Tag: Mohammad Othman

CNN: West Bank wall still triggers weekly protests in village

CNN

12 February 2010

Tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and rocks: It must be Friday afternoon in the West Bank village of Bil’in.

It’s billed as a nonviolent protest against what Israel calls its security barrier, what the Palestinians call the apartheid separation wall.

The barrier separates the villagers from their farmlands. Protesters come from all over the world to support the Palestinian cause.

A few Palestinian youths covering their faces with scarves throw stones at a couple dozen Israeli soldiers in full riot gear and armed with tear gas, stun grenades and bullets.

The protest soon degenerates into chaos as it has nearly every week for the past five years. Six protesters have been killed in Bil’in and the neighboring village of Na’alin since July 2008, according to the Palestinian group, Popular Struggle, one of several organizers of the weekly protests. Several hundred have been injured by tear gas canisters and Israeli bullets. One hundred Israeli soldiers have been injured from stone throwing, according to the Israeli military.

The organizers say they have little control over the youths who prefer to throw stones at the rallies. They insist that non-violence is the best weapon they have to fight against Israel’s wall and occupation.

Israel has increased its nighttime raids into the West Bank in recent months, arresting those it believes have acted violently or those who are suspected of organizing the protests.

“They cannot be above the law, and that’s what we’re dealing with,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Peter Lerner said, referring to the protest organizers.

Critics say Israel is simply arresting those who oppose its policies towards the Palestinians. Mohamed Othman, one of the organizers of Stop the Wall campaign, was detained in September upon his return from Norway where he was lobbying the government for support.

He said he was held for four months — three in solitary confinement — then released without charge. Israel does not comment on these cases.

“We can see that Israel is starting to be afraid of the popular resistance because it’s coming from inside the people and the people decide,” Othman said.

Israel has arrested at least 150 protesters from the two villages’ demonstrations over the past two years, according to Popular Struggle. More than 30 are still locked up, the organization said. The Israeli military told CNN it was checking those figures.

One coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, also a teacher, was arrested in December. One of the charges against him was arms possession for collecting tear gas canisters used by the Israeli military against demonstrators and showcasing them.

The anti-wall demonstrators say this is a grass-roots movement. The Israeli military accuses those it has arrested of incitement.

The IDF denies it has changed its tactics in dealing with the anti-wall protesters, even though the number being arrested has risen sharply. The IDF on the ground now considers Bil’in a closed military zone on Fridays.

CNN was refused access by Israeli military forces stationed outside the village, who said only those who lived in the neighborhood could enter. But IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said the closure was meant only for protesters.

A few hours later, in Bil’in, the Israeli soldiers withdrew from the village under cover of tear gas. Some Palestinian youths followed them with stones, while the vast majority of nonviolent protesters head home.

Same time, same place, next Friday.

Israel releases Palestinian boycott activists

Benjamin Joffe-Walt | The Media Line

14 January 2010

A prominent West Bank activist said by Palestinian groups to be the first Palestinian imprisoned for promoting an international boycott of Israel has been released after being detained by Israel for over 100 days without charge.

Mohammad Othman, a 34 year old resident of the West Bank village of Jayyous, was released Wednesday after 113 days in Israeli custody.

Palestinian advocacy groups believe Othman to be the first Palestinian imprisoned solely for advocacy of the international boycott movement against Israel.

“I was interrogated every single day for 75 days from 8am until 6.30pm and sometimes until midnight,” Othman told The Media Line. “The entire time I was held in isolation. Physically they did not touch me, but it really damages a person to be in isolation. They also played all kinds of games, telling me they will arrest my brother, my friends and the journalists writing about me.”

Othman was first taken into Israeli custody by the Israel Security Agency, commonly known as the Shin Bet, on September 22 at an Israeli border crossing terminal. Othman was attempting to return to the West Bank following a trip to Norway, where he had met with senior government officials including Finance Minister Kristen Halvorsen to try and convince the country to boycott companies involved in Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Othman took Norwegian officials on a tour of the West Bank, traveled to Norway and played a major role in convincing a Norwegian state pension fund to divest the $5.4 million it had invested in Elbit, one of Israel’s largest defense firms. Minister Halvorsen announced the decision early last month.

