April, 26 2011, 11:11am EDT
Gaza: Suspicious Death in Custody
Hamas Should Come Clean About Detainee’s Death
JERUSALEM
Hamas authorities in Gaza should order a criminal investigation into the death of a man whose body was returned to his family five days after Hamas security officials arrested him, Human Rights Watch said today.
Relatives of 'Adel Razeq, a 52-year-old father of nine, told Human Rights Watch that when security officials arrested him on April 14, 2011, they did not present a warrant and took him away under false pretenses. Security officials would not tell his family where he was being held. When his brother examined the body, it was badly bruised and appeared to have broken bones, he told Human Rights Watch. That, if true, would cast doubt on a Hamas Interior Ministry statement that Razeq died of an unspecified illness.
"The evidence raises concern that governmental authorities may have caused or contributed to the death of a man in their custody," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Hamas should order a fully independent criminal investigation."
Razeq's family told Human Rights Watch that Gaza government authorities refused their request to have an independent physician conduct an autopsy. The family stressed to Human Rights Watch that Razeq had been in good health when he was detained.
The Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement on April 19 that Razeq was "suffering from illness" and had been transferred from a detention center to al-Shifa hospital for medical treatment on April 18, but that "his health condition deteriorated," and he died on April 19 "inside an internal security detention center." The statement did not explain why authorities had apparently transferred him from the hospital back to the detention center. The Interior Ministry statement said the body was "under forensic examination" by a "formal investigation committee" and the ministry had informed "all the concerned authorities, including the General Observer [of the ministry] and human rights organizations."
His family later buried Razeq's body. As of April 25, his family told Human Rights Watch that they had not yet received an autopsy or other forensic report into the death.
Relatives who were home at the time of the arrest told Human Rights Watch that late in the evening of April 14, two jeeps came to Razeq's home in the al-Alamy neighborhood of Jabalya, in northern Gaza, and that more than a dozen men, some in police uniforms and others in civilian clothes, entered the home. The relatives said that the security officials told Razeq that one of his sons had been involved in a family dispute and that he needed to come to the police station to pick him up. Razeq immediately left with the officials.
"Then half an hour later, they came back without him," said Razeq's daughter, Fadwa, 27. "They told me and my mother to go into one room of the house and to stay there until they left." The women complied, she said, while the men thoroughly searched their home. "We heard them talking as they took the pictures out of the picture frames, checked the sand around the home for footprints, even looked inside the flower pots," she said. "But they never told us why they arrested him or searched our house, or where they were holding him."
Razeq's family told Human Rights Watch that Hamas authorities did not contact them at all during his detention. "We tried to call officials, but no one would tell us where he was," his daughter Fadwa said. "We guessed he might be at the internal security compound near al-Ansar [in Gaza city] and we went there to check for him repeatedly." But officials refused to speak to the family or confirm that Razeq was detained there.
The first information the family received about Razeq after his detention was that he was dead. His son Ahmad, 26, said that at 8 a.m. on April 19, a member of their extended family received a phone call from a man who identified himself as a member of Islah Sheikh Radwan, a nongovernmental organization that deals with Gazan families involved in disputes or disagreements. "The caller said, 'Your cousin is in the morgue at al-Shifa hospital.' That was all the information we got."
Razeq's brother, Mo'in, 46, told Human Rights Watch that Hamas officials allowed the family to collect the body on April 19 to wash and prepare it for burial in accordance with Islamic custom. "When I came to get the body I saw large bruises on his forehead and back of his head, his legs were blue, and the ribs on his back were broken," Mo'in said. "I said that we, the family, would refuse to bury the body unless an independent doctor examined the body and did an autopsy," but Hamas officials refused and the family relented and carried out the burial.
One week after learning of his death, family members say, they still do not know why the Hamas authorities detained Razeq. He had been employed as a member of the national security forces [al-amn al-watani] of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas's bitter rival, since 2005. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, but the West Bank-based PA continues to transfer salary payments to its employees in Gaza.
