Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
28 December 2017
Press release
Detention of Manal Tamimi and Jamil Barghouti follows the arrest of Popular Struggle Coordination Committee(PSCC) Coordinator Munther Amira 48 years, and Ahed Tamimi 16 years, her mother Nariman and her cousin Nour by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank today.
Manal Tamimi from Nabi Saleh village and Jamil Barghouti from Deir Abu Mash’l village, prominent non-violent activists, have been arrested by Israeli soldiers in front of Ofer detention center during a demonstration at the same time as Ahed’s court hearing.
The popular committees and Palestinian women called for this demonstration as a response to the arrest of children and the assault of women since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6, 2017. In addition to the arrest of Manal and Jamil, the Israeli soldiers repressed this non-violent demonstration by throwing tear gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets on the protestors. The demonstration is one of dozens of peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinians and repressed by the Israeli occupation violently since more than 3 weeks against Trump’s announcement to transfer the US embassy to Jerusalem.
The Israeli occupation has been escalating its systematic intimidation of Palestinians since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on the 6th of December 2017.
Since the statement, 15 Palestinians were killed, including Ibrahim Abu Thoria. Moreover, they continue to escalate their wave of arrests. As of Wednesday morning, the coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, Munther Amira, 48, has been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces while participating in a demonstration at the northern entrance of Bethlehem city.
The Israeli occupation has been perpetually violating the rights of the Palestinians as well as contravening various international laws.
The number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces since Trump has risen to 610, including 170 children and 12 women. There are at least 6,831 Palestinians that were already being held in Israeli prisons and the latest arrests bring the total number of Palestinian prisoners to 7,443.
Palestinians are resisting the US announcement and Israeli occupation through popular unarmed resistance, including protests and different forms of nonviolent resistance to raise their voice to the world and to implement pressure on the Israeli occupation and the US Administration to withdraw the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of the occupied city as the capital of Israel.
It is evident that Israeli occupation forces have been employing excessive force against the demonstrators in a way of pushing Palestinians to violence in order to further kill, incarcerate and harrass Palestinians.
Palestinians continue to showcase their commitment to popular unarmed resistance especially in the last four weeks, as they against the Trump announcement.
The popular committees in the occupied Palestine call upon the international community and international organizations to intervene in order protect the basic rights of the Palestinian people. In addition we call on our people to continue organizing in order to reach mass mobilization and put an end to the Israeli occupation.
We also call upon the international community to organize demonstrations, and to take serious actions to support the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (#BDS) campaign against Israel, and to place pressure on their governments as to take actions towards the Israeli government and settlers’ violations of human rights.
Meanwhile, Palestinian children, men, youth and women are all united in resisting the occupation, risking their lives in face to face encounters with the occupation army, demonstrating in Gaza city, Jerusalem, Haifa, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Yaffa, and Hebron. We stand united across the different cities. As long as the occupation continues, we will keep resisting for a life of freedom, justice and dignity.