All Demonstrators Detained at anti-Prawer Protests in Israel Released
Adalah: “The arrests were random and arbitrary…the police used brutal violence against the demonstrators”
10 demonstrators released
On 2 August 2013, the Haifa District Court ordered the release of 10 demonstrators who were arrested during anti-Prawer Plan protests held on 1 August at the entrance to the Arab village of ‘Arara in the Triangle area in central Israel. Organized by the Arab youth movement, hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel participated in the protests against the Prawer Plan in Wadi ‘Ara in the center and in Beer el-Sabe in the south of Israel, while thousands of demonstrators joined in solidarity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and around the world. The Prawer Plan seeks to forcibly displace tens of thousands of Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel living in the unrecognized villages in the Naqab (Negev) desert in the south of Israel.
The court placed the demonstrators under house arrest for three days. Its decision came after the court dismissed an appeal filed by the police/state against the Haifa Magistrates’ Court decision also to release them. The police requested that the Magistrates’ Court extend the demonstrators’ detention for five days for allegedly assaulting police officers, obstructing their work, and participating in an illegal demonstration.
The detained demonstrators were represented by Adalah Attorneys Suhad Bishara and Aram Mahameed, in addition to Adalah board member Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein, attorneys from the Mezan Center (Nazareth) and volunteer lawyers. Adalah’s lawyers accompanied the detainees to the police stations directly after their arrests, and provided them with legal advice before their investigations and court hearings.
Police violence against demonstrators
After meeting the demonstrators held at the police station, Adalah Attorney Mahameed stated that, “The arrests were random and arbitrary, and the detainees’ bodies displayed signs of violence, including clear bruising, which indicates that the police used brutal violence against the demonstrators.” Following the demonstration, the police freed nine other demonstrators without bringing them before the courts.
Arrests at Lehavim Junction, Beer el-Sabe
In Beer el-Sabe, the police unconditionally freed another group of demonstrators who had been arrested during a parallel demonstration against the Prawer Plan held at the Lehavim Junction close to the Arab Bedouin town of Rahat on 1 August 2013. Police alleged that one of the detainees had thrown a stone and assaulted a police officer, and that another had assaulted a police officer and obstructed his work.
Adalah Attorneys Jalal Dakwar and Nadeem Shehadeh, who held meetings with the detained demonstrators at the police station in Rahat following their arrests, stated that the two accused men categorically denied the accusations made against them and that arrests were merely intended to inflame the situation. They argued that the police’s decision to release them before any court hearing clearly indicated that their arrests had been baseless.
Read more:
Press Releases on recent anti-Prawer Protests in: Beer el-Sabe, Sakhnin, and Kufr Kanna
More information about the Prawer Plan
Anti-Prawer demonstration in Wadi 'Ara on 1 August 2013 (Photo by Adalah)
