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Human Rights Watch tells Israel to end arbitrary restrictions on Addameer staff and board

The following statement was released by Human Rights Watch on October 26, calling upon Israel to end its harassment and persecution of Addameer staff and board, including the travel ban on Abdullatif Ghaith and the arbitrary detention of Ayman Nasser. To take action on Nasser’s case, click here:

(Jerusalem) – Israeli authorities should stop harassing members of a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group. Israeli authorities should immediately lift a travel ban on the group’s chairman and release a recently arrested researcher, or present evidence justifying the measures against them.

In August and September 2012, Israeli authorities issued orders prohibiting Abdullatif Ghaith, chairman of the board of the group, Addameer, from traveling abroad as well as from East Jerusalem, where he lives, to the rest of the West Bank, where the organization’s offices are located. On October 15, Israeli forces raided the West Bank home of Ayman Nasser, a researcher for the group, arrested him and questioned him about radio interviews he gave about prisoners and his membership in a youth organization. At military court hearings on October 18 and 24, military judges extended his detention on the basis of evidence he was not allowed to see. The Israeli military has not charged either man with wrongdoing or allowed them to see any evidence against them.

“It’s deeply ironic that Israel is arbitrarily detaining a researcher who has documented arbitrary detention, and violating the rights of the head of a human rights group,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Israel should provide valid justifications for its measures against Nasser and Ghaith or drop those measures immediately.”

Ghaith, 71, co-founded Addameer and served on its board for 20 years, the group said in a statement. On August 3, Ghaith responded to a summons to appear at the “Moskobiyya” detention facility in Jerusalem. Israeli security officials there handed him an order signed by the Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, prohibiting his travel abroad for six months because he was an unspecified “state security” threat.

On September 15, the Israeli military issued an order signed by the head of its central command, Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, barring Ghaith from entering the rest of the West Bank from East Jerusalem for six months for unspecified “security” reasons. The military has barred Ghaith under previous orders from entering the West Bank since October 2011. According to Addameer, Israeli authorities have repeatedly detained Ghaith without charge or trial under “administrative detention” orders, most recently from June 2004 to January 2005.

Israeli forces raided the home of Nasser, 42, in the village of Saffa, near Ramallah, at 1 a.m. on October 15, 2012, his wife, Um Ameen, told Human Rights Watch:

There were at least five military vehicles and many soldiers. They came and banged on the door and were screaming, “IDF, open up!” My husband jumped out of bed and was at the door by the third knock, still in his bedclothes. They rushed in with many dogs and told Ayman he was wanted for security reasons. I had hardly finished getting dressed when two of the soldiers entered my room and guarded me with their guns. I told them my children were sleeping, and they kept quiet; there was no violence or cursing, but I was very scared the dogs would attack the children if they woke up. They let Ayman have five minutes to say good-bye to me. He told me to call his lawyer. I have no idea why he was arrested. Our youngest son woke up in the middle of the night asking where his father was.

A spokesperson at Addameer said that Israeli forces had confiscated computers and Nasser’s mobile phone during the arrest.

Mahmoud Hassan, who also works for Addameer, met with Nasser in the Jerusalem detention facility on the afternoon of October 16. Hassan told Human Rights Watch that Nasser said Israeli security personnel had questioned him about an interview he had given earlier in 2012 to Ajyal radio, a Palestinian station, about Palestinian prisoners who had gone on hunger strike to protest administrative detention and ill-treatment. Hassan and other Addameer staff were not aware of which interview the questioning focused on, but said that Nasser participated in three 45-minute radio programs that Addameer produced for Ajyal in 2012, and that the radio station frequently called Nasser for phone interviews.

The interrogators also “said they knew he was meeting with the families of prisoners, and they questioned him about a youth center in his village, called Handala, that’s registered with the Palestinian Authority,” Hassan said. “But [the interrogators] didn’t tell him what he did that they think is a violation.”

