23rd June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Ad Dawa, Occupied Palestine
On the 19th of June, a group of settlers from the Illegal settlement of Itamar attacked a building that was being constructed for solar energy to provide electricity in the village of Ad Dawa, near Aqraba.
Residents of Ad Dawa around the demolished building (Photo by Ad Dawa municipality)
The building was being constructed without a roof to house the solar system, including the solar panels and the water pump to provide Ad Dawa with electricity and water. This is part of a project financed by a Spanish cooperation and the Energy Research Center at An Najah University.
The building, located in a valley with a small pond and over 100 trees on the land including figs, lemons, pomegranates and oranges, was completely smashed and demolished.
Settlers from Itamar settlement frequently attack the residents of Ad Dawa. They usually disguise themselves as soldiers and tell people to leave their own land, attacking farmers and trying to work Palestinian land. Thus, the five families living on the outskirts of the village, in this area, are subjected to continuous settler harassment, violence and land theft.
22nd June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
In the morning of June 22nd, Palestinian, international and Israeli activists marched to the Israeli occupation military checkpoint blocking the West Bank from Jerusalem. Upon reaching the Israeli occupation roadblock, they were stopped by soldiers who violently prevented them from passing through the checkpoint. In reaction, the Palestinian activists prayed at the checkpoint, demonstrating their right to both freedom of movement within their own land, and freedom to worship in Jerusalem.
Protester being harassed by Israeli military in front of checkpoint (Photo by: ISM)
The activists arrived on the Bethlehem road, driving towards the military checkpoint separating south West Bank from Jerusalem. Around fifty meters from the checkpoint, they exited vehicles and marched towards the occupied land on the other side of the checkpoint manned by Israeli occupation military. The activists wore kuffiyehs and carried Palestinian flags, carrying a sign reading “Our land is our right”, “Free”, “Justice.”
Demonstrators were immediately confronted by Israeli occupation military personnel, who refused them passage through the checkpoint and tried to push them back. Palestinian activists were grabbed violently by soldiers, who pulled at their clothes and shoved them out of the road and away from the area.
However, activists refused to back down and instead chanted slogans and spoke about their right to freely enter occupied Jerusalem. An Israeli occupation police car and several military jeeps arrived to further repress the nonviolent demonstration. The violence from the soldiers continued and escalated when activists were threatened with pepper spray. In reaction to this, the Palestinian protesters began praying on the Bethlehem side of the checkpoint.
Following the prayer, the activists stated that they were leaving, but that they would return soon and that the next time they prayed it would be in Jerusalem.
This demonstration aimed to highlight the human rights abuses that the Palestinian people are subjected to every day because of the occupation. Restriction of movement is widespread across the West Bank, with permission from the Israeli occupation authorities being demanded for Palestinians to be allowed to travel their own land. This permission is granted very rarely, and usually excludes people aged 18-45.
Border police officer using force against nonviolent protesters (Photo by: ISM)
In Islam and Christianity, Jerusalem is one of the primary religious sites. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” This human right is blatantly denied through acts committed by the Israeli occupation authorities and military every day.
The presence of international and Israeli activists also highlighted the apartheid policies of Israel, as they would have been permitted to pass through the checkpoint and enter Jerusalem, had they not stood in solidarity with their Palestinian friends, who were not allowed passage. During the demonstration, many Israeli colonists’ cars were granted access easily to the stolen Palestinian land.
Protesters praying in front of the checkpoint to occupied Jerusalem (Photo by: ISM)
21st June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Nabi Salih, Occupied Palestine
On Friday 21st June 2013, around sixty protesters from the village of Nabi Salih and abroad gathered for the weekly protest. First, passing through the Olive grove, they descended the mountain towards the stolen village spring, but were met with a violent reaction from the Israeli military, who shot large amounts of tear gas and some rubber coated steel bullets directly at unarmed demonstrators. The soldiers then invaded the village on foot and in jeeps, shooting into civilian residential areas and injuring one medic. Fires ignited by Israeli tear gas canisters spread throughout the village.
