Tag: Wa’el al-Faqeeh Abu as-Sabe

Wa’el al Faqeeh released from Israeli prison

UPDATE | 17 November 2010: Wa’el al-Faqeeh was released from Israeli prison today and is back in his Nablus home. The International Solidarity Movement strongly condemned his arrest, which marked an escalation in Israeli targeting of Palestinian popular resistance leaders. Wa’el has been a irreplaceable grassroots organizer in the Nablus area and we are ecstatic that he has been released. He is back in Nablus and is ready to continue his reign as Chess champion.

Please consider making a donation to help pay for his legal fees (see bottom of the post to donate) or visit the International Solidarity Movement donations page.

Wa'el Al-Faqeeh

15 January 2010

On the night of December 9th 2009, over 200 Israeli soldiers entered the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Their mission: to round up local grassroots activists, whose promotion of popular struggle Israel had no answer for. Amongst those taken was 45 year old Wa’el Al-Faqeeh. Fifty soldiers stormed his home, pointing their weapons at him and his family as though the man they had come to arrest embodied a formidable threat. But those who know Al Faqeeh know that he worked tirelessly – and on a largely voluntary basis – in defense of human rights and the promotion of the strategies and philosophy of Palestinian non-violent resistance.

Political prisoner Wa’el Al-Faqeeh has been detained without charge by Israeli authorities for over a month, and is now facing trial in a military court scheduled to begin on the 19th of January. The abduction of Al-Faqeeh from his home, along with 4 other activists in the Nablus region, marked the beginning of the recent surge in Israel’s targeting of leaders of Palestinian popular resistance.

We call on you to take effective and public action to end the arrest, detention and mistreatment of Palestinian human rights activists such as Wa’el Al-Faqeeh. Deprived of his liberty and his voice, we ask you to join us in exercising our freedom of speech where he can not by calling for the release of Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners inside Israel’s jails.

What you can do to help:

* Contact your representatives asking them to exert pressure on Israeli officials to release Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and to end the unlawful imprisonment of human rights defenders. Click here to send a letter to Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union. Click here to send a letter to the American consulate in Jerusalem, or use the sample letter here to send to your respective representative. You can find a list of embassies and their contact information here.

* Host an event, or hold a demonstration or action in your area to raise awareness, support – and even funds – for Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners. You could organise a film night, street projection, “Free the Prisoners” party, or a demonstration outside an Israeli embassy or consulate in your country. Organisers can contact palreports@gmail.com for media support.

* Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faces military court on the January 19. His legal defence comes at a high price and contributions to his legal fund support both Al-Faqeeh and his family. You can make a donation to the Free Wa’el fund here.


You can follow updates on Al-Faqeeh’s case and get in touch with his supporters by joining the Free Wa’el Facebook group here.

Popular struggle organizer Wa’el Al-Faqeeh sentenced to one year

18 July 2010

International Solidarity Movement

Palestinian human rights activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh has been sentenced to one year in Israeli military prison, on the charge of aiding an illegal organization. Al-Faqeeh was arrested by the Israeli military on 9 December 2009, thus due to be released in December of this year.

The sentence was handed down in Salem military prrison, in which Al-Faqeeh was found guilty by a military judge of aiding an illegal organization. The charge has served as a useful and thinly veiled pretext in the arrest of hundreds of Palestinian activists. Al-Faqeeh was also ordered to pay a fine of 2000 shekels.

Al-Faqeeh will serve his sentence in Megiddo prison in northern Israel. The act of imprisoning inmates from an occupied territory inside the occupying country is illegal under international law. Megiddo prison is notorious for its harsh treatment of inmates, where prisoners sleep in tents in crowded pens, providing little shelter from the extremities of weather in winter and summer.

Al-Faqeeh was arrested during an Israeli military night raid operation in Nablus on 9 December 2009. He and 8 others, including 3 other prominent grassroots activists were arrested during the operation, including Myasser Itiani, Nasser Itiani and Mussa Salama. Nasser Itiani is now serving his second term of administrative detention and is due to be released in August. Salama, well-known in the Nablus region for his work with the Labour Committee of Medical Relief Workers has been sentenced to one year on identical charges to Al-Faqeeh and is due to be released in December.

The arrests marked a significant surge in Israel’s crackdown on the popular struggle, evidenced by the subsequent arrests of Bil’in popular committee leader Abdullah Abu-Rahmah, Stop the Wall campaign leader Jamal Juma’ and Ibrahim Amirah and several other members of the Ni’lin popular committee.

