I am writing to inform you that on November 2, 2008 the Military Judge at Ofer Military Court rejected the appeal by Addameer Attorney Mahmoud Hassan to reduce the administrative detention order of Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh. This means that both girls will remain in prison until their current administrative detention order ends on January 3, 2009. It is not certain that both girls will even be released on this date. Administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely under Israeli Military Law. Both girls are now in Damoun prison in Israel and are being held with the other Palestinian adult female detainees. They have now spent more than 5 months in Israeli prisons, being held without charge or trial.
Background
Salwa and Sara were both arrested from their homes in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on June 5, 2008. This is the first time that girls under the age of 18 have been put in administrative detention. On June 12, 2008 they were issued with military administrative detention orders. The orders had been set for four months (in respect of Salwa) and five months (in respect of Sara). A military court confirmed the orders on June 18th. An appeal hearing also confirmed the orders on July 16th although Sara’s sentence was reduced from five to four months. They were due to be released on October 4th 2008. On October 5th 2008 both girls were issued with a second administrative detention order. On October 6th 2008 a judicial review of the administrative detention order took place. The military judge (Eyal Noon) upheld the order for a further three months from October 4, 2008 until January 3, 2009. The military judge claims the girls are still ‘dangerous’ despite the fact that the military prosecutor has provided no information since the girls were arrested.
Addameer expresses its deep concern about the situation of Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh and, in particular, the fact that their administrative detention does not respect international human rights standards. Neither Salwa nor Sara have been informed of any charges against them, nor the reason for their arrest and detention, thereby violating fundamental due process and rendering their detention illegal and arbitrary under international law. The twin principles of proportionality and the duty on a state to take into consideration the child’s well being underline much of the detail found in international law concerning the aims, restrictions and prohibitions on the sentencing of children. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice requires that any reaction to the juvenile offenders should ‘always be in proportion to the circumstances of both the offenders and the offence’. Another fundamental principle of sentencing is that the deprivation of liberty, if used at all, should only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time (Art. 37 (b), CRC). Clearly this is not the case for these two young girls. The Court did not abide by these legal standards laid out for all detained minors. This is the first time that both girls have been in prison. Currently, there are approximately 750 Palestinians now in administrative detention. Of these there are approximately 13 Palestinians under the age of 18 years old.
ACT NOW TO SUPPORT SALWA AND SARAH:
Register your outrage to imprisonment without trial. PLEASE WRITE to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities demanding: the immediate release of all administrative detainees in the absence of valid legal charges, or, if such charges exist, bring them before an impartial, independent, competent and fair tribunal and guarantee their procedural rights at all times.
Ministry of Defence, 37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940
Email: minister@mod.gov.il
PLEASE WRITE TO the International Bar Association (IBA), asking its members and Human Rights Institute to put pressure on the Israeli Bar Association to ensure that all subjects under Israeli jurisdiction be granted the basic principles of rule of law – transparent processes which do not allow for arbitrary justice or governance – to which the IBA’s Human Rights Institute (HRI) claims to be dedicated to: “The HRI is now a leading voice in the promotion of the rule of law worldwide.” Please send your letters of concern to the Director of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association, Fiona Paterson, and copy it the Chairs of the Council, Ambassador Emilio Cardenas (Argentina) and Justice Richard Goldstone (South Africa).
Fiona Paterson
Director of Human Rights Institute. International Bar Association
10th Floor. 1Stephen St
London, W1T 1AT
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7691 6868
Fax: +44 (0)20 7691 6544
Israeli Embassies and Consulates in your own country
A directory of Israeli embassies can be found on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To access it, please go to the following link: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Sherut/IsraeliAbroad/Continents/
Kindly inform us of any action taken by copying Addameer at addameer@p-ol.com so we can keep track of the letters of support.
To view original article published by B’Tselem click here
Video by Reuters
On 4 November 2008, the judge advocate general, Brig. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, informed the High Court of Justice that, despite the court’s suggestion that the prosecution consider filing more serious charges against Lt. Col. Omri Borberg and Staff Sgt. L. in the case involving the shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian in Ni’lin, he decided to leave the indictment as it is.
Attorney Dan Yakir, of the Association for Civil Rights, stated on behalf of the petitioners – the Association for Civil Rights, B’Tselem, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Yesh Din – that, “We regret that, despite the severe criticism voiced by the High Court, the JAG remains firm in his opinion that abuse of a bound Palestinian detainee by a senior officer and shooting him is, at most, unbecoming conduct. The High Court now has the task of determining the appropriate response for such serious acts.”
