4 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

One 17 year old boy from Yatta, Khalid Al Hurush, was arrested during a peaceful action in Susiya, and several people were beaten by the Occupation Forces on December 3rd, 2011. On Saturday at 10 AM, around 60 demonstrators gathered in Susiya to demonstrate against demolition orders. They proceeded towards  a road  process of being constructed in the area by the local villagers and decried a demolition order against a newly built school.

Demonstration in Susiya - For more images click here

The demonstrators walked to the new road in Susiya chanting in Arabic and in English against the land grab, expansion of the settlements, and the intensified demolitions in the South Hebron Hills.

When the demonstrators reached the road, they began to construct one of the parts of the dirt road that remains unfinished, due to daily harassment from soldiers against the workers on the road. After half an hour several military jeeps showed up. The Occupation Forces ordered that the demonstrators stop working. Protesters gathered around the Occupation Forces to protest their interference, chanting Palestinian liberation songs and waving Palestinian flag. Suddenly the Occupation Forces arrested a 17 year old boy, Khalid Al Hurush, who was waving a Palestinian flag. When the protesters attempted to stop the arrest of the young boy, the Occupation Forces began hitting and pushing pushing the boy into one of the jeeps.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Several protesters saw the Occupation Forces beat Khalid Al Hurush inside the jeep after being handcuffed. He was directly taken to Kiryat Arba where he was accused of interrupting police work and destroying a part of a military jeep during transportation. On December 4th the 17 year old was transferred to the Russian Compound, a prison, in Jerusalem.

A protester from the area commented on the arrest, “It seems that the young boy was arrested and was beaten up in the custody of the Occupation Forces in order to scare him and other protesters from demonstrating against  Israeli Occupation.”

After the arrest the protesters continued to work on the part the road for several hours.

Susiya has been exposed to a wide range of demolitions since 1991, but due to the steadfastness of the Palestinians in the area, every time a demolition takes place, the citizens of the area rebuild a shelter for to protect the land from being colonized by illegal, Zionist settlers.

Aida Gerard is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

25 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Four houses and one mosque were destroyed this morning, November 24th, in the villages in the south of the West Bank. Around 10 am, fifty soldiers and seven police cars arrived to village Susiya. Two bulldozers destroyed the house of Musa Magna’s family and two women were arrested after attempting to protect the house.

Demolitions in the far south - For more images click here

In addition to these demolitions, the Israeli military also plan to destroy part of a school, the road leading from the village to the school and a several tents in the village.

House demolitions also occurred in Um Fagarah, a few kilometres south of Susiya. The Israeli military destroyed a house which was home to a family of twelve, some tents and a pen holding sheep and rabbits, some of which were killed.  Two women were arrested and the occupation forces broke the leg of one elder woman in the village. The houses of Hammamdi family were destroyed even though the demolition order had not been finalised as the court hadn’t yet reached a final verdict.  The military also destroyed a mosque in the village.

Both of these shepherd’s villages are often attacked by settlers and subjected to demolitions by the Israeli military.

Fida Far is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movemenet (name has been changed).

Resident of demolished home

This morning the Israeli army demolished homes, wells and trees in the village of Susiya, South Hebron Hills. Two families were made homeless.

A total of five tents, two wells and a number of olive trees were demolished. Tens of troops and two bulldozers were used.

Neighbours were prevented from reaching the families, and teachers on their way to school in Susiya were stopped, and their IDs confiscated, until the demolition was completed.

The families had received their third notice of demolition in January 2011 but were not informed of the date of demolition.

Three Palestinians were arrested and two international visitors were threatened with arrest when soldiers and police arrived in the evening declaring the area a closed military zone.

The families were evicted from a nearby cave which they were using as temporary housing until the new housing could be rebuilt. They formerly lived in the cave, but later moved into tents and were forced to move to the current location because of harassment from illegal settlers and the Israeli army.

