Palestinian journalist arrested for not covering her hair : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

The journalist, Asma al-Ghul, said that the policemen instead confiscated her passport. Since the incident, she added, she has been afraid to leave her home, especially after receiving death threats from anonymous callers.

“They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend and failing to wear a hijab,” Ghul told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. “They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine.”

In a phone interview with the Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news Web site, the journalist said that the policemen who stopped her belonged to the Hamas government’s Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security force.

The special force reports directly to the Ministry of Waqf Affairs and is said to be a copy of units that have long been operating in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.

The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.

Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas’s intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.

She said she was astonished by the fact that the Hamas security forces were providing security to hotels that are frequented by women wearing miniskirts while at the same time targeting “common people” who go to the beaches and public parks.

Ghul said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. “And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming,” she added.

She and her friends were stopped by Hamas policemen while swimming in the sea. She said that the policemen confiscated her passport and laptop after accusing her of laughing loudly and appearing in immodest clothes in a public place.

Two of her male friends were detained for questioning for three hours. They said the police officers beat them and abused them verbally before releasing them.

Hamas security commanders initially said that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they were having a mixed party at the beach. Later, one of the commanders said that Ghul was stopped because she was not wearing a hijab while swimming. Another commander claimed that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they had been seeing smoking nargilas and partying in a public place.

Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas security forces, said that policemen have been deployed at the beaches at the request of the Ministry for Waqf Affairs. He said the policemen’s task is to impose law and order and prevent harassment of families picnicking and swimming at the beaches.

“We are there for the safety of the people,” he said. “We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We’ve received many complaints about these negative practices.”

Shahwan said that Hamas does not interfere with the way women want to dress. However, he stressed, “we must preserve our Islamic culture and traditions. If there’s a woman who wants to dress as she wishes, she must go to a private swimming pool and not to a public place.”

The supporters of Hamas on the Left may want to consider their alliance with an organization that suppresses women’s rights (not to mention human rights).

That is, if they can get past their hatred of Israel.

A Palestinian woman carrying a toy gun was moderately wounded by IDF fire on Friday morning near the Bekaot checkpoint in the Jordan Valley, north of Jericho.
This picture, released by the...

This picture, released by the IDF, shows the toy gun (top) brandished Friday by a young Palestinian woman who wanted to commit suicide by getting IDF soldiers at the Bekaot checkpoint to shoot her. A real gun (bottom) is shown for comparison purposes.
Photo: IDF
SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World

The soldiers shot at the woman's lower body after shooting in the air and after she did not heed their calls to stop advancing towards them, the military said.

After the woman was shot, the soldiers discovered she was carrying a toy gun. She was evacuated to Haemek Hospital in Afula in moderate condition.

An officer of the Civil Administration who interrogated the wounded woman asked her why she acted in this manner. She showed him bruise marks on her hands and said she wanted to kill herself after having been abused at home. The woman is an 18 years old, married with a child.

The IDF said troops at the checkpoint acted according to protocol.

Three years ago, a gunman shot and killed an IDF soldier at the same checkpoint. IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Ro'i Farjun was killed at there in August 2006, after a Palestinian opened fire at him. Troops returned fire, killing the gunman.

PA court: Death to man who sold land to Jews

In the first case of its kind, a Palestinian Authority "military court" on Tuesday sentenced a Palestinian man to death by hanging after finding him guilty of selling land to Jews.

The verdict came shortly after the PA's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, issued yet another fatwa (religious decree) banning Muslims from selling land or houses to Jews.

The death sentence is seen as an attempt by the PA leadership in Ramallah to deter Palestinians from conducting real estate transactions with Jews. It follows reports according to which Jewish individuals and organizations recently bought land and houses from Arabs in Jerusalem and some areas in the West Bank.

The man sentenced to death is Anwar Brigith, 59, from the village of Bet Umar, north of Hebron.

The three-judge panel found the defendant guilty of violating PA laws that bar Palestinians from selling property to "the enemy." In its ruling, the court, which convened in Hebron, said that Brigith had acted in violation of a Palestinian "military law" dating back to 1979, which states that it is forbidden for a Palestinian to sell land to Jews.

The accused was also found guilty of violating a law dating back to 1958 that calls for a boycott against Israel, as well as another law from 1953 that bans trade with Israelis.

The judges issued the verdict unanimously and pointed out that the defendant did not have the right to appeal. The death sentence, however, must be approved by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The court was headed by Gen. Abdel Karim al-Masri, who sat together with two other PA security officers, Muhrez Atyani and Nabil Jaber.

The court also decided to confiscate Brigith's money and property.

Although the PA has never executed Palestinians accused of selling land to Jews, several "suspects" have been kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian security personnel or members of armed groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hatem Abdel Kader, a PA legislator from Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post that he fully supported the death sentence against "traitors" involved in real estate deals with Jews.

He urged the PA courts to issue death sentences in absentia against any Palestinian found guilty of such transactions, especially in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

"We are fighting against Jewish presence and house demolitions in [east] Jerusalem from one house to another," he said. "We are fighting on all levels and thus far we have been successful in preventing the demolition of some 28 houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. In the Old City, the number of Jews is about 3,000, as opposed to more than 30,000 Arab residents. Although the occupation is 43 years old, the Jews have been able to seize only 55 houses in the Old City

Cleveland Indy Media Center