Israel arrests son of Palestinian peace activist in West Bank raid
Khaled Abu-Awwad is the General Manager of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum.
By Avi Issacharoff Tags: Shin Bet Israel news West BankIsrael security forces arrested three West Bank Palestinians suspected of involvement with terrorist activity late Friday night, including the son of a prominent peace activist.
The three residents of Beit Ommar, north of Hebron, were detained in a joint operation led by members of both Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet units.
One of those arrested is the son of Khaled Abu-Awwad, the General Manager of the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families Forum.
Abu-Awwad has been known in recent years as a prominent peace activist, who advocates dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis despite the fact hat he had lost a brother to IDF fire.
On Thursday it was reported that Israeli immigration police were involved in the arrest and deportation earlier this month of a Czech pro-Palestinian activist living in Ramallah.
Lawyers for Czech activist Eva Novakova accused the immigration police, a unit of the Interior Ministry, of illegally violating Palestinian sovereignty and deporting his client for political purposes.
"The Oz [immigration] unit's entrance into Ramallah violates the Palestinian Authority's sovereignty on its territory and the Oslo Accords," said Yiftach Cohen. "When a terrorist comes out of Ramallah, Israel says it's the PA's responsibility, so how come the Interior Ministry enters the city to arrest and deport a foreign national?" Novakova is also represented by Omer Shatz, who said Israel does not have the authority to carry out a raid in Ramallah.
Speaking from Prague, Novakova said she was arrested by Israeli soldiers and uniformed men who identified themselves as the immigration police.
"At 3 A.M. I heard loud voices," she told Haaretz yesterday. "The door was broken down and 20 armed soldiers burst in."
"Three men in black uniforms, who said they were immigration police, also entered," she said. "They checked my papers and when they saw my passport, they ordered me to come with them."
Czech officials said Novakova was expelled for overstaying her visa, but she said the Israeli immigration police asked her mainly about her political activity.
"They asked me about [demonstrations at] Bil'in and my activity in the West Bank," she said.
However, the Interior Ministry said the Israel Defense Forces, not the immigration police, carried out the arrest and that politics were not a consideration.
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This is incredible injustice! I feel glad since I had the chance to meet Mohannad, the son of Khaled Abu-Awwad. He works hard on the peace process and forgives all mistakes. The arrest is a terrible try to break Mohannads will for peace. Since peaceful people are harder to fight than aggressive ones! Please support his release! Thanks and best wishes Johannes
you can't support israel`s conduct while at the same time looking forward to the day when there is a palestine with sovereign authority over its land. the first is aimed towards precluding the latter.
You said, "the idf keeps the peace mona ! without it there would be no peace !" Somehow you have failed to notice that there is no peace.
Peace activism is as much of an oxymoron as copulation for virginity. If a person has overstayed, the visa issuers have a duty to kick her out of the country. If she entered to fight against Israel, she lied to get the visa. If the Palies refuse to do their job of muzzleing aagitators, Israel needs to do the job. The sooner the Palies grow up and stop pretending peace on one side of their mouths and jihad/revolution/panarabism on the other side, the sooner they will have a state.
the idf keeps the peace mona ! without it there would be no peace !
I don't what countries the posters actually live in but most countries will deport someone who overstays. As some one has pointed out, "Palestine" is not yet a country. Given what Israel faces in that neighbourhood, who can blame them for being nervous about those who overstay & hide. She probably is no real danger but who knows & in any event, she has to be treated like others who overstay. As to son of Khaled Abu-Awwad, the issue is not his father, its the behaviour of the son. Children often rebel against parents. Dad is somewhat of a peacenik & we need all of those as we can have. I would have prefered if dad had been informed of what was going on & the reasons where doing so would not risk the operation. Look, as a Jew who totally supports Israel's conduct, I look forward to the day when there is a Palestine with sovereign authority over its lands & with economic & other ties with Israel. Even integration into a EU SORT of arrangement would be great.
pants
See it goes like this. Israel is expected to make some move towards peace. The West Bank is pretty quiet apart from those pesky Settlers, and Abbas is clearly not going to be pressured to go to any peace talks until the agreed conditions are seen to be happening. That means Israel will be getting edgy and needs a smokescreen - a war would be good in order to squeal about the security of Israel again. Hence the rattling of sabres along the Northern front I suppose!