Addameer said Nasser is the chairman of the Handala center, which holds educational activities and artistic events in Saffa. Nasser said in the military court appearance on October 18 that the center’s activities are transparent. He also told the court that he had been interrogated for several hours each day on October 15 and 16, and for 10 hours on October 17, and that at times the officials had blindfolded him and shackled his hands behind his back during questioning. He said that he was suffering pain during the interrogations due to back problems, and that the pain was exacerbated because officials at the detention facility had not allowed him to receive three of the five medicines he normally takes daily, including medication for his back pain. In a second military court hearing on October 24, a military judge renewed his detention for another nine days.

The Israeli military previously sentenced Nasser to six years in prison, from February 1991 to October 1997. Despite inquiries, Human Rights Watch was unable to obtain information about the charges from more than two decades ago.

According to international human rights standards, everyone has the basic right to leave any country. Any restrictions on such travel should be issued only in exceptional circumstances, for reasons stated clearly and publicly, and be open to legal challenge, including the evidence supporting it, in a timely and open process. Any restriction must be proportional – the least restrictive in terms of scope and time – and imposed for a legitimate reason. The refusal of the Israeli authorities to make public any evidence to substantiate the reasons for the travel ban against Ghaith means that he has been denied a meaningful opportunity to challenge the ban in court, Human Rights Watch said.

Israel’s arrest, detention, and interrogation of Nasser violate his due process rights, Human Rights Watch said. Israel’s international legal obligations require it to inform those arrested at the time of arrest of the reasons, to promptly inform them of any charges against them, and promptly to bring them before a judge. In criminal cases, authorities are required to provide a fair and public trial in which the defendant may challenge any witnesses against him or her.

Sharawna begins water strike at 115 days on hunger strike

Reported by Saed Bannoura of IMEMC http://www.imemc.org/article/64451

Palestinian detainee, Ayman Ash-Sharawna, has been on hunger strike for 115 days, and stopped drinking water on Wednesday, escalating his strike as Israel still refuses to release him, and due to pressures practiced against him by the Prison Administration.

A lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) managed to visit Ash-Sharawna on Tuesday at the Ramla Prison Clinic; the detainee told him that he refuses to be exiled in exchange for his release, and will continue his strike “until freedom or death”.

He added that the Prison Administration keeps moving him from one room to another, and completely isolated him from the rest of the detainees, in an attempt to prevent him from getting the needed rest, and to deprive him from communicating with other detainees.

“Officers of the Prison Administration held several meetings with me, and proposed deporting me or placing me under Administrative Detention without trial”, Sharawna stated, “I will never accept to be deported or imprisoned without charges, I will continue my strike”.

It is worth mentioning that Sharawna repeatedly loses consciousness, and faces repeated sharp migraines, headaches, and is gradually losing his memory.

The PPS said that the health situation of Sharawna is very serious, and is seriously deteriorating. It voiced an appeal to the International Community to intervene and secure his release.

Ayman Nasser, Addameer researcher, has detention period extended

Addameer issued the following report on October 24 on the ongoing detention of Ayman Nasser:

Ramallah, 24 October 2012 – Addameer researcher and human rights defender Ayman Nasser today has had his period of extension extended for a further nine days. Ayman, who was arrested on 15 October 2012, has so far spent 10 days in interrogation.

Earlier today Ayman was brought before the Israeli military court in Moskobiyyeh detention center, Jerusalem, where the judge ruled that based on ‘secret evidence’ Ayman’s detention will continue.

The prosecution requested that the detention period be extended for 13 days, although following the intervention of Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan, this was reduced to nine days.

Addameer is extremely concerned for Ayman’s health as he continues to be denied the appropriate medication. As previously reported Ayman suffers from a number of health issues including inflammation in his colon and back pain. Until his arrest he was receiving constant medical treatment by specialized doctors.

The main focus of the interrogation continues to be his civic activities relating to his role in advocating for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners and his involvement in the Handala Center, which is an educational, artistic center in Ayman’s village Saffa and of which Ayman is the Chairperson.

The lengths of the interrogation sessions have varied from between three and ten hours and are causing Ayman serious back pain due to the denial of his medication. When not in interrogation Ayman is being held in isolation.

For more information on Ayman’s case and to view his profile please visit Addameer.

Click here to take action and send a letter to Israeli officials demanding Ayman’s release!

Samer al-Barq ends hunger strike

Addameer has reported on October 23 that Samer al-Barq has stopped his third hunger strike. He continues to demand his immediate release to Egypt, as earlier agreed. Addameer will update soon with additional news.

