Friday, January 29, 2010

Wa’ed society hails Haneyya for declaring 2010 year for prisoners

[ 27/01/2010 - 04:40 PM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- Wa’ed society for detainees and ex-detainees on Monday hailed Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya for declaring that 2010 would be a year for prisoners, saying such a step would contribute to serving the issue of detainees in Israeli jails.
It stressed in a statement that the issue of prisoners needs the efforts and support of all Palestinians at all levels, calling for making this year full of activities and events that highlight this issue.
Premier Haneyya had declared that 2010 would a year for prisoners as last year was for occupied Jerusalem and called for internationalize their issue through holding an international conference.

Ramallah protest calls for freedom for writer and journalist Ali Jaradat

Posted on the PFLP website

jihad-gefang.jpg
The National and Islamic Forces and the Union of Palestinian Journalists, alongside the Popular Campaign to Free Writer and Journalist Ali Jaradat, held a protest in solidarity with the imprisoned Palestinian writer in Ramallah on January 23, 2009, calling for his release from administrative detention and highlighting his slow death in the prisons of the occupation as he struggles with several life-threatening diseases.

The protest, including a large number of journalists and writers, representatives of national and Islamic forces and human rights organizations, gathered in Manara Square in Ramallah. Comrade Abdel-Rahim Mallouh, Deputy General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, addressed the rally, calling for international legal and human rights organizations to act to save the life of Ali Jaradat and all ill prisoners and, collectively, all of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees, demanding that all of the prisoners be freed.

Jamil Shehadeh, speaking on behalf of the National and Islamic Forces, reiterated the call for the release of all Palestinian prisoners from the jails of the occupation, and pledging to struggle until the liberation of all of them.

Naim Tubasi spoke on behalf of the Union of Palestinian Journalists, saying that writers and journalists stand behind their colleague Ali Jaradat, calling for a global humanitarian campaign for his release.

Popular Campaign calls for freedom for imprisoned Palestinian writer Ali Jaradat

Posted on the PFLP website

ali-abdul-rahman-jaradat.jpg
Click here for French translation
The Popular Campaign to Free Writer and Journalist Ali Jaradat issued an urgent call on January 20, 2010, to protect the life of imprisoned Palestinian writer and journalist Ali Jaradat. Jaradat, 57 years old, has been held repeatedly in administrative detention, with the most recent detention stretching from the time he was kidnapped from his home in Ramallah on April 22, 2008.

Despite the passage of nearly two years in administrative detention, said the Popular Campaign, he has not been charged or tried, and his detention has been extended repeatedly under the pretext of a "closed security file." Ali Jaradat is a writer and journalist, and a member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers.

During this detention, he has been subjected to interrogation, cruelty and abuse, including medical misttreatment and neglect, particularly of his heart disease and coronary artery disease after the heart attack he suffered in the Ofer detention camp, during a prior period of administrative detention, in March 2004. Since that time, he must take medication on a daily basis.

He has developed chronic heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, which together have become life-threatening, particularly in conditions of imprisonment and detention. In mid-2008, his diabetes worsened and he must now take daily medication. The popular campaign noted that he has on multiple occasions, like many prisoners, been denied adequate medical care. In fact, he has not received a comprehensive medical examination in nearly two years.

Instead, he has been transfered to Ofer, Naqab, Eshel, Nafha, and Kedar prisons, all while under administrative detention, in extremely harsh conditions of transport, without charge or trial.

During his detention, he has been denied family visits with his wife and children, adding to his suffering.

His administrative detention has been extended once again, until March 1, 2010. The call urged all forces of freedom and social justice organizations to act to save the life of the struggling imprisoned writer and journalist Ali Jaradat, through all forms of pressure on the Israeli government, calling for his release, medical treatment and return to his family.

Mohammed Khatib, Coordinator of West Bank Coordination Committee Arrested

PSCC Logo
Press Release
28 January, 2010

Israeli arrests aimed at quashing popular resistance continue: Mohammed Khatib, Coordinator of West Bank Coordination Committee Arrested
In the highest profile arrest of the recent wave of repression against West Bank popular struggle, Israeli soldiers arrested Mohammed Khatib today before dawn. Khatib is a member of Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlement in the West Bank village of Bil'in and the coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee.
For more details: +972546327736 | media@popularstruggle.org
At a quarter to two AM tonight, Mohammed Khatib, his wife Lamia and their four young children were awakened by Israeli soldiers storming their home, which was surrounded by a large military force. Once inside the house, the soldiers arrested Khatib, conducted a quick search and left the house.
Mohammed Khatib during a speaking his speaking tour in Canada last year. Pictures Credit: Tadamon!
Mohammed Khatib during a speech on his speaking tour in Canada last year. Pictures Credit: Tadamon!
Roughly half an hour after leaving the house, five military jeeps surrounded the house again, and six soldiers forced their way into the house again, where Khatib's children sat in terror, and conducted another, very thorough search of the premises, without showing a search warrant. During the search, Khatib's phone and many documents were seized, including papers from Bil'in's legal procedures in the Israel High Court.
The soldiers exited an hour and a half later, leaving a note saying that documents suspected as "incitement materials" were seized. International activists who tried to enter the house to be with the family during the search were aggressively denied entry.
Mohammed Khatib was previously arrested during the ongoing wave of arrests and repression on Augst 3rd, 2009 with charges of incitement and stone throwing. After two weeks of detention, a military judge ruled that evidence against him was falsified and ordered his release, after it was proven that Khatib was abroad at the time the army alleged he was photographed throwing stones during a demonstration.
Khatib's arrest today is the most severe escalation in a recent wave of repression again the Palestinian popular struggle and its leadership. Khatib is the 35th resident of Bil'in to be arrested on suspicions related to anti-Wall protest since June 23rd, 2009.
The recent wave of arrests is largely an assault on the members of the Popular Committees – the leadership of the popular struggle – who are then charged with incitement when arrested. The charge of incitement, defined under Israeli military law as "an attempt, whether verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order," is a cynical attempt to punish grassroots organizing with a hefty charge and lengthy imprisonments. Such indictments are part of the army's strategy of using legal persecution as a means to quash the popular movement.
Similar raids have also been conducted in the village of alMaasara, south of Bethlehem, and in the village of Ni'ilin – where 110 residents have been arrested over the last year and half, as well as in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.
Among those arrested in the recent campaign are three members of the Ni'ilin Popular Committee, Sa'id Yakin of the Palestinian National Committee Against the Wall, and five members of the Bil'in Popular Committee – all suspected of incitement.
Prominent grassroots activists Jamal Jum'a (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigning, have recently been released from detention after being incarcerated for long periods based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.
Background links:
[1] LA Times: Palestinians who see nonviolence as their weapon: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nonviolence4-2009nov04,0,6772369,full.story
[2] Ynet: 2010 will see us beat the occupation:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3840698,00.html

