Category: Features - Page 107 - International Solidarity Movement

ACT NOW. To Save Palestinian refugee in Saudi Arabia from death penalty after unfair trial

7th December 2015 | Palestinian Centre for Human Rights | Press release

On 17 November 2015, a Saudi court sentenced to death a Palestinian Refugee, Ashraf Fayadh (35), for alleged blasphemous statements during a discussion, which are also mentioned in his poetry. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon you to participate in the global efforts to halt Fayadh’s execution and to release him.

On 01 January 2014, Saudi authorities arrested Fayadh, who lives in Saudi Arabia since he was born. He was charged with, inter alia, insulting the “Divine Self” and the Prophet Muhammad; mocking and refuting the verses of God and the Prophet’s; spreading atheism; and denying the Day of Resurrection, Fate and Divine Decree. The charges mainly depended on a complaint reported by someone to the police relevant to Fayadh’s poetry published in 2008.

Fayadh denied the charges against him and called three witnesses to refute the testimony of the man who reported him to the religious police. The defense witnesses said that the man reported Fayadh following a personal dispute and that they had never heard blasphemous statements from Fayadh. Fayadh also stressed that his book of love poetry titled “Instructions Within” was published 8 years ago and never written to insult religion.

Fayadh emphasized that he was innocent and begged the court for mercy saying, “I am repentant to God Most Gracious and I am innocent of what was mentioned in my book in this case.” However, the court convicted Fayadh and sentenced him to four years in prison and 800 lashes, on 26 May 2014.

The situation became worse when the prosecutor had appealed the ruling. As a result, the appeal court referred the case to the lower court but with a different judge. The new judge reversed the previous sentence and sentenced Fayadh to death for apostasy, on 17 November, 2015. The sentence must be approved by the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court to be applied.

Fayadh has not got the minimum guarantees of the fair trial. He was denied the right to access to his lawyer during interrogations. The court ignored the testimonies of the defense witnesses. Moreover, the convection itself goes against the minimum standards of human rights, especially the right to speech and freedom of conscience.

Five UN Special Rapporteurs in a joint statement issued on 03 December 2015 urged the Government of Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of Fayadh. The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, highlighted that the execution verdict of Fayadh was issued “on basis seemingly unreliable evidence to the effect that he exercised his freedom of expression after an unfair trial. This has to be deplored as an arbitrary and thus unlawful execution”

The misery of Fayadh also has been moving some international, regional, and national NGOs to take actions to prevent his execution. Amnesty International launched a letter-writing campaign for calling the Saudi authorities to release Fayadh. Human Rights Watch and the Arab Organization for Human Rights addressed the issue as well. Therefore, a lot of efforts are needed from all of us to rescue Fayadh’s life.

PCHR calls upon you to take urgent actions to pressurize the Saudi officials to release Fayadh. Taking an action now could save the life of an innocent man who is going to be beheaded in a savage manner. In addition, your action will be an important precedent against the death penalty in general and against persecution of freedom of conscience in particular.

Raji Sourani

Director of PCHR

In Gaza, another farmer shot by a sniper for working his land

December 8th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Khan Younis, Gaza strip, occupied Palestine

Mohamed Abu Taima, 29, had to undergo two surgeries

A week ago Mohamed Abu Taima, 29 years-old and father of a small girl, was working his land 450m from the separation fence when an Israeli sniper shot him. At 4pm, he had arrived to his land in Al Faraheen, Khan Younees, South of the Gaza Strip. He was shot a few minutes after he started to work. The bullet passed through one of his legs and exploded inside the other one.

The bullet went through one leg and exploded in the other one

A few minutes after arriving in the hospital Mohamed underwent a first surgery, and days after a second one. Until now, the doctors don’t know if Mohamed will ever be able to walk properly again.

These kind of attacks have been frequent during the past two weeks. Several farmers were expelled from their lands by the Israeli snipers when they were working or intended to work their lands between 400 and 500m from the fence, meaning outside of the “buffer zone” imposed by the occupation.

