Nine Israeli soldiers kicked in the door of the ISM media office and demanded the passports of the internationals present. The soldiers confiscated a desktop computer used by ISM volunteers.
Two internationals, Ryan Olander of the U.S. and Nick Brown of the U..K., were awoken from their night’s rest as nine Israeli soldiers barged through the door at 4am brandishing M16 fully-automatic assault rifles. Luckily, the door had not yet been repaired from a previous raid on Sunday morning. This facilitated their entry and reduced the damaged they inflicted upon the apartment.
The internationals were taken to a common room and made to present their passports. Upon entering the common room the two men noticed that the computer had been removed from the desk and placed by the door. After verifying that the two men had valid visas, the soldiers attempted to interrogate the internationals about their planned activities for the upcoming weekend. They also inquired as to the whereabouts of the two internationals, Ariadna Jove-Marti and Bridget Chappell, illegally arrested on Sunday morning from the same location. After holding the men for about 45 minutes, they took their leave and politely informed the gentlemen that they were “taking the computer.”
“When I was taken from my bed to the office, I noticed that they had already removed the computer. Presumably, they didn’t expect anyone to be here and were going to have carte blanche to do what they pleased to our office,” said Olander
“Other than stealing the computer, and spoiling our night’s sleep, they seemed to have no clear reason for coming to the apartment. Certainly, they offered no justification for being inside an area in which the Palestinian Authority is supposed to have both civil and military jurisdiction,” said Bryer.
Eva Nováková (right) with the Hannoun family evicted from their house in Sheikh Jarrah
The lawyer of Eva Nováková, the former International Solidarity Movement (ISM) media coordinator, who was taken from her apartment in Ramallah on 11 January 2010 and subsequently deported, filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice today to challenge the legality of her arrest.
The official reason given by the Israeli authorities was that Eva Nováková overstayed her visa. However, her lawyer argues that by invading Ramallah the Oz unit, which is a part of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, acted against the law as they do not have jurisdiction over areas with full Palestinian civilian control.
“The ministry of the interior was acting outside of the sovereign territory of Israel” said Omer Schatz, the lawyer of Eva Nováková following her arrest. Today, he added that: “In the petition we filed today we argue that the unlawful kidnapping and deportation of Nováková is part of the campaign that Israeli authorities are waging against the non violent struggle against the occupation. The campaign systematically violates every rule of due process, and includes arbitrary detentions of Palestinian peace activists and illegal deportations of foreign activists, as demonstrated lately in unlawful night raids in Bilin and Ramallah.”
The appeal was filed only hours after another two international activists were illegally arrested during a night raid in Ramallah. At three in the morning, the Israeli army forcefully entered an apartment in the Area A, city of Ramallah, and arrested two activists from the ISM on suspicion of overstaying their visas. The two, Ariadna Jove Marti, a Spanish journalist, and Bridgette Chappell, an Australian student in the Beir Zeit university, were then taken to the Ofer military prison located inside the Occupied Territories, where they were handed over to the Israeli immigration police unit “Oz”.
Similarly to the case of Eva Nováková, the raid and detention of the two is in direct violation of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which clearly forbids any Israeli incursion into Area A for reasons not directly and urgently related to security.
Background information
Miss Nováková, who lived in Ramallah, Area A under full Palestinian control, was taken when 20 soldiers accompanied by immigration officers from the Oz unit invaded her apartment at 3am, on Sunday 11 January. She was taken for interrogation at Hulon and later transferred to the Givon prison in Ramle. After two hours, however, she was taken to the airport detention facility, where her phone was confiscated and she was prevented from contacting her lawyer. Despite the efforts of the lawyer to temporarily freeze the deportation, she was put on the plane at 5.30am the next day and deported to Prague, Czech Republic.
