UPDATE: Baha Adnan Imran 14 years old, who was arrested yesterday on his way home from school, is now being accused of throwing stones and carrying a knuckle duster. He will appear before Salem Military courts tommorow on the northern edge of Jenin.
25 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Burin, Occupied Palestine
Mahmoud Nasser Asaus (17) and Magdi Loai Najjar (24) were arrested last night by Israeli forces in the village of Burin and are now being held in Kishon Interrogation Centre in Haifa. Residents of Burin suspect this is the start of a wave of arrest following the Al-Manatir protest that took place In Burin at the beginning of February.
Several jeeps entered Burin at around 2.30am to raid Mahmoud and Magdi’s houses, taking them, handcuffed and blindfolded, to Huwwara military base. At 7am this morning they were transferred to Kishon Interrogation Centre where they are still being held.
These arrests come after the neighbourhood of Al-Manatir was established on a village’s hilltop threatened with confiscation by Israeli settlers. The protest camp was aimed at denouncing Israel’s grab of Burin’s land and to recover the hilltop which has been inaccessible for residents of Burin since 2007.
However, the neighbourhood of Al-Manatir, made up of metal huts and tents, was violently evicted by Israeli soldiers and border police on the same day it was established. Israeli forces protected and accompanied settlers from the nearby settlements of Bracha and Yitzhar; while they were stealing metal huts and throwing stones at Palestinian activists. Simultaneously, around twenty settlers attacked several Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Burin and chopped down one hundred olive trees. When Palestinians ran to the area to defend their homes, stone throwing between settlers and Palestinians ensued. Zakaria Najjar (17), was shot in the right leg with live ammunition by a settler.
During the eviction, eight people were arrested and three of them remained in Israeli prison for twelve days, finally being released without charges. Further reprisals took place in Burin the days following Al-Manatir. Ghassan (23) and Mohammed (19) Najjar were arrested for several hours and interrogated about the protest camp. In addition, the village was sealed off by military checkpoints. The hilltop continues to be inaccessible for residents of Burin.
Following last night’s arrests there have been further incursions into the centre of Burin today. The Israeli army again tried to raid the village resulting in confrontations that began at around midday. Tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets were fired directly into the gathering crowd; as yet no serious injuries have been reported. A further arrest was made by the Israeli authorities, Bahar Adnan Imran who is just 14 years old.
23 February 2013| International Solidarity Movement, Qusra, Occupied Palestine
UPDATE : After being unconscious for 9 days, Helme who was recently shot close to his heart by an ISraeli settler , awoke on the tenth day to find a Shabak agent in his ICU unit who proceeded to interrogate him and accuse him of throwing stones. He then told Helme that he had “got what he deserved.” Helme needed to have 66% of his liver removed and still has 13 pieces of shrapnel in his body rendering him partly handicapped. On the 23rd of February Helme came out of work to find between 15 and 20 settlers around him armed with metal bars, pistols and M-16 assault rifles. A settler who was hiding behind a rock shot Helme on sight. On the orders of Netanyahu , Helme was transferred from Rafida hospital to Hadassa hospital in Israel.
Following a violent incursion by Israeli fundamentalist settlers into Qusra, two people have been hospitalized with serious injuries. Around 15 settlers from Esh Kodesh (Holy Fire) and Shilo entered Qusra, the clashes that ensued left many people injured, including a sixteen year-old boy who is currently in surgery and may lose his left eye as well as a 26 year-old man fighting for his life after being shot in the chest, by an Israeli settler. Another, 14 year-old Mustafa Hilal was shot in the foot.
At around 11am this morning settlers began attacking the village of Qusra. Armed with rifles, they attacked homes on the outskirts of Qusra, throwing stones they broke windows. The youths of the village attempted to defend their homes. In the clashes that ensued Helmi Abdul Azeez Hassan was shot by a settler, the bullet narrowly missed his heart.
Soldiers arrived on the scene and, as usual, protected the invading settlers. Clashes then continued for the remainder of the day with the Israeli military firing rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas directly at local residents. A sixteen year old boy, Osama Rami Hassan, was shot with a rubber coated steel bullet in the forehead that narrowly missed his eye. He is currently undergoing surgery at Rafidia hospital in the attempt to save it, however the prognosis is not good.
Helmi’s situation is critical; he is currently at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus fighting for his life. Doctors hope he will stabilize through the night so he can be transferred to an Israeli hospital where he can receive a higher quality of care.
A local resident explained to ISM volunteers that he cannot remember a week in which Qusra had not been attacked over the last two years. He went on to say that recently things have been getting progressively worse. Today’s assault is the culmination of events which have been evolving all week. There have been incursions in three out of the last four days. The village expects more in the week to come.
