Category: Press Releases

Israeli Soldier indicted for beating Palestinian grassroots leader Mohammed Khatib in Bil’in

Yesh Din

19 October 2009

On October 15, an indictment was filed against an Israeli soldier accused of beating up well-known nonviolent protester and secretary of Bil’in’s Regional Council Mohammed Khatib one month ago (September 15) during a night raid on the village. The organization Yesh Din filed a complaint and demanded that an investigation be launched immediately after the incident. The soldier was arrested on October 6th and remains in custody.

The alleged beating took place shortly after 1:30am on September 15th, when the Israeli military raided the Bil’in residence of Abedullah Abu Rahma, Coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, in an attempt to arrest him. However, he was not home at the time. Soldiers sealed off the house while operating inside. When Mohammed Khatib came to the house and attempted to enter to check on Abu Rahme’s family, he was severely beaten. He was taken to a hospital in Ramallah for treatment and returned to the village later.

Attorney Michael Sfard, Yesh Din Legal Council: “The Israeli Military record in its treatment of Palestinina complainsts against soldier violence is unacceptable. While of course we are glad to see the soldier who beat up Mohammed beginning the process of being brought to justice, the indictment filed today is the exception. Yesh Din has filed several complaints regarding severe violence in Bil’in over the past few weeks and in NONE of them were the offenders made accountable for their behavior.”

Mohammed Khatib: “This indictment – against the soldier who beat me – clearly shows how the Israelli Military’s attempt to quash the village’s resistance has gone completely out of control, forcing even the military investigative police and military prosecution to intervene. A simple glance at the statistics of indictments should be enough for anyone to realize how rare such intervention is and how impenetrable impunity is in the Israeli army. The real problem, of course, is not an individual soldier, but rather the fact that the army employs military means to deal with civic, unarmed resistance, as if we were an armed enemy.”

Indictments of Israeli Soldiers:
According to Yesh Din’s report “Exceptions”, of the 1,246 investigation files opened by the MPCID (military police criminal investigations department) from the start of the Second Intifada in 2000 until the end of 2007, only 78 (6%) led to indictments against one or more soldiers. Of the thousands of Palestinian civilians killed, perpetrators were convicted in only 4 cases.

Bil’in arrests and night raids:
On June 23rd of this year, the Israeli Military began conducting regular nighttime incursions into Bil’in, evacuating homes and searching for participants in the Friday demonstrations, particularly the leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, as well as teenage boys accused of throwing stones at the wall. 28 residents of the village have been arrested over the past three months along with two internationals and one Israeli. Of the 28 residents arrested, 12 are minors (under the age of 16). Of the 28 arrested, 10 people have been released on bail, meaning that 18 are still held in custody, among them 10 minors. Of the 28, three members of the leadership have been arrested – Mohammed Khatib, Mohammed Abu Rahme (“Abu Nizar”) and Bassel Mansour. At least one other leader is wanted – Abedallah Abu Rahme – and the military has broken into his house several times over the past weeks in attempts to arrest him. The villagers and many of their Israeli supporters believe that these arrests are part of a targeted Israeli attempt to quash the years-strong non-violent Palestinian resistance movement, beginning with the village that has become its symbol.

New York protest against detention without trial of Palestinian BDS activist

Adalah NY

17 October 2009

Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, Photo: Hanan Tabbara
Demonstrators protest in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, Photo: Hanan Tabbara

On Saturday forty New York human rights advocates rallied on a cold fall day at the Madison Avenue jewelry store of Israeli settlement mogul Lev Leviev to demand that Israel release jailed Palestinian boycott activist Mohammad Othman. Othman, held without charges and in solitary confinement since September 22nd, is from Jayyous, a West Bank village where Leviev’s company Leader is building the Israeli settlement of Zufim. The protesters also called for an end to Israel’s wave of arrests of Palestinian activists from Bil’in, another West Bank village campaigning against the construction of settlement homes by another Leviev company, Africa-Israel.

