Souad Atef Shyoukhi, a former prisoner and the sister of Ali Shyoukhi, who was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces last October at a protest in Silwan, was seized by Israeli occupation forces on Friday, 10 March. This is only the latest assault on a family that has been repeatedly targeted for imprisonment, raids and harassment at the hands of occupation forces, that has only escalated since the killing of their brother.
Shyoukhi’s 21-year-old sister, Rawan, was forcibly transferred from her home city of Jerusalem on 4 March after two weeks of imprisonment and interrogation after the family home was raided. She was ordered to six months in house imprisonment in Nazareth.
Ali Shyoukhi, 20, was killed by occupation forces on 11 October 2016, and he was left to bleed and denied access to medical care for three hours before his death as Palestinian ambulances and medical crews demanded access.
Souad and Rawan’s brother – and Ali’s twin – Mohammed, is now serving a 10-month sentence in Israeli prison, accused of “incitement” for posting on Facebook after the killing of his brother by occupation forces, in a particulary compelling example of of the collective punishment of the family after the killing of their son and brother.
Souad Shyoukhi was previously imprisoned for 18 months without charge or trial under administrative detention after being arrested by occupation forces; their brother Fares spent three months in prison and one year in house arrest, and their other brother Firas spent 27 months in Israeli prison.
Ali, before his murder by occupation forces, had been arrested and imprisoned five times. He was first arrested at the age of 12 and ordered to a month in house arrest; most recently, he served a 15-month sentence in Israeli prison from 2014 to 2015.
The ongoing and systematic targeting of the Shyoukhi family for imprisonment and expulsion following the killing of Ali Shyoukhi is deeply reflective of the attack on Palestinians in Jerusalem – facing high rates of imprisonment, daily raids and arrests, extrajudicial execution and killings, settler attacks and home demolition and attempts to force them from their city through the stripping of Jerusalem IDs, forcible transfers, orders of expulsion, demolitions of homes and construction of settlements and an overall policy of the ethnic cleansing of the city, Palestine’s occupied capital.