Tag: Child Arrest - Page 5 - International Solidarity Movement

Four Palestinian 12-14 years old girls detained after settlers accused them of stealing cherries

29th May 2014 | Operation Dove | At-Tuwani, Occupied Palestine

On May 27th, four Palestinian 12-14 years old girls from the South Hebron hills villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed were arrested by the Israeli police on the charge of theft of cherries in a field in which Israeli settlers from Ma’on settlement are growing several cherry trees.

This grove is situated close to the place in which the children usually wait for an Israeli military escort, in order to go home. The escort was established in 2004 by the Children’s Rights Committee of the Knesset because of the ongoing attacks against the Palestinian children (coming from the nearby villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed to the school of At Tuwani) from Havat Ma’on and Ma’on settlers.

At 11.00 am, while the children were walking accompanied by the Israeli military, a car with a few settlers inside stopped in the middle of the street, avoiding the possibility for the children to continue the path. Israeli settlers stated that some children had stolen cherries from the grove.

So, the Israeli soldiers forced the children to sit down on the road under a hot sun without any access to water, preventing them from going home.

The Palestinian children asked the Israeli soldiers to show some evidence supporting the accusation that the settlers madeagainst them, they wanted to see videos and photos supporting, but the Israeli army didn’t give them any information. Some minutes later, also the Ma’on security coordinator arrived where the children were stopped, accusing them of theft, even though he wasn’t present at the moment the supposed event occurred.

At 11:50 am the Israeli Police arrived. The police officer asked one settler if he recognized the children that he saw in the cherry trees fields. The settlers identified four young girls. The girls were then forced to go in the Israeli police car.

The other students were accompanied along the path by the Israeli army.

The four young girls were detained in the police car for one hour. Then the girls were taken to the Israeli Police station of Kiryat Arba and brought for interrogation, without their parents being present.

According to +972 magazine the lawyer who is representing the minors spoke with the police on the phone and she was told that two girls were released once their parents were contacted (one is 12 years old, the other seems to have speech disabilities). The two others were being held for questioning and released later. According to Haggai Matar, “it would be illegal for the police to question them without the presence of their parents”.

At 4:00 pm the Israeli police sent them to the Palestinian police in Hebron, that didn’t want to release them until their family identified them. So, at around 7:00 pm, the girls were released.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Arrests and stolen land in Osarin village

10th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Osarin, Occupied Palestine

In the last month, the Israeli army has arrested 10 boys under the age of 16 from Osarin village. As of today, they all remain in the prison.

This is the latest in a long line of tactics employed by the Israeli military to intimidate the people of Osarin the surrounding villages. According to a member of the village’s local council, the Israeli army approached the village around six months ago demanding that Osarin and three other neighboring villages sell three dunams (3,000 square meters) of land to the Israeli government. The threat was that if they did not comply the army would simply take the land. Despite this pressure, the people of the village collectively chose to refuse and have had to live with the consequences of this choice ever since.

The land the army asked for originally was intended to build three watchtowers, one of which would be just outside Osarin. The other two would be near the villages of Yatma and Qabalan, who also had demands from the Israeli army to sell their land. In total the army was trying to obtain 320 dunams of important farmland, containing olive trees, other crops and grazing areas from the three villages.

The village’s decision to refuse was met with a new plan by the army to build a wall on either side of the main road (route 505), running adjacent to the village, all the way to Za’tara checkpoint. This would be roughly 10km in length and would unsurprisingly require the confiscation of land on either side of the road, which belongs to the village of Osarin. The reasoning for this intrusion into Palestinian land was allegations that boys from the village had been throwing stones onto the main road, where settlers from the illegal settlements pass by in their cars and sometimes on foot. In fact, the Israeli army used these allegations to call a meeting with four villages, one of which was Osarin, the others being Beita, Beit Furik and Madama. In this meeting the army told the representatives from the villages that unless the alleged stone throwing ceased they would make all four of the villages into closed military zones. In other words, force out the inhabitants of all four villages and make it impossible for them to return.

While the Israeli army demands that children stop throwing stones, they are also at the same time increasing attacks on the civilian population of Osarin. During these periods physical force has been used, including punching individuals with no just cause and firing live ammunition into the air to intimidate the local population. Also during these incursions, the roads are closed around the village even when ambulances need to either enter or leave the village, endangering lives in the process.