Testimony taken by B’Tselem from Mohammad Khawaje who was arrested from Ni’lin on the 11th September 2008
To view original testimony taken by B’Tselem click here
Muhammad Khawajah
I live with my family in Ni’lin. We live on the ground floor of the house, my two uncles and their families live on the first floor, and my grandmother lives on the second floor.
Photo by Iyad Haddad
Last Thursday [11 September], around 3:00 A.M., I woke up from my mother’s shouts. She was shouting, “Get up! Get up! The army is here!” My father wasn’t home that night. I got up and went out with her to the inner courtyard of the house. There were about 12 soldiers there, and their faces were painted black. One soldier wore a black hat that covered his face. He sat on the stairs outside the house and didn’t take part. I think he was a collaborator who led them to houses.
The soldiers were on the first floor. I heard them tell my Uncle Sami to direct them to our floor. One of the soldiers asked, “Where is Muhammad?”, and I realized he was asking about me. The soldier told my uncle to call me, so he did. I started walking towards them. Two soldiers grabbed me and took me outside. I realized they wanted to arrest me. I was afraid, and began to cry, and called my uncle to come with me.
The soldiers cuffed my hands tight with plastic handcuffs, which hurt a lot. A soldier grabbed me by the shirt from behind and started walking and pushing me forward. The shirt was up against my neck and I couldn’t breathe properly. I tried to free myself, and he punched me in the back and pulled the shirt tighter, choking me even more. Another soldier also punched me and pulled my hair as we walked. I cried and called out for my uncle and my father. The soldiers hit me and said, “Quiet! Quiet!” They led me to an alleyway between the houses, where there are cactuses. We were walking by some cactuses and then one of the soldiers pushed me into them. The thorns pricked me in the hands and legs. The soldiers kept on pushing me forward and hitting me along the way.
Muhammad Khawajah at his family’s grocery store in Ni’lin. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 18 Oct. 2008.Muhammad Khawajah at his family’s grocery store in Ni’lin. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 18 Oct. 2008.
While we were walking, children from the village began to throw stones at the soldiers. It felt like it was raining stones. The soldiers were confused. Some of them ran off, and the others pushed me to move faster, and I fell down. One soldier started dragging me along the ground, on my stomach, with my hands tied. The ground was full of stones, gravel, and dirt. He pulled me by my hands and I cried and shouted. He told me to shut up. He wanted to pull me faster, to get away from the stones. He dragged me a few meters, until we were behind a wall. It felt like my right knee and the palms of my hands were injured. My knee was bleeding.
Some soldiers fired tear gas in the direction of the stone throwers. The grenade fell not far from me and I started coughing and crying. My eyes were burning. We started walking again, the soldiers pushing me from behind. We got to a house in the village, about 400 meters away, and they broke in. It was the house of ‘Abd a-Rahman Lu’ai ‘Abd al-Halim, 14, who goes to school with me. They arrested him and his cousin, Sufian Nawaf al-Khawajah, 18. They took the three of us to the village center, about 400 meters from my house, and made us stand facing a shop with our hands raised. ‘Abd a-Rahman and Sufian were handcuffed as well. The soldiers beat us and knocked us to the ground. We lay there and they stepped on us, on our heads and stomach, for a few minutes. Then they stood us on our feet and pushed us toward the entrance to the village. A soldier was behind each of us, holding each one by the shirt.
Every now and then the soldiers punched and kicked us. One soldier was angry at me in particular. He beat and strangled me, as if he wanted to kill me. I think some of the soldiers had been hit by the stones thrown by the children. I shouted and cried, I was so scared. It was still dark out. They led us about one kilometer, to the junction that leads to the Nili settlement. There were lots of army jeeps at the junction. The soldiers blindfolded me and put me into a jeep. It was about an hour after they had arrested me. The jeep began to move. I didn’t know where it was going.
I sat on the floor of the jeep, without any soldiers next to me. After about half an hour, maybe an hour, of driving, the jeep stopped, and the soldiers took me out of it. I could see a bit through the blindfold. I didn’t know where I was, but it was an army base. I saw another two jeeps pull up. They took ‘Abd a-Rahman out of one and Sufian out of the other.
