Tag: Arrests

Bil’in village will hold a mass demonstration against the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign

14 August 2009

For Immediate Release:

Bil’in village will hold a mass demonstration against the ongoing Israeli arrest and intimidation campaign on Friday, 14 August 2009 at one PM. Bil’in residents along with Israeli and international supporters will attempt to march to the village land beyond the Apartheid Wall.

At 2 AM on the 10 August 2009, Israeli forces raided the home of a jailed member of the Bil’in popular committee, Mohammad Khatib. The heavily armed solders, their faces daubed with black paint, entered and “searched” the home now occupied by Mohammad’s wife, Lamya, and their small children. The soldiers then ordered Lamya to take them to the house of Khatib’s elderly father, Abdel Karim. Lamya repeatedly refused to cooperate. The soldiers proceeded to raid Mohammad’s father’s home and summoned him to appear for interrogation with the Israeli secret service (Shabak). While Abdel Karim was being interrogated by the Shabak the next day, an officer called his wife in front of him and threatened her with the arrest of her entire family.

The latest wave of arrests and Israeli night raids on the West Bank village of Bil’in began on 23 June 2009, To date, Israeli forces have arrested 25 people (most are under 18). Eighteen of the 25 remain in detention. Through Israel’s interrogation and intimidation tactics, two of the arrested youth have ‘confessed’ that the Bil’in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. With such ‘confessions’, Israeli forces then proceed to arrest leaders in the community, including Adeeb Abu Rahme and Mohammad Khatib.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the Bil’in popular committee, states that “While the Bil’in committee does encourage residents, Israeli and international supporters to take part in demonstrations, we call for non-violent participation. The occupation forces in addition to using excessive and sometimes lethal violence against us have planted undercover agents to throw stones from the demonstrations on several occasions. Mohammad Khatib and Adeeb Abu Rahme, along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle, are being targeted because they mobilize Palestinians to resist non- violently. Israel is stealing our land from us and then prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle non-violently for justice.”

Mohammad Khatib will be taken in front of a military court this Thursday,13th August when the military prosecution will ask to prolong his detention for the duration of his trial. A similar request to hold popular leader Adeeb abu Rahme was granted by a military judge on July 21st. Adeeb has been in detention since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on July 10th. Both leaders are being charged with “incitement to damage the security of the area.”

Lamya Khatib, whose husband and younger brother, Abdullah, are both currently imprisoned at Ofer military base, stated: “It is obvious that the Israeli authorities will do all that they can to prevent Palestinians and Israelis from working together towards a just peace. but I know that Mohammed, Abdullah and I, and everyone in Bil’in, will continue our struggle for justice.”

Your presence and support are needed in Bil’in on Friday, 14 August 2009 at one PM! Join us in sending the message that the non-violent resistance campaign will continue until we reclaim our rights!

Solidarity with Palestinian non-violent resistance: a Bil’in petition

Sign the Petition

The Palestinian popular resistance movement is suffering from the ongoing violence of both the Israeli occupation forces and the settlers. The Israeli authorities want to crush the non-violent struggle and to break the unity created among Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals, who for more than four years have been demonstrating together in Bilin, Nilin and other occupied villages, exerting their legitimate right to defend their land against further colonization and to struggle for the full restitution of the land annexed by Israel, disregarding international obligations and violating human rights.

In the past months we have seen an escalation of systematic arrests and kidnappings of activists in the movement by the Israeli army. This week, non-violent leaders from the West Bank village of Bilin and Al Masara have been arrested for peacefully demonstrating against Israeli separation wall and are still being held in prison.

Faced with this painful reality, the Palestinian people are committed to continuing and developing their non-violent popular struggle. This struggle has become an emblematic example not only for Palestinians but also for activists worldwide who fight for freedom, justice and self-determination. Last December, the Bil’in Popular Committee was awarded the 2008 Human Rights Medal of the International League of Human Rights in Germany.

During the 4th Bilin International Conference on Non-violent Resistance held in April 2009, civil-society groups, peace movements and human-rights organizations working in solidarity with the Palestinian popular resistance movement decided to strengthen their coordination.

It is high time to give more force to this movement. We must act right now!

By signing this open call, we are creating the International Network in solidarity with the Palestinian Popular Resistance movement in order to:

1. Improve the coordination among international civil-society groups working in solidarity with the Palestinian Popular Resistance movement.

2. Establish a permanent channel of communication between the Palestinian Popular Resistance movement and international civil-society groups.