October 25: Day of Action to Free the Holy Land Five

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly supports the following call for the October 25 National Day of Action in the U.S. for the Holy Land Five. Palestinian political prisoners are not only behind bars in Israeli jails. Just like all aspects of occupation, settler colonialism and apartheid in Palestine, imprisonment not only impacts Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and in Occupied Palestine ’48, but also Palestinians in exile and diaspora around the world. The record of persecution in the United States of Palestinian community leaders and organizers includes the cases of anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis, the prosecutions of Muhammad Salah, Sami al-Arian and his co-defendants, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar as well as the targeting of youth activists like the Irvine 11 and the Palestine Nine in NYC.

The Holy Land Five – Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Bader, Mohammad El-Mezain, Mufid Abdelqader, and Abdulrahman Odeh – are leaders in the Palestinian community who organized, worked and struggled to support their people, their steadfastness and their freedom through charity work, forming the largest Muslim charity in the US, dedicated to Palestine – the Holy Land Foundation. Their work gathered the contributions of the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities in the US, building projects and institutions throughout Palestine. It was for that work that they were targeted, persecuted, and tried, in an unjust trial – including anonymous Israeli official ‘witnesses’ –  that convicted them as Palestinians who refused to abandon their people and their cause,

Samidoun urges full support for the protests and actions on October 25 (see below for list), organized by Ghassan Elashi’s daughter – Noor Elashi – the Freedom to Give Campaign, and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. Freedom for the Holy Land Five, Palestinian political prisoners in US jails! 

Day of Action Announcement:

Thursday, October 25
Justice for the Holy Land Five!
Tell the U.S. Supreme Court to order a new trial!
Release the Five now!

The Holy Land Five need our urgent solidarity. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in late October whether their final appeal will even be heard. The Holy Land Five are five Muslim charity leaders wrongly imprisoned due to U.S. government political repression. They are being punished for publicly sending charity to Palestinians, at a time when U.S. domination is being challenged in the Middle East. Join us for a National Day of Action, Thursday, October 25.

The first Holy Land trial ended in a hung jury, but a second one — using secret witnesses who were never identified to the defense, hearsay evidence and a ‘shock video’ showing protesters in Palestine burning an American flag — contributed to prejudicing the jurors. The result is that five men, who did nothing wrong, are suffering long sentences, between 15 and 65 years.

The lead prosecutor who used these dirty tricks in court is Barry Jonas. Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is now in Chicago, conducting the ongoing investigation of 23 Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists. Jonas is a pro-Israel ideologue, politically motivated and willing to trample on people’s rights.

As thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters learned this past year, the U.S. is becoming a more repressive place. For more than ten years now, hundreds of Arabs and Muslims have faced and are facing unjust prosecutions. Many are already behind bars. Help us turn this case around and demand the U.S. Supreme Court order a new trial now!

Join author Noor Elashi and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression in a national day of action on Thursday, October 25, 2012. Noor Elashi is daughter of U.S. political prisoner and Holy Land Five leader Ghassan Elashi. Now is the time to act for freedom! Justice for the Holy Land Five!

Committee to Stop FBI Repression: www.StopFBI.net
Free the Holy Land Five: www.freedomtogive.com

List of protests and events for October 25 HLF day of action

New York City, NY
Free the Holy Land Five—Thursday, October 25
5:00 Picket, Federal Building at Broadway and Worth St., Manhattan, NYC

Minneapolis, MN
Free the Holy Land Five – Day of Action, Thursday, Oct. 25
4:30 @ Federal Building, 300 South 4th Street, Minneapolis

Dallas, TX
Free the Holy Land Five–Thursday, October 25th
6:30 to 8:30 @ Belo Gardens, 1014 Main Street, Dallas TX

Tampa, FL
Free the Holy Land Five-Day of Action, October 25
6:00 at 56th Street and East Fowler Avenue,
Near University of South Florida

Gainesville, FL
Free the Holy Land Five—Thursday, October 25
5:30 PM, intersection of NW 13th Street and W University, Gainesville, FL

Salt Lake City, UT
Free the Holy Land Five—Thursday, October 25
4:30 to 5:30 PM at 125 South State Street Salt Lake City, Utah

Albany, NY
Public Forum—Thursday, October 25
6:00 at First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany
Channing Hall, 405 Washington Ave Albany, NY 12206

The Center for Law and Justice and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee mark the release of the Center’s new report on the disparate impact of the drug war carried out against African-American men, highlighting outrageously long sentences, calling for reform, and rallying communities to oppose “The New Jim Crow.” The organizers have graciously invited a speaker in solidarity with the Holy Land Five.

