Protest in central Hebron against child arrests

23rd November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Monday 21 November at Ibn Rushd Square, youth from Hebron gathered together with adults at a protest against the Israeli detention of Palestinian children. The protest was organized by the Prisoners Club and human right defenders who shared their information about over 350 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons with the public.

Since 2015, the Israeli occupation forces detained more than 2,000 Palestinian minors, at unexpected nightly arrest-raids and raids in refugee camps, or just kidnapped them from the streets. The numbers are rising and their treatment gets worser ( see: Addameer , Human Right Watch , Aljazeera , and the recently released statistics by B’tselem )

Israeli investigators are using torture techniques, both physical, emotional and psychological, to extract confessions from arrested children, who then will still be admitted in courts as evidence. Some Palestinian children receive life sentences by Israeli courts. Many others were sentenced to 10 or 20 years in prison.

At the protest meeting, the children showed pictures of their imprisoned age companions.


[VIDEO]

 

According to Palestinian official data, more than 7,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons.

Call to action to #FreeSalah!

21st November 2016 | International Soldiarity Movement, Ramallah team | occupied Palestine 

On the morning of October 26th, Israeli forces raided the home of and arrested Salah Khawaja, a Palestinian human rights defender and Secretary of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee. ISM joins Stop the Wall and other human rights organizations asking Internationals from around the world to contact their governments to take action and put pressure on Israel to #FreeSalah.

Almost a month since his arrest, Salah is still waiting for the Israeli courts to give him a charge of any kind. Since he has been imprisoned, he has undergone 40 interrogation sessions, each lasting from eight to sixteen hours. According to Stop the Wall, he has reported physical aggression such as being beaten, interrogators spitting in his face, screaming in his ears, kicking his genitals. Psychological pressure and ill-treatment has been used against Salah, including threats against his family members. In his most recent court hearing this past Wednesday, the Israeli state decided to extend the interrogation period for another eight days.

At weekly demonstrations across the West Bank on Friday, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals held signs demanding Israel #FreeSalah, and called for an end to the systematic targeting by Israel of human rights activists.

 

Protestors hold Khawaja-poster at last week's demonstration in Ni'lin
Protestors hold Khawaja-poster at last week’s demonstration in Ni’lin

Support this call for justice by contacting your own government to take action to put pressure on Israel to #FreeSalah. Follow this link to support this effort.

Tortured youths of Aida refugee camp

20th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Bethlehem, occupied Palestine

On the evening of the 10th of October, a group of approximately 25 children playing outside the community center at the gate of Aida refugee camp, were suddenly, and without provocation, attacked by soldiers dressed in civilian clothing. Caught completely unawares and gripped by fear, the group scattered and began to flee down two streets leading to the camp, only to find both routes blocked by several more soldiers, also dressed in civilian clothing. Eyewitnesses describe boys being punched, kicked, and thrown violently to the ground and against the wall. At that very same moment, a large number of soldiers emerged from the army base (the only street not occupied by soldiers in civilian clothing), encircling the boys so that there was little chance of escape. A total of nine boys were arrested that evening.

There is no question that what happened at the gates of Aida camp that evening was a well-planned and coordinated sting operation, executed with a level of sophistication that one might conceivably associate with the apprehension of hardened criminals, but certainly not of a group of apathetic adolescents, minding their own business outside their own homes.

So why were they attacked in this way? What warranted this level of aggression and sophistication? Did the boys pose some sort of existential threat? If so, what threat did they pose? If not, why were they targeted in this way?

None of these boys had ever been previously arrested or charged with any crime of any sort, nor did they pose any real threat, and after this attack several of the boys were charged in the following days with minor offenses. For example, Mohammed Derwash (14) was charged with throwing a plastic container at a soldier; his cousin, Adam Derwash (16), for having marbles in his pocket with, “intent to throw”. Putting to one side the sheer absurdity of these charges, for which many of the boys are still being detained, it’s important to note that these charges are for offenses that are alleged to have occurred at the time of the boys’ arrest. Remember, from the boys’ perspective, they were being attacked by crazed civilians. Therefore, one might reasonably argue that these actions were taken in self-defense (if at all).

Following their arrest, the boys underwent a traumatic interrogation process.  13-year-old, Amir Mahmoud, was one of the nine arrested that day. His nose was broken when his assailant threw him against a wall, and punched him in the face. He was subsequently charged with “throwing an object with intent to harm” and “beating a soldier”.  His bail was posted at 6000 shekels, the equivalent to €1450 Euros, a sum that is veritably unobtainable for many of the impoverished residents of Aida refugee camp. He, and the other boys arrested that day, were bound, blindfolded, and taken to a military base where they were then violently beaten. He knew that other boys were around him because he could hear their cries. He showed us the cuts incurred from the handcuffs that still mar his wrists, a week later.  When he shared with a soldier that his handcuffs were too tight, the soldier proceeded to tighten them further.

