Author: ISM Media Group

by ISM Hebron, 24th October

Today was the second day of Eid, the three-day holiday after Ramadan. During these three days, families visit each other, something made very hard by the soldiers stationed in Tel Rumeida.

Internationals walking up the hill saw a group of Palestinian residents at the top of the hill and learned that soldiers had yelled at a young Palestinian child who walked by with a toy gun. The boy ran away and was very scared.

The soldiers then detained a man who was walking by and said they were going to hold him until the child was brought back. Some residents went and brought the toy gun back and gave it to the soldiers, showing that it was a toy gun. They explained that the boy was scared and would not be coming back. The soldiers refused this and said they would hold the man until the boy came back.

Internationals repeatedly told the soldiers that their behavior was unreasonable, that it didn’t make sense to threaten a passerby because a child had a toy. The soldiers then started removing Palestinian residents from the street, screaming at everyone and going to the door of the shop, screaming for everyone to leave.

A car of settlers stopped in the street outside the store and started accusing one of the internationals, saying “You cause problems here. Your filming causes problems…”

At this point, the soldiers detained a second man who was in the store. They made him go to the soldier station and tried to take his phone, however an international was able to hold the phone and gave it back to the man. The soldiers again tried to take the phone and were successful.

The man was taken across the street next to the first man who was still being detained. He stood against a wall, but the soldier spent the next few minutes demanding that he sit on the ground, though he was wearing new clothes for the Eid holidays. Eventually he was forced to sit on the ground.

Internationals called Machsom Watch, the DCO (without answer) and the Israeli police.

The soldiers then began telling the internationals to turn their cameras off. Two soldiers went after two internationals, pushing the male international, trying to knee him in the groin, and hitting the camera multiple times. Another batted at the second international’s camera.

The Israeli police arrived and refused to talk to any of the internationals. Instead they initially spoke only to soldiers and then eventually a resident, the brother of the detained men. During this time, the first detained resident got his ID back, and then soldiers demanded the internationals’ passports. One international refused, saying she would give it to the police if they asked, but not to a soldier, who was not allowed to ask for it in the first place.

After the police left, two soldiers began yelling at an international watching from the roof with a Palestinian woman. They told the two repeatedly to go inside and though the international told them she was simply on the roof of her home, the soldiers then started saying in a monologue, “You are refusing to go in? You are refusing? Fine, you have refused,” Two soldiers then entered the building, while others outside blocked the door and prevented other internationals from entering. When one international told the soldiers that there were children in the home and the soldiers would obviously be scaring them, he also asked, “You think scaring the children is funny?” he said, “Yeah.”

After looking around on two levels of the roof (the international and Palestinian woman were in the apartment with the door bolted), the soldiers left and three of them went into the building across the street. Other soldiers stood in front of this door as well, preventing anyone from entering while they looked around on the roof.

When family members tried to leave the building, they refused to let them out, slamming the door in their faces. They were in the home for five minutes.

The police arrived at this moment and began shouting at the soldiers. The police then asked for the ID from the remaining detained resident and gave it back to him. The soldiers continued to remove the Palestinian children from the area.

Dave, an international, sitting in the middle of Shuhada Street watched as soldiers came down the hill and gathered at the checkpoint. They began pointing at Dave on Shuhada Street. Five minutes later, at 2:10pm, two soldiers walked over and stood in front of Dave, asking him to take their photo, which he did.

He was then called to the checkpoint and was told that the commander wanted to talk to him. The commander told him that they would close the checkpoint if he was in the area and not allow anyone to go through. At this point, the checkpoint was already closed, and a family was waiting to leave the neighborhood.

Dave then left the checkpoint and walked to the end of Shuhada Street. However, soldiers shortly forced a Palestinian child to walk down to him and tell him that the soldiers wanted him to come back to the checkpoint. The family was still there waiting, and the commander threatened Dave again, telling him the checkpoint would be closed until he left the area. At this point, after much argument, Dave left the area.

K then went down to the checkpoint and the commander came to the door and asked her what she was doing. He told her to leave and that she makes too much trouble. She explained that she just arrived, to which he replied, “Well, I don’t like the look of you and if you don’t go, I will keep the checkpoint closed until you leave.” After telling him that children such as himself shouldn’t have so much power, she also left.

Another international then went down and walked with two kids down Shuhada Street. She was at the end of Shuhada Street and could not even see the checkpoint, and was filming three small children who were playing for the camera when a soldier at the checkpoint shouted at her to come down and said the commander wanted to talk to her.

