Ashraf was arrested again on the 27th of October 2017 while giving a group of French solidarity activists a tour of the land that his village of Bil’in won back from the nearby Israeli colonial settlement of Modi’in Elite through their creative popular protests. He was accused of throwing stones at the occupation forces, an accusation he denies. His arrest is the latest in hundreds of incidents of abuse and harassment against Ashraf and other Bil’in activists in an attempt to end their protest against the Apartheid wall and colonial settlement built on their land. But, Ashraf and Bil’in remain defiant.
Ashraf on top of a crane lifting mobile homes to expand the colonial settlement on Bil’in land.
Ashraf’s siblings, Basem and Jawaher were both killed in separate incidents while nonviolently protesting the illegal wall constructed on their land. Their murders only fueled Ashraf’s determination to continue to resist, despite being wounded and arrested repeatedly including an arrest in 2011 when he was imprisoned for 8 months.
Ashraf at his wedding dancing with pictures of his murdered siblings
On the 27th of October Ashraf accepted a plea bargain under which he will remain in prison for 3 months and pay 5000 shekel in addition to a suspended sentence of eighteen months for five years. Had Ashraf not accepted, he would have remained in detention until the end of proceedings against him which would last for a year or more. “Israel is not a democracy. It is not ruled by laws. It is a criminal occupation that is ruled by force alone,” Ashraf told the ISM.
Two other activists from Bil’in are currently in military jail. Leading Human Rights defender Abdullah Abu Rahmah has been imprisoned since the 19th of November 2017 when over a dozen military Jeeps invaded Bil’in village at 2:30 AM and entered several homes. Abdullah who is accused of “damaging the fence” stated, “the occupation has used many methods including, killing and injuring, raiding our homes in order to stop us from exercising our right to protest and struggle against the occupation. But we will not stop struggling until the occupation is dismantled.” 16 year old Ahmad Abu Rahmah of Bil’in, who was also arrested in the raid, was accused of throwing a stone.
Update, December 13, 2017: Abdul Khaliq Iyad Bernat, Hamza Ghazi Al Khatib, and Malik Yassin were arrested today in Bil’n, and Ahmed Adeeb Abu Rahma was arrested yesterday. All four are in their final year of high school. They will join Abdullah, Ashraf, and Ahmad Abu Rahmah in military prison.
Update December 14, 2017 : Abdullah Abu Rahma was released from military prison on bail a fine and conditions. Abdul Khaliq Iyad Bernat, Hamza Ghazi Al Khatib, Malik Yassin, Ahmed Adeeb Abu Rahma, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Rahma and Ashraf Abu Rahma all from Bil’in remain imprisoned.
4th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
This afternoon approximately 500 Palestinian, international and Israeli demonstrators gathered close to Ofer Prison in Ramallah to protest against the refusal of the Israeli state to release the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners. As part of the current round of talks between Fatah (the Palestinian government of the West Bank) and the Israeli government, a series of prisoner releases was promised by the state of Israel, and the fourth was due to be carried out by the end of March, the Israeli government has now refused to honor the final release.
The demonstration began at approximately 12pm, the protests’ aim was to march towards Ofer prison itself, but due to the large number of Israeli forces present, this was not possible. The demonstrators also twice attempted a prayer at the start of the protest, but were unable to due to the high level of aggression from Israeli forces.
As the demonstration was beginning a 53-year-old Palestinian was shot at several times through the window of his car as he was driving away from Israeli forces. One of these rubber-coated steel bullets struck him in the head. The rubber-coated steel bullet broke several bones around his eye, a piece of the bullet was unable to be immediately removed and so he required surgery.
Photo by ISM
The level of violence escalated from this point as Palestinian youth threw stones at the Israeli military, while they (the military) fired hundreds of tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition, injuring many demonstrators. At several points during the demonstration, Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters directly at protesters, both highly dangerous and in contravention to Israeli military procedure, which is shooting them up into an arch to lower the impacted velocity.
Photo by Adam Wolf
A full list of all those injured is currently not available, however at least 10 people were transferred by ambulance to a local hospital in Ramallah to seek medical treatment for their injuries and Red Crescent medics at the demonstration treated many others for varying wounds.
