21st February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
The fifth annual “Open Shuhada Street” campaign took place on Friday the 21st of February in Hebron. Five people were arrested and 13 treated after being shot by rubber-coated steel bullets during a peaceful demonstration to open Shuhada Street for Palestinians.
On the 21st of February about two thousand Palestinians and international human rights activists took part in the “Open Shuhada Street” demonstration in Hebron, Occupied West Bank. The demonstration, organised by Palestinian activist group Youth Against Settlements and Hebron Defence Committee, started at the Ali Al-Baka mosque and then went towards Bab Al-Baladiya. Bab Al-Baladiya is a small square in front of the gate leading to Al-Shuhada Street at the illegal settlement Beit Romano.
Shortly after arriving at Bab Al-Baladiya the Israeli Forces threw a large amount of stun grenades right into the crowd of peaceful demonstrators and shot teargas at the part of the demonstration that had not yet gotten close to Bab Al-Baladiya. Several Palestinians were arrested following the chaos caused by more than ten stun grenades being thrown in a short time span. This dispersed the demonstration into several smaller groups.
Following the demobilization of the peaceful demonstration by the Israeli forces, clashes erupted near Bab Al-Zawiye.
According to medical sources thirteen were treated for injuries caused by rubber-coated steel bullets and a large number was treated at the hospital or on the spot for excessive teargas inhalation. A total of five were arrested.
Al-Shuhada Street, once the main market street in Hebron, was made off-limits to Palestinians following the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994, when American-born Israeli Baruch Goldstein shot and killed 29 and wounded 125 Palestinians that had been praying inside the mosque.
The street was partially reopened to Palestinians following the Hebron Protocols in 1997 but was closed again to Palestinians after the outbreak of the Second Intifada. February the 25th, 2014 marks the 20thanniversary of the massacre.
