5th April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine Children’s Days around the world are intended to honour, protect and celebrate childhood. Palestinian Children’s Day, commemorated on the 5th of April each year, is no celebration – rather it is a day highlighting the horrific treatment of Palestinian children by the occupying Israeli authorities. In 2013, Children’s Day falls in a period in which arrests and detention of children by the Israeli military has become increasingly common. Defence for Children International- Palestine put the number of children currently detained under the Israeli occupation at 236. In the West Bank city of Al Khalil (Hebron), the rise in child arrests has been particularly evident – two weeks before Children’s Day, 30 children were attacked and detained by Israeli soldiers on their way to school, eyewitnesses stated that they were seemingly grabbed at random from in front of their school (see video below.)
Children, who are detained regularly in Al Khalil, generally have their hands bound and are confined in dark, closed spaces such as checkpoint boxes, along with soldiers who deny access to human rights observers and in some cases the families of the children. There are regular reports of beatings, threats and torture in attempts to force children to admit to crimes.
Pictures of children in checkpoint
In checkpoints in Al Khalil, there are blurred pictures of children’s faces, allegedly from demonstrations, printed and stuck to the walls for soldiers to attempt to identify children as they walk past on their way to school. A recent UNICEF investigation into children in Israeli military detention describes the whole process that often occurs in arrests and sentencing of children, criticising Israel’s failings in safeguarding children’s rights under such legal policies and principles as the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We call for an end to Occupation, so that Palestinian Children’s Day can be a celebration of childhood the rights of children, rather than a day to fight against the injustices committed by the Israeli system against the youth of Palestine.
Detained child being taken to army jeep in Hebron.
4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, ‘Anabta, Occupied Palestine
by Team Nablus
On Thursday 4 April the village of ‘Anabta, near Tulkarem buried two of their young men. Amer Nassar, 17 and Naji al-Balbisi, 18 were shot dead by the Israeli Army at the Enav checkpoint late on Wednesday evening.Amer Nassars body in the morgue. Photo by WAFA News
Despite reports last night that Naji had escaped the Army gunfire, he was found by the Red Crescent medics on Thursday morning after a phone call from the Israeli Army.
Last night Amer was shot in the chest and the Israeli Army prevented his fellow villagers attempts to reach him
resulting in Fadi Abu-A’sr being shot in the arm. Naji was shot in the back, indicating he was running away from the soldiers, which accords with reports taken from witnesses.
The funeral procession was joined by the entire village including Khader Adnan and fellow former hunger striking prisoners. To date there has been no information from the Israeli Army about the fate of Deiyaa’ Nassar, despite reports he was injured at the time of his arrest. His family have been unable to obtain any information from the Army on his condition or whereabouts.
The Army regularly arrest Palestinians, holding them for up to 8 days without access to a lawyer, adequate medical attention or contact with their families. This detention can continue indefinitely and has sparked the mass hunger strikes from prisoners such as Khader and the current hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi, who is in a critical condition after refusing food for over 250 days.
This escalation in violence is a familiar pattern for Palestinians. In recent months the Israeli security forces killed Arafat Jaradat as a result of interrogation tactics. The murder of Amer and Naji and arrest of Deiyaa’, also comes a day after the prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh died as a result of medical neglect. Funeral procession today in ‘Anabta – photo credit ISM
4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, ‘Anabta, Occupied Palestine
By Team Nablus
At 22:30 on 3 April Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition and killed a 17 year-old boy, from the village of ‘Anabta near Enav checkpoint and east of Tulkarm. Amer Nassar was murdered with a bullet to his chest.
Fadi Abu-A’sr was shot in the lower arm.
On hearing the shooting 3 boys from the village went to investigate and saw Amer lying on the floor with soldiers standing over him. The boys tried to reach Amer, but the soldiers would not let them approach and opened fire, injuring Fadi Abu-A’sr with a bullet to his lower arm.
The Army prevented ambulance crews access to Amer for 30 minutes, threatening to shoot anyone that attempted to help. Deiyaa’ Nasser, who attempted to get to Amer was arrested by the Israeli Army and taken to an unknown location.
The body of a Amer’s cousin, Naji Abdul-Karim Balbisi, 18, was found at first light Thursday morning near a house in the vicinity of the checkpoint. He had been hoped, last night, to be missing, still hiding in a factory. He was discovered, shot from behind in the torso, laying in a field.
3rd April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine
Demonstrations have been held today in several cities across the West Bank to protest the death of prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh. A strike has also been held in Nablus, Hebron and East Jerusalem, amongst other cities.
Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh
In Nablus, over three hundred Palestinians, together with international activists, participated today in the demonstration to protest the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh. The demonstration was first held at Shuhada Square, where protesters were holding banners and chanting emotional songs in support of Palestinian prisoners. After an hour, the crowd marched towards Huwwara Checkpoint, passing through Balata refugee camp. As demonstrators arrived at the junction next to the checkpoint, they built several barricades along the road, where Israeli soldiers were already located.