Below is a list of specific injuries that were confirmed both at the demonstration and from ISM activists at the local Ramallah hospital:
A 21-year-old Palestinian activist was injured after being shot from extremely close range with a sponge-tipped projectile in the back.
Two ISM activists were also both shot from extremely close range with sponge-tipped projectiles in their backs.
A 20-year-old Palestinian was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the head.
A 48-year-old Palestinian journalist was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the left shoulder.
A Palestinian activist was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the foot.
A 20-year-old Palestinian was shot with two .22 live ammunition bullets in his foot and in his knee.
A 30-year-old Palestinian was shot with .22 live ammunition in his right hand.
Another Palestinian was shot with .22 live ammunition in his left foot; the bullet was unable to be removed.
36-years-old Palestinian was shot with two .22 live ammunition bullets, both in his left foot.
A 31-year-old Palestinian was shot in the left leg with .22 live ammunition.
A 36-year-old Palestinian was shot with .22 live ammunition in the left foot.
Mohammed Yasin, a photojournalist from Bi’lin who was wearing a press vest, was shot in his face with a rubber-coated steel bullet and also shot in his stomach with a .22 live ammunition bullet. He remains in hospital in serious condition, as the bullet may have destroyed parts of his liver.
An ISMer who was present at Ofer had this to say: “The Israeli forces were really violent today. It was impossible to count the amount of tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition fired; it felt constant for several hours. It became clear many times during the protest that the soldiers were specifically aiming at people, they weren’t trying to ‘end’ the demo, they just wanted to injure as many people as possible. I just don’t understand how people can defend the Israeli state and its military when they use this much violence against unarmed protesters.”
18th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Awarta, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday in the village of Awarta, 26-year-old Rais Abdat was released from an Israeli prison.
Three years ago, two youths from Awarta killed a settler from the nearby illegal settlement of Itemar, and for this act they both received five life sentences. In response, Israeli forces arrested approximately 18 young men and women from the village. Rais Abdat was one of these men.
Rais was not convicted of the crime he was arrested for, yet he was sentenced to 38 months in prison. A member of his family believes this is due to his activism and political affiliations.
10 of the men and women arrested three years ago remain imprisoned, included Rais’ cousin Walid Abdat (24-years-old) who is due to be released in July.
Today Rais was released from Salem Court in Jenin to joyous reactions from his friends and family.
Although he has now been released, Rais has lost three years of his life due to the Israeli occupation. Before he was imprisoned Rais was a university student studying Arabic, as a family member commented, he will return to his studies although it may take some time to adjust to his newfound freedom.
According to Addameer (Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association) as of January 1st 2014 there are currently 5,023 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centres. This includes 155 administrative detainees, 17 women and 154 children.
7th March 2014 | Corporate Watch, Tom Anderson and Therezia Cooper | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
International action has been called for in solidarity with prisoners held in Israeli jails. Corporate Watch has been investigating the companies involved in the Israeli prison system and interviewing ex-prisoners. This interview is part of a series of articles which will be released over the coming months focusing on companies providing equipment and services to the Israeli Prison ‘Service’ (IPS).
Israeli surveillance technology overlooks Palestinian farmland in Beit Hanoun- Picture taken by Corporate Watch, November 2013
We met ‘Salah’* at his home in Beit Hanoun in the Northern Gaza Strip a few weeks after his release from seven years prison in Israel. A celebration tent had been set up in his house since his release. We wanted to speak to Salah about the conditions for sick patients in Israeli jails, the particular problems for prisoners from Gaza and the complicity of international companies like G4Sand Hewlett Packard in the Israeli prison system. The Ketziot prison where Salah spent some of his period of imprisonment has been receiving servicesfrom British/Danish company G4S since 2007.
