Hamas officials say Israeli police have detained a cabinet minister from the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Khaled Abu Arafa, minister of Jerusalem affairs, was arrested on the outskirts of East Jerusalem, the officials said.
Hamas said Mr Abu Arafa, a resident of the city, had been detained several times by Israel in the past.
He is one of a group of officials who became ministers last week after the militant group won December’s Palestinian elections.
Israeli officials have so far only said that they are checking reports of the arrest. The matter has been referred to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
News agency reports said Mr Arafa was detained at a checkpoint at the entrance to al-Azaria, a suburb of East Jerusalem.
His bodyguard told the BBC that their car was stopped by Israeli border police and the minister asked for his papers. He said there was an argument and Mr Arafa was dragged from his car.
The BBC’s James Reynolds in Jerusalem says it seems likely that Israel arrested Mr Arafa because he was on his way to inaugurate new political offices.
Israel bans all political activity in East Jerusalem.
Heart of the conflict
East Jerusalem is at the very heart of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The majority of its residents are Palestinian, and Palestinians hope to make it their future capital.
Israel says the whole of Jerusalem is its indivisible capital. East Jerusalem, like the West Bank, has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1981, but its claim to the area is not recognised internationally.
Under the plan for further unilateral disengagement proposed by acting Prime Minister and Kadima party leader Ehud Olmert, East Jerusalem and large areas of the West Bank, especially the area around the city, would remain under Israeli control.
by: Alys a member of IWPS (The International Womens Peace Service) Prologue By ISM media
Palestinian child in Tel Rumeida
Hebron, a city in the southern part of the West Bank, is unique in that the settlements, inhabited by fanatical Zionists, are located right within Palestinian neighborhoods. The proximity of the settlements and the often violent and abusive behavior of the settlers, makes life extremely difficult for the Palestinians whose homes now fall into H2, the Israeli-controlled area.
The population of Tel Rumeida settlement, along with the three other settlements located in the Old City (Beit Hadassa, Avraham Avinu and Beit Romano), totals around 500, yet results in approximately 4,000 soldiers being stationed there. The daily lives of Palestinians are severely disrupted by both the settlers and the military.
Tel Rumeida settlement, which began in 1984 with six mobile homes/caravans occupying Palestinian land, has continued to expand, with the settlers using any means necessary in their attempts to drive the Palestinians away from their homes and land. In 1998 the Israeli government officially approved the settlement and in 2001 the Israeli Defence Ministry gave a permit to build 16 housing units. Without the support — financial and military — of the Israeli government, it would be hard, if not impossible, for the settlement to continue.
The settlers are extremely hostile, on many occasions violent and abusive. The forms of violence include throwing stones and rocks, spitting and physically attacking Palestinians, sometimes resulting in broken bones. The settlers are free to wander the streets with guns slung over their backs. Their armed presence and near impunity before the law means they wield great power.
For the Palestinian families whose homes are now spitting distance — literally — from the settlements, their refusal to move, to be driven out, is a daily form of resistance. It is a resistance which takes courage,determination, and strength.
Shabbat. A beautiful spring day. Two teenage boys walking casually down the deserted main street. In another place, in another life, maybe a different story. But here they are armed settlers. Teenage boys, indoctrinated with fanatical religious beliefs, guns slung over their backs. A street that had formally been a thriving, bustling market. Now not a single shop remains open and only a handful of Palestinian families remain living there.
And for the Palestinians there is much to negotiate. For the families who now have the settlers living right next to them, on their land, even leaving the house is an ordeal. Not only risking being attacked, spat at, verbally abused, but also some are no longer free to walk down the street to reach their house.
Three small girls on their way home from school help each other climb over razor wire which blocks their way home. No longer able to walk down the street, the only route left to them — a narrow, rough track cut into the hills — is now blocked by razor wire.
I was shocked walking through the deserted Old City, once a thriving Palestinian market area, now a ghost of its former self. Wire meshing above my head. A net strung across the alleyway to catch the rubbish thrown by the settlers — toilet paper, rotting vegetables, lumps of concrete.
The journey to school not only involves negotiating the checkpoints, but also the settlers. Internationals are involved in the ‘school patrols,’ strategically positioned along the route to school (and indeed some remaining in the school itself) intervening when necessary. Getting between the settlers and the Palestinian children they are throwing stones at. Hopefully helping the journey to school be less of an ordeal. And throughout the afternoon being a visible presence on the streets, complete with video cameras. The camera not only documenting, but also acting as a deterrent.
H2, the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron, is an intense, crazy place. Resistance takes many forms. Refusing to be driven from your home is an act of resistance. Playing football in the street, laughing, having even a fraction of trust in strangers — all these are forms of resistance. I was touched by the strength of the Palestinians as they sought to maintain their day to day lives
and humanity in the face of such hostility and insanity.
