Author: ISM Media Group - Page 283 - International Solidarity Movement

Struggles in Susiya

By the ISM Media Team

The morning of June 30th, 2007. 12 human rights workers (HRWs), members of the ISM, CPT, EAPPI, and residents of surrounding villages went to visit a family in the village of Susiya in the Southern Hebron region. The Susiya Village, located 20 km outside of the Hebron area, is a poverty-stricken zone which Palestinian families have called home since the 1830’s. The land was once a place of many caves and homes. The homes and caves have been demolished, rebuilt, and demolished again by Israeli settlers, with the full support of the Israeli government.

Susiya Village is located between Susya settlement and the ruins of an old synagogue. The settlers therefore want to connect the settlement with the synagogue. Some of the Palestinian land owners have deeds for their lands, some do not. This makes no difference however, as the Palestinians are not allowed to use their lands as the area is officially declared a closed military zone.

The Palestinian residents have suffered from the sabotage of their land and property by settlers and soldiers. The have had their houses and wells demolished, their goats killed and their roads blocked. The case of Susiya is especially important since it may become a precedent for other villages in A3. The people living in Susiya earlier made their living from agriculture and without their lands they have no income. Uniting the nearby villages in the struggle for their lands is critically important.

Soldiers, police and settlers are working together to permanently annex Susiya’s land. Palestinian complaints are, regularly taken by the police, filed, but not followed through on. Israeli propaganda has flipped the truth and that is why it is important for Susiya to get attention from the outside.

The HRWs were taken on a tour around the lands, were shown demolished houses and caves, and for the first time in several years the presence of internationals made it possible for Palestinians to walk on the road to Yatta. This was the beginning of a continued international presence in Susiya, aiming to support them in their struggle.

Hebron: Resistance to More Land Theft

By the ISM Media Team

June 29th, 2007. On Friday evening about 20 human rights workers including members of ISM, EAPPI and CPT went to the Jabari family home which is situated on land between the Kiryat Arba and Givat Havot settlements. Settlers have constructed a footpath crossing the Jabari’s land in order to connect Kiryat Arba to Givat Havot. In 2002, settlers erected a tent on the Jabari’s land which they call a synagogue. The tent was dismantled twice by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) but the settlers rebuilt it. Currently there are no plans to dismantle the tent, instead the settlers are not supposed to enter it. If this is not making any sense to you, then you are not the only one. I can’t make any sense of it either.

The Jabari family asked members of the human rights groups to accompany them to their land so they could clear the dried grass and prepare the land to be used agriculturally again. The family has not used the land in the last six years, because of settler harassment, especially from settlement guards who are stationed across the street. This is despite a court order allowing them to do so. In the past, the family grazed their sheep and goats and cultivated fig trees and grapes on the land.

We arrived on the land and began pulling up the grass and packing it into bags for the animals to eat. The family eventually plans to plant olive trees on the land. We called the Israeli police before we got there to alert them to what we would be doing so they would be present to prevent any mischief and interference from settlers. Last time the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) came here, settlers prepared breakfast in the form of eggs and tomatoes to the head. The army and police eventually showed up and stood around but did not try to interfere. Settlers came and went; one placed a chair on the footpath, produced a Torah, and began praying.

The greatest thing about the action was that the family was able to bring their goats onto the land to help finish the work. Fear of settlers harassing the family and hurting the goats had prevented them from doing this for a long time.

We left as it began to grow dark, but not before we had tea and snacks and some of use got to ride the Jabari’s Arabian horse!

The walk back to Tel Rumeida was chock-full of the usual settler and soldier shenanigans which Hebron is known for. Palestinians are prevented from driving cars on the road that splits Kiryat Arba and Givat Havot. So they walk, or ride bikes, or ride horses. Oops, wait, I take that back, they can walk their horses, but they can’t ride them. A couple of Palestinians on horseback rode down the street and were ordered off the horses by soldiers. It was like they were in the 6th grade and the hall monitor was telling them not to ride their bike in the hall. Except it was some teenaged soldiers telling 30 year old men they had to walk their horses.

Walking down worshipper’s way we were greeted by settler saliva and rocks as they passed us on the way back from the Ibrahimi mosque/synagogue back to Kiryat Arba. We informed the army of this and as usual they did nothing.

At the mosque, Issa, our fearless Palestinian ISM coordinator was detained by soldiers who asked for his ID and searched his bag. In the meantime, another soldier had spirited away a teenaged member of the Jabari family who had been accompanying us.

The soldier took him over to a dark corner and it was a minute or so before we realized that the soldier was violently searching the boy and punching him in the stomach. As soon as we noticed and started screaming at the soldier, he stopped and released the boy.

The is something I have seen quite frequently, soldiers in Hebron will not beat a Palestinian if they know human rights workers are watching, so they try to sneak them away to someplace where we can’t see and as soon as they are discovered, they stop because they know what they are doing is wrong.

In the future, the local human rights groups plan to continue to accompany the Jabari’s to their land so they can begin cultivating it once more.