Susiya is a small farming community in the hills south of Hebron. Being close to illegal settlements, it is often the target of harassment from settlers or the army. Being in Area C under the Oslo Accords, the Israeli military has full control. Building permits are almost impossible to obtain for Palestinians, so they live in makeshift tents, most of which are constantly under threat of demolition.

Internationals assist by living in the community and by accompanying shepherds as they graze their sheep. The constant threat of home demolitions is very stressful for the Palestinian residents of the area.

14 December 2009

Within minutes of our arrival in Tuwani, in the south Hebron hills of the West Bank, an army Jeep rolled into the village and shattered the mid-morning tranquillity. “We’re turning this place into a closed military zone,” announced the stern-faced commander to anyone within earshot. Brandishing his rifle in one hand and a military document in the other, he proceeded to explain that “I decide who can be here and who can’t, and anyone who isn’t a resident has to leave immediately”.

That meant us – me, my friend and our three guides from the Villages Group – as well as the other activists who maintain a permanent presence in Tuwani assisting the locals in their struggle to survive. The timing of the closure was no accident: earlier in the morning NGO workers and locals had taken part in a solidarity march to highlight the hardships suffered by the village children who run the gauntlet of the neighbouring settlement every time they walk to and from their school.

Anything the activists could do the soldiers could do better, it seemed. “The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] don’t like us coming to support the residents of Tuwani,” said one volunteer, “so they make it their mission to make everyone’s lives uncomfortable as a result.”

The shutdown of the village and the surrounding farmland was only the latest in a long line of attempts by the Israeli authorities to break the will of the Palestinians living in the area. As we drove out of Tuwani, we were shown the stump of an electricity pylon sawn down by the army after attempts by villagers to connect themselves to the national grid. Elsewhere, dirt mounds and locked gates stopped locals driving to the nearby city of Ya’ta, thus preventing them taking their produce to sell at market, and severely impairing their economic prospects.

Thanks to the army’s exclusion orders, we were forced to walk a treacherous and convoluted route through the rocky scrubland to visit communities living in even deeper seclusion beyond Tuwani. In Tu’ba, the cave-dwelling residents of the village are under no illusion about what the future holds for them, despite all the hype surrounding the much-vaunted settlement freeze.

“The freeze will have no effect round here,” the father of the household told us bitterly. Our guide expanded on the theme, telling us that the “real freeze is on Palestinian construction: 95% of Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C are denied by the civil administration, and for communities in this area they are not allowed to build above ground whatsoever”.

Those people living in caves are, it seems, tolerated by the authorities while they remain underground, but as soon as they put their heads above the surface and attempt to build rudimentary shacks and outhouses, demolition orders are served and the army are quick to enforce the letter of the law with gusto.

Meanwhile, in the neighbouring settlements of Carmel and Ma’on, building work was going on in earnest, and defiant banners on bus stops and fence posts declared the settlers’ intention to “smash the freeze”, and denounced the incumbent government as traitors to the Zionist cause. While government inspectors have been attacked during their attempts to bring settlement construction to a halt, the full force of the settlers’ wrath has – as ever – been meted out against the Palestinians.

The sickening desecration of a mosque on Friday in the village of Yasuf, near Nablus, appears to be the opening salvo in the settlers’ latest battle to force the government to back down over the building freeze, and those we met in the south Hebron hills were wary of similar reprisal attacks being carried out against their communities. “Our children are still attacked on a regular basis,” one local told us, “as well as our shepherds and farmers. Even if we call the police, we know justice will never be done, and the situation is only getting worse now that the settlers are furious about Netanyahu’s decision.”

Ehud Krinis, one of the Villages Group activists, believes that the freeze is “just an act” on the part of the government; having worked in the area for almost eight years and seen the settlers’ above-the-law behaviour first hand, he maintains “there is no effective force that can stop the settlers building more. In fact, as we can see in Susiya and elsewhere, the settlers simply see the freeze as a challenge to construct [at an even faster rate], which is what will happen over the next 10 months.”

