East Jerusalem Village Residents Claim Harassment by Israel
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours reports on complaints of harassment by residents of the east Jerusalem village of Issawiya, home to Palestinian hunger striker Samer Issawi.
ISSAWIYA, EAST JERUSALEM — As Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi continues his hunger strike past the 210-day mark on Feb. 18, his family, friends and neighbors living in the East Jerusalem village of Issawiya have condemned what they say is an Israeli policy of collective punishment against them.
“My brother Shadi was arrested yesterday. We didn’t know anything about [his condition] at this moment because they didn’t allow anyone to visit him. They demolished my brother Rafat's house on Jan. 1 at 5 a.m. without an order from the court. They also cut the water to our house the same day. Still now, we don’t have any water. We take water from the neighbors,” Samer Issawi’s sister, Shireen, told Al-Monitor.
“Almost every day [the Israeli police] enter the village and start shooting, and arrest anyone they see in the street. They demolished the tent that we made to support Samer. They demolished it 30 times,” Shireen said.
A member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Samer Issawi was released from an Israeli jail as part of a prisoner-exchange deal in October 2011. He was re-arrested in July after Israeli authorities said he violated the conditions of his release.