Everyday humiliation of Israeli military occupation

6th of December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces take over streets of Wadi Al-Hurriya, stop and search cars (ISM archives)

Palestinians living in the Israeli militarily occupied West Bank face discrimination, racism and humiliation at the hands of Israeli forces on an everyday basis. Humiliation is entrenched in every aspect of daily life under the Israeli occupation. The message is clear: as a Palestinian you are always perceived as a threat, a possible terrorist or a menace – but never as a human being.

As a Palestinian citizen of the West Bank, freedom of movement is severely restricted and rather resembles trying to navigate a maze of road-blocks, permanent checkpoints and temporary ‘flying checkpoints’ that can suddenly pop up anywhere. All of these restrictions share one commonality: they are clearly intended to target only Palestinians – while Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank are using roads that might not even be allowed for Palestinians to drive on.

In occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), the Israeli bus collecting passengers from the illegal settlements is not allowed for Palestinians to ride on, and thus passes Bethlehem checkpoint on the way to Jerusalem without even stopping – all the passengers are Israeli settlers anyways. On the Palestinian bus going through the same checkpoint, everyone, with the exception of tourists and elderly, are forced to get off the bus and wait for their IDs to be checked outside in any weather, and often their bags inspected by heavily-armed soldiers.

Israeli soldiers and the flying checkpoint outside the village

Right during rush hour on Thursday afternoon, Israeli forces set up checkpoints at all the entrances of occupied al-Khalil, resulting in endless queues of cars, on their way to visit family over the weekend on Friday and Saturday. As two soldiers thoroughly checked every passenger’s ID and car going in both directions, the queues grew longer and even ambulances with emergencies were denied passage and held up for at least ten minutes while being checked – ten minutes that hopefully weren’t critical for the emergency the ambulance was attempting to quickly get to. As Israeli forces strategically blocked every possible way to leave or enter al-Khalil either by permanent road-blocks completely blocking any sort of traffic except pedestrians or temporary checkpoints; there was no possible alternative than to either turn around and stay inside the city or to endure at least two hours of waiting to eventually be allowed to pass this checkpoint.

Finally passing one checkpoint successfully, though, in militarily occupied Palestine basically doesn’t mean anything: just a few hundred meters down the street might be another checkpoint. Palestinians try to avoid Gush Etzion junction on the way to Bethlehem, as settlers often attack Palestinians cars there, and soldiers stop and search cars with Palestinian license plates only; they take a detour through Palestinian villages. But in order to make the near-lockdown of al-Khalil ‘perfect’, Israeli forces set up checkpoints at entrances and exits of Sa’ir village. Thus, after an hour-long wait to leave al-Khalil city itself, Palestinian cars were stuck in yet another checkpoint just a twenty minutes drive away.

Waiting in the dark for seemingly endless hours to move ahead just one or two more meters in the line as a car was allowed to pass – or turned around, giving up the hope of ever crossing that night at all; Israeli settler cars speed past on a nearby road without any hurdles or hassles, just ‘normaly’ driving down a road at night. When finally slowly approaching the make-shift checkpoint with traffic spikes on the street, cars have to switch off their lights, so people next in line will only hazily see what’s going on. Once it’s their turn, everyone inside the car has to get out and stand a few meters away from the soldiers, while they inspect the IDs and cars. Depending on the soldiers mood, some people, mainly young adult males, will have to lift up their shirts and trouser-legs; while others will have to answer questions about their destinations and the reason of travels, and even about their families and private life. The only thing that is for sure is that you can never tell what will happen. The power dynamics is clear, the heavily armed soldiers have the ‘authority’ to decide over everything, the Palestinian passengers will have to obey whatever is asked of them. That none of this has to do with ‘security’ but everything with control and humiliation is obvious. This is the face of just a tiny little aspect of the everyday humiliation defining this military occupation.

