Friday, September 11, 2009

Hamas prisoners condemn decision to exile Tulkarem imam to Hebron


Published Thursday 10/09/2009 (updated) 10/09/2009 19:02

Area C of Hebron appears in white
[Map: UN-OCHA]
Gaza – Ma’an – In a message smuggled from Israel’s Negev Desert prison camp, the supreme committee of Hamas prisoners condemned an Israeli court decision to exile a Palestinian Imam from the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

The committee said that the decision to maroon Sheikh Abdullah Yasin Fuqaha in the hills south of Hebron could set a dangerous precedent if practiced against other detainees.

The statement also called the decision “harmful” and called on human rights organizations to oppose such measures.

The unprecedented verdict, passed down on 44-year-old Abdullah Fuqaha from the town of Kafr Al-Labad near Tulkarem, will see Fuqaha barred from cities, towns and most villages in the southernmost municipality.

Fuqaha is restricted to “Area C,” as defined by the 1993 Oslo Accords, the areas under exclusive Israeli military and civil control. In the map above, areas that are completely white are “Area C,” mostly in the south Hebron hills and bordering settlements, areas usually declared closed military zones and inaccessible to locals.

Fuqaha, who worked as an Imam in his village mosque, is married and has seven children. He must now find a residence in “Area C” where he has no family, and inform Israeli authorities where he is living. The conditions were set following his 28-month administrative detention in the Negev prison where Fuqaha was held without charge. Previous to this sentence Fuqaha spent four years in Israeli custody on charges of supporting Hamas.

Former prisoner exiled to southern West Bank in Israeli first
Published Tuesday 08/09/2009 (updated) 10/09/2009 10:53
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Hebron governorate. "Area C" apprears in
white [Map: UN-OCHA]
Bethlehem – Ma’an – In an unprecedented Israeli judicial decision, a released prisoner from Tulkarem Governorate, in the northern West Bank, will be exiled to “Area C” in the Hebron Governorate.

The verdict, passed down on 44-year-old Abdullah Fuqaha from the town of Kafr Al-Labad near Tulkarem, will see Fuqaha barred from cities, towns and most villages in the southernmost area of the West Bank. “Area C,” as defined by the 1993 Oslo Accords, are areas under exclusive Israeli military and civil control.

In the map above, areas that are completely white are “Area C,” mostly in the south Hebron hills and bordering settlements, areas usually declared closed military zones and inaccessible to locals.

Fuqaha, who worked as an Imam in his village mosque, is married and has seven children. He must now find a residence in “Area C” where he has no family, and inform Israeli authorities where he is living. The conditions were set following his 28-month administrative detention in the Negev prison where Fuqaha was held without charge. Previous to this sentence Fuqaha spent four years in Israeli custody on charges of supporting Hamas.

Responding to the conditions of his release, Fuqaha described exile in his own homeland as a tougher punishment than imprisonment.