“They are trying to put a lot of pressure on the boycott movement,” Othman said. “They realized how much pressure it is putting on them.”

“I was interrogated by ten different commanders, nine from the Shin Bet and one from the Mossad,” he said, referring to the Israel Security Agency and Israel’s national intelligence agency, respectively. “They asked me about the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, my work, why I’m traveling around the world and why I have the contacts of ministers, prime ministers and embassies.”

Othman was held for interrogation for two months, after which he was put into administrative detention.

“After about 50 days they came up with this charge that I’m in contact with Hezbollah,” Othman said. “It’s crazy. I told them I am involved in a peaceful fight and dealing with international human rights organizations.”

“They had nothing against me but I was really worried when I was put into administrative detention,” he said. “It can be a few months or up to seven years.”

“I was often put in court without a lawyer and had to represent myself,” Othman said. “Two days ago I was sent to court again and I got the papers that I was going to be freed.”

“I couldn’t believe it,” he continued. “The judge said ‘Why aren’t you reacting?’ I said ‘Because it’s administrative detention so you can arrest me two minutes after releasing me’.”

While he was released without charge, Othman was required to pay 10,000 shekels ($2,716) bail for his release, an administrative technicality related to his initial detention for interrogation prior to his placement in administrative detention.

Officially, Israel has made no comment on the two cases and a spokesperson for the Israel Security Agency told The Media Line they were looking into the matter.

Magda Mughrabi, the Advocacy Officer at Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, which represented Othman at some of his court hearings, argued Othman’s case exemplifies Israel’s use of administrative detention as a tactic to punish non-violent activism.

“Israeli is using detention as an arbitrary policy as opposed to something founded on strong evidence,” Magda Mughrabi, Advocacy Officer with Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, told The Media Line. “Mohammad Othman wasn’t charged with anything.”

“Representatives of the British, Norwegian and German governments all attended the hearings and there was no substantiated evidence,” she claimed. “They issued an administrative detention order against him saying he posed a security threat to the area and his detention was necessary to neutralize the threat. Then later the judge said Mr Othman still poses a security threat but that there is no progress in his interrogation.”

“This is contradictory,” Mughrabi maintained. “Legally administrative detention can only be used for preventative purposes when there is information that there is an imminent threat to the security of the state. So if they say that his administrative detention should be shortened because there is no progress in the investigation that means they are not holding him for preventative purposes but as a substitute for prosecution because they don’t have evidence against him.”

“This is a war between the campaign and the Israeli authorities,” she added. “The human rights community has written a lot about the arbitrary use of administrative detention. It’s not used as a preventive measure but as a punitive measure when they don’t have enough evidence to prosecute someone.”

There are over 7,000 Palestinians currently held by Israel as ‘security prisoners’, around 290 of them administrative detainees and many of whom, Palestinians claim, have been arrested solely for political reasons.

Palestinian groups claim that Israel has arrested a number of non-violent activists in reprisal for their international advocacy efforts or involvement in demonstrations. Most notable has been the detention of dozens of Palestinian activists arrested in nighttime raids in the West Bank villages of Ni’ilin and Bil’in, the sites of weekly demonstrations against Israel’s separation barrier. Many of those arrested have been accused by Israel of incitement and put in administrative detention based on secret evidence. Very few have been charged.

Othman’s release came one day after Israel’s release of another prominent Palestinian activist, Jamal Juma.

The director of Stop the Wall, a Palestinian campaign opposed to Israel’s construction of a barrier around the West Bank, Juma was released Tuesday after being detained by the Israel Security Agency for 27 days without charge. Juma was arrested on December 16 less than 48 hours after being interviewed by The Media Line regarding the continued detention of Mohammad Othman.

Despite being a legal resident of Jerusalem entitled to legal rights similar to those afforded to Israeli citizens, Juma was processed in Israel’s military court system in the same legal procedures used by Israel for West Bank Palestinians like Mohammad Othman.

