Category: Press Releases

PCHR condemns harassment of Palestinian civilians at military checkpoints

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)

11 August 2009

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the harassment and cruel and degrading treatment inflicted upon Palestinian civilians by Israeli troops positioned at military checkpoint throughout the West Bank.

PCHR field workers documents three cases of harassment against Palestinian civilians in the first three days of the week.

At approximately 22:00 on Saturday, 08 August 2009, Israeli soldiers harassed Tha’er Bader Jaradat, 20, from Sa’ir village northwest Hebron. They attacked him near the Annexation Wall in al-Ram town, north of Jerusalem. He sustained fractures to the legs.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR and the victim’s testimony, at approximately 22:00 on Saturday, 08 August 2009, Israeli soldiers forced him to jump from a height of 4.5 meters, when they caught him and other civilians attempting to climb the Annexation Wall in al-Ram town. He fell onto the ground, and sustained two fractures to the left leg and one fracture to the right heel. Soon after, Israeli soldiers gathered around him and attempted to force him to stand up and accompany them to a military vehicle. They also released a bloodhound to attack him in order to force him to stand up. When all of these attempts failed, they forced him to creep towards the military vehicle, which was approximately 15 meters away. They handcuffed him and transferred him to the Hamashbir area to the northwest of al-Ram town. Jaradat attempted to go to Jerusalem in order to work in a boutique.

On Sunday morning, 09 August 2009, Israeli soldiers positioned at a military crossing established on al-Zahiriya – Bir al-Saba’ road, south of Hebron, harassed Mohammed ‘Abdul Hai ‘Asafra, 26, from Beit Kahel village northwest of Hebron. They forced him to stop while he was his way to work in a workshop in the area. The detained and violently beat him for more than two hours. He sustained bruises throughout the body.

At approximately 11:30 on Monday, 10 August 2009, Israeli soldiers patrolling in al-Sahla and Tariq Ben Ziad streets in the south of the old town of Hebron stopped Saleh Mohammed al-Rajabi, 20. They detained and violently beat him for nearly an hour. He sustained bruises throughout the body.

In light of the above:

1. PCHR asserts that acts of harassment are a form of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and constitute serious violations of international human rights standards and instruments, especially the Convention against Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of 1984.

2. PCHR calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Israel to dismantle military checkpoints and stop acts of harassment and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Village of Bil’in calls on Amnesty International to withdraw from Leonard Cohen concert

8 August 2009

We, members of the Bil’in popular committee against the wall and settlements, have always appreciated Amnesty International’s role in the defense of human rights around the world and have recognized you as partners in our own struggle to defend our rights. We remember with great pleasure and pride your December, 2006 visit to our village to witness one of our protests. For these reasons we were surprised and deeply disturbed to learn that Amnesty International is sponsoring Leonard Cohen’s upcoming concert in Israel.

Dear Amnesty International,

We, members of the Bil’in popular committee against the wall and settlements, have always appreciated Amnesty International’s role in the defense of human rights around the world and have recognized you as partners in our own struggle to defend our rights. We remember with great pleasure and pride your December, 2006 visit to our village to witness one of our protests. For these reasons we were surprised and deeply disturbed to learn that Amnesty International is sponsoring Leonard Cohen’s upcoming concert in Israel.

We were disturbed not only because supporting Cohen’s concert works against the wide grassroots Palestinian nonviolent initiative calling for the cultural boycott of Israel until it adheres to its obligations under international law, but because Amnesty’s support for the concert hurts us in Bil’in personally and directly.

Leonard Cohen’s concert, that Amnesty is sponsoring, is being handled by Israel Discount Bank. Israel Discount Bank’s trading room and other computer services are run by an Israeli company called Matrix IT. Matrix IT’s trading room is located on our villages land stolen by the illegal settlement of Modiin Illit (http://www.whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=633). Israel Discount Bank has also financed the similar construction of some of the building projects in the settlements of Har Homa, Beitar Illit and Ma’ale Adumim. Additionally, the Discount Bank is the second major shareholder of Mul-T-Lock, whose factory is located in industrial zone of Barkan, another illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank (http://www.whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=558).

We are sure that you and Amnesty International were not aware of these facts. Otherwise we are confident that Amnesty would not be involved in supporting an endeavor that profits directly from the abuse of our rights. We are confident that now that this was brought to your attention you will withdraw Amnesty’s support. Furthermore, we encourage Amnesty to examine more closely any project that you plan to support in Israel in the future because, unfortunately, the Israeli economy as a whole is currently benefiting from the abuse of Palestinian rights.

