Tag: Arrests

Inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoner

30 June 2009

The 23 year old Palestinian women, Somod from Nablus, was recently released after having been imprisoned in Israel for four and a half years. Despite her young age, she suffered from inhumane treatment such as rape-threats, isolation, and denial of access to basic sanitation facilities. She went to court as many as 18 times before she was released.

The treatment in jail

Regardless of any crime that Somod might have been accused of, the treatment that she faced in the Israeli prisons cannot be legitimated.

“In jail they beat me badly, and I suffered under inhumane interrogation techniques. They threatened me by saying that they would ‘make me a woman’ if I refused to give them information. It was horrible. I was sent to many different places for interrogation, in many different prisons. Many times they did not even tell me where I was, or where I was going. They tried to make me sign conditions that I did not agree on, and they hit me in order for them to make me talk. But I feel that to give them such information would be like selling my home, my family. It would be the same as being a spy. So when I still refused to talk, they took me to an isolated room with only red lights for two days. I was later sent to Talmond prison where I was kept in isolation for 7 days”, Somod explains.

“In Talmond prison we were 11 women in a single room, with only 8 beds so that some had to sleep on the floor. There was only one small bathroom, which was full of insects, and even mice. There were no showers in the bathroom, only small buckets with water, and many times the prison authority cut the water while we were showering. It felt very humiliating. I was transferred to various different prisons, and in some of them they woke us up 7 times each night “in order to count us”, the prison authorities said. If some of us did not immediately rose up from bed and said “yes I am here”, the person was punished by being transferred in to an isolated room. Sometimes they even threw tear gas in the sleeping room were we slept, or cold water.”

Somod could not even enjoy a homecoming with her family. On her scheduled release date, she was told by the warden that she will be detained for an additional 6 months. When she asked why she could get no answer. Meanwhile her parents waited outside the jail for two days and were unable to get any explanation as to why their daughter was not being released. Four days after her scheduled release Somod was sent out of the prison with nothing. She found a man on the street that allowed her to borrow a phone. When she spoke to her father he could not believe his ears.

The Nation: ‘Israel’s man of conscience ‘

Ezra Nawi | The Nation

29 June 2009

My name is Ezra Nawi. I am a Jewish citizen of Israel.

I will be sentenced on the first of July after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers in 2007 while struggling against the demolition of a Palestinian house in Um El Hir, located in the southern part of the West Bank.

Of course the policemen who accused me of assaulting them are lying. Indeed, lying has become common within the Israeli police force, military and among the Jewish settlers.

After close to 140,000 letters were sent to Israeli officials in support of my activities in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Justice responded that I “provoke local residents.”

This response reflects the culture of deceit that has taken over all official discourse relating to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

After all, was I the one who poisoned and destroyed Palestinian water wells?

Was I the one who beat young Palestinian children?

Did I hit the elderly?

Did I poison the Palestinian residents’ sheep?

Did I demolish homes and destroy tractors?

Did I block roads and restrict movement?

Was I the one who prevented people from connecting their homes to running water and electricity?

Did I forbid Palestinians from building homes?

Over the past eight years, I have seen with my own two eyes hundreds of abuses such as these and exposed them to the public–therefore I am considered a provocateur. I can only say that I am proud to be a provoker.

Because I am a provoker, the police together with their allies have threatened me, beaten me and arrested me on numerous occasions. And when I continued to “provoke” them, they did not hesitate to out me as a gay man; indeed, they spread rumors among the Palestinians with whom I work that I have AIDS.

One of the reasons I have been singled out has to do with who I am. It is difficult to explain, but as a Mizrahi Jew (descended from Jewish communities in the Arab and Muslim world), a gay man and a plumber, I do not belong to the elite of Israeli society and do not fit the stereotype of the Israeli peacenik–namely, an intellectual Jew of Ashkenazi decent. Actually, the police officers who constantly arrest me and I are part of the same social strata. I was programmed like them, have a similar accent, know their jargon and our historical background is comparable. And yet, in their eyes I am on and for the other side, the Palestinian side.

This simple fact seems to disturb them so much that they have to vilify me; that is the only way their worldview will continue making sense. I threaten them precisely because I undermine the categories and stereotypes through which they understand the world.

But the policemen are only actors on this stage. The military, civil administration and the judicial system are all working with the police, and all of them together follow the commands of their masters, the Jewish settlers.

This unholy alliance is extremely dangerous, because for them the end–gaining full control of the Land of Israel–justifies the means. In order to advance this end they dehumanize the Palestinians; and because the Palestinians in their eyes are not human, everything is permitted. They can steal their land, demolish their homes, steal their water, imprison them for no reason and at times even kill them. In Hebrew we say damam mutar, taking their blood is permissible.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that the evil I confront every day in the West Bank could not have been carried out without the Israeli court system. Judge Eilata Ziskind not only mistakenly found me guilty but she instructed the court to invite a translator for the sentencing, as if I do not speak Hebrew; in her mind I, a Mizrahi Jew, am a Palestinian Arab–and Arabs are, almost by definition, guilty. My case is merely part of a pattern. All the crimes committed by the state and its proxies in the territories over the past four decades were made kosher by the Israeli courts. Therefore, the courts are just as much to blame for the ongoing cruelty.

Because I am a provoker the state subjects me to continuing harassment, and yet I have remained persistent. What strengthens me and gives me energy is the widespread and constant support I have always received from political allies. When I was beaten by settlers, when my car was stolen, when I was arrested, I never felt alone. I know that thousands of people, both in Israel and abroad, support what we in Ta’ayush (Jewish-Arab Partnership) are doing against the occupation.

“Ezra” in Hebrew means help, and I know that in times of trouble I can rely on my friends for help.

This is what occupation looks like: Bil’in invaded by Israeli soldiers

Mondoweiss

29 June 2009

We give a lot of attention to the weekly nonviolent protests in the village of Bil’in as they are an inspiring example of popular resistance in the face of Israeli repression. But the truth is that the village is under constant threat of attack from the Israeli military, not just during protests. The video below should be an international scandal, instead it’s just another night in the occupied territories. From the Friends of Freedom and Justice – Bilin:

At around 2:30am two groups of around 35 soldiers (70 total) descended on the village of Bi’lin. They raided several houses, detained their inhabitants, and searched the inside of the houses. When members of the ISM and the Popular Committee of Bi’lin confronted the soldiers, they called all of Bi’lin a closed military zone and threatened to arrest anyone out of their house or anyone on top of a house taking pictures. In the course of these house raids, they kidnapped a 16 year old boy (Mohsen Kateb) from his house and took him away into the night. And they kidnapped a 16 year old boy (Hamoda Yaseen)from his house and took him away into the night. Haitham al-Katib, a respected Palestinian activist in Bi’lin was video taping the raids when soldiers aggressively pushed him against a wall and threatened him with arrest. Two members of the ISM intervened on his behalf and were able to wrest him out of the grasp of the soldiers. They then raided the house of Iyad Burant, the head of the popular committee, and threatened his 9 year old son (Abdal kalik) with physical harm if he didn’t produce a camera he was holding. After several people including 2 internationals intervened by blocking the soldiers path, they were also threatened with arrest and were pushed by the soldiers. After repeated efforts, the soldiers gave up and left that particular house.

This raid follows on the heels of others that have happened almost every night for 2 weeks. Today’s arrest now brings the total to seven people, who have been arrested and taken away since the onset of the raids. Bi’lin currently is facing the loss of sixty percent of its farmland due to the construction of the apartheid wall and the illegal settlements that have followed in the wake of the wall.

Israeli forces invade Bil’in, seize two teenagers

Ma’an News

29 June 2009

Seventy Israeli soldiers invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in at 2:30am on Monday morning, raiding houses and eventually abducting two teenage boys.

According to Iyad Burnat of the village’s Popular Committee, local and international activists (with the International Solidarity Movement) confronted the soldiers, who then declared the entire village a “closed military zone,” threatening anyone who leaves their house with arrest.

Burnat said that 16-year-olds Mohsen Khatib and Hamoda Yasin were seized from their homes in the village, which is known for its persistent weekly demonstrations against the construction of the Israeli separation wall. The wall isolates the villagers from more than half of their land.

He also said that Palestinian activist Haitham Khatib was videotaping the raids when Israeli soldiers shoved him against a wall and threatened him with arrest. Two international activists were able to wrest him from the grasp of the solders.

Burnat added that the soldiers invaded his house, threatening to arrest his nine-year-old son if he did not hand over a camera. Several people, including two internationals, intervened, blocking the soldiers’ path, eventually compelling them to leave the house.

The Israeli military has said that it arrested 14 “wanted Palestinian terror suspects” during raids in the West Bank on Sunday night.

Israeli forces have raided the village nearly every night for the past two weeks, arresting seven people.

IWPS: Israeli forces invade village, abduct youth

International Women’s Peace Service

28 June 2009

At 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 28th, the village of Azzun in Qalqiliya governorate was invaded by 120 soldiers looking for a wanted teenager. After entering and ransacking three homes, they entered a fourth through the back door after throwing rocks at the door and adjacent window. There they found the youth for whom they were searching: a 16-year-old high-school student who was apprenticing with his father over the summer months as a carpenter. He was taken into custody by soldiers in his underwear and without shoes. The teen’s parents pleaded with soldiers that he be allowed to get dressed, but the soldiers assured the parents that there was no need as they would only take him for a minute or two and then return him. His family has not seen him since.

The youth’s parents did not know why he was arrested, but the family has faced a similar experience before. When their eldest son was 12, he was also taken by soldiers who said they would return him after a couple of minutes. Instead, he was imprisoned and released three years later. A second son was reportedly shot to death by soldiers beside Highway 55, which borders Azzun to the north, in March 2003 when he was with two friends. Soldiers (who did not deliver first aid) then left that son’s body outside the District Coordinating Office in Qalqiliya, and the army later claimed the youth had died after he fell and broke his neck.