Prologue:
On Saturday the 1st of April, Silvana Hogg a Swiss human rights worker with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was assaulted by an Israeli settler in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. This follows on from the previous Saturday when Brian Morgan, an America human rights worker with the Tel Rumeida Project, was attacked by a mob of 20 Jewish settlers while a nearby Israeli soldier ignored repeated pleas for help. Bith required stiches to the head.
Silvana was accompanying Palestinian school children on their way home when the attack happened about 5 meters from a small Israeli army outpost. Three eyewitnesses to the assault went into the Israeli police station wwith a photograph of the settler ofeender and made statements. Silvana herself went to make a statement the next day. The Police are yet to get back to Silvana about the attack.
Both Silvana and Brian regularly work in the Tel Rumeida area accompanying Palestinian school children on the their way to and from classes so that there is less chance that the children will be attacked by the settlers. Attacks on Palestinians and internationals increase on the Sabbath and on holidays when settler youths are not in school and when religious settlers can not use their cars and have to walk home, often harassing Palestinians as they go.
At about 1:20 pm this Friday 31st of March the weekly demonstration against the apartheid barrier in Bil’in set off. As usual, it consisted of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – about 300 in all. When we got to the fence, we were met by a crowd of about 50 Israeli soldiers, some border police and a special riot squad.
The villagers carried a large-scale metal pot that symbolized the empty food pots of the Palestinians that is caused by two “walls”. The first is a physical wall built by Israel in the West Bank. The second is the new international withdrawal of aid from the Palestinian Authority after the Hamas election victory.
The plan for the day was to use a frame as a bridge in order to be able to get over the gate without touching it. This was in order to get around the fact that Palestinians are often accused of “damaging security property” if they touch the fence or gate – this way we would be able to cross to the stolen land without actually touching the gate.
The soldiers reacted to our arrival by attacking the demonstration with sound bombs and beatings. They also fired a rubber bullet when the bridging frame was brought next to the razor-wire. On a second attempt to bring the frame to the gate they beat the demonstrators who were bringing it there and pushed it away. Towards the end they also shot rubber bullets and tear gas at stone-throwing youth from the village.
Three Israelis, one foreign journalist and one Australian activist were beaten and arrested. The Australian activist might be charged with assaulting a soldier, despite the fact that it was the soldiers assaulting him. Several injuries were sustained by the demonstrators and one journalist was even shot in the back with a rubber bullet.
Since 1976 Land Day is marked by Palestinians on the 30th of March to protest against the grabbing of Palestinian lands by Israel.
This year, thousands of Palestinians, along with Israeli and international activists held a series of large-scale peaceful protests against the ongoing occupation and continued theft of Palestinian land by Israel.
Demonstrations took place in the villages of Beit Sira (Ramallah area), Zabda (Jenin area), Rafat (Salfit area) and Tulkarm city (Tulkarm area) with marches alongside the annexation barrier where local residents attempted to plant olive trees.
In Beit Sira, about 400 or 500 demonstrators marched down to the village land where they were met by a large presence of Israeli soldiers blocking the path to the area where they wanted to plant olive trees. They were geared up with riot shields, clubs, rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and live round. After roughly a 5 minute stand-off, the soldiers decided to attempt to drive the demonstration away with physical force – beatings and sound bombs. The Palestinians responded to this mostly by running away, though some threw stones. The soldiers then used the stone throwing as an opportunity to open up with rubber-coated bullets, which in turn provoked further stone throwing. By the end of the demonstration, the soldiers had used a lot of their tear gas and some live rounds were heard. An ambulance was directly hit with a tear gas canister. Several minor injuries were inflicted on Palestinians by the soldiers, including one boy who was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.
Thursday’s nonviolent demonstration in Rafat was quickly met by Israeli soldiers and border police jeeps which blocked the main agricultural road leading to the Annexation Wall. Israeli soldiers threw sound bombs to disperse the demonstration which was peacefully walking with Palestinian flags and signs and chanting “No to the Wall” in Arabic. Despite the sound bombs, the demonstrators pushed forward and more sound bombs and few tear gas canisters were thrown directly in the middle of the crowd.
The demonstrators then sat in front of the jeeps and the Palestinians demanded that they be allowed to go to their land. The Israeli military recently declared 300 of the remaining 500 dunam of village lands are in a closed military zone and have restricted access to pasture and olive groves on the east side of the Wall. After the noon prayer in the road, the Palestinians returned to the village.
Recently, Rafat and the adjacent village of Deir Ballut have been the site of demolitions and access restrictions. While the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the area has winded down, the Israeli military have issued demolition orders and restricted access to pasture and olive groves on the east side of the Wall. Bulldozers are flattening part of the hillside for unknown purposes.
