Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh arrested at Al-Walaja along with other observers

Action Alert:

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh arrested in Al-Walaja this morning around local time
11:30 a.m., Sunday November 13, 2011, while filming Israeli soldiers
arresting an Al-Walaja villager gathered at the site of apartheid wall
construction to prevent the use of explosives near their community.
Currently Mazin and Mustafa Odeh are in custody at the Israeli
military/police compound near Rachel's Tomb. Please call the US Embassy or
the US consulate, and the embassy of your respective country to demand their
unconditional release.

Today, November 13, a group of residents from Al-Walaja assembled at Ein
Al-Hadafa area of the village in an attempt to prevent the IOF from
implementing an order to use explosives to widen a path where the Separation
Wall is being extended (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCDNg_ScDtU for
IOF's action a few days ago at the site on November 3, 2011). The Wall will
totally enclose the village on all sides. The villagers, including the
community spokeswoman, Sheerin Al-Araj and the head of the village council
Abu Ahmad were joined in a short notice by Mazin and several international
observers and members of the press.

We learned that prior to our arrival, the Israeli had arrested one community
member Mahmoud earlier at the site. After negotiations between villagers
and the IOF, the Israeli police and military agreed to release Mahmoud in
exchange for the villagers and their supporters to withdraw from the area.
When Mahmoud was released, villagers and supporters began to retrieve. At
the same time, we noticed more Israeli reinforcement came and the commander
ordered the soldiers to don their crowd control gear and arm themselves with
pepper spray and tear gas projectiles. As the majority withdrew, several
villagers continued to vehemently protest as they were pushed back by the
soldiers. At that moment without any warnings, the Israeli soldiers/police
grabbed Mustafa Odeh and tried to arrest him. Observers nearby tried to
prevent Mustafa from being arrested but of no avail. As IOF soldiers were
forcibly holding Mustafa near a shallow embankment at the edge of the road,
by accident both the IOF soldiers and Mustafa fell down the embankment into
an olive grove terrace down below. Mazin actually had slowly moved away
from the site earlier but returned to film Mustafa's arrest. In the lower
terrace, we saw Mustafa was still restrained by one IOF soldier and were
quickly surrounded by several other IOF soldiers. They captured Mustafah
and pepper-sprayed and beat him. As Mazin was filming and unaware of the
advancing soldiers, a soldier grabbed him and tried to arrest him. Shortly
thereafter, Mazin was push to the ground then picked up by a group of
soldiers, each holding one of his arms or legs. The occupation forces
arrested Mazin and hauled him away and put into an IOF jeep. Mazin was able
to give his FLIP camera to an observer next to him during the arrest.
Meanwhile Sheerin Al-Araj was also pepper-sprayed. During the IOF action,
another village woman collapsed and was tended first by villagers and later
by the Palestinian paramedics. All together, possibly three Palestinians
were arrested and detained, including Mazin. Video of today's action and
Mazin's arrest will be available on YouTube as soon as possible and the link
will be available on Mazin's blog later at
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com.

Please pressure your government (especially US government) to call for the
unconditional release of Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh (a US citizen) and Mustafa Odeh.