Eight people have been arrested during Israeli invasions of Ni’lin on the nights of November 10th and 11th. Another resident of Ni’lin also decided to turn himself in to Israeli authorities after his home had been invaded by the army for several consecutive nights while his wife and children were harassed by the soldiers looking for him.
All of the nine are arrested for activel participation in the popular resistance against the apartheid wall in Ni’lin since April 2008.
At approximately 3 am November 10th around 200 Israeli soldiers invaded the village of N’ilin and arrested 7 people in their homes. Those arrested were:
Mohammad Sabti Khawaja, 28
Ahmed Sabti Khawaja, 24
Mohammad Yaser Amera, 28
Mussa Khaleel Nafea, 19
Abedallah Abed Al Kareem Srour, 18
Ayham Mohammed Nafea, 23
Tariq Khaled Srour, 17
They also came looking for Hilal Abed Al Qader Nafea, 35 but he was not in his home. On 11th November he went to the check point in the entrance to Ni’lin and turned himself in to avoid further harassment from the Israeli army towards his family.
At 3am the 9th of November Wahid Taysir Nafea, 21, was arrested. After his arrest, he was so badly beaten by the Israeli soldiers, that he had to be hospitalized in the military prison in Ramla.
Israeli forces invade N’ilin at night at a regular basis in order to arrest the people who have been active in the resistance against the wall being built on their lands. The wall annex 23 hectares of agricultural land from the village in addition to the wall two tunnels that are planned as the only entrances in and out of Ni’lin will annex 2 hectares.
432 hectares of farming land have already been annexed by the Israeli state since 1948 leaving Ni’lin with only 23 hectares of land including the land the houses are build on.
When the apartheid wall is completed it will completely encircle the village together with two roads that can only be used by Israelis. The constructions turns Ni’lin into a small enclave closed of from the rest of the West Bank.
Since the start of the construction of the annexation wall on N’ilin land in April 2008 more than 50 villagers have been arrested out of which 23 are still in jail. Besides from Tariq Khaled Srour, 4 other children are imprisoned and have been so for more than a month. They are:
Ibrahim Khalqel, 16
Majed Hisham Nafea, 17
Sufyan Khawaja, 17
Mohammad Ata Mussa, 14
In the past two months the Israeli Military have tended to keep those arrested much longer and demand much higher bail for their release. The villagers suspect that the occupation forces are attempting to make it impossible for them to keep up their resistance against the illegal land theft through these arrests and bail conditions.
The Popular Committee in Ni’lin continues arranging non violent demonstrations against the apartheid wall at least once a week.
Testimony taken by B’Tselem from Mohammad Khawaje who was arrested from Ni’lin on the 11th September 2008
To view original testimony taken by B’Tselem click here
Muhammad Khawajah
I live with my family in Ni’lin. We live on the ground floor of the house, my two uncles and their families live on the first floor, and my grandmother lives on the second floor.
Photo by Iyad Haddad
Last Thursday [11 September], around 3:00 A.M., I woke up from my mother’s shouts. She was shouting, “Get up! Get up! The army is here!” My father wasn’t home that night. I got up and went out with her to the inner courtyard of the house. There were about 12 soldiers there, and their faces were painted black. One soldier wore a black hat that covered his face. He sat on the stairs outside the house and didn’t take part. I think he was a collaborator who led them to houses.
The soldiers were on the first floor. I heard them tell my Uncle Sami to direct them to our floor. One of the soldiers asked, “Where is Muhammad?”, and I realized he was asking about me. The soldier told my uncle to call me, so he did. I started walking towards them. Two soldiers grabbed me and took me outside. I realized they wanted to arrest me. I was afraid, and began to cry, and called my uncle to come with me.
The soldiers cuffed my hands tight with plastic handcuffs, which hurt a lot. A soldier grabbed me by the shirt from behind and started walking and pushing me forward. The shirt was up against my neck and I couldn’t breathe properly. I tried to free myself, and he punched me in the back and pulled the shirt tighter, choking me even more. Another soldier also punched me and pulled my hair as we walked. I cried and called out for my uncle and my father. The soldiers hit me and said, “Quiet! Quiet!” They led me to an alleyway between the houses, where there are cactuses. We were walking by some cactuses and then one of the soldiers pushed me into them. The thorns pricked me in the hands and legs. The soldiers kept on pushing me forward and hitting me along the way.
Muhammad Khawajah at his family’s grocery store in Ni’lin. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 18 Oct. 2008.Muhammad Khawajah at his family’s grocery store in Ni’lin. Photo: Iyad Hadad, B’Tselem, 18 Oct. 2008.
While we were walking, children from the village began to throw stones at the soldiers. It felt like it was raining stones. The soldiers were confused. Some of them ran off, and the others pushed me to move faster, and I fell down. One soldier started dragging me along the ground, on my stomach, with my hands tied. The ground was full of stones, gravel, and dirt. He pulled me by my hands and I cried and shouted. He told me to shut up. He wanted to pull me faster, to get away from the stones. He dragged me a few meters, until we were behind a wall. It felt like my right knee and the palms of my hands were injured. My knee was bleeding.
Some soldiers fired tear gas in the direction of the stone throwers. The grenade fell not far from me and I started coughing and crying. My eyes were burning. We started walking again, the soldiers pushing me from behind. We got to a house in the village, about 400 meters away, and they broke in. It was the house of ‘Abd a-Rahman Lu’ai ‘Abd al-Halim, 14, who goes to school with me. They arrested him and his cousin, Sufian Nawaf al-Khawajah, 18. They took the three of us to the village center, about 400 meters from my house, and made us stand facing a shop with our hands raised. ‘Abd a-Rahman and Sufian were handcuffed as well. The soldiers beat us and knocked us to the ground. We lay there and they stepped on us, on our heads and stomach, for a few minutes. Then they stood us on our feet and pushed us toward the entrance to the village. A soldier was behind each of us, holding each one by the shirt.
Every now and then the soldiers punched and kicked us. One soldier was angry at me in particular. He beat and strangled me, as if he wanted to kill me. I think some of the soldiers had been hit by the stones thrown by the children. I shouted and cried, I was so scared. It was still dark out. They led us about one kilometer, to the junction that leads to the Nili settlement. There were lots of army jeeps at the junction. The soldiers blindfolded me and put me into a jeep. It was about an hour after they had arrested me. The jeep began to move. I didn’t know where it was going.
I sat on the floor of the jeep, without any soldiers next to me. After about half an hour, maybe an hour, of driving, the jeep stopped, and the soldiers took me out of it. I could see a bit through the blindfold. I didn’t know where I was, but it was an army base. I saw another two jeeps pull up. They took ‘Abd a-Rahman out of one and Sufian out of the other.
Then they drove us somewhere else. There they sat us down on benches, and after ten minutes they called us in for questioning, one after the other. ‘Abd a-Rahman went first and his questioning lasted for about twenty minutes. Then I went into the room and they took off my blindfold. I saw a man in civilian clothes. He was stout, with a round face and fair skin. He was wearing a skullcap. He said his name was Captain Sasson, and I also heard other people call him that. He sat me down next to his table and asked me questions about children from the village. He showed me pictures from a thick photo album, which had about 200 photos. He asked me about some children again and again, and I told him I didn’t know them. Then he stopped asking me about them and showed me three pictures of myself, holding a slingshot in a demonstration against the separation fence. I admitted that it was me, but I kept on saying that I didn’t know the other children. Then he hit me in the back with a plastic stool. I cried and shouted, and he hit me twice in the leg with a wooden stick.
A soldier who had a pistol on his hip ordered me to get up and face the window or the closet. There was a camera fixed in place in front of me. He took my picture, and then the interrogator told me to sign, with my fingerprint, a page with Hebrew writing. I don’t know what it said. The soldier didn’t read it to me. I assume it was a confession. I had to sign, because I was afraid he would beat me. The interrogator took prints of all my fingers, and then told the soldier to blindfold me again. He took me out of the room and sat me down on the bench outside. The interrogation had taken about half an hour. Then they took Sufian in, also for about half an hour.
Then they put the three of us in a big patrol van, and after driving for about quarter of an hour, they took us out and removed the blindfolds. I saw a sign that said “Ofer,” and I realized we were in Ofer Prison. They took us into a room where they search people. They took off our clothes and a doctor examined us. They gave us bags with pants, a shirt, and flip-flops. They arrested Sufian and put him in a detention room. A policeman in a blue uniform [of the regular police] spoke with the soldiers. I understood that he was telling them to release us. He said to us, in Arabic, “You are small children and should be released.”
They kept ‘Abd a-Rahman and me outside the detention room and then returned us to the van. Our hands were still cuffed. After about twenty minutes, they brought each one of us a container of jello. They removed the cuffs and let us eat. About half an hour later, they put the cuffs back on.
Two soldiers were guarding us in the van. We weren’t allowed to talk to each other. Whenever we said something, a soldier told us to shut up. It was very hot in the van, and we were sweating a lot. They didn’t give us anything to eat or drink. They did let us go to the bathroom, removing the handcuffs and putting them back on when we returned.
We stayed like that until after the muezzin called worshipers to evening prayers, around 8:00 P.M. Then they took us to another camp. I think it was the Beit Sira camp.
At the camp, they gave us a chocolate drink and put us in a small room with green army mattresses. There weren’t any beds. The cuffs were loose now, so we took them off, drank the chocolate drink and went to sleep.
The next morning, at 10:00, they put us in a patrol van and cuffed our hands again, but this time they didn’t blindfold us. They took us back to Ofer Prison and put us in the tent section, Department 2, which had eighty-three detainees, of all ages. Each department had four tents, with about twenty detainees in each.
The detainees treated us well. They gave us candy, chocolate and potato chips. I felt comfortable. I fasted during the day and played soccer and tennis. The Department had TVs, one in each tent. I saw kids’ programs during the day and a Syrian show, “Bab al-Hara”, at night. A detainee helped me ask for the doctor to treat my leg. They took me to the clinic and the doctor put iodine on my knee wound and bandaged it.
At first, I was afraid and cried sometimes, because my family was far away. I’ve never been detained before. It was a new experience for me. I didn’t know anything about detention before then. I don’t know why they detained me – the whole village and all the children took part in the demonstrations, so why did they pick me?!
The adult detainees took care of me because I was the youngest detainee in the Department, and they decided to make me assistant to the sergeant of the Department.
I would wake up every morning at 6:00 and call to the detainees: “Let’s go! Time for the count!” They would get up and then the soldiers would come in and count them. I stood next to the soldiers as they counted. The soldiers treated me with respect and asked the older detainees to take care of me. The Department sergeant always helped me. He was older than most of the other detainees and spoke Hebrew. We worked together, helping the detainees and submitting their requests to the prison officials and to the guards.
On Sunday morning [14 September], at 6:00, I was taken to court together with ‘Abd a-Rahman. Before we left for court, they shackled our hands and legs with handcuffs and iron chains. When we got there, they put us in a small room to wait until the hearing began, at 2:00 P.M. We didn’t ask for food or drink because we were fasting.
When the time for the hearing came, they took us into the courtroom, the two of us handcuffed. My father was there and so was a man from B’Tselem. Later, I learned that his name was Iyad Hadad. Other people also came to the hearing, and it made me feel good to see them. I was very happy to see my father, but the soldiers didn’t let me hug him or even touch his hand.
An Israeli lawyer defended me. I don’t know her name. She asked that I be released on bond and the judge granted the request, but set bond at 3,000 shekels. My father didn’t have the money, so we couldn’t pay.
After the hearing, they took me back into detention. The next day, my father managed to borrow the money for the bond, and I was released on condition that I return to a hearing on Tuesday [16 September]. I went home to my parents and family. I was very happy. I went to the medical clinic in the village because my neck and shoulder hurt, and also because of the scratches and wound to my knee. They examined me and treated me. They told me to rest for a week and to come back for follow-up.
My father went with me to the hearing on Tuesday. The hearing was postponed until 21 October 2008.
Since I got released, I’ve had problems. I wake up at night in fear and I can hardly sleep. I went to a psychologist called Khaled Shahawan and he gave me medicine and sedatives. I feel that it’s hard to concentrate in school. Last year my grade average was 94.
Muhammad Salah Muhammad Khawajah, 12, is a student and a resident of Ni’lin in Ramallah District. His testimony was given to Iyad Hadad on 18 September 2008 at the witness’s home.
Three more people from the village of Ni’lin were arrested in the early morning of the 25th September Israeli forces.
Moumin Abed Shadah Flror (17), Ibrahim Khalil Mussleh (19) and Said Attalah Amira (23) were all abducted from their homes at around 1am on the 25th September. Israeli forces entered the village, where large- scale demonstrations against the construction of the apartheid wall
have been taking place for several months, at around 1am, firing sound bombs and tear-gas.
