4th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Israeli military in h2 setting off to H1 for routine arrests and house raids (Photo by ISM)
Update 7th July: On the 6th of July the Israeli military has once again disregarded the law and entered H1 to terrorise the Palestinians in this area of the city. This is not a rare occurance, as soldiers make it a routine in which Palestinians are dehumanised and terrorised.
In the early hours of the morning on the 6th of July at roughly 1am, 10 Israeli soldiers equipped with automatic rifles, helmets and backpacks left the Israeli military base in Tel Rumeida and started moving toward H1. Before they began ascending the hill past the gate that seperates the 2 zones, 2 soldiers decided to urinate on Palestinian homes, a sheer sign of disrespect and an affront to decency. After these soldiers returned from their operation, they descended upon the Youth Against Settlement centre in the Olive Grove asking questions about certain members and threatening to make arrests.
Israeli jeeps heading towards h1 (Photo by ISM)
Nearly 2 hours after this happened, at roughly 3am, 5 Israeli military vehicles, 3 jeeps and 2 carriers, accompanied by 20+ soldiers drove from H2 into H1, and according to Ma’an news, made 2 arrests. This ostentatious disdain for the idea of Palestinians having a peaceful life is nothing but an act of terrorism.
**************
During the evening of July 3rd, at approximately 8pm the Israeli military, under the orders of a new commander, illegally invaded H1, the Palestinian controlled area H1 of Hebron (Al Khalil) and spent the evening harassing families by various methods.
The illegal and flagrant incursion into H1 consisted of eight soldiers on foot, equipped with heavy machine guns and tear gas attachments, followed by two soldiers in a jeep. They attempted to intimidate Palestinians on the streets who questioned why they were committing this act. As they reached their destination, two soldiers stopped anyone coming near a Palestinian home that four soldiers invaded. Two positioned themselves on the roof of the home, while another two soldiers brought family members outside to search and question them. They proceeded to push one boy in his teens against the wall and search him in a humiliating fashion. After they had finished harassing this particular family, the soldiers patrolled the streets of H1 before finally returning to illegally occupied H2. Palestinians in the area told international volunteers that these dehumanising routines were not new; however a new commander was in place and he, like previous commanders, was abusing his power in order to oppress the population of Al Khalil.
Israeli Military’s illegal incursion into H1, Al Khalil (Photo by ISM)
Since the 1997 Hebron Agreement, H1 is supposed to follow the same rules as Area A, which means the Palestinian Authority are hypothetically in control (of civil proceedings and security issues), whereas H2 is the equivalent to Area C in which the Israelis are in control, though 30,000 Palestinians still live in this section of the city and are brutally oppressed on a daily basis. When the Israeli military moves troops into H1, it is a violation of the Hebron agreement, an example of Israel’s contempt for laws, be they national or international and moreover, evidence of their contempt for the Palestinian people.
3rd July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Dura, Occupied Palestine
On Tuesday, between two and four a.m., the Israeli occupation forces invaded the town of Dura, near Hebron in the West Bank and killed 19-year-old Moataz Idris Sharawneh. They shot him with three dum-dum bullets to the chest (a weapon declared illegal under international law)[1]. Then while he lay on the ground he was severely beaten by the soldiers and run over with their jeep, at which point he died.
Poster made about Moataz’s martyrdom (Photo by ISM)
Soldiers prevented friends and family members from reaching Sharawneh to get him medical treatment. As Sharawneh’s nephew tried to reach him, soldiers shot him in the arm with a dum-dum bullet and then arrested him; since then, no one has heard from him. ISM spoke with the family in Dura yesterday, and his sister Nevin, who is studying to be a medical secretary, related a detailed account of his life and martyrdom.
This is what Nevin shared with us.
Throughout his life, Moataz acted out of love for his country and supported his people’s resistance. He was on the front lines whenever there were clashes with the military, and he was also attending a military college in Jericho with the intent of becoming an officer.
His first goal was to pass his high school exams to get into the military college, to be able to defend his country. His family tried to keep him out of clashes, but they couldn’t because he was determined to resist the occupation and regarded martyrdom as a honourable act. Four years ago, even at 15, he presumed that he was going to be a martyr. On his Facebook account he had a page about the martyrs of Palestine, stating that they are above all of us.
Previously Nevin would laugh when the boys were in the street trying to catch the jeeps. Whenever Moataz came from clashes, his hands were black from tires. He would say that he was fixing car tires, in order to hide his participation from his mother and so that she wouldn’t prevent him from going out.
He was the main provider for his family, after the death of his father four years ago. In between semesters in college he was working in construction, to raise money for his studies and help his family. He was very close to his sister Nevin, who described them as “one soul in two places”. He was so good to his family that he never said no to them. However, he would never agree to anything that was wrong, and he was always trying to fix things, giving advice to his friends when needed. He always wanted to make things right.
Like many young people, he didn’t pray, but a week ago he started to pray a lot. In every call for prayer he was the first to go to the mosque. He was waiting for the next prayer. On Sunday night between 2-5 am he was praying in the mosque and he said he wanted to pray until his last breath. Two days before he started to have strange dreams, seeing his father. The day before his death, he was silent all day, but he was smiling to everyone as usual.
