Eyad Jamil al-Alami, of Beit Ummar village, in the southern West Bank, has been released from an Israeli detention camp after serving more than a month without any charges.Originally Israeli authorities had sentenced al-Alami to a four month administrative detention sentence, which means he would serve the time without being charged with any crime, but due to a lack of any evidence against him, al-Alami was released earlier this week.
Al-Alami is a key organizer of the now-weekly non-violent demonstrations against the Israeli Annexation Wall and seizure of land in the village of Beit Ummar, located near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
This is the second time that al-Alami has been abducted by Israeli forces and held without charges. In April, the 25-year old organizer was abducted and held in so-called ‘administrative detention’ for over a month.
In recent months, non-violent organizers of protests against the Annexation Wall and Israeli seizures of Palestinian land, farms and homes have been targeted by the Israeli military for abduction. Most are held without charge, and released months later by Israeli authorities.
One of the West Bank’s main organizers of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, Abdullah Abu Rahme, is currently serving a prison term for “incitement”, set to end in December. The original charges against him, for alleged ‘possession of weapons’, were dropped when Israeli prosecutors revealed that the ‘weapons’ in question were actually spent tear-gas canisters that had been fired by the Israeli military at non-violent demonstrators, and turned into a peace sign by Abu Rahme.