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Haneyya calls for international conference on prisoners

[ 25/01/2010 - 06:24 PM ]


GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya called for organizing an international conference in Gaza on the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.
He said during a meeting on Monday with the minister of prisoners and his staff that the conference should focus on the importance of releasing those prisoners and to honor them.
The premier underscored that the issue of prisoners tops the list of his government's concerns, and declared the year 2010 as the year of the prisoners.
He asked all concerned parties to work according to this declaration whether on the political, informational, legal or humanitarian levels.

Haniyeh urges conference for jailed Palestinians
Gaza – Ma'an – De facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday that his government would make this year "the year of the detainees," calling for an international conference in Gaza to discuss the issue.

Israel imprisons around 10,000 Palestinians, most of whom are held outside the occupied territories.

Haniyeh called for increased efforts to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, speaking at an event honoring Gaza Detainees Minister Muhammad Faraj Al-Ghoul at the Prime Minister's Office in Gaza City.

The prisoners issue is very important to all Palestinians, Haniyeh said. "They are always in our minds, even if they are absent. They remain loyal because they sacrificed their lives for the homeland," he said.

Al-Ghoul followed by saying "the detainees issue is an essential one, and we always work hard to ease their suffering and their parents' suffering, as well."

The remarks came as the parents of captured soldier Gilad Shalit were to meet with envoy Hagai Hadas to discuss recent developments in talks for their son’s potential release, Israeli media reported on Monday.

The Shalits were to meet Hadas in Tel Aviv, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Aheronot, for a series of meetings between the three, where it is expected that Shalit’s parents will ask for clarification on recent points of discussion in the stalled prisoner swap deal.

Last Wednesday, Haniyeh said that "Israel has backtracked on its understandings [of the conditions] being offered by the German middleman and Egypt is up to date on these developments.

"Any new developments with the negotiations will not carry anything but illusions for the Palestinians and will not bring about any improvement concerning Palestinian rights."

Meanwhile, Hamas has rejected an offer put forward by Netanyahu which would grant the release of certain prisoners into exile in Gaza or abroad.

Talks remain at an impasse as both sides accuse each other of failing to cooperate to achieve the release of Shalit and possibly hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Shalit was captured by Palestinian factions in a cross-border raid in 2006, and has been held ever since. His captors have negotiated indirectly with Israel in an effort to free hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails.


IOA assaults WB workers, endorses tough punishment against those helping them

[ 25/01/2010 - 11:02 AM ]


OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation authority's (IOA) border policemen captured nine Palestinian workers east of occupied Jerusalem on Sunday and beat them up for trying to enter the holy city for work without having permits.
Relatives of the workmen said that the border guards used riffle butts and batons to attack the workers who suffered fractures all over their bodies.
Hussein Salah, the father of one of those laborers, said that his son Rani, 26, was severely battered and that his teeth were broken and could not walk.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government on Sunday endorsed a draft law tabled by the internal security minister that would increase the penalty on those helping Palestinian West Bank workers in entering Palestine occupied in 1948 for work without permit.
Daily Yediot Ahronot said that the parliament has to approve the law before its application, noting that it was meant to obstruct entry of thousands of West Bank Palestinians into Palestine occupied in 1948.
It added that 77,000 foreign workers are officially registered out of whom there 28,000 from the West Bank while tens of thousands others work without permits.
The new law increases the imprisonment penalty on anyone carrying Palestinian workers to a sentence ranging between three to five years especially those using public or private vehicles and allows the police to confiscate the vehicle for 30 days.

Gaza families fight to visit relatives in Israeli prisons

25 January Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada, 2010

Families of Gaza prisoners hold a weekly demonstration at the International Committee of the Red Cross' Gaza office. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

Umm Faris Baroud of Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City wakes up early every Monday in the hope that she will be allowed to visit her son Faris, serving a life sentence in one of Israel's prisons.

With poor knees and a stooped back, Umm Faris, aged 88, moved slowly as she welcomed us to her modest home.

"For the past two and a half years I have been able to visit Faris," she explained. "Every Monday, I participate in a weekly protest along with many other families including mothers, wives and children of detainees, at the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC]. We demand a fair right: seeing our beloved children."

On her way to the ICRC office, located about two kilometers from Shati refugee camp, Umm Faris was joined by her neighbor Umm Mahmoud al-Rayis, who is also waiting to see her son Mahmoud, also sentenced for life.

The weekly ritual begins early each Monday as dozens of family members of the 950 detainees who originate from Gaza, chant slogans, meet ICRC officials and show solidarity with one another.

"I pray to God that I will see Faris before I pass away. Every time I come here I ask the ICRC to help, but no one is taking care of us," Umm Faris said while waiting in the ICRC office's reception hall after taking part in the weekly demonstration.

Umm Faris and many other detainees' relatives are waiting for a glimpse of hope that they would eventually be able to visit their loved ones held in Israeli prisons and detention camps. For more than two and a half years, the ICRC has been in communication with Israel, but can still offer no such promise, as Israel has virtually forbidden family visits to prisons outside Gaza where Gaza detainees are being held. For the prisoners' relatives, there is nothing to do but protest.

