Category: Press Releases

Trapped in the land of Oz

Ofra Edelman | Haaretz

3 January 2010

A complaint to the court ombudsman against Jerusalem District Court Judge Yitzhak Milanov reveals cooperation of questionable legality between the police and Oz, the Interior Ministry unit that deals with illegal foreigners, in the treatment of foreigners who took part in recent demonstrations in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarra neighborhood.

According to the complaint – which was submitted to the ombudsman, former Supreme Court justice Eliezer Goldberg, on December 17 – the police misused their authority by handing the left-wing foreign activists they arrested over to Oz, even though the foreigners were present in Israel legally and therefore do not fall under Oz’s jurisdiction. The police’s motive, the complaint alleged, was to avoid judicial review of the arrests.

About three weeks ago, it said, 23 demonstrators were arrested, including three foreign citizens: Bruno Marcotte of Canada, Johanne Richtmueller of Germany and Ryan Olander of the United States. On December 12, they were brought before Judge Milanov for a remand hearing. The police asked the court to order the foreigners held for four hours to give the force time to hand them over to Oz.

The hearing began at 10 P.M. According to attorneys Iftach Cohen and Omer Shatz, who represented the three foreigners, the police did everything in their power to ensure that their case was heard last, hoping that Oz agents would arrive in the meantime and take charge of the foreigners – thereby avoiding judicial review of the arrest, which by law must take place within 24 hours of its occurrence.

The three ended up being detained for 30 hours. Their lawyers repeatedly requested that Milanov hear their cases before some of the others, fearing that Oz would take charge of the detainees before the judge had reviewed the arrest. However, they said, the judge denied this request and even refused to allow it to be entered into the court records. Attorney Lea Tsemel, who was present at the time, confirmed this claim.

At about 1 A.M., after the Oz vehicle had arrived at the court house, a police representative informed the lawyers that he was withdrawing his request for the foreigners’ remand. But just then, the three foreigners were brought into the court by mistake, and the judge reviewed their arrest anyway.

The judge noted in the protocol that the police did not oppose releasing the three foreigners, but had asked to have them handed over to Oz. He also noted that they were present in the country legally.

‘No authority to arrest’

According to attorneys Cohen, Shatz and Tsemel, Milanov then informed the two Oz representatives in the court that since the foreigners were here legally, Oz had no authority to arrest them. When one Oz representative told the judge that they would nevertheless detain the foreigners after the hearing, Milanov warned him not to repeat that remark.

Milanov released the three without any restrictions and wrote in his decision: “To the degree that the Oz unit is authorized to investigate them, it will surely operate within the bounds of its authority.” The judge then entered his adjacent chamber, with the door to the courtroom left ajar.

That, the complaint said, is when the Oz officers took the foreigners away by force. The court guards actively cooperated, it charged, and the police declined to interfere.

Milanov, too, declined to intervene, and did not even respond to the lawyers’ cries, the complaint continued. “The complaint is not being lodged due to Judge Milanov’s behavior during the hearing, but to his failure when it was over,” the attorneys wrote.

‘Kidnapped from court’

After being seized by the Oz officers, the three were held for a few hours at the court – “with the cooperation of the court guards and under the eyes of the district court judge,” the complaint said.

The attorneys therefore requested that the ombudsman examine “Judge Milanov’s serious failure in disregarding and turning his back on the three foreigners who were kidnapped from his court.”

Cohen argued that Oz had no authority to detain the three after the session, particularly since the judge wrote expressly in the stenographic record that they were present in the country legally. But the commander of the Oz unit, Yehuda Ben Ezra, disagreed.

“I don’t know if the judge examined the documents,” he said, adding, “The visa says ‘tourist,’ not ‘demonstrator’.”

When informed that the judge explicitly told the Oz representatives in court that further detention would be illegal, Ben Ezra responded, “With all due respect to the judge, and I have genuine respect for judges, they don’t decide whom I arrest or don’t arrest.”

Ben Ezra said he is “allowed to make arrests in two cases: if I suspect that someone is here illegally, or if he violated administrative rules and the police informed me of this.” But the three foreigners do not fit into either of these categories.

