Imprisoned American citizen and Minnesota resident Ryan Olander to be deported to the US after being arrested in Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem, whilst visiting Palestinian family whose house has been taken over by Israeli settlers.
Ryan was visiting the al-Kurds in the tent the Palestinian family built in their own backyard, after the recent setter take-over of a section of their house. At 1.15pm, 6 Israeli police walked into the tent, where Ryan was talking to the family members and drinking tea, and took him for questioning at the Russian Compound police station in west Jerusalem.
From the Givon prison in Ramle where Mr. Olander is currently awaiting his deportation hearing he reported that:
“On Friday, 18 December, I was placed under arrest illegally. A police officer forcibly removed me from the al-Kurd private residence and proceeded to file a fallacious police report stating I participated in what they claimed was an illegal demonstration and refused to disperse when ordered. In fact, I was arrested before the demonstration even took place.
I have become a target of the police for standing in solidarity with the Palestinians of Sheikh Jarrah who struggle against the unjust and illegal evictions from the places they have called their homes for nearly 60 years. Now I face illegal deportation from Israel.”
His arrest happened just before a peaceful demonstration of around 300 people, held in solidarity with the evicted Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah, was violently dispersed by the Israeli police. Following a violent dispersal of a similar demonstration the previous week, the police blocked all entrances to Sheikh Jarrah in an attempt to prevent protesters from accessing the Palestinian neighbourhood and used unprecedented force against those who succeeded in reaching the al-Kurd and Gawi family houses, currently occupied by Israeli settlers. Twenty six Israeli protesters were arrested, three of them wearing clown costumes. Similarly to last week, the police used a section of the al-Kurd house, previously taken over by settlers, to detain the arrested demonstrators.
Ryan, along with other arrestees from Sheikh Jarrah reported ill-treatment by the police, who subjected them to several strip-searches, denied them food and water for prolonged periods of time and held them outside of the police station until late at night, with insufficient protection against the cold conditions. Unlike the 26 arrested Israeli citizens, who were brought in front of the judge, Ryan was released by the police before the beginning of the trial on Saturday, 19 December, only to be illegally re-arrested by immigration police right outside of the same police station that told him he was free to go.
The police have used the same tactics previously, when three foreign nationals, who were arrested at a peaceful demonstration Sheikh Jarrah on 11 December 2009, were released by the judge in a court hearing held at the Russian Compound the following day, only to be illegally arrested again and taken straight from the courtroom to a deportation facility. All three were released the following morning, over 40 hours after their initial arrest.
Background on Sheikh Jarrah
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.
So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.
The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.
The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.
Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.
Legal background
The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.
The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.
The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.
A peaceful demonstration of around 300 people, held in solidarity with the evicted Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, was violently dispersed by the Israeli police.
Photo by: Oren Ziv / Activestills.org
Following a violent dispersal of a similar demonstration last week, the police was blocking the roads in Sheikh Jarrah from the early afternoon, in an attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the Palestinian neighbourhood. They set up barriers at the entrance to the area and, before the demonstration even started, arrested an American activist, who was sitting in the back yard of the al-Kurd house, talking to the family.
Later on, twenty six Israeli protesters were arrested, three of them wearing clown costumes. Similarly to last week, the police used a section of the al-Kurd house, currently occupied by settlers, to detain the arrested demonstrators.
Demonstrators reported harsh violence committed by the police during the arrests. Assaf Sharon, one of the protesters, said: “This event represents a legitimate and non-violent protest of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists, against the ongoing campaign of evicting Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, only for these to be taken over by extremist settlers. The police has been brutally dispersing these peaceful protests for the second week, while the Palestinian families live in constant fear of violent settler attacks.”
Last week, the police arrested 24 demonstrators, including 3 international activists. The arrestees reported ill-treatment by the police, who subjected them to several strip-searches, denied them food and water for prolonged periods of time and held them outside of the police station until late at night, with insufficient protection against the cold conditions. Israeli activists received a condition not allowing them to enter Sheikh Jarrah for 30 days from the judge, while the 3 foreign nationals were released only to be illegally arrested again and taken straight from the courtroom to a deportation facility. They were released early in the morning on Sunday, more than 40 hours after their initial arrest.
