Category: Reports

Bruqin avoids arrests: Planting hope for Khader Adnan

by Jonas Weber

13 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Villagers of Bruqin and supporters went out today to plant trees in the field by the factory. While trees were planted alongside pictures of Khader Adnan, two young men sneaked over to the fence of the factory and put up Palestinian flags.

In the outskirts of Bruqin, a small village in the Salfit area, there is a field where old Roman ruins slumber amongst the olive trees. The field would be a peaceful place if it was not for the huge Israeli factories built on stolen land right next door. The Israeli factories have caused pollution in the area, contaminating crops and pastures. The rapid settler expansion in the Salfit area is stirring up distress among the residents in Bruqin who worry that even more of their land will be stolen.

Being attacked for harvesting resistance - Click here for more photos

 

In the Salfit area, 19 Palestinian villages are surrounded by 22 illegal settlements. It is a cluster of stolen land that is threatening to cut the West Bank in two if expansion is allowed to continue. Israel plans to build train tracks from Tel Aviv to the illegal settlement of Ariel, which would speed up this divide.

As the land repairing villagers came closer to the factory, they drew on the attention of the illegal settler security, and a man with a rifle demanding for volunteers to leave. Since the tree planting was taking place on Palestinian soil these calls where not heard by the villagers. A few minutes later the first Israeli soldiers started showing up asking the tree planters to move back from the factory. As some men decided to plant yet another tree at the edge of the factory area, they were surrounded by soldiers and one man was pulled away from the group.

ISM activists tried to get a straight answer as to the reason of the man’s arrest, but it was of no avail. Instead the soldiers surrounded yet another group of men and started tugging at them.

When questioned why they were attempting to arrest Palestinians, the only answer offered by the soldiers was that the area had been declared a closed military zone and that the man had been bothering the soldiers. However the soldiers could not produce any document proving the declaration of the area beeing a military zone.

ISM activists demanded to see relevant paperwork in support of the military’s claims, else they must release the man since there were  no substantial suspicions against him. After apoximately 20 minutes of avoiding the stares of upset activists and villagers, the soldiers retreated, and after some further negotiations back and forth the Palestinian man was  successfully de-arrested and released.

Though this particular case ended with nothing worse than a pair of sore wrists, it is a clear example of the lawlessness suffered by Palestinians under Israeli military law.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Golani Brigade Report: Incidences involving the detention, intimidation, abuse, or arrest of children and youth.

13 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement and Christian Peacemaker Teams

Since the arrival of the Golani Brigade in Hebron on December 27th, international accompaniment organizations (Christian Peacemaker Teams, International Solidarity Movement, and others) have documented an increase in the number of serious human rights violations against the Palestinian people, particularly youth and children in the Old City and Tel Rumeida.

All recorded incidences have been documented through first-hand observation and/or the victims’ testimony. The following report demonstrates a sharp increase in harassment, violence, and human rights violations by the Israeli military towards the Palestinian population of Hebron. Contrary to given justifications, none of those involved were observed to voice or pose any threat to the soldiers. As the Golani Brigade is expected to remain in Hebron another two to five months, members of these international observer organizations fear that such abuses will escalate and make life unbearable for the Palestinians living under occupation in Hebron.

The International Solidarity Movement will publish each segment of the report in a series of articles. To download the full report, please click the following link: FULL REPORT- Under Attack: The Golani Brigade’s war on the Palestinian population of Al-Khalil (Hebron).

Contacts:

International Solidarity Movement, palreportskhalil@gmail.com (972/0 59-550-02864)

Christian Peacemaker Teams, cptheb@cpt.org (927/0 59 810 4549) (972/0 54 342 0117)

1. Incidences involving the detention, intimidation, abuse, or arrest of children and youth. 

Tuesday, January 3rd: Fifteen Golani soldiers approached a group of children playing outside in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, looking for children that were throwing stones. They had started to arrest a 15 year-old boy when elders, women, and family members came outside to stop them.   In response, soldiers hit a woman, a three year-old boy, and a 70 year-old man before firing three sound grenades and detaining two men.  These men were taken to the military base and held for two hours.

Saturday, January 7th: Patrolling Golani entered an internet cafe in the Old City and made an apparently arbitrary arrest of a young teenager for not having his ID.

