The beginning of An Nabi Saleh's weekly marchThe West Bank village of An Nabi Saleh held their weekly demonstration on Friday, attempting to reach the village land that has been annexed by the illegal settlement of Halamish. Demonstrators marched down from the village mosque till they were blocked by a line of Israeli soldiers and jeeps. Participants chanted, danced and sang for approximately half an hour before the military decided to violently disperse the group by throwing tear gas and sound grenades directly at the participants.
Soldiers continued to fire gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers for several hours, injuring several people, including a local teenage boy who was hit directly in the face by a canister. It opened up a hole in his face and shattered his cheek bone. As the ambulance tried to drive him away to hospital, soldiers fired volleys of tear gas at it, forcing it to turn around and take a much longer route round.
Military inside the villageTowards the end of the demonstration, two internationals were arrested.The two, Swedish and Canadian citizens, were not taken to military base, but were held for four hours in a small shack. They were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs for the whole four hours, before being released without charge. A similar ordeal was endured by three Israeli activists arrested earlier in the day in Bili’in.
The hilltop village of An Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Today and every Friday since January 2010, around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.
The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in An Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite An Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land. In January 2010, hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened due to the settlers’ attempt to re-annex An Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to An Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of An Nabi Saleh is located on the Hallamish side of Highway 465 and is just one of many expansions of the illegal settlement since its establishment in 1977.
The arrest of Akram Sharawneh, 15Akram Sharawneh, a 15 year old boy from Hebron, was released on Sunday the 25th of April this year after being randomly arrested by Israeli soldiers and spending more than two months in an Israeli juvenile prison (not all the period in juvenal prison). He is one of the many minors from Hebron who has been arrested and held captive in Israeli detention since the beginning of this year.
Akram was arrested the 23rd of February near his home in the old city of Hebron when he went out to buy bread. The day before his arrest, the Israeli Cabinet had declared several holy places in the West Bank as National Jewish heritage sites, including the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. This declaration resulted in widespread protests in the occupied territories, especially in Jerusalem and in the old city of Hebron.
In the market Akram was stopped by two soldiers who then body searched him and demanded to see his birth certificate. This is not uncommon in the old city of Hebron, if you are Palestinian it is essential to always carry your identification card, and if you are a minor you must always have your birth certificate. Akram was wearing a red T-shirt underneath his shirt, once the soldiers saw this shirt, they claimed that they had seen him throwing stones and they arrested him at the spot. He was blindfolded and handcuffed and thrown into a military jeep. In the military vehicle one of the border policemen hit Akram several times on his neck. Akram and three other Palestinian boys, two 13 year olds, and one 19 year old, were taken to Kriat Arba’a settlement for investigation.
In Kriat Arba’a the boys were made to stand handcuffed and blindfolded for six hours. They were individually interrogated several times. During these interrogations the border police tried to threaten the boys into confessing to throwing stones. The police threatened Akram with physical violence and used insulting terms about his family. They told him if he admits to throwing stones he will be released, if he doesn’t, they will beat him more. However, Akram did not confess, he refused to lie about his actions despite their threats. When he continued to deny their accusations they brought out a form, which was an official confession, they tried to make him sign it and he refused. It is important to recognize that this reaction is an exception to what normally happens during this initial interrogation. According to the DCI (Defense for Children International) usually young boys confess to whatever they are accused of right away, or they are often tricked into signing a confession. These forms are always written in Hebrew, and the boys are sometimes told that it is a form for their release. Later in court when the form appears again it is actually a confession statement, which they have already signed, and the judge will not accept their claims that they did not know it was a confession statement.
At 8pm on the night of their arrest, Akram and the two other Palestinian boys were taken to an unknown military camp where they spend the night handcuffed in a military jeep. The fourth boy, who is 13 years old, confessed after significant police pressure and was released the same day.
On the second day Akram and the other boys were taken to Gush Etzion, a detention center in a settlement where detainees from the south are taken for interrogation. Akram and the other 13-year-old boy were kept in an outside prison cell and exposed to the same form of interrogation as the previous day. On the third day the boys were taken to their first hearing in Ofer Military Prison. At this point the boys had not slept, nor had they been offered any food. Akram drank two glasses of water only because he asked for them. It was the first hearing of the six trials he would have to endure in the two-month period he was kept in prison. After the court he was taken to Remonim prison, a special prison in Israel for Palestinian minors. In Remonim, Akram spent his first three weeks alone in a cell. He was let out everyday for three hours. During this time the Red Cross would give the boys lessons and they could talk together in a common room. Finally they put another boy in his cell. This boy is 16 years old and had been sentenced to five years for “planning to kill a soldier”. He had been in Sharon prison for 21 months already, and he told Akram that in this detention center the guards beat the boys regularly.
Throughout his imprisonment the military behaved completely inappropriately, among other occurrences, Akram had his new shoes stolen after one guard told him to take off his shoes before his third court. Before the last court a prison police officer threatened Akram that if he said one word in his court about what happened to him, he would be beaten. At one point Akram said that one high ranking officer told him that he could kill any three prisoners he wanted to, and nothing would happen.