A week later, on December 18, Ryan Olander was arrested again at another demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah. This time, according to Cohen, members of the Oz unit managed to take him from the court before a judge had reviewed his arrest, after police requested that Oz “act to remove this tourist from Israel permanently.”

Cohen said that Olander’s visa was canceled only after he was taken to Givon Prison – meaning the Interior Ministry essentially legalized his illegal arrest retroactively.

The Jerusalem District Police responded that “The foreigners who were arrested were suspected of disorderly behavior and illegal assembly. At the same time that they were brought to the court, the police made contact with an Interior Ministry representative, informed him of the three’s arrest and asked him to continue dealing with the case against the three. The police intend to press charges against all the suspects.”

Police rejected the claim that “the three foreigners were not brought for an extension of their remand at the beginning of the session on purpose” and said that “according to the law, police are permitted to arrest a tourist with a valid visa who is suspected of a criminal offense and transfer him to Interior Ministry representatives for deportation or trial. In this case, members of the Oz unit are the representatives who work with the police.”

Both Oz and the police completely rejected the attorneys’ claim that such cooperation between them occurs only in the case of left-wing activists.

Two young men from Bil’in arrested in order to testify against Popular Committee member still held by Israeli military

3 January 2010

For immediate release:

Hamouda Imad Yassin (16) and Ibrahim Khalil Yassin (16), two young men from Bil’in, who were arrested on 29 December 2009 during a night raid on the West Bank village, are still being held by the Israeli military.

The boys were arrested at 2am on Tuesday, 29 December 2009, when the Israeli army, composed of a number of military jeeps and approximately 50 soldiers on foot, invaded the village and raided their houses. They are still being held by the military, while their relatives are being kept in the dark as of when they will be released and the legal reasons for their detention.

The only explanation given by the Israeli authorities was that they detained Hamouda and Khalil in order to ensure their presence as witnesses at a hearing with Mohammad Khatib, member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, that was scheduled to take place later that day, 29 December 2009 at the Ofer military prison. He is charged with stone throwing, incitement and providing service to an unpermitted group. In a previous court hearing, the judge found the evidence presented to support the stone throwing charge to be falsified as it emerged that photographs shown of Mohammad Khatib allegedly throwing stones were taken on a day when he was abroad.

Mohammad Khatib commented on their arrest and continued detention:
“The fact that the Israeli military not only feels the need to present falsified evidence, but also resorts to invading the village in order to arrest children to testify against members of the Popular Committee shows their determination to crush the popular struggle through fabricated military trials. Luckily the military and occupation authorities have no understanding of the meaning of popular struggle. They would have to put all residents of the village in jail to stop the popular resistance and even then we would come out eventually, stronger and continue to struggle for our land and our freedom.”

His hearing, however, has been postponed due to a strike of Palestinian lawyers protesting the closure of the Beituniya checkpoint, the only route providing access for relatives and lawyers of Palestinian prisoners held at Ofer. Instead of releasing the two boys upon realizing the hearing has been cancelled, the Israeli military chose to keep them in detention, for an unknown period of time.

Their detention is just a part of an ongoing campaign through which the Israeli military seeks to ensure the end of Palestinian grassroots struggle against the Occupation and the Apartheid Wall. In Bil’in alone, 33 residents have been arrested since the beginning of a series of night raids conducted by the army. Almost a half still remain in detention, including Abdallah Abu Rahmah, arrested on 10 December 2009 and charged with incitement, stone throwing and arms possession, an accusation which has been brought against him merely for collecting and displaying spent tear-gas canisters, used against the Bil’in demonstrators by the Israeli army.

Freedom for Ryan Olander, justice for Sheikh Jarrah: US citizen held in Israeli prisons for over two weeks

Ryan Olander arrested by Israeli police in Sheikh Jarrah
Ryan Olander arrested by Israeli police in Sheikh Jarrah

2 January 2010

For immediate release:

Israeli authorities continue to detain Ryan Olander, US citizen and solidarity activist, who was illegally arrested on 18 December 2009 for his support of Palestinian families evicted from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah.