Speakers Include:

  • Dr. Alice Green, Executive Director, The Center for Law and Justice
  • Lynne Jackson, Project SALAM
  • Invited Family Members of the unjustly incarcerated
  • Michael Figura, Legal Fellow, The Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Co-Sponsors: NYCLU of the Capital Region, Project SALAM, Masjid As-Salam

Action Alert: Free human rights defender Ayman Nasser!

Photo via Addameer

One year after the historic prisoner exchange in which 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons, concluding a 14-day mass hunger strike in the occupation prisons, Palestinian prisoners continue under siege. Human rights defender Ayman Nasser of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association was seized by Israeli occupation forces on October 15, while hunger strikers Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi – both re-arrested after their release in the prisoner exchange – continue their heroic fasts for freedom. Samer al-Barq, who recently concluded a 123-day strike, has resumed his strike after Israel dishonoured their agreement. Click here to act now to demand the release of Nasser and freedom for Sharawna, Issawi and al-Barq!

Palestinian former prisoners – a number of whom were displaced to Gaza from their homes elsewhere in Palestine at their release – both celebrated their freedom on the anniversary while demanding that those inside Israeli prisons be freed to join their brothers and sisters outside. Meanwhile, Nasser, a key prisoners’ rights advocate, was himself seized and detained behind bars in an Israeli occupation prison.

Tweet Now for Ayman Nasser: #FreeAyman Nasser imprisoned Palestinian Human Rights Defender of @Addameer_ps Act:http://samidoun.net/?p=1713

Addameer reported that staff researcher and longtime prisoner advocate Ayman Nasser was abducted from his home by occupation forces early on October 15. On October 18, he appeared in a Jerusalem military court, where his interrogation period was extended by seven days. Ayman addressed the court directly: “I believe that every human being has opinions and positions and if it’s not violating the law he can freely think and speak these opinions. I am a human rights defender who supports the Palestinian prisoners and I represent my opinions in the public media. My thoughts are not secret, they are public, and everyone knows them.”

Like many Palestinian prisoners, Ayman is subject to medical neglect – he is currently only receiving two out of the five medications that he requires daily. Addameer reported, “The judge ruled that based on ‘secret evidence’ he would extend Ayman’s interrogation period for another seven days and referred the situation of the medicine to the doctor at Moskobiyyeh detention center.” Moskobiyyeh, where Ayman is now held, is one of the most notorious detention centres in the Israeli occupation system; he was interrogated for 10 hours straight on October 17 and his interrogation has continued with similar intensity since that time.

Ayman spent six years in Israeli prisons, from 1992 to 1997. He has worked at Addameer since 2008, lectures in social work at Al-Quds Open University, and directs the Handala Centre, a cultural centre in Saffa village. On October 21, it was announced that he won a seat on his village’s municipal council in the weekend’s West Bank municipal elections, from his cell in Israeli detention.

Act now to free Ayman Nasser!

1. Click here to send a letter to Israeli officials demanding the immediate release of Ayman Nasser and an end to the persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders.

2. Click here to send a letter to Israeli officials demanding the immediate release of hunger strikers Ayman Sharawna, Samer al-Issawi, and Samer al-Barq!

3. Tweet #FreeAyman to draw attention to his case. Click here to see sample Tweets developed by OccupiedPalestine.

4. Join a protest or demonstration outside an Israeli consulate for Palestinian prisoners. Many groups and organizations are holding events – join one or announce your own. Organizing an event, action or forum on Palestinian prisoners on your city or campus? Use this form to contact us and we will post the event widely. If you need suggestions, materials or speakers for your event, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net. 