The village has attempted to go through the court system to block the Israeli authorities’ plans for the area, but have lost each court battle numerous times. This is despite the fact that the village is located in Area B (Palestine Authority and Israeli control) and therefore any seizure of land, including for the purposes of military building construction, is illegal. The area has long been an area of high activity for the Israeli military, where in November 2013 witnesses report that military training took place involved up to 1,000 Israeli soldiers. During the weeklong action villagers were told to stay in at night, creating a curfew, and at times local groups of boys were used to provide training with how to deal with stone throwing.

When a local representative was asked if he felt matters had gotten worse in terms of Israeli military interference and intimidation, his answer was an unequivocal yes. The construction of the wall along either side of Route 505 has yet to begin but will most probably commence in the near future. In the meantime, arrests of children and physical violence towards the villagers continue.

Photograph of Route 505 where the wall will be built (photo by ISM).

The fight for the freedom of the 5 Hares Boys continues

6th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Occupied Palestine

In a conversation with Neimeh and Yaseen Shamlawi in their home in Hares we hear about the traumatic journey they have gone through but also the painstaking efforts they have made to build a campaign for their son’s freedom ever since he was arrested in the middle of the night on the 17th of March 2013.

On the 14th of March a settler from the illegal settlement of Yakir crashed her car with her three daughters inside on the main road near the village, leaving all of them with various injuries. Despite the horrible event seeming like an unfortunate accident, over the following days 13 boys from the village of Hares were arrested. Eventually five of them were charged with attempted murder stemming from allegations that stones were thrown onto the road by boys from the village.

Ali’s mother recalls to us the night he was taken by Israeli soldiers, 25 of them entering the family house after the door had been forcibly opened. They went from room to room waking everyone up before grabbing Ali and instructing his parents to find his shoes. Before they left both Niemeh and Yaseen recount how one of the soldiers told Ali to go and “kiss his parents goodbye”, to which his mother remembers saying that she didn’t need to as she would see him in a few days.

Over a year later and Ali and the other four boys, Tamer Souf, Ammer Souf, Mohammed Suleiman, and Mohammed Kleib are still imprisoned. We asked Neimeh and Yaseen why they thought that the Israeli military had been so harsh in their pursuit of prison sentences for the boys, both parents shrugged with what is obviously still raw bewilderment as to how their son, 16 at the time of his kidnapping, is now facing up to 25 years in prison.

“No-one saw anyone throwing stones,” Niemeh says again and again during our visit, and indeed the lack of evidence is startling. Originally no one made any claim that stones were thrown. The first search of the car, by police from the illegal settlement, produced no evidence of any stones but a subsequent search two days later uncovered a single stone in the vehicle. The court, like the vast majority of cases against Palestinians, through the Israeli military system has not called a single Palestinian witness. Instead they have focused on an Israeli woman who was driving nearby, and a passing truck driver, neither of who can say that they saw anyone throwing stones.

The conversation turns to Ali and how he’s coping with being in Megiddo prison. “He is crying all the time when we see him as he misses his friends, family, and school,” Niemeh tells us. While the five Hares Boys do get to see each other fairly regularly whilst they have been incarcerated this is of little solace due to the fact that they find themselves in an adult prison and are unable to make or receive any phone calls. Their parents are only granted a visit twice a month. It is also solely them who can make the long journey to the prison due to Israel’s procedure of granting permits. This has meant that Ali has not had the chance to have any sort of meaningful conversations with his brothers, sisters or any other family and friends since his sudden arrest.

Inside the prison itself, very little is provided by the Israeli state so every time they visit, the parents try and bring what their sons require, whether it’s bed linen, books to read or clothes. In terms of education Ali and the other boys only receive two hours of classes a week, which is currently classes in Arabic and Mathematics. There is no chance of formal qualifications resulting from this small amount of study, at a time when the boys should have been working hard in school in order to begin to decide where they want their lives to go. Like so many other things this is something else that the Israeli authorities have taken away from them.

When Ali’s parents do visit their son it is far from a simple matter, even with the permits. They tend to leave Hares at approximately 6:30 in the morning traveling to Nablus before catching a bus to Qalqilya, where they cross through a checkpoint into the state of Israel. The wait at this checkpoint usually lasts for around two hours due to the volume of people that cross and the lack of border staff usually working at any one time. Eventually Yaseen and Niemeh tend to arrive at the prison at around 11am, then wait for up to two more hours before finally getting to see their son. However, while it is plain to see that the parents treasure these visits with their son, they are only allowed up

to 45 minutes with him, and the entire encounter takes place through glass and over a phone. “I can’t touch him,” Niemeh says shaking her head sadly.