Palestine: Israeli crackdown exposes its aims

Bridget Chappell | GreenLeft

27 May 2010

Israel has exposed the extent of its crackdown on resistance to its occupation in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on April 29. It claimed the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agency has been conducting surveillance on myself, a non-violent activist and Australian citizen, in Area A of the West Bank.

The affidavit claimed my arrest on February 7 and the ongoing surveillance of my activities was justified on account of various Israeli military orders. This highlights the Israel’s overall authority in the implementation of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories and its total disregard for the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo peace accords.

On May 2, the Israeli state submitted a response to our appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court regarding my illegal abduction from the West Bank, including a statement from the Shin Bet Israeli intelligence agency claiming that I had broken the conditions placed on me by the Israeli courts since my arrest.

A Shin Bet agent said: “The facts detailed are known to me due to my examination. From information in our possession, it appears that Ms. Chappell is at this time in Nablus.”

The question of what the Shin Bet was doing in Area A of the West Bank (under full Palestinian civilian and military control, as stipulated by the 1993 Oslo accords) is not even addressed: it is as though their presence in an area of Palestinian Authority control has simply been accepted and the Oslo Accords are simply as obsolete as they were following Israel’s re-occupation of the entire West Bank during the second intifada (uprising) that broke out in 2000.

Is it really possible that a 22-year old Australian activist working with a non-violent movement in the occupied West Bank could constitute such a threat to the Israeli state as to warrant such investigation?

Such draconian practices as military raids and undercover surveillance is behavior generally associated with states recognised and condemned for their intolerance of dissent, such as Iran. Israel’s media machine, however, continues to present itself as the region’s only democratic state.

In fact, my arrest from Ramallah and the Shin Bet’s new claim that I am under surveillance serves to further abolish the myth of Palestinian control in the West Bank.

It’s clear that Israel’s matrix of control in the occupied territories extends not only to the entire Palestinian population, but international activists involved in the popular resistance.

The extent of Israeli attempts to crack down on international participation in the struggle, however, only serves to focus the eyes of the world on what Israel has hoped to execute stealthily: the bantustanisation (division into separate ghettoes) of Palestine.

Israel’s brutal system of dealing with resistance, whatever form it takes, is the same. I recall a cultural celebration I took part in that resulted in the violent arrest of seven Palestinians and one international activist.

Their crime was simply engaging in what should have been a joyful assertion of Palestinian culture and history in a city, Al Quds (Jerusalem), which lies at the center of Israel’s current campaign of ethnic cleansing.

I witnessed the same brutal force employed against Palestinians during the olive harvest last year, when international and Israeli activists join forces with Palestinian farmers to reach their lands for the annual harvest — in the face of severe military repression.

Meanwhile, Israel has heightened its use of live ammunition as a crowd dispersal technique against the growing wave of non-violent demonstrations taking place across Gaza and the West Bank. This has resulted in the death of three Palestinian protesters in the last two months.

Israel’s intolerance of resistance is shown by the imprisonment of Palestinian activists, which has recently included several prominent figures in the resurgence of popular resistance, such as Nablus activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh.

Wa’el and I coordinated non-violent actions in the Nablus region against the occupation, responding to settler violence and demonstrations against land annexation.

Wa’el was arrested in a military raid on his home on 9 December 2009 — yet while ISM activists were involved in the same activities, he remains imprisoned by Israel to this day, still without charge.

The veiled system of martial law in the West Bank that has enabled the arrest and imprisonment of more than 650,000 Palestinian political prisoners since 1967 now appears to have broadened its targets to include international activists as well.

In my legal council’s two latest appeals to the district and supreme courts, the state has argued on the grounds of my alleged violation of a 1970 military order prohibiting “infiltrators” from remaining in the occupied territories for longer than 48 hours without written permission from the military commander of the region.

The law appears to be a precursor to Military Order 1650, implemented one month ago, which denotes the military’s ability to deport civilians from the West Bank without documentation proving their residence or permission to be there, at their own expense.

This potentially includes thousands of West Bank residents with Gazan, Jerusalem or Jordanian addresses on their ID cards, as well as international activists.

If the PA held any sovereignty over the West Bank, my return to the area would not only have been of no relevance to the Israeli authorities, but a realization of their demand for me to leave their borders.

The reality is that my court case only serves to further highlight the true nature of Israeli control over every inch of historic Palestine, be it within Israel proper or any area of the occupied territories.

Australian activist Bridget Chappell was arrested by Israeli security forces in February along with Spanish activist Ariadna Marti, in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Chappell and Marti were working for the International Solidarity Movement supporting peaceful Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. Below, Chappell details the increased repression by Israel against all forms of resistance in the occupied territories.