As we sat with the head of the Bedouin clan living in Um al-Kheir – a collection of tumble-down tents and shacks literally touching the perimeter fence of the Carmel settlement – the mood of resignation engulfing the encampment’s residents was suffocating. We were shown aerial photos of Um al-Kheir’s gradual demise over the past 30 years, a situation attributable to the encroachment of the settlers and the military on to their ancestral land. It was clear that for those forced to endure the humiliation and hardship on a daily basis, the politicians’ upbeat talk was at best cheap, and at worst a flagrant denial of the facts.

For those Palestinians living under military rule, coupled with indiscriminate and incessant settler attacks against them, their children and their flocks, there is no end in sight to the suffering. While the world might have been convinced that the worm is about to turn in the Israeli political arena, a quick glance at the fevered construction still taking place in the settlements, the oppressive military activity against the Palestinian villagers and the overarching penury in which the Palestinians are forced to subsist should give onlookers food for thought about the true situation on the ground.

Freeze or no freeze, the future looks no brighter for the Palestinian locals today than it has during any of the bitter years and decades gone by.

Two settlers attacked Josef, throwing stones and attempted to steal some of his sheep while shouting abusive words in Hebrew. The residents of the nearby camp were alerted and came to assist Josef. The settlers then ran away towards the outpost of Old Susiya.

A local resident called the police. While waiting for the police, the settlers, who were previously involved in the attack, drove past, giving a bystander a chance to take pictures of them on a mobile phone. The army, who attended the scene of the attack first, told the residents that the police would know the names of the settlers. However, when the police arrived, they said they didn’t know any of settlers from the outpost and refused to accept the photograph taken by the mobile phone as an evidence of the attack.

Josef was later arrested when he went to give his statement to the local police station, as the settlers apparently told the police that it was Josef who attacked them. By 5.30pm that day Josef still had not been released from the police station despite the attempts of the members of the local community to negotiate his release with the police.

With rapidly escalating levels of settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in the 2009 Olive Harvest Campaign.

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by the Israeli military and settlers, harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance. The olive harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it.

Palestinian communities are inviting internationals to support and show solidarity with this resistance by working in the olive groves with them. By doing so, activists can reduce the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers or army through non-violent intervention and documentation.

The campaign will begin on the 3rd of October and run for approximately 6-8 weeks, depending on the size of the harvest. We request a 2 week commitment from volunteers.

Training:

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions every Saturday and Sunday. Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

Ongoing campaigns:

In addition to the olive harvest, there will also be other opportunities to participate in grass-roots, non-violent resistance in Palestine.
In occupied East Jerusalem, ISM activists have been staying with the Hanoun and Ghawe families, prior and post their evictions. We will continue to support the initiatives of the families who face evictions or demolitions in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other Palestinian neighborhoods in resisting the ethnic cleansing of occupied East Jerusalem.

ISM has been active in the village of Ni’lin, supporting its non-violent resistance to construction of the Apartheid Wall that annexes much of its land. Since May 2008, Ni’lin has been demonstrating and the Israeli military suppression of their unarmed protests has led to the death of 5 Palestinians and critical injury of an ISM activist.

In Bil’in, ISM has once again taken an apartment to participate in prevention of arrests and the ongoing night raids. Since the beginning of the summer, Israeli forces have been invading and arresting in the village of Bil’in, known for its creative resistance to the Apartheid Wall and construction of settlements on village lands.

Additionally, ISM maintains a presence in Hebron and Susiya. Work in these areas includes solidarity visits, farmer accompaniment and response to settler violence.

Come! Bear witness to the suffering, courage and generosity of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Experiencing the situation for yourself is vital to adequately convey the reality of life in Palestine to your home communities and to re-frame the debate in a way that will expose Israel’s apartheid policies; creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as well as collective punishment and genocidal practices in Gaza.

5:30 am: International volunteers conducted usual rounds with the shepherds grazing their sheep. All was quiet.

8.30am: Army jeeps passed and one had stopped. More border police jeeps and a D9 armored bulldozer moved toward a settler outpost and started demolishing it. International volunteers continued to monitor the situation as fears of settler attacks spread among the local community.

Around 10.30am: A group of settlers were seen walking towards one of the Palestinian camps. The Palestinians ran in that direction and the internationals followed. They also saw an army jeep racing towards the scene.

The settlers, Palestinians and army all met at the same time. A fight broke out between the Palestinians and settlers. The settlers were dispersed after the intervention from the army.

One international attempted to negotiate with the soldiers to allow the locals to return to their homes, as they were being detained in the hot sun while fasting. The soldiers only allowed them to move into the shade.

After the Palestinians were finally released, the international and Israeli activists went to see the home that the settlers ran through, causing damage. They saw that the settlers attempted to damage a solar panel by throwing stones at it.

Upon returning to the main camp the police arrived and took statements from the Palestinian families. More international and Israeli activists joined the locals (Ta’ayush, COMET, Operation Dove and EAPPI). The army declared the area a ‘closed military zone’. One of the Israeli activists was arrested by Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, shortly after his arrival.

The international activists and local Palestinians kept watch throughout the night. There were no more incidents. During the night the outpost was being rebuilt, with the army present.

The following morning around 5.30am, the internationals conducted rounds again. All was quiet.

10 August 2009

This morning [Monday, 10 August], at about 7:30, I heard voices and shouting coming from the direction of the wadi near our village, Khirbet Susiya. I got up and took my stills camera and ran toward where the voices were coming from. On the way, I looked behind me and saw two others from our village running behind me. They apparently also heard the shouting.

I got there quickly. I saw Jaziya Nawaj’ah and her sheep and two settlers. One of the settlers was average height and heavyset, with short hair, a beard, and slightly dark skin. I know him. His name is Dotan and he works for Dalia [Har-Sinai] at the Yair Farm settlement. The other settler was a bit shorter and younger than Dotan, had short hair and was fair-skinned. I know him too. His name is Shalom, and he is also from Yair Farm. The settlers tried to lead the sheep toward the settlement, and Jaziya shouted and tried to lead her sheep back toward the village.

I went toward Dotan to take a picture of him from up close, and he took something sharp out of his pocket and tried to attack me with it. I managed to get away, but it wounded my right hand. It might have been a knife.

I managed to take pictures of the settlers. I saw that Jamal and Ahmad Nawaj’ah filmed the incident on video and that foreign peace activists who were with us in the village came and also began to film what was happening.

When other residents arrived and tried to help Jaziya, the settlers left. Dotan went to a white car that was parked about five hundred meters to the east, and Shalom walked toward the settlement, where there were soldiers. I went to talk with the soldiers and saw Shalom standing between two of them and telling them that we had trespassed settlers’ land. I explained what had happened and Shalom threatened me, saying that when he went into the army, he would shoot me. While I was there, Shalom took their two-way radio a few times and called for reinforcements from one of the battalions. The soldiers let him keep using the device, but nobody answered.

I went back to the village and called the police and asked them to come quickly. I went to the main road to wait for them. About half an hour later, a police car with three police officers inside arrived. One of them was called Jalal and another was called Tal. They spoke with me and then asked me to go with them to the settlement so I could identify the assailants.

I got into the van and we drove to where the soldiers were. Two of the police officers got out to speak with the soldiers, and I stayed in the car with Jalal. Suddenly I saw Dotan passing by in a white Mitsubishi Magnum. I pointed him out to Jalal and said that he was the one who had assaulted Jaziya. Jalal said he would arrest him later on. When the two police officers came back to the car, Jalal told them that Dotan had just passed by. One of the policemen asked him why he hadn’t stopped him, and Jalal said it was impossible to take us together. They told me to go with Jaziya, Ahmad, and Iyad Abu Qabita, to the Kiryat Arba police station. One of the policemen returned me to Khirbet Susiya. They said they would arrest Dotan.

