Tag: Mohammed Khatib

Despite increased repression, a victory

For Immediate Release:

Legal challenges are an important battle field in non-violent resistance because often the occupation is forced to change their policies when these are held up to scrutiny. Court cases such as the one below as can determine whether or not Israeli occupation forces continue to use a particular oppressive tactic. But legal work is also quite expensive. The ISM is asking its supporters to throw fund-raising events to raise money to support the work of the ISM’s solidarity with the Palestinian movement against apartheid. You can donate by check, or online (via Paypal) see https://palsolidarity.org/donate for details.

On Monday, February 8, 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the release on bail of the two activists who were arrested on Sunday during a pre-dawn raid on the Ramallah media office of the International Solidarity Movement. Ariadna Jove Marti, a Spanish journalist, and Bridgette Chappell, an Australian student at Beir Zeit university have now been banned from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

During the hearing for Ariadna and Bridget, the State Prosecutor admitted that it was illegal for the Immigration Police to receive custody of the two in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where it has no legal authority. The illegality of the detention of Marti and Chappell by the Immigration Police is now undisputed.

According to Marti and Chappell, they were questioned primarily about their overstayed visas. The Army, however, alleges that their arrests were security driven, despite the fact that the State Prosecutor could provide no evidence to support this claim. The judges have ordered the state to file depositions, if any exist, implicating the two as security threats for a review of the legality of their detention.

In response to the accusation that she is a “security risk, Chappell said, “Our ‘weapons’ were not like the ones the Israeli soldiers waved about wildly after barging into our apartment, they were our cameras. These let the world see the violence that the occupiers visit upon the Palestinians and they were quite dangerous to Israel’s institutionalized domination.”

“I hope that our presence makes the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine that much more difficult. In light of the illegal raid that led to our incarceration, it seems that the ‘security’ of the Israeli army means that their injustices are securely hidden from the world,” said Marti.

The Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO clearly forbid any Israeli incursion into Area A, which includes the major Palestinian cities in the West Bank, for reasons not directly and urgently related to security, even in “hot pursuit.” In practice however the Israeli military continues to exercise full control on the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip. The overall legality of the raid (under Israeli law) remains contested and should be reviewed by the Supreme Court in the continuation of the court case. In the mean time the court has ordered the release of the two on a NIS 3,000 bail each, and on the condition that they will not enter the Occupied Territories pending final decision in the case.

The latest raids are part of a recent crackdown on the growing non-violent Palestinian movement of resistance to Israeli apartheid. Leaders of the popular Palestinian struggle are being taken from their homes in night military raids. Abdullah Abu Rahme coordinator of the Bil’in popular committee, Wa’el Faqueeh the coordinator of the Nablus popular committee, and Ibrahim Amiraa coordinator of the Naalin popular committee, all arrested from their homes, remain incarcerated. In addition dozens of Palestinian activists who have participated in the demonstrations are in prison.

Mohammed Khatib, coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said, “The popular struggle is spreading. More and more Palestinians are turning to nonviolent resistance, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement is growing here and internationally and Israeli war criminals are being challenged by courts around the world. These night raids show that Israel has panicked, deluding itself that by arresting Palestinian and international activists it can stop the movement and hide its crimes from the world.” Khatib was also arrested recently in a military raid at his home, and is now free on bail.

The raids are continuing. On Monday, February 8, 2010,Israeli soldiers raided the Ramallah offices of Stop the Wall and the Peoples Party stole computers, media equipment and documents from the office. Jamal Juma, the coordinator of Stop the Wall, a Palestinian campaign at the forefront of the global movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid, and Mohammad Othman, a Stop the Wall activist, were recently released with no charges after being imprisoned by Israeli forces.

Israel is also targeting the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), arresting ISM activists working in support of the popular campaign against the wall. Over the last ten months, the “Oz” immigration unit illegally arrested and attempted to deport four other international activists. Eva Nováková, a Czech national and ISM media coordinator, was arrested in Ramallah on January 11, 2010, and deported the next day, before the deportation could be appealed. She too was arrested by the Immigration Police. Nováková’s lawyer is currently in the process of preparing an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court to challenge the legality of her arrest.