“This experience made it much clearer to me how much the non-violent Palestinian movement freaks them out,” Juma told The Media Line. “They see how our movement is opening the eyes of the world to the oppression of the Palestinians and they are determined to stop it but they don’t know what to do. They can’t call us terrorists so they bring people like me into jail without any real legal way to charge us.”

“They accused me of incitement and contact with terrorist organizations,” he said. “It’s so silly they even accused me of contact with the Zapatistas [laughing]. I told them ‘Do you think that when I meet 60,000 people at conferences I ask everyone there ‘Do you have a problem with Israel? Are you part of a terrorist organization?’ In the end they dropped it of course and didn’t charge me with anything at all because none of it made any sense.”

“I am only out of prison today because of international pressure, both official pressure from consulates and official bodies, as well as organizations around the world that don’t understand why Israel would arrest someone like me,” Juma said of the massive campaign launched by Palestinian activists for his release. “I really appreciate this level of solidarity.”

“You can’t imagine how much dehumanization there is in these jails,” he said of his detention. “I was interrogated constantly, put into isolation, put in a cell in which my head was in the door and my feet in the toilet. I was handcuffed for many hours, the cells are lit up 24 hours a day and the food is so bad you wouldn’t even give it to dogs.”

“They didn’t beat me or anyone I saw,” Juma added. “But this is a form of torture and the worst face of the occupation. Many prisoners almost lose their minds and all of this is done in shadow and nobody knows about it.”

Juma and other Palestinian advocates who have worked intimately with Othman say he was spurred to activism by the effect of the West Bank separation barrier on his family.

“Mohammad comes from a big and poor family in Jayyous village in the West Bank,” Juma said. “Lots of their land has been isolated behind the wall and he started his activism because of that, to show the threat the occupation presents to his family and his village.”

“He continued his activism both locally and internationally, calling on people and organizations and governments to boycott Israel for its crimes against the Palestinian people,” he said. “That’s why he became a target of the Israelis.”

The international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel is viewed as a serious national threat by most Israelis, many of whom see boycott advocacy as paramount to sedition, and a number of Israeli analysts argue that the threat posed to Israel justifies the arrest of its leaders.

“The demonization of Israel is a form of warfare and Israel is treating it as such,”

Dr Gerald Steinberg, Chair of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University told The Media Line. “Whether it’s through this so called boycott and sanctions campaign, or attempts to have Israeli leaders like Former Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni arrested in Britain, or International Criminal Court related activites, this kind of incitement is political warfare on par with military warfare in that the goal is to destroy the state of Israel.”

“As Prime Minister Netanyahu recently stated, demonization is as dangerous to the State of Israel as the Iranian nuclear threat,” he added. “That’s the broad view of the majority of Israelis.”

Dr Ron Breiman, the former chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel one of the founders of the secular Hatikva faction of the National Union, a right wing nationalist political party in Israel, echoed Dr Steinberg’s remarks.

“Israel needs to defend itself and should arrest people like this,” he told The Media Line at the time of Othman’s arrest. “In any normal country when someone is doing harm to his own state he would be punished for that. I don’t think a European country would allow such activities within her borders and we are too forgiving of it.”

“I want democracy and I want free speech,” Dr Breiman said. “But there are limits to free speech and even in a democratic country you cannot say anything that you want, especially in a state of war.”

Bil’in organizer Abdallah Abu Rahmah remanded until the end of legal proceedings

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

10 January 2010

For immediate release:

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was remanded until the end of legal proceedings today in an Israeli military court. Abu Rahmah is charged with incitement, stone-throwing and a ridiculous arms possession charge for collecting and displaying used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army.

A judge in the Ofer military court has ordered the remand of Abdallah Abu Rahmah until the end of legal procedures against him. Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher and the coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in is charged with incitement, stone throwing and possession of illegal arm. The latter charge was pressed against Abu Rahmah for collecting and displaying used tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army.

On receiving the indictment Adv. Gaby Lasky, Abu Rahmah’s lawyer said that “The army shoots at unarmed demonstrators, and when they try to show the violence used against them to the world by collecting and displaying the remnant tear-gas canisters – they are persecuted and prosecuted. What’s next? Charging protesters money for the bullets shot at them?”

On December 10, International Day of Human Rights, exactly one year after receiving Carl Von Ossietzky Medal from the International League for Human Rights, Abu Rahmah was arrested during an Israeli military night-time raid. He was detained for his involvement in organizing unarmed protests against the Wall in the village of Bil’in.

As part of a recent wave of repression against the Palestinian popular protest movement, Israel has charged numerous grassroots organizers with both stone throwing and incitement. In at least one case, that of Mohammed Khatib from Bil’in, the court found evidence presented on a stone-throwing charge to be falsified.

The charge of incitement, defined in military law as “an attempt, whether verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order”, is a cynic attempt to equate grassroots organizing with a hefty charge, and is part of the army’s strategy to use legal measures as a means of quashing the popular movement.

In recent months five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee have been arrested in suspicion of incitement, including Adeeb Abu Rahmah who is now in detention for more than five months. Jamal Juma and Mohammed Othman of the Stop the Wall NGO have also been arrested, presumably for being involved in anti-Wall and BDS work. They are both held with no charges and on secret evidence.

Your Palestinian Gandhis exist… in graves and prisons

Alison Weir | Counterpunch

8 January 2010

Dear Bono,

In your recent column in the New York Times, “Ten for the Next Ten,” you wrote: “I’ll place my hopes on the possibility — however remote at the moment — that…people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Your hope has already been fulfilled in the Palestinian territories.

Unfortunately, these Palestinian Gandhis and Kings are being killed and imprisoned.

On the day that your op-ed appeared hoping for such leaders, three were languishing in Israeli prisons. No one knows how long they will be held, nor under what conditions; torture is common in Israeli prisons.

At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in the last six years alone during nonviolent demonstrations against Israel’s apartheid wall that is confiscating Palestinian cropland and imprisoning Palestinian people. Many others have been killed in other parts of the Palestinian territories while taking part in nonviolent activities. Hundreds more have been detained and imprisoned.

Recently Israel has begun a campaign to incarcerate the leaders of this diverse movement of weekly marches and demonstrations taking place in small Palestinian villages far from media attention.

The first Palestinian Gandhi to be rounded up in this recent purge was young Mohammad Othman, taken on Sept. 22 when he was returning home from speaking in Norway about nonviolent strategies to oppose Israeli oppression and land confiscation. He has now been held for 107 days without charges, much of it in solitary confinement.

The second was Abdallah Abu Rahma, a schoolteacher and farmer taken from his home on Dec. 10, the only one to be charged with a crime. After holding him for several days, Israel finally came up with a charge: “illegal weapons possession” – referring to the peace sign he had fashioned out of the spent teargas cartridges and bullets that Israel had shot at nonviolent demonstrators. (One such cartridge pierced the skull of Tristan Anderson, an American who was photographing the aftermath of a nonviolent march, causing part of his right frontal lobe to be removed.)

The third was Jamal Jumah’, a veteran leader in the grassroots struggle, who was taken by Israeli occupation forces on Dec. 16th and is now being held in shackles and often blindfolded during Kafkaesque Israeli military proceedings.

Palestinians have been engaging in nonviolence for decades.

When I was last in Nablus I learned of a massive nonviolent demonstration that had occurred in 2001 – estimates range from 10,000 to 50,000 Palestinian men, women, and children taking part in a nonviolent march. All sectors of Nablus had joined together in organizing this – public officials, diverse parties, religious, secular, Muslim, Christian.

Modeling their action on images of Dr. Martin Luther King, they marched arm-in-arm, believing that Israel would not kill them and that the world would care. They were wrong on both counts. Israeli forces immediately shot six dead and injured many more. And no one even knows about it. At If Americans Knew we are currently working on a video to try to remedy the last part; there’s nothing we can do about the dead.

But there’s a great deal you can do, Bono. You can use your talent and celebrity to tell the world these facts. You can write a New York Times op-ed about the Palestinian Gandhis in Israeli prisons and call for their freedom. You can sing of these Palestinian Martin Luther Kings you wished for, and by singing save their lives.

