UPDATED: Two brothers of the arrested Deiyaa’ Nassar, cousins of the murdered Amer Nassar, were arrested last week Monday, May 13 past 2 am at night. Deiyaa’ Nassar, 19, and Fadi Abu-’Asr continue to be held in Mejiddo Israeli prison as their trials continue to be rescheduled on each previous trial date.

Deiyaa’s brothers, Bahaa, 20, and Baraa, 21, were arrested randomly; Bahaa is studying at university and Baraa is an artist in calligraphy who makes wooden plaques and ornaments with calligraphic Arabic text or Palestinian images.

Deiyaa, Bahaa, and Baraa are of a household of seven boys.  A local Red Crescent representative met with the family and said that the boys’ mother is only comforted that the brothers are said to be together in Mejiddo prison.

See below for the full report on the murder of two teenagers from ‘Anabta, Amer Nassar and Naji al-Balbisi, and subsequent arrests.

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UPDATED: The fourth of the four Anabta village boys who were present at the murder of Amer Nassar, 17 and Naji al-Balbisi, 18 and the arrest of Deiyaa’ Nassar, 19 was taken by Israeli soldiers at about 4 AM on Tuesday April 9.

Fadi Abu-’Asr, 17 was brought to the hospital in Tulkarm the night of his friends’ deaths to treat his right forearm, injured by a plastic-coated steel bullet. He was discharged from the hospital shortly after to recover at home, but is now in the custody of the Israeli soldiers. His family have no information about his location, condition, or expected trial or release.
Anabta villagers said they still do not know the whereabouts of Deiyaa’, but have been told his trial will be held on April 18.

Israeli security law allows for holding Palestinians without trial or accusation for four days (for Israelis, 24 hours) before an official must tell family about the incarceration and provide a trial at which a charge is given.

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Fadi Abu-A’sr was shot in the lower arm.

At 22:30 on 3 April Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition and killed a 17 year-old boy, from the village of ‘Anabta near Enav checkpoint and east of Tulkarm. Amer Nassar was murdered with a bullet to his chest.

On hearing the shooting 3 boys from the village went to investigate and saw Amer lying on the floor with soldiers standing over him. The boys tried to reach Amer, but the soldiers would not let them approach and opened fire, injuring Fadi Abu-A’sr with a bullet to his lower arm.

The Army prevented ambulance crews access to Amer for 30 minutes, threatening to shoot anyone that attempted to help. Deiyaa’ Nasser, who attempted to get to Amer was arrested by the Israeli Army and taken to an unknown location.

The body of a Amer’s cousin, Naji Abdul-Karim Balbisi, 18, was found at first light Thursday morning near a house in the vicinity of the checkpoint. He had been hoped, last night, to be missing, still hiding in a factory. He was discovered, shot from behind in the torso, laying in a field.

The Israeli Army regularly open fire with live ammunition against unarmed protestors and the general population. Amer’s death is the latest in a string of recent murders committed by the Israeli Army, and came a day after the death of Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh as a result of neglect in Israeli prisons.

17 year old Amer Nasser was today killed by the Israeli army

Today Palestinian, international and Israeli activists marched towards a well that was stolen from the village of Nabi Saleh by the establishment of Halamish illegal settlement. As activists walked down the hill towards the well, Israeli soldiers shot tear gas at them which set fire to the ground around them. As they did so , soldiers sang “we wish your whole village would burn down”. Activists were then blocked from reaching the spring by a large group of Israeli soldiers. At the same time, a skunk water truck entered the village spraying several of the homes in the village with the putrid smelling liquid. Eight international and Israeli activists were detained by Israeli soldiers who confiscated their passports. They were released within 30 minutes. Long after the demonstration was over, two Israeli military vehicles and several Border Policemen entered the village and drove slowly around the neighbourhood in a bid to intimidate its residents.

