ARABEH, West Bank – For a moment Randa Adnan’s dark, defiant eyes, the only part of her face visible behind a white veil, softened with tears.

NBC News was at her home for an interview Tuesday and we had just passed on the news that her husband, Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner, had agreed to end his two-month hunger strike after reaching a deal with Israel’s Justice Ministry that it would release him in April.   

Adnan, 33, had starved himself, refusing food for 66 days, to protest against Israel’s controversial policy of holding suspected Palestinian militants without charge. He was arrested in his West Bank home on Dec. 17 – but neither he, nor his legal team, were ever told the evidence against him.

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The Israeli authorities would say only this of his case: “Adnan’s detention stems from involvement in actions that threaten regional security.”

In 2008, Adnan was convicted of membership of Islamic Jihad, the outlawed extremist group that has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks. But his family insists he has never been party to any violent act.

His wife was overjoyed at the news of his imminent release.

“By God’s will, I am proud of him. Not just as a husband, but as a leader of our people. This is a great victory,’’ she said.

Randa Adnan is the mother of two daughters, with a third child, a son, on the way.

“I swear I felt him kick inside when you told me the news,” she smiled.

Anti-terror tool
Over the past few weeks, Adnan’s case has become a cause célèbre – his face, in graffiti form, has come to adorn security walls all over the West Bank and has been emblazoned on dozens of flags flown at protest marches.

He is just one of some 300 Palestinians held without proper trial in Israel, on the basis of secret intelligence dossiers, a practice known as “administrative detention.” It is a highly controversial practice that is bitterly criticized by human rights groups, but according to the Israeli military, extremely effective in protecting the security of the state.

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser to the Israeli government, explained one of the reasons why the legal loophole is used. “The first is that you know someone is planning an attack, but you can't prove it through a legal process. If you relied on the legal process, the suspect would go free, but the risk [to the public] would be very high.  
 
Alan Baker, one of Israel’s leading lawyers and a former senior legal adviser to the Israeli military, explained another reason commonly cited for administrative detention: to protect the highly sensitive sources.

“There are times when you cannot make evidence against some individual public,” said Baker.  In other words, the information is so sensitive that revealing it publicly might threaten the safety of the informant. 

But Adnan’s case, Baker said, might now make the authorities think twice about imposing detention orders. “It’ll keep them on their toes,” he said.

For his part, Adnan’s lawyer, Jawad Bulos, said the deal that will free his client is a “painful compromise.”

Asked whether he thinks the case might encourage other Palestinian detainees to starve themselves in return for freedom, he paused for a moment, pondering the personal stamina that requires. “Adnan was a special man. In all my experience of cases, I have never met anyone quite like him.’’

Adnan will probably spend the rest of his sentence in a hospital. His hunger strike has left him gravely ill. His family still fears he might not recover.
 

 

 

 
TEL AVIV, Israel – For decades, Israelis have heard so many tales of the daily humiliations suffered by Palestinians – from being hassled at checkpoints to house demolitions to curfews – that many of them have grown numb.

But Israeli director Shlomi Elkabetz has deployed an unusual storytelling device to draw attention to Palestinian grievances and catch the attention of his Israeli audience: In his new film, the stories of Palestinian suffering come out of the mouths of Israelis, speaking in Hebrew. 

“For three years I have been reading these Palestinian testimonies, which were given to human rights groups, and didn’t really know what to do with them,” said Elkabetz. “At first I was shocked, then I wanted to reject it all, then I wanted to shout and finally I wanted to do something.”

He did. His film “Testimony” uses a combination of dramatic and documentary devices while top Israeli actors stare straight into the viewer’s eyes and act out the Palestinian testimonies. 

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“By using Israeli actors I turn the viewer into a firsthand witness. By looking at a famous actor’s face, who’s speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli viewer becomes the witness himself.”

