The 51 year old Saeed Arma belongs to Deir Jarir village in the East of Ramallah

Israeli forces detain the elderly icon of peaceful Palestinian resistance. The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained, him at dawn today. The elderly Saeed Arma was arrested after storming Deir Jarir village, East of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Further, the occupation forces raid Mr Arma’s house in the village, put handcuff and blindfold him. And then they took him to an unknown destination.

A few days ago, pictures and videos showing Mr. Arma confronting the Israeli occupation army went viral on local and social media. In this, Mr Arma is throwing stones at the Israeli forces who invade the village. They were confiscating the land in Al-Shorfa which is East of the village to build an Israeli settlement outpost.

Elderly Icon of peaceful Palestinian Resistance

Mr. Saeed Arma is 51 years old, a father of six sons and three daughters. He works as a driver in the Ministry of Education. The villagers called him the “Mountain Sheikh.” However, Palestinians say that the elderly Mr Arma was practicing his legal right in defiance of the occupation soldiers and settlers in defense of his land.  

During the demonstration last week, Mr Arma said: “I went with the youth to the confrontations in defense of my family’s land and the land of the villagers of Deir Jarir, where the occupation and settlers established a new settlement outpost and confiscated nearly 18,000 dunams of the villagers’ lands in the past. I made a small slingshot to throw stones at the soldiers and protesting the theft of my land.”

Israeli settlers are protected by the occupation troops. Moreover, they began to establish a residential outpost in Al-Shorfa, east of the village few weeks ago. Since then and over several weeks now, Deir Jarir residents have been organizing weekly rallies condemning the Israeli settlements.

The United Nations considers the Israeli settlements in the west bank as illegal under international law and Geneva Convention and it is one of the main obstacles to the implementation of  peace. There are about 650,000 settlers in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem settlements, living in 164 settlements and dozens of outposts.