Palestinians, Israeli forces clash after funeral

Bernat Armangue / AP photo
Masked Palestinian stone-throwers run away from tear gas fired by Israeli security forces, not pictured, during clashes in the West Bank town of Al-Ram, near Jerusalem, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012. Clashes erupted after the funeral of Talat Ramia, a 23-year-old Palestinian who was shot dead by Israeli forces while throwing fire crackers at them. The army said it is investigating the shooting.

Sacramento Bee - Palestinians, Israeli forces clash after funeral 
By DIAA HADID
Associated Press
Published: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012 - 6:13 am

JERUSALEM -- Dozens of Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli forces in a Jerusalem suburb Saturday, the second day of violent confrontations in the holy city where tensions have been running high this week.

Saturday's clash erupted after the funeral of a 23-year-old Palestinian who was shot dead the day before by Israeli forces.

In Saturday's confrontation in the West Bank district of al-Ram abutting Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinian youths, some of them masked, hurled rocks and exploding firecrackers at troops. They took cover behind barricades of overturned garbage containers and black plumes of smoke from burning tires.

Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets, protecting themselves with plastic masks and shields. Neither side reported injuries.

Palestinian protesters prevented cars from entering the sprawling neighborhood, fearing some might carry undercover Israeli troops. The youths also prepared fire bombs, but it wasn't clear if any were thrown at Israeli forces.

The clashes came a day after Talat Ramia was shot and killed as he hurled exploding fireworks at Israeli forces in al-Ram. Palestinian youths have recently began using exploding fireworks to rattle - and potentially injure - Israeli forces. The hand-held brown cylinders make a hissing noise and emit a stream of sparks before they explode.

An Israeli military spokesman could not immediately say if opening fire under such circumstances violated the army's rules of engagement. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing military regulations. The army said it is investigating the shooting.

Palestinians and their supporters complain that such investigations rarely lead to indictments against soldiers.

The clash that killed Ramia was one of many that broke out throughout Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem on Friday. They were sparked by Palestinian rumors that extremist Jews would try storm the Al-Aqsa compound, Islam's third holiest shrine. The compound sits atop remains of the biblical Jewish Temple, the most sacred site in Judaism.

The rumors were not true, said Israeli police.

Also Saturday, several days of Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo ended without results, participants said.

Political rivals Hamas and Fatah failed to reach agreement on the composition of an interim unity government that would end more than four years of separate administrations in the West Bank and Gaza and lead the Palestinians to elections.

Earlier this month, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah had reached a breakthrough agreement under which Abbas would head the interim government. The two leaders held more talks in Cairo to try to come up with names for the new government but failed to make progress, participants said.

A senior Abbas aide, Azzam al-Ahmed, alleged that Hamas hasn't yet settled its internal differences over the unity deal, but Izzat Rishq, a Mashaal aide, said it was Abbas who asked for more time.

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Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Cairo contributed reporting.

Palestinian hunger striker held by Israel agrees to end protest, will be freed on April 17

Palestinian hunger striker held by Israel agrees to end protest, will be freed on April 17
By DIAA HADID
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) _ A Palestinian who refused food for 66-days to protest his imprisonment without charge agreed to end his hunger strike after reaching a deal with Israel that will free him in April, the Israeli Justice Ministry said.

Tuesday's announcement ended a tense standoff that left 33-year-old Khader Adnan clinging to life and drew international attention to a controversial Israeli policy of holding suspected Palestinian militants without charge.

The hunger strike also turned Adnan, a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group who has openly called on members to carry out suicide bombings, into a hero for Palestinians.

Under the deal struck with military prosecutors, Adnan agreed to resume eating immediately, the Justice Ministry said.

Outside the Jerusalem high court, some two dozen demonstrators waved the Palestinian flag. "Khader is coming home!" they chanted.

The statement said that if "no new additional substantial evidence" emerges against Adnan, he will be released on April 17.

That means his four-month detention order will be counted from the day of his arrest, not the day it was issued several weeks later. The deal also suggests that military prosecutors will not seek extensions, which can often be used to prolong administrative detentions.

Adnan was a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed violent group that has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks. It is not known whether Adnan participated in violent acts.

A YouTube video shows Adnan praising suicide bombers and calling on Palestinians to carry out more violence at a rally in 2007. "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?" he can be heard saying.

The Justice Ministry said Adnan, who remains hospitalized, accepted the deal through his attorney.

The deal was swiftly denounced by Israel's hardline foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

"It was a wrong decision to release the Jihad activist. But it is our duty to respect and honor every Supreme Court decision even when we don't agree with it," he said.

