International Solidarity Movement - Page 376 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Setting a dangerous precedent: 16-year-old Ali Shamlawi faces 25 counts of attempted murder for alleged stone throwing

18th June 2013 | Mondoweiss, Katherine Flynn| Hares, Occupied Palestine

Three months ago today, in the early hours of March, 17 2013, Israeli soldiers appeared at 16-year- old Ali Shamlawi’s house in the West Bank village of Hares. They blindfolded him, handcuffed him and took him away. His arrest was one of a spate of arrests in March of this year which saw 19 boys, aged 16 and 17 years old, arrested for throwing stones which were alleged to have caused a traffic accident on Route 5, a large road which cuts through the West Bank to service illegal Israeli settlements.

Hares is a village of 4,000 people south of the city of Nablus in the West Bank. Illegal Israeli settlements – including Ariel, the second-largest settlement in the West Bank – have been built on agricultural land confiscated from Hares. The traffic accident in question occurred on March 14 when a car carrying a mother and her three daughters from Ariel crashed into the back of a truck on Route 5 near Hares, after the truck had braked suddenly. The youngest daughter was critically injured in the crash. The driver of the truck initially attributed the sudden breaking to a flat tire but later claimed he braked suddenly when stones hit his truck.

Locals who were at the scene of the accident moments after it occurred were interviewed by the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) and reported that they did not see any youth in the vicinity. However in the weeks since the accident, 61 witnesses from surrounding illegal settlements have come forward claiming their cars were also damaged by stones thrown by Palestinian youth from the side of the road. These settlers claim that Palestinian boys were 5-10 metres from the side of the road but these allegations have never been verified by the extensive CCTV footage in the area.

Since the initial arrests, 14 of the Palestinian boys have been released. However, five boys, including Ali Shamlawi, remain in prison three months later. Along with the other boys, Ali is being charged with 25 separate counts of attempted murder (one for each individual stone he allegedly threw) and is facing 25 years to life imprisonment.

Last Thursday on June 13th, Ali was in court again for his sixth hearing. Having applied to attend the hearing in advance, I was informed the night before that permission had not been granted because it would be a closed hearing – something all too common in Israeli military courts. Ali’s lawyers have since confirmed that at the hearing his detention was extended to July 25th in order for the defense team to be able to consider all evidence being used against him.

Along with the 61 “witnesses” mentioned above, the prosecution’s evidence consists of confessions from the boys. The lawyers and NGOs working on the case insist that these confessions were forced under extreme duress and are therefore inadmissible. 16-year-old Ali was held in solitary confinement for two weeks after his arrest and denied access to a lawyer for the first few days. He was interrogated for up to 20 hours at a time and beaten. Until last week, he was also denied visitation from his family. Ali’s lawyers submitted a complaint on May 15th about the circumstances of his interrogation and torture but are still waiting to hear back from the military police investigation.

Interviews carried out by IWPS with some of the boys already released by Israel show further mistreatment of children in custody. One of the 19 boys arrested was hospitalised after being beaten by interrogators, while another reports being kept alone in a small cell where bright lights shone continuously and being threatened with harm to him and his family. Indeed, such allegations come on the heels of a February 2013 report by UNICEF which firmly concluded that “the ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the [Israeli] military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalised throughout the process…”

It is not just the treatment of these children during interrogation that should raise questions. Despite being only 16 years old, Ali is being tried as an adult in Israeli military court; while illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank are subject to Israeli civil law, Palestinians living in the same area are subject to strict Israeli military law. Under this law, Palestinian youth can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for throwing stones at vehicles. Twenty years in prison for throwing stones would be considered harsh in even some of the world’s strictest regimes, but this case sets an even more dangerous precedent: the Israeli courts are charging these five boys not with stone-throwing but with attempted murder.

If the sentence is passed, this case could set a legal precedent which would allow the Israeli military to try any Palestinian youth with attempted murder for incidents of stone-throwing. While the evidence against the boys is tenuous at best (and downright illegal at worst), statistics on conviction rates in Israeli military courts do not bode well for the boys. According to a 2010 internal IDFreport, the military court system used to try Palestinians has a 99.7% conviction rate (In 2010, that meant only 25 full acquittals out of 9,542 cases).These highly troubling statistics expose the discrimination inherent in the Israeli judicial system when compared with similar statistics on settler attacks on Palestinians. A 2011 UN OCHA report revealed that over 90% of monitored complaints of settler violence filed by Palestinians with the Israeli police were closed without indictment.

With conviction rates of almost 100%, allegations of torture against children, and systematic discrimination against Palestinians, it is high time that Israel is held to account for the violations of international law endemic to its military detention and judicial systems.