At this point, people were waiting on both sides of the checkpoint. The commander threatened her, saying, “You’ve crossed the line today. I have orders that the checkpoint will be closed until you leave.” At this point she also left.

Beth then went down to the checkpoint, taking her time. When she got close enough to see, she saw between 8-10 people, including women and children, being detained across the street from the checkpoint by border police and a policeman. Other residents who were walking towards the checkpoint at this time turned around and went back when they saw what was happening.

Another international came down and the two went closer together, though they were still some distance away. Soldiers saw them and called one international down, saying again that the commander wanted to speak to him. He said, “I told you before to go away. I’ve closed the checkpoint because you’re here. I’m not letting anyone go to your home until you leave.”

A few minutes later, those who were being detained were released, but then 8-10 men who had just come through the checkpoint were detained. A settler boy walking by at this time, simply kept repeating, “Fuck you, fuck fuck.”

Five internationals then went down to the checkpoint where some Palestinians said they had been detained since 3:45. At 4:30pm Machsom Watch was called, who called the DCO, and at 4:45 they were released.

An international asked the soldier, “So you’re punishing everyone because of us.” To which the soldier replied “everyone.” A family came and the soldier said he was stopping this family and wouldn’t let them through the checkpoint until the HRWs left. The soldier confirmed repeatedly that he was willing to punish the entire community if the HRWs didn’t leave. When the soldier began laughing at the situation he was asked if he thought it was funny. To which he replied “Do you think it’s funny my face being on the internet?” Seeing that an entire family was being detained the HRWs were left with no choice but to leave the checkpoint area.

K stayed above the checkpoint with border police, and the commander again told her to leave. He then forced a woman who was waiting at the checkpoint to go over and ask her to leave and said to K, “I can make the Arabs turn against you.”
Then she left.

Internationals came up the hill and saw three toddlers throwing rocks at a Palestinian house. An international yelled at them and they ran away.

by ISM Hebron, 21st October

After a few hours of quiet and calm at the guard post on the top of the hill, one Human Rights Worker (HRW) worker went inside the HRW flat very briefly to retrieve a few things. Just a few minutes after she went upstairs, a group of 6-8 soldiers and a group of 4-6 young settler men (ages 17-22) walked down from the Tel Rumeida settlement and soldier station, walking about 20 yards apart. The settler men came towards the stoop where the HRW and two Palestinian men were sitting; some of them sat near the Palestinian man. The HRW soon noticed that the group of soldiers had stopped just up the hill, formed a line, and were all pointing their guns towards the top floor of a Palestinian home. There was no apparent reason for them to be doing so, so the HRW walked towards them to inquire, but was stopped by the settler men, who had formed a line across the road and would not let her pass. She walked towards the end of the line to get around them, but a settler stepped in front of her path, and pressed his shoulder towards hers to keep her from passing. She persisted, and eventually passed him as he put his tongue in her face and said rude-sounding comments in Hebrew. By the time she got through the line of settlers, the line of soldiers had dispersed. The HRW phoned the flat to request the return of the other HRW and to let another HRW know that there was a potential for problems to arise so she could film from the roof. As she filmed, the settlers continually yelled at her and gave her menacing looks. Soon, one settler walked to the door of the residential building and looked inside. At that point the HRW came down and asked the settler what he wanted, to which he replied, “Do you speak English? FUCK YOU!”, and laughed with his friends.

The HRW came down the stairs at about the same time that another HRW walked up from his post on Shuhada street. All three HRWs observed as the settlers stood around and then were joined by the soldiers. After 10 or 15 minutes, the settlers and the soldiers walked down the hill towards Shuhada street; the male HRW followed them down the hill. A group of five settlers in their mid-twenties loitered directly in front of the main checkpoint in to Tel Rumeida. As Palestinians entered through the checkpoint the settlers positioned themselves so as to obstruct the Palestinians, glaring at them and in one instance shouting at an elderly lady. When the threatening behavior of the settlers was pointed out to the soldier on duty he simply shrugged his shoulders. When a Palestinian was prevented from bringing his large crates of food through the gate that adjoins the checkpoint, the settlers shouted with glee and raised their middle fingers to the Palestinian. On complaining to the soldier on duty, the soldier replied that the settlers where allowed to be there. When it was pointed out that they were making obscene gestures he claimed that he had not seen them. After around 15-20 minutes the settlers departed.

