Tag: Civil rights

Israel restricts Palestinian lawyers’ access to West Bank detainees

Amira Hass | Haaretz

14 January 2010

Israel is prohibiting Palestinian lawyers and the relatives of Palestinian detainees from reaching a military tribunal via the Beitunia checkpoint west of Ramallah.

The prohibition, which has been in effect for the past three days, means that Israeli police are requiring Palestinians to use the Qalandiyah crossing 20 kilometers away, where they must produce an entry permit to Israel – which can take weeks to obtain – if they want to enter an Israeli military tribunal that is on West Bank land. The court lies 300 meters south of the Beitunia roadblock, and was built on land that is part of Beitunia.

The restriction contravenes a recent High Court of Justice decision opening Route 443 to Palestinian traffic.

The lawyers have declared a strike to protest the prohibition, and are not appearing in military court.

Military Judge Arieh Durani yesterday criticized the police for keeping the lawyers from adequately representing their clients.

“The court takes a very dim view of the authorities thwarting representation of detainees by not permitting their attorneys to cross at the checkpoint,” he said. He also imposed a NIS 1,000 fine on any lawyer who refrained from representing a client who is a minor.

Palestinians see the new rules as infringing on their rights as well as forcing them into de facto recognition of a border that is unilaterally determined by Israel. Since 1995, Israel has sought to make Qalandiyah the northern entry point of the so-called safe passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is far from the Green Line and the Latrun area, where the Palestinians wanted the entry point to be. The entire area south of Beitunia has gradually become off-limits to Palestinians since 2000.

Although the Israel Defense Forces has general responsibility for the area, the Jerusalem police and the Border Police are in charge of the checkpoint. Police first closed the checkpoint three weeks ago, telling the lawyers and relatives they had to enter through the Qalandiyah checkpoint.

But even those who go to Qalandiyah still need an entry permit to Israel, with no assurance that it will be granted. Moreover, crossing at Qalandiyah involves a long wait and additional travel expenses.

The attorneys went on strike when the restrictions were first imposed, and sent a letter of protest to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. A few days later, the checkpoint was reopened for those heading to the military court. However, at the beginning of the week the order was imposed again.

In 2001 the IDF completely blocked the road that links Beitunia with Ramallah and the surrounding villages. When the military court was moved in 2004 from Ramallah to the Ofer facility, the checkpoint was opened so that lawyers and relatives of the accused could get to the court.

No Israeli officials took responsibility for the checkpoint restrictions.

The IDF spokesman’s office told Haaretz to seek a response from the Israel Police. The Israel Police spokesman told Haaretz that the Jerusalem police and the Border Police are responsible for the passage of merchandise, not people, and that a response should be obtained from the Defense Ministry.

Hebrew University bans student conference on anniversary of Gaza invasion

Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News

29 December 2009

A student group affiliated with the socialist ‘Hadash’ party in Israel had organized a conference commemorating and condemning the Israeli invasion of Gaza one year ago, but the Hebrew University administration banned the conference, saying that it violates the University’s principles.

When students from the Hadash party handed out fliers for the event to their fellow students, some students from the right-wing Zionist Likud party took copies of the flier to the school administration, which determined that the event constituted ‘incitement against the state of Israel’ and would not be permitted. The reason given by the university was that the conference would include a commemoration of the civilians killed in Israel’s Gaza invasion one year ago.

Human rights groups have estimated that over 80% of the 1400 Palestinians killed during the 3-week long Israeli assault were civilians. 5 Israeli civilians were killed in the same time period.

The conference literature said that “one of the first physicians who entered Gaza during the war” would be a featured speaker at the conference. In addition, the literature called the invasion a “dreadful Zionist war”. The university administration considered this to be incitement against the state of Israel, and canceled the conference.

Hebrew University in Jerusalem is one of Israel’s largest universities, with 23,500 students. It was founded in 1925 as a “University of the Jewish People”, and its first Board of Directors included Albert Einstein and Martin Buber, both of whom later took public stands against the Zionist colonial project in Palestine.

Israeli occupation authorities deny Gaza Christians permission to travel to Bethlehem at Christmas

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

27 December 2009

Israeli occupation forces prevented young Christians from the Gaza Strip from travelling to the West Bank to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. This restrictions were imposed in the context of Israel’s illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, which has now been in place for 928 consecutive days. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns this form of collective punishment, and calls upon the international community to exert pressure on Israeli occupation authorities to cancel their decision and immediately allow all Christians to move freely, to grant access to the Church of the Nativity and Church of the Resurrection, and to respect the right to freedom of religion.