"The family visitation program has gone through various difficulties since 1995, but used to be renewed regularly," said Iyad Nasir, spokesperson for the ICRC in Gaza. In June 2007, however, when Israel tightened its siege of Gaza, Israeli authorities blocked the program for Gaza detainees even while allowing families of West Bank detainees to continue to visit.

Nasir added that the ICRC's efforts to guarantee communication between the families and their beloved ones inside the Israeli jails, have not borne fruit.

"Previously, in similar situations we have succeeded, but unfortunately this time we have failed. Recently, the ICRC has reiterated its demand to renew the family visitations for Gaza-based detainees' families," Nasir said.

Israeli authorities have not given a specific justification for their decision to deny Gaza families permission for prison visits, according to the ICRC spokesman, though he stressed that it was a humanitarian matter.

Palestinian human rights groups have demanded all relevant parties -- particularly foreign states -- to pressure the Israeli government to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel violates IHL by transferring detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to prisons inside Israel, and Palestinian detainees are subjected to substandard conditions and inhuman treatment and torture.

In December, relatives of 14 Gaza prisoners went to the Israeli high court to seek an end to the ban on prison visits. The Israeli court rejected the lawsuit, filed on their behalf by HaMoked - the Center for the Defense of the Individual, and Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights. In its decision, the court acknowledged that "It is true that the security prisoners are entitled to rights and these should not be withheld beyond what is necessary." Nevertheless, the court upheld the Israeli government's ban on prison visits and declared that such visits "are not a humanitarian need."

Jaber Wishah (Rami Almeghari)
"We have tried repeatedly to call on those who ratified the international humanitarian conventions to pressure Israel to abide by its obligations," Jaber Wishah, deputy-director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, told The Electronic Intifada. Wishah said that if Israel failed to meets its obligations, it should be treated in a similar way to the South African apartheid regime.

Wishah emphasized that families eager to see their loved ones inside Israeli prisons, have the right to do so, according to IHL including the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The issue of Palestinian detainees is one of the most contentious in Palestinian-Israeli relations. Since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been arrested and detained. Many detainees have been jailed for lengthy periods by Israeli military courts that have been condemned by international human rights groups for failing to uphold minimal standards of fairness. Many others are placed under "administrative detention" without charge or trial of any kind.

Currently, more than 7,500 Palestinians are detained by Israel, including 800 who are sentenced to life terms.

Meanwhile, mothers like Umm Faris can only wait while their sons remain behind bars.

"I still remember how kind he has been to me. He used to take care of me when I needed him. My only hope is to see him before I pass away," she said.

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

the last oranges

In Gaza


“Children don’t lie. Slap them in the face and they tell you what they know,” Sameh*, a night watchman, says. The 18 year old was on night shift at Maowwiya elementary school north of Attatra’s Salateen street, Beit Lahiya, when the Israeli land invasion began.
Three days after the 18 January 2009 ceasefire, still shaken from his experience, Sameh recounted how the Israelis occupied the school and used it as a prison and interrogation centre, before bombing it. A year later, the blast holes still gape through the school’s walls and the missing floor has not been replaced.
“It was around 8am, January 4th, the first morning of the ground invasion. Israeli tanks came to the school. I started to run but the Israeli soldiers ordered me to stop. They pointed their guns at me and told me to take off my clothes.”
His voice trembles and face crumbles as he relives the pain and fear of his experience.
“They kept me for two days, didn’t let me dress during that time, didn’t give me food or water, and kept interrogating me, telling me to work with them, collaborate. I refused.”
At the same time, says Sameh, Israeli soldiers abducted another approximately 70 men from the area and held them captive in different classrooms.
“They took children prisoner too,” says Sameh. “The Israelis would question the children, slap them in the face, and question them again. They’d ask things like “where do you live? Where are the resistance?”



Mahmoud Al Qanouah, 23, stands near Sameh, nodding grimly in to his testimony.
“They brought me here too, held me for one day,” says the engineering graduate.
“But our troubles began at home,” he adds, pointing across the road to a 2 storey house ravaged with bullet and shelling holes.
The land beside the home, formerly an orange grove, is a churned mess of soil and tree stumps.

“We used to have many orange trees, as well as sheep, chickens and rabbits,” says Qanouah, walking past the razed trees. “All that was destroyed. We’ve got no source of income or food now.”
The street-facing wall gapes with a large, charred, missile hole. The entire first floor is smoky black, inhospitable.
“There were tanks around the house,” Qanouah remembers. “From 8:30 am until 11:30 that night they were shooting at the house and all over.
“We went downstairs, thinking it was safer. We felt a crash and realized a bulldozer had rammed the house.
Bassam Qanouah, 40, Mahmoud’s elder brother, continues the account.
bassam
“My wife, Ibtisam, and our mother went outside together, carrying a white cloth like a flag, waving it. They wanted the soldiers to know that we were unarmed and needed to escape the danger. An Israeli sniper occupying a neighbouring house shot my wife in the heart.”
Just outside the back door, next to strewn razed olive branches, Bassam Qanouah points to the place where Ibtisam fell.
maowiyya-family-sniper-spot
“She died immediately.”
The horror continued as the remaining family members stayed trapped inside while the Israeli bulldozer resumed ramming their home.
“It was ramming the support pillars of the house,” says Mahmoud.
They heard the Israeli soldiers knocking on the door. “Bassam went to answer it, but the Israelis shot up and down the length of the door. He couldn’t open it. They kept hammering on the door.”
“We have small children, we have small children,” Bassam says he yelled in Hebrew.

