9 nov 2018
When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer Khalida Jarrar on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, she had been leading a Palestinian effort to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Her research on that very evening was related directly to the kind of behavior that allows a group of soldiers to handcuff a respected Palestinian intellectual, throw her in jail with no trial and have no accountability for their action.
Jarrar was released in June 2016 after spending more than a year in jail, only to be arrested once more, on 2 July last year. She remains in an Israeli prison to this day. On 28 October, her “administrative detention” was renewed for the fourth time.
There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of them held outside the militarily-occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nearly500 of these Palestinians are held with neither charge nor trial and detained for six-month periods that are renewed, sometimes indefinitely, by Israeli military courts with no legal justification whatsoever. Jarrar is one of those “administrative detainees”.
The parliamentarian is not pleading with her jailers for her freedom. Instead, she is keeping herself busy, educating her fellow prisoners about international law, offering classes and issuing statements to the outside world that reflect not only her refined intellect but also her resolve and strength of character.
Jarrar is relentless. Despite her failing health — she suffers from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, and was hospitalized due to severe bleeding resulting from epistaxis — her commitment to the cause of her people has not, in any way, weakened or faltered.
The 55-year-old lawyer has championed a political discourse that is largely missing amid the ongoing feud between the Palestinian Authority’s largest faction, Fatah, in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas in besieged Gaza. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jarrar has advocated the kind of politics that is not disconnected from the people and, especially, from the women who she strongly and uncompromisingly represents.
According to Jarrar, no Palestinian official should engage in any form of dialogue with Israel, because such engagement helps to legitimize a state that is founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing; a state that is currently carrying out various types of war crimes, the very crimes that Jarrar tried to expose before the ICC. As such, she rejects the so-called “peace process”, a futile exercise that has no intention or mechanism aimed at “implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian cause and recognizing the fundamental rights of the Palestinians.”
It goes without saying that a woman with such an astute, strong position vehemently rejects the “security coordination” between the PA and Israel. She sees such action as a betrayal of the struggle and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
While PA officials continue to enjoy the perks of “leadership”, desperately breathing life into a dead political discourse called the “peace process” and the “two-state solution”, Jarrar, a female Palestinian leader with genuine vision, subsists in HaSharon Prison. There, along with dozens of other Palestinian women, she experiences daily humiliation, denial of rights and various other Israeli tactics intended to break her spirit.
Jarrar, though, is as experienced in resisting Israel as she is in her knowledge of law and human rights. In August 2014, as Israel was carrying out one of its most heinous acts of genocide in Gaza — killing and wounding thousands in its so-called “Operation Protective Edge” military offensive — Jarrar received an unwelcome visit by Israeli soldiers.
Fully aware of her work and credibility as a Palestinian lawyer with an international outreach — she is the Palestine representative in the Council of Europe — the Israeli government unleashed their campaign of harassment, which ended in her imprisonment. The soldiers delivered a military edict ordering her to leave her home in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and go to Jericho.
The Israelis failed to silence her, so she was arrested in April the following year. Thus began an episode of suffering, as well as resistance, which is yet to end.
When the Israeli army came for Jarrar, its soldiers surrounded her home in great numbers, as if the well-spoken Palestinian activist was Israel’s greatest security threat. The scene was surreal and revealed what Israel’s real fear is: Palestinians, like Khalida Jarrar, who are able to communicate an articulate message that exposes Israel and its crimes to the rest of the world.
Indeed, the whole set-up was reminiscent of the opening sentence of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial: “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.”
Administrative detention in Israel is the recreation of that Kafkaesque scene over and over again. Joseph K. is Khalida Jarrar and thousands of other Palestinians who are paying a high price merely for calling for the legitimate rights and freedom of their people.
Under international pressure, Israel was forced to put Jarrar on trial, levying against her twelve charges that included visiting a released prisoner and participating in a book fair. Her other arrest and the four renewals of her detention is a testament not just to Israel’s lack of any real evidence against her, but also to its moral bankruptcy.
