3 mar 2018
Facebook administration shut down two Palestinian pages: the committee of families of political captives in the West Bank, which is concerned with following up the news of Palestinian detainees in Palestinian Authority (PA) jails, and the official page of al-Resalah media institution.
The prisoners’ families committee said, in a statement, that their page was specialized in documenting the violations practiced by the PA security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank. A new page has been created under the theme “Return Political Detainees in the West Bank”, the statement pointed out.
As for al-Resalah administration, they condemned the unfair Facebook procedure against their page and affirmed that they have the right to cover the crimes of the Israeli occupation and pledged to continue their work despite harassment.
According to the Palestinian Media Assembly, Facebook administration has closed 60 Palestinian accounts and blocked over 100 others for sharing photos and posts about Palestinian martyrs since the beginning of the year.
In 2017, over 200 Palestinian accounts and pages were deleted for the same reason, the Palestinian Media Assembly pointed out.
The prisoners’ families committee said, in a statement, that their page was specialized in documenting the violations practiced by the PA security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank. A new page has been created under the theme “Return Political Detainees in the West Bank”, the statement pointed out.
As for al-Resalah administration, they condemned the unfair Facebook procedure against their page and affirmed that they have the right to cover the crimes of the Israeli occupation and pledged to continue their work despite harassment.
According to the Palestinian Media Assembly, Facebook administration has closed 60 Palestinian accounts and blocked over 100 others for sharing photos and posts about Palestinian martyrs since the beginning of the year.
In 2017, over 200 Palestinian accounts and pages were deleted for the same reason, the Palestinian Media Assembly pointed out.
1 mar 2018
The father of Mohamed al-Tamimi, the boy who suffered last December a rubber bullet injury in the head during skirmishes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Nabi Saleh, said that the Israeli army’s claim that his son was injured after he fell off his bike was untrue.
Yoav Mordechai, Israel’s military coordinator of government activities in the occupied territories, claimed on his Facebook page that Tamimi, aged 15, had confessed during an interrogation session with him that he got injured after he accidentally fell off his electric bike.
The father, however, affirmed that the false story of Mordechai had been taken from his son under physical abuse and threat, adding that the shooting incident that led to his son’s injury happened in full view of eight eyewitnesses.
There are also medical reports, X-rays, and doctors’ testimonies that confirm his injury by a rubber bullet, the father added.
The father accused Israeli intelligence interrogators of forcing his son to make such story after exposing him to psychological and physical pressure.
How the Israeli Army Got a Teen Who Was Shot in the Head to Say He Fell Off a Bike
COGAT chief Yoav Mordechai wants us to believe that friends, relatives, doctors and left-wing activists cooked up a huge lie about Mohammed Tamimi. But he was just telling investigators what they wanted to hear
Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, expects us to believe that tens of Palestinians and a few Israelis conspired to concoct a huge lie in order to slander the Israel Defense Forces.
According to him, the liar is not only 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi. The liars are also his parents, members of his extended family in the village of Nabi Saleh, and friends – including Israeli leftist activist Jonathan Pollak. The latter were with Tamimi when he climbed a ladder on December 15 to see what the soldiers, ensconced in an empty house in his village, were up to. The teen was shot in the head and fell to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
In his Facebook post on Tuesday, Mordechai claims, in effect, that the Palestinians are stupid because so many of them collaborated in creating a lie that is so very easy to expose. If indeed there was a lie.
He is relying on things Tamimi told his police interrogators on Monday, just hours after a large military force burst into Nabi Saleh and into his home, before dawn, rousing him from his sleep and arresting him. Five other minors and five adults were arrested along with him, under similar conditions.
Still in the dark, half asleep and shaken, surrounded by rifles pointing at him, with air reeking of tear gas and the disgusting smell of the skunk-water sprayed by the troops – Mohammed Tamimi was taken in for interrogation. It is easy to guess what went through the mind of the wounded boy, who is slated to undergo yet another operation to reconstruct his skull in the coming weeks.
He must have been thinking: Perhaps I'll be held under arrest for many weeks. Perhaps my medical condition will get worse. Perhaps I won't even be released before going into surgery.
Mohammed Tamimi's surgical report
Tamimi told the investigators and representatives of the Civil Administration Coordination and Liaison Office, who for some reason made a point of being present, what they wanted to hear: that he was injured when he fell off his bike.