Humiliation doesn’t even stop with death – the Israeli forces are still withholding the bodies of Palestinians they claim attacked Israeli soldiers – refusing an appropriate funeral and mourning for their families, relatives and friends. Denying even a last peaceful rest and a person’s family to mourn the death of a loved one is the last possible way to humiliate. Not even in death, does the humiliation stop or are Palestinians treated like human beings.

Nisreen Azzeh continues to struggle after the death of her husband, Hashem Azzeh

6th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

The 22nd of November, one month after the passing away of Palestinian activist and dear friend of the ISM, Hashem Azzeh, the team of al-Khalil (Hebron) visited his widow, Nisreen.

Nisreen with her late husband, Hashem Azzeh. Photo credit: Global Research

While sitting in her living room, Nisreen explained how, after her husband’s death, everyday life for her and her family has only gotten worse.

The Israeli army does not allow any visitors into the house. She also says that the army refers to them not by their actual names, but with numbers.

4 days before this conversation took place, Nisreen was coming back home to find the main access to the house closed. The Israeli soldiers had declared it a military closed zone. They asked her, “Why are you so nervous?” To which she replied, “Because the way is closed.”

The soldiers mockingly answered, “Call Mahmoud Abbas and tell him to stop the Intifada.” But Nisreen answered back to this cruel sarcasm, saying that this is H2 area, “which is ruled by Netanyahu.”

Since the main access to her home is now blocked, she is forced to use an alternative entrance where she must climb some very difficult rocks. Nisreen suffers from knee problems, and she can foresee that when the winter and the snow comes, this passageway will be very slippery, putting her in danger of falling.

Both Nisreen and her brother in law are afraid of their children going out alone on the street. They are especially afraid for Raghad, Nisreen’s oldest daughter who is 17, and her cousin, who is 19 years old. Because of their age, both of their parents are scared that the illegal Israeli settlers and Israeli army will shoot and kill them and place a knife next to their bodies, since this is what they have been doing, targeting youth of similar age, almost on a daily basis from the beginning of October. Read more about this here and here.

Therefore, Raghad is not going out of the house alone, and she had to stop walking her youngest sister to school. Now her mother has taken on that task.

Fear of settler violence is part of every day life for the inhabitants of Al-Khalil (Hebron). Nisreen will never forget how she suffered two miscarriages due to settlers’ attacks. During the first miscarriage, she was three months pregnant; the second time, she was four months pregnant.

After one of these miscarriages, which happened in 2003, she had decided to file a complaint to the Israeli Police. After waiting for 8 years, the case was finally brought to court in 2011. The settlers counted with three lawyers, whereas for her it was very hard to pay for all the necessary expenses.

She recalls how, during the first court hearing, the settlers did not show up saying they were sick. During the second court hearing, when the settlers came with three layers, she had presented a video showing how they had attacked her together with her son Younes, who was three years old at the time. The court even requested her to draw a map of the location where this took place. She did so, but the final decision of the court was that she was lying and she lost the case.

In the meantime, Nisreen continues her struggle to provide a life as normal as possible for her children.

For a deeper understanding of Al-Khalil’s daily life struggle, read an interview ISM made to late Hashem Azzeh in 2013 here.

Near Salfit, Palestinians try to save the last hill that is not yet occupied with a settlement

December 4th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement with IWPS, Huwwara team | Kafr Addik, occupied Palestine

On friday 4th of december, around 50 locals from the villages of Kafr Addik, Bruqin, Sarta and Biddya, in the Salfit governorate, gathered on a hill called Daher Sabbah, located between the four villages, in order to protest the occupation of their land by Israeli forces and settlers. The group had barely arrived, when the Israeli soldiers and border police came towards them and aggressively ordered them to go back where they came from.

