Category: Video

12- and 11-year old Palestinian children arrested after attack by settler children – Swedish activist also arrested

28th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

UPDATE 2nd May 09.30 Full video of child arrests now available from Youth Against Settlements. Swedish activist Gustav is resisting deportation to highlight the issue of child arrests in Hebron which have seriously escalated in recent months.

UPDATE 29th April 20.00 Gustav, the arrested Swedish activist is currently being held in Givon immigration prison, having had his visa revoked by the Israeli authorities. He was beaten during his arrest and hit with a gun. Soldiers conducted two mock executions by pointing guns at his head, loading them and pretending to press the trigger. He was blindfolded and kept inside the military base in Hebron, where he could hear the crying of the arrested children next to him. He is now awaiting deportation back to Sweden by the Israeli authorities, for peacefully objecting to the arrest of two Palestinian children.

UPDATE 28th April 19.30 The two Heikel brothers were released around 18.30. Ahmed (aged 12) has had his fingerprints taken by the police and his younger brother Mouawieh (aged 11) was kicked in the stomach by an Israeli soldier.

UPDATE 28th April 18.30: The Swedish activist has now been transferred to Jerusalem. He is facing possible deportation by the Israeli authorities for trying to non-violently intervene in the wrongful arrest of two Palestinian children.
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28th April 14.00:Israeli military today arrested Ahmed Abu Heikel, aged 12, and his brother Mouawieh, aged 11, in Hebron after they were attacked by a settler child from the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah. One Swedish activist was also arrested after intervening in the arrests of the children.

At around 1pm Palestinian children were walking home from Qortoba school when they were attacked by the child of extremist settlers living in the centre of Hebron, who was accompanied by his two older brothers. The youngest settler boy started throwing sticks, beating Ahmed and hurling insults at him. As soon as Ahmed defended himself against the beatings, the settler children immediately called for soldiers at nearby checkpoints who came running. Eyewitnesses state that the Palestinian children were not violent. The settler children pointed out Ahmed and Mouawieh as well as their classmate Bilal Said, who were violently grabbed and pushed against a wall by soldiers.

12 year old Ahmad being protected by the headteacher of the Qortoba School as he was being arrested
12 year old Ahmad being protected by the headteacher of the Qortoba School as soldiers were trying to arrest him

A crowd of about 50 people quickly gathered, mostly Palestinian neighbours and classmates as well as international activists, journalists and settlers. The crowd, and especially the headmistress of Qortoba school, Noora Zayer, who was walking with the boys and witnessed the attack, insisted that the arrest was unacceptable. Bystanders and international activists managed to de-arrest Bilal, who then ran away. However Ahmed and Mouawieh were arrested; Ahmed is apparently being charged with assaulting the Israeli soldier who was called to the scene by the settler children and grabbed the Palestinian rather than the settler child.

A non-violent Swedish activist who intervened peacefully on behalf of the children has also been arrested and is being charged with assaulting a soldier. The two children and the Swedish activist were taken away separately in military jeeps. The Swedish activist is currently being held in Givat Havot settlement near Hebron city, whilst Ahmed and Mouawieh are being held in interrogation centres.

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The Israeli soldiers took no action against the settler children who had instigated the attack. The police summoned the youngest settler child who had attacked Ahmed and spoke to him in the presence of his parents for about half a minute, after which he was allowed to go back home without any repercussions. Israeli children living in illegal settlements across the West Bank are subject to civilian law, meaning they are not criminally liable when they are under the age of 14, whereas military law is applied to Palestinian children, who are deemed by the Israeli authorities not to be minors if they are over 12.

This is the latest in an escalating series of arrests of children by the Israeli military in recent months. Christian Peacemakers Team Hebron have compiled a report of these child arrests, which includes 27 children attacked and arrested outside of their school. The report is available here.

Video by Youth Against Settlements

Salfit continues to suffer from illegal settlement sewage

18th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Salfit, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

The agricultural district of Salfit, about 25 miles north of Jerusalem, is facing health and environmental problems throughout its villages because of a constant stream of sewage from nearby illegal Israeli settlements, most notably Barkan and Ariel settlements which also hold illegal factory developments. See the below video with photos and video taken on a recent visit to Salfit by solidarity activists.

Video: Soldiers continue to intimidate and provoke school children in Hebron

17th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

This morning an Israeli jeep drove around an area of Hebron that is home to 5 schools as children made their way to class. To get to school, the pupils of these schools already need to pass through a metal detector at checkpoint 29.

In the same place 27 school children were dragged into army jeeps and arrested on the 20th of March this year. At the time the soldiers claimed they were trying to find children who they claimed had thrown stones.

The army’s presence at the schools causes the children to gather and shout at them from the balcony of their classrooms, which the soldiers are fully aware of. Their continued presence around these schools is clearly designed to provoke the school children into throwing stones at them .

