Author: ISM Media Group

Boston Globe: “Israeli Policy divides Palestinian families”

by Matthew Kalman, September 23rd

Immigration crackdown in West Bank

EL-BIREH, West Bank — Nariman Yazbak and her 2-year-old daughter, Salma, left their home in the West Bank town of El Bireh last April for a routine visit to relatives in Jordan.

Six months later, she is still trying to return. Yazbak’s husband, Rami, a human resources specialist at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, has petitioned the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli government, the Israeli Army, and even written to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for help. He has filled out all the forms and presented all the necessary documentation, but no one will process the paperwork.

The Yazbaks are among the thousands of Palestinians caught in what human rights activists call a bureaucratic nightmare that has divided families, prevented visitors of Palestinian origin from visiting relatives in the West Bank, and is inducing many long-term West Bank residents to leave their homes.

Israel, which controls all the international borders leading to the West Bank, says it is not trying to break up Palestinian families. It says it is merely implementing existing immigration law and preventing foreign nationals from living in the country illegally.

But Palestinians, many of whom were born abroad and do not have Palestinian identity cards, say the Israelis suddenly clamped down after the January election of the Hamas government, when Israel broke off all ministry-level contacts with the Palestinian Authority after years of allowing them to live in the West Bank on three-month tourist visas.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says in a report issued in July that the result of the policy is “the forced break-up of the family unit.”

The report, “Perpetual Limbo: Israel’s freeze on unification of Palestinian families in the occupied territories,” suggests that the Israeli crackdown is part of a broader policy to limit the growth of the Palestinian population “by preventing the entry of spouses and children of residents, and by stimulating emigration from the area.”

The Yazbaks say the result is that they will probably be forced to move abroad.

Rami Yazbak is a Palestinian, born in the West Bank, who returned in early 2000 with his Spanish-born Palestinian wife, Nariman, to their ancestral homeland.

“It was a dream to live in Palestine and to have my family, wife, and kid here,” he said.

No one knows how immigrants like Nariman Yazbak can be granted Palestinian permanent residence, which under the Oslo peace accords requires the agreement of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Since the second intifadah erupted in 2000, there have been no contacts between the relevant ministries. So, like thousands of others in a similar position, for the past six years she has been leaving the country every three months and returning with a new three-month tourist visa issued at the border by the Israelis.

In April, as Nariman and Salma returned as usual via the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge linking Jordan to the West Bank, they were stopped by immigration officials and turned back. Their passports were stamped “Entry Denied.” Rami Yazbak has contacted every Israeli and Palestinian official he can find, but so far without success.

“I need my family,” he said. “I’m giving it one last chance. We might appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court, but I’m afraid they will reject it. Otherwise we will have to go to Spain and start again from zero.”

For Palestinians with Jordanian citizenship, the troubles began at the start of the second intifadah in 2000, when Israel stopped allowing Jordanian-Palestinians to re enter the West Bank if they were effectively residing there.

Wahel Hushia, 35, from the West Bank village of Katana, married a Palestinian woman from Jordan in 1999. In 2001, his wife went to visit her parents in Jordan with their baby daughter, and the Israelis never allowed them back. Hushia visits them every few months, whenever he can afford the fare, and their West Bank-born daughter, now 6, comes to stay with his family for a few weeks per year.

“We cannot have any more children, because if they are born in Jordan, the Israelis will never let them in,” Hushia said. “I last saw them four months ago.”

The Palestinian Ministry for Civil Affairs reports that it has received more than 120,000 requests for family reunification since September 2000, which the Israelis refuse to process. In a few cases, after intervention by B’Tselem and other human rights groups, Israel has granted a few individual requests on a piecemeal basis, as “exceptional cases.”

East Jerusalem lawyers Ibrahim Khoury and Ehab Abu Gosh said there are dozens of similar cases before the Israeli courts.

Khoury cited the case of one family in Beit Hanina, an area of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, whose members left for the United States in 1967 but maintain extensive property holdings and visit each year to see relatives. He said the father of the family, a US citizen, was recently detained on arrival at Ben-Gurion airport and held in the cells there for three weeks before an Israeli judge ordered him released pending a final decision on his status.

The US Consulate-General in Jerusalem, which handles relations with the Palestinian territories, said it was receiving several new complaints every week from Palestinian-Americans who were being denied entry after living in the West Bank for years.

Sam Bahour, a prominent West Bank businessman, has lived in El-Bireh since 1995. He applied to Israel for residency in the West Bank before the Palestinian Authority even existed but never received a reply. For the past 11 years, he said, he has traveled to and from the West Bank via the Israeli-controlled borders with Jordan on a three-month tourist visa. But the last time he went to the Israeli authorities they refused to extend it for more than one month.

He was given until Oct. 1 to leave the West Bank, and the Israeli soldier who stuck the visa in his passport scribbled “final permit” across it in English, Arabic, and Hebrew.

“I hope to find the decision-makers within the Israeli system and resolve the issue,” said Bahour. “If not, I will be separated from my family. My work has already been affected. I have been unable to take on any new projects in the past 45 days.”

“I won’t violate the visa and stay here illegally,” he said. “I won’t give the Israelis that gift.”

Sabine Hadad, spokeswoman for the Israeli Interior Ministry, denied there was any policy change.

“There has been a clarification of the instructions,” Hadad said. “. . . When a foreigner, from the USA or any other country, comes to the border and they know they are coming to visit the territories, they need a visitors’ permit for the territories, from the army.”

Harry Potter and the Spell of Transportation

Harry Potter during his guest appearance in Hebron

by Alizarin Crimson and Harry Potter

At 6:45 PM on September 22nd, human rights workers (HRWs) in Hebron paid a visit to their neighbors, the Abu Haikals where they were shocked, SHOCKED to find that soldiers had yet again, invaded the home.

HRWs rang the bell of the house and politely asked the soldiers to be let in. After receiving no response, HRWs realized that the soldiers, fearful of HRWs entering, had barricaded themselves in the house using a desk to secure the door from the inside.

What the soldiers did not know was that Harry Potter had paid a visit to Hebron that day and had followed the HRWs to the Abu Haikal house. Using his Spell of Transportation, Harry magically transported* three of the HRWs inside the house where soldiers were shocked, SHOCKED to turn around and find NONE OTHER than Harry Potter and his non-violent army of HRWs filming the soldier’s shenanigans.

HRWs noticed that the IOF soldiers were messing with the families’ computer. When asked what they were searching for, soldiers replied they were looking for weapons or “evidence.”

You may click here to listen to the audio of the following conversation Harry Potter had with the soldiers or read it below:

Harry Potter: I think you should search the settler homes, you will find lots of weapons there…What do you think personally, if you’re getting in this house once a week or three times a month, you know, harassing these people here, giving them a hard time and the settlers instead are walking around with their huge guns, throwing stones at school kids and all that stuff. You feel fine protecting them ? Honestly, I mean.

Soldier 1: No comment…. I’m not protecting them, I’m protecting my country.

HRW 1: From whom are you protecting your country ?

Soldier 2: I’m protecting my country and my conscience is clean”

Harry Potter: Why are you protecting your country HERE?

Soldier 2: Because this is also my country.

Harry Potter: This is the West Bank.

Soldier 2: So what ?

Harry Potter: You think the West Bank is Israel ?

Soldier 2: Who, who are you to tell me what is Israel and what is not ?

Harry Potter: I’m just curious what you think.

Soldier 2: Yes, this is Israel. You can open the Bible, the holy…

The remaining three HRWs stayed outside the home and were able to force the door open just enough to lodge a brick between the door and the frame, creating a hole just big enough to film the soldiers searching through the families’ computer.

After approximately half an hour of searching the computer and not finding any “evidence,” the soldiers got bored and asked the HRWs who had been continually banging on the door to please move so they could leave. Six Israeli soldiers emerged from the home, empty handed and somewhat irritated.

Upon examining their computer, the Abu Haikals discovered that the soldiers had left some graffiti in Hebrew and had deleted some software.

