Israeli forces arrest two foreigners in West Bank

Reuters

7 February 2010

Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the arrest of Spaniard Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian Bridgette Chappell in the city of Ramallah violated interim peace accords that gave Palestinians self-rule in parts of the West Bank.

An Israeli army spokesman said the two women “were known to have been involved in illegal riots that interfered with Israeli security operations,” apparently in reference to the protests against the barrier.

Both in their 20s, the women were activists with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), established in 2001 to mobilize international support for Palestinian activism against Israeli occupation.

“They were arrested in Ramallah on the grounds of staying in Israel illegally,” the military spokesman said, in apparent reference to tourist visas they received on entering Israel, which controls access to the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad last week urged Israel to end incursions in West Bank areas which according to arrangements established under the Oslo peace process fall under full Palestinian control.

Ryan Olander, an ISM activist who shared an apartment with the two women, said around 12 members of the Israeli security forces had arrested the pair in the early hours of the morning.

Palestinian and international activists say Israel, apparently concerned about plans for wider demonstrations, has stepped up a campaign of arrests against protest organizers in the last two months.

The Israeli authorities deported a leading ISM activist last month, the organization said. Eva Novakova, from the Czech Republic, had also been arrested in Ramallah.

Protesters stage weekly demonstrations in various Palestinian villages against Israel’s construction of West Bank walls and fences that have denied them access to their land.

Israel says the barrier, which the World Court has deemed illegal over its construction in occupied land, has stopped suicide bombers in the past and can be removed in the future if the security situation improves.

Mohammad Khatib released as 3 more arrested in Bil’in night raids

Bil’in Popular Committee Against Wall and Settlements

3 February 2010

Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements was released from jail on Wednesday night Feb. 3rd, 2010. The military had taken Khatib from his home in Bilin on January 28th for allegedly not complying with legal conditions from a arrest in 2009. He was released on a bail of 10,000 Israeli shekels, with the condition of not participating in any of the weekly protests. He must appear at the nearest Israeli police station every Friday between 12:00- 5:00pm.

The night of Khatib’s release, the Israeli military conducted their second raid of the month in Bilin Village. Ibrahim Burnat a resident of Bilin and activist against the wall was arrested in his home early Thursday morning, along with local photojournalist Hamde Abu Rahmeh and an international journalist who were documenting the invasion. Abu Rahmeh and the journalist were held at the Binyamin police station for approximately 12 hours until their release. The international journalist from the United States was released with the condition of not being allowed in the West Bank for 15 days with the threat of deportation if the condition was broken. Ibrahim Burnat remains in jail.

“The map of the closed area was unclear, the officer did not give us enough time to look at the map or understand the order. Then, we were not even allowed to leave the area if we wanted to, the military was surrounding the group of people who had come to document the situation. Hamde and I were arrested, cuffed, put in a military jeep, and recklessly driven out of the village and behind the apartheid fence. At this point we were both blindfolded and forced to sit without being allowed to go to the bathroom, drink water or call lawyers until about 5am. ” said the journalist after her release.

In January Jared Malsin a Jewish American journalist for the Palestinain Ma’an News Agency was denied re-entry to Israel and later deported. Days before, Eva Nováková, a Czech citizen, who took on the role of the International Solidarity Movement’s media coordinator was arrested from her home in Ramallah and later deported. In December, high school teacher and media coordinator Abdullah Abu Rahmeh of the he Bilin Popular committee was arrested and remains in jail.

Bilin, three arrested in night raid: Ibrahim Abed El Fatah Bornat, Hamde Abu Rahmah and an international journalist

International Solidarity Movement

2 February 2010

Bil'in night raid
Bil'in night raid

At 3 am 26 soldiers entered the village of Bilin on foot to arrest Ibrahim Abed El Fatah Bornat. On their way to Ibrahim’s house, the soldiers ran into Ashraf Abu Rahmah. A gun was pointed to his head, his hands cuffed behind his back and a cloth attached to his mouth to prevent him from alarming people. Ashraf was distanced from the scene and left in the dark, guarded by soldiers while Ibrahim was arrested and taken away.

