Jerusalem, February 08: Israeli security forces raided on Monday a Palestinian refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem, arresting 11 people in what police said was an operation aimed at “putting order” in the Palestinian area.
Dozens of police and border police forces in jeeps entered the densely-populated Shuafat camp in the north of occupied East Jerusalem after midnight, witnesses and police said.
Eleven Palestinians have so far been arrested over suspicions of tax evasion, debts to the municipality as well as involvement in criminal activities and violent disturbances, police spokesman Shmuel Ben Rubi charged.
“We want to put some order into this village,” he said, adding that the operation will last “as long as necessary.”
East Jerusalem is considered by the international community to be illegally occupied by Israel since 1967, in contravention of several binding UN Security Council Resolutions.
In these resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has also called for no measures to be taken to change the status of Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached between the sides.
Declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is an attempt to change this status, and is thus a violation of these Security Council resolutions.
Israel arrests two foreign activists in West Bank
Israel’s military arrested two foreign activists in a pre-dawn raid in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank on Sunday that a pro-Palestinian group said was aimed at intimidating protesters.
The arrests follow a similar raid last month in which a Czech activist was detained and deported, and come amid heightened efforts to curtail Palestinian protests in the West Bank that are supported by foreigners and pro-peace Israelis.
The Israeli military said the two were arrested for “staying in Israel illegally” and transferred to the custody of the interior ministry.
“One of them was holding fake documents and the other’s visa had expired,” a military spokesman said, without providing further details.
“Both of them were known to be involved in illegal violence,” he added, referring to their participation in West Bank demonstrations.
Neta Golan, an Israeli co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), admitted the two had overstayed their tourist visas but insisted their arrest was aimed at curbing protests against Israeli policies.
“They are being targeted because they are activists, but because they haven’t broken any law the excuse for getting rid of them is that they have overstayed their visas,” Golan said.
Soldiers raided the apartment in the town of Ramallah at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) and arrested the two activists, Ariadna Jove Marti of Spain and Bridgette Chappell of Australia, according to the ISM.
The soldiers also confiscated cameras, a computer, pro-Palestinian banners and ISM registration forms, according to Ryan Olander, a US activist who was at the home at the time of the raid.
Israeli security forces carried out a similar raid in Ramallah on January 11 in which they arrested Eva Novakova, a Czech activist who had overstayed her visa, before deporting her.
Israel has in recent months arrested scores of Palestinian activists involved in the demonstrations against its controversial separation barrier, but arrests of foreigners are extremely rare.
—Agencies