1 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
4 people were injured today at a peaceful rally held near the Ofer military prison, in solidarity with hunger striking Palestinians within Israel’s Occupation prisons.
Injuries sustained were caused by rubber coated steel bullets, along with tear gas canisters, skunk water, and pepper spray. Taysir Arabsha was injured by a rubber coated steel bullet, while others sustained lighter injuries from these bullets.
A Palestinian woman’s iconic gesture of resistance echoed loudly across the world as she climbed atop a skunk water truck at the demonstration. Titled “Flag Woman” by fellow activists, she managed to avoid arrest, yet she and others suffered from direct pepper spray as they escaped Israel’s violent presence at the rally.
About two weeks ago on Prisoners Day, thousands of Palestinian prisoners within Israeli Occupation Prisons began hunger striking with those who had resisted nourishment by the Zionists for weeks on end prior. Today Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla entered their 63rd day of hunger strike. Reports have indicated that they have been transferred to hospitals as their declining health is becoming more fatal.
The hunger strikes come as resistance to Israel’s overall collective punishment of the Palestinian people, in illegally besieging them and occupying them in open air prisons, while arbitrarily arresting Palestinians and subjecting them to administrative detention, which can be extended for periods on end without any evidence or a formal court hearing.
Khader Adnan and Hana al Shalabi were released from prison following their hunger strikes, with Shalabi relocated to Gaza and separated from her family and loved ones.
About 4,000 Palestinians are currently held in Occupation prisons.
Jessica Mansour is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
The Israel military court has extended administrative detention for two months in addition to three months already detained for civil rights lawyer Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, a lecturer at An-Najah National University and the Cultural Coordinator for the Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum, currently detained in Ofer Prison near Ramallah.
Yousef Abdul Haq was arrested November 7th, 2011 at his home at 2:00 AM, suffering from illness which requires constant dosage of medicine, forcing his transfer to a hospital immediately after his arrest in Ramla.
He was sentenced to two months in administrative detention immediately.
This arbitrary administrative detention is legally incompatible with the most basic international standards of human rights, because it is without any specific charge against the prisoner. These arbitrary detentions depend on the military file and “secret evidence” which cannot be seen by the detainee or defense lawyers. This file is prepared by Israel intelligence and is “collected” illegally.
This type of detention is internationally banned and is impacting lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council, members of local councils, university students, political activists, academics, trade unionists and even women and children.
The imposition of administrative detention by Article 111 of the military state of emergency imposed by the British colonial authorities of Palestine September, 1945 is illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the Hague international agreement of 1907 prohibits an occupying power to change the legislative reality of the country occupied.
Administrative detention is the endless suffering of the prisoners because they may de detained for a decade, physically and psychologically impacting the detainee and their family based on the expectation that the next decision will be an extension of detention.
The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights received from the Israeli military court in Ofer, that the number of additional administrative detentions issued by the Israeli military governor reached a total of 5,971 since the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2010.
We in the Tanweer Enlightenment Forum, call for the release of our colleague Dr. Yousef immediately from behind bars, and we hold the Government responsible for the conditions of Israel’s occupation, in respect to his health. We demand the end of the administrative detentions which are contrary to international law..
On this occasion, we declare our solidarity with the prisoner hero Khader Adnan, who is continuing his hunger strike battle in his 55th day to end the administrative detentions. We also call on international institutions and the Arab and local media to expose the policy of administrative detention. We uphold the work of a united front for the release of Palestinian prisoners including lawyers, members of the Legislative Council, academics, students, children and women.
We call for the end of administrative detentions forever.
Freedom for political prisoners.
Close the detention camps and prisons and abolish administrative detention.
Islam Dar Ayyoub, the 14 year-old who incriminated Tamimi after being unlawfully interrogated, will take the stand tomorrow at the Ofer Military Court. Tamimi has been incarcerated for seven months, in which only one witness testified.
Bassem Tamimi in court (PSCC)
The Military Prosecution will resume making its case against West Bank protest organizer from Nabi Saleh, Bassem Tamimi, at the Ofer Military Court tomorrow morning. Fourteen year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub – one of two main witnesses against Tamimi – is scheduled to give evidence to the court tomorrow, despite a motion by the defense to delay it. The defense has requested the postponement, as procedures by the boy’s own defense team to rule his testimony inadmissible, have not yet concluded.
Islam Dar Ayyoub, also from Nabi Saleh, was taken from his bed at gunpoint on the night of January 23rd. In his interrogation the morning after his arrest, Islam alleged that Bassem and Naji Tamimi organized groups of youth into “brigades”, charged with different responsibilities during the demonstrations: some were allegedly in charge of stone-throwing, others of blocking roads, etc.
During a trial-within-a-trial procedure in Islam’s trial, motioning for his testimony to be ruled inadmissible, it was proven that his police interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:
Despite being a minor, he was questioned in the morning following his arrest, having been denied sleep.
He was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
He was denied his right to have a parent present during his questioning.
He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he is “expected to tell the truth”.
Only one of four interrogators present was a qualified youth interrogator.
The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner.
