Freedom for Baseem al Tamimi and other activists

the Arrest of four activists, including BassimTamimi 

Today 10/24/2012 ... a group of Palestinian and international activists storming the mall (Rami lave) calling for boycott of Israeli goods

نشطاء المقاومة الشعبية وأجانب يقتحمون سوق "رامي ليفي" الاستيطاني المقام على أراضي مخماس، اليوم الاربعاء 24-10-2012
تصوير هيثم الخطيب

Zuhair Lubbada, Nablus

لقد استشهد أول اسير فلسطيني
فلتقلب الطاولة يا سيادة الرئيس أبو مازن...
----------------------
الأسير المحرر الشهيد زهير لبادة (38 عامًا)، ولد في مدينة نابلس، ويعد من قيادات حركة حماس في المدينة، وقد أبعد إلى مرج الزهور عام 1992، اعتقلته قوات الاحتلال أكثر من مرة، كما أن الأجهزة الأمنية في الضفة الغربية احتجزته أكثر من مرة ولعدة أيام أحيانا.

عندما أعتقله الاحتلال قبل 6 أشهر كان وضعه الصحي متدهورا جدا، حيث حمله جنود الاحتلال من على فراش المرض على أكتافهم، بينما حمل ضابط الدورية كيس دواءه.

بعد تدهور وضعه الصحي في سجن مستشفى الرملة، أفرجت عنه سلطات الاحتلال قبل 5 أيام، واليوم فاضت روح الشهيد لبادة إلى باريها بعد دخوله في حالة غيبوبة

========================================================

Молим Аллах да приеме днешният ни мъченик Зухайр Люббада (38г) от Наблус, лидер и активен борец срещу окупацията, посветил живота си по пътя на Аллах! Молим Го за най-прекрсаното място в Рая за скъпия ни брат и за всички мъченици от общността ни. Подкрепа и търпение от Аллах за семейството му, и умножена награда!
Зухайр Люббада е сред хората, екстрадирани в Мардж Аз-Зухур през 1992г.Многократно арестуван от израелските сили и от палестинските власти от Западен бряг. Когато го арестували преди 6 месеца, нашият брат бил с влошено здраве и израелските войници го изнесли на раменете си от болничното му легло, а полковникът носел торбата му с лекарства.
В затворническата болница в Рамле, състоянието му станало много тежко и преди седмица окупатора освободи Зухейр Люббада, последва изпадането му в кома и днес Аллах го удостои със шахада.

========================================================

Lubbada is suffering from liver scleroses in addition to a kidney disease; he was immediately admitted after Israel released him when his attorney managed to convince an Israeli judge to release him due to the seriousness of his health condition.

Lubbada was held under Israel’s illegal Administrative Detention orders without charges or trial.

There are hundreds of ailing Palestinians who are still held by Israel, deprived from their right to specialized and adequate medical care.

Marking Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17, the Palestinian Central Census Bureau and the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees issued a joint release revealing that 201 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since 1967 due to torture, medical negligence, and by use of live ammunition. More than a third of this number has died in Israeli prisons since late 2000; the beginning of the second intifada.

527 of the detainees held by Israel were sentenced to a minimum of one life-term, and 822 detainees are currently awaiting trial.

Currently, Israel is holding captive nearly 4,700 detainees in 17 prisons, detention and interrogation centers. This includes 6 women, 185 children and 27 elected legislators. The current number of Administrative Detainees is approximately 320.

The murder of Mustafa Tamimi

Dear friend,

I have just been released from jail, after three days inside. I was arrested last Friday, together with 22 others, in the village of Nabi Saleh, during a demonstration commemorating the murder of Mustafa Tamimi. Our arrest took place as we peacefully protested near the entrance to the Jewish-only settlement of Halamish, which is built on lands stolen from Nabi Saleh.

Minutes after we got to the gate, Israeli Border Police officers moved in to remove us from the scene. Palestinians, Israeli and international activists, we were all shackled and dragged away into military jeeps that transported us to the adjacent military base, which is in fact part of the settlement.

