For thirteen days Palestinians in Jerusalem have been staging a protest against Israeli imposed restriction orders, that banish two men from the city.
Two Jerusalemites have been ordered to leave the city and their homes for a period of up to six months.
Samer Abu Aisha, who has also been at the protests, is one of the men facing expulsion.
“On the 21st of December, my lawyer called me to go to the court, what is called the magistrate court to receive an order of ending the house arrest (that I was under), but with keeping the travelling ban order as is, until the (Israelis) are done with the legal procedures. After 15 minutes of receiving this order, my lawyer called me again and asked me to go to what is called rooms number 4, which is a small police office inside the ‘Maskobiyeh’ (Israeli) prison (in Jerusalem). I went there and received a banishment order from the city of Jerusalem for five months,” said Samer.
On Wednesday (January 6) Samer was arrested along with Hijazi Abu Sbeih who had also rejected the order.
Instead the men protested at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem.
Speaking at the protest, Aisha’s father accused Israel of denying him and his family from having a ‘normal’ life.
“I raised my son until he turned 29 years old and my dream is to go see him at his house, play with his children, change the nappies (for his children), make them soup, live with them peacefully, make jokes with them and let his children sit on my back and his mother’s back. The (Israeli) occupation wants to take this very normal and simple life from us which looks to me that it has apparently became a luxury under the (Israeli) occupation,” said Hussam Abu Aisha.
Israel says the men are a threat to national security.
Mahmoud Hassan from a Ramallah based organisation, Addameer, that offers legal advice and support to Palestinians, said Israel sees Samer as being an ‘influence’ on young Palestinians.
“Samer (Abu Aisha) was under full house arrest. During the time he was under house arrest for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, an order of banishing him from Jerusalem was issued. So, maybe Israel sees him as one of the leaders and wishes to banish him from Jerusalem to reduce his influence on the youth and Palestinian society,” he said.
In 2010, Israel also issued an expulsion order, temporarily banishing a young Palestinian activist from his home for a period of up to four months.
Samer’s order banishes him from Jerusalem for five months, whilst Hijazi Abu Sbeih’s order is for six months.
The communications department at the Israeli Security Agency ‘Shin-Bet’ told Reuters in a statement that the two men have the right to appeal the orders issued against them.
“Due to the security situation in Jerusalem, security bodies have recently taken several preventive measures against prominent terror activists who generate the violent activity. As part of these measures, restriction orders have been issued against a number of terror activists, including Samer Abu Aisha and Hijazi Abu Sbeih. Issuing such orders is done when there is a security necessity and in order to prevent harm to the security of the state,” the statement read. (Reuters)