Minnesota resident Ryan Olander is facing deportation after being held in Israeli prisons for over two weeks. He spent his Christmas and New Year at a deportation facility in Ramle, where his request for release has been rejected by the prison judge. His lawyer submitted an appeal to the District Court in Tel Aviv on 27 December 2009 challenging the request of the Israeli Ministry of Interior for Mr. Olander’s deportation. The lawyer is anticipating the decision of the judge within the next 48 hours.

Ryan Olander was arrested from a tent the Palestinian al-Kurd family built in their own backyard following a recent setter take-over of a section of their house. He was drinking tea and talking to the family members when six Israeli police walked into the tent and took him for questioning at the Russian Compound police station in west Jerusalem. Despite being released without charges the following day, Ryan was illegally re-arrested by immigration police only a few moments later, right outside of the same police station that told him he was free to go.

Following his arrest, Mr. Olander made the following statement:
“I have become a target of the police for standing in solidarity with the Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah who struggle against the unjust and illegal evictions from the places they have called their homes for nearly 60 years. Now I face deportation from Israel.”

During the time Ryan Olander spent in Israeli prisons, the residents of Sheikh Jarrah in Occupied East Jerusalem have been subjected to further harassment and violence from the Israeli settlers and their supporters who recently took over the houses of several Palestinian families:

  • 21 December 2009: An attack of about 40 settlers throwing stones at the Ftyaney family house left the Palestinians with two broken windows and fear of future attacks.
  • 23 December 2009: Several hours of settler harassment following a Christmas celebration in Sheikh Jarrah included spray-painting ‘Death to Arabs’ in Hebrew, throwing fruit at Palestinians sitting in front of occupied al-Kurd house, violently pushing Palestinian residents and international activists, spray-painting one in her face.
  • 25 December 2009: Around 30 settlers attacked the Palestinian Sabbagh family, breaking into their house and injuring seven family members. Two of the injured were cut with a knife and a pregnant woman, who was kicked in her stomach, had to be taken to hospital. Another family member was hit in the face and had a gun pointed at her.
  • 26 December 2009: A group of settlers attacked Palestinians from the neighbourhood with stones. Three children and one adult were injured as result, and a French man who took pictures of the episode was violently attacked by a settler.
  • 2 January 2010: A Palestinian woman, Nadia al-Kurd (65), had to be hospitalised with respiratory problems after being attacked by a settler in her own garden.

Background on Sheikh Jarrah

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.

So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.

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.

Legal background

The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.

The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.

The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.

Gaza Freedom Marchers issue the ‘Cairo Declaration’ to end Israeli Apartheid

1 January 2010

Gaza Freedom Marchers approved today a declaration aimed at accelerating the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid.

Roughly 1400 activists from 43 countries converged in Cairo on their way to Gaza to join with Palestinians marching to break Israel’s illegal siege. They were prevented from entering Gaza by the Egyptian authorities.

As a result, the Freedom Marchers remained in Cairo. They staged a series of nonviolent actions aimed at pressuring the international community to end the siege as one step in the larger struggle to secure justice for Palestinians throughout historic Palestine.

This declaration arose from those actions:

End Israeli Apartheid

Cairo Declaration
January 1, 2010

We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:

In view of:

  • Israel’s ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians through the illegal occupation and siege of Gaza;
  • the illegal occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the continued construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and settlements;
  • the new Wall under construction by Egypt and the US which will tighten even further the siege of Gaza;
  • the contempt for Palestinian democracy shown by Israel, the US, Canada, the EU and others after the Palestinian elections of 2006;
  • the war crimes committed by Israel during the invasion of Gaza one year ago;
  • the continuing discrimination and repression faced by Palestinians within Israel;
  • and the continuing exile of millions of Palestinian refugees;
  • all of which oppressive acts are based ultimately on the Zionist ideology which underpins Israel;
  • in the knowledge that our own governments have given Israel direct economic, financial, military and diplomatic support and allowed it to behave with impunity;
  • and mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007)

We reaffirm our commitment to:

    Palestinian Self-Determination
    Ending the Occupation
    Equal Rights for All within historic Palestine
    The full Right of Return for Palestinian refugees

We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the United Palestinian call of July 2005 for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law.