Akram's mother, LeilaAkram finally confessed during his sixth trial. In the end, the judge said that if he did not confess she would bring in each of the four soldiers who claimed they saw him throwing stones into testify. He could be in prison for another five months and she would take the soldier’s word. His lawyer from the DCI had advised that he should confess from the beginning because he knows the system; boys who confess are released. This is always the goal with child prisoners, he explained later in an interview: “As a lawyer and as a father – I cannot stand to let a child stay in prison – because I know the system – they will keep postponing the courts until they get a confession.” He went on to say “our first obligation is to be with the child and act in their best interest. But as a lawyer feelings are different…” The Israeli military court system uses lawyers as a “legal signature” (as a validation for their unjust system) and as a lawyer it is difficult to do your job knowing that your participation is a part of their continuing oppression. One of the ways to combat this system is to boycott it. By refusing to partake in it you refuse to recognize it as a valid system. As a method of resistance this can be very powerful, because it means that instead of giving confessions and instead of lawyers playing into their legal charade, everyone remains in prison. This has happened in the past, but it was limited. Boycotting the Israeli military judiciary system needs to happen on every level, from the lawyers, prisoners, families, human rights groups and NGOs, and from the Palestinian government. In the end you ask this of a child. Akram was clearly traumatized from his experience in prison. During the court hearings he would cry, he was under a lot of pressure to confess, but still he did not want to lie. But in the end he told his mother, I am tired, I want to leave this place, so he confessed. He was released and fined 1,000 shekels. When asked about why a child is fined for a confession and then released, the DCI lawyer made it clear that this money is just a punishment; it has nothing to do with the crime. They know a child cannot pay 2,000 shekels, they know the family needs to pay this money, and that they will pay this money instead of feeding their children. So now you make more enemies. He was released with the condition that if the Israeli military arrest him in the next four years he can be imprisoned for up to eight months without trial, and these sentences are often extended as court dates are continually postponed. This is the reality facing all Palestinians who are arrested and detained.
So why do the so-called “guilty” go free and the “innocent” stay in prison? Why the obsession with confessions? As the DCI lawyer explained, a confession justifies the arrest in the first place; a guilty arrest is seen as “justifiable” and “necessary”. Also, the Israeli military judicial system wants “to let you be in prison on your own account” stripping the system of responsibility and directing the blame elsewhere, it is seemingly your choice about whether or not you are released. It creates a very warped set of options, you can either be guilty or in prison, and for a young mind this is incredibly destructive. It creates anger. The young boys are much more likely to behave violently after being mistreated in jail for something they didn’t do. The lawyer gave an example of a boy from Hebron who was arrested so much in one year, getting steadily more angry at the system, that his family sent him to Jericho to give him a break from prison. He was reacting more and more violently as his arrests and experiences in prison continually traumatized him.
Of the eleven cases of under-14-year old child arrests in the first two months of this year, all have confessed. This number represents an increase in the rate of arrests of juveniles since last year. There are of course many factors contributing to why this is happening, it comes down to ideology. Sometimes it is just about maintaining a certain number of arrests, keeping up appearances in order to perpetuate the myth that the Palestinian territories are somehow “dangerous areas”, seemingly justifying Israel’s continuing occupation.
In Akram’s case several international laws were breached, including being interrogated without a lawyer and being moved out of the occupied territory and imprisoned inside Israel . When asked about how DCI lawyers use International law in these cases in the Israeli military court, the lawyer from DCI said, “When you talk in the military court about international standards it is like you are joking, the system does not care about international law.” Israel is a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.” Clearly Akram’s imprisonment was not a measure of last resort; it was random, unjustified, and illegal. Beyond this fact, even if the arrest was somehow justifiable, in no part of his detention did Israelis act with any consideration of Akram’s Juvenile status. During the court hearings the judge purposely prolonged his case in order to obtain a confession. And this is not special to Akram’s case; this is the standard procedure of a system that is designed around oppression, not justice.
According to the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty;
(a) Juveniles should have the right of legal counsel and be enabled to
apply for free legal aid, where such aid is available, and to communicate
regularly with their legal advisers. Privacy and confidentiality shall be
ensured for such communications; http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/45/a45r113.htm
Under Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the transfer of detainees out of occupied territory is prohibited. Apart from being illegal, the detention of Palestinian children inside Israel makes family visits more difficult due to freedom of movement restrictions. DCI, http://www.dci-pal.org/English/Doc/dbulletin/Issue_03.pdf
UPDATE: All eight of the activists arrested yesterday during the demonstration in Beit Jala were released last night at 11:30 p.m. Each arrestee was individually interrogated, and required to give the police his or her phone number as contact information “in case further investigation is needed”. No other conditions were stipulated.