Before the founding of the EU and the virtual erasure of national boundaries, one needed a visa to travel from one country to another. I, as a journalist, had a special visa for each country, printed on my passport. This had to be shown at each port of entry and was printed on my passport. Maybe the Czech reporter lied about the nature of ner visa or maybe she did not travel through Israel, but parachuted into Ramallah. As for the arrested Arabs, a different law applies. Why does everyone assume that the son follows the same pro-peace stance as his father? I suggest this is not necessarily the case in other countries, certainly my children and I often disagree politically.
"However, the Interior Ministry said the Israel Defense Forces, not the immigration police, carried out the arrest and that politics were not a consideration" The first part of this statement is probably true in some sense. The latter part is stretching the truth beyond imagination. The acts of the Israeli in the Westbank are not civil and not nice.
Wasn't there concern for the daughter of an Israeli peace activist? Fortunately the lady has contacted her family and is safe and well... various media recently presented images of Israeli peace activists being roughly treated by Israeli police/IDF. And now Israeli authorities are kicking in the door of a Palestinian peace activist. It's that word PEACE. It scares the hell out of Israeli political Zionists!
Abu-Awwad is a "peace activist"??? If Ha'aretz would describe nationalist Jews as "peace activists" - even sometimes - then the current statement might make sense. However, this is just more Ha'aretz anti-Jewish propaganda. For Ha'aretz, people who support the Arabs, no matter how violently, no matter how many laws they violate, are called "peace activists". Get real!
what it plans to do and what it does best. It, has worked for decades, so why not continue---from a zionist land gobbler,s perspective. Problem is my dear Zionist occupiers---the world is onto you and the Palestinians aint goin nowhere. So keep gobbling--until that Bi National state gets stuck in your throats and you can no loger spit it out. Good old Zionists---never miss an opportunity to miss--well you all know the rest.
Peple all over the world have to understand that palestine in not a free country yet and foreign nationals who enter via Israel or stay illegally in the territories according to Israeli law must be deported. Pals will not do this, so Israel has to take action and complaining will help nothing.
The BDS movement is gaining steam and Israel is very afraid...mmm maybe its working
I wonder what this crackdown on protesters and non-violent demonstrators/activists is an indication of...is the Israeli government planning some kind of offensive or are they just acting like any other police state or fascist counterpart and silencing intellectual opposition...
Khaled of Beit Umma near Hebron is a repected member of teh Families' Forum for Reconciliation abd Peace. Arresting his son is a deliberae action to undermine Figheters for Peace and Cooperation beween our two Nations
Now that the peace process is dead. This is the second action taken against peace activists in several days. Turning the West Bank into another Gaza seems to be the next step for Israel. Is the Netanyahu government trying to provoke an infitada to justify massive action in the West Bank?
I know Israel has problems with terrorism and that's just a fact. The sooner the conflict is over and I don't have to read these stories, the better though. I like to read stories about Israel saving people and inventing things. I don't like to read stories like this unless I can see why Israel did it. Transparency. Well this is just a story about some people being arrested. Nobody likes to be arrested but it happens. Last week on Live Leak, this guy was filming in Guatemala. A couple of guys they said tried to steal in a village market. So the the merchants caught up with them. The guy with the camera never helps and neither does a Catholic Priest. They poured gas on one guy and burned him alive. The other guy was beat up so bad he couldn't walk but got rescued by the cops. The cops didn't arrest the lynch mob. That's the way the law is over there I suppose. So these Palestinians got arrested. That's what happened. Nobody died.