Tag: Military court

Updated: The three Palestinian women activists arrested last week remain imprisoned

21st August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

Update 26th August: On Thursday, August 22, Leena Jawabreh was sentenced to 30 days (one month) in Israeli prisons, and a 1000 NIS fine. On Sunday, August 25, Linan Abu Ghoulmeh was sentenced to 60 days (two months) in Israeli prisons and a 1000 NIS fine. Myassar Atyani’s case has been held over until Wednesday, August 28.

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At 10pm on August 15^th Myassar Atyani, Linan Abu Gholmeh and Leena Jawabreh of Nablus district were arrested by the Israeli police with their friend Waroud Qasem in the 1948 occupied areas of Palestine (‘48), what is now referred to as Israel. The three friends who are all political activists and former political prisoners had travelled to ‘48 to visit Waroud who lives in Tire and has Israeli citizenship.

Leena Jawabreh, Linan Abu Ghoulmeh, Woroud Qasem and Myassar Atyani

They were traveling together in Waroud’s car when they were stopped by the Israeli police and found to be without travel permits; Palestinians living in the West Bank require permits issued by the Israeli authorities to travel outside of the West Bank, including to the Palestinian capital Jerusalem and the rest of ’48. These permits are notoriously difficult to obtain, especially for activists. The four women were subsequently arrested and transported to Hasharon prison. Myassar, Linan and Leena were detained at the prison until their appearance at Salem military court on the 19^th of August.

Waroud, also a former political prisoner from 2006 to 2012 was released from Hasharon prsison and placed under full house arrest with her driving license confiscated. She has another court hearing pending. The other three women are now being held in Salem prison awaiting a further court hearing. Leena on the 22^nd of August and Myassar and Linan on the 25^th of August.

Their families attended their

Setting a dangerous precedent: 16-year-old Ali Shamlawi faces 25 counts of attempted murder for alleged stone throwing

18th June 2013 | Mondoweiss, Katherine Flynn| Hares, Occupied Palestine

Three months ago today, in the early hours of March, 17 2013, Israeli soldiers appeared at 16-year- old Ali Shamlawi’s house in the West Bank village of Hares. They blindfolded him, handcuffed him and took him away. His arrest was one of a spate of arrests in March of this year which saw 19 boys, aged 16 and 17 years old, arrested for throwing stones which were alleged to have caused a traffic accident on Route 5, a large road which cuts through the West Bank to service illegal Israeli settlements.

Hares is a village of 4,000 people south of the city of Nablus in the West Bank. Illegal Israeli settlements – including Ariel, the second-largest settlement in the West Bank – have been built on agricultural land confiscated from Hares. The traffic accident in question occurred on March 14 when a car carrying a mother and her three daughters from Ariel crashed into the back of a truck on Route 5 near Hares, after the truck had braked suddenly. The youngest daughter was critically injured in the crash. The driver of the truck initially attributed the sudden breaking to a flat tire but later claimed he braked suddenly when stones hit his truck.

Locals who were at the scene of the accident moments after it occurred were interviewed by the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) and reported that they did not see any youth in the vicinity. However in the weeks since the accident, 61 witnesses from surrounding illegal settlements have come forward claiming their cars were also damaged by stones thrown by Palestinian youth from the side of the road. These settlers claim that Palestinian boys were 5-10 metres from the side of the road but these allegations have never been verified by the extensive CCTV footage in the area.

Since the initial arrests, 14 of the Palestinian boys have been released. However, five boys, including Ali Shamlawi, remain in prison three months later. Along with the other boys, Ali is being charged with 25 separate counts of attempted murder (one for each individual stone he allegedly threw) and is facing 25 years to life imprisonment.

Last Thursday on June 13th, Ali was in court again for his sixth hearing. Having applied to attend the hearing in advance, I was informed the night before that permission had not been granted because it would be a closed hearing – something all too common in Israeli military courts. Ali’s lawyers have since confirmed that at the hearing his detention was extended to July 25th in order for the defense team to be able to consider all evidence being used against him.

Along with the 61 “witnesses” mentioned above, the prosecution’s evidence consists of confessions from the boys. The lawyers and NGOs working on the case insist that these confessions were forced under extreme duress and are therefore inadmissible. 16-year-old Ali was held in solitary confinement for two weeks after his arrest and denied access to a lawyer for the first few days. He was interrogated for up to 20 hours at a time and beaten. Until last week, he was also denied visitation from his family. Ali’s lawyers submitted a complaint on May 15th about the circumstances of his interrogation and torture but are still waiting to hear back from the military police investigation.

Interviews carried out by IWPS with some of the boys already released by Israel show further mistreatment of children in custody. One of the 19 boys arrested was hospitalised after being beaten by interrogators, while another reports being kept alone in a small cell where bright lights shone continuously and being threatened with harm to him and his family. Indeed, such allegations come on the heels of a February 2013 report by UNICEF which firmly concluded that “the ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the [Israeli] military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalised throughout the process…”

It is not just the treatment of these children during interrogation that should raise questions. Despite being only 16 years old, Ali is being tried as an adult in Israeli military court; while illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank are subject to Israeli civil law, Palestinians living in the same area are subject to strict Israeli military law. Under this law, Palestinian youth can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for throwing stones at vehicles. Twenty years in prison for throwing stones would be considered harsh in even some of the world’s strictest regimes, but this case sets an even more dangerous precedent: the Israeli courts are charging these five boys not with stone-throwing but with attempted murder.