The soldiers’ response was to shoot 5 bullets in the direction of his voice. He turns and points to a shattered mirror and holes in the wall behind which the family were cowering.
“The Israeli soldiers came in and ordered us all to take off our clothes,” says Mahmoud. “In front of the women,” he adds, a point of great shame.
At the time, he explains, his family and neighbours –including 8 men and 24 women and children –were weathering the Israeli assault together in the house.
“We were kept captive by the Israeli soldiers for the first day. The second day they took all the males to the elementary school across the street.”
At the school, the men were held with other men from the area, as Saleh testified. They were interrogated, some beaten, and denied food and water, says Mahmoud Qanouah.
“The second day, they took our group back to home, asked for our ID cards,” says Qanouah.
But the IOF took Amer and another man in tanks to Ashkelon where Amer says they were held outdoors blindfolded and handcuffed behind their backs for 3 days, without food and water, interrogated and beaten so badly he couldn’t speak for 2 days.
His is another story in itself, one repeated throughout Gaza during Israel’s massacre.
“Israeli soldiers told the rest of my family to walk to Jabaliya,” says Mahmoud. “We tried to take Ibtisam’s body with us.”
“They told us it was safe to walk, but as we walked they shelled the road we were walking on. My mother was wounded with shrapnel to her hip and I got shrapnel in my head. We dropped Ibtisam’s body and continued to walk, all the way to Kamal Adwan hospital, at least half an hour of walking. An Apache flew above us, following us.”
For the next 2 days, the family was unable to retrieve Ibtisam’s body. Nor could the Red Cross, Red Crescent, or Civil Defence, retrieve it due to the shelling and shooting from Israeli soldiers still occupying the area.
After the worst of the bombardment had finished, the Qanouahs returned to their home, shelled, shot-up and ransacked by the Israeli soldiers who occupied it during the rest of the invasion.

missile-hole2
missile-hole
Like in Ezbet Abed Rabbo and other areas where soldiers had occupied houses, the IOF had bored sniper holes in most of the walls. Spent bullet casings littered the balconies where soldiers shot from behind sandbags. And the IOF graffiti stained walls throughout the home.
“They stole over $2000 from our house, and our cell phones” says Mahmoud Qanouah. “There’s no way to report this, no compensation. And they destroyed our car –we used it as a taxi. How can we get a new one? How can we earn a living?”
The house next to Qanouah’s was completely destroyed, rendered unliveable.
“My two uncles’ families –11 people—are living upstairs now. Now there’re 9 of us living on this floor: my brothers, father, sister, wife and I.”
As life goes on in Gaza one year later, people resume the struggle to work and live with, yearning for the most basic of rights.
“I got married 2 months ago. We’re trying to continue with our lives… but still I don’t have work. I’m trained as an engineer, but there’s no work in Gaza. No one in my family works. We survive off of food aid given every 40 days: ½ kilo of flour, oil, 2 kilos sugar.”
“We don’t want to leave and forget Gaza. But if the borders were open, we’d have work.
Many in Gaza feel another Israeli war looms. Most felt that immediately following the halt of the last major attacks.
“Sure Israel can wage a new war on us at any time. We expect that. Israel doesn’t care about international law or what the world thinks. But we are strong, resilient people, Palestinians. We will stay here, die here.”
forever*IOF graffiti in Qanouah house
sniper-post2
sniper-post4
2sniper-post
2sniper-post2

maowiyya-family
plowed-land
*gracious, after everything

Sheikh Jarrah: Settlers throw urine bottles, activists arrested

International Solidarity Movement
January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 22nd, settlers occupying the Gawi and Al-Kurd family’s homes were reported to be harassing and attempting to provoke the evicted Palestinians and solidarity activists to a violent response. Other settlers stood by with film equipment, ready to record any response to their provocation. The evening’s heckling resulted in the arrest of Marwan Abu al Saber. Al Saber was released later that night.
Settler harassment of neighborhood residents continued and during the night four chairs were stolen by settlers from the Al-Kurd tent. In the last two weeks they have also stolen an ISM”ers shoes and a shelf from the tent. Thursday night’s theft was reported to the police but no action was taken.
Friday morning a young settler boy in the Al-Kurd home threw bottles from the home towards the Al-Kurd tent. One bottle, directed at a solidarity activist who was filming nearby, contained urine.
The rest of the day was quiet and the weekly, nonviolent demonstration began as usual. Police closed the street and when demonstrators tried to enter the area, they were arrested. 15 Israeli activists were arrested as they tried to reach the Gawi and Al-Kurd tents. Access to the nearby Orthodox Jewish tomb was also restricted however access was granted for settlers and Jewish Israelis. At the barrier to the tomb, a few young orthodox Jewish boys began throwing stones at a Palestinian woman from the neighborhood. When it became apparent that the police were condoning these actions, neighborhood men tried to prevent the boys from throwing stones by pushing the boys away. Police reacted immediately to the Palestinian men and arrested Muhamad Zamamiri and Muhand Jalejel. Zamamiri was released Saturday without conditions but Jalajel stayed in jail until Sunday evening, was given a 1.500 Shekel fine and one month of house arrest. One ISM activist was also arrested while filming.
Arrestees were taken to the Russian Compound where most were detained for 24 hours. ISM actvist Kim Reis Jenson from Denmark was seen by a judge at 8pm on Saturday night and charged with attacking a police officer and disturbing police officer’s work. Later in the evening Jenson was released without being charged however the police still have his passport. It is unusual for police to withhold passports and when he will get it back remains unclear. Israeli activists were also released with their trial set for Tuesday January 26, 2010. Palestinian Muhand Jalejel was held  for 48 hours.
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.