At 3.30 am a military convoy of seven jeeps entered Bilin to search the house of Ibrahim’s family. A computer, a pair of shoes, a cap and several documents, all belonging to Ibrahim’s brother Mohammad, were confiscated. While the search went on, cameramen and photographers were held back from the scene by soldiers and border police claiming the area to be a closed military zone. The captain held a paper in Hebrew, supposedly supporting the claim of this area to be military closed. Everyone was withheld for a 50 meter perimeter surrounding the house. When asked to have a closer look at the paper, the captain denied and pushed everybody back under threat of arrest.

Bilin Night Raid 2/2
Bilin Night Raid 2/2

While Hamde Abu Rahmah, a journalist from Bilin, approached to take a picture, soldiers violently attacked him and placed him under arrest. When an international journalist, tried to interfere to protect Hamde Abu Rahmeh, she too was arrested. Both were cuffed and taken away in a jeep.

At approximately 4:30 am the convoy left the scene.

Israel signals tougher line on West Bank protests

Isabel Kershner | The New York Times

28 January 2010

Apparently concerned that the protests could spread, the Israeli Army and security forces have recently begun clamping down, arresting scores of local organizers and activists here and conducting nighttime raids on the homes of others.

Muhammad Amira, a schoolteacher and a member of Nilin’s popular committee, the group that organizes the protests, said his home was raided by the army in the early hours of Jan. 10. The soldiers checked his identity papers, poked around the house and looked in on his sleeping children, Mr. Amira said.

He added, “They came to say, ‘We know who you are.’ ”

Each Friday for the last five years, Palestinians have demonstrated against the barrier, bolstered by Israeli sympathizers and foreign volunteers who document the ensuing clashes with video cameras, often posting the most dramatic footage on YouTube.

Israel says the barrier, under construction since 2002, is essential to prevent suicide bombers from reaching its cities; the Palestinians oppose it on grounds that much of it runs through the territory of the West Bank.

While the weekly protests are billed as nonviolent resistance, they usually end in violent confrontations between the Israeli security forces and masked, stone-throwing Palestinian youths. “These are not sit-ins with people singing ‘We Shall Overcome,’ ” said Maj. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Army’s Central Command, which controls the West Bank. “These are violent, illegal, dangerous riots.”

Other Palestinians are “jumping on the bandwagon,” he said, and the protests “could slip out of control.”

The protests first took hold in the nearby village of Bilin, which became a symbol of Palestinian defiance after winning a ruling in the Israeli Supreme Court stipulating that the barrier must be rerouted to take in less agricultural land. According to military officials, work to move the barrier will start next month.

Like a creeping, part-time intifada, the Friday protests have been gaining ground. Nabi Saleh, another village near Ramallah, has become the newest focus of clashes, after Jewish settlers took over a natural spring on village land.

One recent Friday, a group of older villagers marched toward the spring. They were met with tear gas and stun grenades, and scuffled with soldiers on the road. Other villagers spilled down the hillsides swinging slingshots and pelted the Israelis with stones.

“Israel recognizes the threat of the popular movement and its potential for expanding,” said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli anarchist and spokesman of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, which is based in Ramallah. “I think the goal is to quash it before it gets out of hand.”

In recent months the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and other leaders of the mainstream Fatah Party have adopted Bilin as a model of legitimate resistance.

The movement has also begun to attract international support. The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee receives financing from a Spanish governmental agency, according to the committee’s coordinator, Mohammed Khatib of Bilin.

“Bilin is no longer about the struggle for Bilin,” said Mr. Khatib, who was arrested in August and has been awaiting trial on an incitement charge. “This is part of a national struggle,” he said, adding that ending the Israeli occupation was the ultimate goal. Before dawn on Thursday soldiers came to Mr. Khatib’s home in Bilin and took him away again.

Israel security officials vehemently deny that they are acting to suppress civil disobedience, saying that security is their only concern. Among other things, they argue that the popular committees encourage demonstrators to sabotage the barrier, which Israel sees as a vital security tool.

The Israeli authorities have also turned their attention to the foreign activists, deporting those who have overstayed visas or violated their terms. In one case soldiers conducted a raid in the center of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority has its headquarters, to remove a Czech woman who had been working for the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group.

Israeli human rights groups like B’Tselem and Yesh Din have long complained of harsh measures used to quell the protests, including rubber bullets and .22-caliber live ammunition. The Israeli authorities say the live fire is meant to be used only in dangerous situations, and not for crowd control. But the human rights groups say that weapons are sometimes misused, apparently with impunity, with members of the security forces rarely held to account.