For the reality is that nonviolence is only as powerful as its visibility to the world. When it is made invisible through its lack of coverage by the New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, et al, its practitioners are in deadly danger, and their efforts to use nonviolence against injustice are doomed.

In the New York Times you publicly proclaimed your belief in nonviolence. Now is your chance to demonstrate your commitment.

* * *

Killed by Israeli forces while demonstrating against the Israeli wall being built on Palestinian land

5 June 2009:
Yousef ‘Akil’ Tsadik Srour, 36
Shot in the chest with 0.22 calibre live ammunition during a demonstration against the Wall in Ni’lin.

April 17, 2009:
Basem Abu Rahme, age 29
Shot in the chest with a high-velocity tear gas projectile during a demonstration against the Wall in Bil’in.

December 28, 2008:
Mohammad Khawaja, age 20
Shot in the head with live ammunition during a demonstration in Ni’lin against Israel’s assault on Gaza. Mohammad died in the hospital on December 31, 2009.

December 28, 2008:
Arafat Khawaja, age 22
Shot in the back with live ammunition in Ni’lin during a demonstration against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

July 30, 2008:
Youssef Ahmed Younes Amirah, age 17
Shot in the head with rubber coated bullets during a demonstration against the Wall in Ni’lin. Youssef died of his wounds on August 4, 2008.

July 29, 2008:
Ahmed Husan Youssef Mousa, age 10
Shot dead while he and several friends tried to remove coils of razor wire from land belonging to the village in Ni’lin.

March 2, 2008:
Mahmoud Muhammad Ahmad Masalmeh, age 15
Shot dead when trying to cut the razor wire portion of the Wall in Beit Awwa.

March 28, 2007:
Muhammad Elias Mahmoud ‘Aweideh, age 15
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Um a-Sharayet – Samiramis.

February 2, 2007:
Taha Muhammad Subhi al-Quljawi, age 16
Shot dead when he and two friends tried to cut the razor wire portion of the Wall in the Qalandiya Refugee Camp. He was wounded in the thigh and died from blood loss after remaining in the field for a long time without treatment.

May 4, 2005:
Jamal Jaber Ibrahim ‘Asi, age 15
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Beit Liqya.

May 4, 2005:
U’dai Mufid Mahmoud ‘Asi, age 14
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Beit Liqya.

February 15, 2005:
‘Alaa’ Muhammad ‘Abd a-Rahman Khalil, age 14
Shot dead while throwing stones at an Israeli vehicle driven by private security guards near the Wall in Betunya.

April 18, 2004:
Islam Hashem Rizik Zhahran, age 14
Shot during a demonstration against the Wall in Deir Abu Mash’al. Islam died of his wounds April 28, 2004.

April 18, 2004:
Diaa’ A-Din ‘Abd al-Karim Ibrahim Abu ‘Eid, age 23
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.

April 16, 2004:
Hussein Mahmoud ‘Awad ‘Alian, age 17
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Betunya.

February 26, 2004:
Muhammad Da’ud Saleh Badwan, age 21
Shot during a demonstration against the Wall in Biddu. Muhammad died of his wounds on March 3, 2004.

February 26, 2004:
Abdal Rahman Abu ‘Eid, age 17
Died of a heart attack after teargas projectiles were shot into his home during a demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.

February 26, 2004:
Muhammad Fadel Hashem Rian, age 25
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.

February 26, 2004:
Zakaria Mahmoud ‘Eid Salem, age 28
Shot dead during a demonstration against the Wall in Biddu.

Notes and Sources:

(1) Israeli torture was first exposed in the West by the London Times in the late 1970s. Foreign Service Journal wrote about Israeli torture of Americans in June, 2002, and Addameer gives specifics today.