24 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Palestinians protesting last night’s death of Arafat Jaradat while in Israeli administrative detention clashed with Israeli Occupation Forces throughout today in Hebron. Israeli officials claim that Jaradat died in an interrogation centre of a heart attack despite having no health conditions prior to his detention. In a recent court appearance, Jaradat told his lawyer, that “he had serious pains in his back and other parts of his body because he was being beaten up and hanged for many long hours while he was being investigated”. Jaradat was father to a 4 year-old daughter and 2 year-old son and worked as a petrol station attendant; his widow, Dalal, is currently pregnant.
Teenager shot in the thigh with live ammunition and now in critical condition
Centered around the Bab al-Zawiyeh area of central Hebron, soldiers primarily fired rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades at around 1500 demonstrators. Skunk water and teargas was also used excessively at times. An alarm to disperse crowds was played at high volume followed by a warning from the ‘American Technology Corporation’. Dozens were injured (including journalists and one ISM volunteer) with ambulances driving back and forth amongst the crowds.
At least three were injured by live ammunition, including one teenager who was shot in the thigh with a live bullet, which were fired at demonstrators throughout the day. He was taken to Ramallah hospital, but was swiftly moved elsewhere as his condition became critical.
Around an hour ago the soldiers announced that they were about to fire live ammunition into the crowds.
The army was clearly expecting a backlash for the death of Jaradat, with soldiers stationed on the rooftops throughout the old city since the early hours of the morning. Less than 500 meters away on Shuhada Street, around two hundred settlers wore fancy dress, drank alcohol and danced on the street in celebration of the Jewish holiday Purim .
Soldiers fired teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at demonstratorsA journalist being treated for teargas inhalationSoldiers mixed their use of rubber-coated steel bullets, teargas and live roundsSkunk water was sprayed to disperse demonstrators
23 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Megiddo Prison, Apartheid Israel
Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat was just martyred in a special section for the Shin Bet in one of the occupation’s interrogation centres. Arafat was born on 14 January 1983 and had just turned 30 years-old and lived in Sa’eer, a village near Hebron. He was married and father to a four year-old daughter, Yara, and a two year-old son, Muhammad. Arafat and his wife Dalal were expecting their third child in June. Arafat was also in his first year at al-Quds Open University.
Arafat was arrested on 18 February this year for allegedly throwing a stone at an armed Israeli soldier near the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement near al-Khalil during November’s bombing of Gaza and was held in al-Jalameh Prison for four days before being transferred to Megiddo Prison, near Haifa in Israel. When he was arrested, he did not suffer from any diseases or health conditions, according to family members. A lawyer from Addameer, a Palestinian human rights group, also reported that generally he did not complain from any pain except slightly in his back.
Arafat’s widow, Dalal Ayayda, said that an Israeli intelligence officer brought him back to his home minutes after being arrested and told him to bid farewell to his children. “For that reason I was worried. My husband was detained several times before, but this time the intelligence officer talked in a bizarre way”, she said indicating a degree of premeditation to her husband’s murder.
Arafat’s lawyer, Kameel Sabbagh, who works for the Palestinian prisoners ministry, was present at Arafat’s last hearing on Thursday. He said, “When I sat next to him he told me that he had serious pains in his back and other parts of his body because he was being beaten up and hanged for many long hours while he was being investigated… When Jaradat heard that the judge postponed his hearing [for 12 days] he seemed extremely afraid and asked me if he was going to spend the time left in the cell. I replied to him that he was still in the investigation period and this is possible and that as a lawyer I couldn’t do anything about his whereabouts at this time”. Sabbagh, in a media interview, added that Arafat’s psychological state was precarious and that he had informed the judge that his client had been tortured, including by being forced to sit for long hours in stress positions with his hands shackled behind his back. The judge ordered that Arafat should be examined by the prison doctor, but “this didn’t happen” Sabbagh maintains.
In the context of Ashraf Abu Dra’ being subjected to medical negligence during his detention and dying in a coma on 21 January shortly after his release, a rising tide of violently-repressed street protests in solidarity with prisoners and four detainees on high-profile hungerstrike, Palestinian Authority officials on Saturday demanded an international investigation into the death after the Israeli prison authority claimed it was “probably” due to a cardiac arrest. An autopsy performed at the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine, this Sunday, was conducted by the institute’s chief pathologist, Yehuda Hiss, in the presence of Saber Aloul, the PA’s chief pathologist and the head of the Israeli health ministry’s medical administration, Professor Arnon Afek. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli health ministry, stated that no external signs of violence were found on the body, aside from those those that “could be testimony to resuscitation efforts”.
