Who: Tristan Anderson’s family and attorney, Michael Sfard What: Press briefing about the status of Tristan’s case and the planned next steps When: Monday February 1st, 1:00 pm Where: Alternative Information Center (AIC) – Queen Shlomzion Street 4 – Jerusalem Why: Case closed on Tristan Anderson’s case with suspicion of negligence of investigation process – indications that police did not visit the scene of the alleged offense and most probably interviewed the wrong group of border policemen.
On Monday, February 1 at 1:00, the family of Tristan Anderson will hold a press conference at the AIC in Jerusalem to expose new information about the case. Anderson’s lawyer, Attorney Michael Sfard will give a comprehensive update about the case, the decision to close it made by the District Attorney’s office and negligence of the police investigation, and discuss the next legal steps.
This week’s disturbing news – that the DA decided to close the case on Tristan and the injury he sustains after being shot in the head at close range with a high-velocity tear gas canister during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nil’in last March – will have significant impact on Tristan’s future and his family’s. The outcome in this case is not unique, but exemplary of the general lack of accountability of Israeli security forces. It points both to the complete negligence of the police investigation and to the Israeli military’s ability to disregard even the gravest of offenses committed by security forces.
Khatib during a speaking his speaking tour in Canada last year. Photo Credit: Tadamon!
At a quarter to two AM tonight, Mohammed Khatib, his wife Lamia and their four young children were woken up by Israeli soldiers storming their home, which was surrounded by a large military force. Once inside the house, the soldiers arrested Khatib, conducted a quick search and left the house.
Roughly half an hour after leaving the house, five military jeeps surrounded the house again, and six soldiers forced their way into the house again, where Khatib’s children sat in terror, and conducted another, very thorough search of the premises, without showing a search warrant. During the search, Khatib’s phone and many documents were seized, including papers from Bil’in’s legal procedures in the Israel High Court.
The soldiers exited an hour and a half later, leaving a note saying that documents suspected as “incitement materials” were seized. International activists who tried to enter the house to be with the family during the search were aggressively denied entry.
Mohammed Khatib was previously arrested during the ongoing wave of arrests and repression on Augst 3rd, 2009 with charges of incitement and stone throwing. After two weeks of detention, a military judge ruled that evidence against him was falsified and ordered his release, after it was proven that Khatib was abroad at the time the army alleged he was photographed throwing stones during a demonstration.
International activist detained during the night raid and arrest of Mohammed Khatib in Bil'lin. Photo Credit: Ma'an News Agency
Khatib’s arrest today is the most severe escalation in a recent wave of repression again the Palestinian popular struggle and its leadership. Khatib is the 35th resident of Bil’in to be arrested on suspicions related to anti-Wall protest since June 23rd, 2009.
The recent wave of arrests is largely an assault on the members of the Popular Committees – the leadership of the popular struggle – who are then charged with incitement when arrested. The charge of incitement, defined under Israeli military law as “an attempt, whether verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order,” is a cynical attempt to punish grassroots organizing with a hefty charge and lengthy imprisonments. Such indictments are part of the army’s strategy of using legal persecution as a means to quash the popular movement.
Similar raids have also been conducted in the village of alMaasara, south of Bethlehem, and in the village of Ni’ilin – where 110 residents have been arrested over the last year and half, as well as in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.
Among those arrested in the recent campaign are three members of the Ni’ilin Popular Committee, Sa’id Yakin of the Palestinian National Committee Against the Wall, and five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee – all suspected of incitement.
Prominent grassroots activists Jamal Jum’a (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigning, have recently been released from detention after being incarcerated for long periods based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.
Ayman Talal E. Quader is a Palestinian that was born on July 19, 1986 in Gaza and has lived in Gaza City for his entire life. As a young Palestinian student who truly loves his homeland and has always dreamed of freedom for his people, Ayman has worked very hard to achieve one of his most important goals in life; earning a scholarship for a Masters program in Europe.
Ayman was recently accepted to an academic scholarship program at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) in Castellَn, Spain for the International Masters in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies (PEACE Master). Ayman was also successfully granted a Spanish student visa in order to complete his academic program that begins February 2010 and runs all the way through to May of 2012.
“All I want is my basic rights to learn and study; rights that are supposed to be guaranteed and recommended by all the international resolutions and the United Nations.”
“I am not asking for a miracle, it is my reserved right. I am handling all my documents, visa, acceptance letter from my university and supporting documents. Why I am being prevented from leaving Gaza and prevented access to Spain?”
“The issue of the borders is politically extremely complicated,” Ayman said in an interview. “Since Hamas was elected as the leadership of the Palestinian people in 2006, the Israeli government has declared and relentlessly implemented a total siege on the Gaza Strip.”
The conditions of the borders have become extremely complex, making it almost impossible for Palestinians living in Gaza to leave under any circumstances, including for medical treatment, to visit relatives or on academic scholarship to study abroad. The borders, including the Rafah border – the only throughway between Gaza and Egypt – are all controlled by Israeli Security Forces, although Israel’s control of the Rafah border is more indirect than the borders leading out of Gaza and into “Israel Proper” (as defined by the 1967 armistice lines; see UN Resolution 242). The Egyptian authorities have been complicit with the Israeli government in the collective punishment of a civilian population, contrary to article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions (1949), by neglecting much needed humanitarian aid and building supplies into the strip, pre and post Operation Cast Lead. The result is thousand of homeless and starving Gazans left with nowhere to turn but the international community.
Maan News agency reported earlier this month that throughout the entire year of 2009, the Gaza borders were only opened 33 times. This is truly a crime against humanity.
Israel AND Egypt are both in direct breach of international laws and conventions that guarantee fair access to education for Ayman as declared in the spirit of the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights, Article 28, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966).
The purpose of this manifesto is to send a swift and authoritative message to the Egyptian and Israeli governments, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! This is a call to lawyers, politicians, journalists and all activists for human rights to join the fight for Ayman and his right to the education that he has always dreamed of. Together we can make a difference for Ayman, together we can make a difference for Palestine, one step at a time.
A demonstrator is arrested by Israeli police during a demonstration against Jewish settlements and in solidarity with Palestinian families who were evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah.
As the sun set behind watchtowers and barbed wire fences at Ramle prison Thursday January 15th, Ryan Olander emerged from the steel auto locking door and into the unrestricted air. Ryan had just spent 29 days locked in the Givon immigration detention center located in Ramle, Israel following his illegal arrest on December 18, 2009 in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Shekih Jarrah.
On principle and with solidarity for other nonviolent Palestinian activists working to end the illegal occupation of Palestine, Ryan chose to take his charges and deportation warrant to court. This decision to fight for justice in a country where basic human rights are so obviously denied to those seeking to challenge Israeli empire, either by speaking out or by simply existing, was made by Ryan for the greater struggle of the resistance movement. At his initial hearing shortly after his arrest, Ryan was denied bail. It was not for another three weeks that a bail offer was provided. Bail was set at 10,000 NIS ($2,700 USD) bail with conditions such as not to return to the Shekih Jarrah neighborhood.
On Monday January 12th the incredulous charges brought forth by the State of Israel against Ryan were seen in the District Court in Tel-Aviv. According to Ryan’s attorney, Omer Shatz, “the judge accepted all of our arguments about the illegality of Olander’s detention and deportation.” Shatz further states that the judge was unfamiliar with the term “illegal detention” which government prosecutors were using against Ryan. Lastly, the judge ordered the Ministry of Interior to rescind Ryan’s deportation warrant and gave the government 30 days to notify the court of their position. Until then, Ryan remains free on bail in both Israel and Palestine.
Ryan is elated to be out of Givon, a place he describes as “hopeless…catching only a few minutes of sunlight each day that filtered through the razor wire and rebar above our heads.” However, after spending one month in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and resistance community helping as a community organizer and solidarity activist, it is upsetting and unfortunate that he will not be able to continue working closely with the families of Sheikh Jarrah. His presence in the tents and around the evening fires is greatly missed.
Targeting international activists is becoming more commonplace in Israel. Amazing Palestinian solidarity activist, Eva Novakova, was also targeted for her activism in Palestine by the Israeli government. At 3am on Monday January 11th 20 Israeli soldiers and immigration police raided the private residence of ISM media coordinator Eva Novakova citing “expired warrant” as the reason for the full military operation in Palestinian-controlled Area A in which soldiers kicked down the door to her apartment and occupied nearby rooftops. The force used to apprehend Eva was unequivocally excessive considering her crime. Eva is now in her home country of Czech Republic. She was deported without the opportunity to contest her apprehension by Israeli forces in the Palestinian-controlled Area A which is illegal by the Oslo Accords.
Israel’s tactic of repressing nonviolent international Palestinian solidarity activists is a true detriment to the nonviolent movement. We recognize the targeting of international nonviolent activists as part of a greater campaign against all nonviolent activists in Palestine (e.g. Wa’el A- Faqeeh and Abdallah Abu Rahmah). We will not, however, let their force deter us from standing with the Palestinian people and continuing to support the nonviolent struggle for freedom.
Bethlehem – Ma’an – A week after he was detained and then questioned over news stories criticizing Israel, a top Ma’an journalist was deported on Wednesday.
Jared Malsin, chief English editor at the Bethlehem-based news network, had been fighting to attend a hearing on a deportation order issued last Tuesday in Tel Aviv after a vacation in the Czech Republic.
Malsin, an American citizen, says he was pressured by Interior Ministry staff into dropping a legal challenge and was subsequently placed onto a El Al flight to New York early Wednesday. “I had no idea I was waving anything, no clue,” he said, telling Ma’an that Israeli officials provided him a document to withdraw his case without an attorney present, and offered a misleading explanation over what he was signing.
Malsin said he wrote a note indicating that he was leaving the facility “without personal coercion.” “But none of this was my decision,” he emphasized in a phone interview minutes after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York early Thursday morning, rejecting reports that he left Israel voluntarily. “There’s no such thing as a voluntary deportation. I was deported, period.”
Malsin said he was under the impression that the “agreement” allowed him to leave the airport while his case continued. Indeed, his attorney, Castro Daoud, said he had recently informed Malsin that he would seek such a ruling from District Court Judge Kobi Vardi. On Tuesday, Judge Vardi ordered a hearing to consider the decision to deport the journalist.
Explanations from official Israeli government representatives were contradictory. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad told The Associated Press that Malsin raised security suspicions during an investigation upon his arrival. The same day, however, she was also quoted by Reuters as denying Malsin was refused a visa for political or security reasons.
Allegations referenced in court documents were that Malsin had been uncooperative and had violated his visa status during an eight-hour interrogation, the pretext for which was never clear, that ultimately resulted in the deportation of his girlfriend, Faith Rowold.
Among the Interior Ministry’s complaints, according to documents obtained by Ma’an and others, were that Malsin had authored articles “inside the [Palestinian] territories,” including some “criticizing the State of Israel.”
International press association have strongly backed the journalist.
“We condemn this intolerable violation of press freedom,” said Aidan White, the head of the International Federation of Journalists, the largest union of media professionals worldwide. “The ban of entry in this case appears to be as a reprisal measure for the journalist’s independent reporting and that is unacceptable.”
“This kind of interference has no place in a democracy,” he added.
