B'Tselem field researcher Nasser Nawaj’ah released after six day arrest

25 January 2016

Judge finds that authorities failed to produce sufficient evidence that Nawaj’ah endangered a land dealer

Ofer Military Court yesterday (Jan. 24, 2016) ordered the release of B'Tselem field researcher Nasser Nawaj’ah, who was arrested on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday (Jan. 20, 2016). However, the judge delayed the execution of his decision for 24 hours in order to allow the police to appeal. The police announced this afternoon it will not pursue an appeal, which clears the way for his release in the coming hours.

Nasser Nawaj'ah brought to extension of detention hearing at Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, which ordered his release on Jan. 21, 2016. Photo: Oren Ziv, Activestills

Military Judge Major Rani ‘Amer wrote in his decision that “it has not been clarified sufficiently, and on the basis of evidence, how the actions of the suspect before me actually endangered the said Israeli resident who ostensibly acted to sell the land of Palestinians.” The judge also rejected the police claims that Nawaj’ah presented a threat and was liable to disrupt the investigation.

During the hearing at Ofer Military Court, counsel for the police, Sergeant Major Avi Tivoni, responded to questions from Nawaj’ah’s counsel, Attorney Gaby Lasky. Tivoni admitted to the court that the suspicions relate to events that ostensibly occurred about one year ago, and that the land dealer who was allegedly threatened, according to the “Uvda” television program, is an Israeli resident who lives within Israel with his wife and children and who did not complain to the police about the matter at the time. Responding to a question from Attorney Lasky, Tivoni confirmed that a Palestinian resident who wishes to approach the law-enforcement authorities on a matter concerning a Palestinian in the Occupied Territories is indeed supposed to turn to the Palestinian authorities. Counsel for the police further confirmed that the application for detention does not suspect Nawaj’ah of offenses relating to the death of the Palestinian known as “Abu Khalil” – the other incident presented in the “Uvda” broadcast.

Later in the hearing, the judge asked counsel for the police whether the investigators have any evidence concerning what – if anything – is done to an Israeli resident whose name is transferred to the Palestinian Authority on suspicion of selling land. Counsel for the police admitted that he did not know and that the investigation has not yielded any information on this matter. Attorney Lasky stated: “My friend’s reply to the Court’s question is nothing less than amazing. According to this reply, there is no evidence that there is even an offense. What my friend is seeking to do is to detain people in order to set out on a fishing expedition in order to examine what might possibly be the fate of a person if he were transferred to the Palestinian Authority. From the standpoint of a proper investigation, it should first have been substantiated what happens when someone is transferred to the Palestinian Authority.”

B'Tselem expressed satisfaction with the court’s finding that the investigative material does not include evidence suggesting that a complaint to the Palestinian Authority regarding suspicion of the sale of land leads to injury or endangers a land dealer. This contradicts the claim made in the “Uvda” report, on the basis of an investigation funded in part by the extreme-right wing organization the Samaria Settlers’ Committee. It would seem that a political investigation that seeks only to incriminate and entrap left-wing and human rights activists by the use of self-appointed secret police has driven itself into the brick wall of reality. We will continue to work until Nasser's full acquittal.

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Nasser Nawaj’ah. Photo by Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem

A Routine Founded on Violence

ISA detains and interrogates B'Tselem field researcher; B'Tselem: "Disgraceful arrest aimed at hampering the work of a human rights organization"

On Saturday night, 6 August 2022, B'Tselem's field researcher in the South Hebron Hills, Nasser Nawaj'ah, was arrested by soldiers who arrived at his home in the village of Susiya. Nawaj'ah was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to a military camp in the settlement of Otniel. He was held there for about 12 hours, still handcuffed and blindfolded, and was given no food or water other than a few sips at the beginning. Throughout the entire time, the police, the military and the Israel Security Agency did not notify his family, B'Tselem or his lawyers of his whereabouts. On Sunday, around midday, Nawaj'ah was taken to an ISA interrogation facility in Gush Etzion, where he was interrogated by an officer who introduced himself as "Captain Yassin." The officer questioned Nawaj'ah about his work and home, and accused him of "causing all the trouble in the area." The officer then asked Nawaj'ah to stop “causing trouble” and "engaging in friction" with the military. Footage of Nasser Nawaj’ah’s arrest. Credit: Yeheli Cialic and Guy Butavia This is not the first time the ISA has taken action against Nawaj'ah. In 2021, he was summoned for a talk with an ISA officer who presented himself as "Captain 'Eid." In the "warning talk," the officer told him he was "threatening the military and sending B'Tselem activists to harass the soldiers." In response to his arrest, Nawaj'ah stated: “It is not surprising that Israel goes after people who document the injustices it commits in the Occupied Territories and work to expose it. The violence of the Israeli forces is nothing new – it is a daily part of my work and of life for all Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. That is why I do my job, and I will continue doing it." B'Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad: "This case is disgraceful, but not an exception. Israel does everything it can to obstruct the work of human rights organizations, especially Palestinian ones, that expose the violations it commits. The "friction" Nawaj’ah was told to steer clear of, is created by the Israeli government that takes Palestinian land, the High Court that signs off on this, the settlers that attack Palestinians and the military that backs them. The goal of arresting and interrogating a B'Tselem employee is clear: disrupting his work and helping the military and settlers continue to trample on the rights of Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills."

12 August 2022

Khirbet Humsah residents amidst the ruins of their community. 4 November 2020. Photo by Sarit Michaeli, B'Tslem.

Communities Facing Expulsion

Hagai El-Ad's address at the European Parliament Committee on Human Rights, 16 Nov. 2020

Two weeks ago, on November 3rd, Israel carried out one of its biggest demolition operations in a decade. Khirbet Humsah, an entire Palestinian community in the northern Jordan valley, was demolished within hours. Seventy-four people were left homeless, 41 of them children. Tens of structures, people’s homes and livelihood, were destroyed. Humsah is not alone. For years, Israel has been targeting dozens of Palestinian communities throughout the occupied West Bank. It is a criminal policy of forcible transfer. Israel is turning the lives of these communities into a prolonged nightmare, in order to force them to give up and leave. A nightmare of years of hardship without running water or a connection to the power grid, of home demolitions, of having to repeatedly vacate your home so Israeli troops can train on your land, of ongoing violence by settlers backed by Israeli security forces. And sometimes, all this organized state violence is condensed into a few dark hours, as happened in Humsah. But whether it takes years or mere hours, it is a war crime. The European Union has responded by calling this a “regrettable trend” and saying that “such developments constitute an impediment towards the two-state solution”. Let me be clear: Israel knows, from decades of experience, that the worst it will have to deal with is such inconsequential expressions of concern. Israeli bulldozers on their way to demolish the next home of a defenseless Palestinian are driving on roads paved with such empty rhetoric. Every time euphemisms are used instead of calling crimes by their proper name, it emboldens Israel to continue its policies of oppression, dispossession, and violence against Palestinians. International acquiescence, decorated by meaningless talk of a “two-state solution”, is the backbone of the inherently undemocratic one-state reality we live in. Everyone knows – in European capitals and in this parliament – that more statements will not stop the next demolition. When the lines have nothing in them, Israel doesn’t even have to read between them to recognize a green light to continue oppressing Palestinians. Without real consequences, that green light will continue to shine. Humsah was not the first. And as long as impunity is the norm, it will not be the last. Everywhere in the Jordan valley, Palestinian communities face similar predicaments, while at the same time Israel established more and more settlement points. In Jerusalem, Palestinian families are forced out of their homes so Jewish settlers can move in. A few kilometers to the east, the community of Khan al-Ahmar is awaiting its turn. In the South Hebron Hills, Palestinian communities fear, after struggling for 20 years to stay on their land, the forthcoming ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice. A court so just that it has never ruled against Israel’s Kafkaesque planning regime in the West Bank – a regime tailored to forbidding Palestinian development while issuing permits to build and expand Israeli settlements. By legitimizing all this, Israel’s highest court functions as a key enabler of flagrantly illegal policies meant to forcibly transfer Palestinians. All this has been happening for decades, and continues also after Israel recently set aside – at least for the time being – its plan to formally annex parts of the West Bank. De-jure or de-facto, the formal status of Palestinian land has never stopped Israel from promoting its interests at the expense of Palestinians’ rights. Clearly, if Israel cared about international law or respecting human rights, it would not have built more than 250 settlements in which some 600,000 Israelis already live. Does Europe really need an announcement of de-jure annexation to see reality for what it is? How many years of prolonged occupation, how many explicit statements by Israeli leaders, how many infrastructure projects, how many settlers does it take for Europe to wake up to the reality of Israel’s permanent control of everything and everyone between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea? A century of occupation? A million settlers? What is it that the EU is waiting for? Consequences for human rights violations can be introduced through European foreign policy, by effectively using Europe’s considerable leverage. Clearly, the decision to not do so is a political choice. It undermines Europe’s commitment to human rights and weakens the rules-based international order. It normalizes oppression and dehumanizes Palestinians, because – apparently – no one has to be held accountable for their permanent subjugation. Not when an entire community is razed to the ground, not when hundreds of demonstrators are shot with live bullets along the Gaza fence, not when dozens of families were wiped out in their own homes in the massive attack on Gaza in 2014. Not now, not ever. Europe has international responsibilities. It is the most significant international stakeholder committed, at its core, to democracy and to the rule of law. Grave, systemic human rights violations have been going on for years, in broad daylight, in Europe’s neighborhood. Put the empty rhetoric aside. See reality for what it is. Stand up for the universal values enshrined in law in the aftermath of the Second World War. Protect the rights of Palestinians. The time is now.

16 November 2020

East Jerusalem

This is Jerusalem

The report describes life in the Palestinian neighborhood of al-‘Esawiyah 53 years after East Jerusalem was annexed to Israel. Over the past year, al-‘Esawiyah has become a flashpoint due to a police operation designed primarily to harass residents. In the report, B'Tselem analyzes Israel’s policy of dispossession, deliberate neglect, lack of planning and police violence in the neighborhood, which is an extreme example of its actions throughout East Jerusalem.

19 May 2020