4th November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Friday 2nd November the Israeli military issued five military orders on five families in and around Hebron. Families in Tel Rumeida are under threat of having their movement severely restricted. At the time of writing Sunday 4th November the objectives of the military orders is unclear.
A lawyer from the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (H.R.C.) is representing all five of the families who have received these orders. The families have been given five days to lodge their objections to the documents. A collective objection will be made by the lawyer representing the families but the complaint cannot be made until the military orders are completely understood. The H.R.C. met with the District Coordination Office (D.C.O.) on Sunday 4th November in an effort to clarify what the military orders pertained to. After the meeting the H.R.C. said that the orders were about the restriction of movement of the families concerned. The H.R.C. also said that some of the content of the orders was still unclear. It is a tactic of the Israeli occupation forces to make these orders as difficult to understand as possible. This makes legal challenges to the orders more difficult, it is also done to obfuscate the true intentions of the Israeli military. The orders are deliberately kept unclear so the Israeli army can then do whatever they want.
Imad Abu Shamsia and his family, who live in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, received a copy of the military orders issued to them in Arabic and Hebrew. The orders contained a map detailing their house and the surrounding area. It was assumed at first that the orders related to the roof of the house, the Abu Shamsia house has had a military watchtower on the roof for twelve years. It was thought possible that the Israeli military may be wanting to place surveillance cameras on the home.
On Sunday when being informed of what the H.R.C. had said and had been doing the Abu Shamsia family said that their movement would be restricted in the whole of the Israeli controlled H2 area of Hebron. This area covers the Ibrahimi Mosque, the souk, the old city and also the Abu Shamsia home in Tel Rumeida. At least one other of the military orders affects a family in this area.
The effect of denying the movement of the Abu Shamsia family in the whole of this area would be catastrophic on their daily lives. The route they take to school or to go shopping, their access to the whole of the rest of the city would be restricted. The uncertainty about what exactly these military orders mean, the uncertainty about their future and the future of all the other recipients, must have a devastating affect on the welfare and health of the family.
It would appear the Israeli occupation forces are planning to worsen the precarious existence of the Palestinian population of Tel Rumeida: how exactly is impossible to know at this point in time. There was one chilling phrase from the document issued by the Israeli army that was easily understood, “to put hands on this area.”
Team Khalil.