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December 13, Palestine – Two American activists are currently being detained at Ben Gurion airport awaiting a deportation interview. Boston Massachussets based Trudi Frost and a New York based activist will both challenge the deportation outcome after being unlawfully arrested yesterday in al-Mughayyer, north of Ramallah. This comes as the Israeli forces have been daily raiding the Abu Hamam family property in a push to forcibly displace them. The area was also the site of a brutal settler attack last Sunday which left 6 people hospitalized.
On December 12, the two American nationals were taken to the police station at the Shaar Binyamin settelment and questioned for being in breach of a legal order and obstructing a police officer. They have spent the night at the Neve Tirza maximum security prison, and have now been transferred to the Ben Gurion holding center, facing deportation. Their hearing is taking place now, and they intend to challenge their deportation, and refuse to cooperate if the panel orders their removal from Palestine. The immigration official tried to prevent the lawyer from attending the interview.
An analysis of the closed military zone orders issued in the past week shows that the the Abu Hamam home was indeed included in the restricted area defined in the one-day order served on Wednesday, December 9. However, the month-long order served yesterday does not include the residence, where the two were arrested, rendering their detention an unlawful arrest.
In contrast, the closed area designated by the new order does include the outpost terrorizing the family and its surroundings. No enforcement has taken place against the settlers, who have even trasspessed into the dwelling of a nearby Beduin community, again showing the cooperation between official and unofficial instruments of Israeli violence in implementing the Israeli policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing against Palestinian communities in areas Israel deems strategically valuable.
Today, for the third time this week, police and military raided the property again, looking for solidarity activists, after a month-long closed military zone was issued by the millitary commander of the area. While solidarity activists are persecuted by the army, the settlers roam the area undisturbed to attack and harrass Palestinian communities.
In the past week the family had been the target of ceaseless attacks by both Israeli military and settlers, often working in coordination. An attacks last Sunday resulted in the injuries of the family’s matriarch, 59-year-old Fadda Abu Naim, 13-year-old Riziq Abu Naim, as well as two UK nationals, a Colombian-American and a French one. On the following day, Monday Dec 8, settlers who arrived at the area dismantled corrugated metal sheds under the protection of the military. On Wednesday, Dec 10, a military force raided the family’s property, presenting a 24 hour military zone order, and arrested a US and an Australian nationals.
These attacks by settlers and soldiers in the attempt to forcibly displace the Abu Hamam family from their land are part and parcel of the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing. In this case, in order to allow for Israel to create a line of settlements and settlement outposts all the way from the East Ramallah area to the South Nablus area, and from there to the Jordan Valley.
