Category: Press Releases

Activist from Bil’in village arrested in night raid

Friends of Freedom and Justice

12 January 2010

For immediate release:

At 3:20am three Israeli army jeeps and many soldiers invaded Bil’in to arrest 21-year-old Yaseen Mohammad Yaseen. In the last six months the military has come to his home numerous times attempting to take him into custody. He is one of many activists arrested for attending weekly non-violent demonstrations. Yassen had been avoiding his home in Bil’in for the last six months; only making short visits to see his friends and family. He had only been in the village for two days before tonight’s arrest.

Friends of Yassen say that he visited his home on the night of his arrest, telling them he just wanted to see his family – even though he knew that they would probably attempt to arrest him. After he had been taken away, his mother sat shaking outside the family’s house. She was heard yelling at the soldiers during the invasion, questioning how they would feel if their sons were taken away like this and they were unable to do anything about it.

DAM to perform live in Sheikh Jarrah

12 January 2010

For immediate release:

Palestinian hip-hop artists DAM and System Ali will play live in Sheikh Jarrah Thursday, January 14, starting at 7pm. The event is being held in support of the families of Sheikh Jarrah facing eviction from their homes.

The show marks another event held in Sheikh Jarrah to gain support for and raise awareness of the tragedies wrought on the Palestinian families in the neighbourhood. The weekly Friday march from Zion Square in West Jerusalem to Sheikh Jarrah have been gathering momentum, with the demonstrators numbering in their hundreds. Dozens of Israeli and international activists have been arrested for their participation in the demonstrations and ongoing activist presence in Sheikh Jarrah, including American citizen Ryan Olander who has been held in Ramle prison since his arrest on the 18th of December and threatened with deportation.

Background

Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.

The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.

Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

West Bank Popular Leaders Arrested in Ni’ilin

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

12 December 2010

For immediate release:

Ibrahim Amirah and Hassan Mousa, members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ni’ilin, were arrested tonight from his home during a night-time raid tonight. Amirah and Mousa, together with another man, Zaydoun Srour, were arrested under suspicion of organizing anti-Wall demonstrations in the village.

At around 3:00am tonight, a military force of 15 armored jeeps and about a hundred Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Ni’ilin and surrounded the home of Ibrahim Amirah, the coordinator of Ni’lin’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. After forcefully entering his home, soldiers extracted Amirah from his bed, searched the house and arrested him.

Amirah has previously been arrested twice under the same suspicion of organizing demonstrations against the Wall in Ni’lin, but was never charged. Protests have been held in the village since May 2008.

Hassan Mousa, a high school teacher in the village and a member of the Popular Committee, was arrested immediately when soldiers entered his home last night. Srour, a well known activist in the village, was detained alongside Amirah. A simultaneous raid was also carried in the village of Bil’in tonight, where soldiers arrested 21 year old Yassin Yassin.

The arrests today are an escalation of an ongoing and extensive Israeli attempt to suppress the Palestinian popular resistance generally, and repress its leadership particularly.

Yesterday, Israel staged a night raid into Area A, near the center of Ramallah, to arrest international solidarity activist Eva Nováková for overstaying her visa. Such an incursion into Area A over an expired visa is extremely unusual. A Czech national, Nováková served as the International Solidarity Movement’s media coordinator for the past three weeks. She was deported from the Ben Gurion airport at 6am this morning.

In the past month, since 16 December, the army has staged eleven night incursions into Ni’ilin. Since may 2008, when demonstrations began in the village, 94 residents have been arrested in connection to the protests. Similar raids have been conducted in the village of Bil’in – where 34 residents have been arrested in the past six month and the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.

Among those arrested in the recent campaign are also five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee, all suspected of incitement, and include Adeeb Abu Rahmah – who has already been held in detention for almost six months and Abdallah Abu Rahmah – the Bil’in Popular Committee coordinator.

Prominent Nablus grassroots activists, Wael al-Faqeeh, as well as Jamal Juma (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigning have also been arrested recently. All three are currently being held based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.

