Tag: Arrests

Update: ‘They are not the same as you’ – detention continues for Kufr Qaddoum prisoners

By Ben Greene, Ellie Marton, and Anna Conroy

17 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Majd and Abdelateef’s family, waiting for the brothers to appear.

On Monday 15th October, Palestinian political prisoners Majd and Abdulateef Obeid appeared before a military court for a third time. Their lawyer argued that, as four international activists arrested at the same time with the same evidence had previously been freed, Majd and Abdelateef should be released also.

In advance of the hearing, the Obeid family and their lawyer had been optimistic that Abdelateef would be freed, as he has no previous convictions, and there are legal precedents for challenging the detention of Palestinians where international activists on the same charges have been freed. Majd, as he had a previous conviction under similar charges, was expected at worst to receive a light sentence.

However, the military judge said that “Majd and Abdelateef are not the same as you” – referring to the two international activists present in the court. It was therefore ruled that Majd and Abdelateef’s detention would continue, pending a further hearing at an unconfirmed date in Ofer military court.

The outcome now looks bleaker than previously expected, as it appears that the military court has rejected the argument that Palestinian prisoners should be treated the same as international prisoners. This reflects the apartheid nature of the Israeli system of ‘justice’.

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Previous update published 11 October 2012:

UPDATE AND PETITION – 11th October 2012

Sign a petition demanding freedom for Majd and Abdelateef here.

Majd and Abdelateef Obeid’s case was due to be heard in court today, October 11th. However, Israeli military treatment of Palestinian lawyers at Salem court today led to strike action. Lawyers were protesting about being subjected to full searches when entering the military compound – Israeli lawyers also joined the strike in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues.

Majd and Abdelateef arrived into the courtroom in handcuffs and leg shackles, wearing the same clothes that they were detained in three weeks ago. Their hearing went ahead without a lawyer present and they were informed that their detention would be extended until their next hearing date, which will be Monday 15th October.

International activists were initially prevented from entering the court, despite having prior permission. This is a typical tactic of the Israeli army to avoid international observation of the Israeli military justice system.

Please sign our petition highlighting the disparity of treatment between the international activists who were arrested and Majd and Abdelateef. The petition signatures will be presented to the judge at Monday’s hearing.

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Original article published 3 October 2012:

In advance of their hearing in military court tomorrow, Majd and Abdelateef Obeid’s mother Sahra Fayez Obeid has recounted to ISM the events of their arrest on the 21st September in the village of Kufr Qaddoum.

Neither Majd or Abdelateef attended the demonstration – they were both in their family home, which happens to be on the route of the demonstration. Abdelateef was eating lunch with his family, while Majd was asleep in the bedroom, when three Israeli Occupation Force soldiers attempted to enter the house with force. They pushed Sahra to the ground, forcing their way into the house. There were also a number of soldiers surrounding the property. Ignoring the pleas of the family to leave, they stated “we want the young men, not you”.

Finding Majd and Abdelateef, the soldiers grabbed them by the neck and marched them to an army jeep on the road outside. Both men were arrested in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. When the family followed the soldiers to the jeep, they were threatened and ordered back to their home at gunpoint. Faruq Obeid, the men’s father was told that if he did not leave, the soldiers would create an excuse to arrest him as well and keep him in jail.

The Obeid family have also been threatened that their home is classed as a Closed Military Zone during the weekly Friday demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum, and that male members of the family are at risk of arrest if they remain at home.

Majd and Abdelateef attended a five-minute military court hearing on the 30th of September, at which point their detention was extended and they were charged with endangering the lives of soldiers, throwing stones and with preventing the army from carrying out their military operations. Six soldiers testified against the two men, but the military presented no photographic evidence to back up their claims.

They await a second court hearing on the 4th of October, at which point their detention is likely to be extended once more, still without a conviction.

Majd, who is 20 years old, is a farmer and sweet-maker – as the olive harvest begins in Kufr Qaddoum, his absence will be felt greatly. Abdelateef is a 23 years old mechanic and was married just one week before his arrest – his new wife Maysam Nasek Obeid will attend the court hearing on 4th October, along with their mother Sahra and other family members.

Four international activists who were detained and arrested at the same time as Majd and Abdelateef were released unconditionally on the 30th September, following 48 hours in prison and 7 days under house arrest. They were detained under the exact same charges and “evidence”.

A three-tier justice system is applied by Israel in the territories that it occupies – favouring Israeli citizens first, international citizens second, whilst Palestinians face the harshest sentences, contrary to international human rights law and the Geneva Convention. The tactics of the Israeli military seem aimed at quashing resistance to the Israeli occupation in Kufr Qaddoum.