Then they drove us somewhere else. There they sat us down on benches, and after ten minutes they called us in for questioning, one after the other. ‘Abd a-Rahman went first and his questioning lasted for about twenty minutes. Then I went into the room and they took off my blindfold. I saw a man in civilian clothes. He was stout, with a round face and fair skin. He was wearing a skullcap. He said his name was Captain Sasson, and I also heard other people call him that. He sat me down next to his table and asked me questions about children from the village. He showed me pictures from a thick photo album, which had about 200 photos. He asked me about some children again and again, and I told him I didn’t know them. Then he stopped asking me about them and showed me three pictures of myself, holding a slingshot in a demonstration against the separation fence. I admitted that it was me, but I kept on saying that I didn’t know the other children. Then he hit me in the back with a plastic stool. I cried and shouted, and he hit me twice in the leg with a wooden stick.
A soldier who had a pistol on his hip ordered me to get up and face the window or the closet. There was a camera fixed in place in front of me. He took my picture, and then the interrogator told me to sign, with my fingerprint, a page with Hebrew writing. I don’t know what it said. The soldier didn’t read it to me. I assume it was a confession. I had to sign, because I was afraid he would beat me. The interrogator took prints of all my fingers, and then told the soldier to blindfold me again. He took me out of the room and sat me down on the bench outside. The interrogation had taken about half an hour. Then they took Sufian in, also for about half an hour.
Then they put the three of us in a big patrol van, and after driving for about quarter of an hour, they took us out and removed the blindfolds. I saw a sign that said “Ofer,” and I realized we were in Ofer Prison. They took us into a room where they search people. They took off our clothes and a doctor examined us. They gave us bags with pants, a shirt, and flip-flops. They arrested Sufian and put him in a detention room. A policeman in a blue uniform [of the regular police] spoke with the soldiers. I understood that he was telling them to release us. He said to us, in Arabic, “You are small children and should be released.”
They kept ‘Abd a-Rahman and me outside the detention room and then returned us to the van. Our hands were still cuffed. After about twenty minutes, they brought each one of us a container of jello. They removed the cuffs and let us eat. About half an hour later, they put the cuffs back on.
Two soldiers were guarding us in the van. We weren’t allowed to talk to each other. Whenever we said something, a soldier told us to shut up. It was very hot in the van, and we were sweating a lot. They didn’t give us anything to eat or drink. They did let us go to the bathroom, removing the handcuffs and putting them back on when we returned.
We stayed like that until after the muezzin called worshipers to evening prayers, around 8:00 P.M. Then they took us to another camp. I think it was the Beit Sira camp.
At the camp, they gave us a chocolate drink and put us in a small room with green army mattresses. There weren’t any beds. The cuffs were loose now, so we took them off, drank the chocolate drink and went to sleep.
The next morning, at 10:00, they put us in a patrol van and cuffed our hands again, but this time they didn’t blindfold us. They took us back to Ofer Prison and put us in the tent section, Department 2, which had eighty-three detainees, of all ages. Each department had four tents, with about twenty detainees in each.
The detainees treated us well. They gave us candy, chocolate and potato chips. I felt comfortable. I fasted during the day and played soccer and tennis. The Department had TVs, one in each tent. I saw kids’ programs during the day and a Syrian show, “Bab al-Hara”, at night. A detainee helped me ask for the doctor to treat my leg. They took me to the clinic and the doctor put iodine on my knee wound and bandaged it.
At first, I was afraid and cried sometimes, because my family was far away. I’ve never been detained before. It was a new experience for me. I didn’t know anything about detention before then. I don’t know why they detained me – the whole village and all the children took part in the demonstrations, so why did they pick me?!
The adult detainees took care of me because I was the youngest detainee in the Department, and they decided to make me assistant to the sergeant of the Department.
I would wake up every morning at 6:00 and call to the detainees: “Let’s go! Time for the count!” They would get up and then the soldiers would come in and count them. I stood next to the soldiers as they counted. The soldiers treated me with respect and asked the older detainees to take care of me. The Department sergeant always helped me. He was older than most of the other detainees and spoke Hebrew. We worked together, helping the detainees and submitting their requests to the prison officials and to the guards.
On Sunday morning [14 September], at 6:00, I was taken to court together with ‘Abd a-Rahman. Before we left for court, they shackled our hands and legs with handcuffs and iron chains. When we got there, they put us in a small room to wait until the hearing began, at 2:00 P.M. We didn’t ask for food or drink because we were fasting.
When the time for the hearing came, they took us into the courtroom, the two of us handcuffed. My father was there and so was a man from B’Tselem. Later, I learned that his name was Iyad Hadad. Other people also came to the hearing, and it made me feel good to see them. I was very happy to see my father, but the soldiers didn’t let me hug him or even touch his hand.