Tamimi has been behind lock and key for the past seven months, in which only one out of over twenty prosecution witnesses have testified before the court. On September 25th, Major Michelle Dahan, who was commander of the military forces in the area and in charge of suppressing Nabi Saleh demonstrations, admitted to having dispersed demonstrations that were entirely peaceful, and alleged that Tamimi ordered youth to throw stones based on the fact that he saw him on rooftops during demonstrations.
Background
Bassem Tamimi is a veteran Palestinian grassroots activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah. He is married to Nariman Tamimi, with whom he fathers four children – Wa’ed (14), Ahed (10), Mohammed (8) and Salam (5).
As a veteran activist, Tamimi has been arrested by the Israeli army 11 times to date, though he was never convicted of any offense. Tamimi spent roughly three years in administrative detention, with no charges brought against him. Furthermore, his attorney and he were denied access to “secret evidence” brought against him.
In 1993, Tamimi was falsely arrested on suspicion of having murdered an Israeli settler in Beit El – an allegation of which he was cleared of entirely. During his weeks-long interrogation, he was severely tortured by the Israeli Shin Bet in order to draw a coerced confession from him. During his interrogation, and as a result of the torture he underwent, Tamimi collapsed and had to be evacuated to a hospital, where he laid unconscious for seven days. As a result of the wounds caused by torture, Tamimi was partially paralyzed for several months after his release from the hospital.
At the opening of his trial on June 5th, Tamimi pleaded “not guilty” to all charges against him, but proudly owned up to organizing protest in the village. In a defiant speech before the court he said, “I organized these peaceful demonstrations to defend our land and our people.” Tamimi also challenged the legitimacy of the very system which trys him, saying that “Despite claiming to be the only democracy in the Middle East you are trying me under military laws […] that are enacted by authorities which I haven’t elected and do not represent me.” (See here for Tamimi’s full statement).
The indictment against Tamimi is based on questionable and coerced confessions of youth from the village. He is charged with’ incitement’, ‘organizing and participating in unauthorized processions’,’ solicitation to stone-throwing’, ‘failure to attend legal summons’, and a scandalous charge of ‘disruption of legal proceedings’, for allegedly giving youth advice on how to act during police interrogation in the event that they are arrested.
The transcript of Tamimi’s police interrogation further demonstrates the police and Military Prosecution’s political motivation and disregard for suspects’ rights. During his questioning, Tamimi was accused by his interrogator of “consulting lawyers and foreigners to prepare for his interrogation”, an act that is clearly protected under the right to seek legal counsel.
As one of the organizers of the Nabi Saleh protests and coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Tamimi has been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. Since demonstrations began in the village, his house has been raided and ransacked numerous times, his wife was twice arrested and two of his sons were injured; Wa’ed, 14, was hospitalized for five days when a rubber-coated bullet penetrated his leg and Mohammed, 8, was injured by a tear-gas projectile that was shot directly at him and hit him in the shoulder. Shortly after demonstrations in the village began, the Israeli Civil Administration served ten demolition orders to structures located in Area C, Tamimi’s house was one of them, despite the fact that part of the house was built in 1965 and the rest in 2005.
Legal background
On March 24th, 2011, a massive contingent of Israeli Soldiers raided the Tamimi home at around noon, only minutes after he entered the house to prepare for a meeting with a European diplomat. He was arrested and subsequently charged.
The main evidence in Tamimi’s case is the testimony of 14 year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub, also from Nabi Saleh, who was taken from his bed at gunpoint on the night of January 23rd. In his interrogation the morning after his arrest, Islam alleged that Bassem and Naji Tamimi organized groups of youth into “brigades”, charged with different responsibilities during the demonstrations: some were allegedly in charge of stone-throwing, others of blocking roads, etc.
During a trial-within-a-trial procedure in Islam’s trial, motioning for his testimony to be ruled inadmissible, it was proven that his interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:
Despite being a minor, he was questioned in the morning following his arrest, having been denied sleep.
He was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
He was denied his right to have a parent present during his questioning.
He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he is “expected to tell the truth”.
Only one of four interrogators present was a qualified youth interrogator.
The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner.
Since the beginning of the village’s struggle against settler takeover of their lands in December of 2009, the army has conducted 80 protest related arrests. As the entire village numbers just over 500 residents, the number constitutes approximately 10% of its population.
Tamimi’s arrest corresponds to the systematic arrest of civil protest leaders all around the West Bank, as in the case of the villages Bil’in and Ni’ilin.
Only recently the Military Court of Appeals has aggravated the sentence of Abdallah Abu Rahmah from the village of Bilin, sending him to 16 months imprisonment on charges of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. Abu Rahmah was released on March 2011.
18 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
It was the third time that Omar, 21, tried to write his name and cell number on a piece of paper in vain. His hands were shaking and the fingers, pale as the face, could barely hold the pen. On the fifth try he was able to write his name in capital letters. As for the mobile phone number, who noted it was his 17 year old brother, Jihad.
16 years ago one member went missing in Omar’s family, Khaled, his father. Resident from the village of Qibid, near Ni’lin in the Ramallah district, Khaled spent 16 years of his life to complete a 50 year sentence.They were preparing to return to Qibid. This time, with the father.
