Tag: Arrests

Snapshots of Al-Qawasmi home, ripped apart by Israeli military

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Hussein Al-Qawasmi was arrested 10 days ago. Yesterday Qawasmi was escorted back to his home by Israeli soldiers, who claimed there were explosives as well as a memory stick and other forms of information. The family home was ransacked and a section of it was destroyed.

Two sons have been arrested, 2 have been killed, and one is exiled.

His brother Hassan is also held in jail while another family member, 16 year old Abdel Razaq was taken to the Russian Compound, an Israeli court, in West Jerusalem after he returned from his travels outside of the West Bank. He is currently in prison, but his location is unknown. None of the family members were able to reach him.

The mother of Hussein saw her son handcuffed, blindfolded, and beaten as she tried to approach him. The soldiers pushed her back. She suffers from heart conditions and was severely affected and needed medical attention. The soldiers would not allow an ambulance to come, and when she tried to walk down to the road to go to reach the ambulance they blocked her way. Only after the soldiers had left around twelve thirty she was taken to the hospital at that moment in an ambulance full of injured protesters.

She was taken to intensive care in Al Mazan hospital where she remains.

The explosion in the yard blew up all of the windows of the house and burned the grape vines. There was shrapnel found in the yard and the neighboring house was also damaged.

50 arrested during pre-dawn sweeps in Hebron

21 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Just before dawn today, Sunday August 21, IDF forces raided the towns of Hebron and Bethlehem in the West Bank. Preliminary reports indicate that up to 250 people have been arrested in Hebron, including at least 70 Hamas leaders. Twitter feeds on the ground speak of occupation forces closing all entrances to the city and stationing themselves in the streets. Later reports finalized the count to approximately 50 Palestinians being arrested, as others were released.

No statement has been released by Israel concerning the reason for the raids and arrests. A group of ISM activists stationed in Hebron have rushed to the scene, as have ISM activists in Nablus.

At approximately 1:30 am, 40 soldiers raided four family homes on Ein  Sarah St.  alone and around. According to the International Middle East Media Center,over 100 military vehicles and jeeps entered Hebron from 4 entrances, and raided 6 villages in addition to Hebron City, breaking into homes and occupying the streets, from which Palestinian security services were conspicuously absent  The soldiers moved from home to home in  4 jeeps, a transport carrier (presumably for those arrested), 2 Land Rovers (thought to be Shabak) and two regular cars. Soldiers were carrying live ammunition but met no resistance to the arrests.

In one household they failed to find the person they were looking for so they arrested his 60 year old father instead.

B. Jabal , a local resident, described why he felt the arrests had taken place.  “This is collective punishment for the Palestinians in response to the recent shootings in Eilat.  We want peace, and our leaders want peace , but the Israelis keep killing and destroying our houses and destroying trees,” he said.

Gaza was surprisingly quiet tonight, given that it is has been under seige for the last 3 days; apparently, the occupation forces spent the night gearing up to sweep through the West Bank. So far, it looks like the only rationale behind the offensive may be the targeting of Hamas leaders, in retaliation for Thursday’s attacks in Eilat; this retaliatory gesture is surprising, however, since not a shred of evidence exists to tie Thursday’s attacks to Hamas.

Locals in Hebron also reported that a 17 year old Palestinian was run over and killed by a settler near the illegal settlement of Qiryat Arba.  Israeli forces also assaulted and detained a Palestinian man during a raid on the home of the Mufti of Bethlehem, in the refugee camp of Duheisha. So far, 2 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli gunfire in Bethlehem. Details have yet to be confirmed.

Israeli military forces attack the freedom of theatre

13 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Freedom Theatre in Jenin Refugee Camp has faced targeted repression by the Israeli Army in recent weeks.  At 3pm on August 6th, 2011, Israeli Occupation Forces arrested a Freedom Theatre actor at the Shave Shomeron checkpoint on his way from Ramallah to Jenin.  Rami Awni Hwayel, a 20 year old acting student, was returning to Jenin from Ramallah to visit with family over the weekend during Ramadan.  Rami’s acting colleagues and friends describe his arrest as “devastating” as Rami plays a main role in “Waiting for Godot” which is scheduled to perform in New York in early September.  Rami has so far been denied his right to see a lawyer, and his loved ones still have not been informed of where he is. Israel is citing ‘security’ concerns for their refusal to release his whereabouts or any other information concerning his arrest.

A member of the Jenin Freedom Theatre points to the location where Israeli armed military threw bricks at the theatre, vandalizing it.

Rami is the third member of the Freedom Theatre to be abducted by Israeli Occupation Forces in recent weeks.  In the early morning hours of July 27th, 2011, Head Technician Adnan Naghnaghiye and Chairperson Bilal Saadi were arrested by Israeli Occupation Forces.  The soldiers also caused damage to the theatre, smashing windows with bricks and destroying what they could from their position out in front of the building.  Night guard and technician student Ahmad Nasser Matahen was forced to remove his pants by IOF after being ordered out of the theatre.  The general manager of the theatre, British citizen Jacob Gough, and the co-founder, Jonathan Stanczak from Sweden, arrived to the theatre and attempted to call the Civil Administration to inform them that the army was attacking a cultural venue.  The person in charge hung up on their phone call.

