Ahed Tamimi with her father, Bassem, and mother Nariman

Israeli soldiers forced their way into the Nariman and Bassem Tamimi’s home before dawn on Tuesday, the way they have done dozens of times before — only this time instead of leaving with Nariman or Bassem, they arrested the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, Ahed Tamimi.

It is alleged that Ahed was arrested for slapping a soldier during a demonstration the day before. The demonstration was organized to protest Israel’s use of force during a protest on Friday, when Ahed’s 14-year-old cousin Mohammed was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier, leaving him in critical condition. After a six-hour surgery the boy was put into a medically induced coma for at least 72 hours.

With a population of just 600, the community in Nabi Saleh is a tight-knit group, with one of her family’s children in the hospital, expected to be brought out of his coma that day, and her daughter being held in some unknown location by the Israeli government, Nariman was overloaded with tragedy.

For Nariman, a Palestinian mother, activist and medic from Nabi Saleh, one of the occupied West Bank’s most politically contentious villages, there was no time to grieve for her family’s situation.

She headed to Israel’s Binyamin Detention Center to figure out where her daughter had been taken. By 1:30 p.m. she too was detained.

On Tuesday evening an Israeli court told Bassem that both his wife and daughter would be held in detention until at least Thursday, Bilal Tamimi, Nariman’s cousin, told Mondoweiss.

By Wednesday a military court extended Ahed’s detention by ten more days. During the hearing, Ahed’s father Bassem was also detained.

Nariman and Bassem have both been detained more times than either can count, but this is the first time their daughter will spend nights in Israeli prison. Her arrest is not so surprising to anyone familiar with the Tamimis. In fact, most would say Ahed’s arrest was only a matter of time.

A quick Google of the Ahed’s name brings up pages of images of her growing up over the years — a red-faced girl with wild blonde curls fearlessly screaming and chanting with rage directly in front of Israeli soldiers. One set of viral photos even shows her, just 13 years old at the time, biting the hand of a soldier who had tackled her little brother, as the then-11-year-old screamed atop his broken arm, his head smashed between the soldiers knee and a large rock.  

The Tamimi family rushes an Israeli soldier pinning a Mohammed Tamimi, then 12, during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, August 28, 2015. (Photo: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters
 

A Palestinian does not have the right to be so bold in the face of Israeli forces and not expect to be detained one day, so while Ahed’s family is surely wracked with grief over her arrest, it is doubtful they are able to feel at all shocked.
 

Nabi Saleh

Nabi Saleh could have been an inconsequential village with a population of about 600 in the middle of Ramallah’s rolling hills if not for a small fresh water spring called Ein al-Qaws and a determined community unwilling to back down.
 

Free Ahed (Image: Carlos Latuff)
 

Ein al-Qaws had been the village’s sole water source for generations. In 2008, the neighboring illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish began to take over the spring. Soon a road was built, with the spring on the side of the settlement, and Nabi Saleh on the other. Villagers were denied access to the spring that provided for their community for as long as anyone could remember.

By 2009, villagers, particularly the Tamimi clan, decided to organize. Since then a protest has been held in the village every Friday without fail. Rain, holidays and curfews do not stop the people of Nabi Saleh from taking to the side of the hill facing the spring and demanding their land back.

In response, every Friday Israeli soldiers are deployed to suppress the protests, leading to clashes, tear gas, night raids and numerous dead and injured villagers.

Ahed was eight years old when it all started.

While the Tamimi clan has garnered various criticisms for allowing the children of Nabi Saleh, from the bold Ahed to the vocal “child journalist,” Janna Jihad, the Tamimis have explained countless times during radio, print and television interviews why they allow their children to participate. First, they say violence is simply a reality for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and second, they believe keeping their children indoors during the protests fosters fear inside them.

The Tamimis say they choose to cultivate strength, not fear within their children — even if that means teenagers get pulled out of bed and taken away to unknown locations in the middle of the night by fully armed soldiers.

Sheren Khalel is a freelance multimedia journalist who works out of Israel, Palestine and Jordan. She focuses on human rights, women’s issues and the Palestine/Israel conflict. Khalel formerly worked for Ma’an News Agency in Bethlehem, and is currently based in Ramallah and Jerusalem. You can follow her on Twitter at @Sherenk.

Courtesy: http://mondoweiss.net

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Rep. Betty McCollum

The 11-page bill comes several weeks after a report was released by Israeli rights groups, with the support of the European Union, which revealed “broad, systemic abuse by Israeli authorities,” against Palestinian teenagers detained in occupied East Jerusalem.

The bill, dubbed the “ “Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act,” begins by detailing the provisions laid out by the the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by both the U.S. and Israel in the 90s (the U.S. signed the treaty, but did not ratify it, while Israel both signed and ratified the treaty into Israeli law).

