Tag: Arrests - Page 11 - International Solidarity Movement

Petition to free Shadi Farah

20th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, East Jerusalem | East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine

ISM encourages everyone to copy and paste the letter below and send it to your Members of Parliament, Congresspeople, and other political representatives.

To support Shadi and his family financially during this very difficult time, please see: https://palsolidarity.org/donate/

Dear Sir/Madame:

I am writing to urge you to act and condemn the violations on children’s rights that are being enforced by the Israeli government against Palestinians. I am extremely concerned about the situation in Palestine, where children are repeatedly arrested, abused and imprisoned by the Israeli forces.

At the moment, the youngest Palestinian child who is being detained in Israel is 12 year old Shadi Farah. He has spent more than six months away from his family already, and the court keeps prolonging his case and the final decision. Evidence against Shadi is very poor. He is accused of attempted manslaughter – allegedly he carried a knife with the intend to stab an Israeli soldier, yet no one was ever hurt by his hand. His interrogation was inhumane and abusive, it lasted for days and neither his parents or lawyer were present.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by the Israeli government in 1991. Thereby the Israeli government committed to providing all children with a safe childhood, with the care, protection and opportunities that are needed to ensure that childhood is a time free from insecurity, violence or abuse.

This commitment is not being fulfilled by the Israeli government. At the moment, more than 400 Palestinian children are being kept in Israeli prisons. Three-quarters of Palestinian children jailed between 2012 and 2015 endured some form of physical violence following arrest.

According to Defence for Children International Palestine, in 179 of 429 cases, the Israeli military arrested children from their homes in the middle of the night. In 378 out of 429 cases, Israeli forces arrested children without notifying parents of the reason for arrest or the location of detention. In 97 percent of the cases, children had no parent present during interrogation or access to legal counsel. Furthermore, Israeli police did not inform children of their rights in 84 percent of the cases. DCI Palestine informs that 66 children were held in solitary confinement, for an average period of 13 days, during the reporting period. More than 90 percent of children held in solitary confinement provided a confession. This confession is often being used as the only form of evidence to convict the child, as is the case with Shadi.

I beg you to express your concern about this in the Parliament/Congress/EU/UN and make sure that the grave issue of violations of Palestinian children’s rights is being brought to the attention of the Israeli government. Please remind Israel that by ratifying the UN Convention they are obliged to protect every child, in the state of Israel as well as in occupied Palestine. No child deserves the treatment that Palestinian children face every day.

Yours sincerely,

Shadi’s mother, holding a photo of her son.

Shadi with his best friend, Muhammad, and with his father, Anwar Farrah.

Shadi with his father, Anwar.

Call to Action: Support Shadi Farah, the youngest Palestinian Political Prisoner

20th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Quds team | Jerusalem, occupied Palestine

Shadi Farah is just 12 years old, but he’s caught in a trap that few adults ever manage to work their way out of. Last December, Shadi and his Friend Ahmad Zaatari, 13, were arrested at a bus stop in Jerusalem. A group of East Jerusalem illegal settlers called police to investigate the two boys, on suspicion of being Palestinian. In the ensuing process of arrest, interrogation, and abuse, the Israeli police proclaimed that the two boys had gone to Jerusalem with the intent to stab a soldier, and subsequently charged them both with attempted manslaughter. The evidence is slim, the boys confessed after several days of abusive questioning with no lawyer or parent present, and a lone witness was produced to claim the boys had been talking about stabbing soldiers at their school. According to Shadi’s family, he still maintains his innocence. But in the he-said-she-said world of Israeli courts, any evidence is enough to convict a Palestinian, and the boys are stuck.

Unlike most Palestinian Political Prisoners, Shadi and Ahmad’s case differs in a few ways. The boys have East Jerusalem IDs, meaning they are being tried in civilian courts, not military courts. While civilian courts are rarely kinder to accused Palestinians, there is more oversight than in the military system. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, as East Jerusalem residents under the age of 14, they are not imprisoned; they are in al Marsa youth detention centre in Northern Israel. While a youth detention centre may sound preferable, it isn’t.

“It would be better if he was in prison.” Said Shadi’s mother, Farehan Farah.