In 2003 and 2004 the Salfit region, particularly the villages of Deir Ballut, Azzawiya, Rafat and Mas’ha, was the center of mass actions against the building of the Apartheid Wall. While not stopping the building of the Wall completely, the resistance of the villages resulted in the High Court ordering the re-routing of the wall in mid-2005. Still, Rafat lost all but 500 dunums of its land. Rafat is adjacent to the 27-settlement bloc of Ariel, the largest Israeli settlement network in the West Bank after Greater-Jerusalem. As he campaigned in Ariel last week, Kadima frontrunner Ehud Olmert pledged to supporters that “the Ariel bloc will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel under any situation.”
Living in the settlement building just up the road a few hundred yards from the violent episode described below is Baruch Marzel, extreme right winger, well known for his hatred of Arabs and support for transferring all Palestinians to Jordan. His wife and son are among the worst for attacking the Palestinian inhabitants of Tel Rumeida. He is standing as a candidate in Tuesday’s Israeli elections
On Sunday 26th March, 25 soldiers and Border Police entered a Palestinian home And beat two Palestinians and 75 year old international volunteer for no apparent reason.
My first evening in Al Khalil/Hebron. I have just poured myself a cup of tea and Mary is telling me about the situation here. There’s a commotion outside and we go to investigate. As we come down the stairwell a young boy says “soldiers, soldiers” and points into the apartment.
On entering the apartment of Radey Abu Aesheh I see first one soldier, gun raised and pointing at people, then I see another and another, 6 altogether. All with guns raised. The apartment seems full of women and men shouting, there are 5 or 6 children. Radey Abu Aesha had been hit in the mouth. Hasan Abu Aesheh tells Mary the soldiers kicked him.
Suddenly the soldiers decide to leave and back down the stairs. Perhaps there were too many people for them. Many people follow, shouting their greivances at the soldiers for entering their home and their violent behaviour. The soldiers are shouting back. The Captain of the soldiers says they went into the house because they heard shouting, nobody believes this.
More soldiers and Border Police arrive until they are very many. The Captain confers with his men. They decide they want to take Bilal Abu Aesheh. In the chaos I don’t know if the soldiers reentered the building. What I saw was 4 soldiers wrestle Bilal to the ground and handcuff him with plastic cuffs behind his back, using aggressive force, banging his head on the ground. After he was cuffed a soldier approached him and kicked him. The Police arrived and he was taken away. Besam persuaded everyone to go back into the building. We stood at the entrance. The soldiers decided they wanted Husan. Soldiers surrounded the doorway, they tossed me aside. Mary refused to let them enter saying “ these people are my family, you can’t come into my house”. They hesitated, they yelled at the Palestinians inside. Husan appeared on the stairwell. They grabbed Mary very roughly twice and threw her aside and grabbed Husan. They pushed him up against the outside wall of the building and rubbed his face across the stone. They hit him and threw him on the ground, they kicked him. They cuffed him behind his back. The women are screaming out of the windows. They take Husan behind one of their vehicles.
For me when I see a Palestinian being taken behind a vehicle I think he will get beaten so I stood nearby, the 2 soldiers guarding him demanding ‘get back, get back’. A large man in civilian clothes shone a bright video camera light in Husan°s eyes and filmed him. He stood right over him as Husan was crouched down on a low ledge. I turned my back for a second, on turning round Husan signaled with his eyes and motioned that the man had spat at him. An action I had half caught in the corner of my eye. Then I understood the man was a settler. The soldiers continued to let him stand over Husan and verbally abuse him. Soldier had lined up behind vehicles and trained their guns on the building. It seemed to take forever before the Police arrived again and Husan was put in the back of their vehicle. Mary said she wanted to go with Husan and the Police did not object, so she climbed in too.
In Radey Abu Aesheh’s home the wait began. The street had been closed but now people began to arrive. The older men clicked their prayer beads whilst they talked. Women made coffee, peeled oranges and apples. Yechye, a lawyer, regularly rang the Police. No news, no news and then bad news, Bilal and Husan were accused of attacking the soldiers. Radey Abu Aesheh says “Bush is claiming we are the terrorists and all the Euopean Governments go along with him and support him. But look how Palestinians are treated, you can see the reverse is true”. Rajab Abu Aesheh says “The settles want the Palestinians to leave the area but the people will not follow this plan, so they are harassing us to force us to leave, but we will not leave until we die and this will be transmitted from son to son”.
Suddenly the police tell Yechye good news, Mary, Bilal and Husan are all being released. It’s a fast walk up hill to get to a car. It’s parked outside the Israeli controlled area, where Palestinians are not allowed to drive. We skirt round Tel Rumeida in the car, to get back to almost where we had left the house and on to the Police station. At the gates of the Police station, Yechye has to stick his fingers though the metal gate to use a phone to communicate with the Police inside. At midnight, the 3 are released. Mary who mis seventy five years old has also been accused of attacking the soldiers. Husan is very sore and bruised, he has blood in one of his eyes.