The security forces carry out hundreds of arrests and interrogations every week in Jerusalem and the West Bank. No one disputes the fact that one of their aims is to expose those who plan or carry out armed attacks. A second aim is to gather information, even of the most innocent sort, about as many people as possible and about social and political activities. Very banal, sometimes even embarrassing, information is extracted – even years later and under unexpected circumstances: when a person travels abroad, or when someone applies for an entry permit into Israel or for a residency permit for non-Palestinian spouse.
A third aim (though not necessarily the third most important) is to quash popular activity against the occupation, of which the village of Nabi Saleh has become a symbol. Palestinians are forbidden to demonstrate their resistance to the occupation, in any manner.
One of the ways of deterring individuals who may be potential participants in popular struggles is to wreak serious harm on people who are already taking part in them – by means ranging from injuring to killing; to detention under conditions harsher than those encountered by graft suspect Nir Hefetz; sleep deprivation; painful handcuffing; humiliating interrogations; ridiculous accusations like those based on "evidence" like empty tear-gas cannisters or visits to book exhibitions; administrative detentions (arrest without charges being filed); arrest until the conclusion of proceedings; and exorbitant fines.
Mass arrests, interrogations and collecting of information – these are an integral part of the control Israel wields over the Palestinians. Many of the arrests are another means whereby Israel attempts, systematically, to undermine and unravel the Palestinian social fabric in order to weaken its ability to withstand and defy the occupation.
When the detainees are minors, their jailers have a greater ability – with the help of a few slaps, painful positions during questioning and psychological pressure – to extract false incriminations and exaggerated, boastful descriptions of events from them. It is easy to manipulate and break them.
Among themselves the Palestinians are debating participation of minors in protest activities against the occupation. The ethos of the struggle is dear to them, and the loathing of the occupation runs too deep for this debate to be conducted in public, but the high price that is being paid by minors and their families is clear to everyone.
It is too early to say if a post like Yoav Mordechai’s will encourage the debate and whether it will be taken into the public domain or strengthen the position of those who say that Israel stops at nothing in order to oppress and therefore youngsters should not be denied their right to revolt.
Mohammad Tamimi: ‘They beat me into confessing’
Mohammad Tamimi, 15, was shot point-blank in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet following a protest in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank in December.
The bullet, considered by Israel as a “non-lethal weapon” in the West Bank, entered his face below his nose and lodged into the back of his skull.
He was placed under a medically-induced coma and woke up 72 hours later after a series of surgeries.
Doctors were forced to remove a portion of his skull owing to inflammation in his brain. His head is now deformed and a part of his brain is left unprotected.
Manal Tamimi is Mohammad’s relative and a prominent activist in Nabi Saleh, where residents have led non-violent protests against the Israeli occupation for years. She saw Mohammad’s injury just a few minutes after the incident. “His face was full of blood. We couldn’t even tell it was him. We all thought he was going to die.”
The doctors who performed the surgery were preparing the right words to inform Mohammad’s family that their son had lost his life. But, surprisingly, he survived. “No one thought he would make it,” Manal told Mondoweiss.
Since Mohammad was released from the hospital, his condition continues to be “very bad,” Fadel Tamimi, Mohammad’s father, tells Mondoweiss. He has not recovered even 50 percent, he says.
“He still doesn’t see well with his left eye and his right hand and leg are not strong. He has to swing himself when he walks. Somebody must always stay near him to make sure he doesn’t fall down when he walks,” Fadel said.
The teen is not permitted to even ride in a taxi owing to his exposed brain, Manal adds.
However, Mohammad’s severe injuries did not stop Israeli forces from barging into his family’s home at 3 a.m. on Monday and arresting the teen, along with nine other residents — the majority of whom were minors.
To add insult to injury, before Mohammad was released from Israeli custody a few hours later, he was forced into confessing that his head wound was not sustained by Israeli forces shooting him in the face, but was instead the result of an unfortunate bicycle accident.
Forced Confession
Yoav Mordechai, Israel’s military coordinator of government activities in the occupied territories, claimed on his Facebook page that Tamimi, aged 15, had confessed during an interrogation session with him that he got injured after he accidentally fell off his electric bike.