In the military base, still shackled, I was assaulted by a settler who hit me in the face, leaving me with a bloody nose. Shortly after, the settler also attacked a female Israeli activist who was by my side. The soldiers and policemen present did not prevent the attack, nor did they bother to detain the settler after the fact. Instead, the zip-tie locks on my hands were removed, only for my arms to be bound again, this time behind my back.

Hours later, at the police station, I learned that to cover up their responsibility for my attack, the soldiers have laid a bogus complaint against me for assaulting them. My hands were tied, my face was bleeding, but it was I who spent the night in the inside of prison cell.

Mohammed Tamimi from Nabi Saleh was also arrested during that same demonstration. While the police decided to release all the others, he and I were to remain in jail. During our demonstrations, soldiers often take pictures, to later use them as "incriminating evidence". This time, the soldiers used one such picture to accuse Mohammed of throwing stones during a demonstration a few weeks or months back. The man pictured in that photograph is not Mohammed Tamimi from Nabi Saleh, regardless, he remains in jail. Military law allows Israel to keep us Palestinians in jail for eight days before seeing a judge, and even then, it is a soldier in uniform who is the so called neutral arbitrator.

As the prison doors closed behind me, my happiness was clouded by the fact that Mohammed Tamimi was not released. The battle for his freedom is only beginning, as our lawyers prepare the petition for his release. If you can, please help us fund legal aidfor him and for the countless others who are regularly arrested protesting Israeli Occupation.

I would also like to use this letter to extend my gratitude to Ayala Shani, an Israeli comrade who was arrested with me. She refused the injustice of being released while both me and Mohammed Tamimi were still detained. As these words are written, she is still in jail, despite having been offered her freedom twice already by Israeli courts.

Sincerely,
Mohammed Khatib

====================================================

Mohammed Khatib, a prominenet protest ofrganizer from the village of Bil'in and the coordinator of the PSCC, was arrested during a demonstration in memory and protest of the killing of Mustafa Tamimi. Mustafa was murdered by a soldier who shot a si ngle tear-gas projectile at him from only a few meters away while standing safely within an armoured military jeep. The demonstration Khatib was arrested in, together with 22 others - Palestinians, Israelis and internationals - was the first to take place after the shooting. But the Israeli army, unaccountable and unafeected, supressed this demonstration too, barraging the protesters with tear-gas and making arrests. Please help us demand accountabilty and providing legal-aid by making a donation to our legal fund

Mustafa Tamimi (left) a moment before his injury. Circled in red are the barrel of the gun and the projectile that hit him. Picture credit: Haim Scwarczenberg

Israeli Forces Arrest Two Palestinian Boys, Ages 11 and 12, in Beit Ommar

27 JANUARY 2011

On Thursday, January 27th at 2pm, two army jeeps full of Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank, and arrested two Palestinian boys, Bilal Mahmood Awad, age 12, and Hamza Ahmed Abu Hashem age 11. The boys were arrested while they were playing football not far from their homes.

Bilal and Hamza were taken to the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur and then transferred to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron. Hamza is the son of a member of the National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ommar, a committee that organizes weekly unarmed demonstrations against the occupation.

Israel was a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which mandated that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be used only as a measure of last resort.” By all eyewitness accounts, Bilal and Hamza were only playing football in their own village at the time of their arrest. As of yet, no explanation has been given for their detention.

Israel routinely imprisons Palestinian minors under the age of 18 in the Occupied Territories, often in violation of International Law. Another Beit Ommar youth, Mohammad Awad, age 14, was released from an Israeli prison earlier this month after serving a month and a half despite his young age and affliction with a chronic medical condition.

source: Palestine Solidarity Project

Arrests and night raids: the repression of the Popular Struggle in Nabi Saleh

Shackled and drowning in an adult prison uniform, 14 year old Islam Tamimi was brought before a military court this morning for a hearing on his detention. Exhausted and nervous, Tamimi sat before a court room of soldiers. Tamimi was arrested during a night raid in the village of Nabi Saleh early Sunday morning. After soldiers arrested the child, they forced him to stand outside in the cold until 09h00 Sunday morning. Soldiers also repeatedly threatened the child while he was in their custody.