In Bil’in we are currently facing a new wave of oppression against our popular campaign against the Wall and settlement built on our land. The Israeli occupation forces are frequently raiding our village at night and abducting people, mostly children, from their homes. The members of our committee are being targeted. Currently two leading non violent activists and organizers Mohammed Khatib and Adib Abu Rahme, along with seventeen other Bil’in residents, are imprisoned by the Israeli military. We are counting on your continued support for our struggle and are certain that you will not allow Amnesty International to lend its support to the violations of our rights.

In solidarity,

The Bil’in Popular Committee

For the Open Letter from Sixteen Groups to Amnesty International see:
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1062

Solidarity with Palestinian non-violent resistance: a Bil’in petition

Sign the Petition

The Palestinian popular resistance movement is suffering from the ongoing violence of both the Israeli occupation forces and the settlers. The Israeli authorities want to crush the non-violent struggle and to break the unity created among Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals, who for more than four years have been demonstrating together in Bilin, Nilin and other occupied villages, exerting their legitimate right to defend their land against further colonization and to struggle for the full restitution of the land annexed by Israel, disregarding international obligations and violating human rights.

In the past months we have seen an escalation of systematic arrests and kidnappings of activists in the movement by the Israeli army. This week, non-violent leaders from the West Bank village of Bilin and Al Masara have been arrested for peacefully demonstrating against Israeli separation wall and are still being held in prison.

Faced with this painful reality, the Palestinian people are committed to continuing and developing their non-violent popular struggle. This struggle has become an emblematic example not only for Palestinians but also for activists worldwide who fight for freedom, justice and self-determination. Last December, the Bil’in Popular Committee was awarded the 2008 Human Rights Medal of the International League of Human Rights in Germany.

During the 4th Bilin International Conference on Non-violent Resistance held in April 2009, civil-society groups, peace movements and human-rights organizations working in solidarity with the Palestinian popular resistance movement decided to strengthen their coordination.

It is high time to give more force to this movement. We must act right now!

By signing this open call, we are creating the International Network in solidarity with the Palestinian Popular Resistance movement in order to:

1. Improve the coordination among international civil-society groups working in solidarity with the Palestinian Popular Resistance movement.

2. Establish a permanent channel of communication between the Palestinian Popular Resistance movement and international civil-society groups.

3. Strengthen the communication, advocacy and lobbying capacity of the solidarity movements in order to put more pressure on governments and parliaments worldwide to focus on the respect for international law and human rights, to take a position against the siege on Gaza, the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the construction of the illegal separation wall and the Israeli policy of land confiscation and colonization.

4. Promote international initiatives to send civilian peace services and teams to the Occupied Territories and organize field visits of politicians, lawyers and journalists.

FIRST SIGNATURES:

Mohammed Khatib – Bil’in Popular Committee (Palestine)
Máiread Corrigan-Maguire – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (Northern Ireland)
Luisa Morgantini – Former Vice President of the EU Parliament (Italy)
Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin – President of the International League for Human Rights; Co-Founder of Jews for a Just Peace in Near East, and European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) (Germany)
NOVA – Social Innovation Centre (Catalonia/Spain)
Association France Palestine Solidarité – AFPS (France)
Josette Fourme Teachers for Peace – Peace French movment FRANCE
Mahmoud Zwahre – Al Masara Popular Committee (Palestine)
Abedallah Abu-Rahma – Bil’in Popular Committee (Palestine)
Neta Golan – Co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (Israel/Palestine)
Luca Gervasoni i Vila – NoVA – Peacebuilding and Active Nonviolence (Catalonia/Spain)
Martina Pignatti – Un Ponte per… (Italy)
Kobi Snitz – Anarchists Against the Wall (Israel/Palestine)

University of JHB Prof lodges charges against War Criminal David Benjamin

Today, University of Johannesburg academic, Professor Farid Esack and Palestine Solidarity Committee members formally laid charges at the Johannesburg Central Police station against war criminal Lieutenant-Colonel David Benjamin.

This follows an application lodged on Monday by the Palestine Solidarity Alliance and others with the assistance of well-known international law professors John Dugard and Max du Plessis. The application calls on the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions to set in motion an investigation into war crimes committed by a number of Israelis linked to the Gaza massacre of December 2008-January 2009. South African-born Lieutenant-Colonel David Benjamin, who obtained his law degree from the University of Cape Town, has worked for the Israeli Occupation Forces for the past 17 years. As a member of the Israeli Army’s Military Advocates Corps, he provided legal advice to the Israeli military during the massacre.