To that end, we call for and wish to help initiate a global mass, democratic anti-apartheid movement to work in full consultation with Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for BDS.

Mindful of the many strong similarities between apartheid Israel and the former apartheid regime in South Africa, we propose:

  1. An international speaking tour in the first 6 months of 2010 by Palestinian and South African trade unionists and civil society activists, to be joined by trade unionists and activists committed to this programme within the countries toured, to take mass education on BDS directly to the trade union membership and wider public internationally;
  2. Participation in the Israeli Apartheid Week in March 2010;
  3. A systematic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli products, involving consumers, workers and their unions in the retail, warehousing, and transportation sectors;
  4. Developing the Academic, Cultural and Sports boycott;
  5. Campaigns to encourage divestment of trade union and other pension funds from companies directly implicated in the Occupation and/or the Israeli military industries;
  6. Legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli government war criminals; coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaux to identify, campaign and seek to prosecute Israeli war criminals; support for the Goldstone Report and the implementation of its recommendations;
  7. Campaigns against charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

We appeal to organisations and individuals committed to this declaration to sign the declaration and work with us to make it a reality.

To endorse the declaration please email cairodec@gmail.com.

Candle-light vigil held in Manger Square, Bethlehem to commemorate Gaza

Nathan Stokes | IMEMC

31 December 2009

Residents of the Bethlehem area, West Bank, gather to commemorate those lost in last years Gaza War and stand in solidarity with those still living under seige.

Children from Bethlehem read the names of the children killed last year in Gaza during the massacre and hung their names from a tree.
Children from Bethlehem read the names of the children killed last year in Gaza during the massacre and hung their names from a tree.
Children sang and danced with the Palestinian key of return.
Children sang and danced with the Palestinian key of return.
Approximately 100 people attended the demonstration in solidarity with Gaza today.
Approximately 100 people attended the demonstration in solidarity with Gaza today.

At 4:30 this afternoon residents of Bethlehem and the surrounding towns gathered to commemorate the 1,500 Palestinians that lost their lives this time last year, and stand in solidarity with the residents of Gaza, who continue to live under siege from the Israeli military; a situation that has continued since June 2006. The vigil was held in Manger Square, bordered with The Church of the Nativity.

After a brief introduction given by a young girl from the town, those in attendance received a call from Dr. Haidar Eid, from inside the Gaza Strip. Dr. Eid is an associate professor in the Department of English Literature, AL-Aqsa University, Gaza Strip and also works as a grass roots activist. Dr. Eid spoke of the necessity of the ending of the siege on Gaza, and thanked those in attendance, both local residents of the Bethlehem municipality and internationals alike.

Following Dr. Eid was Dr. Victor Batarseh, mayor of Bethlehem. Dr. Batarseh spoke in a similar vein, endorsing the support of the Gazans and reminding all to keep the plight of their plight in their thoughts.

Today was a day to commiserate the loss of vast numbers of children in Gaza, but also to celebrate the beauty of youth and be hopeful for their future. Children from Al-Ruwad Centre located in Aida refugee camp treated the crowd to a performance, and then followed by a speech by spokesman for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, Awad Abu Swai.

It was again the turn of the children to take centre stage. As a local boy, no more than 11 years old read the names of those children killed by the Israeli military during the Gaza War last December and January, more children were assisted in climbing the small trees in the square, decorated still will lights from the Christmas festivities, to hang BDS movement stickers bearing the names that were simultaneously read out.

Four of the children from the earlier performance piece sang songs, as others walked amongst the crowd handing out stickers and candles for the vigil.

Dr. Abdul Fattah Abu Saror, director of Al-Ruwad Centre, gave the final speech, once again thanking all in attendance and wishing everyone a happy new year. As the music started to play five young men spontaneously broke out in dabka dancing to mark the end of the vigil.