20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes.
Ahmed’s arrest
He was then driven in a military jeep to checkpoint 56 where he was eventually released into the custody of the Palestinian police, who registered Ahmed’s details and completed some paperwork before taking him home to his family. Upon questioning by international activists, Israeli soldiers claimed that Ahmed had been arrested due to throwing stones at the Israeli military in the morning, however Ahmed denies this. The Israeli occupation forces regularly accuse children and young men of stone-throwing and use this as an excuse for arrests, which often happen at random.
Ahmed’s arrest comes as part of a series of increasing arrests and detentions of minors 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.
In March 2013, UNICEF released a damning report in which it harshly critized the “ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system [which] appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized”. You can read this here.
17th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
This Palestinian Prisoners Day, the 17th April 2013, Palestinian and international activists cut down a fenced section of the Israeli apartheid wall in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli occupation jails. A section of around ten metres was torn down near Ofer prison, where Palestinian prisoners can be tried in military court or held by Israeli forces. Army arrive as protesters cut down Apartheid Wall. Photo by Hamdi Abu Rahma
Protesters wearing surgical masks conducted a swift and efficient action against the Wall – a symbol and physical expression of apartheid – aiming to send a message to the Israeli authorities that the Palestinian people will “never agree to have Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”
After around ten minutes, one Israeli army jeep arrived in the buffer zone behind the separation barrier and a single sound grenade was thrown at protesters, who left shortly afterwards, having completed their action.
Protesters wore shirts with the image of Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil’in, who was also protesting the cause of prisoners on 17th April, four years ago when he was killed by Israeli forces.
Palestinian prisoners are treated brutally under the Israeli occupation. Many are mistreated or tortured during detention and arrested on false or fabricated charges. Others are held under administrative detention laws, which mean that they can be imprisoned indefinitely without charge or trial. According to Addameer, there are currently 4,936 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails, including 178 administrative detainees, many of whom are held in Ofer.
18th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
There are growing concerns for the safety of non-violent Palestinian activist and organiser Issa Amro, following a recent letter to Israeli security forces from Israeli settlers of Hebron, accusing Amro of terrorism and incitement, and warning that a failure of the Israeli authorities to remove him “could be costly”, and threatening “bloodshed”. This is the latest in a long line of threats and attacks against UN human rights award winner Amro.
Issawi Amro Co-ordinator of Youth Against Settlements
In the letter, the mayor of the Jewish “Hebron Municipal Council” and the director general of the “Hebron Jewish Community” insist that army commanders “use administrative detention until you are able to find a long-term solution to completely end this hostile and dangerous activity” referring to Amro’s extensive work with various human rights groups. The full letter can be read here.
Amro has been violently attacked by this same community of Israeli settlers many times in the past – his nose and wrist have been broken and he received five stitches to his head. He and his family regularly receive death threats from the settlers of Hebron over the phone, continuing their campaign of threats and violence against him.
Despite having received numerous death threats and abuse from settlers over a period of many years, Amro is particularly concerned about the letter of the 20th March, because of the status and influence of its authors. Various Zionist websites have since issued calls for his execution, publishing various pictures of his face marked by red circles. Despite Amro’s long dedication to non-violent principles he is constantly identified as a terrorist by these websites.
Amro states “I have been arrested and detained on too many occasions to count, but I have never been charged with anything.” He says that he is regularly abducted by soldiers from his home, blindfolded and driven around for several hours before being left back at his house. On other occasions, he has been beaten by soldiers who have threatened to kill him and his family. During his most recent arrest in March 2013, Amro was stripped naked and made to stand outside for three hours.
On the 27th of March 2013 there was an arson attempt against the Youth Against Settlements community centre in Tel Rumeida – Amro was verbally abused and humiliated by police officers when he attempted to file a complaint and was ejected from their office twice before the complaint was filed. There has yet to be any investigation by the police.
Background
Issa Amro has been involved in founding many non-violent organisations in Hebron, working peacefully against the occupation. This includes the Hebron branch of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the Arab Non-Violence Network, Youth Against Settlements and the Hebron Defenders. He won the One World media award in 2009 for his involvement B’tselem’s “Shooting Back” project, which provides media training and distributes cameras to Palestinians to document settler and military abuse for Palestinians. Amro’s work with these organisations, as well as numerous other projects intending to document and non-violently resist human rights abuses and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements led to his winning of the UN OHCHR ‘Human Rights Defender of the Year in Palestine’ award in 2010.
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.
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.