Tear gas canisters set ground alight

Residents of Nabi Saleh and Israeli activists argue with Israeli soldiers blocking the stolen well

Residents of Nabi Saleh confront soldiers blocking them from reaching their stolen well

Israeli soldiers block residents of Nabi Saleh from reaching their stolen well

Israeli border police patrol village long after demonstration has ended

Bulldozer working Palestinian land accompanied by peaceful protesters. Illegal settlement outpost visible on hill

At 12am, around two hundred people gathered on a hilltop near the village where they held a long and emotive speech, followed by midday prayers. Soon after that, participants started to march, accompanied by a bulldozer, which was being used to work the land, along the road constructed the week before. Israeli forces located on the opposite hilltop, begun shooting tear gas at protesters, starting multiple fires in the valley.

Palestinian youth then confronted Israeli soldiers and border police officers as they continued shooting tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets at them. Over the course of the demonstration, the fire spread through the whole valley, damaging crops and olive trees on the land. A Palestinian fire brigade truck arrived at the scene, but was prevented by the Israeli forces to put out fires on the Palestinian land.

Israeli forces, who were spread across the hill in groups of five or six, continued to shoot tear gas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets – occasionally live ammunition shots were also heard by Palestinian and international activists. Despite the extreme levels of violence, no one was injured.

The protest finished at around 3.30pm when Israeli forces were driven from the scene by Palestinian protesters. Unarmed protesters from Deir Jarir began to hold weekly demonstrations a month ago, as violence and land grabs by settlers of the nearby Israeli settlement and outpost. Several weeks ago, settlers established a new outpost on a hilltop situated on Deir Jarir and Silwad’s land but Palestinians dismantled it after a Silwad villager was severely attacked by settlers. The village of Deir Jarir was also raided by settlers who set fire to ten of the resident’s cars. Previous demonstrations where villagers have tried to work their land have also been violently suppressed.

Tear gas being fired at demonstrators setting fires in the valley

Team Nablus

The event ended in a Palestinian dabkah performance by a local girls dabkah group, celebrating culture and proving that Palestinian history has not been forgotten.

A new women’s center in Asira Al-Qibliyyah hosted an event for women and children in commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”

Local women and children watched a short video of a Palestinian woman from Al-Kahlil (Hebron) speaking about defending her home and remaining on her land despite threats and great incentives to leave.  She lives in Tel Rumeida, an area that has been densely populated with illegal Israeli settlements, but has held onto her land for her right to be there.

A Palestinian artist also spoke to the women and children, speaking about the Nabka and leading a discussion with the women on how they believed the story was remembered today. He also spoke about and showed some of his work as part of a group that paints symbols of resistance and remembrance on walls around Palestine, including the apartheid wall.

The founder of the women’s center says that about eighty percent of the people living in Asira are refugees from 1948 Palestine. The women recalled memories of their families’ displacements and each woman named her village of origin (prior to the Nakba).

“There were women there that I felt were so strong because of the stories they had and remembered,” the artist leading the discussion said. He heard from widows and encouraged that some of the strength in the past of women was in knowledge of the displacement and the Nakba, and the strength of their children by their mother teaching about those topics.

Many local children attended and solidarity activists joined them to create homemade kites inspired by the quote that “Do you know children in Palestine fly kites to prove that they are still free?” by Andrea Gibson.

A local young girls’ dabkah group closed the event with a Palestinian dabkah step-dance performance. The women center aims to host future programs designed specifically for children in addition to their programs for local women.

]]> http://palsolidarity.org/2013/05/new-womens-center-hosts-educational-nakba-commemoration-event/feed/ 0 http://palsolidarity.org/2013/05/13-year-old-boy-shot-at-and-beaten-by-settlers-leg-broken/ http://palsolidarity.org/2013/05/13-year-old-boy-shot-at-and-beaten-by-settlers-leg-broken/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 23:23:58 +0000 rana http://palsolidarity.org/?p=31523 16th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Qaryut, Occupied Palestine

At about 2pm on 16 May, a 13 year-old boy was shot at and beaten by settlers; he broke bones in his leg running from the shots at him and from being beaten. After falling, the boy was threatened with his life by settlers, but soldiers arrived and stopped the settlers from killing him before threatening the young boy with three guns while he lay injured and immobile on the ground.