5. Contact your government officials and demand an end to international silence and complicity with the repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In Canada, Call the office of John Baird, Foreign Minister, and demand an end to Canadian support for Israel and justice for Palestinian prisoners, at : 613-990-7720; Email: bairdj@parl.gc.ca. In the US, call the office of Elizabeth Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs (1.202.647.7209). Demand that Elizabeth Jones bring this issue urgently to her counterparts in Israel.

6. Join in the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Boycott Israeli products, and academic and cultural institutions until all Palestinian rights (including the right of refugees to return, to be free from occupation and for full equality) are fulfilled – including freeing the thousands of Palestinian prisoners behind bars.

Take Action: Act now for Ayman Sharawna, Samer al-Issawi and Samer al-Barq!

On October 18, while Palestinian human rights defender Ayman Nasser‘s detention was being extended, and on the anniversary of his own release in the historic prisoners exchange of 2012, hunger striker Ayman Sharawna, who is now on his 114th day of hunger strike, was transferred to solitary confinement in Ramle prison. Samer al-Issawi, also re-arrested after his own release in the exchange, is now on his 83rd day of hunger strike, while Samer al-Barq has renewed his hunger strike after Israel dishonored their release agreement. Click here to take action to demand freedom for the hunger striking heroes!

*Please note that Addameer announced on October 23 that al-Barq’s hunger strike has been suspended. Sharawna’s and Issawi’s continue. The advocacy letter has been updated to current circumstances.

Tadamun foundation reported that Sharawna was transferred after refusing medical services in Ramle hospital. He has lost 80% of his vision in his right eye (while already having lost vision in his left eye) and is now almost completely blind. He suffers from severe kidney problems as well as back pain, for which he is denied treatment so long as his hunger strike continues. Sharawna has been detained without charge or trial since he was re-arrested January 31 after a few short months of release.

Samer Issawi has been on hunger strike since August 1 and is now on his 83rd day of hunger strike. Issawi was also freed in last year’s prisoner exchange, and re-arrested on July 7, 2012, accused of leaving Jerusalem, to where he is restricted under the terms of his release. As reported in the Electronic Intifada, the prisoners initially refused this condition but signed to it under assurances from Egyptian officials that it was a mere formality. Samer Issawi was seized near Hizma – inside the Israeli-defined municipal borders of Jerusalem. “What is Jerusalem for the Israelis?” Issawi’s father told the Electronic Intifada. “Whenever it suits them, they change their definition of Jerusalem!'”

Samer Issawi’s hunger strike continues and his condition is progressively more severe. The International Committee of the Red Cross and prisoner support and human rights groups have been denied access to visit him; he is committed to continue his strike until freedom and has refused deportation.

Samer al-Barq, who previously ended his 123-day hunger strike on September 21 following a commitment by the Israelis to deport him to Egypt, where he sought to reunite with his Pakistani wife, resumed his own hunger strike on October 14 after the agreement was not honoured by Israel. Al-Barq has resumed his strike and is demanding his freedom. He has been held without charge or trial since 2010. Update: Al-Barq has suspended his hunger strike pending action on his detention. The advocacy letter below is updated.

Act now to demand freedom and justice for Ayman Sharawna, Samer al-Issawi and Samer al-Barq!

1. Click here to send a letter to Israeli officials demanding the immediate release of hunger strikers Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi!

2. Click here to send a letter to Israeli officials demanding the immediate release of Ayman Nasser and an end to the persecution of Palestinian human rights defenders.

3. Join a protest or demonstration outside an Israeli consulate for Palestinian prisoners. Many groups and organizations are holding events – join one or announce your own. Organizing an event, action or forum on Palestinian prisoners on your city or campus? Use this form to contact us and we will post the event widely. If you need suggestions, materials or speakers for your event, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net. 

4. Contact your government officials and demand an end to international silence and complicity with the repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In Canada, Call the office of John Baird, Foreign Minister, and demand an end to Canadian support for Israel and justice for Palestinian prisoners, at : 613-990-7720; Email: bairdj@parl.gc.ca. In the US, call the office of Elizabeth Jones, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs (1.202.647.7209). Demand that Elizabeth Jones bring this issue urgently to her counterparts in Israel.