Adnan's lawyers said the deal would set a precedent for other Palestinian prisoners _ that they too, could force Israel to listen to their demands.

"Sheikh Khader is an example for Palestinians," said one of his lawyers, Mahmoud Hassan. "He showed that their demands can be met."

Tuesday's compromise was announced shortly before the Israeli Supreme Court was to hold an emergency hearing on Adnan's appeal. The court moved the hearing up by two days, over concerns about Adnan's health. He has been held in an Israeli hospital for several weeks because of his condition.

Adnan's supporters and physicians said in recent days that he couldn't survive much longer on his hunger strike. Doctors who treated him said he lost some 60 pounds (30 kilograms), his hair was falling out, his skin had turned yellow and that he was in danger of a heart attack.

Adnan's wife, Randa, was ecstatic over the news.

"The Israelis had no proof and that's why they've agreed to these four months," she said in a telephone interview. "He's shown by his steadfastness that we can be victorious."

She laughed, and supporters could be heard ululating with joy in the background.

Adnan was arrested from his West Bank home on Dec. 17 and launched his hunger strike the following day.

He said he was protesting Israel's policy of "administrative detentions," in which it holds suspected Palestinian militants for months and even years at a time without charge. Adnan also claimed to have been beaten and humiliated in prison.

Israel has said Adnan was suspected of acts that "threaten regional security" without elaborating. It has not responded to the abuse allegations.

Israel has defended the policy of administrative detentions as a necessary tool to stop militant activity. It says the measure is needed to protect its network of Palestinian informants.

Adnan has been on three hunger strikes in the past. His sister Maali Musa said her brother undertook a 14-day hunger strike in 1999 after he was imprisoned by Palestinian authorities for hurling rotten eggs at officials during a demonstration.

He went without food for 28 days to protest his solitary confinement in 2005 when he was imprisoned by Israel. His sister said his strike forced Israeli authorities to return him to live with other prisoners.

He also undertook a 12-day hunger strike in 2010, again when he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the West Bank. Musa said her brother wasn't charged with anything, and was quickly released.

Adnan's latest protest was the longest hunger strike ever by a Palestinian prisoner, and had caused some unease in Israel. The European Union and United Nations had expressed concern over the case and urged Israel to promptly give Adnan a trial.

There are some 300 Palestinians in Israeli administrative detention. They are a fraction of the some 4,200 Palestinians held in Israel, many who are doing time for charges ranging from throwing stones at Israeli soldiers to killing Israeli civilians.

Palestinians venerate the prisoners, viewing them as freedom fighters.

The second longest hunger strike in Palestinian history was by a woman, Itaf Alayan, who refused food for 43 days before she was released in 1997. She was also an administrative detainee.
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Lawyer of Palestinian hunger striker files appeal

Houston Chronicle - Lawyer of Palestinian hunger striker files appeal

DIAA HADID, Associated Press


JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian who has waged a hunger strike for an unprecedented 63 days has appealed to Israel's Supreme Court, demanding to be released from months-long detention without trial, his lawyer said Saturday.

Khader Adnan is fighting a provision that allows Israel to hold detainees for months or even years without trial or formal charges. Israeli officials say they use so-called "administrative detention" to guard against immediate threats to the country's security.

Adnan, a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, has continued his hunger strike longer than any Palestinian detainee before him. His doctors warned this week that the 33-year-old might die soon.

"We are hoping ... the Supreme Court hears this case urgently," said Mahmoud Hassan, one of Adnan's lawyers. "He could die before the court hearing happens."

The court has not set a date for the hearing. Hassan said in previous cases, the high court at times reduced the sentence of administrative detainees on appeal, but that it rarely ordered them freed outright.

The hunger strike has already turned Adnan into a Palestinian hero, with thousands protesting in support of the once obscure bearded baker. Islamic Jihad has vowed revenge if Adnan dies, possibly by firing rockets into Israel from Gaza.

He is being kept under guard in a northern Israeli hospital, and Israeli officials are monitoring his condition.

He is taking liquid infusions of salts, glucose and minerals, said the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights on Wednesday, citing his doctor. The group is overseeing his medical care.

Although he is still lucid, Adnan has shed some 66 pounds (30 kilograms), his hair is falling out, his muscles have atrophied and he is in immediate danger of death, said the group's doctor.

Adnan is serving four months in administrative detention. Israeli military judges can imprison defendants for up to six months at a time, with the possibility of renewing the detention order repeatedly. Defendants and their lawyers are not shown the alleged evidence against them. An Israeli military judge rejected an earlier appeal by Adnan last week, saying he had reviewed the evidence and found the sentence to be fair.

Israeli military officials generally use administrative detention to hold Palestinians who they believe are an imminent risk to the country's security. Defenders of the system say that if the evidence against the accused was made public, it would expose how Israeli intelligence-gathering networks operate in the Palestinian Territories. They say the process is under full judicial review by Israel's military and the Supreme Court.

Adnan was once a spokesman for Islamic Jihad and remains a member, his family says. But it's not clear if he ever directly participated in any attacks.

He began his hunger strike on Dec. 18, a day after he was seized from his home in the northern West Bank town of Arabeh.

Adnan told his lawyers that he was beaten and humiliated during arrest and interrogation.

Also Saturday, Palestinian militants fired three rockets from Gaza into Israel, officials said.

Israeli police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby and a military official said the rockets landed in an open area, causing no damage.

A years-old understanding between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers have halted much of the rocket fire from the tiny territory. But Palestinian militants continue to fire salvos at Israel — either in defiance of Hamas, or with the militant rulers' quiet permission.

No Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket firing.

African migrants tortured in Egypt's Sinai desert

Sudanese Mutasim Qamrawi, 22, shows his scars from four months he was held in captivity by smugglers in Egypt's Sinai desert at a shelter in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. Some 50,000 Africans have entered Israel in recent years, fleeing conflict and poverty in search of safety and opportunity in the relatively prosperous Jewish state. A growing number of African migrants say they were captured, held hostage and tortured by Egyptian smugglers hired to sneak them into Israel. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Boston.Com - African migrants tortured in Egypt's Sinai desert
By Diaa Hadid
Associated Press / February 16, 2012

TEL AVIV, Israel—The young man from Sudan holds his arms close to his sides, as if still at the mercy of smugglers who he says poured hot melted plastic over his back, whipped him with wires and beat him with sticks as he lay face down and naked.

He pulls up his shirt to reveal scars that crisscross his arms, back and stomach.

Mutasim Qamrawi is among a growing number of African migrants reporting they were tortured in Egypt's Sinai desert by smugglers despite promises to sneak them into Israel, where they hoped to find freedom and a decent job. The smugglers then extorted the migrants' families for more money.

"You sit in your own grave until you can get the money. That is the only way to leave -- or death," said Qamrawi, 22, who was held in captivity for four months.

Human rights advocates say the situation is worsening, because smugglers are using harsher torture methods and demanding more money -- as much as $40,000.

They cite accounts by Africans who have arrived in Israel, and from those still in captivity who make frantic phone calls. Those stories were echoed in Associated Press interviews with Africans in captivity and those released.

Qamrawi said smugglers kept him and some 60 other men in a hut, shackled by their legs. Each day, about a dozen guards burst into the room, making them lie down naked, one at a time. Then the torture began. Qamrawi said he saw 16 men die under torture, screaming for help, because they took too long to gather the ransom money.

Other Africans say smugglers gang-raped migrants, electrocuted them, kept them in the desert sun, deprived them of food, threatened to remove their organs, shackled them together and left them unwashed.

They include a 27-year-old Eritrean who reached Israel in February. He limps on his deformed legs, cannot close his swollen hands and wonders whether he will ever be healthy enough to work again.

Smugglers beat him with pipes and electric prods and smeared melting plastic on him. Women in his group were taken outside to be raped. Six men died, their bodies left to rot beside him for days at a time.

"Every time I close my eyes, I think about all the people I left behind in the (underground) room. They always come to mind," said the Eritrean, who provided only his first name, Touldeh, fearing his captors could still harm him.

Israeli advocates say although the torture happens in the Sinai, Israel can do more for freed captives when they arrive in the Jewish state.

"Every minute that we are waiting, more and more people are being tortured," said Shahar Shoham of the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, which treats many new arrivals, including Touldeh, in a free medical clinic.

Some 50,000 Africans have entered Israel in recent years, fleeing conflict and poverty in search of safety and opportunity in the relatively prosperous Jewish state. They need the smugglers' help to navigate the rugged Sinai desert and reach Israel's border. The smugglers are nomadic Bedouin tribesmen.

For several years, smugglers ran a lucrative trade. But with Israel rushing to seal the border, smugglers are raising their prices as migrants try reach Israel before it's too late.

Africans say the journey to Israel begins in a shantytown in northern Sudan, where initial contacts with Bedouin smuggling tribes are made. Most smugglers keep their word and deliver them to Israel's border for a few hundred dollars.

But in a growing number of cases, smugglers are luring Africans with prices that they inflate once they reach the Sinai. Other smugglers, tempted by easy profits in human chattel, are rushing in, buying and selling captive Africans. A smaller number of Africans say they were "kidnapped" by smuggling clans eager for more profits.

The smugglers force captives to call friends and relatives to beg for money, usually while being tortured, to increase pressure on loved ones. As a result, the trade is strikingly open, and reporters and advocates may also contact the hostages.

In a conversation with AP, a woman who said she was a 20-year-old Eritrean said she was being held in captivity for months and repeatedly raped by smugglers who guarded the basement where she and a dozen men were chained. She said she didn't know where she was, or when the guards might burst in.

"I am afraid of the men outside," she said. "They do bad things, they rape us." She spoke on a crackly telephone line, interspersed by hushed silences and whispers of other captives waiting to use the phone.

The woman requested anonymity, fearing the smugglers. She said her family couldn't afford the $23,000 the smugglers were demanding to release her.

Although it was impossible to verify her claims, her number was provided by Meron Estafanos, a Sweden-based Eritrean activist. Such stories are common, she said.

Captive Africans raise the money from friends and relatives in Israel and from more affluent expatriate communities in Europe and the United States. The money is delivered through local middlemen. Those who can't pay linger in captivity. Some don't survive, although exact numbers are not known.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 Africans enter Israel each month, according to Israel's Interior Ministry, most of them from wartorn Sudan and Eritrea.

Israel doesn't deport them because their countries' human rights records are so poor. But they are not granted any official status either.

After a brief processing period, they are allowed to go free, though they may not work. Many flock to Tel Aviv slums and find illegal menial jobs as cleaners and dishwashers in restaurants.

The Africans have sparked a debate in Israeli society. Many Israelis believe their country, which emerged from the ruins of the Holocaust, must help the oppressed. Activists ask the government to give them medical treatment and official status. Yet others fear the influx will threaten the Jewish character of the country of almost 8 million.

Last year alone, some 17,000 Africans made their way to Israel, according Israel's military.

Alarmed by these growing numbers, and fearful of militants creeping through the porous border, Israel is racing to finish a 150-mile (230-kilometer) long fence along its border with Egypt.

Ironically, many of the men building the fence are African migrants. Israel also is preparing to build a detention center to hold up to 11,000 migrants. The center is to open in the coming months and be completed this year.

Africans began entering Israel through the Sinai after Egyptian security forces violently quashed a demonstration by Sudanese refugees in 2005. As word of prosperity and safety in Israel spread, their numbers swelled. Most Africans paid a few hundred dollars to $3,000 for their passage.

About a year and a half ago, prices began to skyrocket, along with abusive extortion attempts.

Dozens of Eritrean women began asking for abortion referrals at a clinic run by the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights. The women said they were raped in the Sinai. African men sought treatment for wounds they said were caused by torture.

Bedouin smugglers did not answer repeated phone calls seeking comment. African migrants in Israel who call their loved ones in captivity supplied the numbers.

Egyptian security officials said they are unable to chase the smugglers in the rugged terrain.

The officials said that as many as 100 bodies belonging to African refugees were found in the Sinai desert last year, with many of the deaths resulting from dehydration, starvation and torture. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with police rules.

Qamrawi, who now lives in a crowded Tel Aviv shelter run by other Sudanese migrants, says the smugglers knew they were doing something terribly wrong.

He said the smugglers forbade the captives, many of whom are devout Muslims and Christians, from openly praying.

"One of the guards told me that he did not want God to listen to us," he said. "They were afraid God would punish them."

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Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Cairo contributed to this report.

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On the web: http://www.hotline.org.il and http://www.phr.org.il

Palestinian prisoner on 55th day of hunger strike

Palestinian prisoner on 55th day of hunger strike

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press
Thursday, February 9, 2012

In a high-stakes gamble, an imprisoned member of a Palestinian militant group has waged a hunger strike for almost two months, trying to draw attention to Israel's military justice system and its treatment of detainees who can be held without charge for lengthy periods.

Khader Adnan, 33, has refused food for 55 days, making his hunger strike the longest ever waged by a Palestinian detainee. With his condition rapidly deteriorating, Israeli authorities, who consider him a terrorist, are nonetheless scrambling to keep him alive. His death could turn the previously obscure Adnan into a Palestinian hero and set off new violence.

Adnan, a member of the armed group Islamic Jihad, has lost 60 pounds (27 kilograms) and now weighs about 140 pounds (63 kilograms). His skin is discolored, his hair has fallen out, he cannot walk, and he has been shackled to his bed, said lawyers and his wife Randa, who have seen him in a series of Israeli hospitals.

He is drinking water that is occasionally enhanced with electrolytes and vitamins he needs to keep him alive. His condition is considered severe.

The protest could not only cost Adnan his life but could also have political implications.

Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group that has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks, has vowed to punish Israel if Adnan dies. The group could fire rockets into Israel from its stronghold in the Gaza Strip, where it has recently built up a powerful arsenal of new weapons.

Adnan was a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. It isn't known if he directly participated in attacks on Israelis, and officials would not say what he is suspected of.

Adnan is being held under a policy known as "administrative detention," said his lawyer, Tamar Peleg-Sryck. The system allows Israel to hold suspected militants without charge based on secret information that is not shared with lawyers. It is generally used in cases deemed high-risk.

Adnan is being held under guard at an Israeli hospital, and prison officials say they are watching his condition closely. The prison service declined comment Thursday, but officials have said in the past that they have permission to force feed Adnan if necessary.

Adnan's lawyers appealed the detention order Thursday at a special hearing in the hospital, said Mahmoud Hassan, one of his lawyers. There was no ruling and the judge could take a week to give his decision.

Hassan, who works for the prisoners' advocacy group Addameer, said he was barred from discussing specifics of the hearing. But he said Adnan attended the hearing in a wheelchair, his hands and feet in shackles. He spoke with difficulty and vowed to continue his hunger strike.

Adnan is only allowing doctors from the Israel branch of Physicians for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross to check on his condition. Neither group would comment.

The case has generated widespread support in Palestinian society.

Small demonstrations in support of Adnan have been held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent days. Followers exchange updates on Twitter, and Facebook users have changed their profile pictures to that of a bearded Adnan.

Adnan believes his imprisonment, and the events leading to his detention, have robbed him of his dignity, according to his wife and lawyers.

"My husband tells me, 'I am striking against humiliation,'" said Randa Adnan. "His determination is strong, even though he resembles a man who has stepped away from life."

Adnan began his hunger strike shortly after he was arrested in a raid on his home on Dec. 17 in the northern West Bank village of Arabeh.

Adnan claims soldiers made sexual innuendoes about his wife and mocked his Muslim faith. He also says Israeli agents beat him during interrogations, tied him in painful positions to a chair, ripped hair out of his beard and wiped dirt on his face. Israeli officials have not commented on those allegations.

He is also protesting his administrative detention.

Israeli military courts can order the detentions for up to six months and renew the orders indefinitely. Suspects have been held as long as three years at a time without charge, according to Israeli human rights groups.

Israel says the practice is necessary in cases of dangerous militants because airing the evidence would risk exposing its network of Palestinian informants. But critics say the system is open to abuse because it is not transparent.

Peleg-Sryck, the attorney, said there are currently 309 administrative detainees in Israeli jails. A prison spokeswoman was unable to verify that number.

Israel's military justice system in the West Bank, set up after Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war, has come under scrutiny in unexpected quarters in recent weeks.

A film examining the system, "The Law in These Parts," by Raanan Alexandrowicz was awarded the best international documentary by the Sundance Film Festival jury in Utah this year.

Based on interviews with former military judges, it portrays the system as a tool to justify Israel's treatment of Palestinians. It showed how military judges who are supposed to be independent adjudicators faced the problem of trying suspects considered their enemies.

About 95 percent of Palestinian suspects in 2010 were convicted of at least one charge against them, according to a military court report.

Administrative detention prisoners represent a tiny fraction of the estimated 4,200 Palestinians held in Israel, many who are doing time for charges ranging from throwing stones at Israeli soldiers to killing Israeli civilians.

Palestinian society venerates the prisoners, overlooking their crimes and viewing them as freedom fighters.

The second longest hunger strike in Palestinian history was by a woman who refused food for 43 days before she was released in 1997.

The late Mohandas K. Gandhi popularized the hunger strike as a protest tool during the Indian independence movement in the 1940s. Another famous case was that of Bobby Sands, an Irish Republican Army activist who along with nine other inmates starved to death in a 1981 hunger strike in a British prison.

In recent years, dissidents in Venezuela and Cuba have died of hunger strikes.
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Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah contributed to this report.