Upon hearing the news, defense lawyers for Tamimi contacted the army and police to ask permission to meet with the child before his investigation. Interrogators responded that access would be granted to the child’s lawyers and parents, however this never happened. Tamimi was taken for investigation at 09h30 on Sunday morning and only at 14h00 in the afternoon did his lawyers gain access to their client. The investigation of the child, who was taken from his bed in the middle of night, forced to stand in the cold and received threats from fully armed soldiers, took eight hours in total.

In the courthouse this morning, after explaining the arrest and interrogation of the child, Tamimi’s defense lawyer pleaded with the judge to view the child as a scared and traumatized 14 year old. However, the army prosecutor said that the child was considered ‘extremely dangerous’ and for that reason must stay in jail for the entire period of his trial. The army prosecutor also informed the court that the army had ’secret’ evidence against the child which the defense was not entitled to view. The military judge presiding over the hearing asked the prosecutor why the child was not given proper legal recourse nor allowed access to his lawyer. The army prosecutor responded simply “it was authorized.” The judge pushed furthur and asked, “it was authorized by whom?” Again, the answer from the army was short and Kafkaesque , “it was authorized by the person who authorizes.”

With that the child was taken back to jail from the courtroom. He will have another hearing tomorrow morning to determine if he will stay in jail during the entire process of his trial. The answer is surely yes.

One hour after Isalm Tamimi was taken back to his jail cell, the popular committee leader of Nabi Saleh, Basama Tamimi, was arrested in the village along with two 15 year old boys. Tamimi was taken in for questioning, most likely in reference to the testimony unethically gleaned from Isalm Tamimi. After two hours Bassam was released however, at the time of this writing the two 15 year old children remain in custody. According to Tamimi, he was beaten while in Israeli custody. The location of the two arrested children currently unknown.

Villagers fear that in the coming days there will be another round of night raids and arrests of the village’s youth. The strategy that Israel is using against Nabi Saleh is very similar to the one employed against the village of Bil’in. The popular committee leader of Bil’in, Abdallah Abu Rahmah has been in jail for over 13 months on charges of incitement. His conviction was based on testimonies of three 14 year old children from the village.
–
While the world is debating the death of the two state solution, Israel maintains a strict and harsh control of unarmed civil mobilization efforts against the occupation. The real failure of the Palestinian Authority, as shown in the Palestine Papers, is its inability to nurture mass unarmed civil resistance to Israeli occupation. The popular struggle in villages like Bil’in, Ni’ilin and Nabi Saleh presents a unique form of community based organizing and resistance in the tradition of the first Palestinian Intifada. These diverse, non-partisan committees lead community resistance to Israeli occupation in various forms, such as marches, strikes, demonstrations, direct actions and legal campaigns, as well as supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). However, the movement is being crushed in the form extreme violence during demonstrations (21 unarmed demonstrators have been killed since 2005 and thousands have been injuried), criminal misconduct by Israeli soldiers and the use of the occupation legal system to imprison popular committee leaders such as Abdallah Abu Rahmah.

Breaking: another child arrested in Nabi Saleh

Тhe 11 year old brother of Isalm Tamimi- a 14 year old child who was arrested in Nabi Saleh during a night raid on the village- has been arrested this morning by the army in Nabi Saleh. Isalm Tamimi was interrogated for eight hours after his arrest early Sunday morning. Yesterday, the state asked for him to remain in jail until a hearing on Thursday.