This was in reference to what Issa Qaraqe, PA minister of detainee affairs said at a news conference in Ramallah, was “information [that] so far is shocking and painful. The evidence corroborates our suspicion that Mr. Jaradat died as a result of torture, especially since the autopsy clearly proved that the victim’s heart was healthy, which disproves the initial alleged account presented by occupation authorities that he died of a heart attack”. The minister said Arafat had sustained injuries and severe bruising in the upper right back area and severe bruises of sharp circular shape in the right chest area. That the autopsy revealed evidence of severe torture and on the muscle of the upper left shoulder, parallel to the spine in the lower neck area and evidence of severe torture under the skin and inside the muscle of the right side of the chest. His second and third ribs in the right side of the chest were broken, Qaraqe said, and he also had injuries in the middle of the muscle in the right hand. Qaraqe’s deputy, Ziyad Au Ain, urged any doctors, including Israeli ones, in doubt that Arafat was tortured to death, to view his body themselves. Qaddura Fares, president of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, added that the examination revealed seven injuries to the inside the lower lip, bruises on his face and blood on his nose.
Arafat’s father after identifying his son’s tortured body (Photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
The already on-going protests intensified on this Sunday as news of Arafat’s death quickly spread. Demonstrations against Israeli occupation forces have occurred in Bethlehem, Budrus, Betunia, Jenin, al-Khalil, Kfar Kusra, Nabi Saleh, Kfar Qaddum, al-Ram, Turmusaya and al-Quds, plus Huwara and Jalameh checkpoints as well as the Gaza Strip, today. These were suppressed by the Israeli military and police’s array of sophisticated weaponry, including live rounds with two shot. In addition, Ayshel, Ramoun and Nafha prisons saw at least 800 go on a one day hungerstrike.
In other news about the hungerstrikers: Ayman Ismail Sharawna (38) from the village of Deir Samet, has now been transferred to an isolation block in Be’er Sheva Prison having refused food since 1 July 2012 to protest his illegal re-arrest, but as Addameer reported, “He suspended his hunger strike several times, because Israel promised they would review his case.” The Palestinian Prisoner Club reports that Ayman has completely lost his right kidney, half of his left kidney and sight in his left eye. In addition, he also lost a great deal of weight and his health is rapidly deteriorating. He has been transferred from one prison to another and put in solitary confinement several times to break his steadfastness.
By Addameer’s count, more than 202 detainees died or were killed in Israeli prisons since 1967; dozens of detainees also died after they were released due to diseases they encountered in prison or due to complications resulting from extreme torture and bad conditions in prisons. Today, the Israeli prison system holds close to 4,600 Palestinians on a range of charges, of which 159 are being held without charges or having a trial in so-called administrative detention.
22 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Occupied Palestine
By ISM Nablus
The small Bedouin communities of ‘Arab Ramadin al-Janubi and ‘Arab Ab
Farda lie south of Qalqilya between the apartheid wall and the green line,close to the illegal settlement Alfe Menashe. They are separated from the rest of West Bank from all sides by the Israeli apartheid wall. The communities, founded by people deported from areas in Negev and Netanya during and after the Nakba are today home to around 500 people. They suffer from multiple restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities,including no permissions for new buildings or expansion of existing buildings, and limits to the amount of food and gas allowed for sale in the communities.
Bedouin girls at school
Access to the communities is limited by Israel with a permission system. The system of access permissions has effectively resulted in the social isolation of the communities, as people from the city of Qalqilya and neighboring villages face difficulties in obtaining permits for visiting the area.
The community of Abu Farda has no access to running water or electricity,and thus water has to be bought in tanks from the village of ‘Azzun. There is a well on the grounds of the village, but the illegal settlement Alfe Menashe has confiscated the well and closed access to it for the inhabitants of Abu Farda. People from the family Fayez living in Abu Farda told us:
“The lack of electricity is a big problem, as we are not able to
refrigerate food bought from merchants or the yogurt and milk we produce ourselves for sale, and our children are not able to do their homework after dark due to lack of lighting.”
Furthermore, the Israeli authorities do not allow veterinaries access to the villages, which is a health risk for the village as it is largely dependent on the raising of livestock.
In October 2012 the community of Ramadin al-Janubi founded a school for 6 to 8 year old children. The new school gives it’s 25 students the opportunity to go to school without having to pass daily through the Israeli checkpoints between the community and a school in the nearby village of Habla. Children older than 8 years still have to go to school outside the community, and in order to reach their schools and go back home they need to cross the Israeli checkpoints twice every single day.
The school in Ramadin, consisting of 4 tents, received a demolition order from the Israeli authorities after two weeks of operation. The faculty of the school live in Qalqilya and have to spend from 30 minutes to over an hour every day passing through the checkpoint and having their papers and belongings examined by the IOF forces at the checkpoint in order to access the school. For now, the village has taken the demolition order to court, and is waiting to for the court hearings to take place.
These arrests come after the neighbourhood of Al-Manatir was established on a village’s hilltop threatened with confiscation by Israeli settlers. The protest camp was aimed at denouncing Israel’s grab of Burin’s land and to recover the hilltop which has been inaccessible for residents of Burin since 2007.
chopped down one hundred olive trees. When Palestinians ran to the area to defend their homes, stone throwing between settlers and Palestinians ensued. Zakaria Najjar (17), was shot in the right leg with live ammunition by a settler.