(2) Al Haq, the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists – Geneva, writes: “…as part of their repression campaign, which coincided with the release of the Goldstone Report, the Israeli forces have re-launched daily dawn raids in villages affected by the Wall, arresting youths and children, for the purpose of extracting confessions about prominent community leaders advocating against the Wall, and continued to intimidate activists by destroying their private property and threatening them with detention. Finally, Israel has directly targeted the Grassroots “Stop the Wall” Campaign by arresting and intimidating its leaders…His village, Jayyous, has been devastated by the Apartheid Wall

(3) Human Rights Watch found that “The only reasonable conclusion is that Othman is being punished for his peaceful advocacy…”

(4) Abdallah Abu Rahma was taken when “eleven military jeeps surrounded his house, and Israeli soldiers broke the door, extracted Abdallah from his bed, and, after briefly allowing him to say goodbye to his wife Majida and their three children — seven year-old Luma, five year-old Lian and eight month-old baby Laith, they blindfolded him and took him into custody.”

On Jan. 6th Abdallah wrote:

“I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope…. Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commitment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed grassroots resistance to the occupation.

“The price I and many others pay in freedom does not deter us. I wish that my two young daughters and baby son would not have to pay this price together with me. But for my son and daughters, for their future, we must continue our struggle for freedom…”

(5) Tristan Anderson was shot with a high-velocity canister after photographing a nonviolent protest in Ni’lin on March 13, 2009. His ambulance was held up for a period of time by Israeli forces before finally being allowed to take him to a hospital. Video of parents’ press conference.

(6) Israeli forces interrogated Jamal Juma’ and then “brought him back home, handcuffed, and searched his house while his wife and three children watched. Then they took him off to prison.” – CounterPunch [http://www.counterpunch.org/hijab12242009.html ] Despite being held for 20 days, [http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2152.shtml] no charges have yet been brought against Jamal.

(7) The Nablus march mentioned above took place on March 30, 2001, on Jerusalem Street in the south of Nablus, leading to the Huwara checkpoint. This was on what Palestinians call the “Day of the Land” or “Land Day” (information on Land Day can be seen at the Electronic Intifada).

(8) In our study of the Associated Press, “Deadly Distortion,” we commented: “…our analysts looked at hundreds of articles that AP published on topics relating to the Israel/Palestine issue, and noted a number of additional patterns that merit further examination… Nonviolence movement. Palestinian resistance efforts have included numerous nonviolent marches and other activities, many joined by international participants, Israeli citizens, and faith-based groups. This nonviolence movement has been an important topic in the Palestinian territories, with growing numbers of people taking part – in 2004 the Palestinian News Network reported on 79 major demonstrations that were exclusively nonviolent. Yet, we did not find any reports in which AP had described a Palestinian demonstration or other activity as nonviolent or utilizing nonviolence.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, which provides information about Israel-Palestine. She can be reached at contact@ifamericansknew.org. She phoned and faxed Bono’s management company Principle Management at both their New York and Dublin locations in an effort to contact him but has not yet received a reply. She suggests that others may wish to do this as well: 212.765.2330 / fax: 212.765.2372.

Israel continues to violate rights of human rights defenders and peaceful activists

30 December 2009

Addameer * Al-Haq * Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights * Al Dameer Association for Human Rights * BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights * DCI – Palestine Section * ENSAN Center * Jerusalem Legal Aid Center * Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling

Israel has for too long been allowed to violate the rights of human rights defenders and activists. As an occupying power and State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Israel is obliged to respect the rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as guaranteed under the ICCPR. Palestinian human rights defenders must be guaranteed their right to
freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and their right to liberty and security of person.

Since September 2009, Israel has intensified a repression campaign against Palestinian human rights defenders, activists and demonstrators protesting against the Annexation Wall. As part of their repression campaign, which coincided with the release of the Goldstone Report, the Israeli forces have re-launched daily dawn raids in villages affected by the Wall, arresting youths and children, for the purpose of extracting confessions about prominent community leaders advocating against the Wall, and continued to intimidate activists by destroying their private property and threatening them with detention. Finally, Israel has directly targeted the Grassroots “Stop the Wall” Campaign by arresting and intimidating its leaders.