Why is Israel afraid of Khalida Jarrar? The truth is that Jarrar, like many other Palestinian women, represents the antidote to the fabricated narrative which promotes Israel relentlessly as an oasis of freedom, democracy, and human rights, juxtaposed with a Palestinian society that purportedly represents the opposite of what Israel stands for.
As a lawyer, human rights activist, prominent politician, and advocate for women, Jarrar and her eloquence, courage and deep understanding of her rights and the rights of her people, demolish this Israeli house of lies. She is the quintessential feminist; her feminism, however, is not mere identity politics, a surface ideology, evoking empty rights meant to strike a chord with western audiences. Instead, Khalida Jarrar fights for Palestinian women, their freedom and their right to receive a proper education, to seek work opportunities and to better their lives, while facing tremendous obstacles like Israel’s military occupation, prison, and social pressures.
In Arabic, Khalida means “immortal”. It is a most fitting designation for a true fighter who represents the legacy of generations of strong Palestinian women whose “sumoud” — steadfastness — shall always inspire an entire nation.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
Jarrar was released in June 2016 after spending more than a year in jail, only to be arrested once more, on 2 July last year. She remains in an Israeli prison to this day. On 28 October, her “administrative detention” was renewed for the fourth time.
There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, most of them held outside the militarily-occupied Palestinian territories, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Nearly500 of these Palestinians are held with neither charge nor trial and detained for six-month periods that are renewed, sometimes indefinitely, by Israeli military courts with no legal justification whatsoever. Jarrar is one of those “administrative detainees”.
The parliamentarian is not pleading with her jailers for her freedom. Instead, she is keeping herself busy, educating her fellow prisoners about international law, offering classes and issuing statements to the outside world that reflect not only her refined intellect but also her resolve and strength of character.
Jarrar is relentless. Despite her failing health — she suffers from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, and was hospitalized due to severe bleeding resulting from epistaxis — her commitment to the cause of her people has not, in any way, weakened or faltered.
The 55-year-old lawyer has championed a political discourse that is largely missing amid the ongoing feud between the Palestinian Authority’s largest faction, Fatah, in the occupied West Bank, and Hamas in besieged Gaza. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Jarrar has advocated the kind of politics that is not disconnected from the people and, especially, from the women who she strongly and uncompromisingly represents.
According to Jarrar, no Palestinian official should engage in any form of dialogue with Israel, because such engagement helps to legitimize a state that is founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing; a state that is currently carrying out various types of war crimes, the very crimes that Jarrar tried to expose before the ICC. As such, she rejects the so-called “peace process”, a futile exercise that has no intention or mechanism aimed at “implementing international resolutions related to the Palestinian cause and recognizing the fundamental rights of the Palestinians.”
It goes without saying that a woman with such an astute, strong position vehemently rejects the “security coordination” between the PA and Israel. She sees such action as a betrayal of the struggle and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
While PA officials continue to enjoy the perks of “leadership”, desperately breathing life into a dead political discourse called the “peace process” and the “two-state solution”, Jarrar, a female Palestinian leader with genuine vision, subsists in HaSharon Prison. There, along with dozens of other Palestinian women, she experiences daily humiliation, denial of rights and various other Israeli tactics intended to break her spirit.
Jarrar, though, is as experienced in resisting Israel as she is in her knowledge of law and human rights. In August 2014, as Israel was carrying out one of its most heinous acts of genocide in Gaza — killing and wounding thousands in its so-called “Operation Protective Edge” military offensive — Jarrar received an unwelcome visit by Israeli soldiers.
Fully aware of her work and credibility as a Palestinian lawyer with an international outreach — she is the Palestine representative in the Council of Europe — the Israeli government unleashed their campaign of harassment, which ended in her imprisonment. The soldiers delivered a military edict ordering her to leave her home in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and go to Jericho.
The Israelis failed to silence her, so she was arrested in April the following year. Thus began an episode of suffering, as well as resistance, which is yet to end.
When the Israeli army came for Jarrar, its soldiers surrounded her home in great numbers, as if the well-spoken Palestinian activist was Israel’s greatest security threat. The scene was surreal and revealed what Israel’s real fear is: Palestinians, like Khalida Jarrar, who are able to communicate an articulate message that exposes Israel and its crimes to the rest of the world.
