Hebron Rights Workers Face Off With IDF, Risk Deportation

by Geoff Lumetta

Two American human rights workers were arrested by Israeli police on Feb. 28 and held for 48 hours in the Russian Compound jail in Jerusalem after they tried to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home in Hebron. Despite their efforts to block Israel Defense Forces bulldozers, the Al Zoum family and four other families in Hebron were left homeless that day. The IDF claimed the demolitions were required because the homes, near two Jewish settlements in Hebron, had no building permits. The demolitions came just three days after Hamas suicide bombers killed 29 persons in Jerusalem and Ashkelon.

The human rights workers, Robert Naiman, 30, and Dianne Roe, 53, both U.S. citizens, faced a deportation trial for their actions, but Israeli police didn't pursue the case. Naiman and Roe belong to a Mennonite-supported group called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). The teams act as observers and mediators in areas of the world with serious civil unrest. The Israeli police charged them both with "entering a closed military zone, ignoring an order to leave a closed zone and inciting Palestinians against the Israeli military." Israeli officials also accused Naiman of being a member of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group that opposes the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Naiman, who is Jewish, called the accusation ridiculous.

Roe said it was the Israeli military, and not CPT, that was inciting the Palestinians: "From the rooftop I looked down at the three children standing near a grape arbor," she wrote in a CPT dispatch to the United States. "Soon these children and their siblings would be homeless. For the rest of their lives these children would remember the day the Israeli military destroyed their home."

Other CPT members and journalists joined Roe and Naiman on the Al Zoum roof in a nonviolent protest to halt the demolitions. Roe said they all linked arms and prayed as the soldiers began lifting them off the roof. After they were removed, the bulldozers began their work. "I felt both shell-shocked and helpless as I watched them proceed to destroy the house," she said.

Team members say the recent demolitions might have been carried out at the insistence of militant residents in Kiryat Arba and Givat Harhasina Jewish settlements, who believed the Palestinians there threatened their security. Another explanation was that the action was a response to the bombings in Jerusalem and Ashkelon.

Despite prior clashes with Israeli soldiers and settlers, this incident marked the first time a CPT member had been threatened with deportation since the team began its mission in Hebron one year ago. CPT dispatches said they feared the case would set a precedent for the Israeli government to deport the rest of the CPT members in Hebron as well as other international human rights activists. On the day of the court hearing in Jerusalem, the Israeli police did not show up to substantiate their charges and the two activists were released. According to CPT, authorities can reactivate the charges at any time, so the threat of deportation still looms for Roe and Naiman.

CPT receives legal and other kinds of support for their work in Hebron from the Hebron Solidarity Committee, a Jewish Israeli group working for peace in the West Bank.

Amnesty Issues Report on Post-War Kuwaiti Violations

Amnesty International issued a report in February criticizing the Kuwaiti government's failure to address human rights violations that occurred after the Gulf war in 1991. The report says that during that period extrajudicial executions occurred and at least 70 people accused of collaborating with Iraq disappeared. In addition, more than 160 people arrested under martial law, including a number of Palestinian residents of Kuwait, were jailed after "manifestly unfair" trials, Amnesty said.

The report went on to applaud Kuwait's abolition of the Martial Law and State Security Courts, prime perpetrators of the unfair trials, but it urged Kuwait to "redress all outstanding cases of human rights violations.

"It should ensure that the human rights of everyone in Kuwait, including foreign nationals and stateless people, are fully protected," said the London-based human rights group. To this date, Amnesty said it knew of only one case where an alleged perpetrator of human rights violations was brought to justice. The report adds that the lack of attention to these issues makes Amnesty fear Kuwaiti officials are shunning human rights enforcement.

Morocco Charged With Abuses During Anti-Smuggling Campaign

Moroccan lawyers and human rights workers attacked their government's recent attempt to crack down on illegal smuggling. The accusations range from police brutality to denying accused smugglers the right to meet with lawyers. The country's biggest human rights group, the Organisation Marocaine des Droits de L'Homme (OMDH), said in a Feb. 12 statement that "police investigations must be conducted with respect for the physical integrity and dignity of those being interrogated."

OMDH reports that more than 240 people, among them senior customs officers, have been rounded up in the government's campaign to root out smuggling. The group said that restricted access by lawyers to the accused raises suspicions of torture and means the reports of torture could not be proved in court.

The Moroccan government denied the allegations and offered to investigate with OMDH any charge of abuse and torture. Morocco estimates that it loses $3 billion each year in customs duties from illegal imports.

Lawyer Faces Prison Sentence for Criticizing Turkish Laws

The New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights is calling for the release of Turkish lawyer Turgat Inal, who is being held in prison for writing an article that was critical of Turkey's human rights enforcement. The article, "We Protect Human Rights with an Imperfect Constitution and Laws" was published in June 1995 by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT). Inal and ten members of HRFT are being charged under the Turkish penal code for "insulting the laws of the Turkish Republic." The Lawyers Committee claims the possible prosecution of Inal would stifle free expression and open debate in matters concerning the law.

"The limitation of freedom of expression in this case, directed against lawyers and human rights advocates, is especially harmful to democratic society," the Lawyers Committee said in a February statement. "We can see no other purpose to this prosecution than to obstruct the legitimate activities of Mr. Inal and the HRFT in promoting respect for human rights and the rule of law."

An initial hearing in this case took place in January and a verdict was due out by late March.

The Lawyers Committee has also condemned the detention of human rights lawyer and journalist Ahmad al-Shamlan by the Bahraini State Intelligence Service. Al-Shamlan is being held without charge, according to the Committee, which added that the lawyer has played a prominent role in Bahrain's pro-democracy movement since 1991. Al-Shamlan is one of more than 5,000 people who have been detained for political reasons as tensions in Bahrain have intensified. He has acted as a defense lawyer for many political prisoners prosecuted in connection with unrest. He is also a member of the Committee for Popular Petition, a group that collected 25,000 signatures calling for democratic reforms. Bahrain's ruler, Sheikh Issa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who refused to accept the committee's petition, denied that the reform movement has had any domestic support.