Kiriat Arba Police arrest one Human Rights Worker; IDF assault Human Rights Workers and steal cameras and passport in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

UPDATE: This morning (6th December), the Tel Rumeida Project HRW was released from Kiriat Arba police station without conditions. He was never brought to Jerusalem as the police had threatened.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

One Human Rights Worker from The Tel Rumeida Project was arrested in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, at 17:10 earlier today. He had been asking soldiers from the Israeli military why they had blocked a Palestinian pathway with barbed wire – a pathway that has been opened by an Israeli court order 4 months ago.

The soldier responded by physically assaulting the HRWs, taking their passports, and confiscating two video cameras that were legally being used by the HRWs to document Israeli military’s violation of the previous court order. Soldiers were holding one of the HRWs in a headlock as they ripped the camera away from him. The HRWs called the Hebron Police, who immediately arrested one of the HRWs and took him to the Kiriat Arba Police Station. They did not inform him of any accusations against him.

After having deleted the contents of the tape, the soldiers later returned one of the cameras and two of the passports, but kept one video camera and one passport. The HRW without a passport was informed by the police to come and collect her passport and the camera at the Kiriat Arba Police Station. When she got to the police station, the police would not let her in, telling her that the Israeli soldiers had her passport.

At 19:40, soldiers returned the passport and the second video camera to the HRWs in Tel Rumeida, after having deleted that tape as well. The Israeli military specifically deleted the evidence that incriminated the soldiers, the documentation of the assault and the theft. Other recordings were left intact.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Tel Rumeida Project provides an international presence to support the daily Palestinian non-violent struggle against attacks from Hebron’s violent settler community. During the last 3 months, The Israeli military and the Police in the area have repeatedly been trying to get the Human Rights Workers out of Tel Rumeida, by arresting them without reason, issuing false Closed Military Zone Orders and trying to break in to their apartment without a warrant.

Another one of the HRWs who was arrested a few weeks ago, and later released without charge, was threatened with deportation by a Police Officer. He said: “We were there last week when you were arrested. That was strike one. This would be strike two. Strike three and you’re going back to your home country.” Threats with deportation are a common part of the daily harassment that HRWs have to endure in Tel Rumeida from the Hebron Police and the IDF.

ISM Media Office +972 2 297 1824 www.palsolidarity.org
Tel Rumeida Project +972 54 557 3154 www.telrumeidaproject.org

Israel Ready to Deport Peace Activist Scot for Second Time

by Billy Briggs
Originally published in The Herald

A Scottish peace activist is facing deportation from Israel for the second time.

Andrew MacDonald, 31, from Spean Bridge, Lochaber, near Fort William, is currently being held in a detention centre near the Gaza Strip, but is resisting his removal.

He was arrested by Israeli police in Hebron in the West Bank on November 24.

His father, John Muncie, said yesterday that Israeli police had threatened that Mr MacDonald could be drugged and put on a plane back to the UK.

Mr Muncie said: “His refusal is a protest against the state of Israel’s policy of deporting human rights workers from the occupied territories of Palestine. Andrew was in Palestine for 15 weeks before his arrest.

“He spent most of his time in Tel Rumeida, an area of Hebron where the Palestinians live in virtual hell. They suffer from the daily abuse of the 500 or so Israeli settlers who established an illegal enclave there a few years ago. Countless instances of daily brutality to the dwindling Palestinian population were recorded and photographed by Andrew and his colleagues, who lived in an apartment in Tel Rumeida.

“They daily escorted Palestinian children to and from school to try to protect them from the assaults of settlers.”

In August 2003, Mr MacDonald, a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was deported after trying to stop soldiers blowing up and bulldozing the house of a Palestinian family where he was staying in Nablus.

He subsequently changed his surname from Muncie to MacDonald so he could obtain a new passport and return to Israel.

His father said the family fully supported his decision to go back.

“He had gone out in 2003 to try to support the ordinary Palestinians. The attempt had been cut short. He was still of a mind to help them.

“Andrew MacDonald was the name on his new passport. As Andrew Muncie, he would have been stopped at Tel Aviv airport. This in spite of the fact that Andrew Muncie had committed no crime or offence when he had last been there,” Mr Muncie said.

During his latest stay, Mr MacDonald attended peaceful demonstrations against the controversial wall which the Israeli government is constructing in the West Bank.

No-one was available for comment yesterday at the Israeli Embassy in London.

The ISM is a Palestinian-led non-political movement which helps to organise non-violent protests against terror and illegal occupation.

Human Rights Worker Refuses Deportation, Put in Solitary Confinement in Tzohar Detention Center, Israel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Andrew Macdonald, a Human Rights Worker from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), is still being held in solitary confinement at the Tzohar Detention Center in Israel. Even though he has been threatened by the Prison Commander, he maintains that “deporting people from Palestine is a matter for Palestinians to decide, not for Israelis.”