5. Join in the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Boycott Israeli products, and academic and cultural institutions until all Palestinian rights (including the right of refugees to return, to be free from occupation and for full equality) are fulfilled – including freeing the thousands of Palestinian prisoners behind bars.


Twelve-year-old arrested 10 times by Israel in three years

Muslim Odeh (Amer Aruri / B’Tselem) via Electronic Intifada

by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours of the Electronic Intifada

19 October 2012

In an unwavering voice, Muslim Odeh recounted how Israeli riot police took him from his bed earlier this week, blindfolded him, subjected him to hours of intense interrogation and held him overnight in a Jerusalem prison compound.

Odeh vomited after Israeli police punched him four times in the stomach on his way to his prison cell. Odeh’s calm demeanor, only days after his ordeal, was evidence of how this was his tenth arrest in three years.

More shocking, however, is the fact that this resident of Silwan in East Jerusalem is only 12-years-old. “I miss my house,” Odeh told The Electronic Intifada, as he stared longingly from the balcony of his uncle’s home — where he is under house arrest until next Wednesday, 24 October — onto his family’s house below.

“I don’t feel comfortable. I miss my friends, my grandmother, my mother,” he said. “I don’t know if they will arrest me again.”

House arrest

Muslim Odeh was first arrested at the age of nine. During each arrest, Israeli police have accused him of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. Today, he is being held under house arrest at his uncle’s home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber. If he violates the conditions of his release, he will be re-arrested and forced to pay a fine of 5,000 shekels ($1,300).

A group of Israeli riot police entered his home with two dogs, the 12-year-old explained, during the most recent arrest. “I heard dogs near me. I was scared,” he said, adding that, moments later, the police brought him blindfolded to an Israeli police station in East Jerusalem.

There, Israeli interrogators accused him of throwing Molotov cocktails and stones, and asked him about the activities of other children in Silwan. While he wasn’t physically harmed during the interrogation, the main Israeli investigator yelled and forcibly slammed his hand on the table to scare him, Odeh said.

“I said I didn’t do anything,” said Odeh, who was interrogated from 5am until 3pm before being transferred to the notorious Russian Compound (Moskobiye, in Arabic) prison compound in West Jerusalem. There, he was held with six other prisoners who, he said, were Palestinian teenagers from the Shuafat refugee camp.

“I was the youngest in the room, [and] in the whole Moskobiye,” Odeh added.

Child arrests widespread

According to a report released by Save the Children and the East Jerusalem YMCA Rehabilitation Program in March, the Israeli authorities have arrested and detained over 8,000 Palestinian children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2000 (“The impact of child detention: Occupied Palestinian Territory,” March 2012).

The report found that most of the children were handcuffed and blindfolded during their arrest — which was most often carried out on suspicion that the children threw stones — and that they were almost always interrogated and held without access to a lawyer or their parents.

Nearly all children (98 percent) were subjected to physical or psychological violence during their arrest and detention, the report found, and 90 percent of children suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Children were subjected to isolation and ill-treatment; many developed a fear of dogs used for searching. They suffered from nightmares, sleeping and eating disorders, bedwetting, and feared re- arrest or acquired unhealthy habits such as smoking,” the report stated.

Addameer, the Ramallah-based Palestinian prisoners’ support and human rights association, has reported that as of 1 September this year, some 194 Palestinian children were held in Israeli detention centers, including 30 below the age of 16 (“Key Issues: Children,” Addameer website).

“Forms of ill-treatment used by the Israeli soldiers during a child’s arrest and interrogation usually include slapping, beating, kicking and violent pushing. Palestinian children are also routinely verbally abused. Despite recommendations by the UN Committee Against Torture in May 2009 that the interrogations should be video recorded, no provisions to this effect have yet been enacted,” Addameer found.

“Cosmetic” changes

In July 2009, Israel created a juvenile military court system for Palestinian minors from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. After decades of trying Palestinians over 16-years-old as adults — in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines children as anyone 18 and under — Israel also recently began treating all Palestinians under 18 as children.

But according to Khaled Quzmar, legal advisor at Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI), these changes are nothing more than “cosmetic” and haven’t really changed the overall system of oppression.

