Jowad Muhammad Jameel Za’aqiq (15 years old) was arrested at around 5pm on Monday, 21 May, 2012. He was helping his father tend to his family land when the arrest took place. His father asked the soldiers present why his son was being taken. He was informed that Jowad (his son) had been seen throwing stones.

Muhannad Mershad Awad (12 years old) and Alaa Yousef Mohammad Abu Maria (14 years old) were both arrested from their respective family homes in night raids at around 2am on Tuesday, 22 May, 2012. The reason for their arrests is unknown.

Night raids are an almost daily occurrence in Beit Ommar. Night raids typically target Palestinian minors, activists and organizers involved in popular resistance initiatives against the Israeli occupation. Israeli soldiers often fail to explain why the ‘suspect’ is being arrested. The detainees are usually taken to the Gush Etzion settlement, which houses a jail and interrogation center. ]]> http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2012/05/22/three-children-arrested-in-beit-ommar/feed/ 0 http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2012/05/15/beit-ommar-marks-64-years-of-the-nakba/ http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2012/05/15/beit-ommar-marks-64-years-of-the-nakba/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 20:06:56 +0000 PSP http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/?p=5445 Today, May 15, 2012, Palestinians are remembering the 64th anniversary of the Nakba. In Arabic, “nakba” means “catastrophe,” and it refers to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, which was accompanied by the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. Many Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes, while others fled when they heard the news of massacres in nearby villages, such as Deir Yassin and Tantura. More than 450 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated by Zionist forces, and most of them were razed to the ground to prevent the return of the Palestinian refugees. Many refugee families still carry the keys to the homes that they were forced to leave.

In Beit Ommar today, soldiers began shooting teargas into the town at 9:30am. At 11am, they shot teargas at schoolgirls as they left school. The gas continued to pick up after a demonstration took place at 1pm, and continued to increase in intensity until about 5pm. The teargas was directed towards people’s homes, the Center for Freedom and Justice (where PSP activists were filming the soldiers), and at anyone walking through the streets. The teargas caused several fires near people’s homes, which were fortunately put out before any serious damage was done. One arrest was made: Hamidan Ahmad Abu Maria (age 17) was ambushed by soldiers and arrested while driving a tractor through the street to his farmland, and then was beaten by the soldiers.

“My Beloved Lamar, forgive me because the occupation took me away from you, and took away from me the pleasure of witnessing my first born child that I have always prayed to God to see, to kiss, to be happy with. It is not your fault, this is our destiny as Palestinian people to have our lives and the lives of our children taken away from us, to be apart from each other and to have a miserable life, nothing is complete in our lives because of this unjust occupation that is lurking on every corner of our lives turning it into eeriness, a continuous pursuit and torture. Despite that I was deprived from holding you and hearing your voice, from watching you grow up and move around in the house and in your be, and that I was deprived of my rule as a human and a father with my daughter your existence has given me all the power and hope, and when I saw your picture with your mother in the sit-in tent, you were so calm staring in wonder at people, as if you were looking for your father, looking at my pictures that are hung inside the tent asking in silence why is my father not coming back, I felt that you are with me, in my sentiment and inside my mind, as if you are a part of my heartbeats, steadfast and the blood that flows in my veins, opening all doors for me spreading clear skies around me, and unleashing your free childish voice after this long silence”.

“Lamar my love: I know that you are not to be blamed and that you don’t yet understand why your father is going through this battle of the hunger strike for the 75th day, but when you grow up you will understand that the battle of freedom is the battle of going back to you, so that I can never be taken away from you again or to be deprived of your smile or seeing you, so that the occupier will never kidnap me again from you”.

“When you grow up you will understand how injustice was brought upon your father and upon thousands of Palestinians whom the occupation has put in prisons and jail cells, shattering their lives and future for no guilt but their pursuit of freedom, dignity and independence, you will know that your father did not tolerate injustice and submission, that he will never accept insult and compromise, and that he is going through a hunger strike to protest against the Jewish state that wants to turn us into humiliated slaves without any rights or patriotic dignity”.

“My beloved Lamar keep your head up always and be proud of your father, and thank everyone who supported me, who supported the prisoners in their struggle, and don’t be afraid god is with us always, and god never lets people who have faith and patience, we are righteous, and right will always prevail against injustice and wrong doers”.

“Lamar my love: that day will come, and I will make it up to you for everything, and tell you the whole story, and your days that will follow will be more beautiful, so let your days pass now and wear your prettiest clothes, run and then run again in the gardens of your long life, go forward and forward nothing is behind you but the past, and this is your voice I hear all the time as a melody of freedom”.

