Tag: International law - Page 73 - International Solidarity Movement

Child arrests continue in Hebron

20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

UPDATE: Child arrests in Hebron continue today as a 15 year old Palestinian boy, Az Dweik, was arrested in the morning. He was allegedly carrying a knife around the Ibrahimi mosque and taken to the Kiryat Arba police station. The Israeli authorities regularly falsely accuse children and adults in Hebron of carrying weapons as a pretext to arrest or detain them (including tragically in the case of Mohammed Salayme who was killed in 2012). 5 eyewitnesses say they saw Az`s face and wrists covered in blood whilst in custody of the soldiers. He is currently being detained at Ofer prison near Ramallah. In the afternoon Muhammad Almayele, 9 years old, was thrown to the ground near Shuhada street by three soldiers before being held in an an army base for one hour. A soldier told us that “The reason we scare them is so that they don’t come here again.”

Muhammad Almayele , 9 , being arrested by soldiers

By Team Khalil

Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes.

He was then driven in a military jeep to checkpoint 56 where he was eventually released into the custody of the Palestinian police, who registered Ahmed’s details and completed some paperwork before taking him home to his family. Upon questioning by international activists, Israeli soldiers claimed that Ahmed had been arrested due to throwing stones at the Israeli military in the morning, however Ahmed denies this. The Israeli occupation forces regularly accuse children and young men of stone-throwing and use this as an excuse for arrests, which often happen at random.

Ahmed’s arrest comes as part of a series of increasing arrests and detentions of minors in the Old City of Hebron in recent months. “Occupied Childhoods”, a report on child-arrests compiled by the Hebron Christian Peacemaker Team is available here.

In March 2013, UNICEF released a damning report in which it harshly critized the “ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system [which] appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized”. You can read this here.

You can also see recent testimonies from Palestinian children imprisoned by the Israeli military.

Twelve-year-old arrested and blindfolded in Hebron

20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

You can also see recent testimonies from Palestinian children imprisoned by the Israeli military.

This Palestinian Prisoners Day we remember Bassem Abu Rahma who was murdered four years ago today

17th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day which also marks the 4th anniversary of the death of Bassam Abu Rahma and the 270th day of Samer Issawi’s hunger strike. These two events perfectly illustrate the ongoing perseverance of the Palestinian peoples relentless struggle for peace, justice , freedom and dignity. They also illustrate the Israeli army’s excessive and often lethal use of force against peaceful and unarmed demonstrators throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

In 2009 Bassam Abu Rahma was shot at close range in the chest with a high velocity tear gas canister , which are designed to penetrate concrete walls and gas those inside. He was shot as he walked towards Israeli soldiers whilst holding his hands up the air. He was marching for his Palestinian comrades being held in various Israeli prisons and detention centers without charge or trial and the expansion of settlements around his village of Bil`in.

Samer Issawi has been on hunger strike in an Israeli detention center for 270 days, one of the longest hunger strikes in history. He has refused Israeli offers to be exiled to Gaza and other UN countries , firmly asserting that he will either be released to his home in Jerusalem or starve to death.

Palestinian Prisoner Day was founded to remind the world of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners imprisoned in Israeli prisons or detention centers without charge or trial for extensive periods of time. The International Solidarity Movement, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and political prisoners everywhere call for the immediate release of such prisoners and for international pressure to be put on Israel for its numerous breaches of international law.

Village of Sabastiya celebrates successful campaign against sewage dumping on their land

7th April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

Residents of the village Sabastiya near Nablus have confirmed that the pipe which pumps raw sewage onto their land from nearby illegal settlement Shave Shomron has been shut off. The raw sewage poisoned both olive and apricot trees belonging to the village.

The residents of Sabastiya have been demonstrating against the dumping since March this year and are now celebrating the success of their campaign. On the three occasions that the villagers demonstrated against the sewage since March they have been joined by both Israeli and international activists. The demonstrations held on Fridays consisted of villagers marching towards Shave Shomron and praying on a field nearby. The Israeli army consistently broke up the peaceful demonstrations by shooting tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades at the unarmed demonstrators, including medical staff and journalists.
Sabastiya is an ancient village located just 10 km north of Nablus. For over a decade, residents of the village have been suffering harassment from Israeli forces and settlers. In 2001 settlers uprooted and destroyed around 1000 olive trees, substantially damaging the land of several families. In 2006 the Israeli army put up a fence in an attempt to confiscate the land where the trees had originally been, but farmers from the village pulled it down.

The occupations toll on one family in Burqa

1st April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Burqa, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

A brief visit to any family home in the occupied West Bank is sure to be a combination of warmth and tragedy as no person here has been immune to the brutality of the occupation that has dominated the lives of Palestinians for over 60 years.

Ra'ed Haj who is unable to walk, talk or hear after he was nerve gassed — Ra’ed Haj who is unable to walk, talk or hear after he was nerve gassed

In the small village of Burqa near Nablus , we visited the Haj household , where 32 year old Ra’ed has been rendered unable to speak , walk or talk after nerve gas was fired into the bathroom he was washing up in in 2002. The Israeli soldiers reached this bathroom by knocking through wall after wall of neighboring houses, which is common practice for the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Despite also suffering from a brain tumor, Ra’ed has been repeatedly denied permission to seek adequate medical facilities by the Israeli army.

His mother and father now care for him, but worry who will continue to do so in the future. Which relatives will be there to care for him in the future is unpredictable to say the least. His brother Muhammed is currently in the notorious Jalame prison after the Haj household was raided by the army at 2am. He is still awaiting charge or trial. Jalame prison is infamous for its harsh interrogations and solitary confinement in the dark. Muhammed also suffers from regualar migraines after he was shot in the head with a steel coated rubber bullet in 2005. The same illegal ammunition was fired at his friend which took out both of his eyes. In 1994 his home was also demolished to make way for the illegal Homesh settlement.

Wether a resident of Burqa has the absurd luxury of being able to reside in his family home or not, the Israeli army constantly make their presence known by raiding the village nearly every night, making wanton arrests and damaging property.

Ra'ed holds up photographs of himself before the attack — Ra’ed holds up photographs of himself before the attack