Right: Amir. Left: Cuts on Armir's wrist from handcuffs
Right: Amir Mahmoud. Left: Cuts on Armir’s wrist from handcuffs

Amir was interrogated with no lawyer or family member present. His interrogation began with a gun being placed on the table, pointed ominously in Amir’s direction. However, the officer’s style of interrogation quickly changed from subtle gestures to outright verbal assault, as he grew increasingly frustrated with Amir’s unwillingness to engage in questioning, or incriminate any of his friends. The officer then resorted to beat Amir, when he finally tired of the boys’ silence.

The interrogation for 13-year-old Dawud Sharaa began at 2 am in the morning on the eve of his arrest. The four hours previous he spent in the cold, blindfolded, handcuffed, threatened and beaten, told to wet himself if the urge to go to the toilet became too great. His interrogation lasted for approximately one hour. It began with him being told to call his father, that he was to be released. His father, heartened by this news, asked to speak to a soldier to confirm. The soldier yelled at the boy to shut up, and hung up the phone.

 

documents label him ''the criminal''
Israeli documents label his name: ”the criminal” Dawud

The psychological torment did not finish there for Dawud. The soldiers then proceeded to engage Dawud in a mentally exhausting cross-examination where he was verbally assaulted, spat at, threatened with violence, and even physically beaten in order to provide them with information, or admit guilt to acts he did not commit. His father produced for us a medical certificate in which the boys physician documented the bruising he had suffered as a result of the beating he received.

Medical certificate in which the boy's physician documented the bruising he had suffered as a result of the beating he received.
Medical certificate documenting pain in the head, neck and lower back and bruises on his body.

For the remainder of that night, from approximately 3am until he left for his court case at 7 am the following morning, he spent in a cell, above which a water tank was situated so that cold water dripped down upon him with harrowing regularity. Even times when an exhausted Dawud began to drift off to sleep, the patrolling soldier smacked him in the back of the head with the but-end of his M16 riffle.

Both these cases provide telling insight into on the larger agenda being forwarded by Israeli State Forces against Palestinian youths. During my time at the camp I met with some of the boys who had been arrested that day and who had since been released, but also with several others who had been targeted in separate incidents, as well as their families, and a number of community leaders and volunteers. What became abundantly clear during my time there was that this was not an isolated incident.  Palestinian youths, aged between 12 and 16 years old, are now the primary target of Israeli state aggression throughout the West Bank

Only last week 14-year-old Ahmad Manasra was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was alleged to have been complicit in a stabbing incident involving an Israeli settler. The video of his interrogation and confession, which was leaked on the Internet and can be found here, is telling of the type of treatment these boys receive at the hands of Israeli Security Forces. Ahmad was 13 when he was arrested. The date of his trial was put off until he was 14, after which age he could be given a prison sentence under Israeli military law. Sentencing of Palestinian youths under Israeli military law has become an important tool of the Israeli apartheid regimen. Interestingly, both Amir and Dawud’s trials have similarly been postponed until the boys turn 14.

Almost unbelievably, the day we went to interview Dawud, he had been arrested again, this time from his home at 6am. The soldiers had a photograph of a boy wearing a white shirt, apparently resembling Dawud, throwing a stone, and so they raided his house in search of the white shirt. They found nothing. It was not Dawud in the picture. But state forces are willing to adopt unscrupulous measures to attempt to incriminate this young boy.

So why are young boys increasingly being targeted by the occupation?  I posed this question to the father of 14-year-old Motaz Ibrahim Msalm.  Motaz, in a separate incident, had his house raided in the middle of the night on the 5/10/16. He was pulled from his bed, thrown against the wall, arrested and detained for 5 days. As justification for his arrest the Israeli state forces declared that he posed a “security risk”. He was interrogated similarly to the cases described above.

 

Motaz Ibrahim Msalm
Motaz Ibrahim Msalm

“To create a generation crippled by fear”, was the fathers’ response. “To create a generation who are afraid to leave the house, afraid to go to school, afraid to visit the mosque, afraid to play with their friends, but most importantly, afraid of soldiers, and afraid to resist.”

“To get information”, proclaimed another. “To use fear and torture to get the boys to give up information and then use that information against them and others, so as to incriminate and lock up as many of them as they can.”