Mohammad Khatib released as 3 more arrested in Bil’in night raids

Bil’in Popular Committee Against Wall and Settlements

3 February 2010

Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements was released from jail on Wednesday night Feb. 3rd, 2010. The military had taken Khatib from his home in Bilin on January 28th for allegedly not complying with legal conditions from a arrest in 2009. He was released on a bail of 10,000 Israeli shekels, with the condition of not participating in any of the weekly protests. He must appear at the nearest Israeli police station every Friday between 12:00- 5:00pm.

The night of Khatib’s release, the Israeli military conducted their second raid of the month in Bilin Village. Ibrahim Burnat a resident of Bilin and activist against the wall was arrested in his home early Thursday morning, along with local photojournalist Hamde Abu Rahmeh and an international journalist who were documenting the invasion. Abu Rahmeh and the journalist were held at the Binyamin police station for approximately 12 hours until their release. The international journalist from the United States was released with the condition of not being allowed in the West Bank for 15 days with the threat of deportation if the condition was broken. Ibrahim Burnat remains in jail.

“The map of the closed area was unclear, the officer did not give us enough time to look at the map or understand the order. Then, we were not even allowed to leave the area if we wanted to, the military was surrounding the group of people who had come to document the situation. Hamde and I were arrested, cuffed, put in a military jeep, and recklessly driven out of the village and behind the apartheid fence. At this point we were both blindfolded and forced to sit without being allowed to go to the bathroom, drink water or call lawyers until about 5am. ” said the journalist after her release.

In January Jared Malsin a Jewish American journalist for the Palestinain Ma’an News Agency was denied re-entry to Israel and later deported. Days before, Eva Nováková, a Czech citizen, who took on the role of the International Solidarity Movement’s media coordinator was arrested from her home in Ramallah and later deported. In December, high school teacher and media coordinator Abdullah Abu Rahmeh of the he Bilin Popular committee was arrested and remains in jail.

Mohammed Khatib, coordinator of West Bank Coordination Committee arrested

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
28 January 2010

Khatib during a speaking his speaking tour in Canada last year. Photo Credit: Tadamon!

At a quarter to two AM tonight, Mohammed Khatib, his wife Lamia and their four young children were woken up by Israeli soldiers storming their home, which was surrounded by a large military force. Once inside the house, the soldiers arrested Khatib, conducted a quick search and left the house.

Roughly half an hour after leaving the house, five military jeeps surrounded the house again, and six soldiers forced their way into the house again, where Khatib’s children sat in terror, and conducted another, very thorough search of the premises, without showing a search warrant. During the search, Khatib’s phone and many documents were seized, including papers from Bil’in’s legal procedures in the Israel High Court.

The soldiers exited an hour and a half later, leaving a note saying that documents suspected as “incitement materials” were seized. International activists who tried to enter the house to be with the family during the search were aggressively denied entry.

Mohammed Khatib was previously arrested during the ongoing wave of arrests and repression on Augst 3rd, 2009 with charges of incitement and stone throwing. After two weeks of detention, a military judge ruled that evidence against him was falsified and ordered his release, after it was proven that Khatib was abroad at the time the army alleged he was photographed throwing stones during a demonstration.

International activist detained during the night raid and arrest of Mohammed Khatib in Bil'lin. Photo Credit: Ma'an News Agency

Khatib’s arrest today is the most severe escalation in a recent wave of repression again the Palestinian popular struggle and its leadership. Khatib is the 35th resident of Bil’in to be arrested on suspicions related to anti-Wall protest since June 23rd, 2009.

The recent wave of arrests is largely an assault on the members of the Popular Committees – the leadership of the popular struggle – who are then charged with incitement when arrested. The charge of incitement, defined under Israeli 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 cynical attempt to punish grassroots organizing with a hefty charge and lengthy imprisonments. Such indictments are part of the army’s strategy of using legal persecution as a means to quash the popular movement.

