Washington – An array of legal and human rights groups have sent a joint letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to advocate for American support to release Palestinian human rights activist Ameer Makhoul, Electronic Intifada reported Friday.

Secretary Clinton holds a meeting with Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, at the Department of State in Washington on July 26, 2010. [State Dept Image by Michael Gross]

“[I]n the last six months, we have watched with dismay as both real and figurative walls close in on civil society and human rights defenders in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The most recent case of this is that of human rights defender Ameer Makhoul, an Israeli citizen and head of Ittijah -- the Union of Arab Community Based Organizations."

Ittijah was founded in 1995 in Israel and brings together multiple Palestinian NGOs to advocate against economic, political, and social rights abuses by the Israeli state.

“At 3:00am on 6 May 2010,” the letter continues, “Mr. Makhoul was arrested at his home, and both his home and the Ittijah office were searched and personal items, office equipment, documents and databases were seized. Mr. Makhoul was held for two weeks incommunicado while a strict gag order was imposed on the case, and while, according to his lawyers, he was subjected to torture including sleep deprivation and stress positions.”

Accusations of torture were first raised by Makhoul’s legal advocates, Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein and Adalah Attorneys Orna Kohn and Hassan Jabareen. The team said they had obtained an affidavit from Makhoul detailing “precise details of the brutal interrogation methods that have been used against him."

A group of human rights organizations - Adalah, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Physicians for Human Rights, Israel (PHR-IL) – issued a petition in May to obtain all the documented details of Makhoul’s arrest and subsequent detention. But the Petah Tikva Magistrates' Court that heard the case rejected the petition and issued a gag order on Makhoul’s condition. The order was later lifted.

Makhoul was charged in late May for espionage on behalf of Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah. According to his indictment, he is accused of passing “strategic intelligence” to Hezbollah agents more than ten times, Jonathan Cook reported via Counter Currents. Omar Said, another Palestinian political activist, was arrested in April on similar charges.

Makhoul has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza. He has also supported divestment and boycott campaigns against Israel. Soon after his arrest, Makhoul’s brother and a former Knesset MP, Issam, told Israeli radio that his brother had been threatened by Israel’s Shin Bet security service in the past, Cook reported.

In the rights groups’ letter, they quote Phillip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Program, who has said Makhoul’s “arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work.”

The letter closes:

Madame Secretary, in light of the following, we respectfully request that your office investigate the arrest, unlawful treatment, and detention of Mr. Makhoul and use its considerable diplomatic influence to bring an end to his arbitrary detention and to ensure that Israel, a leading recipient of US military and economic aid, comply with its commitment under US law and international legal norms. We also ask that the State Department call on Israel to cooperate with the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in its investigation of the case of Ameer Makhoul.

Undersigned groups behind the letter include Jewish Voice for Peace USA, International Solidarity Movement, and CODEPINK.

There has not yet been any response from Secretary Clinton’s office.

Above: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. [WikiMedia]

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