Last week, after another army visit to the Al Khalil UN school, the head master told us that the soldiers had claimed that children had been causing problems at the checkpoint on their way to school that morning. This was blatantly a lie considering International activists had been monitoring the checkpoint all morning without witnessing any problems.

On top of provocation the army’s presence is also designed to intimidate the school children who can be seen running away in the opposite direction of approaching army vehicles.

VIDEO: 13 year old boy arrested in Hebron

13th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

13 year old boy is arrested by an Israeli soldier
13 year old boy is arrested by an Israeli soldier

A thirteen year old boy was arrested from his home in the Old City of Hebron, blindfolded and detained inside several small checkpoint boxes as well as the military base on Hebron’s Shuhada Street. International activists who attempted to document the incident were physically stopped and threatened by soldiers and settlers.

The boy was taken from his home and transported to Checkpoint 56, a small metal box on the border between the Israeli and Palestinian controlled areas of the city. He was blindfolded and shut inside the checkpoint for around 20 minutes. After this, he was removed by soldiers and walked down Shuhada Street, still blindfolded, and put inside another small checkpoint box.

After 15 minutes he was removed from this checkpoint and walked to an Israeli army base. International activists who attempted to follow to document the situation were stopped by soldiers who called them “Nazi pigs”, pushed them and refused to accept their passports as identification. After several minutes of the soldier harassing activists a group of around fifteen settlers arrived, several carrying automatic weapons. They pushed and threatened the international activists – see video below.

A man is blindfolded and led down Shuhada street by a soldier
Blindfolded man led down Shuhada street by soldier

During this time, the boy was taken to the Israeli military base on Shuhada Street, at which point activists could hear several soldiers shouting loudly, seemingly at the boy. After around another 15 minutes, the boy was taken by jeep back to Checkpoint 56, where he was released to the Palestinian side of Hebron into the custody of the Palestinian police. He was accused by the Israeli military of stone throwing, a charge they regularly use against children and young men, many of whom are arrested at random.

Earlier in the day, a woman was detained at a checkpoint in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. When asked why the woman was detained the soldier told international activists that “she was suspected of carrying a knife”. Despite this accusation, she was not searched for knives andwas was released after ten minutes.

Another man was detained in the area of Shuhada Street before being blindfolded and led down the street by an Israeli soldier. The blindfolded man said that he did not know why he was being arrested, whereas soldiers claimed that he had entered the part of Shuhada Street to which the Israeli authorities deny access for Palestinians. Soldiers told international activists that he had been released but this remains unconfirmed. Another Palestinian man working with a Latvian journalist was also detained on Shuhada Street during the day, held at a checkpoint for around 15 minutes and then released.

The arrest of a 13 year old boy on the 14th April follows a disturbing series of arrests and detentions of children as young as seven in the Old City of Hebron in recent months – “Occupied Childhoods”, a report on child-arrests compiled by the Hebron Christian Peacemaker Team is available here.

Call to Action: Join Addameer’s Global End Administrative Detention Campaign!

8th April 2013 |Addameer, Occupied Palestine

Addameer calls on activists and people of conscience to stand in solidarity with all political prisoners and join Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Organization’s upcoming global campaign against administrative detention.

Over 4,743 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel; 10 of them women, 193 of them children, and 178 of them held under administrative detention, a decrepit policy that Israel uses to hold Palestinians on secret information indefinitely without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
Not only are these prisoners held arbitrarily, but Israel’s use of administrative detention violates several international standards, such as deporting Palestinians from the occupied territory to Israel, denying regular family visits and failing to take into account the best interests of child detainees as required under international law.
We need your support to break their chains and the silence on administrative detention.
 
Today, Israel has outsourced security for prisons where Palestinians are held to a British-Danish company named G4S. Along with the Israeli Prison Service, G4S is responsible for the harsh conditions the prisoners faced during the historic 2012 hunger strikes that thousands of Palestinians participated in, including two hunger strikers that neared death in protest of their arbitrary detention, Khader Adnan and Hana Al-Shalabi. G4S is also complicit in Israel’s detention of nearly one-third of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006, and for dozens of human rights defenders being arrested every year for participating in popular resistance.
The government of Israel should release all administrative detainees, and in the meantime, all administrative detainees must be granted their rights in accordance with international law.
Addameer supports the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against G4S to end its complicity in detaining administrative detainees and  to put pressure on the Israeli government to release the prisoners. Addameer calls on solidarity organizations, individuals and human rights organizations around the world to join our End Administrative Detention campaign launching on 17 April 2013.
 
TAKE ACTION!
You can help us pressure the Israeli government to release the prisoners by:
  • Participating in a mass day of mobilization in your city on 17 April, the annual Palestinian Prisoners Day.
  • Organizing an “End Administrative Detention” week on 17-24 April 2013 in your city or university campus using Addameer’s forthcoming campaign materials.
  •  Joining a local G4S BDS campaign in your city.
  • Raising awareness about administrative detention in your community using our forthcoming Activist Toolkit.