The actions of the police, followed by the court decisions, preventing activists from returning to the Palestinian neighbourhood for 30 days, shows their determination to discourage the growing protests against settler take-overs of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem.
Palestinian men praying outside of the al-Kurd house, occupied by settlers
The Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah have been suffering from violent attacks on the part of settlers who invaded their houses in recent months. Four Palestinian houses have been taken over since November 2008, displacing around 60 persons.
Background
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.
So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.
The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.
The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.
Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.
Legal background
The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.
The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.
The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.
Twenty-six Israeli protesters and one international solidarity activist were arrested and three Palestinian children wounded during a nonviolent demonstration against the Israeli settlement project in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah this Friday.
Over 300 people, Palestinians, internationals and Israelis, attended the weekly vigil. Last week 24 people were arrested during a similar protest that was also violently dispersed by Israeli Occupation Forces.
The apartheid state security forces blocked the roads leading into Sheikh Jarrah in an attempt to prevent protesters from entering the Palestinian neighborhood, but the demonstrators managed to reach the occupied al-Kurd house by splitting into smaller marches and descending on Sheikh Jarrah from the side streets, back alleyways, and rugged landscape behind the neighborhood.
When the march reformed, the demonstrators stood face-to-face against the police. The protesters sat-down, linked arms, and sang anti-occupation chants in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Police then moved in and began arresting the linked activists one by one. Most of the protesters suffered minor bumps and bruises while being dislodged from the human chain by the police snatch-squads.
One of the activists who joined the demonstration stated: “We are here today and every Friday to demand an end to the occupation of Sheikh Jarrah by the Israeli government and Jewish settlers. We call on the Israeli government to dismantle all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. We are not using any violence. The only violence here today is the violence the police are using on us.”
Towards the end of the protest a group of nearly 100 settlers arrived to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and began throwing rocks at the house of a nearby Palestinian family. One 12 year old Palestinian boy was also chased into the street and beaten by settlers. Three Palestinian children were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The drums beat in their normal cadence as I approach the Al-Kurds. This cadence was lost as I reached the home. It quickly devolved into a beat that described not the jubilant emotions of collective resistance, but one of collective disdain and disgust.
One person was being dragged by three police officer into the street; their clothes in tatters. The demonstrators quickly followed and rallied around the abuse. The situation was reduced to bedlam by the police officers. They were pushing, pulling, punching and kicking the demonstrators. As the police attempted to take the two demonstrators to the police station, nearly one hundred attempted to use their bodies to block the police cars movements. This attempt was in vain. The police grabbed protesters one by one (usually needing three officers for every person taken).
As I was in the back watching the madness, two border police grabbed me by my lapel and viciously dragged me into the usurped, front partition of the Al-Kurds home. The settlers had been here for nearly two weeks already, but the conditions were anything but inhabitable. A layer of water and mud covered the gutted home. This confirmed my suspicion that home take-over was not for actual living space, but instead a war-like act of conquering more territory.
About 20 other activists and seven police greeted me as I entered. They were mostly Israeli activists with less than a handful of internationals. I was hand-cuffed to a Canadian man and would not leave his presence for the next forty hours. He was Quebecois and spoke perfect French. We chatted in his native tongue as there were no police able to speak French. We waited in the house for close to hour, seemingly until the police had cleared the streets of all the demonstrators. We were then hastily whisked off to the Jaffa Street police station.
Upon our arrival, we were made to sit in the parking lot of the police station. As the sun had set, it became quite cold quickly. But this would be our resting spot for the better part of the next seven hours. Some arrestees were uncuffed shortly after our arrival. I wasn’t this fortunate, so I became quite close to my Canadian counterpart; holding each other gently and whispering sweet things to one another. There was a severe shortage of cigarettes and my pack was gone in less than 20 minutes. Soon the others joined us and brought more cigarettes. One by one we were taken in and interrogated. Their tactics were somewhat lacking in comparison to their American counterparts. Their questions and follow-up questions were banal and didn’t seem to probe much beneath the surface. I had yet to speak with a lawyer and there was definitely a language gap. These factors may have contributed to the ineffectiveness of the interrogation. It was a welcomed respite from the cold, in any event. But this respite was short-lived as I was returned to the night air after only a few fleeting minutes.