With the recent arrests of Jamal Juma’, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender and coordinator of the “Stop the Wall” Campaign, Abdallah Abu Rahma, the Head of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in and the administrative detention of Mohammad Othman, a youth coordinator with “Stop the Wall”, it became increasingly clear that Israel is seeking to hinder human rights defenders from carrying out their peaceful work, exercised within the framework of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Additionally, in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’ilin, Beit Duqqu, Jayyous and Al-Ma’sara, Israeli soldiers have been reported to throw stones at activists’ houses, storm their homes in the middle of the night, fire tear gas at them and destroy their personal belongings. Seemingly, these measures are implemented to deter Palestinian activists from attending weekly demonstrations against the Annexation Wall. The Israeli authorities have also summoned for interrogation a number of youth activists engaged in organizing peaceful demonstrations and solidarity events involving international supporters. Similarly, they launched an intimidation campaign against witnesses of human rights violations. On 17 December, for example, the Israeli soldiers raided the family house of eighteen-year old Salam Kanaan in Ni’lin, who became famous after she filmed an Israeli soldier shooting blindfolded and handcuffed Ashraf Abu Rahma in the foot and released it through the Israeli NGO’s, B’Tselem’s “Shooting Back” project. The soldiers came looking for the tape and when they did not find it, they left a notice, in which they summoned Salam’s family members for interrogation. In Al-Ma’sara, members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, including Mohammad Birjiyah, Hassan Birjiyah and Mahmoud Zawahreh, who were arrested in May 2009 for their participation in demonstrations and subsequently released on bail, now face not only restrictions on their community work, but are also subject to constant delays and humiliation at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank.

It is common Israeli practice to interrogate and detain Palestinians without charge and prevent lawyers from visiting their clients. Arbitrary detention violates the rights of human rights defenders and Israel must stop these illegal practices. Israel’s history of subjecting detained Palestinians to torture, inhumane and cruel treatment must also be noted. As Palestinian human rights organizations we demand that such practices are not used against any detained Palestinian, including Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman and Abdallah Abu Rahma. Importantly, the arrest of Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman and Abdallah Abu Rahma constitutes a violation of various international human rights instruments, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The Declaration provides for the right of everyone to meet or assemble peacefully, which includes the right to form, join and communicate with non-governmental organizations, associations or groups. The Declaration further emphasizes the right of an individual to the lawful exercise of his or her profession, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and to solicit, receive and utilize resources for the purpose of protecting human rights. Additionally, the Declaration declares that people have the right to express concern about the policies and actions of individual officials and governmental bodies with regard to violations of human rights.

Although not legally binding, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders served as a basis for the drafting of the EU and Norwegian Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, which follow the Declaration in recognizing everyone’s right to promote and strive for the protections and realization of human rights, both individually and collectively. protection of human rights defenders has thus been recognized not only a moral obligation, but also as a social, individual and collective right and responsibility and became an important element of the European Union’s human rights external policy.

As Palestinian human rights organizations, we call upon the international community, including diplomatic missions in the occupied Palestinian territory and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene with Israel for:

• the immediate release of Jamal Juma’, Mohammad Othman and Abdallah Abu Rahma, and all other local activists;
• an end to the Israeli practice of arbitrary detention;
• full adherence to the ICCPR as applied to the Palestinian population in the OPT; and
• full respect of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

In addition, we call upon members of the European Union and Norway to fully comply with the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders and the Norwegian Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders; develop and adopt an effective strategy aiming to provide protection to Palestinian human rights defenders working in the OPT and Israel, by:

• Regularly attending trials of Palestinian Human Rights Defenders (HRD) who are held in detention. Exert pressure on the Israeli Military Court of Administrative Detainees to attend closed hearings of HRD held in administrative detention. Additionally, establish rotation routines for trial observation on behalf of the local Presidency.
• Regularly visit HRD in custody prior to trial.
• Ensure a permanent and institutionalized presence of EU monitors in areas where human rights are violated on a regular basis to prevent the arbitrary arrest of Palestinian HRD. These areas include:
villages affected by the Annexation Wall; parts of East Jerusalem, where houses are at risk of demolition and families are at risk of eviction; and, Palestinian villages located near settlements. Additionally, ensure EU presence at all house demolitions or evictions in East Jerusalem.
• Issue public statements condemning the arbitrary arrest and detention of HRD.
• Raise specific cases of HRD in detention with the Israeli authorities under the EU-Israel political dialogue.