The young Qaryut boy here has his entire right leg in a cast, expecting potential surgery (photo: ISM)

Initial medical attention was not allowed during the time Israeli soldiers had taken the boy into their custody, implying that he would be treated in an Israeli ambulance. However, three hours later, the boy had to be picked up, untreated, by the Red Crescent and taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

When solidarity activists saw the boy, his entire right leg was wrapped in a cast. Later he described that he was sitting on his land which is close to an illegal Israeli settlement bordering Qaryut and famous for attacks such as olive tree torching. Settlers shot at him and he ran from the shots. When he fell, the settlers beat him and were going to kill him, but soldiers arrived and told the settlers could not. Afterwards, the soldiers also shouted at the boy with guns pointed at him.

The boy may undergo surgery for his broken bones.

Just two days before this attack, Qaryut faced an olive tree torching attack from another nearby illegal Israeli settlement and the village has a history of well-documented settler attacks on its land.  In addition, Israeli military have closed a Qaryut road to Nablus and Ramallah for Palestinian use as the road is not far from illegal Israeli settlements on Qaryut land. Currently, 15 mostly young Qaryut men have been arrested for activism in peaceful demonstrations against the key road’s closure.

Nablus’ Rafidia Hospital took this X-ray showing the teenager’s broken bones from his attack (photo: ISM)

Regular updates on harassment of Palestinian schoolchildren by Israeli military in Hebron monitored by the International Solidarity Movement.

Child being detained by military on the way to school, 16th May

16th May: At around 7.30am two army jeeps and six soldiers on foot walked past the checkpoint towards the schools. One child was surrounded by seven soldiers, one of whom grabbed his arm – when asked by international activists why they had detained him, the soldiers released the child. Two soldiers ran towards the school with their helmets on but stopped before they reached it. Three soldiers standing on a roof pointed their guns down at the children. Soldiers in jeeps took pictures of children on their iphones.

15th May: Strong military presence outside of the checkpoint intimidated children, who then threw stones at the checkpoint. Two jeeps and six soldiers on foot continued waiting outside of the checkpoint.

13th May: Five soldiers stationed themselves on roofs overlooking the school whilst four walked down towards the school, waiting on the road. All wore riot gear, including helmets.

Soldiers pictured shortly after having charged at schoolchildren, yelling and throwing a soundbomb

UPDATE 12th May 2013: On the 12th May, once again, 2 Israeli military jeeps were stationed at the checkpoint at 7am as children passed through to get to their respective schools. At first, 3 heavily armed soldiers proceeded to walk through the checkpoint, they stopped in an alley opposite the elementary school, intimidating school children as they walked past. When questioned on their purpose for this action, they had no response. As the school children (some as young as 5) began to gather outside their school gates, the 3 soldiers with their helmets on, weapons in hand and completely unprovoked, charged at the children, dropping a sound bomb and yelling aggressively in Hebrew. After this intimidation tactic occured, 3 more soldiers came through the checkpoint and watched all the children from a distance with binoculars. Many children stayed at the bottom of the street, resisting the soldier’s scare tactics with chants.
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Children walking past soldiers on their way to school – 7th May.

On the 20^th March, 27 children aged 7 to 16 were arrested on their way to school in Hebron’s old city. For the past three days the Israeli military have had a large, heavily armed and threatening presence outside the four schools on this street, where the children were grabbed at random by Israeli soldiers just five weeks ago.

Children have to walk through a checkpoint manned by several Israeli border police each morning in order to reach their schools, often receiving hassle from the soldiers as they do so.
On the morning of the 5^th of May, some children threw stones at the checkpoint – in response the border police radioed for army back up and two jeeps arrived on the scene. One jeep then proceeded through the checkpoint driving down towards the school parking outside whilst children were still arriving. After it left the other jeep drove down outside the schools and four army officers exited the vehicle and patrolled outside the schools for another half an hour.