Translated by :IMEU : http://imeu.net/

The demonstration began with a march from the center of Beit Ommar to Karmei Tsur settlement, which was built on stolen Palestinian land. As soon as the demonstrators arrived near the settlement, about 30 heavily armed Israeli soldiers came to meet them. The soldiers beat the participants with their shields, batons and rifle butts. Many of the peaceful protestors were injured. Ahmad Abu Hashem, 46 years old, was arrested after being beaten and hit in the face by the soldiers. An international activist was injured after being caught in a headlock and dragged by her throat by Israeli soldiers while she was trying to protect Ahmad. Ahmad is the secretary of the Popular Committee in Beit Ommar. Two of his sons, ages 22 and 15, have been arrested in the past month. Arresting him and his family members is part of Israeli forces targeting the Popular Committee in Beit Ommar.

Yousef Abu Maria (age 38), the spokesperson for the Beit Ommar Popular Committee, was also injured, along with two other members of the Popular Committee: Mousa Abu Maria (age 34), who was hit in the forehead with a rifle butt, and Younes Arar (age 40), who was beaten on his legs with a baton. One of Ahmad’s sons, age 14, was severely beaten and kicked by the soldiers while on the ground. The demonstration ended with teargas being shot at demonstrators as they were leaving.

In Hebron, students from the Hebron district came together and marched in the center of town. Close to one thousand people were present with posters and flags, and youth from all the surrounding areas were present in the march.

In Beit Ommar, Israeli soldiers entered the town in the afternoon and occupied several people’s homes, firing teargas and rubber-coated bullets at the children in the street. In the evening, villagers marched in the town supporting Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla. Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla are both members of Islamic Jihad, and they are on the 71st day of their hunger strike. Their condition is critical, and the Supreme Court has recently denied their petition. Islamic Jihad has said that if any of the hunger strikers die, they will consider it as a political assassination and the truce between them and Israel will be broken.

Additionally, another 2000 or so prisoners are on their 21st day of hunger strike. The prisoners are protesting the torture and ill treatment they receive in prison, and demanding their legal rights (such as the right to a lawyer during interrogations) and an end to administrative detention. Under administrative detention, under which both Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla are being held, prisoners are kept without any charges against them and without trial, for a period of up to six months which can be renewed indefinitely. 320 people are now being held under administrative detention.

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.

Dear free people of the world. Dear oppressed and disenfranchised around the globe. Dear friends of our people, who stood with me with a stern belief in freedom and dignity for my people and our prisoners languishing in the Occupation’s prisons.

Dear free women and men, young and elderly, ordinary people as well as intellectual elites everywhere – I address you today with an outpouring of hope and pain for every Palestinian that suffers from the occupation of his land, for each of us that has been killed, wounded or imprisoned by the state of terror, that denies anything beautiful in our lives, even the smile of our children and families. I am addressing you in my first letter following my release – praying it will not be the last – after Allah granted me freedom, pride and dignity. I was an “administrative detainee” in the jail of occupation for four months, out of which I have spent 66 days on hunger strike.

I was driven to declare an open-ended hunger strike by the daily harassment and violation of my people’s rights by the Israeli Zionist occupation. The last straw for me were the ongoing arrests, the brutal nighttime raid on my house, my violent detention, during which I was taken to the “Mavo Dotan” settlement on our land occupied 1967, and the beatings and humiliation I was treated to during arrest interrogation. The way I was treated during the interrogation at the Jalameh detention center, using the worse and lowest verbal insults in the dictionary. After questioning, I was sentenced to imprisonment under administrative detention with no charges, which proves mine and others’ arrests serve only to maintain a quota of prisoners, to harass us, to restrict our freedom and to undermine our determination, pride and dignity.

I write today to thank all those who stood tall in support of my people, with our prisoners, with Hana al-Shalabi and with myself. I call on you to stand for justice pride and dignity in the face of occupation. The assault on the freedom and dignity of the Palestinian people is an assault on free people of the world by a criminal occupation that threatens the security, freedom and dignity of all, no matter where.

