PRESS CONFERENCE
Regarding Yesterday's Attacks by Israeli Occupation Forces
Against Presidential Candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
9 December 2004
Palestinian Presidential Candidate Dr.
Mustafa Barghouthi briefed the world press about the events
surrounding the physical and verbal attacks against him and his
entourage by Israeli Occupation Forces yesterday when he was
returning to his home city of Ramallah after attending meetings in
Jenin.
At 9:00 p.m. yesterday Israeli soldiers stopped his group at the
Sanour checkpoint outside the northern West Bank city of Jenin. They
ordered him and his five companions out of their car. Dr. Barghouthi
immediately made it clear to the Israeli soldiers and officers and
that he was Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, a Presidential candidate
returning home to Ramallah after meetings in Jenin.
The Israeli soldiers responded by screaming and cursing at them and
physically beating people and forcing them to the ground at
gunpoint. When Dr. Allam Jarrar, a 50-year-old man with a heart
problem, was struck and injured by Israeli soldiers, Dr. Barghouthi
attempted to intervene and help Dr. Jarrar stand up. Dr. Barghouthi
was then thrown forcefully on the ground, and everyone was made to
stay in one position on the ground in the cold for an hour and
fifteen minutes. If anyone attempted to move or talk to their
colleagues, they were immediately beaten. Lu’ai Arafat was hit with
the butt of a rifle near his ear, another member of the team was
struck in the abdomen, and another was hit on the neck. Dr.
Barghouthi sustained soft tissue injuries to his thigh and back and
was later rushed to Ramallah’s Sheikh Zayed Hospital for X-rays.
Dr. Barghouthi characterized as a form of torture the forcing six
people to lie still in an uncomfortable position in the cold for one
hour and fifteen minutes and beating them if they moved or talked.
This is the third time in less than a week that Dr. Barghouthi has
been delayed, harassed, or prevented from free movement. Near Biddya
village, Salfit region, on December 4, he was detained at a
checkpoint for two hours. On December 6, he was surrounded by
Israeli soldiers and forced at gunpoint to turn away and not enter
the Old Town of Hebron. Israeli soldiers claimed they talked with
their Commanding Officers for one hour before coming back with the
verdict that he was just an ordinary Palestinian citizen, and thus
had no right to pass.
These violations of freedom of movement have taken place alongside
Israel’s continuing refusal to allow presidential candidates to
visit East Jerusalem or the Gaza Strip to consult with constituents
there. Only one presidential candidate has been granted this
freedom. Israeli restrictions of movement should not be tolerated by
Palestinians or by the international community.
Dr. Barghouthi said that the most important thing he had to say
today was that what happened yesterday, although a clear insult to
all Palestinian people and to the institution of democracy, was
nothing compared to what normal Palestinians endure on a daily basis
at the 703 checkpoints (OCHA figure) that divide their world into
dozens of prisons whose gates are controlled by a foreign military
force. Yesterday was just an example of the racism, humiliation, and
brutality endured by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians daily.
The Israeli soldiers refused even to talk to Dr. Barghouthi and his
colleagues, he said, in English, Arabic, Russian, or Hebrew. They
did not allow them to use their phones or even talk to each other.
If Israeli soldiers felt they could get away with doing such things
to Dr. Barghouthi, a person sure to get publicity about it, imagine
what they do to Palestinians with no protection or attention. What
his team endured, Dr. Barghouthi said, was nothing compared to what
21-year-old Aisha Ali Hassan Abasi suffered. She was a dialysis
patient who was repeatedly prevented from crossing the checkpoint
out of her village of Qibiyyeh, Ramallah District, to receive
dialysis treatment. She died at home.
Or Lamis Qasim, one of 55 women forced to give birth at checkpoints.
She lost her twin baby girls after being delayed for hours while she
was in labor at a checkpoint near Deir Ballut, the same checkpoint
where Dr. Barghouthi was stopped on December 4.
Or Tahani Fatouh, whose newborn baby boy died of respiratory failure
after ambulances were prevented from reaching their Bethlehem home
by Israeli Occupation Forces, even though the hospital was only two
kilometers away from their house.
The time has come, said Dr. Barghouthi, to ask Israel and the world
how long this can go on. The time has come to ask, why are the
checkpoints there? For legitimate security reasons? Or to destroy
the economy, humiliate the people, and destroy the very fabric of
life in occupied Palestine?
The recent shootings of at least three young schoolgirls in Gaza,
including Iman Al-Hams who was shot 20 times by an Israeli officer,
and countless other incidents show that the Israeli Army has sunk to
a serious low. It is time for Israeli society to rethink its
policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to carefully
consider the consequences of Israel’s young people growing up in an
atmosphere of racism and severe violations of human rights carried
out in an atmosphere of impunity.
Israel’s interventions to block the movement of Presidential
candidates, and of all Palestinian citizens, must stop immediately,
in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
Dr. Barghouthi called Israel’s claim that the incident at Sanour
checkpoint would not have happened if his team had coordinated their
movement with the army ahead of time “completely silly and
unacceptable.” This would mean Presidential candidates must get a
permit from Israel every time they wish to travel between cities,
villages, and neighborhoods. It is tantamount to paralysis – it
means even Presidential candidates are in prison. How can democracy
be meaningfully established, Dr. Barghouthi asked, in a nation of
citizens and candidates blocked inside prisons?
Dr. Barghouthi said that he and all Palestinian people demand and
hope that the international community will intervene to reinstate
their natural human right of free movement, and to remove all
internal checkpoints within the Occupied Palestinian Territories,
not just for candidates but for all Palestinian citizens.
Dr. Barghouthi also requested that an adequate number of
international observers be sent to make sure the elections are free,
fair, and comprehensive, to witness and understand the scope of
Israeli attacks and assaults, and to travel with candidates to
observe the obstacles in their way.
Dr. Barghouthi reiterated that the attack against him and his
supporters would not affect their will to improve the situation of
Palestinians, to achieve freedom, to build democratic institutions,
and to fight corruption and mismanagement. True democracy equals
true peace and security, and his team and supporters will continue
to struggle for it.
He said that Palestinians must and will do everything possible to
reach out to the world and to organize every possible mass popular
protest against Israeli violations of their basic human rights.