For now, Ali must wait until July 25th to appear in court again, not knowing whether he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. This case has until now received little media attention. But for those of us who respect due process and human rights, it is time to speak up.

Addameer, IWPS and Defence for Children International are working with Ali’s lawyers on this case.

The latest episode of endless settler violence in Qusra

15th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Qusra, Occupied Palestine

The night of Saturday, 15 June, Israeli settlers continued a tradition of violence and harassment against the Palestinian village of Qusra.

Late at night, settlers from Esh Kodesh, the nearby settlement, trespassed upon Palestinian private property, damaged five olive trees, destroyed part of a building and took two support poles from it. Several olive trees had trunks completely severed and some had branches cut off. Twenty such buildings, which serve agricultural purposes, were donated by a foreign European government to Qusra in May 2013. Because the houses are located in Area C (under complete Israeli military and civil control), they were declared illegal by Israeli authorities last week. A legal decision regarding their demolition is set to be decided in an Israeli court on an unknown date.

Qusra, a Palestinian village in Nablus Governorate of approximately 4,500 people that is hundreds if not thousands of years old, is no stranger to settler violence and harassment. The most infamous incidences of settler violence in Qusra occurred in September 2011, when a mosque in Qusra was vandalized and targeted for arson by extremist Israeli settlers, gaining international attention. Later the same month, a group of settlers invaded the village and when they met resistance, Israeli soldiers intervened, shooting and killing Essam Badran, a 35-year-old Palestinian man.

Last February, several people from Qusra were injured and hospitalised following a settler attack in the village. A sixteen year-old boy was shot in the forehead with a rubber coated steel bullet by soldiers and had to go through surgery. Additionally, Helmi Abdul Azeez Hassan (26) was shot with live ammunition in the chest by settlers and spent nine days unconscious in Hadassa hospital in Israel.

Despite all this, the people of Qusra will continue to resist settler harassment and violence and have plans to build a school and mosque in honor of the martyr Essam.

Video: Ten-year-old boy arrested in Hebron

17th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Around 8:30pm on June 16th, a ten-year-old local Palestinian named Amed was arrested by Israeli soldiers in the market of the old city of Hebron. He was held for around an hour in the military base on Shuhada Street and interrogated. He was then taken, handcuffed, by two soldiers on foot through the street to the checkpoint between the Israeli and Palestinian controlled areas – he was then released to the Palestinian Authority police.

The alleged reason for this arrest was that the boy was throwing stones; his brother informed international observers that he had mimed throwing stones and the soldiers decided to arrest him for it. Amed was questioned by the Israeli military without a lawyer or family member present, illegal under international child protection laws.

Palestinian farmer injured by Israeli army fire

17th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

Friday afternoon, June 14, 2013, Muhareb Abu Omar, a Palestinian farmer aged 48, was wounded by Israeli army fire in the Deir El Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Omar was irrigating his land in the village of Wadi As-Salqa, 600 meters from the barrier that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Muhareb Abu Omar, 48 (Photo: Rosa Schiano)

Omar reported that Israeli jeeps moved along the border while he was working. Suddenly, after about 10 minutes into the job, at approximately 19:30, a bullet struck him in the right leg. The soldiers probably shot from a jeep hummer.

Omar was alone on his land while other farmers were working in adjacent lands.

“I didn’t hear any firing, the soldiers used silent bullets. Suddenly I found myself wounded. I ran for 50 yards, then I crashed and I cried to my cousins that I was wounded”, said Omar. His cousins transported him to Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital.

Omar’s family is composed of 14 members: Omar, his wife, 8 sons and 4 daughters. Five of his sons work with him on the family land. The whole family depends on the production on this land.

Two of his sons, Nedal and Tareq, reported that Omar was reported to have an intermediate wound in the right tibia.

Dr. Saleman Al Attar, Department of Orthopaedics of Aqsa Martyrs hospital, reported that the general conditions of Omar are good. “The wound shot from a firearm always creates complications. The bullet hit the right thigh and there is the presence of fragments”, said Dr. Al Attar. In the emergency room, the doctors performed a cleansing of the wound, firstly a debridement followed by bandaging. After 3 days or 72 hours, Omar will be subjected to a further removal of devitalized tissue.

The doctors will not remove the bullet. “It is dangerous to remove the bullet as it is located in the neurovascular, where there are the arteries,” said Dr. Al Attar.

The wound is closed. The patient will then be given antibiotics and analgesics for about 4 weeks.