Please, continue in exposing this occupation, boycotting and isolating it internationally. Expose it’s true face, the one that was clearly exposed in the attack of an Israeli officer on our Danish cohort. Unlike that attack, the murder our people is a crime that goes by unspoken of and slips away from the lens of the camera. Our prisoners are dying in silence. Hundreds of defenders of freedom are on hunger strike inside the prisons, including the eight knights, Bilal Diab and Thaer Hlahalh, who are now on their 61st day of hunger strike, Hassan Safadi, Omar Abu Shalal, Mahmoud Sarsak, Mahmoud Sarsal, Mohammad Taj, Jaafar Azzedine (who was arrested solely for standing in solidarity with myself) and Ahmad haj Ali. Their lives now are in great danger.

We are all responsible and we will all lose if we anything happen to them. Let us take immediate action to pressure the Occupation into releasing them immediately, or their children could never forgive us.

Let all those free and revolutionary join hands against the Occupation’s oppression, and take to the streets – in front of the Occupation’s prisons, in front of its embassies and all other institutions backing it around the world.

With deep appreciation,
Khader Adnan

The residents of Nabi Saleh – a town of 550 residents, located 20 kilometers north-west of Ramallah – host demonstrations every Friday to protest against the theft of their land by the Halamish settlement, a religious settlement which began stealing land in 1978. A Peace Now report stated in 2006 that one third of the settlement is built on private Palestinian land.

In 2009, in response to the theft of yet more land, the village began holding weekly demonstrations, which have become notorious for the levels of violence and repression exerted against the town by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who regularly invade the town, firing large amounts of teargas into houses.

Killed by tear gas canister

On the 9th December 2011, Mustafa Tamimi was killed after being shot by a tear gas canister fired directly at him, by soldiers standing only metres away.

Many of Nabi Saleh’s demonstrations are directed towards the Ein al-Qaws spring, which was stolen from Bashir Tamimi in 2009. Since the theft of these springs, Israeli soldiers continually prevent Palestinians from collecting water there, and those that do make it to the spring are regularly attacked by settlers.

During one invasion last year, soldiers entered the village at night, taking the name and picture of every child older than ten years old.

12 houses in Nabi Saleh have demolition orders. They are all built before 1967, but in areas defined as area C according to the Oslo Agreement.

Last Friday

The demonstrators gathered at the highest point in the village, close to the mosque, with appeals for the release of prisoners and the return of stolen land. A total of 70-80 people, among them 20 internationals, then started walking down the main street, turning left at the junction at the village entrance.

Soldiers were lined up in the street next to a tank truck filled with so-called skunk water. When the demonstrators reached within 50 meters from the soldiers, the truck started driving towards us, releasing the extremely foul-smelling water.

After a short time, Israeli soldiers began firing tear gas, both at the demonstrators, and into residential areas of the town.

The angle of the gas canister eventually decreased, as they soldiers started firing straight at the demonstrators. One canister was shot towards a groups of Israeli activists who where just sitting on the side walk. Rubber-coated bullets were also fired. Two of us had moved up on a roof, and could hear a soldier receiving the order ‘to shoot to hit’.

A man from Australia was hit in the leg by a bullet ricochet off the ground, while a French photographer received treatment in the ambulance. Close to all the demonstrators inhaled tear gas.

In total around 50 soldiers appeared during the demonstration, preventing the 20 or so activists from reaching the fence. The soldiers pushed the non-violent activists roughly onto barbed wire and rocky ground, and soldiers kicked activists in their legs while pushing them with their shields. An Isaeli activist, Kobi, was arrested during the demonstration after arguing with a soldier. He was released late last night without restrictions after the judge ruled that he had the right to freedom of speech and protest. Meanwhile, Hossein Alamy, the 14-year-old boy who was arrested from the Beit Ommar demonstration last month, is still in jail and has not been granted access to a lawyer during his interrogations.

Beit Ommar residents face daily harassment and arrests from the soldiers at the entrance of the town, disrupting their daily life and interfering with their ability to go to school, work, and other places.

Mohamad Ahmad Khalil Abu Hashem, 15 years old.
Tareq Jamal Khalil Abu Maria, 17 years old.
Badran Jalal Badran Abu Ayash, 15 years old.
Wahed Hamdi Abu Maria, 44 years old.

The soldiers broke into their houses at night and harassed the families and fired several canisters of teargas. The ambulance was called because people were injured after inhaling the gas.

19 people have been arrested from Beit Ommar so far this month, and 13 of these are under the age of 18. Night raids are almost a nightly occurrence in Beit Ommar, to create fear in the community and to discourage people from resisting the occupation. Residents of Beit Ommar are frequently arrested with no charges held against them, and usually have to pay fines between 1000 and 4000 shekels in order to be released.