Issa Amro (Arabic: عيسى عمرو; April 13, 1980) is a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

activist based in

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. He is the co-founder and former coordinator (2007-2018) of the

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

group Youth Against Settlements. Amro advocates the use

nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, cons ...

and

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

to fight the

Israeli Occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

of the

Palestinian Territories The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The I ...

.In Hebron, A City Hit Hard By Violence, A Palestinian Preaches Nonviolence
National Public Radio. January 10, 2016Palestine field post: 'I am not your normal human rights campaigner'
''The Guardian.'' 10 March 2015.Author: Issa Amro
''Huffington Post''. In 2010, he was declared "human rights defender of the year in Palestine" by the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

In 2013, the

United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

expressed concern for his wellbeing and safety due to numerous accounts of harassment from

Israeli soldiers The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...

and

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

and a series of arbitrary arrests.UN Experts Urge Israel to Stop Harassment of Human Rights Defender Issa Amro
''UN News Centre''. 13 August 2013. At present, Amro is being indicted by the

Israeli military court The Israeli Military Court of Appeals is the supreme military court of the Israel Defense Forces. It considers and judges over appeals submitted by the Military Advocate General which challenge decisions rendered by the District military tribunal, ...

with 18 charges against him.Israel Indicts Palestinian Gandhi
''The Electronic Intifada''. 6 September 2016.WATCH: 'They want to get rid of the idea of nonviolent resistance'
''+972 Magazine.'' September 25, 2016. In May 2017,

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

along with three U.S. Senators and 32 Congressmen wrote to Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th U.S. secretary of state from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under President Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administ ...

to urge Israeli authorities to reconsider the charges against Amro.Top Senators, Including Bernie Sanders, Urge Tillerson to Monitor Case of Palestinian Activist Indicted by IDF
''Haaretz''. August 9, 2017.Congress of the United States
Mark Pocan. Washington, DC 20515. June 28, 2017. In late September, 2017, after being released on

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

, Amro met Bernie Sanders and members of Congress in

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. In March, 2019,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

demanded that the Palestinian authorities should drop all charges against him, adding "It is disgraceful that Issa Amro is facing a prison term simply for expressing his views promoting human rights online."

Activism

Early years

Amro grew up in the Hebron's Old City near Shuhada Street in an area that is now closed to Palestinians. His father, a school teacher, moved his family into H1 during the

First Intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...

when Amro was seven years old, as recounted in ''The Way to the Spring'' by

Ben Ehrenreich Ben Ehrenreich (born 1972) is an American freelance journalist and novelist who lives in Los Angeles. Career Ehrenreich began working as a journalist in the alternative press in the late 1990s, publishing extensively in ''LA Weekly'' and ''The Vi ...

.Ehrenreich, 2016, pp
174
��179 Two years after the start of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...

, the Israeli army declared the

Palestine Polytechnic University Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU; ar, جامعة بوليتكنك فلسطين) is a university located in Hebron, West Bank, Palestine. The school was founded in 1978 by the University Graduates Union (UGU), a non-profit organization in ...

a closed military zone and sealed off its entrances. Amro, who was then in his last year of an engineering degree, decided to take action against the closures. With the participation of other students of the university, Amro organized actions of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience for half a year. These actions included protests and demonstrations, moving into classrooms,

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

s, and having lessons in the presence of Israeli soldiers. The campaigning was a success and the university was reopened in June.Occupied Campus: The Israeli Military Closure of Hebron University
Right to Education Campaign. Birzeit University, Palestine. 31 December 2003. Amro describes this victory as his gateway into resistance against the occupation. He took inspiration from known human rights defenders, such as

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, and

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

. He stated in a piece for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

"I became convinced that their non-violent method was the best strategy for community resistance. Furthermore non-violence meant that there was a role for every Palestinian. ... My campaigning, my whole philosophy, everything I do now, is underpinned by these ideas."

Amro became part of

B'Tselem B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...

and won the

One World Media One World Media is a non-profit organisation, registered in the UK as a charitable trust. It is based in London. The charities mission is to support strong vibrant and independent media that empowers citizens, promotes justice and contributes to in ...

award in 2009 for the "Shooting Back" camera project, which he coordinated in Hebron. The project distributed cameras to Palestinians for the purpose of documenting human rights violations by Israeli soldiers and settlers.Issa Amro – Human Rights Defender in danger
European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine. June 3, 2013. In 2008, B'Tselem reported an occasion where Amro himself was prevented from documenting Israeli settler disturbances, after which he was then beaten and arrested by Israeli military.Soldiers assault and arrest B'Tselem worker in Hebron
B'Tselem. January 20, 2008

Youth Against Settlements

Amro is the coordinator Youth Against Settlements (YAS), which he describes as his major project to involve young Palestinians in nonviolent resistance against the Israeli occupation. He stated that his dream is to see nonviolence used as the methodology for a massive Palestinian resistance against the occupation. He co-founded YAS in 2007 as a group that documents and protests against human rights violations. The group's leading campaign is Open Shuhada Street, which calls for an end to the closures and restrictions enforced on Hebron's main street. The campaign takes place in several countries worldwide.Saving the West Bank's Shuhada Street
Al Jazeera. March 8, 2013.Inspired by Gandhi, A Palestinian Resists the Occupation
''Newsweek''. 8/4/2015.

