Year: 2011

A Normal Day in the Lives of My Palestinian Neighbors

Paulette S. | Christian Peacemaker Team

Our neighbor Haniya shrugged her shoulders as she spoke in a disheartened way: “This is all normal for us now. What can we do anyway?” Yet, when I see armed Israeli soldiers on the rooftops, and when I witness Palestinians going through checkpoints to go to the Mosque, I see this Occupation as an ongoing, huge human tragedy.

It’s been a long 40+ years now that the Israeli Occupation has ruled a huge section of the West Bank. Here Martial law governs thousands of people’s lives in almost every aspect of their days: travel: to their families, to schools, to health services, to their farms or to their stores.

My friend Fatima lived in a small outlying village, but due to lack of money, she moved to H2, Hebron, where she could work in a small shop owned by her sister. Fatima’s 7 children are now all teens, and one daughter is married. The two sons, though certainly bright enough, have quit high school. The reality of finding a good job after schooling is almost nonexistent, they reason. Because there is no mandatory schooling for Palestinian children, the children roam the streets, smoke, or help their family. Two times in the recent past, the Military snatched two of these working young men. One of these boys was using a cutting knife to help his father unpack boxes of store goods. The other boy was sent by his father on an errand, but the child’s coat resembled a policeman’s coat. The Military took him and questioned him for hours while his father reasoned with the soldiers.

Fatima, like many shopkeepers, opens her shop each morning very early, hoping that tourists will buy a dress or an embroidered pillow case or small purse or shawl that day. She and her sister have plenty of women who want to embroider for them, but Fatima barely makes enough money for her own family. Since her husband is not able to work, the family depends entirely on Fatima’s scant income. She and internationals constantly assure visitors there is no need for them to fear entering the Old City. Visitors see guns and soldiers throughout H2, but they soon learn that only the Palestinians are the target of M-16’s.

Fatima, like most parents, tries to live through the day as “normally” as possible with a good sense of humor. Already, one of her two sons, 15 years old, has been accused of throwing a stone at a soldier and despite all his insistence and those of eye witnesses who said he did not throw the stone, he served 2 1/2 months in an Israeli prison. Like many other families this family too borrowed and paid 1200 shekels on the release of their son. Israel makes a fortune from the “stone throwing” accusations dished out to young Palestinian men.

The day isn’t over when it’s over for these people. Parents with teenage sons rarely sleep soundly. Like a mother with a newborn baby, they worry that the night will bring soldiers breaking into their home, awakening everyone, locking the family into one room and then taking their teenage son with them to a prison. CPT’s 1st. year University friend, grabbed from his home at 1:30am, served 6 months in prison with no official charge against him. I ask myself: “How can anyone, any country not hear the cries of these people for compassion and justice?” Don’t they deserve a truly normal life also?

Palestinian human rights activist jailed in Israel

30 January 2011 | Amnesty International

Amnesty International has urged the Israeli authorities to end their harassment of Palestinian human rights activists after a well-known campaigner in Haifa was jailed for nine years and given an additional one-year suspended sentence earlier today.

Ameer Makhoul, a longstanding Palestinian activist, was convicted on various counts of having contact with enemies of Israel and espionage after a plea bargain agreement at his trial. He was originally charged with an even more serious offence, “assisting an enemy in war”, which could have carried a life sentence, but that was dropped by the prosecution when he agreed to a plea bargain.

“Ameer Makhoul’s jailing is a very disturbing development and we will be studying the details of the sentencing as soon as we can,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.

“Ameer Makhoul is well known for his human rights activism on behalf of Palestinians in Israel and those living under Israeli occupation. We fear that this may be the underlying reason for his imprisonment.”

“We are also extremely concerned by allegations that he was tortured and otherwise ill-treated following his arrest on 6 May last year in a dawn police raid on his home in Haifa, by the fact that he was not permitted to see his lawyers for 12 days after his arrest, and by the gag order that prohibited media coverage on the case during this time.”

Under the Israeli penal code, people can be charged with “espionage” even if the information passed onto an “enemy agent” is publicly known and even if there is no intent to do harm through passing on the information.

