Tag: Night Raid - Page 12 - International Solidarity Movement

UPDATED: Murad Eshtewi, and four Palestinian youths from Kafr Qaddum, still under custody after court hearing

12th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine

Second Update Tuesday 13th May:

Murad Eshtwei’s next court day is Sunday 18th May at Ofer prison. Ream Harham, Mustafa Eshtewi, and Ahmad Hassan Eshtewi have a court date tomorrow in Ofer court at 14:30. Reslan Joma will have his court date next week.

Update Tuesday 13th of May:

On Monday 12th of May there was a court hearing for Murad, Reslan, Ream, Mustafa and Ahmad. Murad is still in remand (pre-trial detention) until the next court hearing. Murad’s attorney will appeal the decision, but if rejected the next court hearing should be on the 9th of June.

The remaining four residents of Kafr Qaddum have been technically released on bail. The court demanded a bail of 10,000NIS for each one (over 2,000 euros). However, the Israeli state has appealed this decision and therefore they are still under custody. Their attorney will appeal against the bail.

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On the night of the 28^th to 29^th of April 2014, the Israeli army raided the village of Kafr Qaddum to arrest five people, among them Murad Eshtewi, the media coordinator of the weekly Friday demonstration in Kafr Qaddum. The four other young man who where arrested are Reslan Joma, Ream Harham, Mustafa Eshtewi and Ahmad Hassan Eshtewi.

At this time, all five are still imprisoned by Israeli forces in Meggido prison. This prison is located north of the West Bank and thereby contradicting Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein”.

Murad is being charged with stone throwing and organizing the demonstration, while the remaining four youths are also charged with stone throwing.

Witnesses from the village state that the Israeli army, numbering approximately 100 soldiers, raided the different houses at approximately 02.30AM. Murad was arrested at his house, however the Israeli army used unconventional methods to arrest him. The soldiers climbed into Murad’s bedroom window using ladders, and took him out of the window. Although no tear gas or stun grenades were used during the arrests, the other four houses that were raided in Kafr Qaddum suffered serious property damage.

According to Murad’s attorney, two youths from Kafr Qaddum were arrested 12 weeks ago. They were held in custody and interrogated for a month and forced to give out names of people participating in the weekly Friday demonstration in their village. The lawyer suspects that Murad Eshtewi and the four youths arrested during the night raid were on the list.

Murad Eshtewi was ambushed and arrested by Israeli forces on December 2013, but he was released on bail four days later. His attorney at the time stated that: “Contrary to the fundamental principles of due process we have not been presented with the accusations against Murad nor has he been interrogated since his arrest.”

Currently, Murad and the other villagers from Kafr Qaddum have been in custody for 12 days. During this period, they have had two court hearings in which their sentences were postponed, allegedly to collect more evidence.

The weekly Friday demonstrations in Kafr Qaddum started in 2011 to reopen the road to Nablus and against the illegal Israeli settlement of Qedumim. The Israeli army responded with systematic arrests. In some cases, the detainees would be under custody for one or two days and then released on bail. According to the former mayor of Kafr Qaddum, this has had an important economic impact: approximately 250,000 shekels (almost 52,000 euros) have been paid by local villagers to release their detainees. As of today, there are 155 villagers from Kafr Qaddum detained in Israeli prisons out of a total population of approximately 4,500.

From a Friday demonstration in Kafr Qaddum (photo by ISM).

Harassment in Awarta

2nd May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team| Awarta, Occupied Palestine

At 4.30 am on Wednesday the 30^th of April; a group of Israeli soldiers broke into a family home in the village of Awarta, near the illegal settlement of Itamar.

11 soldiers woke up the family, claiming that it was “security search”. A member of the family asked to see a written order and was shown a piece of paper, written only in Hebrew.

Once inside the house, the soldiers forced the family into the living room, confiscating their mobile phones. Muhammad Sharab, a member of the family, stated they were held for 12 hours.

No one in the house was allowed to exit to go to work or to school, there are six children and the family, all under the age of 14.

During the 12 hours, the Israeli soldiers slept in the house’s bedrooms and used the shower.

Muhammed Sharab described an exchange with the soldiers: “What you would do if I would come in your house in Tel Aviv and do the same as you?”

“I’m just following orders,” was the reply from a soldier.

At approximately 5 pm, nearly 12 hours after they entered the house, the Israeli soldiers left the home and the village of Awarta.

Reports from the village reveal that the same night Israeli soldiers raided another house. That house is located in the same area where just under two weeks ago Israeli soldiers entered houses in Awarta and shot several tear gas grenades inside. 20 Palestinians, including children, were taken to the hospital due to large amounts of tear gas inhalation.

The village of Awarta has been increasingly targeted by the Israeli military, possibly due to close proximity of the illegal Itamar settlement. In the last two weeks, a new road from the settlement, connecting to the main road has been built, and the villagers report that many olives tree were cut down during the construction.

