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Murad Shtewi

COMMUNITY LEADER TARGETED FOR ACTIVISM

Palestinian activist Murad Shtewi is an outspoken human rights defender from the Palestinian village of Kufr Qadum in the occupied West Bank. Every week, his community holds a demonstration to oppose Israel’s illegal settlements and demand that their main road be re-opened. As a result of his leadership, Murad was arrested in April 2014 and charged with rock-throwing and causing a public disturbance.

The unfounded charges against Murad are meant to not only to punish him, but to silence other Palestinian activists who dare to raise their voices against Israeli military occupation and human rights abuses. The 39-year-old father of three’s arrest and detention are part of a larger pattern of harassment by Israeli forces against Palestinian human rights defenders. Israeli forces also frequently resort to unnecessary and excessive force in response to protests. Since 2011, dozens of people in the occupied West Bank have been killed and thousands injured by weapons including rubber-coated metal bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas. As Israel’s largest foreign supplier of weapons, munitions, police equipment and devices – as well as training and techniques – the United States bears a particular responsibility for these abuses.

The majority of Kufr Qadum’s lands have been seized by the Israeli authorities for the purposes of building and servicing the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim. In 2002, during the second Palestinian uprising, known as the Intifada, the Israeli authorities closed off the main road connecting the village to the city of Nablus. The road is still closed, and the residents of Kufr Qadum and other Palestinians are prohibited from using roads designated for use by Israeli settlers only.