Letter from International Activist Under House Arrest in Israel Asking for Support and Solidarity

September 25, 2012

Dear Friends of Palestine,

I am writing to you from an apartment in Tel Aviv where I am under house arrest for standing in solidarity with Palestinians fighting a twelve-year road closure in their West Bank town of Kufr Qeddoum.

This weekend, I spent forty eight hours in Israeli prisons. I was denied access to medicine, kept for long periods in leg and wrist shackles and prevented from calling a lawyer or my embassy; but this is light treatment compared to the punishment meted out to Palestinians who resist the illegal occupation of their land.

I need your help today to address the unfair detention and illegal treatment of Palestinian prisoners in administrative detention in the state of Israel. Please call your senator and representative today and tell them to demand the immediate release of Majd Farooq Abdelateef Obeid (23) and Abdelateef Farooq Abdelateef Obeid (25), who are being held in military custody.

Both Majd and Abdelateef were arrested alongside my fellow peace activists and me. Our charges are the same; the “evidence” against us is the same. The difference is that we were brought to a civilian court in roughly twenty four hours; they are still awaiting their hearing in a military court on Thursday.

We were released within sixteen hours of our court hearing and are under house arrest until Sunday, at which time, we will be free to go. Majd and Abdelateef however, will likely spend the next twelve to twenty months in administrative detention in Israel.

The judge in our case found the charges brought against us by the military to be doubtful… will Majd and Abdelateef receive the same verdict? We must demand their immediate release now!

~~~

On Friday, September 21st, three British peace activists and I, along with Majd and Abdelateef, were taken into custody by Israeli occupation forces while we attended a demonstration in the village of Kufr Qeddoum, west of Nablus. Soldiers entered the village from the north and east, fired tear gas bombs at protesters and broke windows in a school.

The soldiers kicked, beat and choked two of my fellow peace activists before forcing them into an army transport vehicle. As I passively resisted the soldiers’ attempts to arrest me and ziptie my wrists, they bruised my arms, stepped on my feet, and threatened to pepper spray my eyes. The soldiers also threatened my colleague and I with the armored bulldozer that was moving on the road in the village.

Soldiers bound the wrists of Majd and Abdelateef in tight zipties and they were not allowed to talk to one another.

After our arrest, we were taken to a nearby settlement. While the internationals were searched, soldiers took Majd and Abdelateef separately into an armored military transport vehicle for what they called “medical examinations.” Soldiers then blindfolded the men and we were transported to a police station where we spent the next eight hours.

During that time, both Palestinians remained bound and unable to talk to each other or us. The soldiers made them sit in the sun. When we demanded that they be moved, the soldiers moved them to the shade briefly and then moved them around the corner so we could not see them.

Majd and Abdelateef were forced to wear blindfolds for many hours until sunset. We repeatedly told the soldiers that sensory deprivation was a form of torture and was therefore illegal under international law. When one of my colleagues informed a soldier that even having knowledge of torture of prisoners and not doing anything about it was illegal, the soldier replied, “Fine, then. I’m a torturer.”

The racist attitude of the soldiers toward Palestinians was clear when one turned to my colleague and, motioning to the men said, “Don’t you have enough of these in your country?”

Again the bigotry and malevolence was plain when the soldiers took Majd and Abdelateef away from the police station. We demanded to know where they were being taken and said that we did wanted to go along with them. One soldier turned to us and said, “Shut the f— up! I will f— you up! You want to go to prison?! They will rape you there!”

This type of attitude, as well as the abusive treatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli authorities must end! We urge you now to call you senators, representatives, and politicians all over the world to demand an end to release Majd and Abdelateef immediately.

~~~

Majd and Abdelateef are currently awaiting a hearing in a military court on Thursday. They are not alone.

There are currently thirty two people from the village of Kufr Qeddoum who are being held, either with or without charge by the Israeli military. In the last year, over one hundred people have been arrested from the village for taking part in demonstrations. More than ten people have been taken by soldiers in the last three weeks.

The people of Kufr Qeddoum village have been holding demonstrations every Friday for the last year. They are protesting the twelve-year closure of the most direct route from their village to the nearby city of Nablus. The closure turns what would be a one and a half kilometer journey into a fifteen kilometer journey.

Though the road is closed to Palestinians, it is open to Israelis, particularly residents of the three illegal settlements to the east of Kufr Qeddoum, one of which, Qedumim, expropriates even the name of the Palestinians’ land.