If the sentence is passed, this case could set a legal precedent which would allow the Israeli military to try any Palestinian youth with attempted murder for incidents of stone-throwing. While the evidence against the boys is tenuous at best (and downright illegal at worst), statistics on conviction rates in Israeli military courts do not bode well for the boys. According to a 2010 internal IDFreport, the military court system used to try Palestinians has a 99.7% conviction rate (In 2010, that meant only 25 full acquittals out of 9,542 cases).These highly troubling statistics expose the discrimination inherent in the Israeli judicial system when compared with similar statistics on settler attacks on Palestinians. A 2011 UN OCHA report revealed that over 90% of monitored complaints of settler violence filed by Palestinians with the Israeli police were closed without indictment.

With conviction rates of almost 100%, allegations of torture against children, and systematic discrimination against Palestinians, it is high time that Israel is held to account for the violations of international law endemic to its military detention and judicial systems.

For now, Ali must wait until July 25th to appear in court again, not knowing whether he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. This case has until now received little media attention. But for those of us who respect due process and human rights, it is time to speak up.

Addameer, IWPS and Defence for Children International are working with Ali’s lawyers on this case.

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.

Amir Nasser from Madama awaiting trial on the 21st of May

25th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Madama, Occupied Palestine.

By Team Nablus

Amir Nasser arrested three months ago is still being held in prison awaiting trial on the 21st of May. The trial was originally set for the 4th of April but was postponed until the current date. Amir was arrested on January 27 after making a formal complaint to the Israeli Authorities about the assault on his brother Mamun by settlers. When going to the aid of his brother Mamun during the attack Amir was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier and was still recovering at home from this wound when arrested.

At the time of his arrest he was not formally charged but has since been accused of throwing a rock at a guard from the settlement of Yizhar, a settlement notorious for its violence towards the surrounding Palestinian villages. It is stated in the charges that the guard’s left eye was injured by the rock and he subsequently required treatment in hospital for five days and then 14 days of bed rest.
Amir and family say that this accusation is a fabrication, another part of the continual harassment of the family by settlers and Israeli Authorities. Amir is currently being held in Megiddo prison where his mother, Huda, has been able to visit him once. If convicted Amir will face four years in prison and a fine of 11,000 NIS.
The first incident in this ongoing harassment was when Amir’s brother Mamun was brutally attacked by settlers and then arrested on December 17 2012 despite his family and other residents of Madama trying to intervene. What was initially an attack by settlers on Mamun then became an attack by settlers and Israeli soldiers on the rest of the family and villagers coming to his aid. This then led to the arrest and imprisonment of Mamun despite the fact he was the victim and committed no crime.
After spending nearly two months in prison he was released in February thanks to donations to ISM that were used to cover the bail. Since his release he has not been allowed to work on his land near the settlement. Mamun now has to return to court on May 22 to recover the bond used to achieve his release. If the bail money is returned it will go towards the ISM legal fund to support similar cases.

“Essence of Discrimination”: Abdelateef wins leeway in military court

By Ben Greene, Ellie Marton, Leila James

24 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement

UPDATE 24th October: Abdelateef Obeid free

Abdelateef Obeid was today freed from Salem prison, following a bail payment of 5000 NIS. He was arrested on the 21^st of September from his home in Kufr Qaddoum. The military court judge has not yet provided reasoning for this decision, but it is hoped that the argument will also provide a basis for the release of Abdelateef’s brother, Majd Obeid, who is currently still in prison.

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Original article appeared on 21 October 2012

On Sunday, a military appeals court judge in Ofer prison decided that there may be merit to arguments of discrimination in the case of Abdelateef Obeid. The judge, who seemed doubtful of the prosecution’s case, has granted the Israeli military another day to address gaping discrepancies in the Obeid case.

The defense argued that Abdelateef’s continued detention constituted “the essence of discrimination. “ He said that the evidence in the case is weaker than that brought against four international peace activists arrested on the same day for the same charges.

The family of Majd and Adbelateef wait to see the two brothers outside the court in Salem last Monday.

Abdelateef and his brother Majd were arrested on 21 September along with the four international activists on charges of stone throwing after a weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Kufr Qaddoum.

In court on Sunday, Abdelateef’s attorney drew attention to the fact that the prosecution alleges stronger evidence against the international activists, than against Abdelateef, yet the four activists have been released without condition. He said that, in the case of Abdelateef, there is testimony from one soldier, whereas two soldiers claim they saw the activists throwing stones at the demonstration last month.

Another discrepancy lay in the consistency with which soldiers claim to have maintained a line of sight on those accused. Additionally, the soldier who arrested Abdelateef is not the same one who swears he saw the two brothers run into a house after the protest. Instead he merely confirmed hours later that they were the same men he had seen.

The prosecution’s case hit another snag when is was revealed that the Israeli occupation forces never investigated Majd and Abdelateef’s alibis for the afternoon of the demonstration. The family of the two men have stated that Majd and Abdelateef were both at home the day and that soldiers arrested whatever young men happened to be in the house when they invaded Kufr Qaddoum and broke into the Obeid home on the 21^st of last month.

The prosecutor, who seemed nervous at the judge’s reception of Abdelateef’s case, argued that three of the released international activists, who appeared in court on Sunday, were not the same people as those arrested in September. He claimed instead that perhaps those activists had already been deported back to their home countries.

The judge permitted the prosecution a further day of investigation to discover any evidence to back up this false claim. A decision in the case is expected on Monday evening.

Ben Greene, Ellie Marton and Leila James are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (Names have been changed)