We waited more. Another half-hour. Or was it an hour? Or two? No one had a watch so the concept of time was purely relative and not measured with any degree of certainty.
Our next stop was to be fingerprinted and photographed. Like the other processes, this one lacked fluidity, order and reason. One person was taken completely through. I and three others made it half-way through, sent outside and made to wait a few hours. In this time the rest of the gaggle of arrestees were fingerprinted and photographed. I attempted to convince my cohorts that they had taken my footprints in addition to my hand and fingerprints. They all believed me in the beginning, but the constant succession of “Really? Really? Really?!?!” always made me crack a smile.
Once this process came to an end, we were paraded back to our guard rail along the prison wall. Some comrades from the outside were able to slip falafel sandwiches filled with notes of solidarity through the fence. Here we waited for our strip-search. The hours wore on and everyone smoked cigarette after cigarette. As the time slipped by so did our warmth; 10 degrees, 9 degrees, 8 degrees. We sang songs softly. The Beatles, the Flaming Lips and old union hymns filled the cool air. I waited patiently for my search and found myself last in queue. There were three others in various stages of nudity. The door was slightly ajar. This left no respect for any semblance of dignity.
I was next in line, but was skipped due to another being dragged about by the police. He wasn’t with the folks from Sheikh Jarrah. He was Palestinian. The officer minding him had the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head and was leading him about by the strings of his hoody. It was reminiscent of a farmhand leading cattle about a bull-ring. The police had stripped him not merely of his clothes but also of his humanity; completely and utterly. As he undressed, I noticed why they had his hood pulled tightly over his head. There was a four inch gash on his right cheekbone. The police surely didn’t want many people to be privy to their rapacious brutality. He was dripping with blood and he was in dire need of medical attention, but
I felt he wouldn’t receive any for some time. I looked at the other Israeli activist. The need for language disappeared. His eyes spoke volumes. Fear, guilt, remorse, disgust, helplessness. I wanted to scream and liberate this young man. Whatever he did wasn’t worth this experience. Whatever he did wasn’t his fault. Whatever he did was because of the conditions that the state of Israel had forced upon him, his father, his grandfather. He couldn’t control his situation enveloped in injustice. He was merely an innocent actor in this twisted play that Zionism has been scripting for decades. We, the Israelis and myself, knew we would be out soon; safe and without any long-term consequences. The young Palestinian, on the other hand, was now caught in their “justice” system and likely doomed to a constant cycle re-arrest. The other activist and I could only look at one another dumbfounded and inept.
It was my turn. The officer pointed to various articles of clothing and I took it off until I was completely naked. I was made to lift my penis and testicles and spin around. He mumbled something in Hebrew and left the room. I stood there naked for a minute and began to dress after it seemed as if I was able. But the insecurity lingered as I was unsure if I was allowed cover my nude body.
I made the right decision and was taken back outside with the other men from the group. We were marched about 50 meters to the jail. They called us in a few at a time; 3-4 usually. But the hours dragged on. Was it 1 or 2 or 3am? Finally the last three men were taken in. We were examined by a doctor and stripped searched again (“take this off, take that off, lift your thing up, spin around”) and our possessions were bagged and tagged. We were taken to our cell and picked up another Israeli along the way. He had been in a cell all by himself and was white with fear when we found him. On the way I noticed a clock. It was 3:30am. They lead us to our cell. It consisted of two bi-colored double bunk beds made of concrete, a bathroom, a plastic table and two plastic chairs. Some jelly sandwiches and two loaves of bread were thrown onto the bed. I brushed my teeth and went into a deep sleep.
I was awoken from a dream by deep, hoarse yelling in Hebrew. The two Israelis interpreted for me. Apparently they were doing a count of the prisoners. I wondered where they thought we would go. Plots of escape were far from mind. I was too tired and had just arrived. I was undecided if I liked this place or not and needed some time to explore if long-term living situation was a possibility. I guess this is just how fascism works. I dozed another two hours, but roused shortly after our breakfast was delivered. Although the living conditions were sub-par compared to other jails I had frequented, the food far exceeded my expectations. No empty calories for us. The case was quite the opposite. Fresh green peppers, yogurt, cheese and good bread.