The effects of Israeli air attacks are never far away in Beit Hanoun. As his sons and grandsons bring us tea to drink, Salah tells us that during the Israeli bombardment in November 2012 his grandson ‘Hisham’, who was three and a half years old, “was playing a little way away from a government building. The building was struck by an F16 and rubble hit him on the head. He was in intensive care for seven days.” We are invited to feel the soft patch in Hisham’s skull where he was injured. Salah goes on to tell us: “My son ‘Abed’, now 20 years old, was in the street when the group of boys he was with was targeted by an Apache [helicopter]. One of them was killed and 18 injured. Abed’s hand was amputated, he is seriously psychologically affected.”
When we defended our children, our homes and our homelands
Salah tells us that he wants to tell us the story of what happened when, as he puts it, “we defended our children, our homes and our homelands”. “I was arrested during the first intifada [uprising] and detained under administrative detention for four months. During my arrest I was hit on the head with a stone. While I was interrogated they tortured me by squeezing my testicles. I was released for ten days then detained without charge again for another two years. During that period I remember one of the soldiers pissed on the ground and then scooped up the urine and forced it to my mouth. During the interrogation they hit my legs and toes with sticks.” He rolls up his trouser leg and shows us his bent and scarred legs and feet.
He goes on to say that in November 2006 the “Israelis invaded [Beit Hanoun] and ordered all the men aged from 15 to 50 to gather in one place and asked for our IDs. When they came to me they looked at my ID, then they told me to take off all my clothes except my underwear. They made me walk around several times, it was embarrassing. Then they arrested me.”
At the time of his arrest Salah was being treated for a heart problem. He was taken to the Beit Hanoun (Erez) checkpoint where he was detained for three days, then they took him to Ashkelon prison where he was allowed to see a doctor. The doctor said ‘that he would not be responsible for what happened during interrogation’ as Salah ‘might die’ due to the weakness caused by his health problems. Despite this Salah was interrogated continuously for ten hours. During the interview he had a pain in his chest. They gave him painkillers but the interrogation continued.
Salah told us: “I spent 35 days inside the interrogation cells without any medical care. During my interrogation my health deteriorated. The last part of the interrogation was non-stop for 17 hours – I was exhausted. When it was over they forced me to sign documents in Hebrew which I didn’t understand.”
“They accused me of being a leading figure in Fatah and of membership of the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades [an armed resistance group aligned to Fatah] and of inciting the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades. I told them that I had nothing to do with these things.”
“In Bir al Saba [Beeersheva] prison in 2007 I had a heart attack. They put me in a prison vehicle similar to an ambulance but I was on a stretcher handcuffed and leg-cuffed and wearing an oxygen mask. When I got to Bir al Saba hospital I said ‘where am I, where am I?’ But they didn’t tell me anything.
I stayed there for a few hours. The doctors in the hospital didn’t communicate with me, they just spoke to the soldiers. Then I was driven back to the prison. I asked what the doctors had said about my condition when I returned to the prison. I was told by the officer that he could not tell me anything about my health, as it was a security matter.
I had to return to the hospital regularly. It took more than nine hours from the hospital to the prison. I asked to be transported in a proper ambulance but they refused.
“He is a dog”
In 2012 when I was being taken to hospital one of the guards slammed the door on my legs on purpose. The other guard said to him, ‘why did you do that?’ The first guard answered, ‘he is a dog, don’t worry about him.’
I was always protesting about inappropriate medical care and because of this they constantly transferred me from prison to prison. Painkillers and water drinking are the only solutions they give to medical problems when you bring them up. I met with the International Committee of the Red Cross inside the prisons. I explained to them about the conditions. They made promises but it seemed like it was only slogans, only words.
During the 2012 hunger strike I was in Nafha prison. I was too sick to participate in the strike. The guards tried to make people eat. I saw how they did this. Me and the other sick prisoners threatened that if the Israelis did not meet the demands of the other prisoners we would join the hunger strike and not take food or water.
When I was in the prison clinic getting oxygen I saw the Israeli units kicking and punching the hunger strikers. The guards had food with them and were telling them to eat.
I saw doctors telling the hunger strikers: ‘if you do not stop your hunger strike we will not give you your medicine.’ It was like a battle of defiance between the Palestinian prisoners and the IPS. If an inmate did break the hunger strike the guards tried to humiliate them. Sometimes our clothes were taken and we were left in our underwear. They invaded our cells all the time.