Similar raids have also been conducted in the village of alMaasara, south of Bethlehem, and in the village of Ni’ilin – where 110 residents have been arrested over the last year and half, as well as in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.

Among those arrested in the recent campaign are three members of the Ni’ilin Popular Committee, Sa’id Yakin of the Palestinian National Committee Against the Wall, and five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee – all suspected of incitement.

Prominent grassroots activists Jamal Jum’a (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigning, have recently been released from detention after being incarcerated for long periods based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.

Palestine’s peaceful struggle

Mohammed Khatib | The Nation

11 September 2009

A few weeks ago, in the dead of night, dozens of Israeli soldiers with painted faces burst violently into my home. If only they had knocked, I would have opened the door. They arrested me. My wife, Lamia, was left alone with our four children. My youngest, 3-year-old Khaled, woke up to the image of Israeli soldiers with painted faces who were taking his father away. He has not stopped crying since. A few nights ago he woke up in terror, sobbing: “Daddy, why did you let the soldiers take me?” That’s the way our children sleep–in a constant state of fear.

Many Americans know that the Obama administration has been pushing the Israeli government to accept a freeze on settlement construction. What is not commonly known is that even as Israel negotiates with the United States, it has been taking steps, including my arrest, to crush the growing Palestinian nonviolent movement opposing Israel’s construction of settlements and the wall on Palestinian land in the West Bank.

For over five years the residents of Bil’in and other villages have been protesting against Israel’s separation wall, which cuts off our village’s land for the sake of Israeli settlement expansion. We have even taken the struggle to the courts. The International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled in July 2004 that the wall, where it has been built inside the West Bank, is illegal under international law, as are all Israeli settlements. In September 2007, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the wall in Bil’in, which separates us from 50 percent of our land, is illegal according to Israeli law. The wall has yet to have moved.

The Israeli army is using more-lethal weapons and greater violence against protesters, and arresting many people, including many protest organizers. In Bil’in alone, twenty-nine residents have been arrested in the past three months. Twelve of them are children. Almost all were arrested during military raids in the middle of the night. Their detention has been extended repeatedly.

But the charges against them are baseless. As one example, I have been charged with stone throwing. I was released on bail with draconian terms only after my lawyers showed the court passport stamps proving that I was abroad at the time of the alleged offense. My friend, Adeeb Abu-Rahme, 37 years old and the father of nine, has been imprisoned for more than six weeks, though the charges against him are just as absurd.

Every Friday in Bil’in, we march to the wall in peaceful protest, along with our Israeli and international partners. Once a year we hold an international conference about the popular nonviolent struggle. Together we learn and gain inspiration. We struggle together to bring down the many walls between people that the occupation is creating. We’ve repeatedly addressed the Israeli soldiers here, telling them we are not against them as people, but that we oppose their actions as an occupying military force.

Still, nineteen demonstrators have been killed by the Israeli army in these nonviolent demonstrations against the wall. Many have been injured, including Israeli and international activists protesting with us. Here in Bil’in we recently lost our friend Bassem Abu Rahme, who was fatally shot by soldiers in April while he was imploring them to stop shooting at demonstrators.

Several months ago we were warned by Israel’s occupation forces that they intended to crush the popular struggle.

Why has the Israeli government decided now to increase the suppression of demonstrations and to break the spirit of protest leaders? Maybe because they realize that the nonviolent struggle is spreading, that more and more villages have created popular committees that are organizing demonstrations. Perhaps the crackdown is a result of their concern and the growing international movement for the boycott of companies and businessmen such as Lev Leviev who are involved in Israel’s land grab. Or maybe they fear that the new American government could learn through our demonstrations that Israel’s wall is a means to annex land for the growing settlements, and that nonviolent Palestinian protests are being brutally suppressed.

Israel’s actions suggest that it is intimidated by people struggling for their rights in a nonviolent manner. The Israeli government seems to believe that Palestinians who struggle while partnering with Israeli activists endanger Israel’s occupation and that tearing down human walls is a dangerous act. Perhaps what the state of Israel fears most of all is the hope that people can live together based on justice and equality for all.