Israeli Occupation Forces kidnap 4 in Beit Ommar, West Bank

International Solidarity Movement
January 24, 2010

At 4am on January 21st, at least 30 members of the Israel Police, Border Police, Army and Secret Police (Shin Bet) raided the village of Beit Ommar, arresting four men.
At the home of Mohammed Salibi, the Occupation Forces broke the window of the door in an effort to enter, as well as another window. Upon entering with a search dog, they asked for the whereabouts of Mohammed from his brothers, Alah, 20, and Ahmed, 14, who were sleeping at the time. Alah, who previously spent 3 months in Occupation jails, was thrown against the wall. Three agents picked up Ahmed and threw him on the ground. Cabinets were also smashed in the house and personal items thrown on the ground.
After finding Mohammed, 25, sleeping, they arrested him and took him away without providing further information. As of January 24th, there is still no word on his whereabouts. Three other residents of Beit Ommar were arrested: Jamal Ibrahim ‘Aliyan, 18; Mohammed Mahsin Abd Al-hamid Awoud, 32, an officer in the Palestinian Police Force; and ‘Alam Ghazi Munir Ibraghit, 18. Their condition is unknown.
Witnesses reported that three Israeli officers went by the title “Captain Tameer”, “Captain Adam”, and “Captain Younis”. Damage to the Salibi house totaled over 400 shekels.

Journalist arrested at peaceful tree-planting action

Christian Peacemaker Team
23 January 2010



Village residents come together to plant olive trees
Village residents come together to plant olive trees

On 23 January, Israeli soldiers declared Palestinian land south of the Israeli settlement outpost Havot Ma’on (Hill 833) a closed military zone, then arrested a Palestinian journalist from Pal Media. The journalist was reporting on a demonstration organized by Palestinians from the village of At-Tuwani after the recent destruction of an olive grove. Despite the Israeli military interventions, the Palestinians successfully planted 20 olive trees during their demonstration.
While Palestinian farmers, accompanied by internationals, were planting olive trees, fifteen settlers approached the area, some carrying slingshots. Israeli soldiers and police also entered the area. The soldiers informed the Palestinians that the area was a closed military zone, showing them a map that encompassed a large area south of Havat Ma’on outpost. Police arrested the journalist, saying he had violated the closed military zone order.
At-Tuwani residents organized the demonstration in response to recent property damage. On the afternoon of 14 January, Palestinians discovered that a family-owned olive grove in Khoruba valley had been destroyed. Twenty mature olive trees were broken at their trunks. The family believes that Israeli settlers from the Ma’on settlement and Havot Ma’on outpost are responsible for the vandalism. This is the fifth time since 1997 that settlers have destroyed the olive trees in this grove. This most recent attack on Palestinian agriculture follows a month of Israeli settler violence and harassment aimed at preventing Palestinian farmers from plowing their fields and thus earning their livelihoods. In addition, in recent months, Israeli military have consistently used closed military zone orders to prevent Palestinians from working their lands.

Six Injured and Six Arrested During a Nabbi Saleh Demonstration

Popular Struggle Co-ordination Committee
22 January 2010

Six demonstrators, including three Israeli activists, were injured today in the West Bank village of Nabbi Saleh after the army invaded the village earlier today. The soldiers launched an unprovoked attack at the center of the village, even before a scheduled demonstration began. Three women and three men from the village were arrested.
Slightly after 12:30 a large military force invaded the North Ramallah village of Nabbi Saleh and began shooting tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets at people who were gathering to demonstrate against the theft of their lands by the nearby Jewish-only settlement of Halamish. One demonstrator was evacuated to the hospital unconscious, after being hit in the back with a rubber-coated bullet. Five more, including three Israeli activists, suffered less serious injuries.
During the demonstration three women and three man were arrested by the soldiers. An Israeli activist who was detained together with them was released a short time after, despite the fact that they were all arrested at the same time and place, and under similar circumstances.
Approximately six weeks ago, a group of Halamish settlers took over a natural spring located in privately owned Palestinian land in between the village and the settlement. Since then, and despite the fact that ownership of the land undisputed, the army began preventing Palestinians from accessing the area.
Two weeks ago, when villagers amassed hoping to manage and access their lands as a group, the army brutally prevented them from doing so using tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets. In response the villagers – men, women and children – blocked the settlement’s access road for over two hours.
A few days after, a DCO officer approached the village’s municipality, recognizing the villagers’ ownership of the land and promised that they will no longer be barred from accessing it. Despite this promise, the army continued violently assaulting residents of Nabbi Saleh in the past two Fridays when they tried accessing their lands.
Demonstrations also took place today in the villages of alMaasara south of Bethlehem – where a demonstrator was arrested and the Palestinian minister of agriculture was among the participants, Bil’in and Ni’ilin – where in the past month the army has been conducting an unprecedented arrest campaign against anti-Wall activists.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Patients in Ramle prison hospital complains of delay in treatment

[ 24/01/2010 - 10:58 AM ]



OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Palestinian prisoners held in Ramle prison hospital have complained that the hospital's administration deliberately delays their treatment.
Farid Al-Qaisi, the representative of the prisoners in Ramle, told the Palestinian prisoners association that 23 prisoners are permanently staying in Ramle and that the number increases to 50 when others are transferred for treatment.
He added that the patients' conditions worsen as they wait for their turn for a diagnosis or treatment and sometimes wait for months to get a date for visiting a doctor or undergoing a surgery.
Qaisi said that the administration limits entry of clothes and other necessities from families to the detainees and deprives the Gaza detainees of any visitation.
He underlined that ten of those residing on permanent basis in Ramle prison hospital are serving life sentences.

Israel releases detainee from Negev prison

Nablus – Ma’an – The Ahrar Center for Prisoners’ Studies and Human Rights announced on Sunday that Israeli authorities released Fathi Al-Hayek, head of the Zeita local council in Nablus on Saturday, having served 38 months in the Negev Prison.

Al-Hayek, 41, was detained on 22 November 2006 and served more than 112 months in a number of Israeli prisons the center said.

His detention was extended over ten times, the center added.

Al-Hayek is the father of five.

Prisoners society in Gaza laments death of detainees parents

Gaza - Ma'an – Mother of Palestinian detainee in Israeli prison Mahmoud Nassar died in Beit Hanoun Saturday. She had not seen her son in six years.

