Over 200 persons protested on Thursday night, January 22, outside of Israeli police’s “Russian Compound” facilities, Jerusalem demanding the release of the three detained peace and human rights activists: Ezra Nawi and Guy Batavia from Ta’ayush and Nasser Nawaja from B’Tselem,.
According to protesters, “in the district court in Jerusalem, the extent of the abuse of our friends was revealed, and include: ongoing detention, physical and psychological abuse by other inmates incited by the authorities, sleep deprivation, completely baseless accusations with no proof and prevention of legal council.” Gaby Lasky, the legal representative for one of the activists said: “The detention is being continued with no evidence beyond what was aired on television two weeks ago about events that may have happened a year ago. There’s no justification for this prolonged arrest. It is now clear that the abuse is being imposed to compensate for the lack of evidence and is an attempt to break the spirit of the activists.”
In spite of the ongoing abuse, Batavia said in court: “This is a political arrest; its entire goal is to harm our work for human rights in the Palestinian territories against the crimes and criminals of the occupation. Everything they’ll try to pin on us won’t work. The case will fall apart, and they can’t break us. They can’t. The police are working for the settlers in the West Bank. They won’t break us.”
Related:
- Facebook video clip: Gag Order Lifted on Arrest of Three Anti-Occupation Activists
- Third Human Rights Activist Arrested in Less than a Week
- Israeli Peace Activist Seized and Arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport
