Salamander

This is an email that was forwarded to me by a friend. The email was sent by John Perkins, a British photo-journalist. Please give it utmost priority. We have to end Israeli brutality and human rights violations. (Please note that I have made slight editing).

Dear Alex,

At least 30 Israeli soldiers came to my friend's house outside Nablus at about 2am about a week ago (the email was sent on 11 February 2007), and asked his mother where her husband and oldest son were. They were staying with his grandfather, so the soldiers took Shadi, her second son, 20, instead. He's being held at Huwara army camp near Nablus. The only one to have seen him is a lawyer, who was able to talk to him for 3 hours.
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Fortunately he doesn't seem to have been beaten, and hasn't been extensively questioned.

A bit of background: I met Fadhi Shetayeh (the older brother, now 22
years old) and Shadi Shetayeh (the younger brother who is in jail) in summer 2004 when they were selling flowers in the street in Balata refugee camp, near Nablus. Their father, as well as working for Palestinian security, also grows flowers and olive trees. Both brothers are big fans of trashy Hollywood movies, and speak fluent English. Fadhi is the crazy one, and Shadi is always trying to keep him out of trouble.
Shadi is now studying English at Al Najah University, and wants to become a schoolteacher. Their father has hardly been paid since the Hamas government was elected, and he now works, along with one or other of the brothers in the Jordan valley. They have 6 younger siblings who live in their 2 room house in Salem village outside Nablus.

I think Shadi is being held under administrative detention. In case you don't know, administrative detention is an emergency measure introduced by the British administration in the 1930s which allows a suspect to be held for 6 months without charge or trial. After 6 months, a senior army officer may renew the administrative detention order. The defendant is often unaware of the offense they are being held for. In many cases administrative detention is used to take hostages, rather than threats to security. This counts as collective punishment and is against international law. In the case of Shadi, he wasn't the target of the raid, but is being held anyway. So far he has missed a week (or more as time passes by) of university. The Israeli authorities haven't said if they plan to release him.

I'm going to try to visit Shadi next week in Palestine. I know that the publications I usually work for aren't interested in such small scale stories, but I do want to try to bring media pressure on the Israeli government to release Shadi as soon as possible.

John