The father, however, affirmed that the false story of Mordechai had been taken from his son under physical abuse and threat, adding that the shooting incident that led to his son’s injury happened in full view of eight eyewitnesses.
There are also medical reports, X-rays, and doctors’ testimonies that confirm his injury by a rubber bullet, the father added.
The father accused Israeli intelligence interrogators of forcing his son to make such story after exposing him to psychological and physical pressure.
How the Israeli Army Got a Teen Who Was Shot in the Head to Say He Fell Off a Bike
COGAT chief Yoav Mordechai wants us to believe that friends, relatives, doctors and left-wing activists cooked up a huge lie about Mohammed Tamimi. But he was just telling investigators what they wanted to hear
Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, expects us to believe that tens of Palestinians and a few Israelis conspired to concoct a huge lie in order to slander the Israel Defense Forces.
According to him, the liar is not only 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi. The liars are also his parents, members of his extended family in the village of Nabi Saleh, and friends – including Israeli leftist activist Jonathan Pollak. The latter were with Tamimi when he climbed a ladder on December 15 to see what the soldiers, ensconced in an empty house in his village, were up to. The teen was shot in the head and fell to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
In his Facebook post on Tuesday, Mordechai claims, in effect, that the Palestinians are stupid because so many of them collaborated in creating a lie that is so very easy to expose. If indeed there was a lie.
He is relying on things Tamimi told his police interrogators on Monday, just hours after a large military force burst into Nabi Saleh and into his home, before dawn, rousing him from his sleep and arresting him. Five other minors and five adults were arrested along with him, under similar conditions.
Still in the dark, half asleep and shaken, surrounded by rifles pointing at him, with air reeking of tear gas and the disgusting smell of the skunk-water sprayed by the troops – Mohammed Tamimi was taken in for interrogation. It is easy to guess what went through the mind of the wounded boy, who is slated to undergo yet another operation to reconstruct his skull in the coming weeks.
He must have been thinking: Perhaps I'll be held under arrest for many weeks. Perhaps my medical condition will get worse. Perhaps I won't even be released before going into surgery.
Mohammed Tamimi's surgical report
Tamimi told the investigators and representatives of the Civil Administration Coordination and Liaison Office, who for some reason made a point of being present, what they wanted to hear: that he was injured when he fell off his bike.
The security forces carry out hundreds of arrests and interrogations every week in Jerusalem and the West Bank. No one disputes the fact that one of their aims is to expose those who plan or carry out armed attacks. A second aim is to gather information, even of the most innocent sort, about as many people as possible and about social and political activities. Very banal, sometimes even embarrassing, information is extracted – even years later and under unexpected circumstances: when a person travels abroad, or when someone applies for an entry permit into Israel or for a residency permit for non-Palestinian spouse.
A third aim (though not necessarily the third most important) is to quash popular activity against the occupation, of which the village of Nabi Saleh has become a symbol. Palestinians are forbidden to demonstrate their resistance to the occupation, in any manner.
One of the ways of deterring individuals who may be potential participants in popular struggles is to wreak serious harm on people who are already taking part in them – by means ranging from injuring to killing; to detention under conditions harsher than those encountered by graft suspect Nir Hefetz; sleep deprivation; painful handcuffing; humiliating interrogations; ridiculous accusations like those based on "evidence" like empty tear-gas cannisters or visits to book exhibitions; administrative detentions (arrest without charges being filed); arrest until the conclusion of proceedings; and exorbitant fines.
Mass arrests, interrogations and collecting of information – these are an integral part of the control Israel wields over the Palestinians. Many of the arrests are another means whereby Israel attempts, systematically, to undermine and unravel the Palestinian social fabric in order to weaken its ability to withstand and defy the occupation.
When the detainees are minors, their jailers have a greater ability – with the help of a few slaps, painful positions during questioning and psychological pressure – to extract false incriminations and exaggerated, boastful descriptions of events from them. It is easy to manipulate and break them.
Among themselves the Palestinians are debating participation of minors in protest activities against the occupation. The ethos of the struggle is dear to them, and the loathing of the occupation runs too deep for this debate to be conducted in public, but the high price that is being paid by minors and their families is clear to everyone.
It is too early to say if a post like Yoav Mordechai’s will encourage the debate and whether it will be taken into the public domain or strengthen the position of those who say that Israel stops at nothing in order to oppress and therefore youngsters should not be denied their right to revolt.
Mohammad Tamimi: ‘They beat me into confessing’
Mohammad Tamimi, 15, was shot point-blank in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet following a protest in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank in December.
The bullet, considered by Israel as a “non-lethal weapon” in the West Bank, entered his face below his nose and lodged into the back of his skull.
He was placed under a medically-induced coma and woke up 72 hours later after a series of surgeries.
Doctors were forced to remove a portion of his skull owing to inflammation in his brain. His head is now deformed and a part of his brain is left unprotected.
Manal Tamimi is Mohammad’s relative and a prominent activist in Nabi Saleh, where residents have led non-violent protests against the Israeli occupation for years. She saw Mohammad’s injury just a few minutes after the incident. “His face was full of blood. We couldn’t even tell it was him. We all thought he was going to die.”
The doctors who performed the surgery were preparing the right words to inform Mohammad’s family that their son had lost his life. But, surprisingly, he survived. “No one thought he would make it,” Manal told Mondoweiss.
Since Mohammad was released from the hospital, his condition continues to be “very bad,” Fadel Tamimi, Mohammad’s father, tells Mondoweiss. He has not recovered even 50 percent, he says.
“He still doesn’t see well with his left eye and his right hand and leg are not strong. He has to swing himself when he walks. Somebody must always stay near him to make sure he doesn’t fall down when he walks,” Fadel said.
The teen is not permitted to even ride in a taxi owing to his exposed brain, Manal adds.
However, Mohammad’s severe injuries did not stop Israeli forces from barging into his family’s home at 3 a.m. on Monday and arresting the teen, along with nine other residents — the majority of whom were minors.
To add insult to injury, before Mohammad was released from Israeli custody a few hours later, he was forced into confessing that his head wound was not sustained by Israeli forces shooting him in the face, but was instead the result of an unfortunate bicycle accident.
Forced Confession
CT scan of the bullet in Mohammed Tamimi’s head.
Yoav Mordechai, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), celebrated Mohammad’s alleged confession on the agency’s Arabic Facebook page, saying that the minor had admitted himself during interrogations that the injury was sustained from a bicycle accident.
This statement was published despite the fact that it contradicts medical records, a CT scan, eyewitness accounts, and an image of the actual rubber bullet after it was removed from Mohammad’s skull.
Manal’s first reaction was to laugh. “Israel will literally say anything to discredit us and ruin our village’s image. They can’t stand that the rest of the world is on our side.”
On Tuesday, COGAT released another statement on the incident saying that Mohammad had “conveyed” the bicycle story “a number of times” to Israeli officials.
“According to the boy’s version, he suffered a head injury when he fell from off his electric bicycle and his head bashed against the bicycle handlebars,” the statement read.
The statement goes on: “We shall continue revealing the truth in order to expose the Palestinian mechanism of incitement.”
However, Mohammad says that he admitted that he was injured from a bicycle accident because Israeli forces had “beaten him” into confessing.
“We were in a car on our way to the interrogations and there were two Israeli officials who kept beating me in my face, back, everywhere and kept telling me that I had to admit it was a bicycle accident,” Mohammad told Mondoweiss.
The Israeli officials also confiscated medicine from Mohammad’s pocket; medicine which is crucial for his recovery. They refused to give it back to him unless he admitted that Israeli soldiers did not actually shoot him, Mohammad says.
“I was very scared and I didn’t want them to continue beating me, so I confessed,” the 15-year-old explained.
Fadel, Mohammad’s father, remains confused about Israel’s motives. “I don’t know why they are so focused on discrediting the truth. I think they just want to find a way to get out of taking responsibility for what happened — especially since Mohammad’s case has gotten so much media attention.”
‘Dehumanizing’ campaign
Yoav Mordechai, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), celebrated Mohammad’s alleged confession on the agency’s Arabic Facebook page, saying that the minor had admitted himself during interrogations that the injury was sustained from a bicycle accident.
This statement was published despite the fact that it contradicts medical records, a CT scan, eyewitness accounts, and an image of the actual rubber bullet after it was removed from Mohammad’s skull.
Manal’s first reaction was to laugh. “Israel will literally say anything to discredit us and ruin our village’s image. They can’t stand that the rest of the world is on our side.”
On Tuesday, COGAT released another statement on the incident saying that Mohammad had “conveyed” the bicycle story “a number of times” to Israeli officials.
“According to the boy’s version, he suffered a head injury when he fell from off his electric bicycle and his head bashed against the bicycle handlebars,” the statement read.
The statement goes on: “We shall continue revealing the truth in order to expose the Palestinian mechanism of incitement.”
However, Mohammad says that he admitted that he was injured from a bicycle accident because Israeli forces had “beaten him” into confessing.
“We were in a car on our way to the interrogations and there were two Israeli officials who kept beating me in my face, back, everywhere and kept telling me that I had to admit it was a bicycle accident,” Mohammad told Mondoweiss.
The Israeli officials also confiscated medicine from Mohammad’s pocket; medicine which is crucial for his recovery. They refused to give it back to him unless he admitted that Israeli soldiers did not actually shoot him, Mohammad says.
“I was very scared and I didn’t want them to continue beating me, so I confessed,” the 15-year-old explained.
Fadel, Mohammad’s father, remains confused about Israel’s motives. “I don’t know why they are so focused on discrediting the truth. I think they just want to find a way to get out of taking responsibility for what happened — especially since Mohammad’s case has gotten so much media attention.”
‘Dehumanizing’ campaign
Yoav Mordechai
When Ahed Tamimi was informed of Mohammad’s injury on the same day, the then 16-year-old, who has witnessed her parents dragged away by soldiers on numerous occasions and her relatives killed, finally snapped.
She threw a slap that sent ripples throughout the world. Following her arrest a few days later, hundreds of journalists paraded to the small some 600-person village to interview the residents.
“Since Ahed’s arrest there has literally only been three days that we haven’t had a journalist come to our home,” Manal told Mondoweiss.
The international attention the Tamimi family has received in the wake of Ahed’s arrest has not sat well with Israeli authorities. Some Israeli officials have advocated a harsh prison sentence for Ahed, now 17, while others went so far as to encourage violence against the teen.
Last month, reports emerged that Michael Oren, an Israeli deputy minister and former ambassador to the United States, had led a Knesset subcommittee inquiry two years ago into whether the Tamimi family were indeed a real family.
The inquiry explored whether the Tamimi family were hired actors who were put together in order to advance “Palestinian propaganda,” and questioned whether they were Palestinian at all, owing to their blond hair, light skin, and blue eyes.
Fadi Quran, senior campaigner at the advocacy group Avaaz, says that Israel uses these tactics to “shift the spotlight away from its abhorrent abuses of basic human rights.”
The Tamimi family has become a prime target for Israel’s crackdown because the residents were able to “humanize Palestinians to an international audience” during their near decade-long nonviolent resistance.
“People saw brave men, women and children facing live bullets and armed soldiers,” Quran pointed out.
But, according to Quran, the “humanization” of Palestinians is a dangerous challenge to Israel’s policies in the West Bank.
“Israel’s goal is not just to de-legitimize the Tamimi family, it is to dehumanize them so that the world does not flinch if they are shot in the head or their children are dragged from bed and arrested,” he said.
“This is not new — Israel has pursued [a campaign] of dehumanizing Palestinians in the media for decades.”
‘Remain silent’
While Israel leads a campaign to “dehumanize” the Tamimi family on the international stage, they have simultaneously led a crackdown on the village for months.
At least 19 residents have been arrested since Ahed’s slap. At least 13 are still in Israeli custody, including Manal’s two sons. Most have been arrested during overnight detention raids.
According to Mohammad, when he was released from Israeli custody, he was told by Israeli authorities to send his village a message: “We will arrest everyone in your village.”
On Monday evening, Israeli intelligence called the homes of seven families in Nabi Saleh and ordered their sons to come to the police station for interrogations, according to Manal.
They threatened the families that if their sons did not show for interrogations, then Israeli forces would raid the village again and “everyone will pay the price,” Manal tells Mondoweiss.
The escalating crackdown on the village has forced residents to take unprecedented measures, including organizing “practice drills” earlier this month to prepare the children and teens in the village for Israeli detentions.
The drills included blindfolding some 30 children in the village and having them undergo mock interrogations, based on the experiences of other residents who have been arrested by Israeli forces.