Perhaps they were over-compensating for their vile behavior. Possibly they had some sub-conscious intuition that what they were doing was completely wrong and the good food was a way to apologize. But I’m sure everyone in that jail would trade all those peppers and yogurt for dirt if it meant complete and true liberation.
The rest of my cellmates roused. Two Israelis, a Canadian and I began to get to know one another. The elder of the two Israelis took command and flaunted his knowledge of the political situations in the Arab world. He exuded confidence and charisma. His charm was definite and he won over his three other cell-mates quite quickly. The other Israeli was rather quiet. His head seemed heavy with thought.
“When are we going to get out of here?” was the line that broke his silence. It seemed like a passing question prima facie.
But as we began to answer, it became apparent that he had real fears about rotting in this hell-hole. We had to hug him for a while to calm him down. He told us his dreams surrounded having internet access in the jail cell. He would become quiet for minutes or close to an hour and chime in with his familiar question: “When are we going to get out of here?” When this would happen, we’d try to talk to him concerning his feelings. He was at the brink of giving up on activism. This being said, there were some wonderful respites to this agony. They came from our interactions with another; the only escape we had. But it was more than enough. We gave each other laughter and comfort and support.
We were told that we were to see the judge soon. Our situation was coming quite close to illegality. It was nearly 3pm and, I was told, that Israeli law stipulates that those placed under arrest must see a judge within 24 hours of their arrest. That time was nearing for us.
We waited for nearly an hour and then we taken to the entry-way, shackled, placed in a van and driven 50 meters to the courthouse. We were then taken out of the van, thrown in a cell, unshackled and met the rest of the male cohorts we were arrested with. We were split into two cells. They were very close to one another. The cell that I was not in had a monopoly on cigarettes, so we would have to reach through slats in the doors to get our fix. We passed the smokes to each other and all shared our nicotine.
I think I may have seen the Palestinian man who I encountered the night before. Or did I? The one that was before in the courthouse cell had a bandage on the same part of his face. But he had many more; on the back of his head, on his neck. He looked thinner than the man I saw the night before. Had he become more frail and acquired a limp while in prison? I thought not. The beatings that the Israeli police forces dole out must mirror one another with striking similarities. I fell into a deep sleep on the concrete floor.
It felt as if I hadn’t slept more than a half-hour, but I was told I was out for quite some time. The jubilant voices rang through the cell walls from the outside. A demonstration had erupted in our honor. Those voices were very inspiring. Although they were in Hebrew, their energy carried through those prison walls. It encouraged us and let us know that things would be ok and that we were loved and that our misery was not naught.
Soon the Israelis let we internationals in on a secret. They had heard the guards discussing what their plans were for the foreigners. They intended to separate us from the, kidnap us, and send us off to the department of immigration. Here we would spend more time in jail. I was excited. They had been plotting though. We were to stay close to them and be a part of the first hearing, so the police were unable to split us off before the judge could make his decision and therefore, legally, we would have to be released. I was skeptical about what “legally” entailed in this country, but they knew better than we did.
We wedge ourselves in between the Israelis and were filed by the police into the courtroom. There were two beautiful young Israeli men dressed in white shirts and black ties who were to represent us during the proceedings. The judge entered and began in Hebrew. I knew nothing of what was happening. My cohort sitting next to me began to speak to me softly.
“The police are going to try to take; don’t go with them!” he whispered. Just like clockwork, one of the police came to me.
“It’s not your turn. Come with me,” he said. I pretended not to understand. This was happening while the judge was addressing the other defendants. Twice more different police came to me and tried to drag me out of the court, telling me it wasn’t my turn.
The judge was demeaning and condescending to the lawyers. I still didn’t know what was happening beyond a heated argument between our counsel and the judge. Finally the lawyers stood and began to speak with restrained anger. The judge scolded them and they began again, but the anger and disgust was still apparent. The judge roared in Hebrew and the lawyers were broken.
They finished the sentence they began two times before, but this time they did without any show of emotions. Their dignity to be angry in the face of in justice was stripped from them. They exited the courtroom.
The police attempted to remove me from the courtroom for the last time. The judge noticed it now and scolded them. The police wore faces of defeat. The Israeli defendant next to me gave me a confident smile. But that smile seemed to be too confident to me. I had no faith in these proceedings and the police began furiously texting on their cell phones. They were hatching some devious plan. As the texting stop, their faces of defeat morphed into solemnity. I surmised that it didn’t mean anything good for us.