About a hundred soldiers and border police officers have been wounded in the clashes since 2008, according to the military. But the protesters are unarmed, their advocates argue, while the Israelis sometimes respond with potentially lethal force.

Tristan Anderson, 38, an American activist from Oakland, Calif., was severely wounded when he was struck in the forehead by a high-velocity tear-gas canister during a confrontation in Nilin last March.

After months in an Israeli hospital, Mr. Anderson has regained some movement on one side, and has started to talk. But he has serious brain damage, according to his mother, Nancy, and the prognosis is unclear.

The Andersons’ Israeli lawyer, Michael Sfard, is convinced that the tear-gas projectile was fired directly at the protesters, contrary to regulations. Yet the Israeli authorities who investigated the episode recently decided to close the case without filing charges.

The investigation found that the Israeli security forces had acted in line with regulations, according to Israeli officials. But witnesses insist the projectile was fired from a rise only about 60 yards from where Mr. Anderson stood. If it had been fired properly, in an arc, they contend, it would have flown hundreds of yards. Nineteen Palestinians have been killed in confrontations over the barrier since 2004. A month after Mr. Anderson was wounded, Bassem Abu Rahmah, a well-known Bilin activist, was killed when a similar type of tear-gas projectile struck him in the chest.

Aqel Srur, of Nilin, one of three Palestinians who gave testimony to the Israeli police in the Anderson case, was killed by a .22-caliber bullet in June.

So far, the activists seem undeterred. Salah Muhammad Khawajeh, a Nilin popular committee member and another local witness in the Anderson case, related that when he was summoned for questioning two months ago, he was warned that he could end up like Mr. Srur.

Mr. Khawajeh’s son, 9, was wounded in the back of the head by a rubber bullet at a protest this month.

But as Mr. Khawajeh put it, “We still come.”

Mohammed Khatib, coordinator of West Bank Coordination Committee arrested

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
28 January 2010

Khatib during a speaking his speaking tour in Canada last year. Photo Credit: Tadamon!

At a quarter to two AM tonight, Mohammed Khatib, his wife Lamia and their four young children were woken up by Israeli soldiers storming their home, which was surrounded by a large military force. Once inside the house, the soldiers arrested Khatib, conducted a quick search and left the house.

Roughly half an hour after leaving the house, five military jeeps surrounded the house again, and six soldiers forced their way into the house again, where Khatib’s children sat in terror, and conducted another, very thorough search of the premises, without showing a search warrant. During the search, Khatib’s phone and many documents were seized, including papers from Bil’in’s legal procedures in the Israel High Court.

The soldiers exited an hour and a half later, leaving a note saying that documents suspected as “incitement materials” were seized. International activists who tried to enter the house to be with the family during the search were aggressively denied entry.

Mohammed Khatib was previously arrested during the ongoing wave of arrests and repression on Augst 3rd, 2009 with charges of incitement and stone throwing. After two weeks of detention, a military judge ruled that evidence against him was falsified and ordered his release, after it was proven that Khatib was abroad at the time the army alleged he was photographed throwing stones during a demonstration.

International activist detained during the night raid and arrest of Mohammed Khatib in Bil'lin. Photo Credit: Ma'an News Agency

Khatib’s arrest today is the most severe escalation in a recent wave of repression again the Palestinian popular struggle and its leadership. Khatib is the 35th resident of Bil’in to be arrested on suspicions related to anti-Wall protest since June 23rd, 2009.

The recent wave of arrests is largely an assault on the members of the Popular Committees – the leadership of the popular struggle – who are then charged with incitement when arrested. The charge of incitement, defined under Israeli military law as “an attempt, whether verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order,” is a cynical attempt to punish grassroots organizing with a hefty charge and lengthy imprisonments. Such indictments are part of the army’s strategy of using legal persecution as a means to quash the popular movement.

Similar raids have also been conducted in the village of alMaasara, south of Bethlehem, and in the village of Ni’ilin – where 110 residents have been arrested over the last year and half, as well as in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.

Among those arrested in the recent campaign are three members of the Ni’ilin Popular Committee, Sa’id Yakin of the Palestinian National Committee Against the Wall, and five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee – all suspected of incitement.

Prominent grassroots activists Jamal Jum’a (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigning, have recently been released from detention after being incarcerated for long periods based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.