A month ago there was an incident, something had been set on fire, and all of his friends were implicated and arrested. He told his mother and his sister, “All my friends are in prison, so I guess I’m the next”. He had a friend, called Islam Asir, who was killed by the Israeli soldiers two years ago. Moataz had his friend’s jacket, the one Islam was wearing when he was killed. Last night he said to his family that he wanted to wear this, so that he would be with his friend if he was imprisoned or martyred.
In the evening before his martyrdom, he prepared to go to a friend’s wedding. He had a shower and he shaved and went to the party. He told Nevin to prepare his dinner for when he came back. When he returned, he sat with Nevin, his nephews and nieces in his sister’s room, and they were talking and having fun and stayed awake until 1:30 a.m. Then Nevin told him to go to sleep.
Nevin had just fallen asleep, when she was awakened by a loud noise. She opened the window and the door of her room. Moataz was standing in the corridor and asked what was going on. She told him she heard soldiers outside. She looked out of her window and saw two Israeli jeeps.
The last words he said to his family were “God; resistance” (Allah, al moqawama).
A memorial set up in the place where Moataz Idris Sharawneh was killed (Photo by ISM)
The first thing the family heard was that Moataz was injured by a bullet in his stomach. Just an hour after he went to the street, his brother called them to say that Moataz was in the hospital and he was dead.
His nephew, Bahaa Sharawneh, was with him when they went out on the street. He was also wounded in his hand, but he was never able to go to the hospital. The Israeli soldiers took him with them and until now the family has not heard anything news about him.
One of Moataz’s friends, who was at the scene where this happened, told the family everything that he saw. Moataz wasn’t throwing stones at the jeep, but he was standing on the side as the jeeps were passing through. When they saw him they turned back. He then took a large stick and smashed the cameras on the jeep, which are used by the Israeli military to take pictures of stone throwers, in order to arrest them later.
When the jeep returned, Moataz opened its door and he saw somebody he knew inside, and realised that this person was collaborating with the occupation forces. Moataz tried to take a picture of him to prove that he was a collaborator. The soldiers and the man pushed him outside of the jeep and they smashed his camera. He then saw some guys on the street holding a Palestinian flag and took it to put it on the jeep. When the soldiers saw him coming with the flag, they drew their guns and shot him. Three bullets. These were not just bullets; they were bullets that explode.
Soldiers prevented anybody from giving any first aid to Moataz as he lay on the street. His friends tried to reach him to help, but they were obstructed because the soldiers didn’t want him to tell anybody about the collaborator inside the jeep. At that point the soldiers started kicking him. Palestinian youth nearby started to throw stones at the soldiers, who began retreating. Moataz was still breathing at that time, but the soldiers, seeing he was still alive, drove over him.
In the morning news, soldiers claimed that the incident consisted of clashes between mafia and that the mafia was responsible for Moataz’s death. Later on a radio show, they told the interviewer that Moataz had been defending himself, so they shot him. The body of Moataz was taken to the Palestinian hospital ‘Alia for an autopsy to determine the cause of death factually. The autopsy confirmed the facts described above, which were that the body was beaten and shot with dum-dum bullets.
Moataz had enrolled in college, studying to be a sergeant in the Palestinian security forces. His colonel, who was responsible for the course, came to Dura to bury him beside his father. He took good care of him because he thought Moataz was a great guy and a great student. All of his professors and teachers were there.
Nevin relates that she is sad for herself, having to adjust to living without him, but she is also content that he found what he was looking for. She added that when they kicked him they were cold blooded, and they treated Moataz like an animal, without regard for human rights. He was shot at close range and was also prevented him from getting help.
Nevin knows that Moataz was not the first nor will he be the last martyr in Palestine. But she wants her voice to reach the international community and for them to hear her story because this was a cruel act of injustice. She said that she will do her best to keep up with the good cause.
[1] Hague convention of 1899 (IV,3): Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Bullets which can Easily Expand or Change their Form inside the Human Body such as Bullets with a Hard Covering which does not Completely Cover the Core, or containing Indentations http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/dec99-03.asp
7th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Anata, Occupied Palestine
On Friday the 5th of July on the outskirts of Anata, Jerusalem, there were violent clashes between Palestinian shebab (youth) and the Israeli army. At around 3pm Israeli army jeeps drove up towards the town of Anata and began taking photos of homes. Thirty minutes later local shebab arrived and began to throw stones at the army who then responded with tear gas and rubber bullets until past 8pm.
The Bedouin community of Anata (Photo by ISM)
The clashes took place around a road linking the town centre to a ring road which circles the annexation wall separating the West Bank from Jerusalem. On either side of this road are two Bedouin communities living in tents who are caught inbetween the weekly violent clashes that they themselves do not participate in.
Around twenty soldiers with military vechiles blocked the road near one of the Bedouin communities before walking up the road and alongside the tents. Internationals present communicated to the army to stay away from the tents and not fire gas into them. The army and shebab continued to clash throuout the afternoon and evening around the tents. The army repeatedly shot tear, rubber bullets and threw sound grenades at the shebab, at times firing from inside the grounds of a local mosque. A number of times the army walked through tents with weapons ready in total disregard for those living inside.
The weekly violent clashes often last four or five hours and have resulted in the army shooting multiple rounds of tear gas into the Bedouin tents. The Bedouin experience clear physical and psychological trauma from the clashes with a number of them suffering from asthma due to the regular exposure to tear gas. A local watermelon salesman whose stall is located between the two Bedouin communities – and therefore also in the middle of the clashes – recounted the screaming of the Bedouin children when the army arrived in previous weeks.
Israeli soldiers shooting rubber bullets close to the Bedouin community (Photo by ISM)
Some of the family members in one of the communities are deaf and mute leaving them unable to hear the tear gas and evade its path. No Bedouin were injured this week though residual tear gas blew into the tents. One shebab was shot in the leg by a plastic coated steel bullet but did not seek medical attention.
The families pay rent to live on the land but have no premission to build and thus have constructed tents from scrap wood and sheets with bare ground for floor. The tents offer little protection from the tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets.The communities have been home to a number of families and their livestock for the past two years. With scant support from people of the town of Anata the Bedouin are then left to endure the conquences of the weekly clashes in and around their homes.
7th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Qusra, Occupied Palestine
On Wednesday July 3rd the Israeli army entered the village of Qusra, south east of Nablus, issuing eleven demolition orders on houses and buildings. At 9am two army jeeps arrived at the home of Seqer Musbah and presented him with demolition orders for the house he had built for his brother and family five years ago. When he tried to speak with the army commander he was told, “Don’t talk to me, talk to the court.”
Home of newly married couple Yusef and Sundis Rizek, now under demolition order (Photo by ISM)
All the houses and buildings were built at least five years prior, some as long as ten years ago and are spread across different parts of the 5000 population village. The village is classed as Area B and thus under Palestinian civil control. The orders though state that the houses are in Area C and therefore under full Israeli civil and security control despite a number of owners getting permission from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to build there, on the understanding their properties were in Area B.
A 2012 report from the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, Demolishing Homes, Demolishing Peace states, “Israeli officials explain this type of demolition by stating that Palestinians are violating the zoning and planning laws and that the demolitions are merely law enforcement.” In fact, home demolition is used as a tactic by the Israeli authorities control the expansion of Palestinian villages, with the wider aim of ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
Musbah’s family have lived on the land in question since 1965 and in 1995 had demolition orders on a neighbouring house also belonging to the family. The family took the case to court and ended up paying 10,000 shekels to the Israeli government to stop the demolition orders. When looking for the paperwork from 1995 in a briefcase full of documents, Musbah referred to it as the “bag of troubles”.
Yusef and Sundis Rizek, a newly married husband and wife also have demolition orders on the house they share with Yusef’s sister, her husband and four children. The family have lived in the house for ten years and had planned to build further on the land to house more family members. They had permission from the PA to build the house and stated in disbelief, “Why did they not come to talk to us when we started to build the house? Why now? Where will we go if the house is destroyed? We spent all our money on the house and land. We have no other place and no more money. If they destroy this house, where will we go?”.
PA planning permission for Qusra home now under demolition order (Photo by ISM)
A month prior, in June, twenty agricultural buildings in Qusra donated by a foreign European government also had demolition orders issued against them. The village not only faces constant harassment from the Israeli government but also from settlers and the Israeli army who protect them. Settlers from the nearby illegal outpost of Esh Kadesh regularly attack the village injuring locals, damaging land and property.
One local stated, “The Israeli army, government and Shin Bet. All of them work together. Now all the time they attack. Why now? We are strong. They see this, so they want to.” The villagers have collectively hired a lawyer in Jerusalem to work on the case in court, though none will be able to attend the proceedings there as permission is routinely denied to the majority of Palestinians to travel to the city. Even though Musbah’s family have documents proving their house was built in Area B, he has chosen not to play solo with this potential advantage but to fight collectively because, as he said : “We are one people, and this land is the collective property of the Palestinian people, we will speak with one tongue.”
7th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine
The weekly protest in the village of Nabi Saleh was, as usual, met with extreme violence by Israeli forces. Tear gas canisters, rubbers coated steel bullets and skunk water were shot at unarmed protesters.
After midday prayers, over fifty Palestinians together with international and Israeli activists met in the centre of the village to march down the main road. As demonstrators walked passed the gas station, several Border police officers approached them from the hill located to the right of the road and shot several rounds of rubber coated steel bullets. When the march dispersed, the skunk water truck drove forward spraying people and homes.
The protest continued for an hour and a half during which Israeli border police were shooting demonstrators with tear gas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and skunk water at close range.
Unlike every other Friday, Nariman Tamimi, a prominent activist from Nabi Saleh, was not able to attend the demonstration as she was in a partial house arrest. Nariman and Rana Nazzal were arrested at last week’s protest and spent three days in jail. They are accused of entering a closed military zone and had to pay 2750NIS each on bail in order to be released. The prosecution is asking for one week under house arrest. They are currently awaiting the judge’s decision.