Andrew Kadi of Adalah-NY commented, “Israel’s arrest of Mohammad Othman and residents of Bil’in simply affirms the need for a global movement of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), similar to the movement against apartheid South Africa, to hold Israel accountable, and pressure Israel to respect Palestinian rights.”

Mohammad Othman is believed to be the first person to be arrested by Israel specifically for advocating for the growing international movement to boycott companies, including Leviev’s, that support Israeli human rights abuses. The New York protest was one of fourteen events held worldwide on October 16th and 17th calling for Mohammad Othman’s immediate release.

Hundreds of Madison Avenue shoppers took home a cartoon flyer “Jailed for an Idea” that depicts Othman’s detention, and Israel’s efforts to crush the protest campaigns in the villages of Bil’in and Jayyous against Leviev’s settlements (download the cartoon flyer). The protesters chanted, “Jayyous and Bil’in will not bow, Free Mohammad Othman now,” and “Boycotting Israel is no crime, Leviev should be doing time.” With a guitar accompaniment, the protesters sang songs calling for the boycott of Leviev and Israel, including an updated version of the civil rights classic, “which Side are You On,” and “Don’t Buy Israeli” to the tune of Hava Nagila.

Calls to free Mohammad Othman have been highlighted by The Nation, in letter campaigns by the US organizations Jewish Voice for Peace and Grassroots International, as well as in an international petition. Othman was detained as he crossed the Allenby bridge from Jordan, returning home to the West Bank from a trip to Norway. Othman’s advocacy efforts on behalf of the growing international movement for BDS against Israel contributed to the Norwegian government’s recent decision to divest from its pension funding holdings in Elbit Systems. Norway has also been asked by a coalition of eleven organizations and the villages of Jayyous and Bil’in to divest from Leviev’s company Africa-Israel.

The villages of Jayyous and Bil’in have both been targeted with arrests and repression due to their multi-year nonviolent protest campaigns. Twenty-eight Bil’in activists have been arrested by Israel since June when Bil’in’s lawsuit against settlement construction on village land was heard in Canadian court. Just weeks after he testified in Canada, Bil’in activist Mohammed Khatib was jailed by Israeli forces for 15 days and then released on bail. Bil’in protester Adeeb Abu Rahme and seventeen others are still being held in Israeli jails, and Bil’in protest organizer Abdullah Abu Rahme is “wanted” by the Israeli army for his nonviolent organizing.

The protest was 14th held in front of Leviev’s New York store since it opened in November, 2007. Leviev’s company Africa-Israel is currently reeling from a financial crisis. Additionally, the international campaign to boycott Leviev due to his settlement construction and involvement in abusive business practices in the diamond industry in Angola and Namibia has achieved a string of successes. UNICEF, Oxfam, The British Government and major Hollywood stars have all distanced themselves from Leviev. The investment firm BlackRock and pension giant TIAA-CREF both also recently sold off their shares of Leviev’s company Africa-Israel, though both denied they did so due to his settlement construction.

Photos: http://adalahny.org/index.php/photo-galleries/325-free-mohammad-othman-stop-the-bds-arrests-at-leviev-ny

Tree-planting action to re-claim Iraq Burin’s land, Sunday 18 October

17 October 2009

For immediate release:

Iraq Burin has achieved the first success of its kind, in which the District Co-ordination Office has entered in to an agreement with the village to return 30 dunums of contested farmland to its rightful owners. It comes on the heels of four fiery weekly demonstrations, where local protesters and international activists came together to protest illegal land annexation and settlement expansion in the West Bank.

The land in question lies in Area C on the edge of Iraq Burin next to the illegal settlement of Mar-Barcha, just south of Nablus. Mayor Abu Haitham has stated the DCO expressed a desire to lease the land from the village but rejected the offer, in favour of the four families owning segments of the 30 dunums and wish only to recommence its cultivation.