Tel Rumeida: 15-year-old Boy Hit By a Soldier in a Police Car

By the ISM Media Team

June 29th, 2007 – At approximately 10 o’clock two 15-year-old boys where detained by The Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) for shaking the fence surrounding the Jewish cemetery. The cemetery is placed opposite one of the boys home and the boys where playing on the road. When the boys passed the check point at the top of Tel Rumeida street the soldiers detained them. An international human right worker (HRW) asked why they were detained and one of the soldiers replied “Because they need to suffer for touching the fence into the cemetery.”

After approximately an hour and 10 minutes the police arrived but they drove off without even questioning why the boys where detained. After another 35 minutes the police came back and took the two boys away in a police car with two police officers in the front seats and two soldiers in the back with the boys. The father of one of the boys tried to get into the car with his son but he was blocked by the soldiers.

The boys returned after 15 minutes. The police had taken them around in the car while the soldiers asked them different questions. One of the boys told an international HRW about the tour in the police car afterwards. He said that his friend answered a question from one of the soldiers and that the soldier replied by hitting him on his cheek.

Three Houses Demolished in Nablus

June 29th.

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) is currently invading the city of Nablus again after they retreated early this morning from the old city.

IOF invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus Wednesday night after midnight, calling a curfew, demolishing road blocks, and performing house-to-house searches for resistance fighters.

Announcements over loudspeakers and local radio stations instructed Palestinians to go inside their homes and declared much of the city a closed military zone, including areas where resistance fighters are suspected to be, such as schools, banks, taxi stations, and markets.

Two military helicopters patrolled the skies over the old city and the Balata refugee camp from morning to afternoon. The old city and Balata further suffered loss of electricity as the power supply to both areas was cut.

Palestinian sources reported over 80 army vehicles, including hummers, jeeps, and heavily-armored jeeps, within the old city, not including those vehicles outside the old city. Bulldozers removed road blocks at the many road entrances to the old city, facilitating later entry of army jeeps.

Numerous houses and several buildings were occupied by the IOF and turned into military bases and lookout points, including the Soosa, Ahmed al Bizray, and Fatyr buildings. Two Nablus hospitals, Rafidia and al Watani, were surrounded and occupied by military forces, and the oxygen supply to al Watani hospital was cut.

Palestinian and international Human Rights Workers patrolled areas of the old city last night, accompanying Palestinians to their homes and engaging with soldiers to allow safe passage of the civilians.

After the day’s invasion yesterday, at least 8 Palestinian civilians were wounded by rubber bullets, with over 8 arrested. An additional 8 Israeli soldiers were injured by Palestinian explosions inside the occupied city.

While the reason given for the invasion was the search for wanted resistance fighters, the Israeli Occupation army left in its wake 3 demolished houses, destroyed by explosions, which both international humanitarian volunteers and Palestinian Medical Relief workers were prevented access to. It is yet unknown how many have been wounded or killed in these late night demolitions. The neighborhood around the demolished houses was declared a “closed military zone” and ambulances were prevented from approaching to offer aid.

In the course of accompanying Palestinian civilians back to their homes in the old city, 3 medical relief workers were arrested without cause, despite the efforts of other aid workers and international human rights workers to have them released. All three are believed to have been later released, one badly beaten by soldiers.

The day’s activities left a toll of at least 8 known wounded, 3 demolished homes, at least 3 arrested civilians, and substantial destroyed infrastructure.

Bil’in: 2 Israeli Demonstrators Arrested

By the ISM Media Team

June 29th 2007. Many internationals and Israelis joined today the Palestinian residents of the village of Bil’in in their weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall and the occupation – and of course in solidarity with Iyad Bornat, who has been arrested since the previous demonstration. As usual, the peaceful demonstrators, among them many children, chanting and holding Palestinian flags, tried to reach the Wall/Fence.

Credit: Emad Bornat

As soon as the first demonstrators arrived at the point of the road where the soldiers had put barbed wire, the soldiers started to shoot tear gas canisters at them. Because of the amount of tear gas, the direction of the wind and the high temperature, the majority of the demonstrators were forced to step back. Two Palestinians, an Israeli and three Internationals managed to stay at the area despite the soldiers bombardment of teargas. A teargas canister nearly hit one of the internationals in the leg.

An Israeli demonstrator, former soldier of Golani battalion, was in the front talking for a long time to the soldiers, through a huge cloud of gas. A Palestinian member of the Popular Committee of Bil’in and an international tried to extinguish a small fire caused by the gas canisters. A few more internationals and Palestinians managed to reach the area. But finally the soldiers attacked the peaceful demonstrators with gas and sound bombs, and they arrested the Israeli demonstrator. Later we were informed that there was also an Israeli woman arrested.

The demonstrators tried several times to step forward again, but they were dispersed with teargas and rubber bullets. Palestinian residents of Bil’in, some of them children, also faced the same treatment while there were trying to collect the gas canisters.