Ashraf Abu Rahma, who was shot by IDF soldier during anti-fence protest takes stand in military court, says he was arrested for no reason, bound, and beaten by soldiers. ‘I heard a shot, I was hit, and I fell,’ he testifies.
Ashraf Abu Rahma, the Palestinian who was shot in the foot with a rubber bullet while he was bound and gagged after being arrested in a demonstration in Naalin in July 2008, arrived Wednesday in the Kirya’s military court to testify against the two defendants in the affair – the then-commander of the 71st Battalion and the soldier suspected of the shooting.
According to Abu Rahma, after he was shot, the soldiers said to him, “You deserve this and even more.”
Abu Rahma came face-to-face with the defendants on Tuesday for the first time since the incident. Lt. Col. Omri Burberg and Staff Sgt. (res.) Leonardo Corea, sat on the defendants bench without even casting a glance at the witness. Abu Rahma addressed the judge when he asked that his assailants be judged to the letter of the law.
At the start of his testimony, Abu Rahma claimed that there were no grounds for his arrest at the said protest. He said that following his arrest, he was beaten by Border Guard officers and blindfolded. “They bound my hands. I heard a shot. I was hit in the leg and fell,” said Abu Rahma. According to his testimony, after being shot, he heard the soldiers saying to him in Arabic: “You deserve this and even more.”
The event, which was first reported in Ynet, occurred on July 7, 2008. During that time, the village Na’alin was under curfew and full closure for four days. Palestinians, Israeli left-wing activists, and international peace activists marched from the village of Dir Kadis in order to bring food to the besieged residents of Na’alin.
Abu Rahma, who was among those protesting, was arrested for about a half an hour. He was taken to a military jeep by Lt. Col. Burberg who was in the field. Once he was next to the jeep, one of the soldiers near him shot at him. According to Abu Rahma, he was hit in the foot.
The former battalion commander was charged with making threats, and the subordinate soldier was charged with unlawful use of a weapon. Previously, the two were slapped with the relatively light charge of inappropriate conduct, however, the indictment was changed following an unusual intervention by the High Court of Justice.
The Military Advocacy has yet to formulate a stance on what type of punishment it will request be handed to the defendants if they are found guilty. However, in closed conversations with the Military Advocacy, they said they will seek heavy punishments for both Burgerg, who has since left his position in the battalion and has been transferred to a lesser position, and for Corea, even though he already completed his military service
Israeli settlers take over Palestinian home, elderly resident suffers severe medical complications
On Tuesday morning at around 9.30am, a group of settlers surrounded the al-Kurd family home in Sheikh Jarrah and took over a section of the house.
Fifteen to twenty settlers, accompanied by private armed security and Israeli police forces, entered an extension of the Palestinian house, and started clearing it of the family’s belongings. The family was not present in this section of the house in compliance with a previous court order, however local sources reported that the settlers also attempted, on several occasions, to gain entry to the inhabited part of the house.
One Palestinian resident, Khamis al-Gawi, has been arrested shortly after the settlers arrived, and is still being held at a local police station. Two international activists, American and Swedish nationals, who were filming the settlers taking over the house were also arrested by the police and their video cameras confiscated.
Later in the day, two Palestinian women suffered medical complications as a result of the take-over and had to be transported to a local hospital in an ambulance. One of them, the daughter of the owner of the house Refka al-Kurd, Nadia, was taken to the hospital with a suspected heart attack.
The take-over came minutes after an appeal, challenging an earlier court decision that deemed this section of the house illegal and gave the settlers the right to enter the property, submitted by the family’s lawyer, was rejected by the Magistrate Court this morning. The al-Kurd family only found out that their appeal was rejected when they saw the settlers approaching their home.
The first attempt of the settlers to take over the house came on 3 November 2009. In a similar scenario, settlers entered the al-Kurd property and locked themselves in, leaving only when escorted out by the Israeli police. However, the house remained occupied by armed settler security 24 hours a day since then. Further attempts followed including one on 26 November at 1am, when five settlers invaded the house, attacking the Palestinian family. An elderly woman, Refka al-Kurd (87) suffered a stroke following the incident.