“Israel marketed [these changes to] the world as applying international human rights law and [that] they are going to stop prosecuting children in the Israeli military courts. In fact, on the ground, the same court and the same judges [are in place],” Quzmar told The Electronic Intifada. “In fact, nothing changed. The same campaigns of arrests continued.”

DCI has found that despite putting juvenile courts in place, Israel still treats Palestinian children as adults when it comes to sentencing, bail applications and how long detainees can be denied access to a lawyer, which is set at 90 days for both adults and children (“Children prosecuted in Israeli military courts,” 2 October).

Quzmar added that the arrests of Palestinian children aim to deter resistance to Israeli occupation policies, and in some cases, force families to leave their homes and villages altogether.

“They put pressure on the families by arresting their children or targeting their children, so maybe this policy will force the families to leave the area. This policy is very clear in Jerusalem. The courts used to sentence the children deport the children from their houses so it is a kind of transfer,” he said.

For 12-year-old Muslim Odeh, the psychological impact of his many arrests has been difficult. “I have nightmares,” Odeh said. “Sometimes I dream that the police are coming to take me, but then I wake up to see that I’m not in prison but in my house.”

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at

Sa’adat: Israeli prison authority not abiding by prisoners deal


RAMALLAH (Ma’an)— Jailed PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat said Wednesday that Israeli prison authorities were not implementing the terms of a prisoners deal agreed in May.

“The Israeli prison authority did not abide in the hunger strike agreement, especially since the prisoner Dirar Abu Sisi is still isolated,” Saadat said via a lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Egyptian authorities should intervene to stop the situation from getting worse, he said, adding that Abu Sisi has lost 30 kg and his health is deteriorating.

Abu Sisi disappeared in February 2011 while traveling on a train in Ukraine and Israel later announced that it was holding him in the southern Israeli jail. His lawyer says Israel has yet to file charges against him.

The engineer, from Gaza, has been held in solitary confinement throughout his detention.

Detainees signed a deal in May with the Israeli prison authority to end their mass hunger strike.

Saadat was seized by Israeli forces in 2006 from a Palestinian Authority jail in Jericho after a long standoff between prisoners and troops.

He was sentenced to 30 years for his alleged role in masterminding the assassination of former Israeli tourism minister Rahavam Zeevi in 2001.

Addameer researcher arrested and detained by Israel in latest attack on Palestinian Civil Society

Ramallah, 15 October 2012 – Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association are outraged by this morning’s arrest its staff member Ayman Nasser. Ayman, a researcher, has been working with Addameer for almost five years.

At 1.00am this morning a large number of Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home in the village of Safa, near Ramallah. The raid lasted about 1.5 hours, during which time IOF used sniffer dogs to search each room in the house and confiscated Ayman’s computer and mobile phone.

They also searched the computer of Ayman’s children and confiscated some pieces of it. Ayman’s wife was kept in a separate room during the raid with two Israeli soldiers pointing their weapons at her the entire time. At approximately 3.00am Ayman was taken away by IOF and is currently being held in Moskobiyyeh detention center in Jerusalem.

Ayman earned his Master’s Degree in Social and Educational Psychology, from Abu Dis University. He has four children, the oldest being 13 and the youngest just 3 years old. He is also a former detainee himself, having spent six years in Israeli prisons from 1991.

Ayman has been a human rights activist for many years and Addameer considers him a human rights defender, due to his role in advocating the rights of Palestinian prisoners. Human rights defenders are formally defined as persons who work, peacefully, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Addameer also considers the arrest of Ayman as the latest attempt by Israel to target not only Addameer as an organization advocating for Palestinian prisoner’s rights but also the targeting Palestinian civil society in general.

Ayman’s arrest comes not long after Addameer Chairperson Abdullatif Ghaith was banned from entering the West Bank and from travelling abroad. In, addition, numerous Addameer staff members have been banned from travelling freely within the OPT and abroad, which has had signification implications on the ability of Addameer to carry out it work in support of Palestinian prisoners and their families.

We call on all the international community to intervene immediately on behalf of Ayman Nasser. In particular, Addameer calls on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders to intervene with Israel and raise the case of Ayman Nasser and other Palestinian human rights defenders, including Addameer Chairperson Abdullatif Ghaith.