Bethlehem and the area

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Observers: 
Tova Shid. Haya A. (Reporting) Translation: Naomi Gal
May-5-2015
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Morning

Our regular route Monday mornings is on Route 60, from Jerusalem to the entrance to Halhul (Nabi Yunis): 7.30 at the entrance to Husan. 8:00 Nashash\ at the entrance to Al-Khader, 8:30 at the entrance to Beit Omar, 9:00 Nabi Yunis\ at the entrance to Halhul, 10:00 Etzion DCL. 
 

The shift and things people told us

As usual, we met people who came to consult with us on matters of police prevention, GSS and other matters at our regular stations. We will write about these cases.

1. We met Abed, from Beit Anan, near Hebron, at Nabi Yunis. He is police prevented and is charged with "assaulting a policeman," he said it happened like this: about a month ago he entered Israel without a permit. As he was walking down the street in Rahat he saw a police car coming toward him. He ran away. The car chased him, the policemen came out of the car, "knocked me to the floor" and beat him vigorously. Then they took him to the police station in Rahat, where he was interrogated as well as the policemen. When the investigator asked: Why does Abed have blood on his face, on his hands, etc., the policemen said: "He attacked us." So he was accused of assaulting a police officer. After the investigation he was taken to court. It was on Friday, two in the afternoon, at that time there is no longer a judge. A man from Rahat arrived and told Abed: give me 4000, and I will give them to a lawyer who will let you go. Relatives raised the money. Abed did not know the man's name, received no receipt, nor any paper attesting to the event. So here is the famous question: "Where is the money?" When he gets a document from the DCL policeman and a “character reference ", we could know for how long he is prevented, and if there are any traces of this story in his “character reference”.

2.  Mahmoud, resident of Yatta is "intelligence prevented" from the police. In other words, there is information about him that he is a criminal risk, and therefore prevented indefinitely from obtaining work permit for Israel. These are his words verbatim: I am desperate. I have been chasing a permit for two years. I made one mistake 8 years ago (he was accused of entering with forged papers and charged with trafficking a vehicle. He spent 10 months in prison). I have five children at home. What should I do? What do they want? They want me to work with them (to collaborate). They are pressuring me (to incriminate others). How much pressure can they put on me? I want to live like a human being. I am sick and tired. I have been prevented from entering Israel for the last 17 years. I try everything to achieve something good and what do they want? They want me to work with them or to go and steal. I worked with religious people and in a Kibbutz. I do not care about Jews or Arabs I do not care about religion. They said about me: you are no good. Let them check with the people I worked for and they’ll see who I am.  

3. Mustafa, a resident of Yatta, 27 years old: Yesterday I was caught in Petah Tikva and was taken to the police station. I told the policeman that I have six children. I have to live. Tomorrow too I will enter (Israel). Even if they put me in prison – I will enter. The policeman said: you have 10 records. I said, "I enter for work only, I did not no wrong." They again opened a police file and he was taken to the checkpoint.

4. A police prevented older man who’s been working in Israel for years, gave us at Nabi Yunis a “character reference"(criminal record) and said: "character reference”, like a criminal. "

5. We did not have a camerainfo-icon so we wrote down the text of the poster freshly pasted on walls on the way to Hebron:

With God’s help

Elad Sela was arrested because he gave information to his settlers brothers. 
Dedication 
To the People of Israel 
Loyalty
To God 
Compliance 
To the Torah

6.  Ismail from a village near Hebron, 55-year-old father to seven children. That’s how his “Criminal Record” (“Character Reference” looks like: 1) In 2006 he was tried for "violation of the declaration of a closed area." He went to jail for 40 days. 2) In 8.2010 he was tried for "illegal entry into Israel" and went to jail for 28 days. 3) In 10.2010 he was tried again for "two illegal entries into Israel." He went to jail for 8 days, suggesting that the judge was merciful and realized that the man must provide for his family, and he didn’t even activate his prison-probation for 2 months, imposed on Ismail in his previous sentence. 4) In 2012 he was tried again for "illegal entry into Israel", and went to jail for 30 days. In addition there were 19 more charges of “Illegally entering Israel” that the police closed for "lack of public interest". For all these the police (not the court!) punished him, and he is now prevented from entering Israel until 12/8/2018. That is, until this date he will not be able to get a work permit. It seems to us that there is an interest to see the list of the closed cases for "lack of public interest”.

Needs to be known:

Needs to be known: 
In order to find out about police prevention one must obtain: 
1.A form from a DCL policeman that says until when the man is prevented from entry and how did they calculate the time limit. This is a penalty the police inflict often. Most often it is longer than the “parole” the court imposes.

Limiting entry is police prevention.

2. Criminal record (Character Reference in its laundered name) where all this person’s records are filed.

Without all these documents it is impossible to know whether to appeal the prevention ("mercy" in folk language) and what to write in it. The appeal, in 98% does not help.

The criminal record can be obtained only from a police station. Only three police stations are accessible to Palestinians: in Hebron, Etzion and near Ramallah. Ramallah and north - only with a power of attorney for a lawyer one can obtain a criminal record for Palestinians.

The “document” one is supposed to get from DCL policeman.