Tag: Arrests

IDF prosecutors chided for using testimony of mentally disabled Palestinian witness

25 October 2010 | Amira Hass, Haaretz

A military judge has criticized the military prosecutor’s office for relying on the testimony of a mentally challenged young man who referred to events that never took place. In doing so, the witness put a resident of the Palestinian West Bank village of Na’alin behind bars for nine months for a crime he did not commit.

The judge, Maj. Amir Dahan, acquitted Ahmed Nafa, a 29-year-old high school teacher, of all charges against him. The indictment accused Nafa of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and rolling an Israeli car into a canal late last year. He was also indicted for being one of a group that later threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and gas canisters at an Israel Defense Forces jeep.

The indictment also said Nafa took part in an incident in which Molotov cocktails and gas canisters were thrown at an Israeli infantry unit “in or around July 2009.”

The prosecution, however, failed to give evidence that these high-profile events took place. The prosecution and police investigators did not provide the court with any independent evidence other than the testimony of a mentally disabled young man, Mustafa Amira. Amira testified to the Shin Bet security service and police after several days speaking with an informer.

Amira contradicted himself during questioning several times and later said he had admitted to acts he did not commit to bring his interrogation to an end.

28 arrested

Nafa was one of 28 Na’alin residents whom the IDF arrested in January, based on Amira’s testimony, in an effort to halt demonstrations in the area against the construction of the separation barrier.

Most of the detainees struck a plea agreement in the belief that their detention before trial would exceed any jail time they might receive.

Nafa, however, demanded an evidentiary hearing. In his opinion acquitting Nafa, Judge Dahan said he was surprised that despite the precision of the accusation, “the investigators did not make any effort to identify the victims or soldiers” to gather additional information.

In the cases of Nafa and three defendants accused of membership in a local village committee, the prosecution called another witness, Hamed Sarur, but Dahan discounted his testimony after finding that Sarur was promised release from detention if he “came to a mutual agreement with” his interrogators.

Dahan said such improper methods cast a shadow over the investigation. In acquitting Nafa, Dahan wrote: “It is not possible that this court would fail to employ the same minimum standards of proof of harm to persons or property that is customary in Israel even in civil cases.”

Two military judges had decided to leave Nafa in custody until the end of proceedings. Nafa’s lawyer, Nery Ramati, said Dahan’s criticism of the prosecution and police that resulted in Nafa’s acquittal was also relevant to the cases of the other defendants implicated by Amira.

A tour of the maze of Israeli (in)justice

11 October 2010 | Stella, International Solidarity Movement

The international activists that were arrested at the demo on Saturday witnessed a 25 years old Palestinian, with mental problems, while he was extorted the confession that he was throwing stones. However he had been arrested at the very beginning of the demonstration when no one was throwing stones yet.

The other three Palestinians, all minors, were treated very violently: they had plastic restraints so tightly around their wrists that their hands were swollen. They were blindfolded and forced to kneel down and one of the younger ones was violently pushed with his head against the wall.

The international activists repeatedly asked for a doctor but the soldiers refused to call one and said the effect of the spray only would last 20 minutes. Since the effects only get worst with water, the four international activists asked to have some milk do clean themselves but the soldiers arrogantly answered that they had no cows there.

Then they were separated to be interrogated. One of the questions that the peace activists had to answer was “Why are you here?”.
One of them said that she was taking pictures of the occupation. The soldiers answered back that there is no occupation because all Palestine is part of Israel.

Three of the internationals came back late at night after ten hours in a prison. One of them, the Irish activist, was not released and had to face a trial on the 10th, in Jerusalem. The trial was quite fast as the judge just decided that the Irish activist would stay in jail till the 12th when he would have to go back to court. It seems that he had admitted that he had broken the condition they had given to him when they arrested him a couple of weeks ago at another demonstration in Beit Ummar. In fact he was supposed to stay at least 200 meters away from the settlements.

On the 12th he was moved to a detention center near Tel Aviv waiting to be deported the day after.

Nonviolence in Beit Ummar met with brutal force; eight arrested

9 October 2010 | ISM Media

Beit Ummar, West Bank

Israeli repression of peaceful dissent continued this week, as a nonviolent demonstration in Beit Ummar was crushed in an explosion of violence and arrests.

