After been subject to repeated attacks on his freedom and ability to move and live in his homeland, Daoud al-Ghoul, 32, was arrested by Israeli occupation military forces on 25th June in Jerusalem. Al-Ghoul was displaced from his home and the city of his birth, Jerusalem, on 30th November 2014. The displacement was followed by an order banning him from the West Bank and then also from travel abroad until October 2015. Al-Ghoul’s detention will be up for review and probable extension at the end of this week.
No reasons for the detention have been made public, nor were any reasons ever given for the multiple bans on his movement and his forcible displacement from his home.Al-Ghoul is a resident of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, but after his expulsion, he was forced to live in Haifa. The attacks on Al-Ghoul began shortly after his return from Brussels, Belgium, where he presented on 17 November 2014 to the European Parliament on the increasing Israeli restrictions and infringements on the work of Palestinian health workers and organizations in Jerusalem, as well as the ongoing ethnic cleansing and threats to Palestinian existence in the city.
Al-Ghoul is an internationally renowned human rights defender who has also participated in the World Social Forum and in numerous international arenas to advocate for Palestinian rights and freedom. The Jerusalem Health Work Committees (HWC) office where Al-Ghoul works was forcibly closed by the Israeli military in May. The organization was established in 1985 to meet the health care needs of the Palestinian. Its Shuafat office in East Jerusalem housed the group’s school health prgramme, which since 1990 has provided medical exams, preventative screenings, health education and vaccinations to Palestinian students in more than 62 schools in Jerusalems.
His forcible displacement and arrest violates the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. At the time of his forcible displacement from Jerusalem, Al-Ghoul said “We are not afraid. We are fighting for our future and we have nothing to lose. We refuse this decision. It is our homeland. It is our basic right to live in our houses in Jerusalem. We must stop Israel and their racist policies of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment and forced displacement in Jerusalem. I call on the international community to act.”
Information from: http://t.co/JcUBaSYKcw