Israel stages night-time Ramallah raid to arrest an international solidarity activist

UPDATE: Eva has now been deported. She was forced on a plane back to Prague at 6am this morning (Tuesday the 12th).

11 January 2009

For immediate release:

A raid was conducted in Ramallah’s city centre tonight to apprehend Eva Nováková, a Czech citizen, who took on the role of the International Solidarity Movement’s media coordinator three weeks ago.

Israeli soldiers raided the Ramallah home of Eva Nováková tonight at 3 am near the Manara square. The operation to apprehend Nováková, the ISM’s new media coordinator since three weeks ago, was carried out by a force of both soldiers and members of the “Oz” immigration police unit. During the raid, the army occupied a number of rooftops at a location adjacent to the Palestinian Police Ramallah headquarters. She is currently being held in Givon detention center awaiting deportation to the Czech Republic.

This recent military raid into Palestinian-controlled Area A comes amidst Palestinian discontent over continued incursions and arrests. Nováková’s Attoreny Omer Shatz stated: “The Israeli immigration police work under the authority of the Israeli ministry of the interior, and as such have no jurisdiction in the Occupied Palestinian territories. This arrest is part of the continued and illegal use of the immigration police against activists, for political purposes”

This raid follows an extensive arrest wave targeting grassroots activists and oragnizers throughout the West Bank. Such raids have been conducted in the villages of Bil’in – where 32 residents have been arrested in the past six month, Ni’ilin – where 94 residents have been arrested in the past 18 months, the cities of Nablus and Ramallah and East Jerusalem. The past three weeks have seen raids on ex-ISM bases in both Bil’in and Ni’lin also.

Among those arrested in this recent campaign are five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee have been arrested in suspicion of incitement, including Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has already been held in detention for almost six months and Bil’in’s Popular Committee coordinator, Abdallah Abu Rahmah.

Prominent Nablus grassroots activists, Wael al-Faqeeh (Nablus) as well as Jamal Juma (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigning have also been arrested recently. All three are currently being held on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.

Bil’in organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah remanded until the end of legal proceedings

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

10 January 2010

For immediate release:

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was remanded until the end of legal proceedings today in an Israeli military court. Abu Rahmah is charged with incitement, stone-throwing and a ridiculous arms possession charge for collecting and displaying used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army.

A judge in the Ofer military court has ordered the remand of Abdallah Abu Rahmah until the end of legal procedures against him. Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher and the coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in is charged with incitement, stone throwing and possession of illegal arm. The latter charge was pressed against Abu Rahmah for collecting and displaying used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army.

On receiving the indictment Adv. Gaby Lasky, Abu Rahmah’s lawyer said that “The army shoots at unarmed demonstrators, and when they try to show the violence used against them to the world by collecting and displaying the remnant tear-gas canisters – they are persecuted and prosecuted. What’s next? Charging protesters money for the bullets shot at them?”

On December 10, International Day of Human Rights, exactly one year after receiving Carl Von Ossietzky Medal from the International League for Human Rights, Abu Rahmah was arrested during an Israeli military night-time raid. He was detained for his involvement in organizing unarmed protests against the Wall in the village of Bil’in.

As part of a recent wave of repression against the Palestinian popular protest movement, Israel has charged numerous grassroots organizers with both stone throwing and incitement. In at least one case, that of Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in, the court found evidence presented on a stone-throwing charge to be falsified.

The charge of incitement, defined in 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 cynic attempt to equate grassroots organizing with a hefty charge, and is part of the army’s strategy to use legal measures as a means of quashing the popular movement.

In recent months five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee have been arrested in suspicion of incitement, including Adeeb Abu Rahmah who is now in detention for more than five months. Jamal Juma and Mohammed Othman of the Stop the Wall NGO have also been arrested, presumably for being involved in anti-Wall and BDS work. They are both held with no charges and on secret evidence.