According to Palestinian sources, Israeli occupation authorities prevented Christians from the Gaza Strip aged 16-35 from traveling from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to participate in the celebration of Christmas and the New Year in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. They refused to consider any application for permits for those aged between 16 and 35 from both sexes for no apparent reason. This policy contradicts Israeli claims that it allowed all Gazan Christians to participate in the celebrations of Christmas in the West Bank.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at least 550 Christians applied for permits to travel to the West Bank, and Israeli occupation authorities refused to accept applications from 450 others aged 16-35. Israeli occupation forces allowed only 450 applicants, 70% of whom were children, to travel to the West Bank. PCHR note that most rejected applications were of parents, which in effect deprived children who obtained permits of traveling as their parents were not able to accompany them.

Such measures have been in place for the last number of years. Last year, the Palestinian Civil Affairs Commission submitted at least 1,000 applications to obtain permits for Christians to travel from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, but Israeli occupation authorities approved only 271, mostly of children and the eldery. Those who were allowed to travel were subjected to humiliating prolonged checking at Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing before being allowed to pass through the crossing.

PCHR is deeply concerned over the policy of collective punishment adopted by Israeli occupation authorities, which constitutes a serious violation of international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately act to allow Palestinian civilians to enjoy their rights to freedom of movement and worship. PCHR stresses that everyone has the right to freedom of faith and religion, including the right to conduct religious rituals, and the right to freedom of movement and/or having access to sacred religious sites, which are fundamental rights that must be respected, protected and upheld.

Demonstrators to protest closure of Beituniya military checkpoint in solidarity with families of Palestinian political prisoners and in support of lawyers’ strike

29 December 2009

The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and the Palestinian Society Prisoners’ Club called for a demonstration on Tuesday, 29 December 2009, to protest the closure of the Beituniya checkpoint, the only access route for many families and lawyers of prisoners held at Ofer military prison. All visitors must now go through the Qalandiya checkpoint, which however requires a permit to enter Israel. These permits are frequently denied to family members of political prisoners as well as their lawyers.

Jad Qudamani, director of the legal department of the Palestinian Society Prisoners’ Club, said: “Our lawyers, for many of whom the Beituniya checkpoint provides the only access route to their clients, were informed by Israeli military about its closure for ‘security reasons’ this Sunday. To protest this unlawful act, the lawyers and families of Palestinians held at Ofer military prison called for a strike until the checkpoint is re-opened. The closure has serious implications on prisoners’ basic rights as it makes it extremely difficult for lawyers to represent them and prevents their families from visiting them.”

Almost 8,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, both inside of the West Bank and in Israel. Among them are grassroots activists Jamal Juma’ and Mohammad Othman from the Stop the Wall Campaign, Adeeb Abu Rahmah and Abdallah Abu Rahmah from the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and Wa’el Al Faqeeh from the Tanweer Cultural Centre in Nablus, imprisoned during a recent wave of arrests conducted by the Israeli military targeting leaders of non-violent popular resistance against the occupation.

Demonstrators will also protest the arrest of Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and well-known grassroots organizer of non-violent protests against the Wall and settlements in the village of Bil’in, who is currently detained at the Ofer prison, and the charges brought against him by the Israeli military prosecution.

The afternoon before his arrest on 10 December 2009, Abdallah prepared a speech to be delivered on his behalf at the World Association for Human Rights awards ceremony in Berlin. In his speech, Abdallah wrote:

“Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons, and no army, but we do not want or need those things, because of the justice of our cause, we have your support and with it we know that ultimately we will bring down Israel’s Apartheid Wall.”

Despite his commitment to the non-violent struggle against the occupation, Abdallah was charged with arms possession by the military prosecution, for collecting spent munitions fired at peaceful protesters by the Israeli army, and displaying them at his home to demonstrate the disproportionate violence used to disperse demonstrations in Bil’in. Other charges include incitement and stone throwing. On receiving the indictment Adv. Gaby Lasky, Abu Rahmah’s lawyer said: “The army shoots at unarmed demonstrators, and when they try to show the world the violence used against them by collecting and presenting the remnants – they are persecuted and prosecuted. What’s next? Charging protesters money for the bullets shot at them?”

Is it illegal to go to school?

25 December 2009

Is it illegal to go to school? That question has been asked many times in occupied Palestine.

On 20 December 2009, the Israeli military confiscated a Palestinian vehicle used to transport children to and from school in al-Fakheit in the southern tip of the West Bank, as they were returning from school. Israeli soldiers stopped the vehicle, forced the children to walk home, and took the vehicle to a nearby military base across the Green Line in Israel.

It is not new for the Israeli military to harass Palestinian children going to school. The policy of the Israeli government has been to remove the Palestinian people from the South Hebron Hills, and they say, turn the area into a military firing zone. Not only have the Palestinians resisted leaving the area, they are returning to their village homes.

The Israeli military has banned schools in the area, forcing childen who live in the area to live with realitives in nearby cities.

The Israeli military claims there were problems with the registration papers for the vehicle. Local Palestinians claim the Israeli military is trying to ban all Palestinian vehicles from near the Green Line.

The next day, the Palestinians took the children to school with a tractor. The struggle continues.