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JLAC demands the immediate release jailed HRD
10 December 2018
On 10 December 2018, Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 25 Palestinians in pre-dawn raids across occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. Among those arrested in the mass crackdown is our colleague Hussein Shejaeya, a field researcher at the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), a Palestinian human rights defender, and a freelance photographer. Shejaeya, 31, was arrested from his home in the West Bank village of Deir Jarir northeast of Ramallah at around 4:30. The eldest son of seven, Shejaeya has been working as a field researcher at JLAC since 2016.
Hussein Shejaeya is no stranger to persecution and harassment by Israeli soldiers. On 25 November 2018, Israeli soldiers detained him for nearly two hours as he was carrying out field work on behalf of JLAC at Shuhada Street In occupied Hebron. Two weeks earlier, he was also detained for two hours while doing field research near the entrance to al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Additionally, Shejaeya was summoned to interrogati
on by Israeli intelligent services on various occasions for his active role in documenting Israeli human rights violations.
On the very day we were looking forward to marking Human Rights Day, commemorating the 70th anniversary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a vocal Palestinian human rights defender was snatched for his indefatigable commitment to human rights.
JLAC condemns the wave of arrests carried out by the Israeli army in general, and the arrest, intimidation and persecution of human rights defenders in particular. We demand the immediate release of Hussein Shejaeya and all Palestinian prisoners of conscience. Criminalizing human rights defenders is a blatant breach of the freedom of expression, a clear attack on Palestinian civil society, and constitutes an attempt at silencing the Palestinian society as a whole.
