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Jerusalem: 24
April , 1997
Brutal Collective Punishment in
Sourif Village
Following
the discovery and arrests of the ‘Sourif Cell,’ members,
responsible for a number of attacks against Israelis in the
West Bank and Israel, including the suicide bomb at Cafe
Apropos on March 21, the entire village of Sourif has been
facing collective punishment. The village of Sourif has
approximately 15,000 residents. Collective punishment has
taken the form of repeated violations of collective and
personal human rights of villagers, who have NOT been
charged or suspected with illegal activities. This is in
addition to the demolition of the homes of the families of
members of the ‘Sourif Cell.’
Curfews have been
imposed on the village from 21/3 - 6/4, 16/4 - 21/4 (during
the Eid holiday) and on the 23/4, as yet another home was
demolished. The entire area has been declared a closed
military area until now, thus forbidding entrance exit from
the village. Journalists are also prevented from entering.
This has been the most brutal and lengthy curfew since the
signing of the Declaration of Principles in September
1993.
Strict
Curfew Accompanied by Beatings
The
curfew has been interrupted every few days for two hours, to
allow villagers to obtain food and water. According to
testimony collected by Bassem Eid of the Palestinian Human
Rights Monitoring Group, the interruptions in the curfews
did not allow the villagers to obtain food supplies, since
exit and entrance from the village was prohibited.
Furthermore, residents were BEATEN by border policemen in
the streets as they rushed to prepare for the re-imposition
of the closure. Bilal Muhammed Arar, age 22, was attacked on
14/4 during a break in the curfew. A jeep with three Border
Policemen stopped next to him and two others, and the driver
got out and accused him of throwing stones. At the time,
there was no disturbance in the village. The policeman held
Arar’s head between his legs, and beat him on his back with
a helmet. Then four policemen spread him on the floor and
all began to hit him, claiming that he was throwing stones.
After being hit with rifle butt, Arar lost consciousness,
and woke up two hours later at the clinic in the village.
THE RED CROSS complained to the BORDER POLICE, and two
soldiers will be tried for this offense, according to Israel
Radio.
Yitzhak Ismail
Ghneimat, age 19, left his house at 11:30 am on 28/3 to
pray, in violation of the curfew. Ghneimat and other
villagers were attempting to assemble at the mosque. He was
stopped by a Border Police jeep and driven around the
village for two hours, as two policemen beat him in the back
of the jeep. Afterwards, the jeep went to the school in the
center of the village, and threw him on the ground. Another
jeep arrived, and eight border policemen hit him together.
After another two and a half hours he was released, after
being threatened, that if he leaves his house, he will be
run over by the police.
Denial
of Urgent Medical Care
Residents were not
allowed to leave even to seek urgent medical treatment. A
Jordanian tourist, Khaled Mustafa Arar, aged 61, who was in
the village to visit his relatives, DIED after being denied
exit to a hospital. On 14/4, Arar decided to leave the
village and return to Jordan. As he was leaving, he
encountered a disturbance and fell unconscious from
inhalation of tear gas. (There was a disturbance going on at
the time.) Residents gathered around him to provide first
aid, and the soldiers fired more tear gas at the gathered
people, with the unconscious Arar in the center. Residents
tried to evacuate him through the Beit Ummar checkpoint,
but soldiers refused to let him pass. The delay lasted for
nearly two hours. After a lengthy argument, the residents
forced their way out. Arar died on the way to the hospital.
Gas inhalation caused his heart attack, although Arar might
have been saved if his evacuation was not delayed for so
long.
A pregnant women
approached the authorities two days in a row, begging for
permission to leave the village and give birth in a
hospital. On 10/4, Ifrikiya Ahmed Irnimat age 18, called for
an ambulance since she was in labor. The village midwife
examined her and determined that she should be taken to the
hospital, but the hospital explained that the soldiers were
preventing ambulences from entering the village. On 11/4
around 8:00 am, Irnimat tried to leave the village, but the
police turned her back. Again in the afternoon she tried to
leave the village, and this time she succeeded. But after
giving birth in the hospital, the baby was born dead.
Complaints
of Unnecessary Brutality and Violence
The entry of the
soldiers to the village was accompanied by BRUTAL and
UNNECESSARY violence and destruction of property. At least
sixty homes were entered, and property was destroyed. Hazem
Ghneimat age 31, was arrested on 10/4 at 7 am. Border
Policemen damaged kitchenware in his house, during the
search and arrest. Another home had spilled paint on the
floor, after police knocked over a container of paint.
This violence
included the destruction of water cisterns on the roofs of
houses, shot by soldiers during disturbances in the village.
Dozens of windows were shattered, and the residents report
that at night, Border Police shouted insults at the
residents through very loud loudspeakers mounted on jeeps,
and that shock grenades (non-lethal) were detonated in
narrow streets and alleys, for the purpose of disturbing the
residents.
45 villagers were
arrested in the beginning of the curfew, and remained in
detention after the members of the ‘Sourif Cell’ were
captured. 12 remain in administrative detention, without
being charged of any crime or link to the ‘Sourif Cell.’ The
administrative detention orders are for 2-6 months.
Denial
of Education to the Children of Sourif
During the time of
the imposition of the curfew, the children of Sourif were
unable to attend school, losing four weeks of education. At
the same time, sixty teachers employed by Sourif schools,
but living outside the village, were unemployed as a result
of the curfew. 72 teachers living in Sourif and employed in
other villages were unable to leave to tend to their
classrooms, thus denying hundreds of children outside Sourif
of their teachers.
Residents
Angry at Imposition of Collective Punishment, After All
Suspects Captured
The residents of
Sourif are upset at the Israeli collective punishment.
During the Intifada, the villagers suffered similar measures
- but largely as a result of participation in the mass
uprising. This time, the suspects wanted by Israel and the
Palestinian Authority were apprehended, and the measures
taken against the rest of the village constitute illegal
violations of human rights..
Recommendations
The success of the
authorities in arresting those linked to illegal activities
was a result of cooperation between the Palestinian
Authority and the Israeli security forces. The PHRMG has a
problem with such security cooperation, ostensibly aimed at
protecting the law, being used to violate human rights and
international law. The destruction of houses, use of
violence, extended curfew, denial of medial treatment,
denial of education, and administrative detentions are all
violations of human rights and international law. We call on
the Palestinian Authority to condition their cooperation
with Israel, on the assurance that human rights will be
respected, and that information provided will not be used to
violate human rights and impose collective punishment.
Israel must
understand, that in the context of the ongoing political
process, in which the Palestinians are partners in fighting
terrorism, that the imposition of collective punishment only
creates more distrust and hard feelings. Israel must cease
her arrogant treatment of Palestinians, and recognize that
they are not the ‘collective enemy’ that must be
collectively punished.
We call on the
international community to serve notice to Israel that human
rights violations are not justified by the need to fight
terror - especially not when that fight is being assisted in
dramatic ways by the Palestinian Authority.
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