From deacondave at onetel.com  Sun Oct  5 19:52:57 2008
From: deacondave at onetel.com (deacondave at onetel.com)
Date: Sun,  5 Oct 2008 19:52:57 +0100
Subject: [Palestine-support] Arwa's Uncle Arrested
Message-ID: <20081005195257.kq4qv2ga8sc0wkko@mailzone.onetel.net.uk>

Hello,

We were planning to have a farewell party on Tuesday and leave for Jordan o
n
Wednesday.  We have heard that the Israelis are closing the border Wednesda
y
morning for Yom Kippur for 2 days so we need to cancel the party and leave 
on
Tuesday.  Our flight is not until Friday from Amman but we can't risk being
stopped at the border and missing it.

Olive picking season is just beginning here and the usual pantomine is
unfolding.  Settlers steal olives and assault Palestinians.  Palestinians g
et
arrested.  Palestinians try to pick olives.  Settlers prevent them and assa
ult
them.  Palestinians get arrested.  I could write the script in advance !  U
sual
cast of settler troublemakers.

A large group of Israeli peace activists and internationals helped the al J
abari
family pick their olives.  A lot of scuffling but no-one was badly hurt.  A
ll
the olives got picked and one Israeli peace activist was detained.  Not a b
ad
result considering.

Some of you we will see soon.  God bless you all.

In peace,
Dave (Dawud)


Mohammad & Moataz Abu Haikal
Assaulted by Settlers and Arrested
Thursday 03 Oct 08

At 3pm two of Mohammads young children noticed settlers picking olives from
 his
tree.  They called Mohammad.  Moataz watched the settlers while Mohammad ca
lled
for his other son Hussayn.  Moataz was 13 years old.  Three settler teenage
rs
were hitting the tree with sticks.  One of them was wearing a red shirt.  A
settler adult was watching them from the top of the military stairs.  He wa
s
average build and has a grey beard and glasses.  Moataz recognized him beca
use
he is often trespassing on their land.  Mohammad told the settlers to leave
 his
land.  He walked over to the wall, leaned over and called the soldiers and
border guards.  The settlers also called for the soldiers.  One of the sett
lers
gathered up the ground sheet from the ground with olives in it.  He picked 
up
one of the shopping bags of olives from the ground and took them to the
settlement.  Moataz grabbed at the other bag of olives at the same time as 
one
of the settlers picked it up.  The settler boy hit him with a stick on his
right cheek.  Both the boys fell over.  Two border police and one soldier
arrived and one of the border police caught hold of Moataz.  The settlers t
hrew
the olives onto the ground.  The settlers came and kicked Moataz while the
border police held him.  The border police made no attempt to protect Moata
z or
to stop the settlers.  The adult settler man came and tried to hit Moataz b
ut
Mohammad intervened and prevented him.   The settler man picked up a big ro
ck
to hit him.  Soldiers arrived and made a line between the Palestinians and 
the
settlers.  The border police lifted Moataz and detained him against the wal
l. 
Soldiers took his ID.  Six settler adults arrived including Mirav, her daug
hter
and Yifrat al Kobi with a video camera.  Yifrat asked all the settlers arri
ving
to act as witnesses against Moataz and Mohammad even though none of them we
re
there when the assaults happened.

David, Mohammad?s niece?s husband, arrived and began to video.  Labib, 
another
son arrived and stood next to Mohammad.  A junior army officer sent him awa
y. 
Two police officers arrived and then Captain Dagan, the army commander. 
Mohammad called for someone to go to the house and bring his ID.  The polic
e
took Mohammad, Hussayn and Moataz to checkpoint Gilbert at the crossing and
held them there for more than an hour.

Individual settlers came back on the land after Mohammad was taken away.  A
nnat
Cohen came and took videos.  Two settler boys came, one of them took photos
. 
The other is the boy in the red shirt who beat Moataz.  He shows in David
?s
video.

Hussayn was released and Moataz and Mohammad were taken to Kiryat Arba poli
ce
station.  Moataz was held there for over 5 hours.  The police took Mohammad
 to
see a doctor because his knee was hurting him.  He was bleeding from the si
de
of his mouth where the settler had hit him.  The police made Moataz sign a
paper before they released him.  They wanted him to walk home alone from th
e
police station but Mohammad complained.  He had no money with him for a tax
i. 
The police agreed to take Moataz home in their police car.  He arrived home
around 9pm.  Mohammad was with them but he did not get out of the car at th
e
house but was taken back to the police station.  Mohammad was with Moataz a
t
the police station except for 2 hours when they interrogated him alone.

Mohammad was told he would be held for 48 hours.  His phone has been switch
ed
off for 2 days and his wife has had no news of his whereabouts.  Police are
refusing to answer their phones.


-- 
for photos and more info see webpage :
deacondave.burngreave.net
for videos see :
www.YouTube.com
search for DeaconDave777