The attempts of the Israeli authorities to deport foreigners involved with Palestinian solidarity work are part of a recent campaign to end Palestinian grassroots demonstrations. The Oz immigration unit illegally arrested and attempted to deport further five international activists over the last ten months, while around ten leading Palestinian organizers have been arrested, including Jamal Juma’, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, Wael al-Faqeeh and Mohammed Khatib. In addition, dozens of demonstration participants have been arrested from Bil’in, Ni’lin and Jayyous.
The illegal practices of the Oz unit came to attention in the case of Ryan Olander, an American citizen, who was arrested in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem and later released without conditions, only to be literally kidnapped by members of Oz from outside the court building. Mr Olander spent one month at the Givon prison in Ramle awaiting the decision on his deportation. On 18 January 2010, the Tel Aviv District Court judge ordered to freeze Ryan’s deportation and ruled his arrest was illegal.
Despite this, the Oz unit continues to target international activists across the West Bank. In addition to today’s arrests, they have been involved in a night raid on the village of Bil’in on 28 January. A video of the invasion, during which a leading non-violent activist, Mohammad Khatib was arrested, is available on YouTube:
Israeli soldiers raided a Ramallah apartment around 3AM to arrest a Spanish and an Australian activist over expired visas in direct violation of the Oslo Accords.
At three in the morning, the Israeli army forcefully entered an apartment in the Area A city of Ramallah and arrested two activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) on suspicion of overstaying their visas. The two, Ariadna Jove Marti, a Spanish journalist, and Bridgette Chappell, an Australian student in the Beir Zeit university, were then taken to the Ofer military prison located inside the Occupied Territories, where they were handed over to the Israeli immigration police unit “Oz”.
Bridget Chappell
The raid and detention of the two is in direct violation of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which clearly forbids any Israeli incursion into Area A for reasons not directly and urgently related to security. Even the conduct of “hot pursuit” is disallowed in non-security related matters, which overstayed visas are.
According to Ryan Olander, an American solidarity activist who was at the scene during the raid, around ten soldiers forcefully entered the apartment and demanded to see the passports of everyone who was present and informed the two of their detention on the grounds of overstayed visas. The soldiers confiscated cameras, a computer, pro-Palestinian banners and ISM volunteers’ registration forms.
Following the arrests Olander said that, “This raid is a continuation of Israel’s attempts to quash the grassroots movement against the Occupation. This is a cynical and unjust attempt to hide the reality of the Occupation and further bar access to information from the international community”.
Israeli attempts to deport foreigners involved with Palestinian solidarity work are part of a recent campaign to end Palestinian grassroots demonstrations, which involves mass arrests of Palestinian protesters and organizers. Over the last ten months, the “Oz” immigration unit illegally arrested and attempted to deport four other international activists.
Eva Nováková, a Czech national and former ISM media coordinator, was arrested in Ramallah on January 11th, 2010, and deported the next day, before the deportation could be appealed. Nováková’s lawyer is currently in the process of preparing an appeal to the Israeli High Court to challenge the legality of her arrest.
Additionally, American solidarity activist, Ryan Olander, was twice arrested illegally by the “Oz” Immigration unit, but his deportation was prevented after a judge ruled his detention illegal. Similar appeals to the court have also annulled the deportations of other American and British activists in recent months.
Hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah rally in solidarity with the Gaza Freedom March on New Year's Eve Day
Thousands of people in Egypt, the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel, and the occupied West Bank rallied on New Year’s Eve Day to call for an end to the international blockade and siege of Gaza, but the protests were marred by police brutality in Cairo and the cancellation of a solidarity action in the occupied West Bank town of Tulkarm at the behest of the Palestinian Authority.
In Cairo, Egyptian riot police brutally beat Gaza Freedom March demonstrators who were unable to enter the Gaza Strip after the Egyptian government permitted less than 100 of the 1,350 participants from crossing the Rafah border into Gaza.
“Members of the Gaza Freedom March are being forcibly detained in hotels around town, in Lotus and Liala, as well as violently forced into pens in Tahrir Square by Egyptian police and additional security forces,” Codepink said in a released statement.
