AIC Member Mohammed Abu Humus Interrogated, Held Overnight by Israeli Secret Service Following a Joint Palestinian-Israeli Demonstration
Bryan Atinsky
AIC Member Mohammed Abu Humus Interrogated, Held Overnight by Israeli Secret Service Following a Joint Palestinian-Israeli Demonstration
Written by The Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Mohammed Abu Humus, Alternative Information Center (AIC) member and political activist in Jerusalem, was taken for interrogation by the Israeli General Security Services (GSS) on 15 May 2008 as he was leaving a joint Palestinian-Israeli commemoration of the Nakba, a commemoration that he himself organized.
The Israeli police waited until Abu Humus left the commemoration before stopping him, along with additional Palestinian and international activists. After checking everyone’s identification documents, the police announced that Abu Humus had outstanding debts and they took him away in an unmarked car.
During a subsequent interrogation by the Israeli General Security Services (GSS), Abu Humus learned the real ‘reasons’ for his detention: his political activism in Jerusalem and opposition to the Israeli occupation. Abu Humus was questioned about, amongst other things, his anti-occupation activities with Israelis and internationals and his active opposition to the illegal use of roadblocks and detentions for debt collection against Palestinians in his and other East Jerusalem neighborhoods. In August 2007, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel submitted a petition to the High Court against the use of “debt collection checkpoints” in East Jerusalem, in which Abu Humus is a primary petitioner. The petition is still pending (In Hebrew, click here).
Connie Hackbarth, Executive Director of the AIC, was with Abu Humus at the time of his detention. “It is clear that the Israeli authorities are targeting Abu Humus because of his determined political activism against the Israeli occupation and actions on behalf of a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis. At the same time Olmert and visiting President Bush were speaking about peace, actions on the ground proved their real intentions. Israel’s institutional harassment of Palestinian political activists must stop immediately.”
The AIC fears that Mohammad Abu Humus may again be targeted by the Israeli authorities for his continuing work against the Israeli occupation. We ask that you write and demand that Israel stop harassing Palestinian political activists in general, and Mohammad Abu Humus in particular.
Israeli Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter
Email: s...@mops.gov.il
Israeli Minister of Justice Daniel Friedmann
Fax: +972 (2) 628 7757
To see many pictures of the demonstration, click here.