10th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine
Maher from the village of Huwwara close to Nablus, is one of many Palestinians who has been tricked into thinking that Palestinians have the power to issue building permits in areas labelled as ‘B’ under the Oslo accords.
Maher on his land, where he was planning to build his house (Photo by ISM)
Maher owns land designated as ‘B’ and so applied to the Palestinian Authority for planning permission to build a house to provide for his children when they grew up. The permission was accepted and he obtained the relevant documents and paid the relative charges to proceed. The land the house was going to be built on was being used as a rubbish tip and so he started to clear the land in order to build the house. For six months he cleared the land and dug the foundations of the house before Israel issued a stop work paper in early July. Maher was surprised by this, especially when the reason for the stop work order being issued was because of Israeli claims that the land was Area C. Maps obtained show that the proposed structure is in area B but Maher has no choice but to challenge the decision in the court if he wants to continue building.
Maher’s house map issued by the PA (Photo by ISM)
Maher, skeptical of the result of the court system speaks of his frustration and the inevitable expense, ‘I don’t have much money to build, then Israel comes and stops it. I don’t have money to risk if Israel will target it.’
The land is on the outskirts of a built up area of houses and Palestinian residents and so it is not clear why Israel is prohibiting the building of the property as there are no ‘security’ concerns of the occupation near by.’There’s just Palestinians here . No army , no settlers, nothing prohibiting us from building’ says Maher.
Stop working order (Photo by ISM)
Since he received the stop work order, the site neighbouring his was also given a stop work order on their property that was nearing completion. Israel as the occupying power has to provide for services, infrastructure and allow for new accommodation for the inhabitants but almost universally rejects planning permission in area C. Maher’s land is in area B and so under the agreement where the Palestinian Authority and Israel have joint control, the permission granted by the Palestinian Authority should be sufficient to build the home. Similar cases of this denial of permission and dismissal of Palestinian Authority permits due to claiming that the land was area C, has happened in the village of Sarra.
Since the stop work order, the land that was dug and cleared has began to fill with rubbish again. Maher is still determined; ‘If I build, I’ll make it like a park.’
Under the Oslo agreement the occupied territories in the West Bank were divided into areas A, B and C. A small amount of area designated as ‘A’ gives full power to the Palestinian Authority to administer in civil and security matters. Land designated as area ‘C’ is under full Israeli military control where the occupying power has to provide security and services for all the inhabitants. Area ‘B’ is agreed to be under joint control by the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Resistance in Bil’in continued on the second day of the Eid Al Ftir holiday, in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their hunger strike. One female activist was arrested and there were dozens of cases of teargas suffocation in the Bil’in weekly march.
This week the Friday demonstration, organized by the Popular Committee against the Wall and settlements in Bil’in, marched in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their hunger strike.
The march began after Friday prayers from the center of the village toward the apartheid wall. Israelis and international peace activists participated alongside the people of Bil’in.
The participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for the end of the occupation, the demolition of the apartheid wall and the liberation of the Palestinian political prisoners. Upon the arrival of participants to the area the gate was already open, and military jeeps proceeded into the area prior to the demonstration. Israeli soldiers attacked the area and chased the participants in an attempt to arrest them. They succeeded in arresting one female Swiss activist. The ambulance crew was fired upon deliberately and soldiers initiated confrontation with journalists in the area.
8th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
For one Hebron family, this year’s Eid is more worrisome than festive. They will have to spend it wondering about their father and husband, whom they have not been able to talk to since the 4th of August. Last Sunday at around 2am Mohammed* was arrested – he was woken up by 20-30 soldiers and taken away without being told the charges against him. His family has not yet been able to talk to him or give him the medicine that he needs.
Freedom for Palestinian prisoners
When the Israeli military Sunday morning invaded Mohammed’s house with five jeeps and two armed vehicles, it took him and his family completely by surprise. The entire family – Mohammed, his wife and their six children – were woken up and told to gather in the house of Mohammed’s brother. Mohammed was then told he should kiss his children and say goodbye for he was being arrested. However neither Mohammed nor his family was informed of the charges upon his arrest.
After having placed Mohammed’s family under surveillance the Israeli military took Mohammed to his workplace. Here they told him to close all the security cameras or they would destroy his office. The office was thoroughly searched, however nothing was removed or changed. Mohammed was then taken to Ashkelon Prison at around 4am.
Mohammed’s family has still not been able to contact him, the Israeli military or the prison. They are deeply concerned as Mohammed is in need of medication due to a recent procedure performed on his eyes.
Mohammed was previously detained in 1994 for four months without ever knowing the charges. All Mohammed and his family know about the previous arrest is that Israeli military suspected some association with the Muslim Brotherhood. Since 1994 Mohammed has been a free man and has lived a quiet life without harassment from the Israeli occupation forces until he was suddenly arrested last Sunday.
Mohammed has still not been officially accused of a crime, however yesterday evening he and his family were informed that he was suspected of “threatening the security of the area”. His arrest has been extended for nine days at the end of which he will have a military court hearing.
Mohammed’s lawyer seems optimistic that Mohammed will be released after these nine days, since the Israeli occupation forces do not seem to have evidence on which they can hold him. However it is sadly not uncommon that administrative detention can be used, cases in which an arrest of a Palestinian incessantly is extended and military hearings continuously are pushed back. This is especially true of military hearings as it is only the judge and the prosecutor who are presented to the base of the deferment, not even the defense is shown the evidence.
*Name changed by request of the family who wish to remain anonymous
6th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Amena in her home in 2011
On the 2nd of August, Amena Abed AlFatah Abed Rabo passed away in Hebron. She was 71 years old and suffered a stroke. However, Amena might still have been with us, had the Israeli military let the ambulance through the many checkpoints. The journey to the hospital that should have taken three minutes was prolonged by more than one and a half hours due to restrictions and harassment by Israeli occupation forces. Amena died in the ambulance before reaching proper care. This incident was merely the last of many injustices that marked Amena’s life from the age of seven.
Amena Abed AlFatah Abed Rabo was originally from the Khema neighbourhood of Ramle in current Israel. She was seven years old when the war broke out in 1948. Her family was forcibly driven from their home following the creation of the state of Israel. In the chaos that followed, Amena was parted from her family. At the time she was blind in one eye, causing her to be easily disoriented. In her distress she fell and also lost sight in her good eye, leaving her completely blind. Amena spent a month on her own, before a friend of the family recognized her on the street and reunited her with her mother, father and three siblings.
Reunited, the family fled to the West Bank city of Hebron in an attempt to start a new life. The family was never offered any compensation for the home they were expelled from, nor the land taken from them and upon reaching Hebron they spent three years living under a tree. Amena was one of many unrecognized refugees within Palestine.
In 1951 Amena’s brother had managed to save enough money to buy the family a house, in which she lived the rest of her life. For a period Amena’s life was relatively calm in Hebron, but this changed following the outbreak of the first intifada in 1987. At this time, the Israeli occupying forces in the West Bank constructed roadblocks throughout the city of Hebron and made it impossible for Palestinians to drive within the city. To Amena this meant she could no longer leave her house. Due to her invalidity she needed a car get around and this was no longer permitted to Palestinians.
These roadblocks are still intact today and are part of the reason Amena did not make it to the hospital in time. During the last years of her life Amena lived with her nephew’s family of ten, in what is now the Israeli controlled H2 area of Hebron. Five days prior to her death, her nephew took her to the hospital where she spent three days. As she got a little better the doctors allowed her to go home. But the following day Amena suffered a stroke. The family immediately called for an ambulance.
As it had not arrived after thirty minutes, the family called once again. They were told that the ambulance had left on time but had been held back at the checkpoint. The soldiers guarding the checkpoint would not let them through without a written permit, even though Red Crescent ambulances should be able to pass freely without question. After another thirty minutes the ambulance personnel did manage to persuade Israeli soldiers to let them through but only until the next roadblock. This meant that the family had to carry Amena from their house to the roadblock. This path is rocky and hilly and it took the family another thirty minutes to get there. Finally in the ambulance they were once again stopped at the very same checkpoint that had withheld the ambulance earlier, this time for fifteen minutes. All in all, the trip to the hospital was delayed by approximately an hour and forty five minutes. This trip, from the family home to the nearby hospital of Al Khalil, would have taken three minutes if protocol had been respected.