Beit Ummar, a city near Hebron, hosts weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the Israeli occupation. The nearby settlement, Karmei Tzur, has confiscated much of the city’s land.

Palestinians and international activists gathered Saturday with the intention of walking towards the illegal settlement. The marchers were met by Israeli soldiers, who blocked off the demonstration route. Shortly after the marchers were obstructed, soldiers began throwing sound bombs. A 25-year-old Palestinian was arrested as the crowd began to disperse.

Soldiers then pointed to and began to arrest an Irish activist. A second international attempted to prevent his arrest, and both were pushed violently to the ground. An additional two international activists came to their side, and all four were pepper-sprayed. The debilitating effects of direct contact with pepper spray facilitated their arrests.

Shortly thereafter, three Palestinian youth (15, 16 and 17) were arrested by undercover Israeli police who had posed as Palestinian youth. Soldiers then dispersed the remaining crowd by firing barrages of tear gas. Journalists documenting this attack were threatened by the soldiers.

The arrested Palestinian youth were taken to the nearby police station, blindfolded, and forced to kneel. One teen’s head was pushed violently into a wall.

The four arrested internationals were also taken to the police station. One suffered extreme pain from the pepper spray and repeatedly requested for medical care, which was denied.

The internationals were then separated and interrogated. They are charged with violating a “Closed Military Zone” order, although soldiers didn’t produce any such order before the activists were arrested.

After ten hours, three of the international activists were released. The activists continue to suffer from the effects of direct contact with pepper spray, and one is covered in bruises.

The fourth international activist remains in prison and will face trial on October 10th.

Four men arrested in a night raid in Ni’lin

5 October 2010 | ISM Media

Tonight, around 2 am, the Israeli army entered the West Bank village of Ni`lin and arrested four Palestinians: Muhammed Ahmed Younis Amireh, Othman Risiqe Rasheed Amireh, Tarik Hassan Tawfeeq Mesleh and Asad Muhammed Abdulfattah Nafi.

Israeli soldiers on foot arrived from the gate in the illegal apartheid wall and from the fields around Ni’lin. As they do very often, they surrounded the village and snipers from different positions made sure that nobody could leave their houses.

About 50 soldiers went to arrest Muhammed Ahmed Amireh, 17 years old. In 2008 his brother Yousuf got shot with 3 rubber bullets in his head during a demonstration against the apartheid wall and died after 4 days. Yesterday night the soldiers entered forcefully Muhammed’s house, destroying furniture and everything they could reach and took him outside. After that he was handcuffed and tied up, the Israeli soldiers started beating and kicking him very hard while his mother was screaming and trying in vain to stop them. He was bleeding when they took him to the fields, where they had parked their military jeeps.

After that, about 30 soldiers brutally arrested Othman Risiqe Rasheed Amireh, 45 years old. They cuffed and blindfolded him in front of his wife. She is suffering from a late stage cancer and Othman was the only one that could take care of her. The Israeli army already went to visit their house about six weeks ago, destroying furniture and objects and taking pictures in order to intimidate Othman.

After a bit, seven military jeeps entered the village and the soldiers went to arrest two University students: Asad Muhammed Abdulfattah Nafi, 20 years old, and Tarik Hassan Tawfeeq Mesleh, 18. Tarik regularly takes part in the anti-wall demos as a volunteer of the Red Crescent.

Background

Israel began construction of the Wall on Ni’lin’s land in 2004, but stopped after an injunction order issued by the Israeli Supreme Court (ISC). Despite the previous order and a 2004 ruling from the International Court of Justice declaring the Wall illegal, construction of the Wall began again in May 2008. Following the return of Israeli bulldozers to their lands, residents of Ni’lin have launched a grassroots campaign to protest the massive land theft, including demonstrations and direct actions.

The original route of the Wall, which Israel began constructing in 2004, was ruled illegal by the ISC, as was a second, marginally less obtrusive proposed route. The most recent path, now completed, still cuts deep into Ni’lin’s land. The Wall has been built to include plans, not yet approved by the Army’s planning authority, for a cemetery and an industrial zone for the illegal settlement Modi’in Ilit.