“We are also afraid of foreigners now”, Amir interjected. “The soldiers who attacked us wore civilian clothing. So now we are suspicious of everyone that comes into the camp”.

There is no hiding from the fact that these boys were tortured by Israeli state forces. Describing the psychological scars left behind, one father told us that his son wakes up at night screaming with fear, that he wets the bed and panics at even the slightest of disturbances. That he has become withdrawn, no longer leaves the house and has become prone to aggressive outbursts against his mother and siblings. I couldn’t help but  notice this fathers eyes well up as he detailed for us how profoundly his son has been affected by the torture he endured.

That this can happen to anyone, anywhere, in the twenty first century is hugely upsetting. That this can happen to a collective of innocent teenagers, playing outside their homes or snatched from their beds, kidnapped and held at ransom by the state, is even more troubling. But that this is a policy now systematically practiced by a nation that is held to such high esteem by the international community, a nation that publicly presents an image of itself as a “free” and “open” society. That, to me, is truly terrifying.

The question I am left with is how? How have we, the international community, allowed ourselves to be deceived in this way, charmed by Israeli rhetoric yet oblivious to their wicked intent? For how long will we allow it to continue? When will you say… ok, this has gone too far! Enough is enough! If the on-going ethnic cleansing, annexation of land and demolition of homes wasn’t enough to make you speak up, what of child torture and imprisonment? Will you speak out against that? Or will this too go unchallenged by the international community, as has every atrocity that has preceded it?

The truth is its up to you! So the real question is, where do you draw the line?

 

10 Palestinians gunned down by Israeli forces in only 6 days

21st September 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | West Bank and ilegally annexed East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and ilegally annexed East Jerusalem have increased their use of excessive force against Palestinians – gunning down 10 Palestinians in only 6 days, killing seven of them. Medical neglect of the injured Palestinians and collective punishment on the Palestinian population after these incidents is commonplace.

Friday 16th September

In the morning, at Damascus Gate in the old city of ilegally annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli forces shot 28-year old Saeed Amro, a Jordanian national visiting al-Aqsa mosque. A video-recording shows him running away from the Israeli forces when they shot several rounds of live ammunition at him, in contrast to the Israeli claims of him attacking the soldiers with a knife. He was then left to bleed to death on the ground without any medical attention.

Israeli forces open fire on two Palestinians, Fares Mousa al-Khoddour and Raghad al-Khoddour travelling in their car near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, claiming that they were about to attack settlers at a nearby settler bus stop with their car. 18-year old Fares died at the scene, while Raghad was taken away in an Israeli ambulance critically injured, her condition since then is unknown.

Later the same day, 16-year old Mohammad al-Rajabi was gunned down by Israeli forces at Gilbert checkpoint in Tel Rumeida in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), as the heavily-armed soldiers in combat-gear claimed that the boy was attacking them with a knife. He was left to bleed to death on the ground, while Israeli forces ensured that none of the residents of the neighborhood were able to give first aid to the injured boy, throwing stun grenades at them.

Saturday 17th September

22-year old Hatem Abed Hafez Shalludi was shot to death by Israeli forces in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of occupied Hebron. Despite the fact that he did attack one of the soldiers at the checkpoint with a knife, the soldier did not sustain any injuries. All of the Israeli forces wear bullet-proof vests, that can not be penetrated by a knife. Two of the other soldiers at the checkpoint shot Shalludi as another soldier is already pinning him on the ground, thus executing him for no reason. Again, no first aid was given.

Sunday 18th September

Baha al-Din Muhammad Khalil Odeh, 20 was shot and seriously injured by Israeli forces. The 20-year old stabbed and injured an Israeli army commander close to a checkpoint near Efrat settlement in Betlehem district, and was then gunned down by the Israeli forces. According to the last reports, he’s in stable condition.

Monday 19th September

Ayman al-Kurd, 20, was shot and severely injured near Herod gate in ilegally annexed east Jerusalem. The 20-year old Palestinian attempted to stab two Israeli police officers. A video shot by a bystander illustrates how the Israeli medics deliberatly ignore al-Kurd after he has been shot with live ammunition, and do not give any first aid.

On the same day Muhannad Jameel Al-Rajabi, 21 and Amir Jamal Al-Rajabi, 17, were shot and killed by Israeli forces at a checkpoint near Ibrahimi mosque in occupied Hebron. Israeli forces again claim that the two were attacking soldiers with a knife, but no injury among the soldiers has been reported. The seriously injured Palestinian later was taken by an Israeli ambulance to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem – while the Palestinian medical crew from the Red Crescent was prevented from giving first aid and evacuating him to a much closer Palestinian hospital. He was pronounced dead minutes after arriving at the hospital in Jerusalem and could have possibly been saved if immediate first aid from the Palestinian medical crew would have been allowed by the occupying forces.