An Israeli lawyer defended me. I don’t know her name. She asked that I be released on bond and the judge granted the request, but set bond at 3,000 shekels. My father didn’t have the money, so we couldn’t pay.
After the hearing, they took me back into detention. The next day, my father managed to borrow the money for the bond, and I was released on condition that I return to a hearing on Tuesday [16 September]. I went home to my parents and family. I was very happy. I went to the medical clinic in the village because my neck and shoulder hurt, and also because of the scratches and wound to my knee. They examined me and treated me. They told me to rest for a week and to come back for follow-up.
My father went with me to the hearing on Tuesday. The hearing was postponed until 21 October 2008.
Since I got released, I’ve had problems. I wake up at night in fear and I can hardly sleep. I went to a psychologist called Khaled Shahawan and he gave me medicine and sedatives. I feel that it’s hard to concentrate in school. Last year my grade average was 94.
Muhammad Salah Muhammad Khawajah, 12, is a student and a resident of Ni’lin in Ramallah District. His testimony was given to Iyad Hadad on 18 September 2008 at the witness’s home.
To view original article, published by Haaretz on the 7th November, click here
The Israel Defense Forces has asked the Shin Bet security service and the police to provide it with information on left-wing figures active in the West Bank so it will be easier to issue restraining orders against them, Haaretz has learned.
Since the IDF does not gather intelligence on Israeli citizens, the GOC Central Command depends on evaluations by the Shin Bet prior to signing restraining orders.
So far, such orders have only been issued against extreme right-wing activists suspected of subversive activities. This time, the army has focused on a number of activists protesting the security fence, those who help Palestinians harvest their olives, and others.
This is apparently the first time left-wing activists have been the possible target of such orders.
A document formulated by the IDF Central Command, entitled “Means of Operation Against Leftist Activists in the Area of Judea and Samaria” states, among other things, that the goal was to issue restraining orders against Israelis and foreigners “who disturb the peace” and “lead violent activity.”
To obtain the intelligence information it needs to back up the request for a restraining order, the Central Command approached the Shin Bet and the Judea and Samaria police districts requesting material that had been gathered on the activists.
The police were also asked to present all information they had on these individuals, including cases that had been closed.
The army further asked the police and the Shin Bet to keep their work on the matter secret.
Among the activists the intelligence services were asked to provide information about is Yonatan Pollack of Anarchists Against the Fence.
Pollack said he was not surprised the army was seeking a restraining order against him. “On Sunday two weeks ago the Shin Bet called and summoned me to the police station on Dizengoff Street. They said they had had enough of my activities and if I kept it up they would take steps, either criminal or administrative ones. I told them that all my activities were open and if there was anything illegal, they were a matter for the police.”
Pollack also said he presumed that “since there’s a lot of talk now about restraining orders against right-wingers, they would use that against us to show balance, although there has almost never been a case of a left-wing activists suspected of violence and certainly not of violence like that of the right-wing activists.”
The IDF spokesman’s office said it works with the police to enforce law and order in the West Bank and that “the law is enforced without reference to this or that political affiliation.” The police spokesman for the West Bank district, Danny Poleg, said the police were “cooperating fully with the Central Command to enforce the law in Judea and Samaria.”
A protest was launched today after the Friday prayer in Bil’in, with residents joined by international and Israeli activists. Palestinian flags, photos of Yasir Arafat, and banners marking his death were carried during the demonstration. Mr. Mashour Abu Daqa, the Minister of Traffic and Transport, and Mr. Basem Al Masri joined the demonstration today.
The demonstrators marched in the village chanting against the discriminatory policies of the occupation and paying respect for Arafat’s life. When the protest reached the gate, they were stopped by sound grenades and teargas. Dozens suffered from gas inhalation.
Also, the head of the Middle East Committee in the European Parliament, Mr. Aristotelis Pavlides, along with Mr. Moheb Awad, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and Mr. Walid Assaf, a member of the Fatah party visited the village yesterday. The delegation was welcomed by the head of Bili’n’s council, Mr. Ahmad Issa Yasin, Mr. Abdellah Abu Rahamah and Mohammad Abu Rahama gave a presentation about the wall and the village’s experience in resisting the occupation. The two Palestinian Legislative Council members gave a presentation about the political situation and the violations that Palestinians face on daily bases. The delegation promised to work on both sides, the Palestinian and the Israeli to reduce the suffering on the Palestinians and bring peace to the region.