Indeed, the whole set-up was reminiscent of the opening sentence of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial: “Somebody must have made a false accusation against Joseph K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.”
Administrative detention in Israel is the recreation of that Kafkaesque scene over and over again. Joseph K. is Khalida Jarrar and thousands of other Palestinians who are paying a high price merely for calling for the legitimate rights and freedom of their people.
Under international pressure, Israel was forced to put Jarrar on trial, levying against her twelve charges that included visiting a released prisoner and participating in a book fair. Her other arrest and the four renewals of her detention is a testament not just to Israel’s lack of any real evidence against her, but also to its moral bankruptcy.
Why is Israel afraid of Khalida Jarrar? The truth is that Jarrar, like many other Palestinian women, represents the antidote to the fabricated narrative which promotes Israel relentlessly as an oasis of freedom, democracy, and human rights, juxtaposed with a Palestinian society that purportedly represents the opposite of what Israel stands for.
As a lawyer, human rights activist, prominent politician, and advocate for women, Jarrar and her eloquence, courage and deep understanding of her rights and the rights of her people, demolish this Israeli house of lies. She is the quintessential feminist; her feminism, however, is not mere identity politics, a surface ideology, evoking empty rights meant to strike a chord with western audiences. Instead, Khalida Jarrar fights for Palestinian women, their freedom and their right to receive a proper education, to seek work opportunities and to better their lives, while facing tremendous obstacles like Israel’s military occupation, prison, and social pressures.
In Arabic, Khalida means “immortal”. It is a most fitting designation for a true fighter who represents the legacy of generations of strong Palestinian women whose “sumoud” — steadfastness — shall always inspire an entire nation.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. Baroud has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
Omar Rabea’ Abu Ayyash, 8
Israeli soldiers abducted, Friday, eight-year-old child, at the entrance of Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.
Media activist Mohammad Awad said the soldiers chased the child, identified as Omar Rabea’ Abu Ayyash, 8, and abducted him.
The soldiers claimed they were chasing Palestinian youngsters, who reportedly hurled stones at the armored military jeeps.
The child’s father said the army constantly targets children, the future generation of Palestine, in an attempt to crush the will and determination of the Palestinian people, living under the illegal Israeli occupation of their lands.
Israeli soldiers abducted, Friday, eight-year-old child, at the entrance of Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.
Media activist Mohammad Awad said the soldiers chased the child, identified as Omar Rabea’ Abu Ayyash, 8, and abducted him.
The soldiers claimed they were chasing Palestinian youngsters, who reportedly hurled stones at the armored military jeeps.
The child’s father said the army constantly targets children, the future generation of Palestine, in an attempt to crush the will and determination of the Palestinian people, living under the illegal Israeli occupation of their lands.
Dozens of Palestinians were injured while three others were detained on Friday after the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) quelled dozens of protesters who were demonstrating in Jabal al-Risan area, west of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Local sources said that Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel rounds and teargas canisters towards the protesters who were marching against Israel’s plan to confiscate hundreds of dunums of land in the area.
Many cases of suffocation from gas inhalation were reported during the protest while a paramedic was injured after IOF targeted an ambulance he was by a rubber-coated bullet.
The Israeli soldiers also arrested three protesters including a preacher and a local activist.
Local sources said that Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel rounds and teargas canisters towards the protesters who were marching against Israel’s plan to confiscate hundreds of dunums of land in the area.
Many cases of suffocation from gas inhalation were reported during the protest while a paramedic was injured after IOF targeted an ambulance he was by a rubber-coated bullet.
The Israeli soldiers also arrested three protesters including a preacher and a local activist.
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Friday at dawn, two former political prisoners from their homes in Arraba and Methaloon towns, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported that the soldiers abducted Yazid Jom’a Taher, after invading and violently searching his home.
The PPS added that the soldiers searched many homes in the town, interrogated many families, and illegally confiscated 2500 Shekels from the home of Yousef Sheebani.