Since the Wall was built to annex more land to the nearby settlements rather than in a militarily strategic manner, demonstrators have been able to repeatedly dismantle parts of the electronic fence and razor-wire surrounding it. Consequently, the army has erected a 15-25 feet tall concrete wall, in addition to the electronic fence. The section of the Wall in Ni’lin is the only part of the route where a concrete wall has been erected in response to civilian, unarmed protest.

As a result of the Wall construction, Ni’lin has lost 3,920 dunams, roughly 30% of its remaining lands. Originally, Ni’lin consisted of 15,898 dunams (3928 acres). Post 1948, Ni’lin was left with 14,794 dunams (3656 acres). After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Modi’in Ilit, Mattityahu and Hashmonaim were built on village lands, and Ni’lin lost another 1,973 dunams. With the completion of the Wall, Ni’lin has a remaining 8911 dunams (2201 acres), 56% of it’s original size.

Ni’lin is effectively split into 2 parts (upper and lower) by Road 446, which was built directly through the village. According to the publicized plan of the Israeli government, a tunnel will be built under road 446 to connect the upper and lower parts of Ni’lin, allowing Israel to turn Road 446 into a segregated-setter only road. Subsequently, access for Palestinian vehicles to this road and to the main entrances of upper and lower Ni’lin will be closed. Additionally, since the tunnel will be the only entryway to Ni’lin, Israel will have control over the movement of Palestinian residents.

Israel commonly uses tear-gas projectiles, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators.

Since May, 2008, five of Ni’lin’s residents were killed and one American solidarity activist was critically injured from Israeli fire during grassroots demonstrations in Ni’lin.

  • 5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
  • 13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv with uncertain prospects for his recovery.
  • 28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.
  • 28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
  • 30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008.
  • 29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

In total, 20 people have been killed during demonstrations against the Wall.

Israeli armed forces have shot 40 demonstrators with live ammunition in Ni’lin. Of them, 11 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 29 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.

Since May 2008, over 112 arrests of Ni’lin residents have been made in relation to anti-Wall protest in the village. The protesters arrested by the army constitute roughly 9% of the village’s male residents aged between 12 and 55. The arrests are part of a broad politically motivated Israeli campaign to suppress grassroots resistance to the Occupation.

Israeli soldiers raid Palestinian house in Hebron; one man arrested

15 September 2010 | ISM Media

At 21.00 on 12 September 2010, the final day of the Islamic festival of `Eid al-Fitr, eight Israeli army jeeps and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) were observed leaving the Israeli-only apartheid roads in Hebron and crossing into the Palestinian Authority-controlled “H1” region. Five international activists followed the vehicles to their destination, a house in the Tel Rumeida area. Around twenty soldiers stayed close to the jeeps, while around ten others entered the targeted house. Other soldiers closed off the area, not letting cars pass. The internationals were already in the area close to the house so they were able to document what was happening, although they were physically prevented from approaching the raided home.

About ten minutes after the jeeps parked in the neighborhood, one Palestinian man was taken from his home, blindfolded and handcuffed, and loaded into an APC. When asked why he was detained, the response from the soldiers was that he is a “security threat”. The soldiers remained around the house for some time, going in and out, and two other family members were taken outside. One of them was blindfolded and body-searched, but was later let back into the house. The international activists persisted in trying to get closer to the house to discourage human rights abuses, but were aggressively pushed back and thrown to the floor by the soldiers. The army stayed at the location for about an hour.

When the convoy left, the internationals went to speak with the family. They learned that the arrested person is named Dirar Abu Monshor, aged 32. Abu Monshor has two little children, who were terrified by the sight of their father being taken away by the soldiers. This has happened before, as he has been imprisoned by Israel twice, for periods of 6 months and 1 year. He was denied the right to see his family or children; his family fears that this will happen once more, for an unknown period of time. On the previous occasions, the reason given for Abu Monshor’s arrest was his former political activities and affiliations.

Abu Monshor joins over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, including at least 200 in ‘administrative detention’ – held without trial sometimes for several years.