Every afternoon a Palestinian man arrives at checkpoint 56 with a heavily loaded donkey and goes through into the Israeli-controlled H2 section of Hebron. In order to be allowed to take his donkey through the small gate at the side of the checkpoint, the man had to get an Israeli court order as otherwise the soldiers at the checkpoint might refuse to allow him to use the gate. On the afternoon of Saturday, 21 October, the four Israeli soldiers on duty at checkpoint 56 refused to open the side gate for the man and his donkey to pass through, and instead insisted that the donkey pass through the checkpoint itself, through the metal detectors. Once the man had managed to get his donkey through the checkpoint, three HRWs had to negotiate with the soldiers in order to be able to get the man’s many goods through the checkpoint too, in the end
each making two trips through the checkpoint in order to carry the goods through. The soldiers at the checkpoint made the HRWs go back through the metal detectors and empty their pockets of metallic objects, despite the fact that they were clearly heavily weighed down with boxes of bananas, large bags of flour, etc.

The HRWs first contacted the District Coordinating Office (DCO) about the soldiers, who were also only allowing Palestinians to pass through the checkpoint very slowly, but were told they must contact the police. They were told this despite border police and one policeman being present at the time, all standing around doing nothing to ease the congestion at the checkpoint. One of the border policemen overheard the telephone conversation with the DCO and the HRW’s criticism of the inaction of the border police and laughed and said, “Thank you”. The HRWs then contacted the Kiryat Arba police about the soldiers’ overly obstructive attitude but when the police arrived, they first of all stopped two HRWs further down Shuhada Street before even approaching the checkpoint. The policeman who was driving the jeep asked both HRWs their names and where they were from. After answering the questions, one HRW pointed towards the checkpoint, letting the police know that the HRWs at the checkpoint were the ones who made the call, assuming that the police had stopped because of the call, but the police merely acknowledged that they knew who called and proceeded to ask the HRWs questions. They asked how long the HRWs had been standing where they were standing and then said that they shouldn’t stand there because it could make the situation worse. The police more or less said that they want to keep everything calm and that they didn’t want the HRWs to stand there. The HRWs said that they were working for the same reason and that they are allowed to stand on the street. The police asked when the HRWs were leaving, the HRWs answered and once more reminded the police that the HRWs at the checkpoint had made a call and wanted to talk to them. A third HRW walked from the checkpoint to the police car and spoke with the police briefly before the police finally drove towards the checkpoint.

After eventually speaking to the soldiers at the checkpoint, one of the two policemen said that unless the soldiers did something “extreme, we are not allowed to interrupt their activities”. The policeman also said that the man with this donkey needed to carry the original of the court order with him in order for him to pass through the side gate of the checkpoint, although this man comes to the same checkpoint every afternoon with his donkey. After speaking to the soldiers again, the policeman said the soldiers claimed that the donkey having to go through the checkpoint was a “misunderstanding” as the Palestinian man had not understood that the donkey could go through the gate but that the goods had to go through the metal detector in the checkpoint. The policeman even maintained that the soldiers had been trying to help the man. This was not true and the HRW said this to the policeman. Another HRW was later threatened with arrest by the police for allegedly obstructing the soldiers – she had been trying to get them to ease the congestion at the checkpoint by letting the Palestinians pass through more quickly.

22nd October

In the afternoon two soldiers manning checkpoint 56 between Palestinian-controlled H1 and Israeli-controlled H2 continuously harassed Palestinians passing through the checkpoint by not opening the checkpoint doors for them to enter, half opening then closing the checkpoint doors in front of their faces, not opening the checkpoint doors once Palestinians were inside the checkpoint and making even very small children go back through the metal detector one at a time. When challenged by two HRWs as to why they were behaving in this manner, one of the soldiers answered, “because it is fun; it is the best fun”. Security was clearly not the reason for their behaviour as at approximately 5.10pm the checkpoint doors were left open and both soldiers stood outside the checkpoint while one took a photo of the other with his mobile phone as a couple of Palestinians passed through unchecked. At one point the HRWs called the police regarding the soldiers’ behaviour but they failed to arrive.

At 7.05pm a female HRW alone in the ISM/Tel Rumeida Project flat in Tel Rumeida heard voices outside the door and, on opening a window in the door, saw soldiers outside peering in. The HRW asked if she could help the soldiers, to which one soldier answered, “no”. The HRW closed the window again but heard one of the soldiers saying that they wanted money. The soldiers then moved to the staircase and then, after a few minutes, they left the building and moved up the street towards the Tel Rumeida settlement. There were 12 soldiers in total. The reason for the appearance of the soldiers at the flat is unknown, although the HRW did recognize one of the soldiers at the door as one of the ones from the checkpoint with whom she had argued that afternoon about the harassment of the Palestinians at checkpoint 56.