The selective application of law in Israel continues to astound even the most jaundiced observers of Israel’s ongoing Occupation.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was indicted in an Israeli military court on December 22 on charges of incitement and arms possession. The specifics? That Abu Rahmah had collected used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army and made a peace sign out of them.

Abu Rahmah, pictured here on the right at the grave of a protester who was killed by a rubber bullet, is one of a number of members of a non-violent organization that has dedicated itself to publicizing its fight with Israel over a piece of the Israeli “separation wall” which even Israel’s supreme court has ruled is illegally separating the village from its olive trees.

I visited the village last Summer and the number of tear gas canisters littering the area is shocking. Children find all kinds of Israeli projectiles: tear gas canisters, grenades, and rubber bullets.

During our visit, we were shown a few of the thousands of rounds that have been directed at people waving flags and protesting on the other side of a barbed-wire fence.

If appropriate indictments were made, it would be against the government for using armaments of this type against people who have expressly chosen non-violence and public relations over armed resistance.

Not lost on one of my traveling companions, Abu Rahmah’s peace sculpture was no different in concept than one we encountered on a kibbutz two miles from Gaza, where residents had welded Qassam rockets onto a plough and made a menorah out of it. I used the image in my Chanukah card this year.

It remains to be seen if the welder at the kibbutz will face similar charges.