The Israelis left the courtroom and we internationals remained. We were without lawyers and attempting to free ourselves from this vile system. As our (the internationals) proceeding began, the police withdrew their request to arrest us. Then the judge began to question us. For each of us he asked if we would agree to be interrogated by the Ministry of the Interior. His questioning of each of us lacked cohesion. When it was my turn, I told him I had yet to speak to a lawyer and would only agree to questioning after I had consulted my legal counsel.
“Your honor, I haven’t had access to a lawyer, everything has been in Hebrew, I don’t have a formal translator, I don’t know what’s going on. I will not agree to an interview at this point. I will consent only after speaking to a lawyer,” I said.
“How can I guarantee you will return for the interview?” he asked.
“I can give my word,” I replied.
“I’ll need more than that.”
“What can I give you?”
“Money or an Israeli to sign for you.” There was a woman who had been giving us legal advice through the proceedings and she leapt up upon hearing this. She returned with an Israeli citizen quite quickly.
“I think this man will sign for me, your honor,” I said, motioning to the man who had just entered. The judge silently filled out his paper work.
“You’re free to go. You may be arrested again,” the judge said and exited the courtroom. Pandemonium erupted upon his exodus. The scene devolved in blatant and rapacious. The police nearly pounced on us and our lawyers burst back into the courtroom.
“You’re free to go! Do not cooperate!” The lawyers kept shouting. Being that this was the first legal advice I had received, I was obliged to follow it. I sat on the floor as the police were shoving our lawyers about. One lawyer was shoved into the lectern in the middle of the courtroom. I fell over with a thunderous crash. The police twisted my arm painfully and haphazardly put me in handcuffs. They did the same to the rest of the internationals. I was dragged/carried to the basement holding cell and thrown in with the rest of my cohorts. I feverishly explained the situation. They were convinced that we would all be deported.
“When you get back! Tell your stories! Tell them all what happened!” This was the general fervor that came from the cells. In less than a minute, the police came a dragged us into the hall. The quickly and nervously shackled our ankles. We were brought out to a police van. Shouts and cheers of love greeted us from the demonstrators outside. That warmed the cockles of my heart, but I wasn’t free. And now, I was separated from all those I’d grown close to over the past two days, separated from anyone who understood Hebrew. Alone, cast off into the ether.
We began to drive and the demonstrators followed us for a hundred meters or so. Then we entered a highway and drove and drove and drove. Mad thoughts raced through my mind: “Are they taking me directly to the airport for deportation? I didn’t matter much to me at this point. Whatever was to be would be very soon. At least the veil would be lifted and I would know my fate.
It looked as if we were approaching Tel-Aviv after an hour’s drive. We turned and turned some more. Finally, we approached an industrial zone. I’m still not completely sure where I was, but I think it was an immigration office of some sort.
Upon our arrival, I told one of the officers that we hadn’t eaten or had any water in 19 hours (there was a clock on the wall that read 4:15am (where did the hours go?!?!)). He found us six slices of bread and chocolate spread. We were taken to the bathroom and told we would be deported. Each of us began to relate a story to the gentleman taking our photographs and fingerprints (again). This process took nearly two hours, but we found ourselves waiting for interrogation in another room at the end of it all.
Before we were interviewed, the man in charge of this madness came to speak with us. I relayed my confusion.
“The police withdrew,” he looked confused, so I began again.
“The police took back our arrests and then brought us here. I don’t know why we’re here and I haven’t spoken to a lawyer,” I said. I thought this was a good way to frame the interview and it seemed to make the wheels spin inside his head.
“You were released so you could be arrested again and brought here,” he replied.
“But if our arrests were taken away doesn’t that imply that the police made a mistake and were trying to rectify their misjudgment?” This line of logic seemed to trouble him. He retreated to his office with a puzzled look.
We were called in one by one and interrogated. It was a fairly scripted interrogation. They began tough. At one point they shouted they didn’t believe us and then they told us how tired they were and tried to convince the white-faced people to become citizens.