Palestinian youths threw some stones at the jeeps and Israeli soldiers threw tear gas canisters at the crowd. Shortly after that, two jeeps drove by the road parallel to the main one where protesters were and started shooting more tear gas canisters. As demonstrators ran back to get closer to the jeeps clashes continued for several hours more.
In Hebron, clashes were particularly intense, with several demonstrators wounded as Palestinians persisted in their fight against Israeli guns with nothing but stones. The sound of tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets have become a prominent fixture of the last few days in central Hebron.
As the nation mourns, we can only hope that international action is taken to prevent the continuous maltreatment of Palestinians in Israeli cutody. The death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh has brought up many questions about the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, with the PA minister for prisoners claiming Palestine must join the International Criminal Court to stop the disrespect of prisoners rights. Abu Hamdiyeh is the 207th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody.
Protesters running away from Israeli army jeeps near Huwwara checkpoint (Photo by ISM)
The snow that fell on the West Bank village of Urif on January 10 was the heaviest in years, enticing delighted children out of their homes. But snow was not the only thing to descend on the village that morning.
As the children threw snowballs, dozens of Israeli settlers came down from the hilltop settlement of Yizhar, brandishing guns, stones and even a sword.
What happened next was witnessed by Maltese activist Andre Callus, 26, who was in the Nablus region with the International Solidarity Movement, a non-violent group “committed to resisting the Israeli apartheid in Palestine”.
He showed The Times a video of the clashes in the village that day, filmed by the ISM.
A Palestinian can be seen lying on the ground, shot and injured by a live bullet fired by settlers or the Israel Defence Forces that protect them.
Members of the army can later be seen throwing a sound bomb to disperse international activists who appeared to be asking them to keep the settlers away from the village.
“This was an almost daily occurrence in Urif; sometimes settlers’ attacks would happen three times a day,” Mr Callus said.
The situation in this area hit the headlines in the past days when US President Barack Obama made his first visit to Israel and the West Bank since assuming office in 2009.
Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, occupied by Israel since they were captured in the 1967 Six Day War, are widely considered to contravene the Fourth Geneva Convention, although Israel rejects this. Their existence on land recognised as Palestinian territory by the UN is seen as one of the obstacles to a viable two-state solution to the conflict.
In the West Bank from October to January, Mr Callus soon got used to the weary rhythm of violence around settlements which is provoked, he says, by armed settlers entering villages and wilfully damaging property.
“There used to always be a settlers’ guard with them who was famous for having killed people.”
Why? “Because they think the land is theirs, given to them by God.”
Palestinian youths would throw insults and stones in response and the army would come down from the settlements shooting tear gas.
If they did not disperse, the army would fire rubber bullets and, sometimes, live bullets, Mr Callus said.
“I saw 15 Palestinians injured by live bullets in the time I was there.”
As an ISM volunteer, Mr Callus said his main duties were to witness and report events on the ground and to deter or, at least, lessen the extent of violence.
“Maybe if there is a 50 per cent chance of the army using live bullets, the presence of internationals will make it a 30 per cent chance.”
ISM volunteers would only go somewhere if their presence was requested by Palestinians.
The dreadlocked Mr Callus has a well-publicised history of direct action in Malta, particularly against racism.
Although his actions have not always endeared him to conservatives, he is a well-read, highly motivated and articulate individual who dedicates much of his time to fighting perceived injustices.
Mr Callus was unequivocal in describing the situation in the West Bank as “apartheid”. He cited settler-only roads, humiliating checkpoints for Palestinians, harassment from settlers and the army, widespread arrests and the use of military courts as ample evidence of this.
“Settlers are not renegades that Israel has no control over. They are protected by the Israeli Defence Forces. They are actively encouraged to live there by the Israeli Government,” Mr Callus said.
On the other hand, Israel places strict conditions on buildings by Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and demolishes structures that violate these conditions.
According to the UN, 599 such structures were demolished last year, displacing 886 Palestinians, more than half of them children.
“It is a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing,” according to Mr Callus.
For Mr Callus, it is not a conflict between equal sides with equal grievances.
“It’s about occupation, apartheid and the stealing of land. The cause of the conflict is not the conflict itself. The reasons almost exclusively lie in Israeli oppression of Palestinians,” he said.
The most reasonable solution to the current situation would be one secular, democratic state for both Israelis and Palestinians, in Mr Callus’s opinion.
With more than 600,000 settlers now living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Mr Callus does not think a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders is viable, although he accepts this could change.
“Right now, the idea of one secular, democratic state is really difficult to imagine, but it is even harder for me to imagine a two-state solution. Look what happened with South Africa and apartheid – whites once oppressed blacks but now they live side by side.”
Mr Callus wanted to make it clear that he has nothing against the Israeli people.
“What happened has happened and the Israeli Jews have a right to stay there and live in peace. But it is racist to say this land is only for Jews.”
Scenes from the West Bank provided by the Palestine Solidarity Movement