Al Marsa centre is a place for Israeli teenage criminals. The other detainees are older than Shadi and Ahmad, and are doing time for crimes such as theft, assault, and drug possession. Shadi’s family reports that the older detainees have threatened the boys on numerous occasions. The centre provides activities for all detainees; however Shadi and Ahmad have been banned from activities and are confined to their rooms, spending most of the day under what amounts to solitary confinement. The centre has not commented on whether this is a precaution to keep the boys safe from the older detainees, or if it is additional punishment. The living conditions in a prison might not be much better, but at least there the boys would be in the company of other Palestinians who are caught in the vicious political system, who could provide some amount of care and support.

In addition to being isolated within the centre, Shadi is also frequently isolated from his family. Al Marsa allows for weekly visits, however the cost and logistics pose a problem. Shadi’s parents don’t make very much money, and the cost of renting a car and paying for gas exceed 800 NIS ($213) per trip. While Shadi has a Jerusalem ID, his mother does not, which means she has to go through the laborious permit application process every time she wants to visit. If Shadi was in a prison, his family would be eligible to participate in the prisoner visitation program sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross. This would mean that all costs and permit application would be processed for them. Since he is not, the family receives no assistance for visitations. Farehan has only seen her young son a handful of times since he was arrested seven months ago.

To support Shadi and his family financially through this time and help bring him home, please click on the following link: https://palsolidarity.org/donate

Shadi’s family has hope that because of the flimsy evidence, and Shadi’s young age, he may yet be released from detention. Even if the family can’t have the charges dropped, they are trying to have him brought home and placed under house arrest for the duration of his trial, which could last for years. However it would take more than the effort of a court appointed lawyer. Supporters can contribute to the legal fees fund for the Farah family, or by writing to your congressional/parliamentary representatives, to insist they build pressure on Israel for their arbitrary detention of Palestinian children, especially 12-year-old Shadi Farah.

Shadi’s mother, holding a photo of her son

Shadi with his best friend, Muhammad, and with his father, Anwar Farrah.

Shadi with his father, Anwar.

Occupation forces issue notice for Palestinian, dead for 22 years, to report for interrogation

12th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Quds team | Kufr Malik, occupied Palestine

On July 9th at 4:00 in the morning, the Be’rat family awoke to find Israeli soldiers pounding on the door of their home in Kufr Malik, demanding that Jihad, the son of Mohammed Tawfik and Nadia Mustafa, report for interrogation. Jihad, however, passed away twenty two years ago, before reaching the age of fifteen days.

Israeli forces demanded that everyone in the house show some form of identification, including the children, and continued to ask for Jihad. After explaining the situation to the soldiers, Jihad’s mother was asked to present her son’s death certificate as proof. “They pulled open my heart and made me remember my son,” Nadia said of the experience. The soldiers did not return the death certificate. The children, though quite used to Israeli incursions into the village, were also traumatized by the event.

This particular event serves as an example of the Israeli military’s arbitrary and indiscriminate methods in their selection and targeting of “suspects.” The case also highlights the absolute lack of legal rights those living under Occupation have, as Palestinians are always considered guilty until proven innocent, and accusations are filed regardless of whether or not one is already dead or imprisoned.

According to the Palestinian prisoners rights group Adameer, there are currently at least seven thousand political prisoners in Israeli jails. Over 400 of these prisoners are children. Of those arrested, few are immediately notified of the crime they are being accused of committing, and many are never informed of the specific allegations. Israel’s policy of administrative detention allows Occupation forces to arrest Palestinians without charge and hold them for an infinitely renewable period of six months. Over seven hundred Palestinians are currently being held without charge in administrative detention.

Delivered at 4:00 in the morning, the Israeli document demands that the deceased member of the Be'rat family report for interrogation — Delivered at 4:00 in the morning, the Israeli document demands that the deceased member of the Be’rat family report for interrogation

The impossibility to know – navigating the (psychological) siege of Hebron

8th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces during the last week of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan have increased and stepped up restrictions for Palestinians in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Thus they are severely limiting Palestinians possibilities to exercise their religion during this most important month in the Muslim calendar, and on a large scale to celebrate the second most important feast, Id il-Fiter, marking the end of Ramadan.