For many here, the army roadblocks, which dot the West Bank, represent the cruel face of the occupation. Palestinians on their way to work, hospitals and schools are forced to wait for hours in extreme weather just to show their I.D. cards at the checkpoints.

In one scene, Ronit Elkabetz, a famous Israeli actress who is also the director’s sister, explains how she was stopped by soldiers near the town of Jaljulia trying to cross into Israel. “The soldier stopped me and cursed me, I cursed him back. The soldier kicked me in the chest and I fell. He hit me for fifteen minutes,” she says in the film.

I asked the director if it was difficult to recruit Israeli actors for the project. “I can’t say it was a difficult mission; some actors really wanted to take part in this project, but of course there were some who rejected my request.”

Palestinians aren’t alone in feeling the effects of the occupation. Some Israeli soldiers come back from their obligatory service in the IDF in places like the West Bank traumatized by events they witnessed and took part in.

So the film also presents their experience as an occupying force. “For us, they are all terrorists,” one actor portraying a soldier dryly says about the Palestinians. “They ordered us to take him down, I shot him. I killed him.”

The film, which premiered last spring at an Israeli film festival and was subsequently screened at the Venice Film Festival, was released at select theaters in Israel last week.

To critics who say that the film only tells the story from the Palestinian perspective, Elkabetz said in an interview that “the purpose of the film is not to create a balance between the two peoples but to share an experience.”  

Many of the people who attended a recent screening of the film were interested in the director’s purpose in making such a controversial film.

“I will be happy if only two Israelis meet in the street and talk about the film,” said Elkabetz. “I’m of course also hoping my film will be one more step in the changing of the Israeli awareness to the reality out there.”

Watch a clip from the film above.

JERUSALEM, Israel – Nassar and Ali Abu Alwa are devastated:  for the past 10 days they have had no income. The two Palestinian brothers live in East Jerusalem and for years have been a vital part of the tourist scene here.

If you have visited Jerusalem in the past 40 years, you probably have a picture of yourself posing with their pride and joy, known as “The Jerusalem Camel.”

Hundreds of tourists flock daily to the beautiful Mount of Olives observation point where the brothers work. It's a perfect vantage point to gaze at the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock Mosque, the Mount of Olives ancient Jewish cemetery and it offers a great 180-degree panorama of the walled Old City of Jerusalem.

Tourists hurry to snap pictures, but the best picture is always the one taken sitting on the camel with the Biblical view in the background. The camel's name is actually "Kojak" and has been in the business of hosting tourists on his back for pictures for the past 30 years.

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You can't beat the startled smile on a visitor’s face when the huge camel stands up from a kneeling position – laughter is heard everywhere.

The joke goes that for the price of $2 you can go up, but it costs $5 to get off.

But 10 days ago, the Jerusalem municipality decided they had had enough and detained Kojak, leaving Nassar and Ali heartbroken.

The official reasons for the seizure: the camel needs vaccinations, the brothers have no business permit and, last but not least, the camel has no third-party insurance. (Now come on, how do you insure a camel?!)

But Nassar and Ali claim the main reason for seizing the animal was to put pressure on them to hand over names of people the municipality suspects of pick-pocketing at the Mount of Olives observation point. The brothers won’t comment on the case for the meantime.

Enter Hila Zisberg. She belongs to “Youth for Jerusalem,” an Israeli organization that aims to bring young people to heritage sites.

Zisberg frequently brings young people on field trips to the Mount of Olives observation point. Recently, she was astonished to see Nassar and Ali, but not their beloved camel. She was angry when told that the camel had been detained.

"Kojak is a cornerstone of Jerusalem and he will die there," Ali Abu Alwa told Zisberg.

Zisberg decided to take on the Jerusalem municipality and demand the quick return of one of the city's icons. She is now busy with the strange task of finding an insurance company willing to insure a camel; she said most of the agents just laugh at her request.

But she is confident the issue will be resolved quickly and that Nassar and Ali will be reunited with their camel – so tourists can snap the perfect picture again soon.