Six arrested in Burqa (Nablus) by the Israeli army with no reasons given

25th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team| Burqa, Occupied Palestine

On the night of the 23^rd to 24^th of April, approximately 24 Israeli military vehicles entered the town of Burqa and arrested six Palestinian youths. The Israeli army forced its way into five out of the six houses, using a device to break open the doors. The army did not seem to know the exact location of one of the young men, and so broke into his uncle’s house, then the Israeli soldiers questioned a close friend of a youth to learn his exact whereabouts.

The Israeli commander took this opportunity to threaten this Palestinian and told him to “watch out and don’t do anything wrong”.

According to local witnesses, the Israeli army was seen surrounding the town of Burqa at midnight. Then, at 01:00AM, the series of arrests began lasting until 02:00AM, with the army going to six different houses and arresting a Palestinian youth in each one. All of the arrests followed the same pattern.

The Israeli army broke the doors into the houses, except for one, and took a Palestinian in each home (ranging from 19 to 24 years old) spending just a few minutes in each of the houses. The arrested were handcuffed and blindfolded when taken outside of their homes or inside the military jeeps.

No reasons were given to their families for the arrest and no questions were asked.

Except for one of the families, they do not know where their sons have been taken; they are expecting a phone call from the Israeli army 48 hours after the arrest to know the whereabouts of their sons, brothers and nephews.

The names of the arrested in Burqa are: Abd al Hakeem (19 years old), Amran (20 years old), Izat (20 years old), Mageed (21 years old), Bara Gehad (21 years old) and Ameen Tyseer Salah (23 or 24 years old). For all of them, except for Ameen on whom nobody could comment on in detail, it is the first time these youths have been arrested and in some cases, it is even the first time that one of their sons is arrested. Amran and Mageed physically resisted their arrest but to no avail. Relatives and friends of Barad know that he has been taken to Huwwara since they already received a phone call from the Israeli army. The other families do not know the whereabouts of their sons and may have to wait until Friday 25^th to receive any information.

Moreover the families do not know what charges their sons are being accused of and do not recall any major incidents in the local area that may go towards explaining this series of arrests. According to a local contact, four of them are active in the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and two of them are active within Fatah.

Burqa (Nablus) is a town located 18 kilometers northwest of Nablus, with a population of approximately 4,000 people. It overlooks Road 60, which is a road used by both Palestinians and settlers from nearby illegal settlements, vital to connect the northern area of the West Bank to major transport hubs like Nablus. This Israel army has previously harassed this town, the nearest illegal settlement is located five kilometers away (Shave Shomron).

According to a local villager, 48 people from Burqa have been arrested this year; 38 of them belong to PFLP and the remaining 10 belong to Fatah.

One year on: the Hares Boys

18th March 2014 | The Hares Boys | Occupied Palestine

Yesterday the Hares Boys, who are being charged with 20 counts of attempted murder with no evidence whatsoever, have been in an Israeli prison for one year. Now is more important than ever to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the unlawful arrest and imprisonment of Mohammad Suleiman, Ammar Souf, Mohammed Kleib, Tamer Souf, and Ali Shamlawi.

The car accident

At around 18:30 on Thursday 14 March 2013, a car crashed into the back of a truck on Road 5 in Salfit Governorate, occupied Palestine. The driver and her 3 daughters were injured, one of them – seriously. The driver, Adva Biton, was going back to the illegal Israeli settler colony of Yakir when the accident occurred. She later claimed the accident was due to Palestinian youth throwing stones at her car. The driver of the truck, having testified immediately after the accident that he had pulled over because of a flat tyre, later changed his mind and said he had seen stones by the road.

There were no witnesses to the car accident. Nobody had seen any children or youth throwing stones that day.

The arrests

In the early hours of Friday 15 March 2013, masked Israeli soldiers, some with attack dogs, stormed the village of Hares, which is close to Road 5. More than 50 soldiers broke the doors of the villagers’ houses, demanding the whereabouts of their teenage sons. Ten boys were arrested that night, blindfolded, handcuffed, and transferred to an unknown location. The families were not informed of their sons’ alleged wrongdoings.

Two days later, a second wave of violent arrests took place. At around 3 o’clock in the morning, the Israeli army, accompanied by the Shabak (the Israeli secret service), entered the homes of 3 Palestinian adolescents. They had a piece of paper with their names in Hebrew. After forcing all the family members into one room, taking away their phones so that they wouldn’t call for help, and interrogating them, the soldiers handcuffed their sons, all aged 16-17.

“Kiss and hug your mother goodbye,” a Shabak agent told one boy. “You may never see her again.”

A week later, Israeli army jeeps again entered the village and arrested several boys, who had just come back home from school. The soldiers lined all of them up, including a 6-year-old, and threatened at gunpoint their uncle who pleaded for the soldiers to at least release the youngest children. The army then randomly chose 3 boys, handcuffed them behind their backs, blindfolded them, and took them away. The families were not informed about either the allegations against their children, or their exact location.

In total, 19 boys from the neighbouring villages of Hares and Kifl Hares were arrested in relation to the settler car accident. None of them had previously had any history of stone-throwing. After violent interrogations, most of the minors were released, except for five, who remain in Megiddo, an Israeli adult prison.