Pressure from the Israeli occupation forces on the villagers to end the weekly protest has been building in recent weeks. In the last two weeks, soldiers have invaded the village prior to the protest, creating havoc among residents. Two weeks ago, soldiers prevented people from going to the mosque for Friday prayers. The army has also come into the village during the night with jeeps and tear gas to arrest people for taking part in earlier protests.

~~~

Right now, my colleagues and I are safe in Tel Aviv. We were arrested on the false charges of being in a closed military zone and throwing stones at soldiers. The soldiers made no announcements about the closed military zone (CMZ) before arresting us, and refused to show us any documentation of the declaration of a CMZ at the time of our arrest.

And I’m sure this goes without saying: we weren’t throwing stones.

The soldiers handed us over to the police who charged us, separated men from women, took us to separate jails and held us overnight and throughout Saturday. When we appeared in court on Saturday night, the state announced that they wanted to hold us in detention for seven days with the intention of discovering our identities and then handing us over to immigration authorities for deportation. They accused us of being in the Occupied Territories “specifically to disturb the peace” and said that we had kept the soldiers from “doing their jobs.”

Though our friends from Anarchists Against the Wall arranged for us to have an English-speaking lawyer and a translator, the hearing was completely in Hebrew. After the judge rendered her decision, we were not allowed to talk with our lawyer and were not given a copy of the ruling.

After the ruling, we were confused about our status. Though our lawyer successfully argued for us to remain under house arrest in Tel Aviv for seven days instead of going to prison, we were not immediately released because the judge gave the police twelve hours to determine the status of our visas. When, at three o’clock in the morning on Sunday, we were moved to a federal prison and told we’d be taken to another court at 6.30am, we feared the Israelis were about to begin deportation proceedings against us.

So far, that has not happened, though it remains a possibility. On Sunday, we were taken to a police station where our visas were verified and we were identified, photographed and fingerprinted. We signed for a bail of two thousand skekels each and were released into the custody of a friend with Israeli citizenship. Unless we are deported, we will be released on Sunday at four o’clock in the afternoon.

We are being hosted and given much support and comfort by members and friends of the Israeli organization Anarchists Against the Wall ( www.awalls.org ). We are very grateful for their help and generosity.

Please help me show thanks to International Solidarity Movement and to Anarchists Against the Wall for their continued assistance during this ordeal. Our legal fees for battling the false allegations against us are roughly four hundred dollars per person. ISM has put up the funds to cover this debt, but anything that you can do to defray this cost or to show your love for Anarchists Against the Wall is much appreciated. Donations can be made at palsolidarity.org/donate (Please state wether money is for ISM or Anarchists Against the Wall)

Thank you very much for your concern and support during this time. My fellow peace activists and I are united in the belief that our inconvenience is a small sacrifice compared to the risk and injustice our Palestinian comrades face daily as they resist the Israeli occupation. If our experience can be used to shed light on the struggle against apartheid, then that experience is no burden.

 

In solidarity and peace

Lauren Siebert

 

Hebron: Soldiers invade Kurtuba School, attempt arrest


By Ruby Astaire

26 September | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Israeli soldiers invaded a Palestinian school in the city of Hebron with intentions to arrest two sixth grade students after false allegations of throwing stones at a nearby checkpoint.

Israeli soldiers based in the Palestinian city of Hebron entered the Kurtuba school on Sunday to arrest two sixth grade students after they allegedly threw stones at a nearby checkpoint. Kurtuba school is located on Shuhada street which is occupied by illegal settlers and has been closed to Palestinians since September 2000. The students and staff at Kurtuba school are granted special permission to walk down this street by the Israeli government.

On Sunday morning at 9.30am, armed soldiers with dogs surrounded and entered the school grounds to arrest two young male students. They asked Miss Samir, the English teacher, if the soldiers had seen the two boys throw stones: the soldiers refused to answer. When she questioned them further about what the boys looked like, they described two boys which did not fit the description of any of the students at the school. The soldiers then picked two boys at random from a classroom and tried to take them by force, but the teachers refused to let them go. The soldiers occupied the school for half an hour before deciding to leave.

As the soldiers were leaving Kurtuba school, they threatened to close the school if it was found that any stones were thrown. Unconfirmed reports say that after the soldiers left the school they arrested two boys from Tel Rumeida.

Ruby Astaire is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

 

Freedom for Jalaal

By Anna Conroy

18 September | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Jalaal and his family expressed their desire to thank everyone who has donated through ISM. (photo credit: Ellie Marton)