In an escalation of the repression on unarmed demonstration in the West Bank, 14 year old Islam Tamimi was arrested from his home at 0200 on Sunday morning. It was the second time in roughly three weeks that he was taken by soldiers. However, the army moved him to the Ofer military jail instead of interrogating him on the spot and releasing him. After an eight hour session of interrogation on Sunday, Tamimi confessed to throwing stones during the weekly demonstrations against the occupation in Nabi Saleh. Tamimi’s lawyers were present in the police station and constantly pleaded with interrogators to talk with the child but were only given access to their client after five hours of interrogation. His parents, who have legal right to be present when a child is under investigation, were denied access to their son. Imagine a 14 year old child pulled from bed at 02:00 in the morning by fully armed soldiers and then interrogated without parents or lawyer present. Horrifying and sick.

Islam Tamimi was arrested Sunday in Nabi Saleh. Picture Credit: Alison Rammer

After five hours of interrogation, lawyers were finally able to gain access to the horrified Tamimi and learned that he made the exact confession of stone throwing that the army was after. Due to the traumatic experience that he was put through, Tamimi said that we would provide any information which the army wanted about Nabi Saleh. He was ready to make up information because, as a child, he really does not know the workings of the village and the planning of the demonstrations. On Monday morning, Tamimi was brought before a military court. The state asked the court to hold Tamimi until Thursday when he was scheduled to have a trial. Tamimi’s defense requested to have the trial date closer because Tamimi is a child. The judge has yet to give a decision.

In a cruel twist of events, Israeli police and soldiers raided the village of Nabi Saleh Tuesday morning and arrested Tamimi’s 11 year old brother. The child is now being held with his brother and is undergoing the same interrogation process that his brother did on Sunday. Defense lawyers believe that this is a sick tactic designed to punish Tamimi for requesting a quicker trial date. The 11 year old has not been charged with any crime. However, the pressure of Israeli integrators and the absolute fear of being taken by armed soldiers almost always resulted in a confession of stone throwing whether or not it is the truth.

–

Beyond the headlines of the Palestine Papers, the arrest of Tamimi and his 11 year old brother demonstrate the inner workings of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and control of the Palestinian population. Israel is using one of the most advanced military machines in the world to raid small villages and arrest children. The children are put through traumatic and psychologically scarring experiences in order to glean false testimonies which are used against the leaders of unarmed movements of civil resistance. Numerous Palestinian Gandhi’s such as Bil’in’s Abdallah Abu Rahmah are thrown in jail based on these false testimonies. It is part of the cycle of Israeli repression of Palestinian civil resistance. Sadly,this story is one of hundreds that go unreported every week in the West Bank. This is the what maintenance of the Israeli occupation looks like.

Source: Joseph Dana

Israeli forces arrest anti-wall organizer

Press Release, Addameer, 25 September 2009



Mohammad Othman (Stop the Wall)

Addameer expresses its concern at the arrest and detention of human rights defender and activist Mohammad Othman on 22 September 2009. Mohammad, 33, originally from Jayyus village, is a human rights activist and a volunteer with the grassroots Stop the Wall Campaign.

At 8:00 am, on 22 September 2009, Mohammad arrived at the Allenby Bridge Crossing. He was returning home, to the West Bank, via Jordan, from his travels in Norway where he attended several speaking events and advocacy meetings. At the Israeli border control, Mohammad's passport was taken away, and he was asked to wait on the side. Mohammad waited until 10pm at the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing without any information for the reasons of his detention. At 10pm, he was arrested and transferred to Huwwara provisional detention center, located on the outskirts of Nablus. Two days later, on 24 September, he received a visit from an International Committee of the Red Cross delegate and was allowed to see a lawyer. Since the moment of his arrest, he has not been either questioned or interrogated once. Mohammad is due to appear before the military court on Tuesday, 29 September 2009.

Addameer believes that Mohammad Othman's arrest is related to his human rights activism. In the last few years, Mohammad has been extremely active in his lobbying and advocacy efforts by briefing activists and officials, locally and internationally, on Israel's illegal construction of the Apartheid Wall, informing the media on daily developments and monitoring human rights violations in wall-affected villages.