Quran was the individual who led these drills in Nabi Saleh and he has done the same with 2,000 other Palestinian children across the West Bank who were expected to be targeted in Israeli detention raids.
“Our trainings teach the children key skills in psychological well-being, remaining silent, knowing what to expect when arrested, and building community that helps ensure they withstand even the toughest forms of interrogation and abuse,” Quran explained.
This is imperative to protect the children, Quran said. He said that, for instance, Israeli authorities had threatened Ahed that they would arrest her 11-year-old cousin Jana Jihad if she refused to confess to the charges against her.
The drills were aimed to prepare them for Israeli interrogation tactics like these and to ensure that the children understand their rights, Manal says.
While some have criticized the village’s use of these drills, residents argue that it’s an unfortunate reality that Israel targets children in the village with detention.
And, indeed, one of the participants of the detention drill, 13-year-old Sohayib Tamimi, was one of the 10 residents detained in the overnight raid on Monday. Residents hope that the training and preparation he received will make his experience in Israeli detention less traumatic.
When Ahed Tamimi was informed of Mohammad’s injury on the same day, the then 16-year-old, who has witnessed her parents dragged away by soldiers on numerous occasions and her relatives killed, finally snapped.
She threw a slap that sent ripples throughout the world. Following her arrest a few days later, hundreds of journalists paraded to the small some 600-person village to interview the residents.
“Since Ahed’s arrest there has literally only been three days that we haven’t had a journalist come to our home,” Manal told Mondoweiss.
The international attention the Tamimi family has received in the wake of Ahed’s arrest has not sat well with Israeli authorities. Some Israeli officials have advocated a harsh prison sentence for Ahed, now 17, while others went so far as to encourage violence against the teen.
Last month, reports emerged that Michael Oren, an Israeli deputy minister and former ambassador to the United States, had led a Knesset subcommittee inquiry two years ago into whether the Tamimi family were indeed a real family.
The inquiry explored whether the Tamimi family were hired actors who were put together in order to advance “Palestinian propaganda,” and questioned whether they were Palestinian at all, owing to their blond hair, light skin, and blue eyes.
Fadi Quran, senior campaigner at the advocacy group Avaaz, says that Israel uses these tactics to “shift the spotlight away from its abhorrent abuses of basic human rights.”
The Tamimi family has become a prime target for Israel’s crackdown because the residents were able to “humanize Palestinians to an international audience” during their near decade-long nonviolent resistance.
“People saw brave men, women and children facing live bullets and armed soldiers,” Quran pointed out.
But, according to Quran, the “humanization” of Palestinians is a dangerous challenge to Israel’s policies in the West Bank.
“Israel’s goal is not just to de-legitimize the Tamimi family, it is to dehumanize them so that the world does not flinch if they are shot in the head or their children are dragged from bed and arrested,” he said.
“This is not new — Israel has pursued [a campaign] of dehumanizing Palestinians in the media for decades.”
‘Remain silent’
While Israel leads a campaign to “dehumanize” the Tamimi family on the international stage, they have simultaneously led a crackdown on the village for months.
At least 19 residents have been arrested since Ahed’s slap. At least 13 are still in Israeli custody, including Manal’s two sons. Most have been arrested during overnight detention raids.
According to Mohammad, when he was released from Israeli custody, he was told by Israeli authorities to send his village a message: “We will arrest everyone in your village.”
On Monday evening, Israeli intelligence called the homes of seven families in Nabi Saleh and ordered their sons to come to the police station for interrogations, according to Manal.
They threatened the families that if their sons did not show for interrogations, then Israeli forces would raid the village again and “everyone will pay the price,” Manal tells Mondoweiss.
The escalating crackdown on the village has forced residents to take unprecedented measures, including organizing “practice drills” earlier this month to prepare the children and teens in the village for Israeli detentions.
The drills included blindfolding some 30 children in the village and having them undergo mock interrogations, based on the experiences of other residents who have been arrested by Israeli forces.
Quran was the individual who led these drills in Nabi Saleh and he has done the same with 2,000 other Palestinian children across the West Bank who were expected to be targeted in Israeli detention raids.
“Our trainings teach the children key skills in psychological well-being, remaining silent, knowing what to expect when arrested, and building community that helps ensure they withstand even the toughest forms of interrogation and abuse,” Quran explained.
