Israeli jails
On 12 December, nonviolent protest organiser Adeeb Abu Rahma from Bil’in was released after 18 months’ imprisonment, but banned from participating in political activity for four years. On 27 December, prominent Israeli nonviolent activist Jonathan Pollak was sentenced to three months in prison for “illegal assembly” for participating in a January 2008 Critical Mass ride against the siege on Gaza. (No one else on the ride was arrested.) On 14 December, 18-year-old Ajuad Zidan was sentenced to 20 days for refusing on grounds of conscience to enlist in the Israeli army, his second sentence in a month for the same “offence”. Ajuad is a member of the Druze religious community, who unlike other Palestinians, face conscription into the Israeli army.