The trips to Salem military court are perhaps more difficult than the prison visits for the parents, as well as other family and friends who do have permission to attend the court. This involves arriving at the court at 9am before waiting with dozens of other relatives of accused Palestinians, before finally two people are allowed to attend the hearing itself. Ali’s mother talks of desperately trying to talk to her son face to face but Israeli security officers preventing her from getting even three meters from him, only allowing her one minute and sometimes even blocking her view. The trend, as in so many hearings for Palestinians accused of crimes by the Israeli military, is continuous postponement, hence why Ali and the other Hares boys have been awaiting trial for over a year.

The latest postponement means the next hearing will be on the 10th of April.

However, despite this, the way in which Ali and all the other Hares Boys’ families have organised themselves and fought for justice is remarkable. With the support of organisations including the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) and the Defence for Children International (DCI) a campaign has been built and continues to put pressure on the Israeli judiciary system. The families meet regularly, supporting one another and the Palestinian Authority has helped them with lawyers. Although the fact that the boys remain in prison and continue to face such draconian charges demonstrates that so much more needs to be done.

When we asked the family what people could do in their home countries the answer was very clear. Niemeh was adamant that putting pressure on the ambassadors of countries to attend the hearing was a crucial step with an emphasis on sharing the story and making people understand the realities of Ali and the other boys’ situation. Therefore following the case, discussing it with people who are unaware and generally increasing the knowledge of people is crucial. Unsurprisingly all the Hares Boys need financial aid as well. Currently Ali’s parents alone require another $2000 for legal costs (you can donate here).

As activists who support the Palestinian struggle against the occupation we believe it is our duty to back the campaign to free the five Hares Boys. In fact anyone believing in universal human rights and justice should be fully behind the boys and their return to their families.

Israeli forces arrest and hold 13-year-old for seven hours

20th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Bruqin, Occupied Palestine

On Tuesday 18^thMarch, Israeli forces entered the village of Bruqin and arrested 13-year-old Abdel Hafez Mohammed, holding him for seven hours before releasing him later in the day.

Abdel Hafez Mohammed Samara was working on his land, picking ‘aqoub’ (a local plant), and allowing his sheep to grave, when an Israeli soldier and two security guards called him to the closest road, which is nearby the illegal settlement of Ariel.

Abdel went to speak to the soldier and the security staff and he was told to throw away the small broken knife that he had been using to cut away the aqoub. He was then forced to kneel down, while guns were pointed directly at him. At that moment, Walid Samara, a local teacher who had been working in the nearby village of Hares stopped on the road close to Abdel. He was threatened at gunpoint and then beaten as two Israeli police officers arrived to arrest him and Abdel.

The police officer then accused Abdel of threatening the guards with his knife, and Walid of attacking them with stones. They were both taken to a nearby checkpoint, Walid was then released but Abdel was taken to the police station in the illegal settlement of Ariel.

Abdel was then interrogated for four hours before his father was called. Once his father arrived, he was able to see his son, but not allowed to say anything during the interrogation. The Israeli police took fingerprints from both Abdel and his father before forcing them both to sign conditions saying that did not have the right to go back to the land to graze their sheep or to cut aqoub.

Israeli forces are increasingly intimidating, beating and arresting Palestinians, and the arrest of children is unfortunately common. In the second half of February alone, Israeli forces arrested 31 children. According to recent figures by the Prisoners’ Affairs Ministry, as many as 187 Palestinian children remain jailed in Israeli prisons on various charges.

One year on: the Hares Boys

18th March 2014 | The Hares Boys | Occupied Palestine

Yesterday the Hares Boys, who are being charged with 20 counts of attempted murder with no evidence whatsoever, have been in an Israeli prison for one year. Now is more important than ever to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the unlawful arrest and imprisonment of Mohammad Suleiman, Ammar Souf, Mohammed Kleib, Tamer Souf, and Ali Shamlawi.

The car accident

At around 18:30 on Thursday 14 March 2013, a car crashed into the back of a truck on Road 5 in Salfit Governorate, occupied Palestine. The driver and her 3 daughters were injured, one of them – seriously. The driver, Adva Biton, was going back to the illegal Israeli settler colony of Yakir when the accident occurred. She later claimed the accident was due to Palestinian youth throwing stones at her car. The driver of the truck, having testified immediately after the accident that he had pulled over because of a flat tyre, later changed his mind and said he had seen stones by the road.

There were no witnesses to the car accident. Nobody had seen any children or youth throwing stones that day.

The arrests

In the early hours of Friday 15 March 2013, masked Israeli soldiers, some with attack dogs, stormed the village of Hares, which is close to Road 5. More than 50 soldiers broke the doors of the villagers’ houses, demanding the whereabouts of their teenage sons. Ten boys were arrested that night, blindfolded, handcuffed, and transferred to an unknown location. The families were not informed of their sons’ alleged wrongdoings.

