April 6th Demonstration - Click here for more photos
I’m a bit slow at writing things up, so in the meanwhile, here are some photos of this past Friday’s action in Ni’lin. To me the the most vivid pictures were the shebab, including boys who looked as young as 12 , symbolically lobbing stones at and over the gate and wall (probably not visible in my photos), amid clouds of stinging teargas and stinking “skunk water,” and Mohammed Amira calmly standing with his megaphone addressing the soldiers in Hebrew (telling them to go home to their families, and basically trying to get them to reflect on what they’re doing), while himself being sprayed with teargas and targeted with skunk water (they missed him with the “skunk,” as far as I could tell as we returned to his home for cold drinks and a rest, and didn’t notice the tell-tale stench of sewage he would have been carrying if hit.
Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
During the raid, soldiers pillaged jewelry and caused extensive damage to houses. Residents are certain that arrests were made to quash regular protests in the village
Massive numbers of Israeli soldiers staged an extensive pre-dawn raid on the West Bank village of Kufr Qaddoum last night, storming over a dozen houses. Twenty individuals, aged 16 to 38 were motioned from their beds at gunpoint and arrested.
Several of the raided houses were ransacked and left with extensive damage to their interiors. Soldiers have gone as far as pillaging gold jewelry estimated in thousands of shekels from the house belonging to Atta Shtawi, whose son Sabri was detained.
Media contact: Abir Kopty: 054-678-2420
Among those arrested are three minors – one 16 year-old and two 17 year-olds – as well as Riad Shtewi, a member of the village’s popular committee.
Villagers from Kufr Qaddoum have been holding regular weekly demonstrations for the past 9 months in protest of ongoing land theft by the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Qadummim and in demand that the main road to the village be reopened. the road has been sealed by the army at the beginning of the second intifada.
Protesters in Kufr Qaddoum regularly face ever increasing levels of military violence, including the use of a military assault dogs the soldiers sicced at protesters two weeks ago.
Human beings are born free, but we are surrounded by restrictions everywhere Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Today on the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Palestinian Land Day, which confirms for our people the unity and integrity of our case, the unity of its land, and the right of return and self-determination, the Israeli military court has extended administrative detention for two more months and for the second time of the human rights lawyer Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, 70, a lecturer at An-Najah National University and the Cultural Coordinator Forum of the Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment (Tanwer). He is currently detained in Ofer prison near the city of Ramallah.
Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq has been arrested since 7/11/2011, when he was taken from his home at two o’clock in the morning while suffering from illness. With his health and medical condition, he was transferred to a hospital immediately after his arrest to Ramle. He was sentenced to two months in administrative detention initially.
The arbitrarily administrative detention is legally incompatible with the most basic international standards of human rights, because it is without any specific charge against the prisoner. It also depends on the police file and secret evidence which cannot be seen by the detainee or defense lawyers. This file is prepared by the Israeli intelligence service with the intelligence information compiled in different illegal ways.
This type of detention is internationally banned not only for the specific category of the Palestinian people but internationally. It has been extended to include the arrests of lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council, members of local councils, university students, political activists, academics, trade unionists and also women and children.
The decisions of administrative detention of Article 111, in the system’s state of emergency, imposed by the colonial authorities during the British Mandate, over Palestine in September of the year 1945, are illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the agreements for the International Court in the Hague (1907) prohibit an Occupying power from using illegal measures in the occupied country.
It is worth mentioning that most of the unjust laws against the Palestinian people arise from the era of the British colonial authorities and are kept in practice by the Zionist occupation, even though these laws were deleted at the time.
Administrative detention is the endless suffering of the prisoners because the detention might run into a decade’s time, during which stress plays on the nerves and psychology of the detainee and his family, based on the expectation that tomorrow the prisoner will be liberated. The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights received from Israel’s Court of Ofer that the number of administrative decisions issued by the Israel military governor amounted to a total of 5971 since the beginning of the year 2004 until the end of 2010.
We, of the Tanweer Forum, call for the release of our colleague, Dr. Yousef, immediately from behind bars, holding Israel responsible for his health. And we hold the Government responsible for the conditions of Israel’s occupation. We demand the closure of administrative detention which is contrary to international law and human and ethical values. On this occasion, we declare our solidarity with all prisoners on hunger strike calling for their release, especially in solidarity with the struggling Hana Shalabi.
We also call upon the Arab and international institutions, like An Najah National University, to expose the policy of administrative detention because of its destructive social impact, to the media internationally.
We call for the establishment of a professional united front working for the release of Palestinian freedom fighters — members of the Council of Jurists, legislative delegates, academics and university students, children and women– to end the filing of administrative detention forever.
Land Day, which began in 1976, marks the day Israeli forces killed six Palestinians during a protest against Israeli occupation of what Palestinians consider to be their land. Palestinians around the world will commemorate Land Day with protests and demonstrations.
Medics carry an injured protester during clashes between protesters and Israeli forces at a demonstration marking Land Day, at Qalandiya checkpoint Ramallah on March 30. (Reuters/Darren Whiteside)
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Red Crescent treated 339 protesters on Friday at protests around the West Bank to mark Land Day, a spokesman said.
Muhammad Ayyad told Ma’an that five people were seriously injured and 55 hospitalized as protesters commemorated six Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces in 1976 at demonstrations against Israel’s land confiscation in the Galilee.
Three people in Bethlehem were critically injured, one of whom was hit in the face by a tear gas canister. A protester in Jerusalem was hit in the jaw by a rubber bullet and in Kafr Qaddum, near Qalqiliya, a protester was hit in the pelvis by a tear gas grenade, Ayyad said.
The largest rally took place in Qalandiya, a checkpoint near Ramallah, where 249 were treated for injuries and 20 hospitalized.
Ayyad said Israeli forces injured nine medics and damaged three ambulances at the protest.
An Israeli military spokesman said forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and foul-smelling chemical water at protesters who were throwing rocks.
Similar confrontations broke out at a checkpoint in Bethlehem, where Ayyad said medics treated 38 people including 11 who were hospitalized.
In Jerusalem, medics treated 35 people, 19 of whom were transferred to hospital. Four people were hospitalized in Iraq Burin, near Nablus and 13 were injured in Kafr Qaddum at simultaneous protests.