2015—present

During the surge of violence throughout the Palestinian territories in autumn 2015, Amro worked to discourage Palestinian youths from carrying out knife attacks: in their place, he advocated a nonviolent approach to resistance. He stated that he felt more worried about being shot by the Israeli army during these times than ever before.Matthew Vicker
'We have martyrs every day in Hebron,'

Mondoweiss ''Mondoweiss'' is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on ''The New York Observer'' website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it ...

November 7, 2015. At the regular session of the

UN Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

in September 2015, Amro said that he was "extremely concerned" with the situation in Palestine during this time and stated that "the erupting violence over the past weeks…can only end when international law is applied." He mentioned the case of 18-year-old Hadil Hashlamoun, who on the 22 September of that year had been shot and killed by Israeli forces, and whose death was reported as "unlawful" by

:"Memorandum: Lethal Force and Accountability for Unlawful Killings by Israeli Forces in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Amnesty International. September 28, 2015.Young Palestinian woman shot by Israeli Forces dies
Al Jazeera. September 22, 2015.
''New York Times''. September 22, 2015.

"Mr. President, I was present when they took her body away, and saw the settlers and soldiers rejoice at her fate. We urgently need an impartial international investigation into her case," Amro stated.30th Meeting, 30th Regular Session Human Rights Council
UN Web TV. 28 September 2015.

Amro wrote an article for the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

in response to the Hebron shooting incident in March, 2016. A video had been published by B'Tselem showing Israeli soldier Elor Azaria shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head at point-blank range, while the Palestinian was lying wounded on the ground.Charges Against IDF Soldier Who Shot Subdued Palestinian Downgraded to Manslaughter
''Haaretz''. March 31, 2016. In his article, Amro described being guarded by Azaria for seven hours during an arrest in March, which took place before the shooting incident. Amro did not consider the soldier to be "unusually fanatical or extreme." Instead, he blamed the normalization of anti-Palestinian hatred within the Israeli military, and

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

for "pulling verbal triggers of incitement" and denying freedom for Palestinians with his politics.'Hero of Israel' Committed Murder
''Huffington Post''. April 4, 2016.

Harassment and arrests

In an article written for ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', Amro stated, "I have been arrested more times than I can count for nonviolent human-rights work." In 2013, the Israeli army conducted an unannounced 'training exercise' at his home: "15 soldiers suddenly entered the family's yard at about 9pm. Wearing helmets, body armour and carrying weapons, they used a ladder to enter the house from an upstairs window." In a statement from 2013, the UN Council of Human Rights addressed the issue of ongoing harassment of Amro. Juan E. Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, expressed deep concern for Amro's "life, physical integrity and the psychological toll that his harassmentis having on his health and family." Amro was arrested and detained twenty times in 2012 without any charges filed against him, and on a further six occasions in 2013 up to the point that the aforesaid statement was written. It mentions an incident from July 8, 2013, when "Israeli soldiers allegedly beat Mr. Amro, taking photos of him on a stretcher and threatening to shoot him. He was hospitalized more than five hours later and summoned to the same police station the next day." The report also mentioned a recent "number of death threats from settler organizations" against him. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, described the acts against Amro as an "unacceptable campaign of harassment, intimidation and reprisals." The report also mentioned an Israeli raid undertaken on the Youth Against Settlements media center in July, 2013, during which Israeli soldiers allegedly fired at Amro and three other activists. Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, called for the protection of Youth Against Settlements members and for "those responsible for the unacceptable acts against Mr. Amro

o be O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...

held accountable." In addition to the incidents mentioned in the statement, Israeli

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

politician Baruch Marzel was charged for an attack on Amro on February 8, 2013. He entered Amro's home and assaulted him for "unknown reasons." Reportedly, Amro was arrested on that day as a result of the occurrence, and later released.Indictment Filed Against Baruch Marzel
Israel National News. 11/03/2015Israeli politician attacks Palestinians in Hebron
International Solidarity Movement. 9 February 2013. Amro stated in a regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in 2013 that according to his Israeli lawyer, all his arrests were arbitrary.ID on Palestinian territories 31st Meeting 23rd Regular Session of Human Rights Council
UN Web TV. June 10, 2013. In 2014,

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

reported that an Israeli soldier stated that he only protects Jews, and proceeded to insult Amro and threaten to shoot him.Israeli Soldier to Palestinians in Hebron: We Protect Jews, Not You
''Haaretz''. May 4, 2014.

