14 year old child arrested in night raid in Nabi Saleh

By Joseph Dana January 23, 2011 | Edit

The repression of Nabi Saleh continued last night as the army raided the village for the third time in two weeks. Last week, the army raided over twenty Nabi Saleh homes, photographed youth and collected their ID information. Last night, between the hours of two and three in the morning, soldiers raided homes and arrested one 14 year old child, Islam Tamimi. Soldiers attacked the child in his bed and attempted to arrest his older brother. One Palestinian working with Btselem tried to photograph the soldiers but were threatened with violence. However, family members and other villagers were able to prevent the older brother from being arrested.

Nabi Saleh, a small village west of Ramallah, has engaged in an unarmed demonstration against the confiscation of their land by the neighboring Jewish settlement of Halamish for the past year There have been countless injuries, arrests and collective punishment against the village over the past year as the army has tried to crush the protest.

Islam Tamimi was arrested last night in Nabi Saleh. Picture Credit: Alison Rammer

Three weeks ago, Tamimi was taken by soldiers during a Friday demonstration to the neighboring Jewish only settlement of Halamish. He was handcuffed behind his back and left in the pouring rain for hours before being questioned about the demonstrations, their leadership and strategy. Villagers believe that he was arrested last night in order to extract more information about the demonstrations in Nabi Saleh. This is a part of a broader strategy of psychological repression of the village and a harsh form of collective punishment. Ironically, the army spokesperson unit tweeted this morning that a ‘wanted suspect’ had been caught in the West Bank and taken for questioning. Nothing was said that the ‘suspect’ was a fourteen year old child.

Last night’s arrest comes days after villagers were able to break the weekly Friday siege of Nabi Saleh. The demonstration, instead of beginning in the center of the village, began in the neighboring village of Beit Rimna. From Beit Rima the march went directly through the army post near the contested spring which was taken over by settlers and the army in December 2009. The child arrested last night is still in Israeli custody and no crime has been filed against him.

Joseph Dana was a contributing writer on +972 Magazine from August 2010 to December 2011. This is an archive of his work.

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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