I took Jaziya to al-Hassan al-Qassem Hospital, in Yatta, and then we went to the Kiryat Arba police station and filed complaints. My hand wasn’t severely injured and I didn’t get it examined.

Nasser Muhammad Ahmad Nawaj’ah, 27, married with three children, is the coordinator of B’Tselem’s video-camera project in the southern Hebron hills and a resident of Khirbet Susiya, Hebron District. He gave his testimony to Musa Abu Hashhash on 10 August 2009 in Hebron.

At 7:30 of this morning, a group of sheep shepherds from Susyia, a small Palestinian village in the Southern Hebron hills, came under attack by a pair of Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal colony.

The shepherds, a small group of two Palestinian men and one woman had been grazing their sheep in their family land, in the hills near their homes. The two settlers, having faced no previous provocation from the group, came running suddenly down a dirt road, attempting to frighten the sheep off the land. The Palestinian shepherds began chasing after their animals and shouting at the settlers to end their harassment, but the pair continued their attack, hitting the sheep with stones and sticks they had been carrying with them. The Palestinian woman in the group had a stack of firesticks she had been collecting thrown of her hands and herself pushed away from her retreating animals.

Meanwhile, a pair of Israeli soldiers standing watch on an adjacent hilltop and overlooking the scene did nothing to stop the attack. Instead a large number of Palestinian residents of Susyia arrived shortly to attempt to confront and halt the settler attack.

The two settlers eventually retreated having pushed the sheep completely off the hills and back to the Palestinian settlements, giving no explanation or reply as regards their actions. With the two of them present, the shepherds together with fellow family members confronted the Israeli soldiers who had been overlooking the scene, demanding explanations for their inaction. The two attackers however remained protected by the soldiers, and allowed to leave freely.

The Israeli police arrived shortly afterwards requesting information from the Palestinian shepherds. As of this moment no information is known as to possible responses from the occupation authorities regarding the attack.

Yesterday while grazing his sheep, a Palestinian shepherd in Suseya near Yatta, was harrassed and threatened by two Israeli soldiers from a nearby military outpost. Jamal suffers daily from this type of harrassment on his own land. The soldiers forced him off his own land.

Shortly before Jamal was due to take his sheep grazing in the afternoon as he always does, two Israeli soldiers appeared from their post on the hill overlooking the land that is used by a number of families. They were clearly agitated and started shouting and throwing stones about even before the grazing started. As Jamal approached the area that the Israelis no longer let him use, the soldiers marched down the hill with their guns in their hands. There was a very heated debate in which the Palestinian was abused and threatened with being shot.The ISM observers were told that they didn’t know who they were protecting. Jamal continued to allow his sheep to graze for a while which produced a second out burst in which he was told he was now on Israeli land. One of the soldiers claimed to be Tunisian in background. The other at one point found the whole incident amusing and was laughing at the plight of Jamal, though he did get very aggressive when the shepherd’s dog barked at him and threatened to shoot the dog. Eventually Jamal was forced to move his sheep.

Suseya is a community of a small number of families totaling about 400 people near Hebron displaced from their original village of cave dwellings in 1986 by the Israelis and the land they now occupy is close to a settlement declared illegal under international law. They have been moved several times and prevented from building permanent dwellings so they now live in tents. There have been a number of attacks and harassment from settlers from the nearby settlement and the Israeli army on them aimed at driving them from their land and keeping them away from the local settlement. They cannot use the main road to Yatta even in medical emergency and this makes the journey nearly half an hour despite being only a few kilometeres away by the direct route. They are not allowed to use water from their own wells so water has to be brought in by lorry. In contrast, the local settlement has full running water, so much that it can be piped underground to their vines.

Footnote: the harrassment continued this morning, with a solitary soldier harassing young children tending the sheep again forcing them off their own land