(Photo: Rosa Schiano)) — (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

Dr. Al Attar stressed the psychological effect on patients who are aware of the a bullet still inside the body. “The patient will always have the impression of experiencing pain in the area where the bullet is, even if the pain is not real. There are social workers who can provide psychological support for this. Every Palestinian suffering since birth suffers some psychological problems”, concluded Dr. Al Attar.

During the last military offensive of November 2012, the al-Aqsa hospital has received many victims. “The hospital was full, we were trying to save those who were in better condition while others were dying patients in serious condition,” said Dr. Al Attar.

The arrangements for the cease-fire of 21 November 2012 established that the Israeli military forces should “refrain from hitting residents in areas along the border” and “cease hostilities in the Gaza Strip by land, by sea and by air, including raids and targeted killings.”

However, Israeli military attacks by land and sea have followed from the day after the ceasefire, and Israeli warplanes are flying over the sky constantly in the Gaza Strip. Four civilians were killed by the end of the military offensive “Pillar of Defense” and more than 90 civilians have been wounded.

These attacks against the civilian population of Gaza continue to occur amidst international silence.

Two fishermen arrested by Israeli navy and their boat confiscated

17th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

During the night of Friday, June 7, 2013 there was an escalation of attacks by the Israeli navy against the fishermen of Gaza. The Committee of the fishermen of the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees had reported attacks along the coast of Gaza and the arrest of two fishermen, in addition to the destruction of fishing nets.

The two fishermen arrested, Khader Marwan Al-Saidi, 24, and Hassan Ali Murad, 27 years old (Photo: Rosa Schiano)

The two fishermen arrested, Khader Marwan Al-Saidi, 24, and Hassan Ali Murad, 27, were arrested around 3:00 am on Friday and were released the next day, but their boat was confiscated.

The two fishermen live in the Shati refugee camp.

Thursday afternoon, they had gone out into the sea around 15:00 and they were headed south, stopping to fish south of the coast of Shalihat.

The attack

Hassan Ali Murad told us that an Israeli military navy ship began to attack by shooting at the boat at 2:00 in the morning.

“With us there were another 6-7 Hasakas, we were fishing in a group. When the soldiers started shooting all the fishermen escaped, but the engine of our boat was dead and we were not able to escape. We tried to turn on the generator but we did not succeed. ” The fishermen were about 6 miles from the coast. We shouted to the soldiers, “Go away, we’re less than 6 miles!”, But the soldiers continued to shoot”, added Hassan.

The arrest and interrogation

A zodiac boat with a crew of 6 Israeli soldiers approached them. The soldiers ordered the two fishermen to undress, dive into the water and swim to the Israeli navy boat. “The soldiers shot at us while we were swimming”, said Hassan. On board the boat the two fishermen were blindfolded and handcuffed. The soldiers then confiscated the boat of fishermen and all the equipment. Hassan explained that the generator cost about $6,000, the boat cost about $3,000, the equipment about $ 1,000. For a total of $10,000, that fishermen will still continue to pay because they are already indebted to deal with these expenses.

“We were held for about 30 minutes on the Israeli gunship, in the cold, while the soldiers carried on driving the navy boat away. We were lying on the ground and they hit us with their feet behind our heads, then we were hooded. I could not breathe, after half an hour I was dying for the lack of air “, said Hassan. The fishermen were transported to the port of Ashdod in Israel, given a shirt and a pair of trousers and remained handcuffed and blindfolded until 12.00 the next day. Hassan also told us that the soldiers laughed at them and beat them. A doctor then visited them, and informed Hassan he was suffering from various health problems. Hassan replied to him: “What do you want from us? You have taken our boat, you have taken our lives, and now you want to check my health?” The doctor replied that it was his responsibility to check his health. Hassan told him: “I’m not angry about my health, I am angry because I cannot feed my children.” The two fishermen were detained in a room for four hours before being interrogated. An officer asked Hassan if he knew members of Hamas, if they were involved in armed groups and other questions of this kind. Hassan replied to him: “You’re destroying my life and you’re giving me these questions?”. The officer said: “Our concern is to destroy the lives of fishermen,” meaning that this was their mission.

Two years ago, Hassan had already been arrested by the Israeli navy along with his cousin, who had been wounded by a bullet in the leg. “Who will feed our children now? We do not have any other means. Who will pay our debts?” Hassan added.

While listening to the testimony of Hassan, another member of the family intervened, saying: “Every fisherman would rather die and be shot in the head rather than lose their own boat. The boat is our source of life.”

Hassan added that during the interrogation in Ashdod, the officer said, “You can ask a lawyer to get back the boat but its doubtful we’ll return the generator.”

Hassan replied to him: “The lawyer needs a big fee, and I have no means to pay it.” The officer replied: “It’s not my business, it’s the lawyer’s business.”

