On Sunday March 29, 1998, Yussuf (38) and Hussam Al Atrash (18) were
released from the Al Majnooni prison after having spent one week in
jail.

Yussuf, his wife Zuhoor, his daughter Manel (17) and son Hussam were
arrested on Sunday, March 22 after soldiers arrived to confiscate a
cement mixer that the family had been using to rebuild their home
destroyed on March 3 by the Israeli military. Manel and Zuhoor al
Atrash were released later that evening.

They were charged with assaulting soldiers, although Gideon Levy, an
Israeli journalist who witnessed the arrests said that neither Yussuf
nor Hussam did so. According to Levy, Yussuf intervened to calm his
wife and daughter who had screamed at the soldiers and physically
resisted arrest, while Hussam was arrested as soon as he arrived on
the scene from his work in a shoe factory. Both of the women were
kicked and punched while they were handcuffed on the ground.

Since her release, Manal al Atrash has sought medical help three
times, twice for coughing up blood and abdominal pain and once for
losing consciousness after a severe headache.

On Thursday, March 26, Yussuf and Hussam al Atrash were brought
before a military court for a pre-trial hearing. Journalist Gideon
Levy and human rights activist Bassam 'Eid had offered to testify on
behalf of the two men, as eyewitnesses to the arrest, at their trial
on Sunday, March 29.

The prosecutor said he was going to call nine soldiers as witnesses.
The court has a session in which witnesses can be deposed once a
month, and the prosecutor said he would depose three soldiers a
month. The prosecutor insisted that under no circumstances should
the prisoners be released before the trial on bail. Waiting for the
trial would thus have forced Yussuf al Atrash and his son to spend at
least three months in jail. Rather than spend the time in prison,
Yussuf accepted a guilty verdict and he and Hussam were sentenced to
pay a fine of 1500 shekels a piece or spend 60 days in jail.

On March 29, around 1:00 pm, Gideon Levy and Bassam 'Eid arrived in
Hebron with the money to pay the fine. It had been collected from
approximately 70 Israelis who had paid a solidarity visit to the Al
Atrash family on Friday, March 27. By 5:00 Hussam and Yussuf Al
Atrash were finally at home with their family.

When asked for comment, Yussuf al Atrash told CPTer Rich Meyer that
he wished to thank all of the Israelis and Americans who wrote
letters and faxes on the family's behalf.

CPTers have been maintaining a 24 hour presence at the al Atrash home
since March 22nd. ( They have spent significant time there since
March 8 helping to rebuild the home and providing a
violence-deterring presence.)

Benno Barg, of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, arrived on March 24
specifically to spend two weeks with the Al Atrash family. At a
Sunday morning worship service held by the team in the tent the
family has been living in since their house was demolished, he said,
"I feel like I have been walking on holy ground."

URGENT ACTION

In response to the many letters sent on behalf of the Al Atrash
family, the Israeli government has stated that the Al Atrash family
represent a negligible number of families living under Israeli
jurisdiction.

CPT encourages its constituents to continue pressing the issue of
home demolitions in Area C (the 70 percent of the West Bank still
under Israeli control) with Israeli and American officials. Note
that there are well over 1,000 families in East Jerusalem and the
West Bank with demolition orders on their houses (and that even if
the number were smaller, it would still not entitle the Israeli
government to demolish their homes and confiscate their land.)
Demand to know why Palestinians living in Area C are almost never
given building permits while Israeli settlements in the West Bank
are permitted to confiscate land and build with near- impunity.

For background information on the issue of home demolitions in the
West Bank, contact the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions at
halper@iol.co.il.

ADDRESSES:
Israeli Government Officials:

Ministry of the Interior, Israel, fax numbers:

Minister of Interior: 011-972-2-566-6376
General Manager: 011-972-2-670-1585
Spokesperson: 011-972-2-670-1628

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, fax: 011-972-2-651-2631; e-mail:
likud1@likud.org.il or fax: 011-972-2-566 4838; email: pm@pmo.gov.il

President Ezer Weizman, fax: 011-972-2-561-0037

Knesset (Israeli Parliament) fax: 011-972-2-652-1599

Internal Security Minister Kahalani, fax: 011-972-2-584-7872

Justice Minister Hanegbi, fax: 011-972-2-670-8722

Israeli Foreign Minister: fax: 011-972-2-530 3506; email:
ask@israel-info.gov.il

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai: fax: 011-972-3-691 6940

Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert: fax: 011-972-2-629 6014

Embassies and Consulates:

Embassy of Israel - Ottawa, 50 O'Connor St., #1005, Ottawa, ONT K