8th April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement,Beit Omar, Occupied Palestine
by Team Khalil
A Swedish activist was arrested by Israeli border police this afternoon at a non- violent demonstration in Beit Omar. He was taken to the police station at Gush Etzion settlement and detained for two hours before being released.
A demonstrator holds a sign in support of hunger striker Samer Issawi
The demonstration was held in support of Samer Issawi, a Palestinian political prisoner who has been on hunger strike for over 250 days in Israeli administrative detention without charge. Israeli soldiers also confiscated two other internationals’ passports at the non-violent demonstration. Soldiers harassed the small group of demonstrators, restricting their movement by surrounding and pushing them. One soldier threw a sound bomb at a lone demonstrator as he started walking away from the demonstration.
Demonstrators hold signs in support of hunger striker Samer Issawi
4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, ‘Anabta, Occupied Palestine
by Team Nablus
On Thursday 4 April the village of ‘Anabta, near Tulkarem buried two of their young men. Amer Nassar, 17 and Naji al-Balbisi, 18 were shot dead by the Israeli Army at the Enav checkpoint late on Wednesday evening.Amer Nassars body in the morgue. Photo by WAFA News
Despite reports last night that Naji had escaped the Army gunfire, he was found by the Red Crescent medics on Thursday morning after a phone call from the Israeli Army.
Last night Amer was shot in the chest and the Israeli Army prevented his fellow villagers attempts to reach him
resulting in Fadi Abu-A’sr being shot in the arm. Naji was shot in the back, indicating he was running away from the soldiers, which accords with reports taken from witnesses.
The funeral procession was joined by the entire village including Khader Adnan and fellow former hunger striking prisoners. To date there has been no information from the Israeli Army about the fate of Deiyaa’ Nassar, despite reports he was injured at the time of his arrest. His family have been unable to obtain any information from the Army on his condition or whereabouts.
The Army regularly arrest Palestinians, holding them for up to 8 days without access to a lawyer, adequate medical attention or contact with their families. This detention can continue indefinitely and has sparked the mass hunger strikes from prisoners such as Khader and the current hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi, who is in a critical condition after refusing food for over 250 days.
This escalation in violence is a familiar pattern for Palestinians. In recent months the Israeli security forces killed Arafat Jaradat as a result of interrogation tactics. The murder of Amer and Naji and arrest of Deiyaa’, also comes a day after the prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh died as a result of medical neglect. Funeral procession today in ‘Anabta – photo credit ISM
3rd April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine
Demonstrations have been held today in several cities across the West Bank to protest the death of prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh. A strike has also been held in Nablus, Hebron and East Jerusalem, amongst other cities.
Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh
In Nablus, over three hundred Palestinians, together with international activists, participated today in the demonstration to protest the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh. The demonstration was first held at Shuhada Square, where protesters were holding banners and chanting emotional songs in support of Palestinian prisoners. After an hour, the crowd marched towards Huwwara Checkpoint, passing through Balata refugee camp. As demonstrators arrived at the junction next to the checkpoint, they built several barricades along the road, where Israeli soldiers were already located.
Palestinian youths threw some stones at the jeeps and Israeli soldiers threw tear gas canisters at the crowd. Shortly after that, two jeeps drove by the road parallel to the main one where protesters were and started shooting more tear gas canisters. As demonstrators ran back to get closer to the jeeps clashes continued for several hours more.
In Hebron, clashes were particularly intense, with several demonstrators wounded as Palestinians persisted in their fight against Israeli guns with nothing but stones. The sound of tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets have become a prominent fixture of the last few days in central Hebron.
As the nation mourns, we can only hope that international action is taken to prevent the continuous maltreatment of Palestinians in Israeli cutody. The death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh has brought up many questions about the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, with the PA minister for prisoners claiming Palestine must join the International Criminal Court to stop the disrespect of prisoners rights. Abu Hamdiyeh is the 207th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody.
Protesters running away from Israeli army jeeps near Huwwara checkpoint (Photo by ISM)
1st April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Burqa, Occupied Palestine
By Team Nablus
A brief visit to any family home in the occupied West Bank is sure to be a combination of warmth and tragedy as no person here has been immune to the brutality of the occupation that has dominated the lives of Palestinians for over 60 years. Ra’ed Haj who is unable to walk, talk or hear after he was nerve gassed
In the small village of Burqa near Nablus , we visited the Haj household , where 32 year old Ra’ed has been rendered unable to speak , walk or talk after nerve gas was fired into the bathroom he was washing up in in 2002. The Israeli soldiers reached this bathroom by knocking through wall after wall of neighboring houses, which is common practice for the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Despite also suffering from a brain tumor, Ra’ed has been repeatedly denied permission to seek adequate medical facilities by the Israeli army.
His mother and father now care for him, but worry who will continue to do so in the future. Which relatives will be there to care for him in the future is unpredictable to say the least. His brother Muhammed is currently in the notorious Jalame prison after the Haj household was raided by the army at 2am. He is still awaiting charge or trial. Jalame prison is infamous for its harsh interrogations and solitary confinement in the dark. Muhammed also suffers from regualar migraines after he was shot in the head with a steel coated rubber bullet in 2005. The same illegal ammunition was fired at his friend which took out both of his eyes. In 1994 his home was also demolished to make way for the illegal Homesh settlement.
Wether a resident of Burqa has the absurd luxury of being able to reside in his family home or not, the Israeli army constantly make their presence known by raiding the village nearly every night, making wanton arrests and damaging property. Ra’ed holds up photographs of himself before the attack
19th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine
The following statement by Samer Issawi was posted on his Facebook page by his lawyer Fawwaz Shloudy. It was translated from Arabic to English by Shahd Abusalama.
“Regarding the Israeli Occupation offer to deport me to Gaza, I affirm that Gaza is undeniable part of my homeland and its people are my people. However, I will visit Gaza whenever I want or I feel like it as it is within my homeland Palestine which I have the right to wander whenever I like from the very north to the very south. I strongly refuse to be deported to Gaza as this practice will just bring back bitter flashbacks from the expulsion process which our Palestinian people were subjected to during 1948 and 1967.Samer Issawi
We are fighting for the sake of freedom of our land and return of our refugees in Palestine and exile, not to add more deportees to them. This systematic practice which Israel aims to empty Palestine from Palestinians through and bring strangers in their place is but a crime. Therefore, I refuse being deported and I will only agree to be released to Jerusalem as I know that the Israeli Occupation is aiming to empty Jerusalem of its people and turn Arabs to become a minority group of its population. The issue of deportation is no longer a personal decision. It is rather a national principle. If every detainee agrees to be deported outside Jerusalem under pressure, Jerusalem will eventually be emptied of its people.
I would prefer to die on my hospital bed to being deported from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is my soul and my life. If I was uprooted from there, my soul would be uprooted from my body. My life is meaningless away from Jerusalem. No land on earth will be able to embrace me other than Jerusalem. Therefore, my return will be only to Jerusalem but nowhere else. I advise all Palestinians to embrace their land and their villages and never succumb to the Israeli Occupation’s wishes. I don’t see this issue as a personal cause that is related to Samer Issawi. It is a national issue, a conviction and a principle that every Palestinian who loves his homeland’s sacred soil should hold. Finally, I reaffirm for the thousands time that I continue my hunger strike until either freedom and return to Jerusalem or martyrdom!”