These are the Hares Boys.

The interrogation

The arrested boys were subjected to a series of abuse and ill-treatment that accounts as torture. Upon detention, they were kept in solitary confinement for up to two weeks. One boy, since released, described his cell: a windowless hole 1m wide and 2m long; there was no mattress or blanket to sleep on; toilet facilities were dirty; the six lights were kept on continuously, leading to the boy losing track of the time of the day; the food made him feel ill. The boy was denied lawyer; he was interrogated violently three times during three days, and eventually released after found not guilty at the trial.

Other boys have also told their lawyers of very similar treatment. They “confessed” of stone-throwing after being repeatedly abused in prison and during interrogations.

The charges

The five boys from Hares are charged with 25 counts of attempted murder each, apparently 1 count for every alleged stone thrown at passing cars. The Israeli military prosecution insists that the boys consciously “intended to kill”; the boys can face the maximum punishment for attempted murder: 25 years to life imprisonment.

The prosecution’s case relies on the boys’ “confessions”, which have been obtained under torture, and 61 “witnesses,” some of which claim that their cars have been damaged by stones on that same day on Road 5. The latter only appeared after the car accident got a lot of media coverage as a “terrorist act”, and the Israeli prime minister Benyamin Natanyahu announced, after the boys’ arrest, that he “caught the terrorists that did it”. Other “witnesses” include the police and the Shabak, who were not even present at that location at the time. It is not clear whether the 61 “witnesses” have been properly questioned and their claims verified with, for example, hospital admission data, or even if the alleged damage to their vehicles has been photographed or otherwise documented. Such information is not even available to the boys’ attorneys.

The implications

If the boys are convicted, this case would set a legal precedent which would allow the Israeli military to convict any Palestinian child or youngster for attempted murder in cases of stone-throwing.

The boys are now 16-17 years old. If the Israeli military get their way, the boys would only return to their homes and their families at the age of 41 – at best. Five young lives ruined with no evidence of their guilt is a spit in the face to our common principles of justice as human beings.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS?

Almost every stage of this case that could go wrong, did. Local and international law has been mostly dismissed; principles of justice barely fading in the horizon; respect for human beings non-existent.

Consider this:

The Hares Boys, as well as thousands of other Palestinian youngsters, are treated in the Israeli military court system as adults. According to international human rights law in general, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in particular, adults are people over 18 years of age. Israel treats even 9-year-olds as adults.
The racist system of “justice”: no matter the alleged crime, Palestinians are forced to go through the military courts and are tried under military law, while Israelis fall into the civil court system for the same crimes.
Violently arresting children at night without giving any explanation to their families about the reasons behind it, nor informing them about their children’s whereabouts goes against Israel’s own laws which state that minors are to be accompanied by an adult family member when detained or arrested.
The denial of lawyer for several days (in some cases weeks) after detention also accounts as a major violation of Israel’s own rules.
Children being put into solitary confinement for days on end is a form of torture; It is a severe punishment before the verdict.
Abusive interrogations of scared minors is considered torture.
The boys were arrested despite a total lack of evidence against them and condemned by the Israeli media as “terrorists”, which goes against the universal presumption of innocence (innocent until found guilty) and delivers a guilty verdict in the highly bombastic public trial, putting pressure on the judges to do likewise.

For more detailed accounts of the initial arrests and interrogations, please see IWPS Human Rights Reports from the ground:

HRR447: Arrest of 10 adolescents in Hares, Salfit (15 March 2013)

HRR448: Arrests of 3 more adolescents in Hares, Salfit: A (17 March 2013)

HRR451: Interrogation of a 16-year-old (21 March 2013)

HRR452: Arbitrary arrests of minors (21 March 2013)

HRR458: Military court hearing for Hares arrest (9 April 2013)

HRR461: Arrest of three adolescents in Hares (9 April 2013)

Night raid and arrests in Kafr Qaddum

20th February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine

On Thursday the 20th of February, the violent arrests of seven villagers occurred early in the morning in the village of Kafr Qaddum. Four of those arrested, including the coordinator of the weekly demonstration, were released after six hours. The three others are still under detention. One of them suffered a head injury during his arrest.

Between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., hundreds of Israeli soldiers surrounded then entered the village of Kafr Qaddum. The soldiers went to several houses and violently arrested seven villagers, including the coordinator of the weekly march. They handcuffed and blindfolded the villagers and physically and verbally abused them. One of those arrested, Faris Nidal, was injured in the head in the process.

The coordinator of the march has been pressured to put an end to the weekly demonstration taking place each friday in the village for more than four years. The goal of the demonstration is to pressure the army to open the road linking Kafr Qaddum and the whole Qalqiliya district to Nablus. The Supreme Court of Israel officially agreed to this demand in 2010, with no visible effect on the ground.

Later in the morning, around 8:00 a.m., four of the villagers, including the coordinator, were released. The three other villagers, including Faris Nidal, remain in detention in an uncertain location.