The treaty required, among other things, that ‘‘no child shall be subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” as well as requiring arrests and detentions of minors be used as a last resort and that said detentions should instituted for the shortest period of time possible. It also requires that children have access to fair and speedy trials.

The bill lists other requirements of the convention, and challenges that the Israeli government fails to protect Palestinian children in accordance to its own laws as well as the treaty.

The bill does not request any adjustment or cuts to the amount of money already officially allocated from the U.S. to Israel, instead it requests that none of the funding go toward any of the following practices against children:
 

• Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.
• Physical violence, including restraint in stress positions.
• Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, or other forms of psychological abuse.
• Incommunicado detention or solitary confinement.
• Administrative detention (detention without charge or trial under “secret evidence”
• Denial of access to parents or legal counsel during interrogations.
• Confessions obtained by force or coercion.

Rights groups, including Defence for Children International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), B’Tselem, HaMoked, as well as the State Department, among many others, have documented practices employed by the State of Israel against children that are in contravention of International Law.
 

Israeli border police officers detain a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
 

The State Department’s 2016 Annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories found that ‘‘signed confessions by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew, a language most could not read, continued to be used as evidence against them in Israeli military courts,” and documented a ‘‘significant increase in detentions of minors’’ in 2016, all of which is detailed in the bill’s text.

Defence of Children International (DCI), one of the main supporters of the bill, released a statement under its “No Way to Treat a Child” Campaign, calling for support of the bill.

“Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections,” the statement reads, adding that Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year.

According to data from Israel’s military courts obtained by Israeli daily Haartez in 2011, 99.74 of all military court hearings end in convictions.

“Despite sustained engagement by UNICEF and repeated calls to end night arrests and ill treatment and torture of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, Israeli authorities have persistently failed to implement practical changes to stop violence against child detainees,” DCI said in its statement. “Reforms undertaken by Israeli military authorities so far have tended to be cosmetic in nature rather than substantively addressing physical violence and torture by Israeli military and police forces.”

Since 2000, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian minors from the occupied West Bank between the ages of 12 and 17 have been subject to arrest, detention, interrogation, and/or imprisonment under the jurisdiction of Israeli military courts, according to DCI.

The bill is expected to put pressure on Israel to change its practices concerning Palestinian minors and bring attention to the matter.

Along with McCollum, who is presenting the legislation, the bill has the backing of nine other Democrats in congress, listed as: Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL).

Human Rights Watch supported the bill, and there are endorsements from 17 different human rights groups, including Amnesty International USA, which endorsed the bill just hours before it was presented.

The full list of endorsers are Amnesty International USA, Churches for Middle East Peace, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR), United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ), Mennonite Central Committee, Defence for Children International – Palestine, Center for Constitutional Rights, American Friends Service Committee, CODEPINK, Jewish Voice for Peace, Presbyterian Church (USA), Friends Committee on National Legislation, American Muslims for Palestine, the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and Friends of Sabeel North America.

The Institute for Middle East Understanding released a statement on the bill, pointing out that the legislation comes just a few months after 39 members of Congress showed “unprecedented support” for Palestinian nonviolence activist, Issa Amro, who is currently facing a number of charges against him by the Israeli government. The 39 members of congress sent letters to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, urging Tillerson to pressure Israel into dropping charges against the activist.

“These developments reflect a significant shift in American public opinion in recent years, away from unconditional support for Israel and towards growing support for Palestinian rights and freedom,” the statement read.

Sheren Khalel is a freelance multimedia journalist who works out of Israel, Palestine and Jordan. She focuses on human rights, women’s issues and the Palestine/Israel conflict. Khalel formerly worked for Ma’an News Agency in Bethlehem, and is currently based in Ramallah and Jerusalem. You can follow her on Twitter at @Sherenk.

Courtesy: http://mondoweiss.net

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As Trump made his inaugural speech in Washington, a handful of youth leaders gathered by the separation wall in the occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem lighting images of Trump on fire and posting up banners with messages such as “Move your embassy to your own country, not ours” and “Stop Trump … Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.”

Naji Owdeh, director of Palestinian Youth Action Center for community Development (LAYLAC), was in attendance, and told Mondoweiss that while he does not think Trump will be good for Palestinian politics, he does not see a Trump administration as being drastically better or worse for Palestine than the Obama administration had been, or what the Hillary Clinton administration could have been.

“I think they are all very similar,” Owdeh said. “Trump’s stance will be in the same political direction, he can’t completely change everything the way he says he can, he says the things he says for the media. Yes, Trump will certainly support Israel, but Obama did too.”

