Magistrates' Court Released Six Detainees of the Nakba Demonstrations in Israel to House Arrest for Four Days

(Haifa, Israel) On 16 May 2011, after hours of hearings, Judge Enam Dahleh-Shargawe of the Magistrates' Court in Safad decided to release six detainees arrested during Nakba demonstrations in Israel to house arrest for four days. The six detainees were: Attorney Maisa Urshaid (Nazareth), who works with the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI); Yoav Bar (Haifa), Majd Kayal (Haifa), Moaz Musleh (Jerusalem), and Osama and Ahmad Agbaria (Zalafee). Adalah Attorney Orna Kohn and private Attorney Jerias Boulos represented the detainees.

Four of the demonstrators were arrested on 15 May 2011 while participating in a non-violent protest in Israel to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. The demonstration was held near to Kufr Bir'im, a destroyed Palestinian village in the north of Israel, because the Israeli police did not allow their buses to continue in the direction of the Lebanese border, stating that the area was a closed military zone. As well-documented in the media, Palestinian refugees from Lebanon and Syria held demonstrations near the borders with Israel calling for the Right of Return. The two other detainees, Attorney Maisa Urshaid and Mr. Moaz Mosleh, were travelling on a bus from Jerusalem that was prevented by police from joining the demonstration near Kufr Bir'im. When Attorney Maisa Urshaid asked a police officer why they were not permitted to hold a peaceful demonstration, he slapped her, an assault that was caught on video. The detainees were badly beaten by the police, as shown in the photographs taken of them in the court and videos that were taken during the demonstrations.

The detainees were arrested for various criminal offenses such as riot, threatening and attacking police officers, and organizing an illegal demonstration.

Adalah will submit complaints to the Ministry of Justice's Police Investigation Unit (Mahash) on behalf of the demonstrators asking them to open criminal investigations into the excessive use of force used by police against them, their illegal arrests, and the illegal violation of their rights to freedom of speech and to demonstrate.