Benjamin has been credited with giving the Israeli army the legal go-ahead for the use of white phosphorous in its attacks against Gaza in December 2008-January 2009. Israel’s use of white phosphorous in Gaza is illegal under international law; the Geneva Convention bars its use against civilian targets.

Benjamin, by his own admission, told Bloomberg News that the Gaza “campaign was a long time in the works, and we [the Military Advocates Corps] were intimately involved in the planning… Approval of targets which can be attacked, methods of warfare – it all has gone through us.”
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The charges are supported by overwhelming evidence, including reports from internationally known human rights organisations, and affidavits in excess of 3500 pages (available from the PSC). The massacre followed an 18-month siege and blockade which saw an occupied population experience starvation, deprivation, displacement and ongoing trauma on a horrendous scale that has shocked humanity. This seige continues.

The Gaza onslaught resulted in the deaths of 1400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians. Of these approximately 40 % were women and children. More than 5400 Palestinians were seriously injured, many with the most horrific wounds, burns and amputations and countless others are psychologically, physically and mentally traumatised. This is in comparison to 10 Israeli soldiers killed (four by own fire and 2 Israeli citizens).

These acts of barbarity did not spare the innocent lives of a besieged occupied people. It is common knowledge that Israel attacked and destroyed schools, places of worship, shelters, hospitals and United Nations installations, such as the UNWRA school and relief aid warehouses. Israel’s offensive destroyed about 22,000 buildings and is estimated to have caused 1.9-billion US dollars worth of destruction. The actions are abhorrent and profoundly in breach of international humanitarian law and constitute evidence of international crimes.

The Israeli attack and bombardment of Gaza has been extensively documented and horrific scenes of death, injury and destruction of the civilian population were televised to the world. Evidence collected from eye-witnesses and those injured as well as United Nations and other investigative reports, including the testimony of Israeli combat soldiers and physicians (including South Africans) provide compelling proof that suggests Israelis have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

All credible humanitarian and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, and the Red Cross, and respected individuals such as the professors of law Richard Falk and our own John Dugard, also condemned these actions as war crimes.

All of these actions are war crimes under international law, and Benjamin is, therefore, a war criminal. South Africans should feel outraged to have such a war criminal visiting our country, with the express purpose, according to the host organisation, Limmud, of providing South African audiences with the Israeli army’s justification for their war crimes.

Issued by the Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Update on Mohammad Khatib and the six Biliners abducted by the Israeli occupation forces

6 August 2009

The Military Prosecution is claiming that the 7 people taken from their homes during the night raid that took place in Bil’in on August 3rd are suspected of stone throwing. A leading member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, non-violent activist Mohammad Khatib, is accused of incitement to “damage the security of the area.”

A military judge ruled not to release Mohammad Khatib from detention on Thursday August 6th. Another leading non-violent activist from Bil’in, Adeeb Abu Rahme, has remained in custody since his arrest during a demonstration against the Wall in Bil’in on July 10th. (see the video on https://palsolidarity.org/2009/07/7652, Adeeb is the protester in the orange shirt with the mega-phone). He is being held until the end of proceedings against him. This could mean months or a year in military prison for Adeeb, who is the sole provider for his family of 9 children, wife and mother.

A hearing in which an appeal for the release of the six other Biliners arrested on August 3rd took place on Thursday August 6th. The three brothers, Khaled Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 23), Mustafa Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age18), and Mohammed Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 16); Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (age 18); Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (age 16); Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (age 40); During a previous hearing that took place on the 4th of august it was apparent that many of these detainees had been badly beaten. Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (18) showed the military judge the bruises and beating marks on his torso. Sixteen year old Abdullah Moahammed Ali Yassen reported having a knife put to his neck and being threatened to be slaughtered if he didn’t report where his brother was. These, other interrogation and pressure tactics are used to obtain “confessions” from children rounded up during night time raids from the village. They are coerced into “confessing” that they throw stones at the instructions of the village leaders. Currently 19 Biliner’s are being held in custody by the military. Abdullah Mohamad Ali Yassen may be released on August 7th in the unlikely event of the military prosecution not filing an appeal against his release.

“Mohammad Khatib and Adeeb Abu Rahme, along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle, are being targeted because they mobilize Palestinians to resist non- violently.” outlines Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of Bil’in’s Popular Committee, “The Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on our land are the real crimes being committed. Israel is stealing our land from us and then prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle non-violently for justice.”

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands via the construction of the Apartheid Wall. One demonstrator, Basem Abu Rahma, was killed at a demonstration as he was attempting to speak with the soldiers. (see the video https://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4699). In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme court ruled on the September 4th 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needed to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented.