news from al-Ma'sara village

At 9 a.m. this morning, Mahmoud Zwahre from the al-Ma'sara Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements was stopped at the container checkpoint on Wadi Nar on his way to a meeting in Ramallah. A Border Police officer recognized Mahmoud from the Friday demonstrations in al-Ma'sara and began harassing him for 1h30. After submitting both Mahmoud and the vehicle that he was traveling in to a lengthy check, the angry officer ordered him to the interrogation room. There, without any witnesses, he beat and kicked Mahmoud for the duration of 10 minutes, at times using the butt of his rifle. When Mahmoud asked why he was being beaten, the officer replied that it was because he had seen him at the demonstrations. The officer additionally threatened that he would order Mahmoud's arrest.

Mahmoud was finally released at 10.35 with minor injuries and bruises.

Today's harrassment and abuse is part of a larger campaign of repression of Palestinian leaders of the popular struggle which has seen over a hundred individuals detained in the past few months, often on questionable grounds or without any charge at all. Between December 29 and January 15, five threats were issued against members of the al-Ma'sara Popular Committee by both the Israeli military and "security", warning that its members would be beaten and arrested should they continue to mobilize for their weekly demonstration. During a night-raid into the houses of both Mahmoud and Mohammad al-Breija in January, the IOF even warned that soon, a youth from the village would "get killed" arguing that the Popular Committee would then carry the moral responsibility for that future killing. Last Thursday, Mohammad's house was again raided, and again, Israeli soldiers threatened with arrests and beatings should the protests continue.

Since November 2006, the Popular Committee has been organising weekly demonstrations against the ongoing illegal theft of the lands of al-Ma'sara and the eight surrounding villages in the South of the Bethlehem district, when Israel began constructing the Apartheid Wall on the village's land to expand the Gush Etzion settlement block. To date, the village has already lost 3500 dunums of land.

For more information, call Mahmoud Zwahre at: 00972 599586004 or check: www.popularstruggle.org