This is not the first time that the Israeli authorities have attempted to deter Mohammad from his human rights work. On 18 February 2009, during a night incursion and mass arrest of youth in Jayyus village, located in Qalqiliya governorate, the Israeli soldiers raided several houses, including that of Mohammad. They confiscated documents and information related to his advocacy against the Annexation Wall. In an interview given to Stop the Wall on 15 June 2009, Mohammad stated: "in my house, they took all the information about the Wall, information that had been collected from 2002-2009, CDs, boxes, pictures."

Addameer stresses that Mohammad's case is not isolated. In a report ("Repression allowed, Resistance denied") jointly published with Stop the Wall last July, Addameer argues that arrests of demonstrators and human rights defenders is a strategy designed to stifle activism and deter Palestinians from participating and organizing weekly protests against the Apartheid Wall, as a form of resistance to land confiscation. Collective punishment, including night raids and curfews, as well as individual threats of detention are also often applied. There is strong evidence that the Israeli Occupying Forces target the more active youth for arrest, such as the members of youth committees, but also members of popular committees, in order to break up protests and create disunity.

Most recently, in a similar event, on 20 July 2009, Mohammad Srour, a member of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Nilin, another village affected by the construction of the Annexation Wall, was detained by Israeli border officials while crossing the Allenby Bridge from Jordan and taken to Ofer prison for interrogation. He was released on bail three days later. Although Srour was not charged, the courts said they were likely going to charge him, but they did not say on what grounds he was to be charged, or when. No court date has been set for his reappearance. In its final report submitted to the Human Rights Council, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict expressed its concern that his detention "may have been a consequence of his appearance before the Mission." Indeed, on 6 July 2009, together with an Israeli activist, Srour testified before the Mission in Geneva and described the fatal shooting of two Nilin residents, by Israeli forces during a demonstration against the conflict in Gaza in Nilin on 28 December 2008. This arrest, like the arrest of Mohammad Othman, is an indication of the increasing oppression of Palestinian communities engaging in ongoing protest against the Wall. Addameer is alarmed at the growing number of arrests of human rights defenders and protestors against the Apartheid Wall and stresses that such arrests are in violation to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and infringe on everyone's "right to freedom of opinion and expression" and the "right to freedom of assembly."

Addameer strongly condemns Mohammad Othman's arbitrary arrest and detention, and calls for his release. At the same time, Addameer reiterates its call to establish real mechanisms to protect the popular resistance against the Annexation Wall and their right to freedom of assembly.

Four injured and dozens suffered teargas inhalation during International Children’s Day demonstration in Bil’in

10 April

Following Friday prayers in Bil’in today, residents held a protest against the wall and settlement building. A group of children from the village were at the front of the protest holding Palestinian flags and banners remarking International Children’s Day. Some banners said “It’s our right to live safely”, “The wall kills our hopes and dreams”, “Settlements and the wall leave us with no future”. There were also pictures of children with the caption “Wanted by the Israeli occupation for resisting the wall”.

The protest began in the center of the village and was joined by international and Israeli activists. The demonstration headed towards the Apartheid Wall, which is built on Bil’in’s land. An Israeli army unit had been stationed behind the wall since early morning and prevented the crowd from going through the gate. The army fired tear gas canisters to disturb the crowd, causing dozens to suffer gas inhalation, and they injured four young’s, one of them journalist his name Mohammed Muhesen working in AP, Kubi from Israel, Abdullah Aburahma, and Adeeb Aburahma.

On the other hand, the Israeli army, which is at the wall, arrested two children from Bil’in : Wajdy Ali Shehada Abu Rahma (16 years) and Hamouda Emad Hahmouda Yassin (16 years). They have beat them and then leave them near the village of Qatana after midnight, where they have access to the city Ramallah, and then arrived in the village on foot early in the morning, and this is came within the suffering of the Palestinian children by the Israeli soldiers, which coincides with the Children’s Day. For this the Popular Committee for wall resistance in the village they intervention of human rights organizations in general and children’s rights in particular, to stop the violence from the soldiers that they injured or arrest, or beat them and intimidate them and leave them in areas far from their homes after midnight.