Translated by Malgorzata Chojnowska
The statement written by a group of four Brazilians, members of the movement for a free Palestine, reveals the totalitarianism that is used by the state of Israel to prohibit Palestinians and their descendants to return to their homeland. Soraya Misleh, Hasan Zarif, Muhammad and Ibrahim Hammoud Kadri left Brazil on the 14th of May to visit their family and to support and participate in “peaceful demonstrations which were to be held to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba day and demand the inalienable right of return of the Palestinian people”, as explained in the statement.
The 15th of May, the day of the Nakba, the group was among Palestinian refugees of Jordan, and they joined the protests that took place over a large area of the Palestinian borders occupied by Israel. The protests were violently suppressed by the occupation forces.
A young Jordanian was killed, which caused riots among the population and in the refugee camps, with the possibility of being continued at the borders. More than ten protesters were killed in Lebanon during the celebration of the Nakba, during which the catastrophe of the expulsion of the Palestinian people which resulted in giving the origin of the state of Israel is remembered (May 15th, 1948).
Detention at the border
Last Monday, the group of Brazilians tried to enter Palestine, with the mission of observation and solidarity with the movement for a free Palestine, but they were stopped by the occupation forces.
“For seven hours we had to endure intimidation, isolation, threats and psychological torture during interrogation, harassment, searches and inspections of our body and luggage. We were treated like real criminals”, they reported in the statement.
Soraya Misleh, journalist of Ciranda and member of the movement, reports that the Brazilians were appalled at the intolerance demonstrated against peaceful demonstrations and the total lack of respect for the rights of detainees. “I am shocked and very angry, they intimidated us in every possible way for several hours,” she said.
The group said that they felt on their own skin that “the criminalization of the social movements that we fight so much is a common practice by the Zionist state” and that “many Brazilians of Arabic descent or activists have already experienced this unacceptable situation in the past”.
Go back to Jordan!
The four Brazilians now will carry a passport stamped with the “entry denied” to the state of Israel, which effectively will prevent them from visiting relatives, friends and participation in other missions in solidarity with the Palestinian people. This mark also puts them in an unpleasant situation when making international travels, which are so necessary in supporting the cause of people expelled from their own country.
Soraya has been to Palestine before, taking part in activities of the World Education Forum, covering the event for the Brazilian alternative press and the World Social Forum. The stamped passports were returned with no explanation. The group said all they heard was: Go back to Jordan!
“They took us to the exit and put us in a bus where we spent nearly two hours with a man of Arab origin, who had also been stopped”. During that time, we were not allowed to leave the site, again without justification. “In total we spent almost ten hours without eating or drinking – we managed to drink a glass of water with two cookies after we had insisted and pressured a lot”.
Given that this is not an isolated case, since “there are several reports of discrimination, particularly against activists and citizens of Arab origin” and that no Israeli “would ever receive similar treatment in Brazil”, the group requires that Brazilian government will take appropriate actions and the group requests that the social movement makes pressure to ensure that “no Brazilian has to go through a similar situation again”.
On Tuesday, the group will go to the Brazilian embassy in Amman to denounce the mistreatment and abuse they suffered, demanding from government the action after the arbitrary attitude of Israel against Brazilian citizens treated as criminals.