An update on Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh

07Nov08

Last month I wrote about the plight of two 16 year-old Palestinian girls, Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh, who in June of this year were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers and placed in ‘administrative detention‘ – a euphemism for holding people without charge or trial. They were due to be released on October 4, but the following day they were issued with a second administrative detention order ending on January 3 2009. Under Israeli law administrative detention can be extended in this fashion indefinitely. The girls are being held in Haifa’s Damoun prison, itself a “flagrant violation of international law which prohibits the transfer of detainees outside of occupied territory.”

According to a recent Addameer press release (.doc), on November 2 an Israeli Military Judge rejected an appeal against the detention order, despite the fact that “[n]either Salwa nor Sara have been informed of any charges against them”, let alone had the opportunity to defend themselves.

A Google News search for articles mentioning “Gilad Shalit” in the past month produces over a thousand results. In contrast, the plight of Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh has been completely ignored.

(via Sam Bahour)


Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian, Media   |  4 Comments
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4 Responses to “An update on Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh”  

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  1. 1 JamieSW on November 7, 2008 said:

    According to Defence for Children International,

    “A Palestinian child under arrest and during interrogation does not have the right to silence; the right to immediate and liberal access to a lawyer; the right to be advised of his or her rights while under arrest and interrogation; the right not to be assaulted, abused or tortured; the right to have contact with a family member or support person and; the right to be presumed innocent.”

  2. 2 Asa on November 7, 2008 said:

    Those links to the Google News searches remind me just how frustrating my job as ISM Media coordinator really was. Trying to get the media to give a feck about people they apparently considered non-entities.

  3. 3 JamieSW on November 8, 2008 said:

    Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, part of the reason Gilad Shalit is so well known is because he has been used as a pretext by Israel to strangle Gaza for the past two years. When Palestinians attempt to use similar means to draw attention to their suffering – suicide bombings, capturing soldiers, whatever – it sometimes works, but more often backfires (as in the case of Shalit), because in the eyes of Western media Palestinian terror is always bad, and at least partly justifies whatever Israel does in response, while Israeli terror is basically just, if occasionally over-the-top. Tactically speaking, in my view, what this means is that mass non-violent resistance is the only strategy that will work for Palestinians. From our side, we just have to keep plugging away – writing letters to the editor, writing to journalists, organising marches, and so on. But yeah, where the media are concerned it’s a hard slog.

  4. 4 JamieSW on November 8, 2008 said:

    oh btw, about the British government’s odd (but welcome) stand against produce from the settlements, the Jewish Chronicle reports:

    “The dispute arises from complaints by the UK Revenues and Customs service that Israeli companies label products, especially fruit and vegetables grown on West Bank settlements, as originating within the Green Line…

    The Foreign Office initiative is a result both of pressure from consumer groups with a significant pro-Palestinian element, and also what would seem to be British ambitions to lead a campaign by the EU to force Israel to take action on the various settlement issues. The paper suggests the EU uses “political influence to encourage Israel to freeze settlement construction as per Israel’s Roadmap commitments. This could include refreshing language on settlements and highlighting settlements as a particular issue.”

    “Britain wants to see some progress,” said an Israeli diplomat. “And now that there has been a lull in terrorist activity, they are focusing on the settlements as the main obstacle.”


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