“You are making me nervous – I have not been nervous for 3 years. But I can make you nervous too. You are playing games with me, but I can play games with you to.” These were the words of the Prison Commander Yuvral just before he threatened to take Andrews cell phone away from him. This is not the first time Andrew has been threatened; the Israeli Authorities have repeatedly used intimidation to try to pressure him to leave the country. Previously, a police officer from the Special Operations Unit threatened to drug him if he did not comply.

Before his arrest, Andrew worked in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, where ISM and the Tel Rumeida Project provides an international presence to support the daily Palestinian non-violent struggle against attacks from Hebron’s violent settler community. During the last 3 months, The IDF and the Police in the area have repeatedly been trying to get the Human Rights Workers out of Tel Rumeida, by arresting them without reason, issuing false Closed Military Zone Orders and trying to break in to their apartment without a warrant.

Andrew Macdonald has been in custody for 10 days since his arrest on 24th of November 2005, and in solitary confinement for 3 days since his arrival to Tzohar Detention Center this Thursday at 21:30. He is kept in a 2×2 meter cell and is not allowed to see other prisoners. Last night the prison staff kept the light in his cell on until 2 AM, depriving him of his sleep.

ISM Media Office +972 2 297 1824 www.palsolidarity.org
Tel Rumeida Project +972 54 557 3154 www.telrumeidaproject.org

Palestinians to Hold Press Conference to Call for Release of the Four CPT Hostages in Iraq

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Harmeet Sooden. Picture taken in January on a farm outside Jenin where he was helping to plant olive trees.

Tomorrow (Monday the 5th of December) Ikram al Sabri, the head Mufti of Palestine joined by personal Palestinian friends of Harmeet Sodeen, James Loney and Tom Fox, three of the four Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) hostages being held in Iraq will hold a press conference to call for their release unharmed. They will be joined by other notable Palestinian figures, as well as a speaker from CPT Hebron. The press conference will take place in the Palestine Media Centre in Al-Bireh, Ramallah at 11am.

The full list of speakers will be:

Ikram al Sabri, the head Mufti of Palestine
Mohammed Ayyesh, a Palestinian non-violent activist from Balata camp, Nablus
Ferial Abu Hakil, the Headmistress of Qataba school, Hebron
Christan Anderson a representative of CPT Hebron

There will be a time for questions after a short statement from each of the speakers. The press conference will be held in Arabic. All media are welcome.

Copies of written statements by the following groups calling for their release in Arabic and English will be available: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the National and Islamic Forces in Hebron, Palestinian National Initiative, The Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements and The Forum of Muslims Scholars (Rabata Olama al-Muslimin).

Venue:
Palestine Media Center, Al-Quds-Nablus st., Al-Abraj Al-Watanieh building, 3rd floor, PO Box 4252, Al-Bireh

Time:
11am promptly.

For more information:
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824 or 057 572 0754

Resistance Continues in Aboud, Despite Israeli Violence

Accompanied by dozens of internationals, between 150 and 200 Palestinian demonstrators arrived at the construction site of the annexation barrier in Aboud which will illegally claim much of the village’s land. This is the third such demonstration against the illegal barrier in this Christian-Muslim village where the people have heroically resisted the theft of their land.

The demonstrators arrived at noon and went immediately to the construction site where they’ve been protesting the construction for the last two weeks. This time the occupation forces did not try to stop the demonstrators as they approached the razor wire barrier that had been set up across the road. The demonstrators were aware that there would be considerable violence on the part of the occupation forces in comparison to the previous two weeks.

There were roughly 60 soldiers as well as a number of border police and special police forces (Yasim) surrounding the razor wire barricade that blocked the road to the construction site. The demonstrators peacefully approached the wire that separated them from the soldiers without provoking any violence.

Almost all the soldiers were armed with batons and one of the officers in charge had 4 sound bombs prominently displayed on his chest.

At the demonstration was the Knesset member Abdulmalik Dehamshe, who sharply criticized the Wall during an introductory speech and was shoved by the Israeli Police during the demonstration.

Without provocation, the soldiers began using their batons, beating some of the Israeli activists who were in the front lines of the demonstration. As in the past, non-violent resistance was met with violence by the occupation forces.

Within 10 minutes the occupation forces had begun assaulting the peaceful demonstration with sound bombs (aproximately 8 within 3 minutes) while the police forces rushed the crowd and grabbing and beating some demonstrators.

Rubber-coated metal bullets were fired into the crowd from extremely close range causing multiple injuries. An ISMer that was being treated by a medic after being injuried by a police baton witnessed two Palestinian men who had been shot multiple times by rubber-coated metal bullets at close range.

During the attack by the occupation forces, two Israeli demonstrators were detained and arrested, and others were injured in the process. After the initial assault by the police many demonstrators dispersed from the immediate area, but many of them were able to maintain their presence and did not leave the area until about 2pm. Shortly before the demonstrators departed, a Palestinian woman suffered a twisted ankle during a scuffle and was evacuated by the Palestinian Red Crescent who were present for the demonstration.