“It was very difficult growing up without my father,” said Omar. “I was 5 years old when he was arrested and my older brother was 11. Then came the ladder: another brother with 9 years, two sisters 4 and 3 years and Jihad. My mother raised all of us by herself, with great sacrifices,” he said.
The story, the emotion and the tears from Omar mingled with other similar stories, on the morning of Tuesday, October 18, in Ramallah.
Families were united again, after years of forced separation. All 285 children were released. Fadeleh Atuya Ajula came from Tulkarem, a new dress and posters in hand, to welcome Majdi, for more than 20 years imprisoned and sentenced to life imprisonment. Family and friends of Sana’a Sh’haded, 36, almost 10 years in jail and sentenced to life imprisonment, have now joined hands and formed a corridor for her, pale and trembling with emotion from a 20 day hunger strike, walking, supported by parents, to the grave of Yasser Arafat, where he made a prayer before going home to Jerusalem.
Civil servants collectively decided to take a day off, and schools released students to celebrate the arrival of the former prisoners.
Before nine in the morning tens of thousands of people had gathered for the festival that started at the gate of the Ofer detention center, in the Betunya area controlled by the Israeli army, and ended outside the Muqata’a, the headquarters of Palestinian National Authority (PNA), around 4 PM. In the large area in front of Ofer, trucks from Hamas, Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) played party’s anthems and songs celebrating the Palestinian struggle, serving as a stage for leaders who shouted the slogans repeated by supporters. The largest and most striking presence was that of Hamas, gathering a large audience who sang and danced.
At 11:30 AM the crowd began to move toward the Muqata’a as the Israeli Army reacted to the crowd of young men with gas bombs and canisters. Sound bombs, the metal rubber-coated bullets, and even skunk water were used against the people. Soldiers shot bullets on the ground and directly at people, which is forbidden by international law.
At the PNA headquarters at noon, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the PNA, received the 133 former prisoners from the West Bank, as their families, friends and the people who attended watched them enter Palestinian society. There, in the space reserved for public events, on the lower ground to the right of the tomb of Yasser Arafat, all were compressed in an area with capacity for 40 to 50 thousand people.
“Thank God you came back safely to their families and their homeland after this forced removal, caused by your struggle for this land. Your sacrifice, efforts and work were not in vain. You will see the result of all in the independent state of Palestine,” Abbas spoke.
He also honored leaders Marwan Barghouti (Fatah) and Ahmad Sa’adat (PFLP), who remained in prison, thanked Egypt for its mediation in the negotiations that freed the prisoners and promised to carry out the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.
12 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Tuesday October 11, about 200-300 Palestinian and solidarity activists held a non violent demonstration near the Israeli Ofer prison, near Ramallah, in support of the demands of prisoners on hunger strike since September 27. The action began at 12:00 PM, as those in solidarity joined the parents and relatives of prisoners. The demonstrators held pictures of the captives and chanted slogans for those inside the prison to hear.
After few minutes the Israeli Army and the border police started to throw tear gas canisters directly at the protesters, in an act forbidden by international law. The canisters came from the soldier’s arms and from a new machine which, on the top of the jeeps, could fire from 5 to 15 teargas canisters at the same time. Whenever the demonstrators tried to come back to Ofer’s gate, the militar forces started to shoot at them with canisters and rubber coated steel bullets.
The result was a great number of people injured in their legs, arms, and the belly, besides a lot of cases of asphyxia due to gas inhalation. The new sound arm, referred to as “The Scream,” was also used.
Dozen of white balloons were released by Palestinians. The protest went on until 4 pm.
Ofer prison is just one of the 22 detention centres where Palestinians political prisoners are held under Israeli custody, both in Occupied Palestine and within the 1948 borders. All detention centres are extremely overcrowded, according to reports by non governmental organizations. In Ofer, Israel also holds child prisoners.
Ramallah continues to rally support for Ofer prisoners - Click here for more images
Palestinian prisoners started the hunger strike in protest against confinement and other forms of torture and abuse, increased by they Zionist government throughout the years, especially since June 2011.
The strike, started by detainees of PFLP (Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine) yet has now spread to thousands of adherents, including the relatives of prisoners and those in solidarity. In Ramallah alone dozens of internationals and Palestinians continue their own hunger strikes in solidarity.
Israel has affirmed it won’t attend to the detainees’ demands, while the administration of one prison has made some concessions, but not related to the captives’ priorities.
Demonstrations have been held in a lot of cities through West Bank, Gaza and Israel proper, and permanent tents in support of the hunger strike were installed in the center of Palestinian districts. The prisoner’s health has been deteriorated day by day, and the prison authorities have just increased the repression and the punishment. Palestinians are calling for international support to raise awareness and to show solidarity.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees & Ex-Detainees Affairs, there are 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners in 22 different detention centres inside Israel proper. This number, however, is contested by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, which informs, in its website, that there are actually 8,383 imprisoned.
Among these there are 285 minors and 28 women, as well as 270 Palestinians under “administrative detention” (without trial and without convictions, for unespecified periods of time). From the detainees,143 have spent more than 20 years in prison, and 20 are at the moment in solitary confinement.
