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Israeli occupation forces stopped a human rights researcher at a checkpoint under suspicion of “incitement”, it has been revealed.
According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, field researcher Nasser Nawaj’ah was stopped by Israeli soldiers on 4 August, at a military checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Khirbet Susiya, in the South Hebron Hills region of the occupied West Bank.
The soldiers stopped Nawaj’ah only “when they saw he had B’Tselem reports in his car”.
Preventing the researcher from leaving, “one of the soldiers at the checkpoint claimed that they had to obtain confirmation that the reports do not constitute incitement material.”
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According to B’Tselem, about ten minutes later, “after the soldiers consulted with their superiors”, Nawaj’ah was allowed to go.
Israeli occupation forces often intimidate, arrest, or even attack, Palestinian human rights activists, as well as Israeli observers who seek to protect residents from violence by settlers and soldiers.
B’Tselem has also been the target of high-level political intimidation by senior government ministers, as part of a deteriorating atmosphere for human rights groups and anti-occupation campaigners.