Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
26 September
ENDLESS EFFORT TO DRIVE EACH PALESTINIAN OUT OF PALESTINE
On this day in 2019, Ma'an Abu Hafez was released after two and a half years in prison. He was born in Brazil but moved to the West Bank as a toddler. A request to grant residency status to his mother and three children was made to the offices of the Palestinian Authority. The PA passed on the request, as is required, to the Israeli military's “Civil Administration”. Israel, which controls the Palestinian population registry, detained Ma’an while it tried to expel him, for every Palestinian removed is a small Zionist victory.
جهود لا تنتهي لطرد كل فلسطيني من فلسطين
سبتمبر26
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2019، أُطلق سراح معن أبو حافظ بعد عامين ونصف من السجن. ولد معن في البرازيل لكنه انتقل إلى الضفة الغربية مع والدته عندما كان طفلاً صغيراً. تم تقديم طلب منح الإقامة لأمه وأبناءها الثلاثة إلى مكاتب السلطة الفلسطينية. السلطة الفلسطينية نقلت الطلب، كما هو متفق، إلى "الإدارة المدنية" في جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي. تسيطر إسرائيل على سجل السكان الفلسطينيين واحتجزت معن أثناء اجراءات طرده، لأن كل فلسطيني يُطرد هو نصر صهيوني صغير.
Israel doesn't want any Palestinians
Ma'an Abu Hafez was born in Brazil in 1994 to a Palestinian father and a South American mother. His family moved to the West Bank when he was 3 and he has spent his whole life in the Jenin Refugee Camp. But Ma'an has no legal status in the oPt (Occupied Palestinian Territories). His family unification request was not considered for years, due to Israel's policy to freeze such requests.
Palestinian declared an "illegal alien" after detention at illegal checkpoint near illegal settlement in illegally occupied West Bank
In February 2017, Ma'an was arrested by chance at a checkpoint in the West Bank. He has been detained as an illegal alien by the Interior Ministry ever since, designated for expulsion. This in spite of the fact that Ma'an has no legal status anywhere, and therefore cannot be deported. Brazilian authorities, rightly, refuse to look into his case against his will, to determine whether he could obtain status in Brazil.
"Israel controls the population registry of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," says Advocate Nadia Daqqa of HaMoked. "It froze the registration of children born overseas and of foreign spouses, leaving thousands to live in the West Bank with no status. Now the Israeli authorities are effectively punishing Ma'an for their own failure to legalize his status."
The Israeli military (Orwellianly named the "civil administration") doesn't just control the Palestinian population register. According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR):
"The United Nations has stated on many occasions that the 53-year-old Israeli occupation is the source of profound human rights violations against the Palestinian people. These violations include:
- land confiscation,
- settler violence,
- discriminatory planning laws,
- the confiscation of natural resources,
- home demolitions,
- forcible population transfer,
- excessive use of force and torture,
- labour exploitation,
- extensive infringements of privacy rights,
- restrictions on the media and freedom of expression,
- the targeting of women activists and journalists,
- the detention of children,
- poisoning by exposure to toxic wastes,
- forced evictions and displacement,
- economic deprivation and extreme poverty,
- arbitrary detention,
- lack of freedom of movement,
- food insecurity,
- discriminatory law enforcement
The imposition of a two-tier system of disparate political, legal, social, cultural and economic rights based on ethnicity and nationality. Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders, who peacefully bring public attention to these violations, are slandered, criminalised or labeled as terrorists. Above all, the Israeli occupation has meant the denial of the right of Palestinian self-determination."