On the evening that it announced Razeq's death, the Gaza Interior Ministry summoned Palestinian human rights organizations to a meeting. According to a statement later released by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which was among the groups in attendance, security officials stated at the meeting "that Razeq's death was due to natural circumstances, though they presented a medical report which indicated that there were bruises on his forehead. They added that on Friday, 14 April, Rezeq drank chlorine in the detention center. He was so taken to al-Shifa Hospital for medical observation and afterward was returned to the detention center."
"Rezeq's family have a right to know why he was arrested in the first place, what happened to him in custody and how he ended up dead, allegedly with bruises on his head and broken ribs," Stork said. "A thorough and independent criminal investigation is needed."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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I look forward to offering amendments tomorrow to cut billions in offensive military funding to Israel from the proposed national security supplemental package and protect essential humanitarian operations. We cannot continue to fund this horrific war. pic.twitter.com/8JpxpT7IX2
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 23, 2024
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Summary of events from the last day not related to Columbia:\n\n- Israel has not provided evidence that UNRWA staff are part of Hamas\n- A mass grave, including women/children was discovered\n- Doctors did an emergency c-section, saving a baby after an airstrikes killed her mother— (@)
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"Procedural irregularity, a lack of transparency about the university's decision-making, and the extraordinary involvement of the NYPD all threaten the university's legitimacy within its own community and beyond its gates," they wrote. "We urge the university to conform student discipline to clear and well-established procedures that respect the rule of law."
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The national group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) on Monday accused Columbia of creating "a climate of repression and harm for students peacefully protesting for an end to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza" over the past six months.
"Columbia University has actively created a hostile environment for students who are Palestinian or who support Palestinian freedom. Additionally, the administration's actions have made the campus much less safe for Jewish students," JVP said.
According to JVP:
Instead of listening to the calls of Columbia and Barnard students to divest from the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government, the university has called in the NYPD to arrest students, suspended them, and even expelled them. At present 85 students, 15 of whom are Jewish, are suspended.
Yesterday's statement by the White House, like the administrators of Columbia University, dangerously and inaccurately presumes that all Jewish students support the Israeli government's genocide of Palestinians. This assumption is actively harming Palestinian and Jewish students.
The administration has not only harassed Jewish students and failed to ensure their safety and well-being, it has also obstructed their religious observances during Shabbat and prevented them from accessing their Jewish community on the eve of Passover.
While President Joe Biden's Sunday statement was officially about Passover—a Jewish holiday that begins at sundown on Monday—and not the protests at Columbia and other campuses across the country, it was widely received as a response to the latter.
Biden said in part that "we must speak out against the alarming surge of antisemitism—in our schools, communities, and online. Silence is complicity. Even in recent days, we've seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous—and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country."
Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a Ph.D. student at the university, toldCNN that "Columbia students organizing in solidarity with Palestine—including Jewish students—have faced harassment, doxxing, and now arrest by the NYPD. These are the main threats to the safety of Jewish Columbia students."
"On the other hand, student protesters have led interfaith joint prayers for several days now, and Passover Seder will be held at the Gaza solidarity encampment tomorrow," he added. "Saying that student protesters are a threat to Jewish students is a dangerous smear."
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said in a lengthy statement that "we are student activists at Columbia calling for divestment from genocide. We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us. At universities across the nation, our movement is united in valuing every human life."
"As a diverse group united by love and justice, we demand our voices be heard against the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza," the statement continues. "We've been horrified each day, watching children crying over the bodies of their slain parents, families without food to eat, and doctors operating without anesthesia. Our university is complicit in this violence and this is why we protest."
The Columbia Spectator reported Monday that Columbia College passed a divestment referendum that "asked whether the university should divest financially from Israel, cancel the Tel Aviv Global Center, and end Columbia's dual degree program with Tel Aviv University," with respective votes of 76.55%, 68.36%, and 65.62%. However, a statement from a university spokesperson signaled the referendum would not lead to any shift in campus policies.
Beyond Columbia, there are ongoing demonstrations at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, the University of Michigan, and Yale University, another Ivy League school, where at least 47 peaceful student protesters were arrested on Monday.
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