The Wa’ed Society for Detainees and Ex-prisoners denounced the refusal of Israeli authorities for a permit for the man's mother, who was prohibited from visiting him in prison.

Umm Mahmoud is third relative of a Gazan prisoners to pass away this month without being able to see their children, the society said.

Israeli forces detain three journalists across the West Bank


Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli forces detained three journalists in separate incidents across the West Bank, as they complied news reports near settlements on Saturday.

Al-Quds TV representatives said that a journalist and a cameraman were detained near the illegal settlement of Ariel, south of Nablus.

Correspondent for Al-Quds TV Mus'ab Al-Khatib, 25, and Ahmad Al-Kilani, 23, who works for Pal Media, were arrested whilst preparing a news report about a university near the settlement that was recognized recently by Israeli authorities.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers detained a Pal Media journalist on Saturday reporting on a demonstration organized by farmers from the At-Tuwani village to protest the recent destruction of an olive grove near the Israeli settlement outpost of Havot Ma'on, the Christian Peacemaking Team said in a statement.

" While Palestinian farmers, accompanied by internationals, were planting olive trees, fifteen settlers approached the area, some carrying slingshots," the statement read.

"Israeli soldiers and police also entered the area. The soldiers informed the Palestinians that the area was a closed military zone, showing them a map that encompassed a large area south of Havat Ma'on outpost. Police arrested the journalist, saying he had violated the closed military zone order."

Friday, January 22, 2010

IOF Arrests Seven Palestinian Fishermen, Seizes their Boats on Rafah Coast, Al Mezan Condemns IOF Violations and Calls for International Protection

17-1-2010


The Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) escalation in Gaza has continued. Violations against Palestinian fishermen have increased recently. At approximately 9:30pm on Saturday 16 January 2010, the IOF opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats, arrested seven fishermen and seized their boats off the Rafah coastline.

According to information collected by Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, at approximately 9:30pm on Saturday 16 January 2010, the IOF opened fire on three Palestinian fishing boats as the boats were heading out to fish in the sea. Seven fishermen were on board the boats. The boats were outside the zone Israel deems restricted. Palestinian fishermen are not allowed to approach the border fence with Egypt. When the boats were attacked, they were less than 500 meters west of  the fishermen haven in Rafah; i.e. far away from the restricted zone. According to eyewitnesses, five IOF rubber boats advanced towards the Palestinian boats, opened fire on  them and detained seven of them. The IOF also confiscated their boats. Al Mezan identified the arrested fishermen as follows:
·            Salim Jamal Hasan Nu'man, 32;
·            Mohammed Ahmed Al-Qirim, 38;
·            'Awwad 'Awad Sayid As-Sa'idi, 43;
·            Awad Munir Awad As-Sa'idi, 28;
·            Ra'ed Sa'id Jamil Al-'Ashi, 25;
·            Safwat As-Sultan, 26; and
·            Zaki Taroush, 45.

 Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the escalation of the IOF violations against Palestinian fishermen. This new escalation comes as the IOF is tightening the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. This new Israeli violation supports the fact that the IOF prevents fishermen from working, even when they are within the Israeli-determined fishing zone, which the IOF announced in March 2009. The attack on the fishermen violates their rights, inter alia, to security, adequate standard of living, and to work. Al Mezan is concerned about the treatment of the fishermen and the possibility of subjecting them to torture and/or inhumane and degrading treatment.

Al Mezan therefore calls on the international community to intervene and provide effective protection for Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory, including fishermen in the Gaza Strip.

Detention of young children up 40%





[Ramallah, 11 January 2010] - According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and temporary Israeli army detention facilities, the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the end of December 2009, was 305. In December, the number of Palestinian children held in Israeli detention facilities fell to 305, the lowest figure for the year. However, the monthly average number of Palestinian children held in Israeli detention in 2009 was 11 percent higher than in 2008. (355 per month in 2009, compared with 319 in 2008).
 
Table 1 - Number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008
Year/Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2008 327 307 325 327 337 323 324 293 304 297 327 342
2009 389 423 420 391 346 355 342 339 326 325 306 305
(note: these figures are not cumulative)

DCI-Palestine remains concerned by the high number of young children between the ages of 12 and 15 being detained. At the end of December 2009, 42 children in this age category were being held in Israeli detention facilities, compared with 30 children in December 2008. This represents an increase of 40%.

Table 2 - Number of young (12-15) Palestinians in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008
Year/Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2008 38 40 45 39 37 34 33 21 23 23 25 30
2009 50 54 53 47 39 47 42 39 40 44 41 42
(note: these figures are not cumulative)
On 14 December 2009, the last Palestinian child to be held in Israeli administrative detention, Hamdi al-Ta'mari, was finally released after the expiry of his fourth administrative detention order. Hamdi was held without charge or trial since December 2008. However, there are still two young adults being detained who were children at the time they received their administrative detention orders (Mohammad Baran (UA 3/09) and Rami Shilbayieh).
There are currently no Palestinian girls being held in Israeli detention.

As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), Israel is legally bound to give effect to Article 37 which provides that 'the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child … shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.'

If you wish to take action, then please consider lobbying your elected representatives and demand that pressure be applied on Israeli authorities to cease the practice of prosecuting Palestinian children as young as 12 in military courts, and detaining them inside Israel.  For further information please see DCI-Palestine's latest report on Palestinian child prisoners.

Malsin: No such thing as voluntary deportation


Bethlehem – Ma'an – Upon landing in New York on Thursday, Ma'an News Agency's Jared Malsin, a US citizen, said Interior Ministry staff pressured him into dropping a legal challenge against his deportation order just two hours after his lawyer left for the day.

After signing a hand-written letter that Malsin said he believed was a "formality," ministry staff sent the paper to District Judge Kobi Vardi, who had presided over Malsin's case, and the judge decided to lift the stay of deportation order.

A motion from Ma'an attorney Castro Daoud, requesting that his client's hearing continue in his absence, was filed and pending decision as the ruling to expel the journalist was made.