The al-Kurd home was built in 1956. An addition to the house was built 10 years ago, but the family was not allowed to inhabit the section, based on an earlier agreement with the settlers (reached by the family’s former lawyer without their knowledge), which is currently still under dispute.
The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house (or a portion of the home) has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.
These actions are illegal under international law, which prohibits the occupying power (in this case Israel) from transferring its own population into the occupied territory. East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, is considered an occupied territory and its de-facto annexation by Israel has not been recognized by international law.
An appeal submitted by the family’s lawyer will be heard tomorrow, 2 December 2009 at noon, in the District Court in Jerusalem.
A court case, determining the ownership of the whole house, including the section built in 1956 by UNRWA, will be heard on 15 February 2010. Similarly to the Hannoun, Gawi and Kamel al-Kurd families in the past, this hearing can result in an eviction order against the al-Kurd family.
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.
The eviction orders 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 that claim to have 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 today’s take-over), 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 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 (al- Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day.
The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to turn the whole area 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 28th 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.
On Friday, 13 November, soldiers were documented firing 22-caliber bullets at demonstrators during the weekly demonstration against the Separation Barrier in Ni’lin. The shots were fired a few dozen meters from the targets, and lightly wounded two demonstrators. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed that 22-caliber bullets had indeed been fired.
The following Friday, 20 November, soldiers again fired live ammunition at the demonstrators, causing moderate injuries to one and lightly injuring another.
In 2001, the then judge advocate general, Major General Menachem Finkelstein, prohibited the use of 22-caliber bullets to disperse demonstrators. In early 2009, however, the army resumed its use against demonstrators in the West Bank. B’Tselem protested the action. In reply, Judge Advocate General Major General Avichai Mandelblit reiterated that the IDF does not classify the Ruger rifle, which fires 22-caliber bullets, and similar weapons, as means to disperse demonstrations or public disturbances, and that the rules governing their use in Judea and Samaria are stringent, comparable to the rules for opening fire and use of live ammunition.
Since then, the army has resumed use of 22-caliber bullets, killing at least two Palestinians in the West Bank, and wounding dozens, some of them severely. In February of this year, ‘Az a-Din al-Jamal, 14, who was throwing stones with other youths, was killed. In June, a border policeman shot ‘Aqel Srur, 35, in the chest at a demonstration in Ni’lin, killing him. Following that, the army ceased using the ammunition, until 13 November.
Real-time observations by B’Tselem and video footage filmed at two demonstrations indicate that the gunfire was completely contrary to army orders. There was no justification to use lethal weapons in these incidents. Persons from the village were indeed throwing stones at security forces on the other side of the fence, but from a few dozen meters away. The security forces found cover behind concrete blocks or inside shielded jeeps, so they were not in a life-threatening situation. The security forces had other means, which cause much lesser harm, that they could easily have used to distance demonstrators from the fence, among them tear gas and an odorous liquid sprayed at demonstrators from a tanker.
Following the firing of the 22-caliber ammunition at demonstrators on 13 November, B’Tselem wrote to the judge advocate general, demanding an investigation into the incident, and direction of commanders whose soldiers engage in dispersing demonstrations to again clarify to their troops the rules for using live ammunition during demonstrations. B’Tselem demands that the army immediately stop using 22-caliber ammunition in circumstances in which soldiers’ lives are not in danger, and that measures be taken against security forces who fired live ammunition in violation of regulations and caused the death and injury of civilians.
This morning, a group of demonstrators in the West Bank village of Ni’lin managed to surprise the Israeli army and, using bolt cutters, cut open one of the gates in the fence built on the village’s lands. Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene and fired rubber-coated steel bullets as well as tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, followed by the use of live ammunition.
Eight people were wounded during the action. Seven demonstrators were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, and a one and a half year-old baby was evacuated to a Ramallah hospital suffering from tear gas inhalation, caused by soldiers firing a tear gas canister into her house.
Today marks the first time Israeli soldiers invade the residential parts of Ni’lin in an attempt to suppress a demonstration, since Palestinian demonstrator Aqel Sadeq Srour was shot dead by sniper fire approximately six months ago (5 June 2009), during a protest at the village. Srour’s brother was arrested today in the village center.
