Israel subjects Palestinian family to ‘extensive collective punishment campaign’

Prisoners’ rights group Addameer yesterday charged Israeli occupation authorities with subjecting a Palestinian family to “an extensive collective punishment campaign”.

The statement came as an Israeli military court extended for a further nine days the interrogation and detention period of Nasser Shriem, brother-in-law of Ashraf Na’alweh, who is accused by Israeli authorities of having perpetrated a fatal attack on settlers in the northern West Bank.

Nasser’s wife, and Ashraf’s sister, Fayrouz Shriem, “was earlier detained and tortured for 28 days by Israeli intelligence officers seeking to find her brother”, Addameer noted.

Fayrouz suffered from ill-treatment in detention which included harassment, humiliation, long interrogation sessions, sleep deprivation, threats, psychological pressure, medical negligence and she was kept in an unfitting environment for women in detention.

Israeli occupation authorities released Fayrouz on 8 November, and detained Nasser on 19 November. According to Addameer, Nasser – a professor at Al-Najah university in Nablus – “has been held at Petah Tikva interrogation centre and denied access to a lawyer”.

“An extensive collective punishment campaign by Israeli authorities” targeting the family has “so far included the arrest and detention of Ashraf’s mother father and other brother, Fayrouz and her husband Nasser, and the threatened demolition of both Ashraf and his parents’ homes.”

Addameer pointed out that, in addition, “the village they live in as well as neighbouring Palestinian towns have also been subjected to night raids and some of Ashraf’s neighbours and friends have also been arrested and interrogated.”

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