Israeli activist in jail for protest against Israeli siege on Gaza

IMEMC- Jonathan Pollak was handed a three-month prison term, on Monday, for taking part in a bicycle demonstration against the blockade on Gaza almost three years ago.
Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak was sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay NIS 1,500 for participating in a mass protest cycle ride against the blockade of the Gaza Strip in Tel Aviv, in January 2008.

Pollak, aged 28, rejected the offer of Tel Aviv Magistrate to alternatively do community service, claiming that he did not do anything wrong. He argued saying in a telephone interview quoted in the Guardian: "I have no doubt that what we did was right and, if anything, not sufficient considering what is being done in our name…If I have to go to prison to resist the occupation, I will do it gladly."

Pollak commented that his sentence comes amidst a general deterioration in the right to dissent from Israeli occupation policies. His lawyer, Gaby Lasky, stated that it is uncommon for someone to be imprisoned in an illegal assembly case. An official at the court in Tel Aviv specified, however, that the Israeli activist had three prior convictions, including one with the charges of "distraction of order and vandalism", and a three-month suspended sentence for protesting against the West Bank separation barrier. Read more