Malsin was subsequently placed onto an El Al flight to New York. "None of this was my decision," he emphasized in a phone interview minutes after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport early Thursday morning local time, rejecting reports that he left Israel voluntarily. "There's no such thing as a voluntary deportation. I was deported, period."

Hours earlier, in an armored car en route to the plane, Malsin said he was unaware there were legal implications to the paper. "I had no idea I was waving anything, no clue," he said, explaining how Interior Ministry officials coerced him into creating a legal document to withdraw his case without an attorney present, and offered a misleading explanation over what he was signing.

The document apparently indicated Malsin was leaving the facility "without personal coercion." But Malsin said he was under the impression that the papers he signed would allow him to simply leave the airport while his case continued in Israel.

Indeed, Daoud had filed such a motion in Tel Aviv shortly before Malsin was instructed to sign the papers. Justice Vardi had called for a hearing on Malsin's case on Tuesday, and when no date was set for the proceedings by the afternoon, Malsin and Daoud decided to seek permission for him to leave the detention center as the hearing went forward. Daoud had previously indicated concern that Malsin's case was being dragged out, putting pressure on the journalist to leave before a legal decision was made.

In an e-mail from Malsin to Ma'an staff sent upon his arrival to his parents' home in New Hampshire, he said, about the paper, "I thought it was a formality. In retrospect I wish I hadn't signed it. I believe the prison guards were extremely manipulative, misleading, mendacious in the way they dealt with me," he said, but "I'm just so relieved to be out."

Israel's explanation

Malsin's deportation was met with mixed reactions from Israeli officials.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad told The Associated Press that Malsin raised security suspicions during an investigation upon his arrival. Hadad told the AP it was for these reasons that Malsin was being deported.

Then she told Israel's Hebrew-language Yedioth Ahronoth that he had voluntarily left Israel, adding, "I guess he didn't like it [detention] and chose to leave the country."

Allegations of Malsin being a security risk were made even at the start of the deportation process, with documents alleging Malsin's failure to cooperate with Israeli intelligence officers constituting such a threat.

The same day Hadad told the AP Malsin was a security threat, however, she was quoted by Reuters and the Washington Post as denying Malsin was refused a visa for political or security reasons.

Both rationales fit with some of the allegations in the court documents filed by the attorney general, but neither explanation took the full range of charges into account. Among the Interior Ministry's complaints were that Malsin had authored articles "inside the [Palestinian] territories," including some "criticizing the State of Israel."

Early in Malsin's detention, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, told the BBC that the allegations Malsin was being held because of his status as a journalist were "absurd."



Support for Malsin's case

While Regev denied Malsin's deportation had anything to do with journalism, international press associations condemned the detention as a violation of press freedom from the beginning.

"We condemn this intolerable violation of press freedom," said Aidan White, the head of the International Federation of Journalists, the largest union of media professionals worldwide.

"The ban of entry in this case appears to be as a reprisal measure for the journalist's independent reporting and that is unacceptable," he said. "This kind of interference has no place in a democracy."

'Cell No. 36' - DCI-Palestine submits 13 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture




[Ramallah, 6 January 2010] - On 6 January 2010, DCI-Palestine submitted 13 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for investigation. The cases relate to the ill-treatment, and in some cases torture, of Palestinian children being held at the notorious Al Jalame Interrogation and Detention Centre near Haifa, in Israel, between February 2008 and March 2009.
In each case, boys between the ages of 16 and 17, report being held in 'Cell No. 36' at the Interrogation Centre. 'Cell No. 36' is described as measuring approximately 2 x 3 metres in which the child is forced to sleep on a concrete bed or a thin mattress on the floor. Meals are passed to the child through a flap in the door depriving him of all human contact. One child reports being held in solitary confinement in 'Cell No 36' for 65 days.
The walls of 'Cell No. 36' are reported to be grey in colour with sharp protrusions preventing the child from leaning against them for support. Perhaps more disturbingly, 'Cell No. 36' does not have any windows and only a single dim yellow light which is kept on 24 hours a day. Some children report suffering pain behind their eyes and adverse psychological effects after being detained in 'Cell No. 36'.
It appears that the dominant purpose for detaining children in 'Cell No. 36' is to break their spirits in order to extract confessions. This conclusion is supported by the testimony of one child who states that 'on the 10th day of interrogation and because I was under so much pressure, I decided to confess so as to get out of the cell.' All of the children report being kept in 'Cell No. 36' between lengthy interrogation sessions in which clearly prohibited techniques were utilised, such as excessive shackling of the legs and hands as well as position abuse.
Children held in Al Jalame for interrogation are denied access to a lawyer and do not receive family visits, in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and multiple human rights treaties. No education is provided to the children at this facility. Further, the detention of Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory in Al Jalame is in clear violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), which states that an occupying power must detain residents of occupied territory in prisons inside the territory i.e. in the West Bank.
DCI-Palestine has requested that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture investigates and reports on the allegations of ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children at the Al Jalame facility.
There are currently 306 Palestinian children being held in Israeli detention facilities. For further information please see DCI-Palestine's latest report on child detainees.