Today’s response by the Israeli army illustrates the ongoing policy of escalation which the army has been implementing in Ni’ilin for the past three weeks. This policy includes reintroducing the use of 0.22 caliber live ammunition as a means of crowd dispersal – in direct contradiction to the Chief Military Attorney’s orders.
Since June 2008, five Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by soldiers’ fire during protests in Ni’ilin, including two minors – 10 year-old Ahmed Mousa and 17 year-old Yussef Amirah. A further 34 demonstrators have been injured by live ammunition, and 87 have been arrested.
As a result of the separation barrier’s construction, 3,920 dunams of Ni’lin’s lands (30% of all accessible lands) have been de-facto confiscated; this is in addition to the 1,973 dunams on which Israeli settlements have been built since 1967.
Israeli settlers have annexed a further 40 dunums of what remains of the endangered Palestinian village of Yanoun, east of Nablus. Settlers from the illegal settlement Itamar were witnessed ploughing the land in question yesterday, effectively laying claim to it and furthering their annexation of Yanoun’s land, already entirely encircled by outposts of Itamar.
Two settlers were sighted driving their plough on to land that had previously remained accessible to Yanoun farmers yesterday morning. Noticing the audience they had gained, one settler approached Rashid, mayor of Yanoun, and villagers and the activists assembled to inform them that he had legal claim to the land as it had not been worked by farmers from the village in over five years (despite the 40 dunums in question having been used by Yanoun farmers as recently as 2 years ago). Land that stands unused for this time period becomes property of the state by Israeli law, the means by which settlers have managed to claim much of Yanoun’s land, under the continued campaign of intimidation and harassment wrecked on farmers that stray too close to the settlement and its outposts. An argument ensued between the settler and villagers over who had rights to the land, which was effectively ended as a second settler arrived on the scene brandishing an M-16 rifle.
Activists were told of how just the day before, the same settler had led a tour group of 60 Israeli settlers through the village itself, frightening the villagers and forcing them to withdraw to a state of effective curfew inside their houses, an all-too-common event in Yanoun. Settlers proceeded to strip naked and bathe in two of Yanoun’s wells (few of which have not been taken by the settlement), contaminating their drinking water.
Residents of Yanoun have suffered many years of terrifying violence at the hands of Itamar settlements – the murder of villagers, slaughter of their livestock, desecration of crops, property destruction and daily invasions and intimidation by armed settlers. The increasing brutality climaxed in 2002, as settlers rampaged the village, cutting down over 1000 olive trees, killing dozens of sheep, beating Palestinians in their home with rifle butts and gouging out one man’s eye. The settlers left promising to return the following Saturday, with the threat to spare no witnesses next time. Unable to stand the fear – and indeed reality – of terrorism any longer, the entire village evacuated, most families fleeing to the nearby village of Aqraba.
An international and Israeli activist campaign was launched immediately to allow the residents of Yanoun to return to their lands. A permanent international presence was established in the village by EAPPI which has assisted in encouraging people of Yanoun to return home, and has remained instrumental in what little peace of mind Yanounis have salvaged since they were uprooted from their land and one by one, have boldly returned to.
Over the 2002-06 period the entirety of the village’s families eventually came back to their homes and attempted to start their life over in the shadow of Itamar’s ever-increasing outposts, that dot the hills surrounding the village. This number has once again begun to dwindle however, as the younger generations of Yanounis mature and seek a life of career, education, urbanisation – a life outside of daily harassment and torment at the hands of those who have stolen their land, and what, in a more peaceful Palestine, could be a means of livelihood for them. Approximately 100 people remain in the village – 40 in “lower Yanoun” in the valley, and 60 in “upper Yanoun”, whose houses ascend the hill to where just a few hundred meters away lie dozens of settlement houses and agricultural complexes.
Although the entire village is located in Area C – under full Israeli civilian and military control – and stands at risk of being slated for demolition, residents believe that the settlement’s – and Israeli government’s – strategy is what may already be underway – a gradual exodus of families and individuals as they are confined to an ever-shrinking amount of land, engulfed by the expanding settlement and its violent inhabitants.
There are some who remain though, who are determined to stay – many families steadfastly refusing to relinquish the connection to the land that is rightfully theirs. The very existence of Yanoun today bespeaks its fighting spirit, one that will hopefully continue despite the
collective punishment waged on the village.