The lives of the people on hunger strike were worth nothing – but what can you expect from people who kill children?”
Denial of visits
After the election of Hamas in 2006 and the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah, which ended with Hamas remaining in control of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military decided to end all visits to Israeli prisons by the families of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza. According to Salah, “From 2006-2012 I received no visits. Then, after 28 days of the hunger strike there was an agreement under the supervision of the Egyptians. The IPS agreed to allow some family visits. I received visits about every 2 months”. The number of visits received by prisoners from Gaza is still limited by the IPS.
Salah was imprisoned in Ketziot in the Naqab (Negev) for three years. G4S have a contract to supply equipment and services to Ketziot. Salah told us that the conditions in Ketziot were particularly bad: “We were kept in the caravans. There were three sections to Ketziot: tents, caravans and cement huts. One of the Israeli officers at Ketziot came to my cell and threatened to kill me, another of the guards there took a stapler and fired a staple into my head.
Ketziot Prison – picture from Alternative News
When they invaded our cells in Ketziot they shot tear gas grenades and used pepper spray. They sprayed canisters of gas into the cells. There was a bad smell – you would wash your clothes but the smell would still linger for days. It made you sneeze. Some people lost consciousness because of this. During that time in Ketziot they no longer distinguished between the healthy and the sick and the elderly. My friends used to put me under the bed to protect me because I was weak and they were afraid that I would be killed.
I was also imprisoned in Ramon and Ohalei Keidar prisons.”
‘From a small prison to a big prison’
“When I was released they said ‘let it be the last time for you Salah’. They claimed they could get me back easily if I caused trouble. Since my release I am very nervous, I cannot bear to hear any loud noise. I prefer to be alone.” As he describes this Salah begins to cry.
“I have gone from a small prison to a big prison, here there are drones in the sky and the crossings are closed.
The Israeli border fence in Beit Hanoun – Picture taken by Corporate Watch, November 2013
The British government should put pressure on Israel to release the prisoners – it is Britain’s responsibility. Administrative detention is their law and the Balfour Declaration started all the problems.
I would like the international community to continue their efforts to raise awareness of the conditions for people in Israeli jails. G4S and other companies should be prosecuted and pursued in the International Criminal Court, they are making money out of the crimes being committed against the Palestinian people.”
Physicians instrumental in the Israeli prison system
A group of doctors has called for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association in line with the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions. The call is on the basis of the IMA’s complicity in torture and Israeli violations of the rights of the civilian population under the fourth Geneva Convention. Dr. Derek Summerfield, a British supporter of the boycott, said it was justified as many Israeli physicians were complicit in the occupation’s crimes. According to Summerfield, one Israeli physician had confessed that he had “removed the intravenous drip from the arm of a seriously ill Palestinian prisoner, and told the man that if he wanted to live, he should co-operate with his interrogators.”
Take action
One way to act in solidarity with sick prisoners is to support calls for the Israeli Medical Association’s expulsion from the World Medical Association over its complicity in Israeli militarism and apartheid. For more details see www.boycottima.org
Or you can join the campaign against G4S, click here to find out more.
11th February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
(Photo by Rosa Schiano)
Friends and relatives, as well as local and international activists, gathered Monday morning at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza to demonstrate, like every week, in support of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
“My cousin was arrested during the 2006 Israeli invasion of Beit Hannoun,” Said Attallah Abu Oudah said. “He is detained in the Ramle prison. He is 31 years old and has been in jail for almost eight years. Only his mother and his sister can visit him. I hope one day all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as Palestine itself, will win their freedom.”
Outside the ICRC, the Muhjad al-Quds Association erected a stage in the middle of the street. The spokesman of the association gave a speech, appealing to all the Palestinian political factions to combine their efforts in support of the struggle of the prisoners. He spoke of all types of Palestinian detainees, from the sick prisoners to the released ones, from Ibrahim Bitar to Samer Issawi.
The Fatah delegation currently visiting Gaza from the West Bank attended the rally as well. Nabil Shaath, head of the delegation, spoke from the the stage about the current series of prisoner releases.
