Abnaa el-Balad

Since Israeli electoral law forbids any organization calling to abolish the Jewish character of the state to take part in the Knesset elections, Abnaa al-Balad boycotts what it calls the "Zionist electoral process".[1] Ibrahim Makkawi, a member of the movement and professor of Educational Psychology, explained this position further in a paper presented at the Third North American Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement at Rutgers University in October 2003, stating:

We refuse to enter the Zionist Knesset, simply because it is (a) in direct contradiction with our national identity as the legitimate owners of the land, (b) it gives legitimacy to the Zionist Entity and support to its myth about democracy, (c) it is a vehicle of cooptation and fragmentation of our leadership and (d) there is virtually nothing that we can achieve through the Knesset with regard to our citizens rights that we cannot do without it."[9]

Leftist organizations like Abnaa al-Balad made abstention and the blank vote the center of their political campaigns in the 1999 elections. Although voter turnout increased by just over 30,000, the percentage turnout (70%) was down slightly (reflecting a population increase), and well below predictions of 87%.[10]

In Israel at the Polls 2003, it is noted that Arab voting participation dropped to 62% in the 2003 elections, a drop partially attributed to calls by Abnaa el-Balad to boycott the elections.[11] A May 2003 study by Mada al-Carmel, a Palestinian-Israeli research institute, exploring why Arab voters abstained in the 2003 Israeli elections determined that 43.4% of non-voters abstained from voting for political reasons, and that this group represented some 14% of registered voters. The majority of these (some 11.2% of registered voters) were protesting the political situation and Israeli policies in the occupied territories.[12]

In Elections in Israel - 2003 where the results of the Mada al-Carmel study were analyzed, it is noted that only 3.8% of registered voters chose not to vote "as a conscious political act," out of the belief that,

"[...] the Jewish state and its parliamentary institution are not legitimate and that participation of Arab citizens in the elections turns them into a tool that Israel uses to win legitimacy in their eyes and in the eyes of the world. Those who advocate a boycott on these grounds believe that it is not possible to achieve political gains through elections in Israel's present political structure, and certainly not at the price of granting legitimacy to the Jewish state."[12]

The authors go on to describe the "extra-parliamentary" Abnaa al-Balad as the most prominent representative of this school of thought.[12]

Abnaa el-Balad called for Palestinian citizens of Israel to boycott the 2006 Knesset elections through its affiliated organization, The Popular Committee for Boycotting the Knesset Elections (Arabic: اللجنة الشعبية لمقاطعة انتخابات الكنيس).[13]

Abnaa al-Balad was the only Palestinian organization based in Israel to move from passive reservations to active opposition to the increased immigration of Jews to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Raja Ighbaria explained the reasoning behind the group's opposition as follows:

"Going back in history, Jewish immigration to Palestine has always been at the expense of the Palestinian people. It resulted in the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Adding one million Jews to Israel [the Soviet immigration] forms an actual danger to the very fact of our existence. Transfer of the remaining Palestinians comes closer to realization than it had been before."[14]

The movement circulated pamphlets and petitions that expressed opposition to Russian immigration. A 3 August 1990 pamphlet, entitled "What are We Waiting For? Immigrants are Penetrating our Doors and Threatening Our Lands" called for joint action with "oppressed Jews" (that is, Mizrahim) to halt the immigration and for Arabs to participate in a demonstration in Jerusalem and the Negev on 5 August.[14]

According to Majid Al Haj, the opposition articulated by Abnaa el-Balad "[...] never crossed the line into active resistance." It remained "[...] a limited attempt to mobilize the Arab public in Israel to speak openly against immigration from the FSU."[14]

In 1992 and 1993, the Abnaa el-Balad Movement and the NGO of the same name participated in The Ninth and Tenth United Nations International NGO Meetings on the Question of Palestine which were held under the auspices of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in Geneva and Vienna, respectively.[15][16]

Abnaa al-Balad was one of a number of Arab civil society organizations in Israel to present at the "I Will Not Serve" national conference which discussed the reasons why Arab citizens of Israel should resist mandatory civic service.[17]

On 7 February 2004, Mohammad Kana'neh, the General Secretary the movement and a board member for the NGO Ittijah, was arrested in his home in Arrabe at four in the morning. According to the legal advocacy group, Adalah, during the search of his home, Israeli police beat his son, wife, and mother.[22] Also arrested that day was Mohammed's brother, Hussam Kana'neh (also known as Majed), a central committee member of Abnaa el-Balad. Initially, no reasons were provided for their arrest, nor were they allowed contact to their lawyer,[22] and a court hearing the night of their arrest granted the police the right to detain them for 10 days.[23]

Also arrested that same day was Sahar Abdo, a secretary for The New Generation magazine published by the Balad Association (the NGO of the same name as the movement).[22][24] Yoav Bar was removed from his home at four in the morning by police and taken to the movement's club in the city.[24] During a search of the premises, "[...] security personnel destroyed the furniture, ripped pictures from the walls, walked on photos of the victims of the Israeli occupation, threw trash, cleaning chemicals, oil, and grease on piles of books and magazines that had been thrown on the floor, and wrote curses and obscenities on the walls. During this time, Yoav Bar was threatened and cursed; one officer told him, 'If it were up to me, I would shoot you in the head.'"[22][24][25]

Youssef Abu Ali, an activist with Abnaa al-Balad in Sakhnin, was arrested a few days after the arrests of the Kana'neh brothers, Bar and Abdo, on 12 February 2004 at 2:30 in the morning. His detention was extended by seven days before the Acre court and he was denied the right to see his attorney.[24]

By the end of February, 2004, Sahar Abdo, and Youssef Abu Ali had been released after 24 days of detention without the laying of any charges. All were subjected to abusive interrogation techniques and had been denied access to a lawyer and their families for 18 to 21 days.[22][26] According to Adalah, the interrogation methods used by the General Security Services (GSS) included tying the activists to their chairs, sleep deprivation, the refusal to provide essential medical treatment when needed, preventing them from bathing for long periods of time, and providing them with "inaccurate, misleading information" about their basic legal rights. Adalah submitted that, "These GSS actions violated the political activists' rights to due process, life, privacy, and dignity."[22]

On 4 March 2004, Mohamad Kana'neh was indicted on three counts of "contact with a foreign agent": he was accused of meeting Dr. George Habash, the founder of the PFLP in Jordan, Ibrahim 'Ajweh "Abu - Yaffa", a Fatah member and anti-globalization/anti-normalization activist from Jordan, and visiting Ahmad Sa'adat, the general secretary of the PFLP in Jericho prison. His brother Hussam Kana'neh was indicted for transferring paramedical equipment from Ibrahim 'Ajweh to Jenin. According to the prosecution inside this equipment were hidden instructions for making explosives. Even according to the state attorney, Hussam didn't know about the 'hidden instructions' but the prosecution claimed that he should have "known that passing those electric devices will harm Israel's security."

Before the indictment, the prosecution held a big press conference, linking Mohammad and Hussam Kana'neh to Hezbollah.[27] This accusation was never presented in court.

On October 10, 2004, Mohamad Kana'aneh accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to one count of "contact with a foreign agent" - Ibrahim 'Ajweh. Although the prosecution agreed that all the contacts between the two were public as part of Mohamad Kana'neh's political activity, the state requested a 6 years sentence. The Haifa District Court sentenced him to 30 months of imprisonment and 2 years suspended incarceration.

At February 2005, Hussam Kana'neh accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to "Supplying services to an unlawful association", "Conspiracy to assist the enemy at time of war", and "contact with a foreign agent". He was sentenced to 10 1/2 years of imprisonment.[28] Husam's friends and supporters - most of them Jewish colleagues who knew him from his work as a psychologist in the health services of the impoverished neighborhoods in Jaffa - followed the trial and established a special website in his support [29]

Abnaa el-Balad strongly condemned the court decisions and stated: "We consider the Court sentence a continuation of the repression and persecutions against our movement and against all the Arab masses and their leadership inside the 1948 territories. Abnaa el-Balad will check with our lawyers the legal implications of this case as well as the possibility of appealing to such an unjust verdict.[28] In November 2005, an Israeli appeals court extended Mohammad Kana'neh's sentence by two years to four and a half years imprisonment.