Soldiers took the keys to all cars when people arrived

A first group of people had arrived earlier and managed to reach the top of the hill, but the second group wasn’t let through by the Israeli soldiers. After taking the keys to everyone’s cars, they eventually let the group be united on top of the hill. Locals sat peacefully on the hill and celebrated the morning prayer, guided by sheikh Youssef Qa’oud, who also happened to own this land in earlier times. After the prayer, the group was urged to leave right away.

“I am afraid of young people”, explained the mayor, Jamal Ad’dik, a while later. Because this hill is far from villages and roads, it is hard to access if anyone is injured. “The soldiers who were here today, they wanted to make a problem. One mistake, they shoot. They were here to kill”, he added.

Soldiers stopped Palestinians from going to pray on top of the hill — Soldiers watch Palestinians while they pray on top of the hill.

If people have decided to go to this particular hill for their weekly prayer, it’s because Daher Sabbah is the last one that is not being occupied by a settlement or an outpost, but locals fear this may soon change. Two years ago, the Israeli forces came with bulldozers and started to work to flatten the land during a few months, then stopped. A few months ago, they came back and planted grape trees. According to the mayor, the goal would not be necessarily to build a settlement, but most likely to use this place for agricultural purposes. The villagers want to show, by their presence on Daher Sabbah this past Friday and by making this a weekly meeting, that they refuse to give up this land. “This is our land, we refuse them”, explains Jamal. Two years ago this land was declared state land by the state of Israel, which makes it very difficult for Palestinians to fight for it. The owner of the land, Youssef Qa’oud, took the decision to the military court, to claim that this land was his, as it had been registered, but he lost the case.

Make facts on the ground

This area is a very strategic place for the Israeli forces. 80 % of the village of Kafr Ad’dik, for example, is in area C. Which means that people are allowed to build on 1200 dunums (area B) from the 17 000 dunums that is their village. It is easy, with these settings, to completely block the expansion of Palestinian villages and to have the space and time to expand illegal Israeli settlements intensely. The goal is, as always, to make facts on the ground. “If you go up to Daher Sabbah, every hill is a settlement. You look around and you think ‘where is Palestine, there is no Palestine !’ They want to create history”, says Fares.

In the Salfit area, the four Palestinian villages of Biddya, Sarta, Bruqin and Kafr Ad’dik are separated by an Israeli road, a few settlements and industrial areas. In the east is the illegal settlement of Ariel, fourth largest settlement in the West Bank with a population of over 18 000 people. “They want to deepen Israel in this area. Here it is only 19 kilometres wide”, affirms Fares. But if they can take this hill, then they will be able to open a large cut, a “finger”, as they call it, deep inside the West Bank, all the way to the Za’atara checkpoint, which could, in the end, completely isolate the north from the south of the West Bank.

About 66 litres of water per person and per day

One of the factors that explains Israel’s effort to take over land in the Salfit Governorate is that Kafr Ad’dik, Bruqin, Sarta and Biddyia are standing on the second largest aquifer in historical Palestine. The water is exploited by Israeli water company Makarot, which means that Palestinians have to buy limited resources of water to Israel for an excessive price while the surrounding settlements have access to an unlimited amount for a fair price. For both the villages of Kafr Ad’dik and Bruqin, around 10 500 inhabitants in total, only 700 m3 of water is granted per day, around 66 liters per person and per day. As a comparison in France, the average water consumed per day per person is over 150 litres per day. One of the other problems brought by the presence and expansion of settlements in the area is the water pollution, which would, according to the mayor of the village, be coming from the illegal industrial area of Ale Zahav.

In the last five years, settlements have aggressively expanded in the Salfit area. According to Fares Dik, member of the Kafr Ad’dik municipality, “settlements are 300 % bigger today than in 2010”. Palestinian villages, on the other hand, haven’t been able to grow. In this region the Palestinian population is of around 60 000 divided into 19 villages, but they are now outnumbered by settlers from the 24 illegal Israeli settlements.