Settler attempts to run over Imad Abu Shamsiyya
On 6 March 2018, an Israeli settler attempted to run over the Palestinian human rights defender Imad Abu Shamsiyya in Tel Al-Ramida, Hebron. The human rights defender managed to escape unharmed.
Imad Abu Shamsiyya is co-founder of the Human Rights Defenders Group, a non-partisan group that aims to document and expose violations of international law and injustice in conflict areas under Israeli occupation. The human rights defender is a long-standing activist in Palestine and former volunteer at B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, where he was involved in documenting the occupation of Tel Al-Ramida.
On 6 March 2018, an Israeli settler attempted to run over the Palestinian human rights defender Imad Abu Shamsiyya in Tel Al-Ramida, Hebron. The human rights defender managed to escape unharmed.
On 6 March 2018, while Imad Abu Shamsiyya was returning home in Tel Al-Ramida in Hebron, an Israeli settler who is a resident of Kiryat Arba illegal settlement and known for his repeated intimidation of Palestinian human rights defenders attempted to run over the human rights defender. Imad Abu Shamsiyya managed to escape unharmed and filed a complaint with the Israeli police in Hebron.
Since March 2016, Imad Abu Shamsiyya and his family have been repeatedly subjected to harassment, including physical attacks, a raid on their family home, repeated arrests and defamation due to his role in documenting and filming human rights abuses and crimes committed by the Israeli army and settlers in Hebron. He received death threats on many occasions from extremist settlers and Israeli soldiers. In November 2017, he received death threats on Facebook from a profile linked with Israeli extremists. The threats stated ‘your day will come’ and included other intimidating statements and abusive language. In October 2017, he was attacked with four gas canisters while was was documenting a peaceful pray-in Khirbet Qilqis in the South of Hebron with his camera. In August 2017, Israeli forces raided Imad Abu Shamsiyya’s home at night and arrested and detained the human rights defender for participating in and documenting a peaceful “pray in” demonstration in Khursa village in Hebron.
Front Line Defenders condemns the attack against human rights defender Imad Abu Shamsiyya and the ongoing intimidation, threats and arbitrary arrests he and his family have been subjected to in recent months as it believes that they are in retaliation against his human rights activities.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to:
1. Take all necessary measures to ensure the physical and psychological security of human rights defender Imad Abu Shamsiyya and his family;
2. Launch a full and impartial investigation into the threats and attack against Imad Abu Shamsiyya with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;
3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