The ‘tempest’ of tear gas (Photo by ISM)
The demonstration started at around 13.30pm, with people gathering after the afternoon prayer. The group of protestors marched to the top of the mountain and started heading down towards their spring, where the settlers who stole it were visible. Two Israeli army jeeps, around twenty soldiers on foot and a private settler security vehicle were present, blocking access to the Palestinian spring. After about five minutes of the villagers walking peacefully towards the spring, the soldiers at the bottom of the hill began firing multiple tear gas canisters towards them. Soldiers who had invaded the village then began firing multiple rounds of the jeep loaded ‘tempest’ onto the protesters from above – using this method around sixty tear gas canisters were fired in the space of two minutes. Fires spread rapidly across the agricultural land of Nabi Salih, started by the heat of the tar gas canisters.
A soldier with a live ammunition rifle appeared to be directly targeting one Palestinian man who started walking closer to the spring, but he escaped safely before the soldiers had shot at him. This was darkly reminiscent of the death of Rushdi Tamimi, who was killed by an Israeli soldier on the same hill with live ammunition in 2012.
Twenty soldiers guarding the spring (visible on the right) stolen by illegal settlers of Halamish (Photo by ISM)
On the edge of the village, several jeeps and soldiers on foot invaded. They began firing rubber coated steel bullets directly at children and journalists as they moved between houses. One journalist was hit with a steel bullet on his midriff. The soldiers then advanced to the centre of the village, firing directly at protesters in the olive groves; these two instances were breaking the Israeli military’s own rules of engagement, which state that tear gas canisters must be fired at an arc into the air and not straight ahead and that steel bullets should be shot below the waist. One medic was present and was targeted directly by an Israeli soldier who threw a heavy metal sound grenade at his head. A tear gas canister was then shot at his foot, causing injury and burning his trousers. Nabi Salih medics have recently spoken out against the Israeli military targeting them during demonstrations – see report here. Several tear gas canisters were also fired at short range into the petrol station of Nabi Salih, risking igniting the fuel sources there.
The village of Nabi Salih has been demonstrating against the theft of the natural spring and the occupation since December 2009. Israeli forces violently suppress the weekly Friday protests by shooting tear gas canisters, skunk water, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets and even live ammunition at protesters. Two people have been killed, Mustafa and Rushdi Tamimi, and many others severely injured. Resident Bassem Tamimi, has spent 17 months in Israeli jails, merely for being a prominent activist at the protests. After more than three years and despite the repression, Nabi Salih continues to fight against the injustices of a brutal military Israeli occupation.
Palestinian medic just after he was hit in the head with a sound grenade (Photo by ISM)
On Friday, June 21, the residents of Kafr Qaddum gathered for the weekly demonstration following the Friday prayer. Many residents were prevented from attending the prayer, as 60 soldiers entered the village before the demonstration even began.
Protesters having much more fun than the Army (Photo by IWPS)
At approximately 11:30, people in the village noticed soldiers entering from the main road closest to Qedumim settlement. They quickly gathered to keep the soldiers away, building defensive stone barricades along the main road. As they faced-off with the army, Israeli soldiers repeatedly pointed their guns at the crowd in order to scare people back to the center of the village.
Nearly one hour later, the soldiers descended down the main road, firing many tear gas canisters and sound bombs at the fleeing crowd. Many people suffered from tear gas inhalation and the surrounding shops and houses also filled up with toxic gas.
At 13:40, the army entered the village again, led by a bulldozer, which cleared away some of the barricades and provided cover for the approaching soldiers, who continued to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators.
At 14:00, one protestor was shot in the back with a plastic-coated steel bullet and was carried away to receive medical attention. Ten minutes later, a camera man and a correspondent for Palestine TV were violently beaten and arrested by the army, showing the Israeli military’s clear disregard for freedom of the press and a journalist’s right to report the news. All of their equipment was confiscated and throw into a nearby field.
Car window shot out by Israeli soldiers (Photo by IWPS)
Demonstrators shouted for the men’s’ release to no avail. Twenty minutes later, two more young men were shot with plastic coated steel bullets, one in the chest and another in the arm and the stomach.
Approaching 15:00, yet another young man was shot in the hand with a plastic-coated steel bullet, severely cutting his fingers. Following his injury, the army raided the village for the last time of the day when nearly 30 foot soldiers chased protesters back to the center of the village, firing tear gas and sound bombs.
The Israeli army presence continued into the early evening and at 16:00, the group of fifty protestors celebrated their daily acts of resistance by eating ice cream, dancing and singing in front of the 30 remaining soldiers and border police.
20th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Azzun Atma, Occupied Palestine
Demonstators in the construction zone for the new wall in Azzun Atma (Photo by ISM)
UPDATE 21th June: This morning, the 21st of June villagers from Azzun Atma gathered at the school where construction for the new wall started three days earlier. The villagers performed midday prayers together before marching around the school on to the land that bulldozers had worked on. They then hung Palestinian flags on the mesh barbed fence standing between the school land and the settlement of Sha’are Tiqva to signal their definance to the latest of a continuing policy of land theft, encroachment, isolation and deprivation of their lives by the Israeli occupation forces.
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On the 18th of June, two bulldozers arrived with Israeli forces in the village of Azzun Atma, southeast of Qalqilya, and began to work on the land behind the village’s school, to what is believed to be the construction of the new wall.
Accompanying the bulldozers to the village was the Israeli army and border police, including the local Israeli army commander who said the action was based on a High Court decision by the Israeli government. He said it was in order to protect their citizens, and if anybody tried to stop the construction, they would then close the gate to the village, the only way in and out.
A digger works on land behind the school as soldiers watch nearby (Photo by ISM)
Two weeks prior to this, the Israeli army put up signs stating that this is where the construction of the new wall would begin. The villagers fear that this new construction is being done in order to replace the current two metre barbed mesh fence that surrounds the village from all sides and separates it from the settlements nearby, with the concrete wall. The wall’s existence and constant deviation from the Green Line is justified by the Israeli authorities by citing security concerns for its citizens, in this case the illegal settler colonisers in the area.
Azzun Atma is located two kilometres east of the Green Line and encompassed on three sides by the current wall, constructed in 2002, which leaves the village within a settlement block and separates it from the rest of the West Bank. The only way in and out of the village is through a military checkpoint with a small gate. The village is thus stranded in the “seam zone” between the Green Line and the wall, surrounded by settlements, placing it under full Israeli military control. There is another checkpoint into the other side of the Green Line that people with work permits may cross, though there is a constant threat of the gate being closed and work permits being denied. Access to and from the village, therefore, is dictated by the Israeli military.
Palestinians living in the “seam zone” require permanent resident permits from the Israeli authorities to live in their own homes and work on their land. There are often few health and education services available in the “seam zone”, and those living inside it have to rely on checkpoints being open to reach workplaces and essential services.
The school where the construction is taking place has provided education for 300 children in Azzun Atma and a neighbouring village since 1966. Every day, the current wall and checkpoint restricts the freedom of movement of teachers and students. The school has so far lost one dunum of land to the wall and the septic system faces demolition orders.
When the second wall is constructed, Azzun Atma will be isolated from the rest of the West Bank by the already existing wall (see the red line on the map) and the new wall which will further close off the village from the settlement block and the rest of the West Bank (see the black line on the map).
Azzun Atma (Map by OCHA)
In 1982, the Israeli authorities established two illegal settlements: Oranit to the northwest and Sha’are Tiqva to the northeast of Azzun Atma. The settlements have expanded over the years, and more than 2500 dunums of the village’s land have been stolen by them. Sha’are Tiqva now comes within metres of Azzun Atma, and since 2005, villagers have been subject to verbal harassment from settlers. The wall, though purported to be a security measure, is essentially another way for the Israeli government to steal land from their Palestinian owners and isolate villages and cities from each other, turning them into easily controllable cantons.
Isolating people and making daily life as hard as possible under occupation is a tactic used by the Israeli authorities to force villagers to leave their land and homes. However, residents of Azzun Atma remain steadfast in their land and will continue to resist the land theft, isolation and deprivation of their lives by organising protests.
