Iman Abu Sbeih, 17, the daughter of Misbah Abu Sbeih, who was shot and killed last Sunday by Israeli forces, was released on Sunday, 16 October. Misbah Abu Sbeih shot two Israelis in occupied Jerusalem, refusing to turn himself in for imprisonment in Israeli occupation prisons after multiple arrests.
However, she was banned from her home city of Jerusalem for two months, banned from using social media and banned from speaking to the press, as well as ordered to pay a bail of 2,500 NIS ($654 USD), reported Palestinian lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association She was arrested on Monday, 10 October after giving an interview in which she said that she was proud of her father and his resistance. Misbah Abu Sbeih had been a long-time figure in the movement to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from settler attacks; he had been repeatedly arrested and banned from the mosque.
Iman’s brother Izzedine remains imprisoned and her brothers and uncles have been repeatedly summoned for interrogation, while the family’s businesses and stores in Al-Ram have been forcibly closed by the occupation forces.
The banning of Palestinians from their homes, particularly in Jerusalem, coincides with ongoing Israeli settler colonial policies of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem that attempt to force Palestinians from their land through home demolitions, land confiscation and the stripping of Jerusalem IDs. Journalist and activist Samer Abu Aisha was recently imprisoned after he refused to acquiesce to an order banning him from his home city of Jerusalem.
On Saturday, Amal Mahmoud al-Shawish, 48, the mother of Mohammed al-Shawish, a Palestinian prisoner, was sentenced to one year in Israeli occupation prisons and a fine of 15,000 NIS ($3800 USD), after being accused of attempting to smuggle a mobile phone to her imprisoned son. She was accused of “providing services” to Palestinian prisoners. Al-Shawish was arrested at the Negev desert prison during her visit in March 2015 and then released to house arrest on 22 April 2015; now she has been sentenced to a year of imprisonment, after she has already spent over one and one-half years under house arrest.
Her other son, Ahmad Shawish, has also been imprisoned since March 2016. She was ordered to turn herself in to occupation forces at the beginning of 2017 to serve the full year at the HaSharon prison. On the same charges regarding potential smuggling of a cell phone, her son Mohammed had 22 months added to his sentence, meaning he is now serving a seven year sentence in Israeli occupation prisons. He has been imprisoned since 22 April 2012.
There are currently approximately 60 Palestinian women imprisoned in Israeli jails, including twelve minor girls under the age of 18. They are among nearly 400 Palestinian children held in Israeli jails.
