Tag: Ofer military prison - Page 2 - International Solidarity Movement

Arrested at Nabi Saleh, Rana Nazzal speaks out for Palestinian political prisoners

4th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ramallah, Occupied Palestine

On the 28th of June 2013 two Palestinian activists were arrested in the village of Nabi Saleh during the village’s Friday demonstration. Both are currently released on bail and have been charged with entering a close military zone. The prosecutor is asking for house arrest and they are awaiting the judge’s decision. Nariman Tamimi is a prominent activist from the village of Nabi Saleh and Rana Nazzal is a Palestinian Canadian activist. The International Solidarity Movement had a chance to speak to Rana about her experiences during the arrest, the time following imprisonment and the situation for political prisoners in Palestine.

International Solidarity Movement: You, together with Nariman Tamimi, were arrested last Friday during a protest against the Israel occupation in Nabi Saleh, can you tell us in which specific context you were arrested and where did they take you afterwards?

Rana Nazzal: We attempted to reach Nabi Saleh’s water spring, which has been annexed by the nearby illegal Israeli settlement. A line of Israeli soldiers blocked our way and threatened to arrest us so we turned around and began climbing the hill back to the village. As we retreated, a different group of soldiers ran towards us and began arresting us. When I asked why we were being arrested, the soldier replied, “because I feel like it”.

Myself, Nariman, and a Spanish man were taken together. We were kept handcuffed and blindfolded for nine hours, most of the time isolated from each other. Within this time we were not told the reason of our arrest, received no food, and were transported to two military bases before we were finally taken to the police station.

There, Nariman and I were taken in a police car, handcuffed, and driven around with two male soldiers for over 7 hours before reaching Hasharon prison at 7.30 am.

ISM: There are sixteen Palestinian women currently imprisoned by Israel, all of whom are held in Hasharon – how was the encounter with these women prisoners? How did you spend your time in jail?

R.N: They didn’t keep us in the same prison ward as the sixteen other women, but we saw them in passing moments. On Saturday, we saw them while the longest term prisoner, Lina Jarboni, was giving Hebrew lessons. Lina told us that Sireen Khudiri, the recent 21 year-old who was arrested on charges of ‘internet activism’, also gives the women English lessons. On Sunday night Lina cooked the Palestinian stew mloukhieh and sent a huge platter to our room, along with changes of clothes so we could finally change. The women were generous and strong spirited.

We spent most of our time talking or sleeping, as we weren’t allowed books, paper, radio, or any form of entertainment.

On Monday we were woken at 2am and taken on a grueling trip to the Ofer military courts, along with Tahrir Mansour who also had a trial. Tahrir and I were locked in a compartment on a bus that could hardly fit the two of us sitting upright, with our ankles and hands cuffed.

After spending the day in a cell at Ofer and attending a trial in the afternoon, Nariman and I were finally released after 10 pm.

ISM: After the military court decided that you should be released, you had to pay 2000NIS in bail and were charged with entering a “close military zone”, can you tell us more about the on-going process? What is the prosecutor asking for?

R.N: The trial is still going on, we have been to court three times so far this week. The prosecutor asked for jail time or a very high bail (at one point asking judge for 10,000 NIS!), they also asked the judge to make me postpone my travel time (as I am going to Canada soon for university). All these requests were turned down, but on Tuesday the judge asked for 750NIS bail and house arrest for one week. Our lawyer appealed the house arrest, and the prosecution appealed the bail (wanting a higher amount). The decision of Wednesday’s appeal trial has not been told to us yet.

ISM: Is this the first time you have been arrested and imprisoned? If not, can you tell us about your previous experiences?

R.N: Last year I had a similar imprisonment. It was much more difficult because it was my first time and I was alone and mostly kept in isolation for a period of five days. I had been beaten by soldiers during the arrest, with bruises and cuts all over my body. I was also facing more serious charges. I was charged, among other minor things, with assaulting a soldier, but thankfully we had video evidence that proved that it was not the case. Nonetheless, the court demanded I pay a similar bail last year.

ISM: Why do you attend these demonstrations and why do you think it is important as a Palestinian and a woman to participate in those protests?

R.N: The people of Nabi Saleh protest out of a direct necessity to protect what is left of their land and reclaim what has been illegally stolen from them. I, as a Palestinian, can’t separate myself from their struggle, so whenever I have the chance to, I am happy to join them. I especially like Nabi Saleh because the women play a role in the leadership.

ISM: Do you think it is important to have international presence at those demonstrations? If so, why?

R.N: I think an international observer presence can be helpful, in particular for publishing news in English in cases where that is not already happening. I think it is important for the popular struggle to not be reliant on internationals, however, as their legal status in the country is very weak (for example, they can be deported easily if they participate directly in protests) and their presence is transient. Visible internationals may lessen the violence that is used against protesters, but Palestinian women, and large numbers of protesters in general, have a similar effect. I think it would be better in the long term if we were encouraging Palestinians to come from the nearby cities, and especially women.

ISM: Do you want to add anything else?

R.N: No matter how much I had read or written about the prisoners’ struggle before my first imprisonment, I did not fully realize its significance. Every second in solitary confinement, every minute of exhaustion and boredom, and every day away from one’s family is significant to the prisoners. We on the outside should begin to feel every second as they do and begin pushing their cause with the urgency it deserves. I call for the freedom of all Palestinian political prisoners.