BACKGROUND ON THE ARREST OF “STOP THE WALL” ACTIVISTS

1. Mohammad Othman, who is a youth coordinator with the “Stop the Wall Campaign”, was arrested by the Israeli soldiers on 22 September 2009 at the Allenby Border Crossing as he returned home to the West Bank from an advocacy tour in Norway where he attended several advocacy meetings and spoke about the Wall, and its associated unlawful regime. Since then, he has been held for 61 days in interrogation, and barred from access to his attorney for two weeks. After his two months of interrogation proved nothing, no external evidence was brought to the attention of the court and the military prosecution was unable to formulate substantiated allegations or charges against him, he was placed under administrative detention a day after the Military Court of Appeals decided to release him on bail. On 22 December, Mohammad’s administrative detention order was renewed for another month, ending on 22 January 2010.

2. On 15 December 2009, Jamal Juma’, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender, coordinator of the “Stop the Wall” campaign and a founding member of several Palestinian civil society networks and non-governmental organizations, was summoned for interrogation by the Israeli Police. He was asked to go to the Qalandia checkpoint, where he was subsequently handcuffed and taken to his home. His home was searched for two hours in the presence of his wife and three young children where his cell phone and computer were confiscated. Jamal was then brought to Moskobiyyeh Interrogation Center in West Jerusalem, where he was subjected to interrogation. Two subsequent court hearings, on 21 December and 24 December extended Jamal’s detention period for the purpose of interrogation based on “secret information” that was made available to the military judge by representatives from the Israeli Security Agency (ISA). The content of the “secret information” was not however disclosed to Jamal’s attorney. Although a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, Jamal is currently being interrogated under the Israeli military orders, with no access to the outside world, and until 27 December, without any access to his attorney due to a court’s decision to implement a ban on lawyers’ visits. Practice shows that the military court always allows the interrogation of East Jerusalemites under the military orders in order to extend the interrogation period to the maximum, allow the outmost flexibility for Israeli Security Agency (ISA) officers in their conduct of the interrogation and reduce legal safeguards to the minimum. Prior to his arrest, Jamal has been actively campaigning for the protection of Palestinian human rights defenders and activists protesting against the Annexation Wall, including his colleague, Mohammad Othman.

3. On 10 December 2009, the Israeli forces arrested Abdallah Abu Rahma, a high school teacher and the Head of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, in the village of Bil’in, where the Israeli authorities have annexed close to 55 percent of the village’s land for the construction of the Wall and the expansion of Israeli settlements. Abdallah is currently tried on three charges, namely incitement, stone throwing and the possession of arms. It is clear from Abdallah’s indictment that he was arrested for his leading role in mobilizing a non-violent resistance movement against the Annexation Wall and its associated, unlawful regime. Among the accusations under the banner of “incitement”, the military prosecution listed Abdallah’s instrumental role in organizing and leading demonstrations against the Wall and distributing Palestinian flags to participants of the demonstrations, which sixteen years after the signing of the Oslo Accords is still considered a “security offence” under Israeli military regulations. In relation to the last charge, the Israeli army accuses Abdallah of collecting empty sound and gas grenades, as well as M16 bullets used by the soldiers to disperse the crowds at demonstrations and showing them as an exhibit in the village’s museum to raise awareness of Israeli practices against unarmed civilians. However, documenting human rights violations, collecting evidence, providing support and assistance to victims seeking remedies, combating cultures of impunity and mainstreaming human rights culture and information on an international and domestic level have been recognized by the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders as legitimate activities that need to be not only protected but also promoted. Further, the non-violent character of the demonstrations has been, amongst others, recognized by the Elders organization, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former president Jimmy Carter and former Irish President, Mary Robinson, who visited Bil’in and met with Abdallah Abu Rahma during their mission to the OPT in August 2009.