Grassroots activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faces military court, still without charge

16 March 2010

Palestinian activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faced his third hearing in Salim military court on 11 March. His detention period was extended until 24 April when the next hearing will take place. Al-Faqeeh remains imprisoned without charge since his arrest from his Nablus home on 9 December 2009. It is expected that Al-Faqeeh will be charged with aiding an illegal organization, a common pretext employed by the Israeli military to imprison politically active Palestinians, and faces a minimum of 12 months behind bars.

Al-Faqeeh, imprisoned for over three months now, sent a message to his loved ones from Jelemeh prison as he began the new year imprisoned by Israel’s occupation forces: “I am the captive Wael Al-Faqeeh, wishing the free world a Happy New Year full of peace, security and love. I hope for a year of enlightment in all human relations, and a renewed call for peace agreements, supported by the free people of the world. It is my hope that we can design and build a society free from all forms of discrimination and persecution.”

Al-Faqeeh’s wife Myassar has been denied permission to visit her husband in Megiddo prison where he has been held for the last 2 months. She has been afforded only two brief glimpses of Al-Faqeeh since the arrest, at hearings at Salim military court which have lasted an average of 3 minutes. Permission was granted to his two eldest daughters however, who will make the journey to Megiddo in northern Israel next week.

Reports that Al-Faqeeh’s health has deteriorated whilst in prison have fueled his family and friends’ concern for the human rights activist. Family members and fellow solidarity activists have lodged requests to the Red Cross and Physicians For Human Rights to visit Al-Faqeeh and ensure that his health is sufficiently attended to.

Al-Faqeeh, 45 years old, was kidnapped in a night raid on his family’s home in Nablus on 9 December 2009, when a force of over 200 Israeli soldiers entered the city in an operation to arrest prominent grassroots activists in the region. Al-Faqeeh is known throughout the community for his tireless support of the Palestinian non-violent struggle and organization of countless community-outreach projects, demonstrations and cultural/educational programs for Nablus’ youth. The arrests signaled an escalation in Israel’s attempts to crack down on the resurgence of Palestine’s popular resistance against the illegal occupation, evidenced by the subsequent arrests of community leaders Abdullah Abu-Rahmah and Mohammad Khatib of Bil’in, Ibrahim Amirah and Hassan Mousa of Ni’lin and Jamal Juma’, head of the Stop The Wall campaign, from Jerusalem.

Take action against Israel’s detention of Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners here.

Free Wa’el Al-Faqeeh

Wa'el Al-Faqeeh

15 January 2010

On the night of December 9th 2009, over 200 Israeli soldiers entered the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Their mission: to round up local grassroots activists, whose promotion of popular struggle Israel had no answer for. Amongst those taken was 45 year old Wa’el Al-Faqeeh. Fifty soldiers stormed his home, pointing their weapons at him and his family as though the man they had come to arrest embodied a formidable threat. But those who know Al Faqeeh know that he worked tirelessly – and on a largely voluntary basis – in defense of human rights and the promotion of the strategies and philosophy of Palestinian non-violent resistance.

Political prisoner Wa’el Al-Faqeeh has been detained without charge by Israeli authorities for over a month, and is now facing trial in a military court scheduled to begin on the 19th of January. The abduction of Al-Faqeeh from his home, along with 4 other activists in the Nablus region, marked the beginning of the recent surge in Israel’s targeting of leaders of Palestinian popular resistance.

We call on you to take effective and public action to end the arrest, detention and mistreatment of Palestinian human rights activists such as Wa’el Al-Faqeeh. Deprived of his liberty and his voice, we ask you to join us in exercising our freedom of speech where he can not by calling for the release of Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners inside Israel’s jails.

What you can do to help:

* Contact your representatives asking them to exert pressure on Israeli officials to release Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and to end the unlawful imprisonment of human rights defenders. Click here to send a letter to Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union. Click here to send a letter to the American consulate in Jerusalem, or use the sample letter here to send to your respective representative. You can find a list of embassies and their contact information here.

* Host an event, or hold a demonstration or action in your area to raise awareness, support – and even funds – for Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners. You could organise a film night, street projection, “Free the Prisoners” party, or a demonstration outside an Israeli embassy or consulate in your country. Organisers can contact palreports@gmail.com for media support.

* Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faces military court on the January 19. His legal defence comes at a high price and contributions to his legal fund support both Al-Faqeeh and his family. You can make a donation to the Free Wa’el fund here.


You can follow updates on Al-Faqeeh’s case and get in touch with his supporters by joining the Free Wa’el Facebook group here.