Year: 2013 - Page 35 - International Solidarity Movement

Updated: ‘Day of rage’ against Prawer Plan met with violent repression and over ten arrests

2nd August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Palestine

Update 2nd August: The Palestinian activist arrested at the protest near Hizma checkpoint has been released after paying 3000NIS. All arrestees at the demonstration in Wadi Ara have also been released but will have to be under house arrest for three days.

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On August 1st, ‘day of rage’, thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the ethnic cleansing of a conservative estimate of 40000 Bedouins from the Naqab; the so called Prawer Plan.

The demonstration organized in the Naqab itself took place in the South Rahat Junction “Lehavim”. The start of the protest, which was scheduled for 4pm was delayed, after police blocked several roads leading to the demonstration and alternative routes had to be found. In the end over 1500 people from all over historic Palestine and international activists managed to assemble and voice their anger against the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of over 35 villages in the Naqab region. Strong slogans asking for a stop to the ethnic cleansing, a change to the Prawer Plan and freedom for the Naqab and Palestine were chanted.

Protest chanting at the demonstration in the Naqab (Photo by ISM)

The protest was heavily policed, with over 200 police officers, several of them on horseback. Even though the protest was conducted peacefully, two minors, Hisham A’mor and Khaled Nasasra, were arrested and released this morning.

In Wadi A’ra, Haifa District, the demonstration took place at the A’ra-A’ra’ra intersection with around 1500 participants. Israeli forces beat protesters and used teargas against them. Eleven people were arrested and will probably have the court hearing today in Haifa.

The ‘day of rage’ not only spread throughout historic Palestine. Solidarity actions with the Palestinian Bedouins crossed the Green line as dozens of people protested near Hizma Checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.

At around 3pm, several buses departed from Ramallah towards the Naqab to join the protests against the Prawer Plan. As expected, Israeli forces stopped the buses from continuing their way near Hizma checkpoint.

Demonstrators went off the buses and protested on the road leading to Hizma checkpoint. Over twenty special unit police officers and several soldiers threw several sound bombs, violently pushed protesters and beat several people with batons. One female protester was kicked by a police officer in the back and another activist was arrested. Standing on the sidewalk of the road and chanting slogans against the ethnic cleansing of the Naqab, demonstrators were surrounded from all sides by Israeli forces until the buses arrived and everyone left. It is worth mentioning that the bus drivers were fined by Israeli police with 750NIS fine each.

Protester being arrested by Police special unit at Hizma demonstration (Photo by ISM)

Late at 9:30pm, more than 300 people gathered at Damascus gate in East Jerusalem. Protesters chanted slogans in solidarity with the Bedouins communities in the Naqab and marched into East Jerusalem towards Sheik Jarrah. The demonstration turned back towards the Damascus gate again, after it was blocked by a large number of mounted police. Israeli police repeatedly charged the demonstration and threw sound bombs at people. They also deliberately threw sound bombs into the crowded area outside the gate, and into restaurants and market stalls. This caused a huge stampede of people running away from the police, and caused one middle aged woman to feint from shock.

These protests come after July 15^th first ‘day of rage’ in which a general strike in historic Palestine was called and numerous demonstrations against the Prawer Plan organised.

The Prawer Plan making its way through the Israeli Knesset aims to destroy 35 villages that it does not recognise. The destruction of these ‘unrecognised’ villages will forcibly displace a conservative estimate of 40 000 indigenous Palestinian Bedouin for already pre approved Jewish only settlements in the Naqab (Negev).

Historic Palestine’s Bedouin population are the indigenous population of the Naqab. Their cultural and historical link to the land is clear, given that since settling in the Naqab in the seventh century, they have been the only inhabitants of the desert up until the mid twentieth century. Before the creation of Israel in 1948 over 100000 Bedouin lived in the Naqab and made up over 99% of the inhabitants. The establishment of Israel as a state with a Jewish majority needed the ‘Nakba,’ or catastrophe that meant the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians including 90000 Bedouin in the Naqab, who were forced to leave their historic land to become refugees in the West Bank, Gaza strip and other countries in the world. After the Nakba the 10 000 Bedouin who managed to survive the ethnic cleansing were put under the authority of an oppresive military regime that forcibly removed the remaining Bedouin into an area of land called the ‘syaj’ or (fenced) in a triangle marked by the towns of Beersheba, Arad and Dimona.

Demonstration in the Naqab, (Photo by ISM) — Demonstration in the Naqab (Photo by ISM)

In 1965 Israeli authorities passed the ‘Planning and Building Law.’ One aspect of that law was to map out all the existing communities that fell under the state and although many of the villages had existed before the creation of Israel, or had been created by the Israeli army as part of the population transfer to the Syaj zone, they were left of the map and so became ‘unrecognised’ villages and illegal by law.

Over 40 000 Bedouin currently stay in these ‘unrecognised’ villages, that because of the nature of their illegality under Israeli law, have no access to infrastructure like roads, water, sewage, electricity, education and healthcare although they became citizens of Israel. The other 105 000 Bedouins live in urban townships, or concentration townships that have some of the highest poverty and crime rates in the country, created in 1969 to encourage the Bedouins to relinquish their land rights. The Bedouin who accepted were internally displaced refugees who were not allowed to return to their ancestral lands outside the Syaj zone.

Israel uses a manipulation of an old Ottoman law that declares non cultivated land as dead land and so transfers land to the ownership of the state. The land outside the Syaj area became dead land due to people unable to return and so passed to control of the Israeli state without consultation with the Bedouins. In the 1970s the public were allowed to file ownership claims over the land and so the Bedouin filed 3221 claims for a total of 242 750 acres. The process was then frozen and never offered again. Those lands claimed are subject to be lost under the Prawer plan but only those that were allowed to be registered for a short time in the 1970s are able to be compensated though the Prawer Plan. This compensation however is only to the maximum of 50% of worth that reasonable estimates believe will only amount to 16% in real terms. This is on the condition that they relinquish all rights of their ancestral land and move to the townships or the 10 ‘recognised’ villages.

The current situation of the Prawer Plan represents the largest single ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the Nakba and highlights the plight of the indigenous peoples of Historic Palestine who remained in the 1948 borders with the creation of Israel. The situation of the Bedouin in the Naqab have long been subject to hardships in spite of formally existing as Israeli citizens, but have still lived in similar circumstances to their kin in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2011, 1000 houses were demolished and since the 1970s the Bedouin have been harassed and attacked by ‘Green Patrols’, a miltary unit set up by Ariel Sharon as part of the Agricultural ministry to specifically target Bedouin, and in recent times these duties have been taken over by by settlers from Kibutzes in the Naqab who often attack and intimidate the population. The Prawer Plan and the discriminatory laws and tactics used against non-Jewish citizens of Israel highlight the concerns of Israel’s demand to be recognised as a Jewish State in the ‘peace’ talks. Non-Jewish citizens are already being internally displaced through pogroms and discriminatory laws. Recognising Israel as a Jewish State will confirm that they are unequal and do not belong, regardless of their indigenous status and history of the land.

Awad, 19, wounded by Israeli fire while gathering firewood

31st July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Rosa Schiano | Gaza, Occupied Palestine

On Thursday afternoon, July 25, 2013, a 19 year old, Rafat Awad Abdel Aty was injured while working in an area called “Jamarik” near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

Awad, who was admitted to the Kamal Odwan hospital, told us that he was collecting firewood to be sold at about 500 meters from the separation barrier with Israel.

“At about 14:00 I suddenly heard a shot,” said Awad.

A bullet went through Awad’s right leg, and several fragments of bullet injured his lower limb and his chest. The bullet that entered and exited from the leg, then exploded from the impact on the ground, causing more injuries from the shrapnel that flew back up.

“Some people tried to reach me but the soldiers shouted at them to go back,” said Awad, who was finally transported by ambulance to Beit Hanoun hospital and later transferred to the Kamal Odwan hospital.

A doctor explained to us that Awad needs bandaging daily, although fortunately the bullet did not cause fracture. Some fragments have been removed, while others remain embedded in his body.

In the last two weeks two civilians were wounded in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip.

These workers are “invisible” in the eyes of the media, often kids who have not reached the age of maturity, usually on donkey carts to reach the lands along the border to pick up metal, plastic, copper, wood and other materials they could. The limited amount of materials caused by the siege, makes it necessary for companies to recycle and reuse previously constructed materials. Usually the families of these young people are very poor, or what they earn is not enough to provide for themselves. Often, they have no other way to survive.

Awad can earn a maximum of around 25 shekels a day.

His father Rafat told us that he had received a call from a friend when Awad was injured. “I was very worried, I thought I was going crazy, because often when someone calls to say that your son was injured they are covering for the fact he is dead,” said Rafat.

Rafat did not even have the money to pay for a taxi to get to the hospital. Some neighbours offered to take him in their car to get to his son.

Rafat told us that he previously worked as a fisherman. “I stopped working as a fisherman because there is not enough fish in the sea,”. He explained the difficulties facing the fishermen of Gaza as a result of the 6-mile limit imposed by the Israeli authorities and also the recent lack of fuel in Gaza. This means Rafat does not work. The only person in the family who works is his son Awad, who is now hospitalized.

Their family, originally from the village of Majdal (Palestine, 1948) is composed of 11 people, including 5 sons (Awad, 19, Mohammed, 7 years old, Ahmed, 14, Saqer, 8 years old, Yousef, 3 years ) and 4 daughters (monaz, 21, Soha, 13, Nesma, 4 years, Ghazal, 1 year). They live thanks to coupons issued by UNRWA or donations from NGOs.

“I don’t always know from where I can provide an Iftar (the meal which breaks the fast during Ramadan) to my family, now my son is injured,” said Rafat.

The future is uncertain for the family of Rafat, who can not afford to pay the university fee for his children.

Rafat would like the international community to put an end to the siege on the Gaza Strip and to stop denying his people the chance to live as “human beings.”

Since the beginning of the ceasefire in the month of November 2012, Israeli forces have killed four Palestinian civilians and injured at least 100 people, including 24 children, in areas along the border. Yet, according to those agreements, Israeli forces should cease all aerial attacks by land and by sea.

The number of casualties is likely to rise soon in the lands along the border, when the planting season begins and many farmers will work need to work on their lands, lands that are these families’ only source of livelihood.

Bedouin in the West Bank: Settler attacks, denial of water

31st July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

In Huwwara, 9km south of Nablus there are two Bedouin families who have been living in tents with their animals since the start of June. They are usually camped near Hebron or in the Naqab desert, but for the summer they are based in Huwwara so the animals have room to move. They have had no problems thus far with the Israeli army from the neighbouring Huwwara military base or settlers whom drive up and down the road near their tents.

Bedouin camp near Hawara — Bedouin camp near Huwwara (Photo by ISM)

The other Bedouin living close by in Huwwara however were less fortunate – at the beginning of July they were attacked by settlers from the nearby illegal settlements of Itamar and Yitzhar. On Saturday the 6th of July about 50 settlers invaded the Bedouin camps attacking the residents and trying to steal the Bedouin’s sheep. The settlers damaged a tractor and private car and began to destroy plants and trees in the area until the District Coordination Office (liasion between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities) intervened and directed them to leave the area.

These two families, however are denied access to water by Israel. They do not have water to drink, wash or provide to their animals. Thus they are forced to travel over 1km with the tank in tow to go and buy water. According to a UN Humanitarian Factsheet on Area C of the West Bank, July 2011 “communities depending on tankered water pay up to 400% more for every liter than those connected to the water network”. Israel’s national water company, Mekorot holds a monoply over the water supplies providing almost half the water consumed by Palestinian communities effected, making a profit off the water shortages that are a result of the Israeli occupation.

Water tank required to bring water to the Bedouin camps (Photo by ISM)

Over 60 percent of the West Bank is considered Area C, therefore under full Israeli civil and security control, including planning and zoning and preventing any possible construction for water access. An estimated 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C, including 27,500 Bedouin and other herders. The discrepancy in water consumption between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the West Bank is vast. Israelis, including settlers, have access to 300 liters of water per day, according to EWASH, while the West Bank average is around 70 liters, below the World Health Organization’s recommended minimum of 100 liters per day for basic sanitation, hygiene and drinking.

Video – Israeli settlers torch Hebron family’s property for eighth time

29th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

On Sunday, July 28, Israeli settlers severely burned land belonging to Hani Abu Haikel and his family in Hebron. Occupation soldiers, though at first trying to help stop the fire, ended up blocking the road so that Palestinian firefighters were delayed in reaching the scene. Several very old olive trees were destroyed in the fire which swept over immense swathes of land very quickly. In the video below, Hani Abu Haikel speaks about the incident and how Israeli settlers, soldiers and police work together to pressure Palestinian families to leave the Israeli-controlled H2 district of occupied Hebron.

Flames tear through one of Abu Haikel’s oldest olive trees (Photo by Christian Peacemaker Teams)

The previous evening, July 27th, Israeli police came to Hani Abu Haikel’s house and questioned him about a variety of subjects including whether he has any plans of leaving the area, to whicb he answered in the negative. Apparently this questioning is a regular occurrence. Israeli soldiers have also arrested Abu Haikel and his children on spurious charges, later releasing them without charge. The soldiers continue to regularly detain and interrogate members of the family.

Yesterday afternoon Abu Haikel saw settlers present in the area of the Israeli military base. As this is a common thing for them to do, he thought nothing of it at first. However, after this Abu Haikel saw the settlers spray water all over the small plot they have illegally cultivated on his land, right beneath the military base. He then saw them spray another, apparently flammable chemical over his land – soon after this, his land was on fire. Observers noted that Israeli soldiers were obstructing people from reaching the scene to help. Palestinian fire engines were prevented from reaching the scene for at least half an hour, allowing the fire to spread rapidly and scorch the land, despite volunteers passing buckets of water between them to try to quell the flames.

Israeli settler children stand laughing on the partially scorched wall just above their untouched plot of illegally cultivated land (Photo by Christian Peacemaker Teams)

The only part of the Abu Haikel land that wasn’t completely scorched was the small plot cultivated by Israeli settlers. Hani Abu Haikel explained that this is the eighth time settlers have burned his property, including an incident ten years ago when they burned all of his trees, meaning that many of the trees that were burnt this time were very young. It has taken him these ten years to effectively replant his land again and now, again it will be years before his land is as it was before this crime.

Updated: “Shabbat shalom” – no peace for Palestinians in Hebron this Saturday

28th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Update 28th July: Abu Shamsiya was last night transferred to Ofer prison, to another prison near Jerusalem and then once more to another police station. He was released at 16.30 today after the 1000NIS bail was paid. He has been given a court date to face the false charges of spitting on a soldier on the 30th November. The family have video evidence showing that the attacks were instigated by settlers and there was no violence from Abu Shamsiya.

Update 28th July: Israeli authorities are demanding 1000NIS on bail to release Abu Shamsiya. He is accused of spitting a soldier and will have a court hearing soon (exact day still unknown).

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Stone and egg-throwing, beating and kicking, headscarves torn off and an arrest based on two soldiers lying. This sunny Saturday in Hebron (Al-Khalil) was all about settler youth attacking innocent Palestinians and internationals while soldiers looked the other way.

Today, 27th of July, the Shabbat started as usual in Hebron with the settler tour through the Old City. A group of settlers surrounded by soldiers entered the Old City through the Peace Garden and went through the streets, preventing Palestinians from passing. The soldiers invaded several Palestinian houses in order to access the roofs. After an hour, the “tour” left the Old City through the entrance to Beit Romano settlement.

Later, at around 4pm, whilst walking down Shuhada Street international activists had stones thrown at them by two settler teenage boys. When they returned an hour later, they were attacked again by settler youths who jumped at them and violently pulled off their headscarves outside Beit Hadassah settlement. When the internationals complained to the soldier stationed at the nearby checkpoint, he showed no sympathy and said his job was only to protect the Jews living in Hebron.

About half an hour later, three international activists were passing by the Qurtoba School when a masked settler ran up the hill towards them, throwing eggs. One activist was hit in the face with two eggs whilst soldiers looked on from the watchtower above the school – they took no action against the settlers saying only “What do you want us to do?”

At around 6pm some settlers – who had previously been bathing in the Abraham spring close to the Islamic cemetery next to Shuhada Street whilst being guarded by a group of soldiers – tried to steal a home-made kite off two Palestinian kids. A Palestinian teenager managed to prevent them from taking it.

At around 6.30pm, a group of about thirty settler youths entered the property of the Abu Shamsiya family in Tel Rumeida. They threw stones at the family who were outside on the veranda preparing food for the iftaar fast-breaking meal. They also beat the 11-year old son of the family, Muhammad. When his father, Abu Shamsiya, went to the soldier stationed at the checkpoint just outside his house to complain and ask for help, the soldier simply told the settlers to go ahead and continue attacking the family.

Abu Shamsiyah complaining to police about the attacks on his family (Photo by ISM)

A settler youth then ran up to Abu Shamsiya and violently kneed him in the stomach right in front of the soldier. Another soldier grabbed Abu Shamsiya’s wife Fayseh, who was filming the incident, by her hair and pulled her to the ground. The police, who happened to be parked in their car just up the road, finally decided to intervene. Abu Shamsiya complained against the two soldiers who had attacked him and his family and were complicit in the settler violence.

In a rare turn of events, the police believed Abu Shamsiya’s story – although the soldiers denied it – and took these two soldiers to the police station for further questioning. However, they did not arrest any of the settlers, who escaped into the Tel Rumeida settlement and the police chose not to follow them. The group of settler youths returned soon after and although Abu Shamsiya and various other eyewitnesses clearly pointed out the attackers to the police, they took no action.

Abu Shamsiya himself was later taken to the police station in order to file an official complaint and so that the police could examine his video footage of the incident. The Abu Shamsiya family were initially hopeful that this might lead to some positive result, but two hours later they got a phone call that Abu Shamsiya was now being detained in the police station on the charge of spitting at soldiers. Clearly the two soldiers whom he complained against wanted revenge and made up this story to incriminate him. His family is deeply worried and hopes he will be released by tomorrow.

Settlers, soldiers and police gathered around the Abu Shamsiyah home following the attack (Photo by ISM)

During the same incident, which attracted a lot of onlookers outside Abu Shamsiya’s house, Palestinians, settlers and internationals alike, a settler woman who is notorious for being extremely aggressive and has attacked internationals and Palestinians on several occasions, started pushing and shouting at an international activist as well as pulling at her scarf to strangle her. This happened right in front of a group of soldiers who chose to just stand by and watch, and even mocked the international activist when she complained and asked whether they thought it was okay for her to get strangled in the middle of the street.

Although the settler attacks in Hebron are not always as numerous and severe as they were on this particular day, none of what happened today is new or unusual to the residents of Hebron. Hebron is the only West Bank city that has settlers living inside the city itself. It is home to a particularly extreme and aggressive settler community, numbering about 500, that constantly harrasses, intimidates and attacks Palestinians with near impunity and the protection of about 2,500 Israeli occupation soldiers stationed in Hebron.