On Saturday 15th September a group of four internationals from ISM joined the Daraghmah family at their home in al Luban to celebrate son Jalaal’s release from prison. Thanks to many generous donations ISM was able to pay the five thousand shekel bail ($1300) and co-ordinate Jalaal’s release after he had spent 17 days in Israeli jail. Jalaal was arrested for trying to protect his family when 30 settlers invaded their property, destroying their car and beating his two young brothers and his mother. Following the attack, none of the settlers were questioned or detained, yet Jalaal who acted in self defense when he hit one of the intruders with a gardening pick, was arrested at the scene – see previous ISM report here: https://palsolidarity.org/2012/08/child-wounded-by-settlers-my-brother-was-arrested-for-protecting-my-mother/

Despite the recent trauma that the Daraghmah family has gone through, they welcomed the ISM volunteers to their home, sharing tea and fresh produce grown in their garden.  Jalaal’s two younger brothers (Mu’min, 13, and Nour al-Deen, 9) who were so badly beaten in the attack that they had to be hospitalised, displayed incredible trust and affection through their interaction with the volunteers.

Jalaal and his family expressed their desire to thank everyone who has donated through ISM. They are relieved and happy that Jalaal has returned home and are consoled by the fact that their family’s ordeal has been voiced internationally.

Yet for the Daraghmah family this was not an isolated incident but rather one in a series of attacks upon the family and their property. It is for this reason that International volunteers from ISM are striving to maintain a night time presence in the property in an effort to deter groups of Israeli settlers from neighboring hilltop settlements from trespassing on the land. Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal under international law and violate the Fourth Geneva Convention.

While Jalaal’s release is a cause for celebration, the Daraghmah family remain concerned for their future safety in their home. The family remain at risk of hostility from the settlers and at being penalized by Israel’s two tier judicial system, which seeks to collectively and disproportionately punish the Palestinian people.

Anna Conroy is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

 

Israeli Army shoots resident of Nabi Saleh following settler attack

By Paddy Clark

14 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday evening, settlers entered Nabi Saleh village. In clashes that followed Israeli soldiers shot Omar al-Tamini, 25, with live ammunition in the abdomen, and then arrested him and Eyas from inside the ambulance which was taking Omar to Ramallah hospital. On Monday, September 11 at 2:30 a.m., Israeli forces forced entry to homes in Nabi Saleh and arrested Mohammed, and Zeyad, younger brother of martyr, Mustafa Tamini.

Most of the local residents were at home on Monday as a result of the Palestinian general strike. Settlers entered the village in an attempted attack which was reported on PSCC. Residents of Nabi Saleh resisted the intrusion, and then clashes broke out between local youth and the military. Omar al-Tamimi was shot with live ammo during clashes which continued in to the night.

Later that night around 2.30 a.m, Israeli military invaded again (see video here.) They raided the family home of martyr, Mustafa Tamini, who suffered a fatal injury on December 9, 2011, after being shot in the face with a tear gas grenade from a distance of less than 10 meters (see photo here and video here.) Heavily armed soldiers once again, stood in the hall of their home, this time demanding another family member to be taken away to an Israeli jail.

I blog on Palestine and Resistance blogged;

“i feel so so angry that they had the nerve to go into that house once again, that they dared to harrass this family once more. its not even been a month since they released loai (20) from ofer military prison – and already when they had arrested him, in the middle of the night, from inside their home, barely two months after they had shot dead mustafa in cold blood in their own village, i (like so many others) could almost not believe it, felt so so enraged that they would enter their home again with their guns. it still makes me furious that they actually imprisoned loai – FROM INSIDE THEIR HOME – only two months after he saw his eldest brother bleed into the street in their village, before friends carried him into a car and away from him forever. (watch this video: loai, wearing a grey/black checkered jacket, can be first seen at 0:22). I still feel a mixture of rage and pain and i struggle to grasp that they not only murdered mustafa in the way they did, but that they did storm the house of the bereft family so shortly after and violently arrested the brother who actually saw mustafa dying, when they had only released his twin odai from military jail the day of mustafa’s funeral – AFTER the funeral. i still can’t grasp that odai heard in jail that someone in his village was severely injured, heard in jail that the injured young man was his eldest brother, heard in jail that it was a serious injury and that he might lose his eye, heard in jail that he might be fine after all, and heard in jail the next day that his brother was martyred. and that he was denied the right to spend that terrible day with his family and friends, with his twin brother.”

The legal office of Gabi Lasky said yesterday that Zayed and Mohammed were being detained at Ofer prison but was still unaware where Omar and his friend were being held.

For background information about the struggle and further information in Nabi Saleh see blog here

Paddy Clark is an activist and writer living in the West Bank (name has been changed).