The wave of night time invasions and arrests by the Israeli military continues in the village of Ni’lin

11th June 2013 | Ni’lin Sons | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

A wave of night time invasions and arrests by the Israeli military continues in the village of Ni’lin. At 3am on the 10th of June Ahmad Daood, 26 years old, was arrested in his home. Six military jeeps and more than thirty soldiers invaded the village in the night and tore down the gate to the Daood house. Ahmad was awakened from his sleep and brutally dragged out of bed. He was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten in front of his family before being taken away in one of the jeeps.

Ahmad Daood (Photo by Ni'lin Sons) — Ahmad Daood (Photo by Ni’lin Sons)

Ahmed was taken to Ofer Military Prison but it is still unclear whether or not he has received any medical treatment for the wounds that he sustained during the arrest. Witnesses stated he was bleeding as he was taken away by the soldiers.

Nighttime incursions in Ni’lin are still a very common occurrence and on the night of Ahmad Daood’s arrest the village was invaded twice; the first time around 1:30 am where no arrests were made. As the villagers just settled back to bed, thinking that the soldiers had left for the night, Ni’lin was invaded yet again.

On an average week the village is targeted for nightly invasions two or three times and since last month 29 people have been arrested during these incursions. Most of those arrested are likely to face sentences of more than a year in prison for their participation in peaceful demonstrations against the annexation wall separating Ni’lin farmers from their land. Many of the arrested have previously spent time in prison and therefore can expect harsher sentences, sometimes even double, as the Army prosecutors claim that they have violated the conditions of their release.

We ask ourselves how probation conditions could regulate basic human rights such as taking part in peaceful demonstrations against the occupation of one’s land. Once again the makeshift order of the Apartheid Israeli justice system only serves to facilitate the colonization of Palestine.

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.

Right of Return still key – Nakba Day demonstrations violently suppressed by Israeli forces

15th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, Occupied Palestine

By Team Ramallah

The 15^th May marks the 65^thanniversary of the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and the destruction – and massacre in some cases – of more than 500 Palestinian villages by Zionist forces in 1948. 65 years on, the same Zionist project of expelling the indigenous population of Palestine continues. House demolitions, land confiscation, settlement expansion, military occupation, restriction of movement and systematic bombing of the Gaza Strip are aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestine for the sake of the Zionist dream: Greater Israel.

Palestinians from different villages and cities across the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries have commemorated the 65^th anniversary of the Nakba, claiming once again their right of return to their land, their homes and their history.

Protesters standing away from the tar gas (Photo by ISM) — Protesters standing away from the tar gas at Ofer demonstration(Photo by ISM)

In Ramallah, at 11am, more than four hundred people marched from Muqata compound to Yasser Arafat Square waving Palestinian and ‘right of return’ flags. School children chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation and for the right of return of the five million Palestinian refugees around the world.

At around 12.30 am, protesters went to Ofer military prison where clashes erupted between Palestinian activists and Israeli forces. Numerous tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets were shot at demonstrators by Israeli Border Police officers and soldiers. Many people suffered from suffocation as a result of tear gas inhalation and more than twenty people were shot with rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters, at least four of them being taken to hospital by ambulance. Two demonstrators were shot in the head with rubber coated steel bullets and one was shot in the leg with live ammunition. The confrontations finished at around 4pm when protesters gradually retreated from the scene.

In Beit Ummar Palestinian and international activists briefly blocked Highway 60, the main north – south artery for Israeli settlements. The Israeli army responded by throwing stun grenades at the demonstrators. Soon afterwards Palestinian youth clashed with Israeli soldiers in olive groves surrounding the village as the army continued to invade the area. Excessive amounts of rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas were fired at the demonstrators. One was shot in the head and another in the leg and were treated by Palestinian medics on the scene.

65 years after the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’, the Palestinian people continue to fight for their right to return, whether they are now in the West Bank, Gaza, displaced within Israel or in the refugee Diaspora. The Right of Return for Palestinian refugees is absolutely key in the struggle for Palestinian rights and freedom.

Protesters running away from tear gas (Photo by ISM) — Protesters running away from tear gas at Ofer (Photo by ISM)

No peace without justice; protesters return to Ofer for the fourth day in a row

22 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied West Bank, Palestine

Hundreds of protestors again returned to Ofer prison today despite heavy repression. This week’s protests are in solidarity with Palestinian hunger strikers and political prisoners including Samer Issawi who has now refused food for over 210 days. The protest began with prayers in front of the prison, as soon as they were finished the Israeli army began firing huge quantities of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets directly at those who had gathered.

Yesterdays demonstration, 21th February 2013, was the biggest of the week, around 1000 protesters marched towards the prison to be met by approximately 100 Israeli soldiers and border police. During the protest teargas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition were shot directly at protesters.

The Israeli army and Border Police used indiscriminate weaponry; they fired grenades which fire out multiple rounds of rubber coated steel bullets in all directions. These and other weapons were responsible for numerous injuries; two people were hit with rubber coated steel bullets on the head, and one narrowly missed hitting an activist’s eye. Four others were also hospitalised as a result of rubber coated steel bullets injuries, two of them were medical relief staff.

The Israeli army broke their own laws by firing teargas canisters directly at people. Two protesters were hit by these canisters, one of them hit a female activist in the head, causing her to need stitches. Whilst running away, a young male was shot in the lower leg with live ammunition, he collapsed and was taken away by the ambulance’s crew. Sources at the hospital confirmed his situation to be stable. Many other demonstrators suffered from minor injuries and tear gas inhalation.

Despite heavy repression the mood of the protestors is defiant, today protests have spread to every major city across the West Bank.