This is imperative to protect the children, Quran said. He said that, for instance, Israeli authorities had threatened Ahed that they would arrest her 11-year-old cousin Jana Jihad if she refused to confess to the charges against her.
The drills were aimed to prepare them for Israeli interrogation tactics like these and to ensure that the children understand their rights, Manal says.
While some have criticized the village’s use of these drills, residents argue that it’s an unfortunate reality that Israel targets children in the village with detention.
And, indeed, one of the participants of the detention drill, 13-year-old Sohayib Tamimi, was one of the 10 residents detained in the overnight raid on Monday. Residents hope that the training and preparation he received will make his experience in Israeli detention less traumatic.
27 feb 2018
Extremists affiliated to ‘Groups for the Temple Compound’ have called on supporters to participate in breaking into al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday and Thursday to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim.
The groups have sent out their calls through social media websites, to organize a raid into the holy site in order to perform Talmudic rituals and to eat triangular fruit pastries called hamantaschen.
In this regard, Jerusalemite groups stressed the urgent need to stand firmly against the Jewish plans.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, dozens of Israeli settlers forced their way into al-Aqsa under military protection.
The groups have sent out their calls through social media websites, to organize a raid into the holy site in order to perform Talmudic rituals and to eat triangular fruit pastries called hamantaschen.
In this regard, Jerusalemite groups stressed the urgent need to stand firmly against the Jewish plans.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, dozens of Israeli settlers forced their way into al-Aqsa under military protection.
20 feb 2018
Social media activists will launch an electronic campaign against Facebook for its deliberate targeting of pages which support Palestinian rights.
Social media users will use the hashtag #FBfightsPalestine to draw attention to their campaign.
The campaign is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and will be the first step against Facebook’s latest actions. It aims at educating people about Facebook’s recent treatment of Palestinian content and the extent of its violations.
The activists are mulling taking legal action against Facebook through international institutions concerned with freedom of opinion and expression, as well as institutions concerned with freedoms on social media.
Social media users will use the hashtag #FBfightsPalestine to draw attention to their campaign.
The campaign is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and will be the first step against Facebook’s latest actions. It aims at educating people about Facebook’s recent treatment of Palestinian content and the extent of its violations.
The activists are mulling taking legal action against Facebook through international institutions concerned with freedom of opinion and expression, as well as institutions concerned with freedoms on social media.
Facebook administration has removed the “Palestine.net” page as part of a campaign targeting pro-Palestine social media accounts.
In a move condemned by observers as an act of social media imperialism, the Facebook admin blocked the “Palestine.net” page, which monitors terror acts and violations by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers across the occupied Palestinian territories.
Prior to its removal, the page had garnered 180,000 followers.
Over the past couple of days, a social media sweep kick-started by Facebook administration targeted 29 Palestinian pages and accounts. The measures included the removal of pages, accounts, posts and photos deemed inflammatory and supportive of anti-Israel activism.
In a move condemned by observers as an act of social media imperialism, the Facebook admin blocked the “Palestine.net” page, which monitors terror acts and violations by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers across the occupied Palestinian territories.
Prior to its removal, the page had garnered 180,000 followers.
Over the past couple of days, a social media sweep kick-started by Facebook administration targeted 29 Palestinian pages and accounts. The measures included the removal of pages, accounts, posts and photos deemed inflammatory and supportive of anti-Israel activism.
8 feb 2018
The Israeli occupation authorities sentenced a Palestinian young man to a six-month administrative prison-term over incitement allegations.
30-year-old Khaled Faraj was sentenced administratively to six months in an Israeli jail on charges of incitement on Facebook.
On Sunday, Israel’s Ofer court ruled for releasing Faraj on a bail of 4,000 shekels.
The jury refuted the arguments put forth by the military prosecution and charged Faraj with making many “incitement likes”, estimated by the court at some 22 likes, on Facebook.
30-year-old Khaled Faraj was sentenced administratively to six months in an Israeli jail on charges of incitement on Facebook.
On Sunday, Israel’s Ofer court ruled for releasing Faraj on a bail of 4,000 shekels.
The jury refuted the arguments put forth by the military prosecution and charged Faraj with making many “incitement likes”, estimated by the court at some 22 likes, on Facebook.