Back in Gaza, Hassan asked for help from a lawyer but he was told that the procedure would cost a sum of money equivalent to the purchase of a new boat.

Khader Marwan Al-Saidi then intervened, saying that the officer told him, “I must watch over you at sea night and day, and this bothers me. For this reason we destroy the boats.” Khader added that Israeli officials know all about their lives. Khader has recently become a father. The officer told him during questioning: “How’s your boy?”

The official also told him, “You are bringing with you internationals for protection. If international go with you the next time we will strike your boat. We are not afraid of you and we are not afraid of the internationals. Did not think that international accompaniment can protect you. Can we shoot when we want, no one can stop us. “

In addition to the drama represented by the loss of the boat and all their means of subsistence, fishermen also continuously undergo psychological violence. Hassan showed us the pants that the Israeli army had given them. The soldiers said they have the same value of the boat and generator.

Towards Erez, the Release

After the interrogation, which lasted about 30 minutes, the two fishermen were detained two hours before being taken to Erez. The soldiers also shackled the legs of the fishermen and forced them to bend over to pick up a box which contained their work clothes. Then they were forced to walk for 500 meters with hands and feet tied up to a military jeep that brought them to Erez. In Erez two fishermen have were forced to walk another 500 meters.

The Erez crossing was closed. A soldier wanted to bring the fishermen back to Ashdod, while another soldier insisted on allowing them to cross the border. Hassan said that fortunately an elderly Palestinian woman who was returning from an Israeli hospital had reached the border. The woman asked the soldiers to open the pass to go home. After about 10 minutes the soldiers opened the pass. The two fishermen then walked for about 2 miles to get to the Palestinian office, where they were interrogated by the internal security. After interrogation, the two, exhausted and no car, were sitting in the street. The old woman who had passed through the crossing offered them a ride in the car. “You cannot imagine what happened. Even if you saw it on television you would not believe it,” said Khader.

Economic Difficulties

Hassan is married and has four children. In his small home, the bathroom and the kitchen in one room, live 6 people. Hassan has been fishing since he was 10 years old. His father was ill and could not work, so after school Hassan assisted the family fishing.
Khader Marwan Al-Saidi is married and has a child. 14 people live in their house, while the whole family has 70 people in all.

Approximately 24 people depended on the boat that has been confiscated, of which the father is the owner.

The continued attacks against the fishermen and the appeal to the international community

As we listened to the testimony of the two fishermen, we learned that the Israeli Navy was attacking fishing boats off the coast of Soudania in the North of the Gaza Strip. Zakaria Baker, head of the Committee of the fishermen of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees told us that Israeli forces were opening fire on Palestinian fishermen and one of the boats had been surrounded about 2 miles from the coast. Zakaria, who was on the phone directly with those under attack, could not hear them well enough because of the gunfire.

We continued to listen to the terrible testimony of the two fishermen while the tension continued to rise in the atmosphere because of what was happening at the same time.

Hassan sent a message to the international community: “We ask the international community to support the Palestinian fishermen. Israeli authorities have communicated through the media that they will now allow Palestinian fishermen to reach 6 nautical miles from the coast, but in reality are attacking fishermen within this limit, 4-5 miles from the coast. We call on the international community to help and for once hold Israel to account. The people who are most affected are the fishermen in Gaza. Already the situation in Gaza is difficult, we are under siege, we are fishermen attacked every day and while I’m talking to you now the soldiers are attacking other fishermen. Ask the international community to stand by our side. “

The fishermen think that the NGOs could help in covering the costs of the boat confiscated.

Background

Israel has progressively imposed restrictions on Palestinian fishermen’s access to the sea. The 20 nautical miles established under the agreements of Jericho in 1994 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), have been reduced to 12 miles below the Bertini Agreement in 2002. In 2006, the area consented to the fishing has been reduced to 6 nautical miles from the coast. Following the Israeli military offensive “Cast Lead” (2008-2009) Israel has imposed a limit of 3 nautical miles from the coast, preventing the Palestinians from access to 85% of the water to which they are entitled according to the Jericho agreements of 1994.

Under the agreements reached between Israel and the Palestinian resistance after the Israeli military offensive in November 2012, “Pillar of Defense,” they consented that Gazan fishermen can again fish to 6 nautical miles from the coast. Despite these agreements, the Israeli navy has not stopped attacks on Gaza fishermen, even within this limit. In March 2013, Israel imposed once again a limit of 3 nautical miles from the coast, saying that the decision had been taken following the sending of some Palestinian rockets towards Israel. On Wednesday 22nd May, the Israeli military authorities announced through some media outlets the decision to extend the limit again to 6 nautical miles from the coast.