Tag: House raid - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

Sixteen-year-old boy blindfolded and arrested late at night without evidence

27th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Al Khalil | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Following the events of the settler tour during yesterday afternoon Fuad Asem al Batsh, a sixteen-year-old minor, was arrested in Hebron without any evidence or court decision. He was released after about an hour.

It was at 10 pm in the old city that a group of around 15 heavily-armed Israeli soldiers invaded a family house stating they were looking for a boy who earlier the same day had thrown an object at a settler. In the presence of four international activists the soldiers forced themselves into three family houses before arresting Fuad Asem al Batsh in the fourth home, without any evidence against him.

After fifteen minutes discussion between the boy and the soldiers, they removed him from the house. Despite objections from the internationals present, as well as the family, he was put in a military van and driven away. The activists were threatened with arrest if they took any pictures and the family’s cries and logical arguments didn’t change the situation. Fuad’s younger sisters were witnesses to the event and were clearly afraid and shocked.

During the hour of detention the sixteen-year-old boy was blindfolded, brought to a police station and questioned over and over again about the events during the day, when he in reality was visiting his uncle in a village nearby Jerusalem. The photos and videos that the military claimed existed were never shown and no further suspicion is claimed by Israeli forces.

Jamila Shalaldeh, accused of assaulting 13 soldiers found innocent by Ofer Military Court

23th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Khalil, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Welcome to the Apartheid State — Shuhada Street, Hebron (*file photo*)

On Tuesday 21st May, Jamila Shalaldeh was found innocent by Ofer Military Court of assaulting 13 soldiers.

Jamila and her son Abdel were visibly nervous before her trial. Fortunately, the Israeli military judge agreed with Jamila and her family that the charges against her were absolutely absurd. He even laughed when he heard the evidence filed against her.

Initially, Jamila had been ordered to pay 7,000 shekels, later reduced to 1,750 shekels. On March 21st, the judge declared Jamila innocent and further reduced the fine to 1,000 shekels. Still, it’s disturbing that an innocent woman is forced to pay anything for having to endure a terrifying attack on her family and home.

On October 30th 2012 at 2am, more than fifty Israeli soldiers surrounded the home Jamila Shalaldeh shares with her three children and young grandson, near Checkpoint 56 on Shuhada Street in Hebron. The family awoke to soldiers hammering their front door and observed that many of the soldiers had positioned themselves on the rooftops overlooking their outdoor courtyard.

Jamila’s son Abdel opened the door and was immediately overrun. Abdel was beaten in his own home, in front of three of his family members, before being blindfolded and arrested. The soldiers accused him of posting a video (that showed a local Palestinian father being abused by soldiers at Checkpoint 56 for questioning the severe mistreatment of his ten year old son). They did not charge him with any crime, but said they were arresting him on suspicion of having committed a crime.

Abdel’s mother, Jamila, ran to her son, panicked and screaming. The soldiers pushed her around. Then she fainted. Abdel’s sister managed to videotape the entire incident, but Israeli soldiers forced the family to delete this evidence. Fortunately, a second video taken by a neighbour attests to the soldiers’ extreme aggression that night.

Abdel spent three days and two nights in prison. He was released in the middle of nowhere with no money and no phone. Upon his release, he was informed that his mother, Jamila, had also been arrested. She had been charged with assaulting 13 of the soldiers who had invaded their home. Jamila spent three days and four nights in three different prisons. She was released at night in an unfamiliar location.

While charges against Abdel were never filed, Jamila was required to attend a court hearing this past Tuesday. In particular, she was accused of biting two soldiers and breaking free of her handcuffs.

“No-one can explain to me why”

22 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qalil, Occupied Palestine

The Israeli army invaded seven family homes in the village of Kafr Qalil, south of Nablus, between 1am and 2am on 20^th May. They trashed the properties and people’s possessions and stayed in them for several hours apiece. Lastly, they arrested a university student, Saleh al-Amer, 22.

Saleh al-Amer had thought administartive detention was done with and he could look to his future

Instead of just ringing the bell, they obliterated the homes’ heavy metal doors, creating fear and manifesting uncertainty for the innocent residents. They were given no reason for the destruction of their property despite repeatedly asking for one. Nader Soloman, one of those who had his home invaded, having his 2 and 4 year-old daughters terrified in the process, even spoke in Hebrew but answers were still refused. The army ransacked their homes, ordered the adults and children about, broke their furnishings and emptied cupboards of clothes, throwing them on the floor to then continually walk all over them. The army remained in the homes for 4 to 5 hours.

At 2am the army changed tact and knocked on the door of the al-Amer family house, home to eleven people. The army didn’t enter the house and asked the family’s father who the sons of the household were. He said the two names and the officer requested Saleh, was then placed under arrest and taken to Huwwara military base for a few hours, before being moved to Salem prison on the Green Line for another couple of hours. At which point he was able to contact his lawyer and tell him of his whereabouts before being transferred to Megiddo prison in Israel.

The younger children are now traumatized by the event, crying when they see images of the army on the TV, while other family members are unable to sleep. Saleh’s younger sister explained to the activists who came to speak with the family that Saleh had done nothing wrong; “my brother is the most lovely person, we can’t live without my brother. He needs to come back to his house, to his family, his village, study”. Saleh had just finished his first-year university exams and was happy about the changes to the family home to accommodate him and his soon-to-be wife. Saleh studied hard and also worked to bring money into the home, he enjoyed sport and caring for and playing with the younger children.

Saleh was arrested two years previously and held in administrative detention for five months, only seeing his family once, when they were in court. At that time the army officer during his arrest told him he was being arrested so that he wouldn’t be able to go back to university.

Administrative detention is the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial by administrative rather than judicial procedure. International law, as set out in the Fourth Geneva Convention, allows for it only in very extreme cases of ensuring security and even then grants the right for those interned to be held within the occupied territory with support to be given to their family and dependents. They are also due greater privileges than ordinary prisoners. The Israeli government has claimed that administrative detention is not an arbitrary form of internment, in part, because detention orders are subject to review. However they can be renewed indefinitely every six months, leaving prisoners and their loved ones with no countdown to their release.

The front doors of one house look as if they were broken with more than human strength (photo: ISM)

Huge metal chunks flew off the door and its frame into the corridor (photo: ISM)

The door will be replaced, a sense of safety is harder to come by (photo: ISM)

Family home raided in Silwan after settler attack on children

By SILWANIC

28 August, 2012 | SILWANIC, Silwan, Jerusalem

Israeli forces raided a Palestinian family home in Silwan on Saturday, 18 September. The Karki family were accused by armed forces of attacking nearby Israeli settlers.

Ahmad Siyam told Silwanic that a group of Palestinian children playing in the street were in fact attacked by settlers, leading to a confrontation. When the children continued playing after, a settler arrived 10 minutes later with an Israeli forces escort to arrest the children. When the children ran away, armed forces raided the Karki home.