Furthermore, the soldiers invaded and searched homes in Methaloon town, and abducted a young man, identified as Mohammad Rif’at Rabay’a.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported that the soldiers abducted Yazid Jom’a Taher, after invading and violently searching his home.
The PPS added that the soldiers searched many homes in the town, interrogated many families, and illegally confiscated 2500 Shekels from the home of Yousef Sheebani.
Furthermore, the soldiers invaded and searched homes in Methaloon town, and abducted a young man, identified as Mohammad Rif’at Rabay’a.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested three Palestinians in pre-dawn raids across West Bank.
Israeli army claimed that three “wanted” Palestinians were detained for being allegedly involved in anti-occupation activities.
Israeli raids and arrests are carried out on daily basis in West Bank and occupied Jerusalem under flimsy pretexts.
Israeli army claimed that three “wanted” Palestinians were detained for being allegedly involved in anti-occupation activities.
Israeli raids and arrests are carried out on daily basis in West Bank and occupied Jerusalem under flimsy pretexts.
Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA) prevented on Thursday the entry of the Governor of occupied Jerusalem, Adnan Gheith, to the West Bank for six months.
The ban order was issued by the Israeli military central command under the pretext of incitement and posing a "threat to the security of the State of Israel."
Ghaith was given 72 hours to challenge the order.
Over the past month, Israeli force intercepted a Palestinian vehicle transporting Jerusalem governor in the Beit Hanina neighborhood, and detained him without providing a reason.
Several hours after his detention, the Israeli authorities released Gheith to be transferred under house arrest for one week.
The ban order was issued by the Israeli military central command under the pretext of incitement and posing a "threat to the security of the State of Israel."
Ghaith was given 72 hours to challenge the order.
Over the past month, Israeli force intercepted a Palestinian vehicle transporting Jerusalem governor in the Beit Hanina neighborhood, and detained him without providing a reason.
Several hours after his detention, the Israeli authorities released Gheith to be transferred under house arrest for one week.
The sister of the Palestinian anti-occupation attacker Ashraf Na’luwa was released from an Israeli detention center overnight Thursday after she had been detained for weeks.
Dr. Fayrouz Na’luwa was freed at the entrance to the Israeli Salem military camp, west of Jenin. She was received by her children and husband at her home in al-Maajin neighborhood in Nablus.
Fayrouz is a lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy at An-Najah National University in Nablus and has been arrested three times since her brother Ashraf carried out an anti-occupation attack. She has been subjected to exhaustive interrogation.
Ashraf’s parents and brother are still held in Israeli custody.
Ashraf has been chased down for weeks by the Israeli occupation forces following an anti-occupation attack he carried out on October 7 in the Israeli Brakan settlement, illegally built on Palestinian land in Salfit.
Dr. Fayrouz Na’luwa was freed at the entrance to the Israeli Salem military camp, west of Jenin. She was received by her children and husband at her home in al-Maajin neighborhood in Nablus.
Fayrouz is a lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy at An-Najah National University in Nablus and has been arrested three times since her brother Ashraf carried out an anti-occupation attack. She has been subjected to exhaustive interrogation.
Ashraf’s parents and brother are still held in Israeli custody.
Ashraf has been chased down for weeks by the Israeli occupation forces following an anti-occupation attack he carried out on October 7 in the Israeli Brakan settlement, illegally built on Palestinian land in Salfit.
Israeli soldiers abducted, Thursday, a Palestinian child in Ya’bad child, southwest of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Media sources said the soldiers abducted Mohammad Abdul-Hakim Abu Bakr, 15, while he was in the southern area of the town, and took him to an unknown destination.
On Wednesday, the soldiers abducted Ahmad Tareq Abu Bakr, 19, and Ahmad Jalal Abu Bakr, 18, from their homes in Ya’bad.
Media sources said the soldiers abducted Mohammad Abdul-Hakim Abu Bakr, 15, while he was in the southern area of the town, and took him to an unknown destination.
On Wednesday, the soldiers abducted Ahmad Tareq Abu Bakr, 19, and Ahmad Jalal Abu Bakr, 18, from their homes in Ya’bad.
8 nov 2018
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Thursday at dawn, at least seven Palestinians from several parts of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported.
The PPS said the soldiers invaded and searched several homes, and interrogated many Palestinians while investigating their ID cards, before abducting seven.
The PPS office in Tulkarem, in northern West Bank, said several army vehicles invaded Allar town, north of the city, and abducted three Palestinians, identified as As’ad Ziad Shadeed, 28, Mo’men Jihad Kharouf, 23, and his brother Malek, 20.
Furthermore, the soldiers invaded Jenin, in northern West Bank, searched homes and abducted a young man, identified as Mohammad Suleiman Sa’adi.
The soldiers also abducted Abada al-Hawas, from his home in Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem.
In Bethlehem, the soldiers abducted Ahmad Mousa Ramadan, while Ayyoub Nafeth Abdul-Basset was abducted from his home in Hebron, in southern West Bank.
The PPS said the soldiers invaded and searched several homes, and interrogated many Palestinians while investigating their ID cards, before abducting seven.
The PPS office in Tulkarem, in northern West Bank, said several army vehicles invaded Allar town, north of the city, and abducted three Palestinians, identified as As’ad Ziad Shadeed, 28, Mo’men Jihad Kharouf, 23, and his brother Malek, 20.
Furthermore, the soldiers invaded Jenin, in northern West Bank, searched homes and abducted a young man, identified as Mohammad Suleiman Sa’adi.
The soldiers also abducted Abada al-Hawas, from his home in Shu’fat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem.
In Bethlehem, the soldiers abducted Ahmad Mousa Ramadan, while Ayyoub Nafeth Abdul-Basset was abducted from his home in Hebron, in southern West Bank.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday morning, Jenin refugee camp, in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, injured four young men, and caused many to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation, in addition to abducting one Palestinian.
The soldiers stormed and ransacked dozens of homes in the refugee camp, and interrogated many Palestinians before abducting Mohammad Suleiman Sa’adi, in his twenties.
Many Palestinians protested the invasion, and hurled stones at the armored military vehicles, while the soldiers fired live rounds, concussion grenades and gas bombs.
Medical sources said two young men, identified as Mohammad Ahmad al-Hosary and Ahmad Mohammad Abu al-Haija, were shot with live rounds in their legs, and added that two Palestinians were injured by shrapnel from concussion grenades, and many others suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.
In related news, the soldiers invaded Toura village, southwest of Jenin, and fired many gas bombs and concussion grenades at local protesters.
The soldiers stormed and ransacked dozens of homes in the refugee camp, and interrogated many Palestinians before abducting Mohammad Suleiman Sa’adi, in his twenties.
Many Palestinians protested the invasion, and hurled stones at the armored military vehicles, while the soldiers fired live rounds, concussion grenades and gas bombs.
Medical sources said two young men, identified as Mohammad Ahmad al-Hosary and Ahmad Mohammad Abu al-Haija, were shot with live rounds in their legs, and added that two Palestinians were injured by shrapnel from concussion grenades, and many others suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.
In related news, the soldiers invaded Toura village, southwest of Jenin, and fired many gas bombs and concussion grenades at local protesters.
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Wednesday evening, a Palestinian man and confiscated two cars, in Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Media sources in Beit Ummar said the soldiers abducted a Palestinian, whose identity was still unknown at the time of this report, and took him to a nearby military base.
They added that the soldiers also confiscated two Palestinian cars in the town, in addition to stopping and searching dozens of cars, and interrogated many Palestinians.
The soldiers took the car keys from the Palestinians while interrogating them and inspecting their ID cards, and later returned them, except for the two cars which were confiscated and taken away.
Media sources in Beit Ummar said the soldiers abducted a Palestinian, whose identity was still unknown at the time of this report, and took him to a nearby military base.
They added that the soldiers also confiscated two Palestinian cars in the town, in addition to stopping and searching dozens of cars, and interrogated many Palestinians.
The soldiers took the car keys from the Palestinians while interrogating them and inspecting their ID cards, and later returned them, except for the two cars which were confiscated and taken away.