Two days later, a second wave of violent arrests took place. At around 3 o’clock in the morning, the Israeli army, accompanied by the Shabak (the Israeli secret service), entered the homes of 3 Palestinian adolescents. They had a piece of paper with their names in Hebrew. After forcing all the family members into one room, taking away their phones so that they wouldn’t call for help, and interrogating them, the soldiers handcuffed their sons, all aged 16-17.

“Kiss and hug your mother goodbye,” a Shabak agent told one boy. “You may never see her again.”

A week later, Israeli army jeeps again entered the village and arrested several boys, who had just come back home from school. The soldiers lined all of them up, including a 6-year-old, and threatened at gunpoint their uncle who pleaded for the soldiers to at least release the youngest children. The army then randomly chose 3 boys, handcuffed them behind their backs, blindfolded them, and took them away. The families were not informed about either the allegations against their children, or their exact location.

In total, 19 boys from the neighbouring villages of Hares and Kifl Hares were arrested in relation to the settler car accident. None of them had previously had any history of stone-throwing. After violent interrogations, most of the minors were released, except for five, who remain in Megiddo, an Israeli adult prison.

These are the Hares Boys.

The interrogation

The arrested boys were subjected to a series of abuse and ill-treatment that accounts as torture. Upon detention, they were kept in solitary confinement for up to two weeks. One boy, since released, described his cell: a windowless hole 1m wide and 2m long; there was no mattress or blanket to sleep on; toilet facilities were dirty; the six lights were kept on continuously, leading to the boy losing track of the time of the day; the food made him feel ill. The boy was denied lawyer; he was interrogated violently three times during three days, and eventually released after found not guilty at the trial.

Other boys have also told their lawyers of very similar treatment. They “confessed” of stone-throwing after being repeatedly abused in prison and during interrogations.

The charges

The five boys from Hares are charged with 25 counts of attempted murder each, apparently 1 count for every alleged stone thrown at passing cars. The Israeli military prosecution insists that the boys consciously “intended to kill”; the boys can face the maximum punishment for attempted murder: 25 years to life imprisonment.

The prosecution’s case relies on the boys’ “confessions”, which have been obtained under torture, and 61 “witnesses,” some of which claim that their cars have been damaged by stones on that same day on Road 5. The latter only appeared after the car accident got a lot of media coverage as a “terrorist act”, and the Israeli prime minister Benyamin Natanyahu announced, after the boys’ arrest, that he “caught the terrorists that did it”. Other “witnesses” include the police and the Shabak, who were not even present at that location at the time. It is not clear whether the 61 “witnesses” have been properly questioned and their claims verified with, for example, hospital admission data, or even if the alleged damage to their vehicles has been photographed or otherwise documented. Such information is not even available to the boys’ attorneys.

The implications

If the boys are convicted, this case would set a legal precedent which would allow the Israeli military to convict any Palestinian child or youngster for attempted murder in cases of stone-throwing.

The boys are now 16-17 years old. If the Israeli military get their way, the boys would only return to their homes and their families at the age of 41 – at best. Five young lives ruined with no evidence of their guilt is a spit in the face to our common principles of justice as human beings.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS?

Almost every stage of this case that could go wrong, did. Local and international law has been mostly dismissed; principles of justice barely fading in the horizon; respect for human beings non-existent.

Consider this:

The Hares Boys, as well as thousands of other Palestinian youngsters, are treated in the Israeli military court system as adults. According to international human rights law in general, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in particular, adults are people over 18 years of age. Israel treats even 9-year-olds as adults.
The racist system of “justice”: no matter the alleged crime, Palestinians are forced to go through the military courts and are tried under military law, while Israelis fall into the civil court system for the same crimes.
Violently arresting children at night without giving any explanation to their families about the reasons behind it, nor informing them about their children’s whereabouts goes against Israel’s own laws which state that minors are to be accompanied by an adult family member when detained or arrested.
The denial of lawyer for several days (in some cases weeks) after detention also accounts as a major violation of Israel’s own rules.
Children being put into solitary confinement for days on end is a form of torture; It is a severe punishment before the verdict.
Abusive interrogations of scared minors is considered torture.
The boys were arrested despite a total lack of evidence against them and condemned by the Israeli media as “terrorists”, which goes against the universal presumption of innocence (innocent until found guilty) and delivers a guilty verdict in the highly bombastic public trial, putting pressure on the judges to do likewise.