The graffiti reads “the one who dares, wins. Unit Palchod 96”

Feryal Abu Haikal commented, “They haven’t been here in about a month, it was time for them to come again.”

* Everything in this report is completely true except for the way in which HRWs entered the home which will remain classified for “security” reasons.

Tarqumia “Terminal” – A Checkpoint by Any Other Name

by Lilly

Six hours. This is how long Palestinians have to wait before they can pass the “terminal” at Tarqumia in the West Bank, which leads either into Israel or, eventually on to the Gaza Strip. The soldiers at the checkpoint deny this. “All they need is permission from the District Coordination Office (DCO, the civil administration wing of the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories) and ID-papers and they’ll get through in one minute,” says Schlomo, who is the commander at the checkpoint.

Already at three o’clock in the morning the Palestinian workers arrive at the checkpoint. At best they can pass at nine into Israel with their goods, or onto Gaza via Erez or Karni, the two possible crossings into the Strip.

Those who want to visit family members who are imprisoned in Israel also come to the checkpoint. Most of Israel’s prisons are in Negev desert in the south and no matter where you live in the West Bank, you have to pass through the checkpoint in Tarqumia. At five in the morning the visitors arrive. It is not until twelve midday that they can continue to visit their loved ones after submitting to humiliating security procedures and routine strip searches.

“It’s a lie,” says Hasan, one of the soldiers, but changes his mind as soon as he sees us writing. Symbolically he holds his hand in front of his mouth and then says that it’s not a lie at all, and that he cannot speak about this matter. His colleague Schlomo says, “All that’s necessary is permission from DCO and ID-papers and they’ll get through in one minute.”

Permission is needed from the DCO, to be able to visit the prisons. The families have to wait several months before permission is granted. Unsurprisingly, the information given to us by Palestinians about their experience at the checkpoint conflicts with the soldier’s version.

“Two days ago I saw a person who had been handcuffed, both hand and foot. They forced him to lie with his head on the ground and with his mouth open and then forced a gun in his mouth,” says Asam, who owns a car repair shop nearby.

The checkpoint was built ten years ago and was then called as such. It was expanded two years ago into a more developed control system, and the Occupation Forces started referring to it as a “terminal”. Now, Israel has new ideas for how the “terminal” should function, which in practice means Palestinians will have to wait at the checkpoint for three days before they can go through. A system like that would be devastating for the Palestinian economy, which already is almost non-existent.

In the town Idhna, a couple of kilometers from Tarqumia, 17,000 out of a total of 36,000 dunums have already been confiscated. 2,100 people live in Idhna and they are completely dependent on their land to survive. In 2005, 3000 dunums were stolen from the village when Israel started to build the wall. On the other side of the wall there are 7000 olive trees that belong to the citizens of Idhna. They can’t get to their land. Fifty wells have been either destroyed or made inaccessible at the same time as the wall was being built. The wells are on land behind the wall.

Five thousand dunums have already been stolen to establish a “buffer zone” in front of the wall. Buffer zones are established to make sure Palestinians will not be able to get close to the wall. The remaining 9000 dunums are behind the wall.

“Missiles have not been stopped by the wall. We are no fools. We know the wall is being built by Israel because they want to steal our land and transfer the people that live here,” says Jamal, the mayor of Idhna. Twenty families have ended up on the other side of the wall. Contact with the village is difficult. “It will get worse when the wall is finished. To get to their houses, they have to ride on donkeys. There are no roads to where they live anymore. They have been destroyed by Israel,” Jamal continues. The families are being threatened with house demolitions if they refuse to move off their land.

There have been one hundred deaths in Idhna since 1956, as a result of attacks by both Israeli army and settlers. Many people have been injured, but despite the difficult situation, Jamal only wants the occupation to end and for Palestinians to be able to live in freedom.

“We want peace between Palestinians and Israelis. We don’t want people to die.”

