Bill Banning Entry to Boycott Supporters Passes 1st Reading

The Knesset approved Wednesday, November 11, the preliminary reading of a bill forbidding entry into Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) of anyone who calls for a boycott against Israel. The bill, which passed 55-31, followed Wednesday morning’s decision of the European Union to adopt new guidelines for labeling products from Israeli settlements. “Anyone…

MK Barakeh during a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Bil'in in the occupied West Bank (Photo: Al Ittihad)

MK Mohammed Barakeh appeals assault conviction

On 8 June 2014, Adalah filed an appeal on behalf of Communist MK Mohammed Barakeh, chairman of Hadash to the Tel Aviv District Court against the Magistrate Court’s decision to convict him of assaulting a right-wing activist during a demonstration against the second war on Lebanon in 2006. MK Barakeh was convicted of this charge…

Hassan Jabareen, lawyer and the general director and founder of Adalah, with MK Barakeh in court, Tel-Aviv, March 23, 2014 (Photo: Al Ittihad)

MK Barakeh on the verdict: “This was a political trial”

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Sunday convicted Hadash chairman and leading Communist Party member, MK Muhammad Barakeh for attacking a right-wing demonstrator during a protest eight years ago. The lawmaker was acquitted of the more serious charge of striking a soldier from an undercover unit during another demonstration against the West Bank security barrier…

The occupation army against MK Barakeh, Bil'in 2005 (Photo: Al Ittihad)

Film footage shown at trial confirms that MK Barakeh is innocent

The Tel Aviv Magistrates’ Court held last Wednesday (October 2) an evidentiary hearing in the criminal trial of Communist Member of Knesset (MK) Mohammed Barakeh, head of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash/Jabha). During the hearing, the court heard two witnesses for the defense. The witnesses gave their testimonies regarding charges made against…

Occupation forces evacuated Palestinian protest village

Israeli occupation forces on Sunday dismantled a protest village set up by Palestinian activists east of Jerusalem last week. The activists erected the tents on Wednesday in time for US President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. In a statement, the activists described the initiative as “first, to claim our right as…

Leading Communist Party member MK Barakeh again in court

MK Dov Khenin testified in defense of fellow Hadash chairman MK Muhammad Barakeh on Sunday in the trial against him over two separate alleged altercations, one during a 2005 demonstration in Bil’in (a Palestinian village in the occupied territories) and another in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in 2006 against the war in Lebanon. The two…

MK Khenin: Time to build inside Israel

   MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) has chimed in with criticism of the government’s decision to release tenders for the construction of 198 new housing units in the Efrat and Kiryat Arba settlements, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “not giving a damn about the world.” “Netanyahu doesn’t stop on red light,” he said. “He is…