Despite most of the checkpoints in the old city of al-Khalil a maze of restrictions, harassment and intimidation by Israeli forces on daily basis, the restrictions were stepped up even more at the end of Ramadan, enforcing age limit barring any Palestinian between 15-30 from accessing the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque. But it is not just the actual physical occupation, but even more the psychological occupation imposed by the Israeli forces. Whereas the age-restriction in theory is implemented at all three checkpoints allowing to access the Ibrahimi Mosque area, it was only implemented on some days, at some hours, by some soldiers. Thus, trying to reach the mosque for prayer during Ramadan, or visiting family during Eid, no Palestinian would ever be able to tell whether or not they would be allowed. Is the trip to the checkpoint even worth trying, or would Israeli forces deny a person in that age-group anyways? Or would they let a youth within this age-group pass anyways, but then arbitrarily decide to deny another person? Even worse, as a Palestinian, one can never tell whether, even if just on the way to quickly buy groceries from the store close-by, one would ever come back home, as arbitrary arrests are common, as are attacks by settlers. Due to this arbitrariness and the Israeli forces’ complete impunity, one would never be able to tell, whether or not one is be allowed to pass one single checkpoint – and coming from most directions to reach Ibrahimi Mosque at least three different checkpoints have to be navigated.

Similarly, the complete closure of most of the entries and exits of al-Khalil, has been arbitrarily imposed in the first place, and then arbitrarily managed, opening some of the checkpoints for maybe a few hours, but then closing it again, denying anyone from passing. South Hebron suddenly, the last night of Ramadan, and thus the beginning of the 3-day festival of Eid, was declared a ‘closed military zone’, denying any Palestinian to leave or access the area. This happened on the night, where most people were out, celebrating the start of Eid after 30 days of fasting during Ramadan, doing shopping.

On the morning of Wednesday 6th July, the first day of Eid, where Palestinians traditionally go and visit all their family, Israeli forces set up additional checkpoints at most exits of al-Khalil and the surrounding villages, deliberately slowing down the holiday-traffic. In the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, that was entirely closed as a closed military zone for more than six months, families marked a sharp increase in visitors as Israeli forces seemed to have managed to create an atmosphere of fear that stopped Palestinians from visiting their families even during this important holiday. Especially young men – a common target of extrajudicial executions by Israeli forces during the last months – simply didn’t want to risk crossing Shuhada checkpoint, with their family stating that they don’t want yet another Palestinian, a family member, gunned down by Israeli forces without a reason, but with complete impunity.

Additionally to the physical obstacles, that with no doubt are manifold and literally create a maze at times impossible to navigate for any Palestinian, the psychological occupation, the technique of wearing people down, trying to break their will, needs to be taken into consideration. Can you imagine not ever being able to know what will happen, whether you’ll come back home, even if just out for five minutes? This daily insecurity, the inability to ever plan, or even feel safe inside one’s own home, is deliberately forced on Palestinians by the Israeli forces. Rather than a by-product of the occupation, it is a deliberate strategy that amounts to psychological torture in the every-day lives of Palestinians. Despite the ongoing and intensified attempts by Israeli forces to step up on either of these two forms of apartheid-measures and collective punishment of the Palestinian population in attempts to create a coercive environment that in the end would lead to a forced displacement of Palestinians, the Palestinians remain steadfast and defy these attempts at ethnic cleansing.

Israeli forces stole 21 boats and sank two more just in the last 3 months

5th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Just in the last 3 months Gaza’s fishermen had 21 boats stolen and 2 sunken by the Israeli occupation forces.

Each small boat sustains at least 20 people on average and each one of the big ones at least 100 people. That means that just in the last 3 months around 550 people lost their source of income and were left in a situation of severe food insecurity.

All of these attacks took place within the fishing limit imposed by the occupation, as one of the fishermen interviewed by ISM pointed out: “they always know who they are taking, it’s not by chance or because we cross any of the limits they impose on us. They come for us. They kidnapped me and my cousin while we were less than a mile from the coast, and on that day the limit they gave us was for 6 miles”.

It is known that one of the main reasons to kidnap the fishermen is in order to try to buy them or blackmail them into becoming collaborators.

Fishermen kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces

One fisherman that insisted on remaining anonymous, given the sensitivity of this matter, explained to ISM what happened to him while he and his cousins were in Ashdod port: “they sat us in a room and we had in front of us a table with two trays, one with money and another one with gold. They told us that if we work with them all of it would be for us. Then they started asking us about our neighbours, relatives and anyone they thought we could know something about”.

Most of the fishermen kidnapped are tortured during the interrogation in Ashdod port and suffer from several kinds of physical and verbal abuse. They are beaten, their heads get rubbed on the floor or with a dirty mop and the soldiers step on their faces with their military boots. Those are just some common examples from most testimonies.

But humiliations already start in the sea, where most of the fishermen are told to strip off their clothes and swim naked towards the warship of the occupation forces. In many cases by that moment they have been already injured by rubber coated steel bullets, buckshot-filled sacks or even live ammunition.