Thursday, January 12th: Golani dragged a developmentally disabled young man into an alley and hit him repeatedly after he knocked on the checkpoint door, which they closed in front of him. This occurred near his home next to the Quiton checkpoint.  When his father ran to the alley, the soldiers stopped and released the boy.  That same evening, the soldiers entered the family home to attack his mother and beat the boy with nightsticks and fists.  The boy’s brother, hearing a noise, came downstairs, where he was grabbed and beaten in the same way.  The soldiers then threw him to the ground, searched him, and beat his head with rifles.  Both boys were brought to the police station where they held were for an hour and a half.  They then released the developmentally disabled young man to his home and transported his brother to Jabara prison, from which he was released later that night. His family took him to the hospital to receive care for a cracked skull, sutures, and care for his hands, which he could not move.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KdOuy233QyM%22%3Ehttp%3A

Friday, January 20th: Golani held a 10 and 12 year-old boy behind the gate of the Beit Romano settlement. Soldiers told witnesses and family members, who were present outside the gates, that the boys were detained for “throwing rocks”.  A witness said the boys had been wearing ski masks because of the cold weather, but had not been throwing rocks. When the parents arrived at the gate, soldiers approached them with a list of five other boys from the Old City, saying that if the parents brought them to the gate, their sons would be released. The parents did not, but the boys were released two hours later.

Saturday, January 21st:  During the settlers’ tour, around 4 pm, Golani soldiers took the 15 year-old brother of the two detained boys from his house and detained him.  He was released later that day.

Thursday, February 2nd: Fifteen Golani soldiers detained two children, ages 12 and 13, for 45 minutes on Shuhada Street near the entrance to the Muslim cemetery.  Later, six of the soldiers brought the boys up through the cemetery to a military base. In all, they were held for two hours. Both boys were too young to have IDs.

Saturday, February 4th:  Eight Golani soldiers in Bab al Baladia grabbed four boys all around the age of nine and detained them in an alley, claiming one of the boys had thrown a stone. No witnesses saw them throw the stone. International observers told the soldiers that the boys were not old enough to be arrested, and the soldier replied that in that case he would “arrest their fathers.” They released the boys 30 minutes later.

Monday February 6th:  Six soldiers detained two 11 year-old boys at Quortuba School in Tel Rumeida as school was letting out, telling them that they would be arrested for throwing stones. Several teachers and the principal of the school told the soldiers that they boys were not throwing stones. The soldiers replied, “we will let the boys go this time, but if they ever threw stones against the Israeli people again, we will arrest them and cause problems for your entire school.”

During the calendar month of January 2012, international observers witnessed a sharp increase in the number of Palestinian teenage and school-age boys body-searched by Israeli forces, who had reportedly agreed that soldiers would not search bags of children attending school. This number has not been documented through the course of this report but is clear to observers on the ground. Furthermore, according to residents, compared to previous brigades stationed in Hebron, the Golani have greatly increased this type harassment.

Randa Adnan: The world must intervene to save my husband

by Joe Catron

13 February 2012 | Mondoweiss

Randa and Khader Adnan's daughter Ma'ali, age four

As Khader Adnan entered his 59th day on hunger strike, his wife Randa appealed for the international community to end his isolation and save his life.

“My husband is dying inside an Israeli jail. The world should make sure I am able to see him,” she said. “And it should pressure the Israeli government to release him before it’s too late.”

Khader, a 33-year-old baker, graduate Birzeit University economics student, and Islamic Jihad Movement activist, was detained in a 3:30 am raid on his home in Arraba, Jenin on December 17. Israel’s forces have arrested him eight times, and he has spent over six years in its prisons, mostly under administrative detention orders. He has been unable to complete his studies because of these repeated imprisonments.

He began a hunger strike the same day to protest Israel’s administrative detention policy and the brutality of his captors, and to demand his freedom. Israeli interrogators responded by continuing the beatings that began during his arrest, tying him into painful positions for hours, ripping hair from his beard, smearing dirt onto his face, throwing him into a “punishment cell” with bright lights and loud noises intended to prevent sleep, and denying him treatment for his gastric illness, the disc problems in his back, and the injuries their fellow soldiers had inflicted on him. After they graphically insulted members of his family, including his two young daughters and elderly mother – a form of psychological torture used by Israeli troops to extract information from Palestinian suspects – he launched a speech strike, refusing to talk with them as well.

On January 8, an Israeli military court sentenced Khader to administrative detention until May 8. Israel holds 310 Palestinians under this extrajudicial measure, which allows its military to detain prisoners indefinitely without presenting accusations or evidence against them. Like other Palestinian prisoners, administrative detainees have minimal access to their families, whom Israel denies basic information about their relatives’ cases and conditions.

“I didn’t know what had happened to him until December 30, when the court held his first hearing,” Randa said. “My security application was rejected, so the prisons administration wouldn’t allow me to see him until a human rights organization coordinated our family’s first visit to him in the hospital last Tuesday. They refused to allow us to stay with him for more than 15 minutes.”

By then, she said, her husband could barely move to greet her.  His shrunken, ulcerated body seemed like a shell, with its life already gone. She was shocked, and her daughters Ma’ali (four years old) and Bissan (one and a half) frightened, by the sight of his long nails and his beard and hair, which were overgrown, disheveled, and falling out in clumps. He told her that his captors had prevented him from bathing, grooming, or changing his clothes since his arrest, 52 days earlier.