Upon arriving to the hospital doctors quickly realised that Amena’s condition was now so critical that she had to be taken to a hospital with more expertise. This hospital, Al Ahlil, is only seven minutes away, but Amena died on the way.
During the last couple of days, Amena’s family has held her funeral, but the grief is still with them. Her nephew, Rami Abed AlFatah Hamdan, is a human rights student and is considering filing a complaint in the hope that this will not happen to another family in the future. As he says, having unrestricted access to ambulances is a human right, a right that needs to be enforced in Hebron. He feels he has nothing left to lose, and this incident has only confirmed his resolution to work with human rights. When asked if the soldiers have expressed any guilt, he simply smiles sadly and says: “If they felt guilt, they would never have stopped the ambulance”.
Unfortunately this is not an incident that stands alone. Ambulances in the Hebron area are often withheld and harassed when trying to reach patients. Hence, in 2008 a woman gave birth at a checkpoint and the same year a man died without receiving medical care. Nor is Amena Abed AlFatah Abed Rabo’s story as a refugee within Palestine unusual. Despite peace talks in Ramallah, Israel continues its plan to demolish 30,000-40,000 Bedouin homes as described in the Prawer Plan and has just approved a 1,000 new settlements in the West Bank.
Stories like Amena’s are a symptom of the Israeli occupation forces systematic attempt to drive Palestinians from their homes and make their lives as difficult as possible. This is part of a policy of ethnic cleansing aiming to expel all remaining Palestinians and Arab Bedouins from Palestine. The internationally recognised researcher and author Ilan Pappe describes this in his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” and in interview with the ISM:
But then I checked the American State Department website about ethnic cleansing and the description of what ethnic cleansing is and it fitted so well with what was and is going on in Palestine. This description does not only describe an act of expulsion but also its’ legal implications, which is in this specific case, is a crime against humanity. It also says very clearly that the only way to compensate an ethnic cleansing is to ask the people who were expelled whether they want to return or not.
4th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira al Qibliya , Occupied Palestine
This week, settlers from Yitzhar attacked the Asira village water project and its workers, once again. Israeli occupation forces who went to the scene did not to stop the settlers and instead occupied the roof of a Palestinian house located nearby.
On July 31st settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar attacked workers at the water reservoir project above the village of Asira. The Israeli army came to intervene and then in order to “check” invaded the house closest to the water project belonging to a family with small children. The army then stationed themselves on the roof of the water project for the remainder of the day.
The water reservoir project is aimed at providing residents from Asira with running water. Attacks on the project have been happening every day that there are workers present in the last months. Settlers trespass on to Asira village land and attack the workers often making “demonstrations” against the water project which will not affect the settlement in any way.
Asira al Qibliya, an ancient village with the current population of 3,500, and the other villages which surround the illegal settlement of Yitzhar face daily violence from its settlers.
In mid-1980s, the illegal settler colony of Yitzhar was established on the hilltop located around six Palestinian villages. Before the colony, the hilltop area was the locals’ breadbasket, thanks largely to its generous water resources. The nearby natural spring used to be Asira’s main source of water but the illegal settler colony, backed up by the Israeli government and the army, has completely blocked Palestinian access to the spring. Since then, villagers are forced to rely on water tanks; one such tank costs NIS 130 (US $36) in a place where unemployment is high; it is enough for a family for only a week. residents of Asira hope that when the project is completed, they will have access to water.
Residents of the illegal Israeli settler colony of Yitzhar are considered to be among the most violent in occupied Palestine; they physically attack Palestinian villagers (often children), set their land and property on fire, destroy houses, and cut or burn olive trees together with other vital sources of livelihood.