Demonstrators obstructed construction of the illegal apartheid wall in Beit JalaThe Christian village of Beit Jala, in the Bethlehem governorate, lies next to the path of the apartheid wall at a point where it cuts deep into Palestinian territory. The objections of the villagers have been ignored and, for the past two months, a regular Sunday protest demonstration has been called at the instigation of the Beit Jala National Committee. This Sunday, May 16th, demonstrators gathered at the site where a bulldozer was clearing agricultural land for the walls’ construction a mere 30 metres from the nearest houses. The protesters’ numbers were constrained as Palestine Authority police prevented local Palestinians from joining the protest.
A core group of international and Israeli activist supporters succeeded in clambering aboard the bulldozer, forcing the clearing work to stop. When Israeli soldiers and border police arrived in numbers half an hour later the activists then sat on the ground in front of the bulldozer, linking arms with the intention of resisting their removal.
Military and border police violently removed the peaceful demonstratorsAfter an order to leave the site had been issued and ignored the soldiers and border police then proceeded to drag the protesters forcibly over the rocky terrain towards a waiting personnel carrier. Those who chose to walk fared better than those who continued to resist – despite the threat of the use of pepper spray from close quarters. Eight young resisters, five females and three males, including two from the International Solidarity Movement and two from the Palestine Solidarity Project, were taken into police detention at the Gilo settlement.
Israel’s treatment of international activists, aid workers and human rights workers has become increasingly draconian as it attempts to stem the flow of uncensored and first-hand information which flows to the West. Quite simply, “the only democracy in the Middle East” cannot afford the truth to be told and will brook no opposition to its inhuman and illegal policies and practices.
Between 1 and 6 a.m. Thursday morning, 10 boys under the ago of eighteen were arrested from their homes in the village of Hares, Salift region. The boys, entirely innocent, were taken to Huwarra detention center where they are now being held. A massive number of soldiers were involved in the raid. They arrived in the village in three large “Man’ trucks, three smaller trucks and several army jeeps.
Earlier in the week, soldiers built a gate at the entrance to Hares. If closed, the gate traps many villages inside. The captain of Shabak in the area, new, told villagers that the gate was “punishment”, and that the arrests were further “punishment”. No reason or justification for “punishing” the village, particularly by arresting children, was furnished.
Settlers, Palestinians in the street of Sheikh Jarrah
Hundreds of settlers held disruptive celebrations in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah yesterday in honor of “Jerusalem Day”. Dancing, screaming and praying in the street, the settlers disrupted life for over six hours, as police barricades and teeming masses prevented traffic from flowing as usual. One Palestinian woman was violently assaulted in the afternoon, resulting in a gash across her face and a broken nose. Palestinian residents observing from their homes and/or sidewalk were subjected to the extremely racist harassment which is consistent with any settler activity.
Palestinians, Israelis and internationals staging a small counter-demonstration were forced by police out of the street and onto the sidewalk. This restriction on freedom of speech came shortly after massive crowds of settlers effectively closed the street for hours, filling multiple blocks with police-facilitated nationalist celebrations of ethnic cleansing. Four Israeli activists were arrested after a small counter-demonstration held at the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah.
Palestinian women protest racist "Jerusalem Day" outside of occupied Gawi house
“Jerusalem Day” according to the Hebrew calendar, falls 2-3 weeks after the end of the war of 1967 when Jerusalem was “unified”. In reality, this holiday observes the beginning of a systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian would-be capital, East Jerusalem. “Jerusalem Day” is observed with a march through West Jerusalem and the Old City, particularly the Muslim Quarter. In the past few years, the march has taken a very extreme nationalist character, and extreme right messages are celebrated. Last year, there were violent clashes when marchers attacked Palestinians while marching though the Old City and attacked Israeli leftist protestors who held a quiet demonstration near the march.
Contextual background on Sheikh Jarrah
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, primarily from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.
Facing systematic ethnic cleansing through the Israeli judicial system, all 28 families of the neighborhood ultimately await eviction. The violent eviction of theKamel al-Kurd family, by Israeli police and settlers in November of 2008, resulted in the death of ailing Abu Kamel (Mohammad) al Kurd, 61. The August 2009 evictions of the Gawi and Hannoun extended families and December 2009 occupation of Rifqa al Kurd’s front addition followed, beginning a visible trend of ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah. Over 60 residents, including 20 children, have now been displaced.
The evicted families established protest tents near their homes, many of which were repeatedly demolished by the Jerusalem Municipality. As a result, only the Rifqa al Kurd tent remains standing. Members of the Gawi, Hannoun and Kamel al Kurd families continue a daily presence outside of the occupied Gawi home. The Palestinians and their international and Israeli supporters face continual harassment from Israeli settlers. Police presence in the community is almost entirely directed at prosecuting Palestinians, and not in neutrally protecting residents from harassment and violence.
Constructing new Jewish settlements and/or occupying Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, the capital of a hypothetical independent state.
Legal Background
The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.
The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including theal -Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi , has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land inSheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.
The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.
The ultimate aim of the Zionist organizations is to convert Sheikh Jarrah into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City from the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008,Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik
