"Foreigner" reports : Israel's immigration police cracks down on pro-Palestinian foreigners(Haaretz)

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Monday February 01, 2010 18:10

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign

"A new policy of ethnic cleansing of internationals and NGO's from the West Bank has been initiated.?"

Israel's Haaretz newspaper is reporting that: Israel's new immigration police has joined security forces in cracking down on foreign activists residing in the Palestinian West Bank ... The Oz Unit participated last week in the attempted arrest of a number of activists in the West Bank town of Bil'in, and also in the raid that nabbed leading Palestinian militants Mohammed Hatib that same night. Two weeks ago, the unit took part in the arrest of a Czech activist in Ramallah.

A fact I can attest to as I was one of the "foreigners" and videoographer of the night's brutal proceedings in Bil'in before I had to exit the West Bank at the weekend.

Eva Nováková (holding placard) doing her stuff in the Bil'in demonstration

Another fact I can attest to is that Mohammed Khatib ("Mohammed Hatib") is a prominent useful idiot of the PA doing untold damage to the nonviolent resistance in the West Bank and specifically the struggle in Bil'in who prior to his arrest was activily undermining the leadership and authority of the obdurate Iyad Burnat, head of the Popular Committee and who was probable behind the intimidatory mobile phone call to Iyad from Abbas's and US Gen. Keith Dayton hired thugs, the PA's torturing and murdering Preventivive Security - this followed hard on the heels of Khatib's suppression of a protest in Bil'in against Mubarak's Wall of Death between Egypt and Gaza.

Khatib's detention is bizarre in that he was ostensibly arrested for failing to sign on at an Israeli police station for more "militancy" PA style, no doubt,? instead, he signed on at a PA police station, a Jesuitical distinction that somehow escaped the attention of the invading IOF/Oz Unit as when it comes to "security" the PA is assiduous in its duties to please its masters - there are 400 to 500 Hamas prisoners in PA prisons at the moment and three of them were tortured to death last year alone.

On 11th December last, Eva Nováková, 28, the International Solidarity Movement's media coordinator, was arrested, taken from her Ramallah, Manara square apartment at 3am and then deported to the Czech Republic. Maan News Agency reported at the time that: her attorney, Omer Shatz, said Israel's alleged use of its special "Oz" unit was illegal. "This arrest is part of the continued and illegal use of the immigration police against activists, for political purposes," Shatz said in an ISM statement. Immigration police, in general, work under the explicit authority of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, Shatz added, and thus would have no business operating in Palestinian cities http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=253512

Israel has recently refused to issue working visas to members of humanitarian aid NGO's such as Oxfam - only non working tourist visas - coupled with the Ramallah and Bil'in night raids, it's now clear that a new policy of ethical cleansing of internationals and NGO's from the West Bank has been initiated.?

Caption: Video Id: L4B6X9qjIVI Type: Youtube Video
Part 1 Bil

Caption: Video Id: iGglC6erqFA Type: Youtube Video
Part 2 Bil

Caption: Video Id: eIiN8KS0o8Q Type: Youtube Video
Part 3 Bil

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Comments (4 of 4)

Well done

by Mary Kelly

Mon Feb 08, 2010 20:09

to TD and the international activists for resisting and withstanding bullying of IDF and immigration police.

Further IOF Night Raids on Bil'in : "You have exactly 10 seconds to move 50 meters back "

by TD - FPC

Wed Feb 03, 2010 19:21

In their ongoing terror campaign against the villagers of Bil'in, in the early hours of this morning, Israeli Occupation Forces raided the village yet again arresting three in the process, two of whom are photo journalists; Hamde Abu Rahma and "Stormy" a feisty American woman of great courage. Bil'in official website states that: At 3 am 26 soldiers entered the village of Bilin on foot to arrest Ibrahim Abed El Fatah Bornat. On their way to Ibrahim's house, the soldiers ran into Ashraf Abu Rahmah. A gun was pointed to his head, his hands cuffed behind his back and a cloth attached to his mouth to prevent him from alarming people. Ashraf was distanced from the scene and left in the dark, guarded by soldiers while Ibrahim was arrested and taken away. While the search went on, cameramen and photographers were held back from the scene by soldiers and border police claiming the area to be a closed military zone. The captain held a paper in Hebrew, supposedly supporting the claim of this area to be military closed. Everyone was withheld for a 50 meter perimeter surrounding the house. When asked to have a closer look at the paper, the captain denied and pushed everybody back under threat of arrest. While Hamde Abu Rahmah, a journalist from Bilin, approached to take a picture, soldiers violently attacked him and placed him under arrest. When an international journalist, tried to interfere to protect Hamde Abu Rahmeh, she too was arrested. Both were cuffed and taken away in a jeep.

Three nights ago, the villagers endured another wanton IOF raid marked with the spenthrift use of percussion "sound bombs" and what Israel excels in; violence.