15 Palestinians face trumped-up charges
1985Larry Cooperman 1985-05Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 12 →
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On Feb. 2, 1985, 15 Palestinian residents of DeHeishe, including Hamdi Faraj, a well-known journalist, were arrested by the Israeli authorities. Although they were tortured during occurred last Jan. 11. A Village League "assault unit" attacked a group of DeHeishe youth in the neighboring town of Bethlehem. The Village League gang chased the DeHeishe residents back to DeHeishe where the attack continued.
Later, hundreds of people from the DeHeishe camp gathered at the house of Yassin Jaber, the leader of the Village League assault unit. They discovered 150 Molotov cocktails at his house. Molotov cocktails had been thrown into the homes of DeHeishe residents a number of times.
Israeli justice ignored the actions of the Village League. No charges were brought against a single one of those responsible for the terror campaign against DeHeishe. By contrast, the DeHeishe 15, on the testimony of three Village League members, face long jail terms if they are found guilty by a threeperson military panel.
Hamdi Faraj, one of the accused, was the managing editor of As'Shira, a Jerusalem magazine shut down by Israeli censors in 1983. Since 1974 Faraj has been arrested 14 times although he was never convicted of any crime. In 1976, for example, he was arrested for his participation in the publication of a magazine, University, without the persets trials