Addameer reported that on Monday, September 15, Eteraf Rimawi, director of Bisan Center for Research and Development, was arrested by Israeli occupation forces at dawn in his home.
He was arrested five times previously – held for two months in 1995, for over a year in 1996, and in 2000 and 2003 he spent 6 months and 4 months, respectively, in administrative detention without charge or trial. In 2008, once again he was held in administrative detention for over a year before his release on October 7, 2009. Rimawi was born on April 30, 1976, is the father of three children, and lives in Ramallah.
Profile of Eteraf Rimawi from his prior administrative detention (in English, via Addameer): http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=169
Bisan Center issued a statement condemning the detention of their director:
“The general assembly, administrative board, executive staff, and all friends of Bisan Center for Research and Development condemn the Israeli action early this morning, Monday September 15th, where it broke through the house of Itiraf Rimawi, executive director of Bisan, who was arrested and taken to unknown place.
Bisan sees the occupation’s step as yet another within the series of arrogant procedures against Palestinians wherever they are. Bisan sees the arrest of its executive director as an attempt from the occupation’s authorities to injure or stop the work of the civil society organizations in Palestine that serve the actual needs of people.
At the time Bisan condemns the unjustified practice of the occupation, it calls upon the Palestinian Authority to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities to pressure the occupation in order to protect Palestinians in general and the civil society organizations’ activists in particular. Bisan calls upon United Nations agencies and human rights organizations to act immediately to stop the Israeli practices against Palestinians and their institutions. Bisan calls for strengthening the efforts to solve the question of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails where thousands of Palestinians are still arrested in clear violation of international human rights instruments and treaties as well as violating the agreements between the Israeli government and PNA themselves.
Free Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails
Towards a concrete solution of prisoners’ question.
Bisan Center for Research and Development
September, 15th, 2014”
Solidarité Socialiste, a Belgian organization that partners with Bisan on projects in Palestine, also issued a statement condemning the detention of Eteraf Rimawi and the dawn raid on his Ramallah home, noting that this arrest is an attack on Palestinian civil society and its support for the Palestinian people, and calling for international action, particularly by the Belgian government, to address the issue of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held with disregard for international law and human rights.
Video of Eteraf Rimawi (mostly in Arabic):
