Z.
- e-mail: xzoidbergx@yahoo.com
- Homepage: http://popularstruggle.org

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech