Tag: Arrests - Page 29 - International Solidarity Movement

Two Palestinian youths arrested in Hebron

20th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Late yesterday afternoon in Hebron, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian youths, 15-year-old Ahmed Alazeh and 21-year-old Dea’a Abu Dawoud.

A local Palestinian contact reported to ISM that Alazeh was charged with throwing stones at soldiers, while Abu Dawoud was arrested after saying to soldiers at the checkpoint, “what do you think, I have a knife?” after soldiers made him walk multiple times through a metal detector.

Stone throwing is a serious accusation as the Israeli cabinet recently approved a law which enables Israeli courts to sentence Palestinians to up to twenty years of imprisonment for throwing stones at Israeli military personnel.

The two Palestinians were arrested near the Shuhada checkpoint. The checkpoint leads to Shuhada street, a street in which Palestinians have been completely restricted from since 2000, and the neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida.

The soldiers closed the checkpoint while they detained the youths and awaited the arrival of police. The closure forced residents of Tel Rumeida neighbourhood to wait up to 45 minutes before being able to continue their walk home.

The police arrived approximately 45 minutes after the first young Palestinian was detained; after a few minutes of arguing both Palestinians were led to the police car and taken away.

Military places curfew on Huwwara village, arrests two young men, and raids Palestinian homes

5th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

On Friday the 31^st of October, approximately 300 Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Huwwara, near Nablus. They fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades, seemingly in attempt to clear the streets of people, and declared the village to be a closed military zone. They closed down the mosques, forced the shop owners to close their shops and placed a curfew on the village.

Mutda Tofeq Odeh and Fadi Gasher Dmede, students from the village, were arrested and held for two days. Residents state that the Israeli forces raided several homes in the village and caused damage to various Palestinian homes and properties. The curfew was finally removed on Monday afternoon.

According to Ma’an news, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a settler bus near the village, with no injuries reported, it is not known if that incident preceded this period of collective punishment.

Two days after the curfew ended, ISM activists visited the village and witnessed a large military presence, who were regularly stopping and searching Palestinian cars.

Roughly 3000 people live in Huwwara village. There are five illegal settlements in the area around, and inhabitants often suffer from settler violence, mostly caused by settlers from the illegal settlement of Yzhar, located just above the village.

Recently settlers from Yzhar set fire to an olive field, belonging to a farmer from Huwwara.

A Palestinian resident of Huwwara stated to ISM that the situation in Huwwara is tense, and inhabitants are frightened that the situation will deteriorate again this weekend.

Israeli military demolishes a Bedouin village in the South Hebron Hills

28th October | Operation Dove | Um Al Kheir, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday, Israeli forces demolished a total of seven structures in the Bedouin village of Um al Kheir. The structures demolished are, three houses made of concrete, a caravan donated by the United Nations (United Nations Human Rights Response Fund with the support of Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom) to be used as a home, a tinplated house, a tinplated kitchen, and a traditional oven.

The structures belonged to five families, with a total of thirty people affected. An Israeli activist and an international volunteer were brought and detained in Kiryat Arba Israeli police station.

At 9:20 am a convoy of eleven Israeli army vehicles and two bulldozers reached the Bedouin village of Um Al Kheir. At 9:34 the bulldozers started the demolitions while Israeli soldiers, border police officers and DCO [District Coordination] officers kept Internationals and Israeli activists away from the village, declaring it a, “closed military area”.

Around 10 am the Israeli police arrested an international volunteer and an Israeli activist with the accusation of remaining inside the area. Both were released during the same day.

Um Al Kheir is a Bedouin village in Area C, under Israeli civil and military administration. It’s located very close to the illegal settlement of Karmel, established during the beginning of the ’80s and expanded in the recent years, especially in 2013. The village routinely experiences harassment from Zionist settlers and the Israeli army.

Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills keep struggling in a non-violent way to claim justice and to defend their human rights. The South Hebron Hills Popular Committee, together with international volunteers and Israeli activists, will soon gather to re-build the demolished structures in Um Al Kheir.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Human Rights Defender Abdallah Abu Rahma receives guilty verdict from military court

21st October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Bil’in, Occupied Palestine

On October 21st, Human Rights Defender Abdallah Abu Rahma was found guilty by an Israeli military court of “disturbing a soldier”.

“Demonstrating against the occupation cannot be a criminal offence. Finding Abdallah guilty only shows that the [Israeli] military force is a tool to perpetuate the occupation.” Stated Gabi Lasky, lawyer of Abdallah Abu Rahma, to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

Abdallah at a demonstration in Bil'in on November 9th, 2012. — Abdallah at a demonstration in Bil’in on November 9th, 2012.

Abdallah spoke to the ISM about his recent conviction. “Yesterday the military court ruled that I was guilty, showing once again that they stand on the side of the occupation, and not that of truth and justice.

I was arrested on the 13th of May 2012 in front of Ofer Military prison at a demonstration commemorating the Nakba and in solidarity with the prisoners, many of who were on hunger strike. I was imprisoned in Ofer for 16 months a year earlier, for my role in the non-violent demonstrations in my village, Bil’in, against the Apartheid wall and settlements built on our land.

This time when I was arrested I was held for a few hours and released on bail, I was not summoned to court until the beginning of 2013, following the success of the popular committees in the construction of the Palestinians villages Bab Al Shams and Bab Al Manatir.”

Abdallah Abu Rahmah is the coordinator of the Bil’in popular committee, which began popular demonstrations against the Apartheid wall and settlements in January 2005. The route of the Apartheid wall originally planned to separate the village form 50% of its agricultural land. As a result of the village’s continued popular struggle, the route was changed and 25% of the village land was effectively annexed by the wall to the illegal settlement of Modiin Elite.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested and injured by Israeli forces in Bil’in since the popular struggle in the village began. In 2009 during a demonstration, Bassam Abu Rahmah was shot directly in the chest with a high velocity tear-gas projectile, dying of his wounds minutes later. On Januray 1^st 2011, Jawaher Abu Rahmah died of poisoning after inhaling excessive amounts of tear gas during the weekly demonstration the previous day.

21 Palestinians arrested in Qarawat Banea Hassan since July

4th October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Qarawat Banea Hassan, Occupied Palestine

On the 30th of September, six young men from the village of Qarawat Banea Hassan, south of Nablus, were arrested by the Israeli military.

At 1am, five jeeps with around 20 solders surrounded the village looking for Jema Kanan (23-years old), Jema Rayan (22-years old), Yousef Rayan (19-years old), Khalil Assan (20-years old), Wahbi Rayan (17-years old), and Hazem Assi (18-years old).

The solders entered several houses looking for the men, breaking doors and terrifying the families.

A broken handle left over from the night raid (photo by ISM).

The solders arrested two brothers from the same family, the older brother has just got married and his wife is four moths pregnant with their first child.

She was alone in their house sleeping when the solders broke up two of their doors. The woman had to go to the hospital due to being afraid of miscarrying their child.

The solders threatened many of the families, including a 16-year-old brother who they threatened to beat if he did not give information about his brother.

Since July, 21 men have been arrested from the village. In July the villagers held a demonstration to protest the massacre in Gaza, and shortly after the arrests began.

Only five of the men have been given a date for their trial, the other 16 are still waiting in prison.