News / Palestine

Palestinians nabbed for resisting Israel expulsion orders

Wednesday, 13 January 2016 7:00 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 13 January 2016 7:00 AM ]

Samer Abu Eisheh (R) and Hijazi Abu Sbeih stand in the courtyard of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in the Israeli-occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem), December 27, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Israel has detained two Palestinians for resisting “military expulsion orders” banishing them from Tel Aviv-occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Freelance journalist Samer Abu Eisheh, 28, and 33-year-old construction worker Hijazi Abu Sbeih, married and with three children, had been ordered to leave East al-Quds and stay out for respectively five and six months, AFP reported on Wednesday.

Abu Eisheh said his expulsion could have to do with his activism, while Abu Sbeih said he was unaware of the reason for his expulsion. The orders could also entail the demolition of the Palestinians’ houses.

The Israeli internal spy service, Shin Bet, however, alleged that the pair was among “a certain number of terrorist activists.”

According to Palestinian rights group, Addameer, seven Palestinians received such orders in 2015, and as many have received these orders each year since 2011 for varying time periods.

Addameer calls it “collective punishment in violation of international law” and a measure aimed at “emptying Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents.”

Israeli military bulldozers carry out demolitions in the settlement of Beit El, north of the city of Ramallah in the Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank, July 29, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

“No to banishment, no to racism, no to the occupation,” Abu Sbeih said, commenting on the order, adding, “I will not leave my land to the occupier. It is them who must leave, not me.”

Tel Aviv has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds over the past decades by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites, and expelling the local Palestinian population.

Over half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds, in 1967.

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