On the 6^th May at around 7.00am as children were walking towards their classes, three military jeeps arrived without provocation and ten soldiers patrolled in front of the school, maintaining a presence for over an hour.

On the 7^th May two jeeps arrived at the checkpoint and seven soldiers walked through it, towards the schools. When asked what their purpose in the school area was, the commander answered “we’re protecting our people”. They had no further response when it was suggested that their actions seemed absurd, considering the disparity of power between the heavily armed Israeli military occupiers and a few young children throwing stones in resistance.

This daily military presence must be a continual reminder for the children who were arrested and their classmates of the military brutality of the 20^th March. One bystander stated “this could inhibit the right to education – children might be too scared to come to school.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

In a city which has seen at least 66 child detentions and arrests since mid-February (these are just those witnessed by international observers), this continued initimidation and persecution of children is evidence of Israel’s disregard for international law for the protection of children – a finding backed up by Unicef’s recent report criticising Israeli military treatment of Palestinian children.

By Team Ramallah

The 15^th May marks the 65^th anniversary of the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and the destruction – and massacre in some cases – of more than 500 Palestinian villages by Zionist forces in 1948. 65 years on, the same Zionist project of expelling the indigenous population of Palestine continues. House demolitions, land confiscation, settlement expansion, military occupation, restriction of movement and systematic bombing of the Gaza Strip are aimed at ethnically cleansing Palestine for the sake of the Zionist dream: Greater Israel.

Palestinians from different villages and cities across the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and refugee camps in neighbouring Arab countries have commemorated the 65^th anniversary of the Nakba, claiming once again their right of return to their land, their homes and their history.

Protesters standing away from the tar gas at Ofer demonstration(Photo by ISM)

In Ramallah, at 11am, more than four hundred people marched from Muqata compound to Yasser Arafat Square waving Palestinian and ‘right of return’ flags. School children chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation and for the right of return of the five million Palestinian refugees around the world.

At around 12.30 am, protesters went to Ofer military prison where clashes erupted between Palestinian activists and Israeli forces.  Numerous tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets were shot at demonstrators by Israeli Border Police officers and soldiers. Many people suffered from suffocation as a result of tear gas inhalation and more than twenty people were shot with rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters, at least four of them being taken to hospital by ambulance. Two demonstrators were shot in the head with rubber coated steel bullets and one was shot in the leg with live ammunition. The confrontations finished at around 4pm when protesters gradually retreated from the scene.

In Beit Ummar Palestinian and international activists briefly blocked Highway 60, the main north – south artery for Israeli settlements. The Israeli army responded by throwing stun grenades at the demonstrators. Soon afterwards Palestinian youth clashed with Israeli soldiers in olive groves surrounding the village as the army continued to invade the area. Excessive amounts of rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas were fired at the demonstrators. One was shot in the head and another in the leg and were treated by Palestinian medics on the scene.

65 years after the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’, the Palestinian people continue to fight for their right to return, whether they are now in the West Bank, Gaza, displaced within Israel or in the refugee Diaspora. The Right of Return for Palestinian refugees is absolutely key in the struggle for Palestinian rights and freedom.

Protesters running away from tear gas at Ofer (Photo by ISM)

By ISM Nablus

In the early hours of Monday morning, a group of Zionist settlers from the Eli and Rechalim colonies attacked the Palestinian village of As Sawiah, east of Salfit.

The two graves spraypainted, including a Star of David, a Jewish symbol co-opted by the Zionist movement (Photo by ISM)

At about 3am, As Sawiah’s residents were sleeping as settlers attacked, first targeting a garden shop that had trees snapped and pots and plants thrown. The settlers continued to damage property letting down tires of two tractors and a car with spikes. The vehicles are essential to Palestinian farmers for their work and livelihood. Settlers continued in their attack by vandalising two graves near a family home, where they graffitied ‘Revenge for Arabs’ in Hebrew.

