Rights and Accountability 21 January 2016
Taayush activist Ezra Nawi in 2010.
ActiveStills
Israel has arrested three human rights defenders amid what appears to be a concerted campaign, backed by authorities, to sabotage domestic organizations documenting Israeli abuses of Palestinians.
Last week, Israeli forces arrested Ezra Nawi, a member of Taayush, a Palestinian and Jewish activist group that defends the rights of Palestinian farmers in the South Hebron Hills area of the occupied West Bank.
Often Taayush members place themselves between the farmers and the Israeli settlers and soldiers who attack them.
Infiltration
Nawi’s arrest followed the airing on Israeli television of video filmed by the right-wing group Ad Kan (Hebrew for “No More”).
Two people working for Ad Kan had infiltrated Taayush.
Ad Kan was set up to spy on the “tiny Israeli left wing,” according to Amira Hass, a reporter for the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz.
Hass characterized the television report as “a puff piece for a privatized, mini-Shin Bet” – a reference to Israel’s secret police agency.
The two Ad Kan spies set up a hoax land deal falsely claiming the sale of the family land of Nasser Nawaja, a Palestinian field worker for the human rights group B’Tselem.
The video footage showed Nawi responding to the supposed land deal with claims that the land dealer would be arrested, tortured and executed by the Palestinian Authority. Nawi knew Nasser and therefore knew the sale would be fraudulent.
Although there was no land deal, Israel decided to arrest Nawi anyway.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has carried out no executions for any crimesince 2005.
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