These latest arrests mark a continuation of the Israeli policy of arrests of those involved in demonstrating the wall. In the last week 6 residents of Ni’lin have been arrested during night invasions of the village.
On Sunday 14th September, Mohammad Saleh Khawaje, aged 12 years and two months, from the village of Ni’lin will spend a fourth night in Ofer prison near Ramallah, as he awaits release on bail for the charges of stone-throwing and disturbance of public order. His co-defendant, 13 year old Abdul Ahman is not so lucky; he will be kept in jail until his indictment on Tuesday 16th September, when military prosecutors will request that the judge refuse bail, forcing the child to remain incarcerated for the period of his trial – a process that takes up to six months. The difference in their treatment, according to their lawyer, is based on the slight age difference. If convicted, however, both children face approximately ten to twelve months in jail, advised their lawyer.
A clear indication of the apartheid nature of the Israeli legal system, Mohammad and Abdul will be tried and punished as adults, despite their young ages because Palestinian children are defined as adults at 12 years old; while Israeli children are treated as such until they reach 18 years of age.
Sitting shackled in the dock of the military court, their heads barely reaching above the railing, the boys wore brave faces, chatting excitedly when Mohammad’s father entered belatedly after being held-up pointlessly at the Ofer checkpoint – Mohammad showing his father his bandaged wound, sustained when Israeli soldiers dragged him from his family home at 2:30am on Thursday 11th September.
Mohammad’s father, Abd Saleh, believes his son has been arrested as an act of revenge visited upon him and his family by Israeli soldiers, following Abd Saleh’s complaints to both Israeli police and military about attacks on him at the behest of Israeli military Lt. Col. Omri Burberg – now notorious as the commander who ordered Israeli soldiers to shoot the bound and blindfolded Palestinian arrestee Ashraf Abu Rama in the foot after a demonstration in Ni’lin.
In a testimony given to the human rights group B’tselem, Abd Saleh detailed the abuse he suffered on 13th July 2008, when, as a volunteer paramedic for Medical Relief, he was present at a demonstration in Ni’lin. Abd Saleh has testified that at this demonstration Omri ordered another commander “Miki” to shoot tear gas directly at him. The gas landed between his feet, quickly overwhelming him. Abd Saleh was then violently arrested, and dragged along the ground, despite protests from witnesses that he needed medical attention. After two hours Abd Saleh was taken by military ambulance to Makabeem military camp where Omri refused to allow hospital transfer for Abd Saleh, despite a military doctor insisting it was imperative, and then proceeded, with other soldiers, to beat Abu Saleh severely for ten minutes, kicking and punching his entire body until he was unconscious. Upon awakening, Abu Saleh was taken to a military ambulance and tied to the bed, whereupon he saw and heard commanders Omri and Miki order a female soldier to take photos of him, in a practice eerily echoing torture photos of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Grahib. In the following hours Abd Saleh was again punched in the face; refused water; left for two hours; and then put back in an ambulance only to be violently picked up and thrown on to the ground.
Abed Saleh wasn’t home when Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Ni’lin on Thursday night and raided his house. “The soldiers came to the house to take me again,” he explained. “They asked where I was. When they found out I wasn’t there they took my son instead.”
This is the second time in recent history that such allegations have been laid against Israeli soldiers under Lt. Col. Omri’s command. One month ago Jamal Amira, father of Salam Amira, the teenager who shot the infamous video in which Omri ordered the aforementioned shooting of Ashraf Abu Rama, was arrested as “Salam’s father” by self-proclaimed “friends of Omri”, and subjected to abuse strikingly similar to that Abd Saleh describes in his testimony.
This ethos of revenge is not however, limited just to soldiers under Lt. Col. Omri’s command, rather, it goes right to the heart of Israeli military policy, where it is standard practice to demolish the house of the family of any Palestinian who commits an attack on Israeli citizens. More than 628 houses have been demolished in accordance with this policy since the beginning of the second intifada.
Indeed, actions such as the arrest of Mohammad would also not be possible without a legal system that can try a 12 year old child as an adult.
At 2am Thursday September 10th Israeli forces invaded the West bank village of Ni’lin and arrested 9 persons, three of them are under 18 and are still being kept in jail.
