Israeli forces arrested multiple members of the martyr Samer Sarhan’s family yesterday morning, including Samer’s brother, Ali Sarhan, Ali’s wife, and a third relative, Sultan Halisi. Ali Sarhan was on his final day of house arrest today from an earlier charge, after the police brought a number of accusations against him.
Later in the day, Israeli troops returned to Ali’s home with a canine unit and searched the premises.
One witness to the arrest, Saeed Abu Sanad, commented to Silwanic.net that “I tried to inquire about their reason for arresting Ali’s wife and they attacked and beat me.”
The wife of Ali Sarhan, brother of martyr Samer Sarhan, was released from Israeli custody later in the day after authorities probed her for information regarding her husband.
Meanwhile, Ali Sarhan’s hearing was converted from public to private, and ultimately extended Ali’s detention by ten days without offering a reason on the pretext that his file was secret. Sultan Halisi, Ali’s nephew, also received a private hearing in the Magistrate’s Court and a ten-day extension of his detention.
The charges against the two men are unknown, as the hearings were closed to the public. It is important to note that Palestinian detainees are frequently given private hearings without explanation, based on supposed security concerns by Israeli authorities.
Ali’s brother Jihad Sarhan, 44, is currently still detained in an Israeli prison, along with Ahmed Abbasi, 26, and Ibrahim Abdel-Haq, 28, on charges related to the clashes that took place after Samer Sarhan’s murder.
On Saturday, Israeli forces erected checkpoints at the entrances to Silwan village for the second day in a row. The network of checkpoints are a notorious source of inconvenience and frustration to the people of Silwan, whose freedom of movement is obstructed by the “security” barriers.
Jerusalem munipality bulldozers remove a barn on the property of Silwan resident Mohammed Siyam, in Abbasiya districtLast week, on Monday the 8th of November, Jerusalem Municipality workers, accompanied by Israeli forces, removed the memorial to Silwan martyr Samer Sarhan. A drinking fountain and olive tree dedicated to the memory of Sarhan were also removed from the site. Municipal workers and Israeli troops completed the operation in less than ten minutes, shadowed by an Israeli military helicopter overhead.
Later Monday night clashes erupted in the Bir Ayyub district of Silwan, following an Israeli military raid on a small shop and a number of Palestinian homes in the region. Undercover forces and Israeli troops violently arrested 7 Palestinian residents of Silwan, between the ages of 17 and 21, at 9pm after forcing entry into the shop. Eyewitnesses report that the shop’s customers were beaten and sprayed in the face with pepper spray by Israeli troops.
The next day, Israeli police and special forces raided the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, accompanied by an inspector from the Jerusalem Municipality, under the pretext of investigating illegal building. The officers photographed the Center from the inside before continuing on toward Al-Bustan, where they delivered demolition orders on two buildings.
These raids of Silwan on the 9th coincided with French and British diplomats’ visits to the village. Several high-level delegations have visited the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in recent weeks, including diplomatic groups representing the European Union, United Nations and various commissions, consulates and embassies. Diplomats met with residents of Silwan, who were able to recount their impressions and experiences of the Israeli government’s policies of Judaization, settlement expansion and home demolition in the village, and the resulting poverty and suffering. The visiting delegations expressed their disapproval of the government’s policies and the escalating humanitarian situation in Silwan, and the detention of child prisoners in particular.
The Israeli Knesset will be holding a meeting on the first day of Eid al-Adha, November 16, to give the Jerusalem Municipality the green light to resume demolition of Palestinian homes in the city of Jerusalem, especially Silwan. The date was postponed from Sunday to Tuesday despite the holiday, celebrated by Arab members of the Knesset. Among the properties slated for demolition are the homes of Khalil Abbasi and Mohammed Ashour el-Razem of Silwan, and Ayman Abu Ramila of Beit Hanina.
Speaking to Silwanic.net, lawyer Sami Irsheid stated that the municipality has recently re-enacted its policy of demolition of barnyards and animal pens in various areas of East Jerusalem, including el-Thuri, Silwan and Issawiya village. The policy has since expanded to include the demolition of shops, indicative of the policy’s next phase: home demolition. Observers have commented that the municipality’s prior demolition of animal shelters betrays a strategy of “testing the waters” of the local and international community’s reaction to such practices, thereby enabling the administration to proceed only with the demolition of homes once it is assured of no diplomatic backlash.
Today, workers from the Jerusalem municipality and Israeli forces removed the Memorial of Samer Sarhan, this morning. They also removed the water supply donated on the soul of Samer Sarhan and the olive tree planted in the place, although the tree was present prior to the monument. The operation took place under the monitoring of an Israeli helicopter in the area. Vehicles of municipal workers and Israeli forces emerged after the enforcement of the task in less than ten minutes. One eyewitness and a resident of the region said, “members of the Israeli police came earlier to take pictures of the site of the memorial. They must have have studied how to implement the process in a very short time and leave before a large number of residents noticed them.” He adds, “police were not alone for the removal of a martyr’s memorial, but were accompanied by the head of settlers’ guards in Silwan.”
Miri Regev, a member of the Israeli Knesset for the Likud party, and former spokesperson for the Israeli Army, was sent to the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, yesterday, demanding that he remove the memorial of Silwan resident Samer Sarhan, 32, who died on the twenty-second of September after being shot by a settler guard.
In recent weeks, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan has become a flashpoint of settler and Palestinian confrontation. Over 33 young Palestinian men between the ages of 8 and 16 were arrested in October alone, mostly for being accused of throwing stones.
Violent clashes between armed Israeli forces, settlers, and Palestinian youth are now an almost daily occurrence in the area. This recent pattern of unrest comes directly in response to the shooting death of Samer Sarhan, killed by one of the many private settler guards who act with impunity in East Jerusalem.
As news of Samer’s martyrdom reached the Palestinian population, spontaneous protests broke out throughout the city, peaking during Samer’s funeral when over one thousand mourners confronted the armed Israeli occupation forces present at the cemetery.
According to testimonies from the ground, Sarhan was walking towards his home at 4.00 a.m. in his neighborhood of al-Bustan, when he was shot by an armed Israeli security guard patrolling the area.
The Israeli security guard who shot Sarhan was called by Israeli police for interrogation on the same day, but was immediately released under the pretext that the murder of Sarhan was in self-defense. According to him, Sarhan intended to ambush the settlers and security guards in order to kidnap them. These accusations are soundly denied by Sarhan’s family and al-Bustan’s Popular Committee.
During the protests, the Israeli occupation forces employed tear-gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets, which led to many physical injuries, as well as suffocation inside peoples’ homes.
On September 24th, a 14-month old toddler-martyr in Issawiya named Muhammed abu-Sneneh was murdered in his house after having suffocated gas that was fired at residents and their houses. The Israeli occupation forces attacked a peaceful demonstration of residents who held a symbolic funeral for the baby. A total number of 16 Palestinians are reported to have been arrested on the 25th by the occupation forces and large amount of armed policemen and Special Forces were present in all major Arab neighborhoods of the city.
On October 8th, a settler named David Be’eri ran over two boys as they threw rocks at his car, and was caught on video with his license plate in the act. The boys were rushed to the hospital with some broken bones. The settler was questioned about the incident but suffered no consequences. These Palestinian boys were later arrested, and on October 17th, a Jerusalem court accused them of throwing stones and ordered to be placed on two weeks of house arrest. All three were questioned by police and found to be “involved in disturbances and riots” in the neighborhood of Silwan, said Mickey Rosenfeld, spokesman for the Israeli national police.