The prosecution claimed that a Jordanian civil society activist who Ameer Makhoul was in contact with was a Hizbullah agent, and that he gave this person information on the locations of a military base and General Security Services offices.

The confession on which Ameer Makhoul’s conviction and sentencing were based was admitted as evidence by the court, despite allegations that this statement was made under duress and that he was tortured during his interrogation. It also appears that the information allegedly conveyed by Ameer Makhoul was publicly available.

Ameer Makhoul’s sentencing comes at a time when human rights activists are coming under increasing pressure in Israel and being accused by some in the government and by members of the Knesset of being “anti-Israel” and unpatriotic because of their reporting on and campaigning against human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Ameer Makhoul is the director of Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations, based in Haifa.

Beit Ommar youth brain-dead in hospital after being shot by settlers

29 January 2011 | Palestine Solidarity Project

Earlier today, Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, a 17-year-old youth from Beit Ommar who has worked very closely with PSP over the years, was shot in the head by settlers and he is currently brain-dead in Hebron hospital. Yousef attended nearly every unarmed Saturday demonstration, was frequently around the PSP house, and anticipated in both the Freedom Flotilla Summer Camp, and the photography class organized by the Center for Freedom and Justice. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Please consider holding solidarity actions or events in your communities to demand his killers be brought to justice, and for Yousef to be the last victim of an ongoing brutal occupation.

Friday, January 28th 2011, 9am: Around 100 settlers from Bat Ayn settlement descended upon the Palestinian villages of Saffa and nearby Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank, shooting 17-year-old Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl in his head, leaving him critically injured. Doctors have announced that Yousef is
currently brain-dead in a Hebron hospital.

Settlers also shot 16-year-old Bilal Mohammad Abed Al-Qador with live ammunition in his arm.

The large group of armed settlers began shooting towards Palestinian homes in Saffa at around 9am, leaving Bilal injured. At the same time, a second group of settlers attacked an area of Beit Ommar called Jodor. Yousef was shot in the head in this area while he was standing in grapes vines he had planted on his family´s land.

Dozens of Palestinians from Beit Ommar and the nearby village of Surif began coming to the area to defend their communities. Seven jeeps of Israeli Forces also arrived in the area and escorted the settlers back to Bat Ayn.

This is the second settler attack with live ammunition on Palestinians in as many days. On January 27th, Uday Maher Qadous was shot and killed in Iraq Burin, in the Nablus district, by armed settlers as he was working his land.

Yousef Fahkri Ikhlayl is from the village of Beit Ommar and has worked on initiatives with the Palestine Solidarity Project, an ant-occupation organization in Beit Ommar. In the summer of 2010, Yousef attended the Center for Freedom and Justice´s Freedom Flotilla Summer Camp where he engaged in educational projects, community service, and unarmed demonstrations against the Israeli occupation. In the fall of 2010 Yousef was a participant in a youth photography class also sponsored by the center.

“Yousef was a kid who hoped for a better future for Palestine. His life was ended prematurely by right-wing extremists. People around the world should be outraged by his shooting, and should work to bring his attackers to justice. ”

-Bekah Wolf, American citizen who worked with Yousef in the Center for
Freedom and Justice

Settlers from Bat Ayn routinely attack and harass Palestinians in the Beit Ommar area. In January 27th, 2011 settlers in the area destroyed several hundred olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers.

Funeral held for Palestinian youth killed by settlers south of Nablus

29 January 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

On 27th January, 20-year old Oday Maher Hamza Qadous was killed by settlers whilst farming between the villages of Burin and Iraq Burin, just south of Nablus. According to family sources, the Palestinian youth was alone and gathering wood when settlers – most likely from the nearby, illegal settlement of Bracha – shot Qaddous once through the chest, with the bullet entering his right shoulder and remaining lodged beside his left lung. Sources say that it was over an hour before an ambulance was able to reach him, and he was pronounced dead-on-arrival at the hospital. There was evidence that he was also beaten: his face was covered in blood, and a left-rib broken. Doctors concluded he died of surgical emphysema as a result of the gun-shot wound.

The funeral for the deceased was held the following day in the village of Iraq Burin, and was attended by around 500 people from the villages and surrounding areas. A large police presence followed the procession, which lead from the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus – where the body was being held – to the village. No clashes were reported to have followed the ceremony.

This tragedy comes less than a year after his younger brother, 16-year old Mohammed Ibrahim Qadous, was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the same region of the West Bank.

Photos by Wael Faqeeh

One citizen wounded and dozens asphyxiated in Bil’in

28 January 2011 | Popular Committee Against the Wall

Ramallah-Bil’in: A resident of Bil’in was wounded and dozens of residents, peace activists, and individuals wishing to show solidarity suffered severe asphyxiation today. This was due to extensive tear gas use in clashes resulting from the Israeli occupation forces suppression of the weekly demonstration march against the wall and settlements in Bil’in.

Participants in today’s demonstration included Dr. Mai Al Kaila, the Palestinian ambassador to Chile and a high level delegation of lawmakersled by Chilean Vice President of Parliament Ivan Moreira. A delegation from the Arab Liberation Front was also in attendance. Residents of Bil’in, peace activists, Israeli citizens, and internationals participated as well.

The participants marched carrying Palestinian flags and photographs of the martyrs of the Abu Rahma family, Marwan Barghouti, and Abdullah Abu Rahma, the coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in. They also carried banners reading ‘Our battle is with the settler who murdered Uday in Iraq Burin. Our battle is with the occupation and the setters. We will not change our course and will continue our resistance.’

The demonstrators marched from the village chanting national slogans and calling for unity and the rejection of differences. They confirmed the need for a powerful Palestinian resistance to occupation and demanded the release of all prisoners. They also called for freedom for Palestine and chanted slogans condemning all aggression against Jerusalem as well as the policy of deportation.

The march headed toward the wall behind which the Israeli occupation forces were already waiting. There were also a large number of forces deployed along the path to the wall. When protesters attempted to cross the wall to the land behind it, owned by the residents of Bil’in, the army responded with sound bombs, gas canisters, rubber-coated bullets, and live ammunition fired in all directions. Demonstrators were chased into the olive groves. The occupation forces also fired foul-smelling sewage water mixed with chemicals of an unknown chemical compound at the protestors. Mohammed Abu Rahma, aged 17, was injured by a tear gas canister striking his hand. Dozens of cases of severe asphyxiation and vomiting were also reported.

Yesterday the village of Bil’in was visited by Mr. Edgar Motsisi, a political representative of South Africa in an effort to show solidarity with the family of Bassem and Jawaher Abu Rahma and the family of Abdullah Abu Rahma, who remains in prison. Mr. Motsisi paid his respects to them for suffering for the people of Bil’in in an effort to end the occupation’s oppression of the village. He commended the People’s Committee for the use of art and creativity in the demonstration. Mr. Edgar Motsisi also gave attention the type of weapons used by the army to suppress the demonstrations near the apartheid wall. He visited the village again today with the Chilean delegation led by Ivan Moreira. They met with the Popular Committee Against the Wall and the village council members in the village council. They listened to the Popular Committee’s detailed description of Bil’in’s experiences with peaceful popular resistance for the past six years. The Committee also detailed their achievements and the role of effective international solidarity in popular resistance in Bil’in.

The Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in also denounced the ruling of the Israeli military court for the officer and soldier who opened fire on Ashraf Abu Rahma while he was blindfolded and handcuffed at the entrance to the village of Nil’in. The ruling was the diluted, illegal, and immoral decision of an illegal occupation court. We call on all human rights organizations and international legal bodies to stop Israel’s violations of international law, and to prosecute the leadership of the Israeli army and it’s officers and soldiers as war criminals in international court, respecting the rights of the Palestinian people. We also condemn the actions of settlers to kill young Udai Qadoos (19) in cold blood in the village of Iraq Burin, and Youssef IKhalil (17) from the village of Safa, as well as the brutal murder committed in Hebron of a man sleeping in his bed. We call on our people to respond to the barbaric actions of the settlers and Israeli soldiers with the popular resistance in all areas impacted the settlements and the wall. They will not choose to deviate from their course alone, and we will continue our resistance.