DCI-Palestine submits 15 cases of child abuse to the UN for investigation





[Ramallah, 5 January 2010] - On 5 January 2010, DCI-Palestine submitted 15 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967. The cases involve children aged 14 and 15, who were arrested and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system in 2009, and accused of throwing stones. All of the children report some form of ill-treatment during their arrest and interrogation, including: painful shackling, slapping and beating, attempted suffocation, as well as the threat of long-term detention, rape and death. DCI-Palestine continues to document the systematic use of coercive techniques being used during the interrogation of children with the apparent purpose of extracting confessions, many of which are written in Hebrew.
Fifteen-year-old M.B.'s case is typical, and he recalls his interrogation at Etzion Interrogation and Detention Centre as follows: 'I saw two persons in civilian clothes. One of them placed a white or pink sack over my face for about five minutes, during which time he slapped me twice and said ‘confess that you threw stones.' The sack was removed and I was taken to one of the offices where a policeman was sitting. 'Do you want to confess?' He asked. 'Yes I do,' I said and confessed to throwing stones several times at the Israeli soldiers.' M.B. was then handed a document written in Hebrew which he signed.
Fifteen-year-old M.S. was arrested in July 2009, and taken to the Kirya Arba police station in Hebron for interrogation: 'I was taken to a room after they had removed the blindfold. A person in blue uniform was sitting in the room. He asked me whether I threw stones and I told him I did not throw any stones. He lifted my shirt and placed it around my neck and tried to suffocate me. Then, he lowered the shirt. While the shirt was around my neck, this interrogator said he wanted to suffocate and kill me as he had killed two people before. He said he would shock me with an electric stick. ''I'll f**k you and make you sit on a bottle,' he said. I became very scared. 'That's enough, I'll confess to anything you want,' I said to him. 'That's better,' he said. M.S. then confessed to throwing stones at soldiers and signed some papers written in Hebrew.
Palestinian children as young as 12 are routinely being interrogated in the absence of a lawyer or family member and without the interrogations being audio-visually recorded. The children invariably provide confessions which are used to convict them in military courts which provide for few fair trial rights. Once convicted, most of these children are then detained inside Israel in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
DCI-Palestine is requesting that the Special Rapporteur, Richard Falk, investigates these and other reports relating to the apparent widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to publicly report on his findings.
For further information please see DCI-Palestine's latest report on Palestinian child prisoners.

PCHR weekly report 14 - 20/1/2010: IOF arrested 34 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children


A Palestinian is detained by Israeli soldiers during scuffles between Palestinians and Israeli settlers near the West Bank settlement of" Halamish"



 Palestinian prisoners from Gaza in Israeli jails have been deprived for family visitation for more than two and a half years

In recognition of ICRC as the guardian of the Fourth Geneva Convention, PCHR calls upon the ICRC to increase its staff and activities in the OPT, including the facilitation of family visitations to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

IOF arrested 34 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, in the West Bank.

Thursday, 14 January 2010  

At approximately 00:00, IOF moved into Beit 'Awa village, southwest of Hebron.  They raided and searched a house belonging to the family of Mohammed Ahmed Masalma, 33, and arrested him. 

At approximately 01:00, IOF raided and searched another house in Beit 'Awa, belonging to the family of Qussai Fakhri Hassan, 15, and arrested him. 

At approximately 01:30, IOF moved into Dura village, southwest of Hebron.  They raided and searched a house belonging to the family of Bajes Salama Salhoub, 35, and arrested him. 

At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into al-Far'a Refugee Camp, south of Tubas.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested two Palestinian civilians:
Mahmoud Jaber Abu Siam, 35; and
Hussam Jom'a Qar'awi, 27

Also at approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Saida village, north of Tulkarm.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested two Palestinian civilians:
Ahmed Mohammed Raddad, 19; and
Mohammed Waleed Raddad, 22.

At approximately 03:30, IOF moved into Hazma village, north of Tulkarm.  They raided and searched a house belonging to Farouq Najeeb Saladin and arrested two of his sons:  'Odai, 20; and Mohammed, 18.

Sunday, 17 January 2010

At approximately 01:30, IOF moved into Nablus and the neighboring 'Ein Beit al-Maa' Refugee Camp.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested 7 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children:
1.    Muhannad Maher al-Shalabi, 17;
2.    Jihad Maher al-Shalabi, 23;
3.    Shadi Maher al-Shalabi, 19;
4.    Mo'tassem Saleh Khabbas, 17;
5.    Mo'tassem Ahmed Hamdi, 16;
6.    Ra'ed Mohammed al-Khatib, 19; and
7.    Samer Ahmed al-Salhi, 18. 

Also at approximately 01:30, IOF moved into Balata Refugee Camp, east of Nablus.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested two Palestinian civilians:

1.    Saleem Faisal Abu Shaheen, 18; and
2.    Ibrahim 'Ata Abu Saltah, 18.
 
·      At approximately 02:00, IOF moved into Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested Muntasser 'Abdul Hamid 'Awadh, 18

Monday, 18 January 2010
·      At approximately 01:30, IOF moved into Ne'lin village, west of Ramallah.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested 5 Palestinian civilians:
 
1.    Muntasser Fadel al-Khawaja, 20;
2.    Mohammed 'Essam al-Khawaja, 22;
3.    Shihab Mohammed Khawaja, 19;
4.    Eihab Mohammed 'Amira, 22; and
5.    Murad 'Abdullah 'Amira, 22.
 
·      At approximately 02:30, IOF moved into Beit Diqqu village, northwest of Jerusalem.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested 4 Palestinian civilians:
 
1.    'Ali Mohammed Daoud, 32;
2.    Mohammed 'Abdul Khaliq Daoud, 35;
3.    Yousef 'Abdul 'Aziz Daoud, 32; and
4.    Khaled Bassam Daoud, 25. 

Tuesday, 19 January 2010  

At approximately 00:30, IOF moved into Beit 'Awa village, southwest of Hebron.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested two Palestinian civilians:

1.    Mohammed 'Abdul Hamid Masalma, 24; and
2.    Tha'er Na'im Masalma, 20.

·      At approximately 01:00, IOF moved into Ethna village, southwest of Hebron.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested 'Ali Mohammed al-Jayawi, 22.
 
·      At approximately 01:30, IOF moved into Sa'ir village, east of Hebron.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested two Palestinian civilians:

1.    'Abdul Fattah Hussein Shalalda, 63;
2.    Ziad 'Abdul Fattah Husseein Shalalda, 35.
 
·      At approximately 03:00, IOF moved into Nablus.  They raided and searched a number of houses and arrested Ma'ath Rassem Saleem, 22.