Five Palestinian men were arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in a night raid inside the old city of Nablus on Saturday, July 28. Tear gas and sound bombs were used against families and civilians protesting the arrests. 19 young men suffered asphyxiation and were taken to hospital. Israeli soldiers remained inside the city until 6 a.m. terrorizing residents.
A Palestinian woman walks through the destroyed home of the Kharuf family | Team Palestina & Free Gaza
Military incursions in Nablus, which is located in Area A and therefore under Palestinian military jurisdiction, are breaches of the Oslo Agreement, but nonetheless occur regularly. As always in occupied Palestine, human rights and agreements take the back seat to Israel’s political desires.
Among the families who were particularly afflicted by the night raid was the al-Kharuf family. At 2 a.m. their home was attacked by Israeli soldiers shooting tear gas at the 9 inhabitants, 5 of whom are children under 12 years old. The children were terrified by the attack and have now been sent to stay with relatives outside the city. An elderly woman had to go to the hospital after suffocating from the tear gas.
The IOF entered the house, where they seized Walid Kharuf. He was questioned on the whereabouts of his brother Omar and was severely beaten. When Walid claimed he did not know where his brother was, he was threatened by the commanding officer, “if you are lying and I find you brother here, I will destroy the house.”
The Kharuf home was turned upside down in the search for Omar, who was eventually found. After arresting the 23 year old young man, Israeli soldiers ordered everyone outside while they applied a bomb to one of the walls in the house. The blast that followed tore a hole in the house and devastated the room in which it was placed.
A Palestinian man looks into a wardrobe of the home of the Kharuf family after Israeli forces carried out a raid and bombed a wall of the home | Team Palestina & Free Gaza
All of Saturday the Kharuf family was busy clearing their home of rubble and broken furniture scattered throughout the house.
“So now we are homeless,” Walid solemnly noted, surveying the damage to his home.
Jonas Webber is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
30 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On July 26, youth activists in Nablus, in connection with the Tanweer Center for Enlightenment and Dar Al Qandeel association for arts and culture, kicked off a campaign to encourage residents of Nablus to boycott Israeli products this Ramadan and beyond.
Because people tend to purchase more products during Ramadan, the activists resolved that the month would be a perfect time to encourage the masses to resist Israeli occupation through boycott.
Activists met on Monday, July 23 to discuss what their new campaign would look like. It was decided that the campaign would focus first on the old city of Nablus, a densley populated area that acts as the commercial center. The discussion included deliberation over how best to encourage people to begin boycotting in Ramadan, and to continue afterwards.
The Tanweer Center provided Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) newspapers, as well as Ramadan calendars with a call for boycott displayed on them. The campaign has already planned 3 days of presence in the old city, followed by a meeting for reflection before continuing to other areas of Nablus.
Over 25 activists participated in the first day of canvassing, with largely positive feedback from their interactions with residents. Many of the old city’s residents were unaware of the growing campaign and interested in participating in a further form of resistance.
Alaa Abu Sah, a member of Dar Al Qandeel, said that the new campaign in Nablus is part of a larger effort. Tanweer is one of 20 centers participating this Ramadan, and the intentions reach beyond boycotting. Abu Sah believes that BDS will contribute to development in Palestine, strengthening economic and cultural aspects in Palestine.
In 2005, Palestinian Civil Society Organizations called for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194
More can be read about the BDS Movement and the original call here.
27 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On the afternoon of July 27, brothers Ibrahim Abeidu, 17, and Mohammad Abeidu, 19, were carrying water for their neighbor in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. There is a current drought and water is often shared between households. Walking on the hills above the Muslim cemetery, 20 Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal colony appeared on the same path. As the brothers passed by, one settler suddenly turned to them and sprayed a form of nauseating gas in the faces of the two teenagers carrying water. The brothers became dazed, and fell to ground.
The 20 settlers proceeded to throw stones at the Abeidu brothers as they lay on the ground. This attracted a Palestinian crowd who came to intervene, as well as local activists from the organization Youth Against Settlements (YAS) who arrived to document the attack. Ibrahim Abeidu is himself a distinguished volunteer at YAS, who, among other things, works on self-strengthening activities, documentation, and youth education.
Some 60 Israeli soldiers arrived on scene, only to show aggression against the Palestinians rather than the gas-spraying illegal settlers.
Unusually, a Palestinian ambulance was able to get permission from Israeli forces to enter Shuhada Street and help the two brothers who remained in weak condition on the ground. The apartheid-stricken Shuhada Street in the center of Hebron has been closed to Palestinian access for over a decade while Israelis and internationals can walk freely.
Israeli soldiers prevented the two victims from entering the ambulance on the basis that they were not carrying their ID cards on them. Only after being questioned, in a condition when needing medical attention, was Mohammad allowed to enter the ambulance and be rushed hospital. The younger Ibrahim, however, was still forbidden from entering the ambulance. Having been carried downhill to Shuhada Street, he remained on the ground and was refused medical aid. Instead, soldiers arrested him on accusations of throwing stones and attacking the same 20 Israeli settlers that had gassed him.
Having received treatment in hospital, Mohammad is now back at his home. Not having received any known medical aid, his brother Ibrahim remains arrested at the police station in Qiryat Arba.
This latest event is yet another episode in a recent escalation of harassment against Palestinians in Hebron, from the inhabitants of the illegal Israeli settlements, and their friends in the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Hakim Maghribi is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
Photos by Jonas Ravn, Markus Fitzgerald, and Selina Khalil
27 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
For several days this past week, the Israeli army has assaulted Palestinians and conducted raids in Palestinian residential areas of Hebron. The raids have taken place in both the Israeli-controlled area H2 and the Palestinian-controlled area H1.
A 17 year old boy’s ripped t-shirt after being beaten by Israeli soldiers – click to see more photos
Military training in H1
In the afternoon of July 23, more than 30 Israeli soldiers participated in a half hour training operation in Bab a-Zawiya neighborhood. The neighborhood is located in H1, the supposedly Palestinian-controlled area of Hebron.
Close to a dozen armed Israeli soldiers ran out of Checkpoint 56, advanced 300 meters up the street, and sealed off traffic. There they met with over 20 other soldiers who had taken positions on the rooftops of Palestinian residential homes.
After forcing their way in between the homes, soldiers conducted some closed activities before retreating back into the H2 area. The operation is presumably another military training drill.
Later that evening, 20 Israeli soldiers again entered the H1 area, this time in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. Bringing with them a dog, weapons, and other military equipment, the soldiers proceeded with an hour long training operation.
Combat-like positions were assumed in different locations of the neighborhood. Some soldiers unfolded a compact ladder and climbed an earth mound, despite a parallel road. Other soldiers stopped a young Palestinian man in his car with loud shouting, forced him out at gunpoint, and searched him. A second young Palestinian man was pushed against a wall and body-searched.
When neighborhood residents left the local mosque after Isha, the evening prayer, Israeli soldiers forced them back into the mosque with aggressive shouting. Several houses were raided by soldiers, for reasons unexplained.
When International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers took photos and filmed the behavior, soldiers at several occasions ran or charged against them.
“If you take pictures your camera is mine,” was one of many similar threats made by soldiers.
Another soldier said, “do not take pictures of my soldiers when we are training – I mean, when we are doing our job.”
Raiding and sound-bombing Palestinian homes
Although house owners offered to open locked doors with a key, Israeli soldiers broke their doors during a military raid- click to see more photos
In the night of July 24, ISM volunteers witnessed a second day of assault and raids in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. Approximately 50 armed soldiers, some wearing balaclavas and other with camouflage-painted faces, broke into and raided the home of Khalid Abu Ainsheh. Khalid’s son, Isaq Khattib, was arrested earlier at 8pm as he was about to break fast for Ramadan.
6 soldiers had come to a different home and pulled Isaq Khattib out. Isaq was searched against a wall, handcuffed, blindfolded, then taken to a military base located next to a Tel Rumeida settlement. Isaq was shortly brought back to the checkpoint located outside his parents’ home, and a knife was placed next to him.
Isaq’s mother emerged from her home, demanding Israeli soldiers allow her son who had yet to break fast, to be released.
Meanwhile, children who were playing near the scene had sound bombs thrown at them by Israeli soldiers.
Claiming that Isaq’s parents were hiding someone in their house, soldiers proceeded with raiding the home of Khalib Abu Ainsheh. Sound bombs were thrown inside the house, and men and women inside were detained separately in two rooms. Doors were broken down by soldiers, the household owners offering to open them with keys but being prevented from doing so. The outcome was 4 detained Palestinians, all of whom were later released.
Beatings and aggression
In the evening of July 25, a 17 year old Palestinian boy was dropped off by an Israeli police jeep directly in front of the Israeli military-manned Checkpoint 56. The boy was shaken and visibly injured. He said he had been taken by Israeli soldiers and beaten.
The 17 year old had a swollen nose and eye after having received a beating and head-butts from soldiers, and his shirt was torn. Videos clearly capture soldiers mistreating the boy. In the videos, his face is already bleeding before he is taken away.
Palestinian neighborhoods are used as test areas for future combat situations, but also to demonstrate to the indigenous residents that Israel is in control of their lives. This escalation of harassments has arrived with the first week of Ramadan, when people are keen on spending time with their families, free from disturbance.
As Palestinians in the area and activists at the local organization Youth Against Settlements see the latest events as part of a deliberate escalation by the Israeli army, there are many reasons to keep an eye on the occupied and apartheid-stricken city of Hebron in the near future.
Selina Khalil, Hakim Maghribi, Jonas Ravn, and Markus Fitzgerald are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).
Just below the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, situated on the the eastern outskirts of Al Khalil (Hebron) is the Palestinian area of ar-Ras.
A quick online search of the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba provides general knowledge on the founding history and how it has been subject to Palestinian resistance since 1981 but fails to inform the reader of the consequences for the indigenous Palestinians living nearby the relatively large (ca. 7000 inhabitants) settlement. Nor will one find written that such colonies are considered illegal by international law as confirmed by the International Court of Justice. Nor of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994 which was committed against Palestinians by an Israeli settler from the same area.
Hebron residents regularly speak with the International Solidarity Movement about constant violent attacks by the settlers, land expropriation by Israeli policies, lack of freedom of movement and the requirement of special permits for car use, lack of running water, and demolitions.
Demolitions
In 2006, Palestinian landlord Fayiz Arajar began the construction of a large building intended to house a dozen shops and several families. The building is formidably situated, overlooking the olive grove of the ar-Ras area and the distant white houses of Al Khalil, flickering in the heat.
In 2007, as the project was nearly completed, Israeli settlers occupied the building. Subsequent to a high court decision to evict them, settlers from across the West Bank gathered in the house ready to defend their illegal takeover of the building. The eviction deadline was set to December 4, 2007 by the high court.
The week leading to the deadline was tense. Israeli settlers vandalized the Palestinian cemetery, burned Palestinian cars, and attacked Palestinian houses. The escalation in such attacks came due to the arrival of thousands of illegal settlers in support of the squatters. They succeeded in fighting the eviction force. Israeli authorities simply refrained from further attempts to remove them and, as seen before, allowed the story to twist from that of property theft to a question of security (of the settlers). In recent years, Israel has even decided to erect a military checkpoint for Palestinian pedestrians in the interest of ‘protecting’ the settlers.
Muhammed Al-Jabari ‘Abu Naim’ and his family live in a house about 100 metres from the occupied building. On May 28 of this year, they began to build an extra floor ontop of their house. The family of 15 members needed more space.
Settlers from a nearby recently occupied house repeatedly attacked the building project underway by Abu Naim. Subsequently, Abu Naim was banned by Israeli authorities from continuing construction.
With reference to the Oslo accords (Annex 1, article XII) Palestinians are not allowed to build within 50 metres of security roads. In Abu Naim’s case, a security road was announced with the construction of a new military checkpoint in the area. The legal value of Abu Naim’s construction permit was overruled although his house is far from the 50 meter no-construction zone. The land on which the house was built 14 years ago has belonged to the Al-Jabari family since before the Israeli occupation in 1967.
For now, the mid-construction upper floor is left as an empty shell without windows or doors. Israeli bulldozers are on stand by to demolish the entire house should Abu Naim continue construction.
Prevention and annexation of resources
The Dana family is forced to pull up 100+ liters of water per day from this well as a result of Israeli policies preventing them from filling their water tanks – click to see more photos
Across the olive grove and by Kiryat Arba’s barbed wire fence lives Kayid Dana and his brothers. Another stunning view embraces you from just outside their house, disrupted only by a looming Israeli watchtower. Most of the occupied West Bank is spotted with these grey towers. Watching from their windows, the ever present occupation, reminding Palestinians that privacy is a luxury that few, if any, enjoy.
The Dana family has been living on the same land for the past 50 years. In 1958, the Israeli authorities repetitively offered them money to leave the house and make room for the growing illegal settlement. The family refused and nonetheless Israeli forces bulldozed half of their garden.
As of June 24, the Dana family has been without water. Israeli authorities prevented water trucks from entering the area to refill their water tanks. As a result, Kavid and his family are relegated to pump water from an unsanitary well outside their home. This is where they encounter the next problem: water is only available for a couple of hours each day. This is not enough to supply their 4 camels (100 liters/day) and the most basic household needs.
North of the Dana family home, through the olive groves, lives the Abdul Hay family (Abu Hossni). Their windows are fenced to prevent Israeli settlers from shattering the glass with the stones they throw. On December 4, the family was subject to a vicious attack that left 3 with dumdum (expanding bullet) wounds. Dumdum bullets are a type of live ammunition that enter the body, expand, and cause permanent injuries or death. Although dumdum bullets have been known to be used by Israeli settlers, they are illegal according to international law.
Jamal Abu Saifan, who lives in the area, captured the incident on his camera and explains how a lightly injured Israeli settler was choppered away 15 minutes after his injury, whereas the 3 Palestinians wounded by gunfire, one critically, waited 3 hours for an ambulance.
The ambulance attempting to reach them was stopped and denied entry to the area by Israeli forces.
An ultimate goal: ethnic cleansing
Unfortunately, settler attacks are far from rare and have been occurring since Kiryat Arba was established in 1968. The purpose of these violent attacks, and the army violence and policies that accompany them, are not only to injure people and destroy their lands. That is only a strategic measure to reach an ultimate goal: the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
The next step by Kiryat Arba is the construction of a new road which will divide the vital Palestinian olive groves down the middle. The road will be inaccessible to Palestinians, not only preventing Palestinians from tending to their trees on the other side, but annexing further land, expropriating an economic necessity, and making life more difficult for the indigenous Palestinians.
Despite the collection of circumstances to make life difficult, all the families in the area have made the choice to remain on their land despite the uncertainty and pressures of their everyday life under Israeli occupation.
Markus Fitzgerald is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