The village was subject to a visit from the Israeli Occupation Forces on the night of Sunday, 11 October, following an attack on an unmanned military outpost in village farmland nearby the settlement. Two jeeps entered the village to raid a total of 7 houses, firing tear gas inside four and causing damage to the exterior of all. No arrests were made as the soldiers searched in vain for wanted men.

This Sunday, 18 October, a tree-planting action is planned for the village. Locals and international groups will once again join forces in an affirmation of the village’s inspiring success and begin re-claiming the returned land by the plantation of 45 olive trees. Demonstrators will meet at 8am in the village center to march to the land and begin its cultivation.

Palestinian youth run over by Israeli military jeep outside school in Jenin-area village

For Immediate Release:

30 September 2009: Palestinian youth run over by Israeli military jeep outside school in Jenin-area village.

At around 11am, Foad Mahmoud Naiyf Turkman, 17 years of age, was run over by a military jeep as he was standing outside of his high school.

Witnesses say that the students had finished school and were gathered outside Izz ad-Din al-Qassam high school in Yabad village, west of Jenin.

According to the uncle of Turkman, Mohammad Naiyf, who is a teacher in the school and witnessed the event,
“The jeep was driving fast towards a group of students. Foad was run over, the jeep backed up and drove over him a second time. Then the soldiers wouldn’t allow us to get Foad for about 15 minutes. ”

Turkman was taken to Jenin hospital and died an hour later from his injuries.

Yabad village is surrounded by several illegal settlements to the west and south; Mevo Dotan, Hermesh, Rehan, Shaqed, and Hinnanit. The Separation Wall is located west of Yabad village. Road 585, located south of Yabad is used primarily for military vehicles.

PCHR report on the gender-specific impact and consequences of Operation Cast Lead

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

28 September 2009

In conjunction with the presentation of the UN Fact Finding Mission’s report to the Human Rights Council on 29 September, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) release “Through Women’s Eyes: A PCHR Report on the Gender-Specific Impact and Consequences of Operation Cast Lead”.

The Israeli offensive claimed the lives of 118 women, and injured at least 825 more. However, although the numbers of victims and casualties illustrate the appalling human toll of this conflict, the true extent of the suffering lies in the day-to-day reality of life in the Gaza Strip following Operation Cast Lead, as civilians struggle to rebuild their lives, come to terms with their loss, and restore some semblance of human dignity

PCHR has released ‘Through Women’s Eyes’ in order to highlight the gender-specific impact of Operation Cast Lead and the illegal Israeli closure. As a result of the patriarchal nature of Palestinian society, women in the Gaza Strip – victims of ‘peacetime’ discrimination – are particularly susceptible to the marginalization, poverty, and suffering brought about as a result of armed conflict and occupation. Israeli attacks result in often ignored gender-specific consequences. PCHR has chosen to allow these consequences, and the reality of life after the offensive, unfold through the victims words; although this report is necessarily grounded in international law, it is perhaps fitting that human rights, and human suffering, are expressed through human stories.

This report presents the cases of 12 women affected by Israeli attacks over the course of Operation Cast Lead. These examples are intended to demonstrate the extent of the suffering inflicted on the individual civilians of the Gaza Strip, and the continuing difficulties they face as a result of the devastation wrought by Israeli forces and the ongoing illegal closure.

‘Through Women’s Eyes’ highlights the difficulties women in the Gaza Strip face as they attempt to come to terms with their grief and their injuries; with the loss of their children, their husbands, their relatives, their homes, and their livelihoods. These narratives are illustrative, not only of the trials faced by women in the Gaza Strip, but of the resilience and strength they have demonstrated over 42 years of conflict and occupation.

‘Through Women’s Eyes’ is release as a continuation of PCHR’s work documenting human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory. With respect to Operation Cast Lead, in May PCHR released ‘War Crimes Against Children’ a report on the killing of 318 children, while earlier this month ‘Targeted Civilians’ PCHR’s comprehensive report on the offensive was released in Arabic; it will be available in English shortly.

The Report is available at:

http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/Reports/English/pdf_spec/through-women’s%20_eyes.pdf