Israeli forces invaded the village in the early hours of the morning, firing live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear-gas and sound bombs. They entered many houses, arresting 9 residents. Among those arrested were at least 3 minors, including a 12 year old and 13 year old.
Witnesses have reported that the Israeli forces were in the cases of two of the minors looking for other people, taking the minors when they could not find those they intended to arrest. Mohammed Salah Khawaje (12), Mohammed Loi Khawaje (13), Arafat Amira, Sofian Nawaf Khawaje (17), Imad Azzam Khawaje (18), Mustafa Khawaje (20 year old journalist), Milhim Amira (22), Yousef Amira (34) and Salah Mira (36).
The father of the 12-year-old says that the army came to look for him but since he was not at home they roughly searched the house and ended up taking his 12-year-old son, the father sees it as a reaction to threaten him because he is active as a medic in the demonstrations.
The army handcuffed and blindfolded the 12-year-old boy and pushed him down the hill outside the families home while his terrified mother and sister were held back., and could only watch the soldiers violent assault of the little boy.
The brutal behaviour the Israeli army has exposed on the villagers of Ni’lin did not stop them from carrying out the planned demonstrations against the apartheid wall at 1pm the next day.
The military stopped the protest before it got out of the village and started shooting tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets at the about 20 protesters.
Almost 6000 Palestinian children have been arrested since the start of the Al Aqsa intifada in September 2000.
The Israeli law as well as the United Nations Convention on children’s rights defines a child as a person under the age of 18. The Israeli military law, the apartheid law system Israel has imposed on all Palestinians, defines a child as a person under the age of 12.
Yesterday Yousef Khawaja, 32 years was shot in the leg with live ammunition by Israeli forces operating in Ni’lin. Fortunately his situation is not critical and he may be released from Ramallah hospital today. Two other protesters were also injured by Israeli rubber-coated steel bullets.
The Israeli Human Rights organisation, B’Tselem, last week released a statement condemning the violence used by Israeli forces in Ni’lin (to view the statement click here), after the shooting of Awad Sror, stating that;
“The recent wave of similar cases, which led to B’Tselem’s request, raises the grave suspicion that soldiers and Border Police officers systematically breach the Open-Fire Regulations in their use of rubber-coated bullets, often with the knowledge and approval of officers.”
———- Ynet article on the abductions:
IDF forces apprehend West Bank boy suspected of involvement in violent demonstrations against West Bank security barrier. Father: Soldiers led him away like a sheep, used him as human shield
By Ali Waked
To view original article, published by Ynet on the 11th September, click here
Large IDF forces arrived Wednesday night at the West Bank village of Naalin in order to arrest 12-year-old Muhammad Hawaja, who is suspected of involvement in violent riots held in protest of Israel’s construction of the security barrier.
His father, Salah Hawaja, told Ynet that the forces, “came in from the mountains, surrounded the house and removed Muhammad from his bed.
“My wife and I can’t forget the image of IDF soldiers grabbing hold of Muhammad’s pajama collar and leading him away as if he were a sheep crying and screaming,” said the father, a paramedic.
According to him, the troops used Muhammad as a sort of human shield as they left the village, located near Modi’in.
“Upon leaving the house the forces were confronted by village youths, who hurled stones,” Hawaja said. “Muhammad was used as a shield.”
The father, who was recently been arrested during two separate anti-security fence rallies, says the detainment of his son was conducted as “an act of revenge”.
“If they (soldiers) came because of me, then I’ll say it again – I was merely fulfilling my duty as a paramedic and do not pose a threat of any kind.
“My 12-year-old son should certainly not have to be a victim of the IDF’s attempts to get back at me,” he said.
Salah said he has yet to be notified where his son is being held.
About a month ago the father was beaten by Colonel Omri Burberg, who was relieved of his command following the incident in which a soldier fired a rubber-coated bullet at a bound Palestinian in Naalin. The indecent was caught on tape.
Residents of Naalin and the Anti-Fence Committee fear that Muhammad’s arrest was part of a new strategy aimed at applying psychological pressure on them.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said in response that Muhammad was arrested after evidence that was gathered linked him to violent disturbances, including attacks on security forces with cinder blocks and stones.
On Wednesday evening a resident of the village was injured from live fire. The man, in his 20s, sustained injuries to his leg.