3. Strengthen the communication, advocacy and lobbying capacity of the solidarity movements in order to put more pressure on governments and parliaments worldwide to focus on the respect for international law and human rights, to take a position against the siege on Gaza, the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the construction of the illegal separation wall and the Israeli policy of land confiscation and colonization.

4. Promote international initiatives to send civilian peace services and teams to the Occupied Territories and organize field visits of politicians, lawyers and journalists.

FIRST SIGNATURES:

Mohammed Khatib – Bil’in Popular Committee (Palestine)
Máiread Corrigan-Maguire – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (Northern Ireland)
Luisa Morgantini – Former Vice President of the EU Parliament (Italy)
Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin – President of the International League for Human Rights; Co-Founder of Jews for a Just Peace in Near East, and European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) (Germany)
NOVA – Social Innovation Centre (Catalonia/Spain)
Association France Palestine Solidarité – AFPS (France)
Josette Fourme Teachers for Peace – Peace French movment FRANCE
Mahmoud Zwahre – Al Masara Popular Committee (Palestine)
Abedallah Abu-Rahma – Bil’in Popular Committee (Palestine)
Neta Golan – Co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (Israel/Palestine)
Luca Gervasoni i Vila – NoVA – Peacebuilding and Active Nonviolence (Catalonia/Spain)
Martina Pignatti – Un Ponte per… (Italy)
Kobi Snitz – Anarchists Against the Wall (Israel/Palestine)

Bil’in demonstrates against Apartheid Wall and Israeli arrest campaign

Bil’in Popular Committee

7 August 2009

Tens were suffocated with tear gas, fired by Israeli soldiers at Bili’n’s weekly demonstration. Where Bil’in citizens, Israeli and International peace activists demonstrated after the Friday prayers, waving Palestinian flags and banners with slogans calling for the release of the popular leaders, Muhammad al-Khatib and Adib Abu Rahma, and the rest of the other detainees, and calling for ending raids and prosecution of activists and members of the People’s Committee against the wall. Demonstrators has walked in Bil’in streets chanting slogans calling for national unity, and continuation of the popular committee resistance, and events without the fear of the terrorist policy carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians in general and the people of Bil’in in particular.

Once the demonstrators arrived at the wall gat, the Israeli soldiers has fired them strongly with different kinds of gases; some of them were invasive bomb fired by hand, other fired by gun and some of them were fired from the front of military vehicles, as this one has thrown fifty bombs at one time, which covered an area of more than ten donems with gas, causing tens of cases of suffocation.

The soldiers also began spraying the demonstrators with a green – colored water contaminated by waste animal manure and chemicals, resulting in the vomiting by many others. Some reports mentioned that the Israeli are using the skunk smell, which is very strong and can’t be removed from clothes. This colored water is one of the newly tested weapons that the Israelis are using against the demonstrators in Bil’in. The demonstrators dressed in plastic dresses, hats, gloves, and masks in order not to be affect by the chemical water and its noxious smell that the Israeli are using now against them.

On the other hand, the People’s Committee against the Wall in Bil’in called for immediate release of all detainees from the village of Bil’in, including the leaders Muhammad al-Khatib and Adib Abu Rahma. As the charges that they are facing are illegal, thus what the people of Bil’in are doing is legal and legitimate, since it guaranteed by all international conventions and even the Israeli courts themselves, as well as international and Israeli participation in the activities of Bil’in, the Committee considered that the threat against the committee members is unacceptable, and they will continue in their struggle and the threats will not stop them, as they are all being targeted, however everyone has involved in the events has become a target by the occupation. Therefore the Committee calls all the human rights organizations, friends and supporters of the village of Bil’in and the Palestinian issue to the immediate intervention for the release of prisoners and stop the terrorist against the village.

On the other hand, the People’s Committee condolences the death of the two leaders Samir Ghosheh the General Secretary of the Palestinian Struggle Front and and Shafiq Al Hout the member of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

At another level the People’s Committee called in its letter to the participants at “Fateh sixth conference” for having the popular resistance in their future programs and strategies in resisting the occupation.

Update on Mohammad Khatib and the six Biliners abducted by the Israeli occupation forces

6 August 2009

The Military Prosecution is claiming that the 7 people taken from their homes during the night raid that took place in Bil’in on August 3rd are suspected of stone throwing. A leading member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, non-violent activist Mohammad Khatib, is accused of incitement to “damage the security of the area.”