We were released into the morning air. We had no money, no phones, no passports, no possessions, save one person. It was 7:30am. The sun was low and cool, yet. But it was a welcomed sight nonetheless, as I hadn’t seen it in nearly two days.
“Have a nice day,” the officer said closing the door behind him. And that was all. Our freedom regained to a certain extent. Fatigue dragged my feet as we meandered through an industrial zone in Tel-Aviv. Was this defeat? Was this victory? I didn’t feel either of those words fit my mood. But dawn had just broken. And although we didn’t know where we were or where we were going or how we would get there, our legs were unshackled.
I’ve spent the last few days on night duty in an occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood called Sheikh Jarrah, accompanying two Palestinian families who have erected protest tents outside of their homes after they were forcibly evicted from them by the Israeli government and right-wing Jewish settlers.
The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem was built by the UN and Jordanian government in 1956 to house 28 Palestinian refugee families from the 1948 war. But after the start of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, some Israeli settlers began claiming ownership of the land the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was built on as their own.
“On December 1, 60 soldiers came to my house and smashed all of my furniture,” said Nabeel Al-Kurd, one of 28 families in the neighborhood who have either been evicted or are threatened with it.
“They pushed my mother and beat her. My mother is 85 years old. She was taken to the hospital. From then until now, everyday, everyday there is trouble – fighting and shouting.”
Nabeel Al-Kurd has set up a protest tent on the paved entrance that divides the front section of the house from the back section. Every night, he uses the furniture that was smashed by the Israeli police during his eviction to fuel a fire to keep his family and international accompaniers warm during the cold winter nights.
“We sit in this stand, right inside the gate, because we are afraid if we leave they will take more ground and we will lose the rest of our house,” he said.
The International Solidarity Movement maintains a 24 hour a day, seven day a week presence in the neighborhood because the families living there face daily harrassment and threats by the Israeli settlers. Israeli police and military forces also maintain a permanent vigil on the street.
The Al-Kurd family is only one of several families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood that have been forcibly evicted from their homes to allow Israeli settlers to gain a foothold in the pre-dominantly Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem.
On August 2, the Israeli Occupation Forces evicted two other Palestinian families, the Al-Gawi and Hannoun families, from their houses after they demolished the gates of the houses and forced the families to get out at gunpoint. Several of the family members were seriously wounded during the encounter.
Nasser Al-Gawi has also constructed a protest tent outside of his old house and maintains a permanent vigil across the street. Clashes between the Israeli Jewish settlers and Palestinian Muslims in the neighborhood are frequent and on-going. In the three days I have been in the neighborhood, I have witnessed almost constant harassment at all times of the day and night. The settlers hang Israeli flags from the Palestinian houses, swarm the neighborhood with dozens of young men, many of whom are armed, walk the streets with large, unmuzzled dogs, shout obscenities at the residents of the protest tents, and other deliberately provocative actions. Sometimes, the clashes turn violent. This morning, Israeli occupation forces tore down Nasser Al-Gawi’s protest tent (he later put up a new one and is still there as I write this).
Nasser, who has testified in front of the U.S. Congress about the situation in Sheikh Jarrah, calls Israeli policy in occupied East Jerusalem “the Judeazation of Al-Quds” (Arabic for Jerusalem).
“The name of the game is ethnic cleansing,” he told me while we sat in front of his campfire and shared tea around 1am yesterday morning.
“Israel wants the Palestinians out of East Jerusalem so they can claim the capital as their own.”
According to several International Solidarity Movement activists who have spent months providing protective accompaniment to the residents of Sheikh Jarrah, the aim of both the Israeli government and the settlers is to turn the whole area into a new Jewish settlement to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City from the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. Constructing new settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank is illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Late last night a young Palestinian man wearing a red and white kaffiyah, baggy pants, and a sideways New York Yankees hat stopped by to supplement the vigil during the late night evening hours.
“My name is Abraham,” he said smiling. “You know the prophet Abraham? Well I am not him.” He laughed.
Over the next few hours, Abraham told me that he had lived in Sheikh Jarrah for seven years, and was now a cook at a nearby restaurant. He dreams of becoming a successful rap superstar.
“I want to have a good life, a good job, and a beautiful wife,” he said. “But all around me are walls. Everytime I climb on top of one and jump over, there is another wall in front of me.”