One point Owdeh is concerned with is Trump’s promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Both Palestinians and Israelis strive to make Jerusalem their own capital, and because of the contentious nature of the city’s status, many states, as well as the United Nations, support Jerusalem having an international status and do not recognize the city as the capital of either communities.

In 1995, the Jerusalem Embassy Act was passed by the 104th U.S. Congress. The act stated that by 1998, the U.S. Embassy in Israel would be moved to Jerusalem and that the city should be declared the undivided capital of Israel, however U.S. Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama opposed the act as an infringement on the presidential office’s authority over foreign policy, consistently overriding the bill.

Owdeh said he feels confident that Trump will go through on his promise to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem, though he is not sure on the timeframe such a move would take place.

“I think he will succeed in moving the embassy, because really, who can say no to him when it comes to that — even the Palestinian Authority (PA) will eventually accept the move,” he said. “It’s so easy for the American president to move an embassy, the PA doesn’t need to agree with it, and in the end, the PA receive orders, they don’t react. Now the international community won’t support them, but they will say it is an American issue and escape from responsibility.”

“If he does move the embassy there will be outrage, but the action will come from the people, not governments, and not just in Palestine,” he added.

On Thursday, Trump reportedly reiterated his stance on the embassy move to the Israel Hayom Hebrew-language daily, telling a reporter that “You know that I am not a person who breaks promises.”

Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Parliament and Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, agreed that in general, the United State’s stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict does not change much regardless of who is president, but he is concerned by some of Trump’s statements regarding the American embassy being moved to Jerusalem, as well as his appointment of David Friedman, an Orthodox Jewish bankruptcy lawyer who has voiced his support for the annexation and Israeli settlement of the West Bank.

“There have certainly been signals that have come from the Trump camp that are very alarming, including the threat to move the American embassy to Jerusalem and the talks that came out of his administration about Israel’s illegal settlements not being an obstacle to peace, as well as statements about annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel,” Barghouti said. “And there were certain statements made by Mr. Friedman that are alarming — his appointment itself is alarming.”

“What we hope is that the strong reactions of the international community concerning the embassy move will be enough to convince Mr. Trump not to commit such a major mistake,” he said.

When asked if he thought some of the statements made by Trump’s administration could cause a popular Palestinian uprising on the ground, Barghouti said there is already a threat of another Palestinian uprising without the contention brought to the table by Trump.

“Israel is fueling sparks for a new Intifada through its crimes everyday,” Barghouti said. “The main instigator in a new intifada would certainly be Israel and its behavior, but moving the embassy to Jerusalem will absolutely spark flames, not only here but worldwide. A move like this is not something small that would be forgotten in a week or so. It is a major political move and it would mean the U.S. is nullifying its position of being a partner in the Peace Process.”

George Abu Eid, 25 and a history and science teacher from the West Bank with a degree in political science, called Trump a “racist, bigot, xenophobic narcissist,” but told Mondoweiss that in a way, he is happy a person with Trump’s personality has taken control of the American presidency.

“For Palestinians, like myself, who have been following up and observing the U.S. elections, certainly we were not looking for any hope in our situation out of either outcome — both Hilary and Trump are actually not that different as far as a greater evil in regards to Palestine and the world goes,” he said. “However, from my humble perspective, I believe that Trump as a U.S. President is much better than Hillary, because, somehow Trump reflects the true colors of the American society: a white-supremacist racist society that has been living in denial and ignorance for so long.”

“To be honest, we Palestinians have plenty of experience dealing with a man like Trump over someone like Hillary,” he added. “Since we have been doing so with Mr. Netanyahu for the past decade. In other words, we now can look at reality and expect the worse, instead of deluding ourselves with hopes for a bright future.”

Laura Hamdan, a Palestinian-American student from St. Louis who just returned to the U.S. from winter break in the occupied West Bank, said that if Trump keeps his promises regarding the embassy — essentially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — it will signal a loss of hope.

“Recognizing Jerusalem as only the capital of Israel is sort of telling the Palestinian side that you really have no future in deciding your own autonomy,” she said.

While Hamdan is concerned about the implication of what a Trump presidency will mean for Palestine, she also has more immediate concerns about the safety of her Muslim family in America.

“It’s no surprise what Trump’s stance on Israel is, considering most presidents before him have the same point of view. So my family saw it coming,” Hamdan said. “But what my family is mainly concerned about is what might happen domestically. They all said Trump supporters are more dangerous than Trump himself. My mom wears the hijab (head scarf) and notices more people look at her critically now. My brother — who never concerns himself with politics really — told me ‘I’m afraid for mom, for you, for anybody that looks anyway foreign or different now.’”

Courtesy: mondoweiss.net

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