Trial

On February 26, 2016, Amro took part in a nonviolent demonstration calling for an end to the restrictions imposed on Hebron's Al-Shuhada Street. A few days later on February 29, while speaking to a tour group from Breaking the Silence, Amro was arrested and brought to the

Gush Etzion Gush Etzion ( he, גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural v ...

settlement's detention center. There, he was accused of

incitement In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but ...

and of having organizing protests Israel deems illegal. He was released the following day after being notified that he should to expect an invitation to appear in court. A police officer allegedly told him that he had no legal basis for the arrest but had received orders from above to carry it out.Mass Demonstration in Hebron to Open Shuhada Street
Youth Against Settlements. February 26, 2016 In response to the event, Amnesty International released a statement about Amro's arrest, which called for the Israeli government to "cease intimidation of human rights defenders."Israeli government must cease intimidation of human rights defenders, protect them from attacks
Amnesty International. April 12, 2016. On July 15, 2016, Youth Against Settlements began to establish a cinema in Hebron in cooperation with Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The action was suppressed by Israeli military and police. Shortly afterwards, Amro was indicted by an Israeli military court, and now faces 18 separate charges referring to putative infractions between 2010 and 2016. The charges include the accusations from March along with "insulting a soldier," "spitting in the direction of a settler," "entering a closed military zone," and other apparent offenses. There are 38 witnesses against him.A Famous Palestinian Activist Could Be Sent to Israeli Prison for His Years of Nonviolent Protest
''Vice''. September 25, 2016. Amro's Israeli lawyer, Gabi Lasky, stated that:

"... the fact that in this case he was released dozens of times over the years without any indictment, and suddenly an indictment is served that collects all the conduct for which he was released, absolutely seems to be a matter of
political persecution Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...
."Palestinian Activist Claims Political Persecution After Indictment Over Offenses Dating From 2013
''Haaretz''. September 5, 2016.

An IDF spokesman stated that Amro had

"“taken part in riots, attacks on soldiers, calls to violence, and prevented security forces from doing their work."

Former UN Special Reporter on Palestine, Prof. Dr.

Richard Falk Richard Anderson Falk (born November 13, 1930) is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the author ...

, signed an urgent appeal dated September 21, 2016, coordinated by Scales for Justice. The appeal was sent to

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad bin Zeid al-Hussein ( ar, زيد ابن رعد الحسين; born 26 January 1964) is a Jordanian former diplomat who is the Perry World House Professor of the Practice of Law and Human Rights at the University of Pennsylvan ...

, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and called for the charges against Amro to be dropped and for an end to the harassment against him. While holding office in 2013, prior to the appeal, Falk had stated that Amro appeared to be the victim of a "pattern of harassment." Other petitions for Amro's case are led by organizations such as

Jewish Voice for Peace Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP; קול יהודי לשלום ''Kol Yehudi la-Shalom'') is a left-wing Jewish activist organization in the United States that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Founding, staff ...

and

Code Pink Code Pink: Women for Peace (often stylized as CODEPINK) is a left-wing internationally active non-governmental organization that describes itself as a "grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S.-funded wars and occupations, ...

: Women for Peace, who emphasized that the Israeli military court's conviction rate of Palestinians is over 99%. Amro would have faced trial on the 25th of September, 2016, but it was postponed. Jewish Voice for Peace. Writers

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

and

Ayelet Waldman Ayelet Waldman ( he, איילת ולדמן, born December 11, 1964) is an Israeli-American novelist and essayist. She has written seven mystery novels in the series ''The Mommy-Track Mysteries'' and four other novels. She has also written autobio ...

wrote about Amro's trial in an article for

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

entitled “Who’s Afraid of Nonviolence”, in which they condemned the charges.Who’s Afraid of Nonviolence
''The New York Times''. August 9, 2017. In May 2017, a group of four U.S. Senators and 32 Congressmen, led by senator

, wrote to Secretary of State

, asking him to urge Israeli authorities to drop the charges against Amro.

Arrest by the Palestinian Authority

On September 2, 2017, he was arrested by the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

(PA) on charges of violating the new "electronic crimes" law. The actual offense was "denouncing on Facebook the arrest of a journalist calling for the resignation of PA head", acts which others have been tantamount to criticizing the Palestinian Authority. President Abbas has been criticized for the decree under which Amro was arrested which uses words such as "harming national unity" and references to "social fabric". Amro has complained that the decree is an attack on freedom of expression

Diana Buttu Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Best known for her work as a legal adviser and a participant in Middle East peace process, peace negotiations between Israeli and P ...

, commenting on the law, parallels between the PA actions and Israel's crackdown on dissent with the occupation, stated:

The passage of this law, and the PA’s subsequent actions, make clear that neither Israel nor the authority will tolerate dissent.
Diana Buttu Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Best known for her work as a legal adviser and a participant in Middle East peace process, peace negotiations between Israeli and P ...

'Issa Amro is merely the latest casualty of Palestine’s war on free speech,'
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 20 September 2017

On September 9, 2017, he was released on bail, following an outpouring of protests to the PA by human rights NGOs and others.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amro, Issa Palestinian activists Palestinian human rights activists 1980 births Living people Nonviolence advocates People from Hebron Prisoners and detainees of the Palestinian National Authority