The Freedom Theatre is a cultural centre which has operated in the north of the Occupied Palestinian West Bank since 2006.  The theatre aims to assist the youth of Jenin in coping with the stresses they face living under continued brutal Israeli military occupation.  It serves to provide a safe space where youth can express their emotions through the arts with the aim of constructing a free and healthy community.  The Freedom Theatre offers a drama workshop space, acting school, filmmaking and photography studio, library, talent campus, and various performances.

 

Windows smashed by bricks thrown by the Israeli military makes for just some of the damages caused.

The targeting by Israeli Occupation Forces of the Jenin Freedom Theatre and its community members is one of many instances clearly demonstrates the campaign of intimidation Israel has embarked on in the minds of Palestinians and international observers. Israel continues to repress with ruthless violence those who nonviolently oppose the illegitimate occupation of Palestine.

For more information on the Freedom Theatre, and to express your solidarity and support with the Freedom Theatre Community, please contact:

Jacob Gough, acting General manager at +972 (0)595348391, jacob@thefreedomtheatre.org

Jonatan Stanczak, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre at +46 (0)707908296 jonatan@thefreedomtheatre.org

Ni’lin continues with strong will despite Israeli raids

8 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank  and Ni’lin Sons Group

On the 7th of August at 2:30am, 13 military jeeps entered the village of Ni’lin, took control of its southern region, and proceeded towards the nearby village of Qibya to arrest a Palestinian following an aggressive raid the previous night. Locals curious about the raid  have yet to ascertain why the man was arrested.

This comes following an incitement to escalate tension by the Israeli military in a raid the previous night at 11:20 pm, when two military jeeps raided the town of Ni’lin from the opposite side of the illegal Israeli separation wall through the adjacent fields, and began firing loud flares into the air, resulting in brush fires across these fields.

“The two military jeeps continued their commute until they reached our houses, and raided the house of Ilayan Mousa and started searching the house in an investigation of Mousa. They left the house after half an hour and no one was arrested. They moved from Mousa’s home to the rest of the village, raiding it and stopping in the middle to shoot tear gas grenades at the people and surrounding homes in the streets,” said one local, Saeed, who lives near the Israeli separation barrier that has been the focus of Ni’lin and other village advocacy campaigns and forms of peaceful resistance.

“The wall encloses Palestinians to limit travel, usurps Palestinian land, is a tool for illegal, Israeli occupation, and is a demeaning symbolic and physical injustice to the definition of freedom,” said an international observer from the United States.

One man was hit in the leg with a tear gas bomb and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.

The military jeeps left the town yet a group of approximately 45 Israeli soldier raided the fields near the houses and started shooting tear gas bombs and flare bombs, and stayed there until 02:00 am.

According to locals Israel has raided the village of Ni’lin at least four times a month in the past six months. Locals claim the purpose of the military invasions is clear, harassment with various weaponry and constant investigations and interrogations are two of many variables to incite fear in the villages that peaceful resist illegal Israeli occupation . But the ploy of fear tactics is futile, according to Saeed.

“We never get scared or stop protesting. We are continuing our struggle with a strong will and determination.”

Israeli soldiers violently suppress demo; sweep through houses to carry out arbitrary arrests in Nabi Saleh

29 July 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Military checkpoints were set up early in the morning on all roads leading in and out of Nabi Saleh this Friday, as the Israeli army does every Friday in its attempt to prevent people from outside the tiny village to support the villagers in their struggle for land and dignity under the Occupation.

A few hours before the demonstration was scheduled to begin, a number of armored military vehicles drove into the village and unloaded dozens of soldiers into its single street. In the clashes that ensued with local youth, the soldiers shot volleys of tear-gas and took over two houses. In the first of what seemed to be a systematic attempt to stifle media coverage, a Palestinian cameraman was beaten and then detained despite having showed his accreditation with the al-Ayyam daily newspaper, only to be released a few hours later without his camera’s memory card.

Meanwhile, and American activist on his way to the protest, was detained by the soldiers manning the checkpoint at the main entrance to the village. His wallet, phone, passport and driver’s license were taken away from him as he could see smoke and hear shooting coming from the direction of the village.

Eventually, his possessions were returned to him and he was told to turn around and head back to Ramallah. A military jeep was sent trailing his car to make sure he indeed does so. Shortly after regaining his phone, the activist found out that soldiers at the checkpoint used his logged-in twitter account to post anti-protest messages in broken English.

After the Friday midday prayer, people were able to gather next to the village’s mosque, but were attacked less than a hundred meters after the peaceful march began in a hail of tear-gas shot from multiple directions. Every attempt to regroup and resume marching was again answered by a shower of tear-gas projectiles, many of them shot directly at demonstrators. Three protesters were injured that way, including one in her head.

At some point, soldiers begun sweeping through houses, going door to door, randomly detaining people in the street or from inside their houses. Three Palestinians and three international activists were detained this way, only to be released later with no charge and without even being questioned. Soldiers also detained an Israeli cameraman who tried to film the soldiers wanton rampage through the village. His camera was violently snatched from him, causing it to break. Like the other detainees, he, too, was released shortly after.