Tuesday 20th September

16-year old Issa Salim Mahmoud Tarayra was shot dead by Israeli forces near Bani Naim village east of occupied Hebron. Eyewitnesses claim that Tarayra was shot almost immediately after stepping out of a bus making a halt at the Wadi Al-Joz junction near Bani Naim.

Wednesday 21st September

A 13-year old girl was shot by Israeli forces near Qalqilia, as Israeli forces claimed a ‘terrorist attack’ – even though, no weapons have been found on her or in her school-bag. Her 24-year old Aunt, Rasha Ahmad Hamed ‘Oweissi, was gunned down and killed at a checkpoint in Novmeber last year.

Unlawful killings

This recent surge of lethal violence from Israeli forces is a clear violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupation force. As stated in Article 43 of the Hague Regulations, Israel as the occupying force is responsible for the safety and well-being of the population in the occupied territory. By shooting and then leaving Palestinians to bleed to death without any medical attention, and in cases even denying medical help from bystanders or trained medical crews, they clearly and continuously violate Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), stating that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. Article 6 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees that, “every human being has the inherent right to life [and that] no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life”.  Article 2 (2) of the European Convention on Human Rights explains that “force used should be ‘no more than absolutely necessary’ to defend any person from unlawful violence, to effect the lawful arrest or prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained, or lawfully quell a riot or insurrection”.

This enhanced shoot-to-kill policy has been denounced by several human rights organizations. All the bodies of the Palestinians, excluding the Jordanian national, have been taken by Israeli forces who deny their families the right to a funeral. Injured Palestinians are kidnapped to Israeli hospitals and no news on their situation are given.

Israeli forces, since the beginning of the year have gunned down 103 Palestinias in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces deliberately, continously and with impunity completely ignore the rights of the occupied Palestinian population and thus create an environment where the killing of Palestinians is allowed without any consequences, and denying first aid and the freedom of press to journalists is common-place. This culture of impunity also covers the various and rampant acts of collective punishment enforced on the whole Palestinian community in the aftermath of these incidents.

 

Beit Ummar’s children targeted by the Israeli army

30th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Beit Ummar, occupied Palestine

Beit Ummar, a small town outside of Hebron, has a population of just 18000 people, around 200 of which are imprisoned, with 6o of those being below 18 years old. These children are often in administrative detention for over a year without charge and repeatedly the police seem to be arresting all the males of one family at a time, creating both an economic and traumatic disaster for the family. Many of these young adults have been forced to take their exams in the prison, and these long-term incancerations have been effecting the mental health of many children in the area, whilst also seriously detrimenting their chances of a good education.

The Awad family have been especially targeted by the police due to their houses location close to the checkpoint. For many months both of their 2 young sons and the father were in prison, leaving the mother to run the shop and house alone. One night in October 2015 they were all arrested for ‘throwing stones’ and taken to a military centre where the father was blindfolded and hit with an army vechile, subsequently spending 2 days in hospital before being moved to his prison cell. For their youngest son Muhanned it was his third time in prison after being arrested when he was 13,15 and this time 17 years old. Having experienced extensive physical violence by the military when he was 13, which led to a court case against the militairy in the Israeli supreme court, his family only wish to see him safely away from army harrasment. Having payed huge amounts of money (5000 shekels) for the father and elder son’s release this month, they still wait for their youngest son to be released from prison. Despite being released, the military has visited the house 3 times this month, forcing the father to accompany them to the investigation centre, each time leaving the family fearing for a subsequent arrest.

Army watchtower at Beit Ummar village
Army watchtower at Beit Ummar village

Whilst Doctors Without Borders and the local authority are trying to help the young men leaving prison through therapy and education programmes, the reprecussions of these arrests are haunting this small town. The weekly protests in Beit Ummar, which is surrounded by a large cluster of illegal Israeli settlements, seems to have spurred the army into arresting local families living near the demonstration point, despite these families absence from any demonstration. The influence of the militairy and settlers on so many aspects of village life from water shortages, to attacks by settlers accompanied by the high imprisonment rate has increased tension and despair within the village.

The arrests of these young men have serious consequences on their lives and their family’s and their treatment in prison often violates international law, it is clearly time for the Israeli authorities to be accountable for their illegal treatment of these young Palestinians.