    Notes

  • Four dunums equals one acre, and can also be quantified as 1,000 meters squared.
  • Checkpoints take many forms, and can be either permanent, partial (an established checkpoint operating periodically) or ‘flying’ (temporary roadblocks enforced by one or two Israeli military jeeps). At a checkpoint, Israeli soldiers check Palestinian ID papers against lists of “wanted” persons, and search cars, packages and persons. Checkpoints have been established so that Israel can control Palestinian movement within the West Bank and at the borders of the Gaza Strip.
  • “Terminals” are a more recent phenomenon and amount to an attempt by Israel to unilaterally enforce permanent borders. They are essentially upgraded checkpoints, built to look like international border crossings or airport terminals. They are sometimes placed near the internationally recognised Green Line border, but more often they encroach on Palestinain territory as in this case between Tarqumia and Israel. One of the most notorious of these new “terminals”, Qalandia checkpoint actually divides Palestinian Jerusalem from Palestinian Ramallah. There is a similar checkpoint on the way to Bethlehem from Ramallah. The Occupation authorities claim this change was to make life easier for the Palestinians passing through the new “terminals”, and point to extra lanes and better facilities added to what were once shoddy structures. But in practice, the extra lanes are rarely opened and the better facilities simply allow for better crowd control and serve to distance the soldiers from the human face of their victims. Through the more permanent nature of these structures Israel is seeking to create “facts on the ground”, driving out all hope of a two state solution.
  • District Coordination Office, DCO – Created as a result of the Oslo Accords and originally consisting of both Israeli authorities and Palestinian Authority representatives. At the start of the Al-Aqsa intifada, Israel kicked out the PA. The DCOs are now essentially no different from the old, notorious Civil Administration wing of the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Popular Committee Member Targetted in Bil’in

by an ISM Media office volunteer

At the weekly anti-Wall protest in Bil’in today around 75 villagers, internationals and Israelis tried to march to the site of the illegal Wall but were stopped by soldiers on the edge of the village. As the demonstrators tried to march through the olive groves the soldiers started firing tear gas and rubber bullets, forcing the peaceful protesters back into the village.

Soldiers invaded the village and arrested Mohammed Katib, member of the Popular Resistance Committee against the Wall, from one house for no apparent reason. He was held for over an hour before being released. Soldiers fired multiple tear gas cannisters and shot rubber bullets at villagers as they made several forays into the village.

Injuries:
Adib Abu Rahme – rubber bullet in the stomach
Nasser Abu Rahme – rubber bullet in the arm
Sharar Mansour – rubber bullet in the leg

Haaretz: “Routine Anarchy” of the Israeli Colonies

by Akiva Eldar, September 21st

Last Tuesday, the Interior Ministry held another session of the inquiry commission on changing Modi’in Ilit’s status from that of a local council to a city. Ostensibly, this is a routine process of upgrading a community that meets the accepted standards. In effect, we have before us another example of the anarchy prevailing beyond the Green Line.

While the Interior Ministry discussed the proposal to grant Modi’in Ilit local council head Yaakov Guterman the lofty title of “mayor,” the State Prosecutor’s Office central district was discussing the criminal file of that same Guterman, who is suspected of fraud and breach of trust. Guterman is suspected of being selected as council leader (not elected – he was appointed based on rabbinic instructions) even though he was actually a resident of Bnei Brak.

Elsewhere, in the offices of the National Fraud Squad in Bat Yam, there has been an ongoing investigation since this March into the large-scale illegal construction in the Matityahu neighborhood of Modi’in Ilit. The High Court of Justice has already ordered a halt to the construction of 1,500 housing units, which were built contrary to the municipal master plan, and the State Prosecutor’s Office agreed to submit the matter for police investigation.

Among those who appeared before the investigating committee was Shmuel Heisler, the local council’s internal auditor, who exposed the case of the illegal construction. Dror Etkes, head of the Peace Now’s settlement monitoring team, also appeared before the committee. Etkes disclosed that during Guterman’s tenure, a school was built on privately owned Palestinian land. He has current photos of bulldozers preparing the ground for a new park, which is, amazingly enough, also on gentiles’ privately owned lands.