“Israel has treated my husband without any humanity or compassion for his deteriorating health,” Randa said. “It’s obviously very bad, yet they’re not only preventing him from receiving any treatment, but also attacking his basic dignity as a human being.”

A letter from Khader’s cell in the Ramleh prison hospital Saturday seemed resigned to his likely fate. “The only thing I can do is offer my soul to God as I believe righteousness and justice will eventually triumph over tyranny and oppression,” he wrote. “I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on.” On Monday, a military court rejected his appeal and approved his administrative detention.

Yet Randa seemed to hold onto a glimmer of hope, for her husband’s life and for the world.  “Israel denied Khader any fairness or decency,” she said. “But maybe the rest of humanity will show more mercy.”

Joe Catron is an international solidarity activist and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) organizer in Gaza, Palestine. He blogs and tweets.

“It’s Hevron. It’s very dangerous” warn occupation forces in Al Buwayra

by Pascaline

12 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday 12 February, about 200 settlers, mainly youth, gathered at the bottom of Assima settlement in Al Buwayra to cultivate and steal Palestinian land with accompaniment by the Israeli military.

They were carrying Israeli flags and posters. The military opened a gate leading these illegal and typically violent settlers onto Palestinian land and marched them to Hilltop 25. They remained there for a while and then moved to the other side of Road 60 leading to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba and planted trees.

The Israeli Occupation Forces and police were faciltating the planting, and they let the settlers play music loudly from a car equipped with amplifiers to disturb the peace while making their presence a loud infringement on Palestinian land.

As ISM and Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel members walked up to visit Palestinian families, they were stopped by Israeli police, who checked IDs. When they were asked why they were checking their passports, the answer police answered that, “This is not Israel, it’s Hevron. It’s very dangerous.”

The Palestinians families told internationals that the illegal settlers had thrown stones at the house and broken a window. The settlers left shortly after the internationals got there, but were heard saying they would come back the following day.

The land where they planted trees is meant to be used to build houses for the children of the Palestinian families.

Pascaline is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Meitar Checkpoint: Women demand an end to strip-searching by Israeli military and prison administration

12 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A demonstration was held Sunday, February 12th at the Meitar checkpoint north of Beer Sheba in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in the Naqab (Negev) region as well as their family members who must pass through this checkpoint to visit them. The demonstration was organised by the Al-Khalil (Hebron) chapter of the Palestinian Prisoners Society and was attended by affected families, along with Palestinian and International supporters.

Solidarity for prisoners at Meitar Checkpoint - Click here for more images

This morning at 9:30 AM a group of about 100 demonstrators arrived at Meitar carrying banners, flags and pictures of loved ones held in Israeli prisons. The protesters made speeches and chanted slogans calling for freedom for political prisoners and for Prisoner of War and political recognition from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is charged with upholding International Human Rights Law in times of peace and war. From the beginning Israeli border police surrounded the peaceful demonstration, and as the group approach the border terminal, they began shoving. Despite this aggression, after one and a half hours the demonstration ended peacefully.

A young Palestinian woman named Fadwa told ISM that to visit her brother Jihad, who has been held in Israeli prison for a decade, she must make a 12-hour journey involving strip searches and extensive interrogation at Meitar only to be repeated again at the prison. She recalls that several times she has been forced to leave her shoes and jacket in the interrogation room and pass through the checkpoint barefoot, even in cold weather.

Ranna, whose husband Yasser has been held in Rimon prison in the Naqab for nine years, recounts a similar story of humiliation by Israeli border authorities. When arresting her husband, Israeli soldiers beat him so severely that he lost his right eye, and they refused to tell Ranna where he was to be held or what his charges were. Now she, along with her three children, must endure an ordeal like that of Fadwa, when visiting her husband in Rimon. Ranna says it is not only she that has been strip searched, but “women of all ages, even old women.”

Approximately 5,000 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli prisons, the vast majority in contravention of international law which prohibits the transfer of a people from occupied territory to the territory of the occupier (within Israel’s 1948 boundaries). Many of these were never formally charged or given access to legal defence. Palestinian prisoners and solidarity groups have been organising to protest Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners, which has been thoroughly documented by human rights organisations like B´Tselem, Adameer, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Soldiers at the Meitar checkpoint, along with forcing hundreds of families to endure extensive delays, interrogations and intrusive searches, have recently begun strip searching female relatives also, which the women fear is being videotaped. That this humiliation follows mass hunger strikes and other prisoner organising, has led activists such as Amjad Najjar (media spokesperson for the Prisoner Society) to decry this harassment as “collective punishment,” not only of prisoners but also of their support network. The Prisoners Society plans to continue staging protests at Palestinian ICRC branches (including Khalil) until their demands for compliance with international law are met.