These attacks show the constant threat that settlers pose to the indigenous inhabitants to Palestine, where the attacks are often violent and deadly. When faced with attacks on property with varying degrees, the Palestinian people have no legal recourse or protection from the occupying forces. Eli, founded in 1984 and now spread over nine hilltops, has even contravened Israeli planning guidelines in its quest for growth; as well as stealing even more privately-owned Palestinian land this year from neighbouring Qaryut and all in direct – and defiant – contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and several UN Security Council resolutions specifically on Israeli settler-colonial activity. Rechalim, meanwhile, has in recent years stolen land from the villages of Yatma and As Sawiya.

Plant pots were smashed too along with the trees that were snapped (Photo by ISM)

What land remains for As Sawiya’s villagers cannot even be worked on without gross hindrance (Photo by ISM)

The settlers handiwork leaves not just a need for repairs, but also a sense of insecurity (Photo by ISM)

Puncture marks left by the spikes, time lost for this farmer not depicted (Photo by ISM)

By Team Khalil

On the 14th May 2013 , a day before the Nakba, on the edge of Bethlehem, a demonstration to remember the day of the catastrophe in 1948 marched from Duheisha refugee camp to the entrance of the village of Al-Khader. Demonstrators then clashed with the Israeli military between 11am and 1pm.

Tear gas is fired at the demonstrators

Al-Khader was the chosen site of the demonstration as the villagers there have recently had one of their agricultural roads closed by the Israeli military.

Hundreds of Palestinians of all ages (7 to 18+) from Duheisha and surrounding areas came out carrying right of return flags and chanting for freedom and an end to the occupation. Israeli troops fired numerous tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets at the unarmed demonstrators. Some of the young Palestinian children spoke of their martyred fathers as they were resisting the soldiers of occupation.

During the demonstration, female school children were passing through the area to get home were also indiscriminately fired upon with tear gas canisters causing one student to collapse who had to be evacuated in an ambulance.

Israeli tear gas canisters set fire to Palestinian land and when the fire brigade showed up to tackle the blaze, they too were pelted with tear gas canisters .

Duheisha refugee camp was originally set up as a temporary humantarian solution to the Nakba, where 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully expelled as their villages were ethnically cleansed and destroyed. Duheisha houses Palestinians from over 45 different villages that are west of Jerusalem and Hebron.

Young demonstrators at Al-Khader

Demonstrators at Al-Khader

By Team Nablus

Settlers from the illegal colony of Shilo set fire to land belonging to the nearby village of Qaryut. Around 25 families own land in this area. The land contained wheat crops and olive trees and is next to land previously stolen by settlers, which they had been cultivating for themselves only two days before.

Illegal Shilo settler Moshka takes pictures of his handiwork, torching Palestinian land (Photo by Qaryut villagers)

Red Crescent paramedics went to the scene of the fires at around 6pm, where many villagers had already arrived hoping to put out the fires. However they were prevented from doing so by four settlers and half a dozen soldiers who had turned up to protect the settlers. Villagers were made to stand and watch their future harvest go up in flames. With the fires building up they had nothing to do but argue in vain with the soldiers about the gross immorality of the situation.

The settlers present also prevented the fire from spreading on to the annexed land they have been cultivating. It was clear to see the fires had been deliberately lit as there were many separate fires in a close range, rather than one large fire spreading on the overcast and wet day. Villagers witnessed Moshka, one of the settlers – (who is a regular problem causer; his son is a patrolman for the settlement too) – use a lighter to set fire to their land. The fire was only put out by the arrival of heavy and atypical rain from a thunderstorm an hour later.

Two days prior to this attack the settlers had started ploughing stolen land and cut down four trees. They have been expanding the settlement on the Palestinian side of the highway to Ramallah and Jerusalem. Fifteen dunams of land was torched. Meanwhile two dunums of wheatfields had been burnt in the South Hebron Hills earlier that day.

A familiar sight, soldiers and settlers working together (Photo by Qaryut villagers)