A military judge ruled not to release Mohammad Khatib from detention on Thursday August 6th. Another leading non-violent activist from Bil’in, Adeeb Abu Rahme, has remained in custody since his arrest during a demonstration against the Wall in Bil’in on July 10th. (see the video on https://palsolidarity.org/2009/07/7652, Adeeb is the protester in the orange shirt with the mega-phone). He is being held until the end of proceedings against him. This could mean months or a year in military prison for Adeeb, who is the sole provider for his family of 9 children, wife and mother.

A hearing in which an appeal for the release of the six other Biliners arrested on August 3rd took place on Thursday August 6th. The three brothers, Khaled Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 23), Mustafa Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age18), and Mohammed Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 16); Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (age 18); Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (age 16); Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (age 40); During a previous hearing that took place on the 4th of august it was apparent that many of these detainees had been badly beaten. Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (18) showed the military judge the bruises and beating marks on his torso. Sixteen year old Abdullah Moahammed Ali Yassen reported having a knife put to his neck and being threatened to be slaughtered if he didn’t report where his brother was. These, other interrogation and pressure tactics are used to obtain “confessions” from children rounded up during night time raids from the village. They are coerced into “confessing” that they throw stones at the instructions of the village leaders. Currently 19 Biliner’s are being held in custody by the military. Abdullah Mohamad Ali Yassen may be released on August 7th in the unlikely event of the military prosecution not filing an appeal against his release.

“Mohammad Khatib and Adeeb Abu Rahme, along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle, are being targeted because they mobilize Palestinians to resist non- violently.” outlines Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of Bil’in’s Popular Committee, “The Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on our land are the real crimes being committed. Israel is stealing our land from us and then prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle non-violently for justice.”

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands via the construction of the Apartheid Wall. One demonstrator, Basem Abu Rahma, was killed at a demonstration as he was attempting to speak with the soldiers. (see the video https://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4699). In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme court ruled on the September 4th 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needed to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented.

Take action against suppression of Palestinian non-violent resistance in Bil’in

Bil'in demonstrates against ongoing night raids and arrests.
Bil'in demonstrates against ongoing night raids and arrests.

3 August 2009

At around 3am on Monday morning, a large military force wearing combat paint and masks invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in. Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting 2 Palestinian children, 5 Palestinian adults including Mohammad Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. The home of another member of the Popular Committee was raided, but soldiers could not arrest him because he was not present at home.

Also arrested were the three brothers Khaled Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 23), Mustafa Shawkat Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age18), and Mohammed Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 16); Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (age 18); Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (age 16); Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (age 40); This brings to 19 the number of Biliner’s currently in custody.

Monday’s raid is another in a series of many that Israeli forces have carried out in Bil’in since June 29 June 2009, Israeli forces have arrested 25 people (most are under 18). Israeli forces have been using interrogation techniques to pressure the arrested youth to give statements against Bil’in community leaders.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the popular committee stated, “Mohmmad Khatib and Adib Abu Rahme along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle are being targeted because the mobilize Palestinians to resist non- violently. The fact is that the Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on Palestinian land are illegal under international law, in the case of our village even the biased Israeli court declared the route illegal. Yet Israel is prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle nonviolently for our freedom.”

What you can do?

Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests where curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.

Mohammad Khatib on a speaking tour in Montreal
Mohammad Khatib on a speaking tour in Montreal

1. Many of you have met Mohammad Khatib and perhaps one of the others mentioned above. We need you now to personally testify about your knowledge of them and their commitment to non-violence. Write a letter to the Israeli military judge and please send to bilinlegal@gmail.com.

2. Please Protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as you consuls and ambassadors to Israel to demand the release of Mohammad Khatib, Adib Abu Rahme and all Bil’in prisoners.

3. The Popular committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for legal funds in order to pay legal fees and Bail. Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund by paypal click http://tinyurl.com/lcr6rg . If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.

The Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements

Background:

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more then 50% of their farmlands the construction of the apartheid wall on it. In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme court ruled on the 4 September 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needs to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented. The struggle of the village to liberate its lands and stop the illegal settlements has been internationally recognized and has earned the popular committee in Bil’in the Carl von Ossietzky Meda. http://tinyurl.com/nfmsvm

On 21 July 2009, a military judge decided to hold Adeeb Abu Rahma, a leading non-violent activist that was arrested from a demonstration against the barrier that took place in Bil’in village on 10 of July (see video at: https://palsolidarity.org/2009/07/7652), until the end of proceedings against him. This could mean months or a year in military prison for Adeeb, who is being charged with incitement to violence and rioting. He is the sole provider for his family of 9 children, wife and mother.

One demonstrator, Basem Abu Rahma, was killed at a demonstration as he was attempting to speak with the soldiers. (Video can be seen on https://palsolidarity.org/2009/04/6185)