“Reports of police brutality are flooding a delegate legal hotline faster than the legal support team can answer the calls. The reports span from women being kicked, beaten to the ground and dragged into pens, at least one confirmed account of broken ribs, and many left bloody.”
Lara Elborno, a Palestinian-American, University of Iowa alumni, and law student at Loyola University in Chicago confirmed the reports.
“They broke a guy’s rib,” Elborno said from Cairo. “They beat people with walkie talkies. My sister Dana got her camera taken and they stole the card with her pictures on it. Five security forces surrounded her and threw her to the ground. They pulled her hair and punched and kicked her. This is only one of many stories.”
US citizen punched with police walkie talkie during protests in Cairo
In the Gaza Strip, about 100 international solidarity activists joined 500 Palestinians living in Gaza for a rally and march denouncing the blockade. About 1,000 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and Israeli Jews demonstrated on the Israeli side of the Erez border crossing, according to Haaretz.
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, more than 250 Palestinians rallied in solidarity with the Free Gaza March during an event organized by the Palestinian Popular Committees of the West Bank.
“We are calling on the people of Palestine to work together to end the occupation,” said Iyad Burnat, a community organizer with the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. “Only by uniting the resistance can we succeed.”
But the demonstration in Ramallah was curtailed after the Palestinian Authority prohibited the rally from marching through the city. And a similar solidarity action in the West Bank city of Turkarem, near the Northwest border with Israel, was cancelled after the Palestinian Authority prohibited the demonstration from taking place.
“As you know, this rally and march was supposed to be held today in solidarity with other demonstrations to protest the siege in Gaza,” said Abdelkarim Dalbah, a community organizer with the Turkarem Popular Committee. “Unfortunately the Palestinian Authority has forbidden this demonstration.”
“The P.A. has their own point of view and it is wrong,” Dalbah continued. “They say this demonstration is supporting Hamas, and they say they don’t want to add more tension with Israel after the attacks in Nablus last week. They support Gaza in behind closed-door meetings and in public speeches, but they will not support Gaza on the streets.”
Some organizers say that the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority is actually attempting to co-opt the Gaza Freedom March movement by holding celebrations marking the 45th anniversary of its founding on the same day as the solidarity demonstrations. Although the Free Gaza protest in Ramallah was attended by most of Palestine’s largest political parties, Fatah banners were noticeably absent. Fatah held a seperate rally at a different time and location.
About 100 Palestinian Christians also attended a candle-light vigil for Gaza in Manger Square in Bethlehem.
The Gaza Freedom March and the Palestinian Popular Committees of the West Bank are demanding an immediate end to the blockade of Gaza, a form of collective punishment which has essentially turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air prison for its 1.5 million inhabitants.
The New Year’s Eve Day protests were scheduled to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s Operation: Cast Lead massacre in Gaza that killed more than 1,300 people and wounded more than 5,000.
On Thursday, Palestinians, international and Israeli solidarity activists gathered to break the Ramadan fast with the iftar meal on a hilltop overlooking the Israeli prison, Ofer. After the meal, a series of speeches were given voicing opposition to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and brutal detention policy, noting that there are approxiamtately 11,000 political Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
During the month of Ramadan, families and communities break the fast together and iftar was taken collectively as a sign of solidarity with the prisoners in Ofer. At least 150 people came from various villages in the region around Ramallah to support this action.
Relatives of incarcerated Palestinians gave the speeches following iftar and the evening culminated with a speech, via mobile phone, by Hamsa Sulliman Yasen, a current inmate in the Israeli prison system.
This display of solidarity with the prisoners of Ofer follows three weeks of regular Monday morning protests at the gates of the prison by local Palestinians and international activists. The response of the Israeli forces to these peaceful protests is becoming increasingly aggressive. At the latest demonstration border police were seen preparing tear gas to fire on the crowd before the leaders of the protest chose to end the demonstration.
Ofer prison holds well over 1,000 of the 11,000 Palestinians currently incarcerated by Israeli Occupation Forces.
