Today the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) visited a family in Haris whose son had been shot after he passed through Huwarra checkpoint on the way out of Nablus. Their son Salem is 19 years old and has permission to travel to Nablus. He works at Barqan Industrial Complex. He had been in Nablus after work on Saturday 12th August to pick up some things for his family. On the way out he passed through the checkpoint on foot without any difficulties from the army. He then got in a taxi about 50 metres from the checkpoint.
His father reports, that after waiting many hours in the hot sun at the checkpoint to leave Nablus, some people got very angry and the soldiers started running at the crowd and firing into the air. Salem was sitting in a taxi some meters from the checkpoint when a stray bullet came through the rear of the taxi and hit him in the back.
He was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where he stayed for four days. The bullet is lodged less than a centimeter from his spine. The doctors say that they cannot take the bullet out as they do not have the capacity to do so without causing permanent damage to his spinal chord. Salem is now home. He is able to walk very slowly but is in some pain. The family would like him to be able to get an operation overseas to remove the bullet but it is possible he may not get permission from Israel to leave the West Bank, even for medical reasons.
Today, B’Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, are publishing Perpetual Limbo , a report on Israel ‘s policy of freezing family unification for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Although the policy affects almost every Palestinian family living in the Occupied Territories, it is unknown to the Israeli public.
For almost six years, since the beginning of the second intifada, in September 2000, Israel has forbidden Palestinians of the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses who are foreign residents. Israel also prohibits the foreign family members from visiting the Occupied Territories. Israel refuses to process the more than 120,000 requests for family unification that have been submitted during this period.
The freeze policy severely infringes the right to marry and found a family of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians: spouses are unable to live under the same roof; children are forced to grow up in single-parent families; people do not leave the Occupied Territories because Israel will not allow them to return; women who are foreign residents live in the Occupied Territories with no legal status and thus face the constant threat of deportation.
Israel contends that the freeze resulted from the intifada and the security situation. However, Israel has never explained how the policy serves its security needs. Indeed, research suggests that Israel is using the arbitrary and non-transparent freeze policy to advance forbidden demographic goals.
The report, it should be noted, does not deal with family unification inside Israel , but rather with Palestinians wishing to live with their foreign spouses in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel holds exclusive power over the ability of these families to live together. Only Israel can approve requests for family unification and visitor’s permits, given its control over the Palestinian population registry, and its control over the border crossings into the West Bank. Even following the disengagement, Israel retains complete control over family unification in the Gaza Strip as well. Israel continues to control the Gaza population registry, with spouses and children of Palestinians who do not carry a Palestinian identity card being forbidden from entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Instead they must enter through a border crossing controlled by Israel.
In the report’s conclusion, B’Tselem and HaMoked urge the government of Israel to immediately begin processing the requests for family unification and visitor’s permits.
Rina, center, carries fake bloody bodies with other demonstrators to represent an entire family killed by the Israeli army
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rina Klauman, a Danish citizen from Copenhagen, and Lymor Goldstein, Israeli and formerly of Germany are still being hospitalized for their injuries from a demonstration in Bil’in village on Friday against the confiscation of 60% of Bil’in’s farmland by the separation wall and Jewish settlements.
The injuries of Rina, who was beaten on the head by border police, and an Israeli lawyer, Lymor Goldstein, who was shot in the head with a plastic-coated steel bullet on Friday, are the most serious injuries the army has caused in Bil’in since Ramzi Yassin, who was shot in the head with a plastic-coated steel bullet. Ramzi, from Bil’in, was handing out water during a demonstration in Bil’in on July 8th 2005, when he was shot in the side of the head. The bullet caused severe bleeding of his brain and he was left unconscious for 7 days and with permanent brain damage.
Last night Rina was transferred to Hadasa Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem from the Hebron hospital in the West Bank for more extensive tests. They found in an MRI that she has small bleeding in her brain from a concussion she received when an Israeli border policeman beat her with his gun at the demonstration.
She is not able to walk and suffers from vomiting, but is able to talk and in stable condition. It is possible that if the bleeding does not subside, however, she may need complicated surgery to drain the blood.
Lymor is currently in a stable condition at Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv. He was taken in for immediate surgery, which took 3 hours, and a rubber bullet as well as shards of bone and damaged brain tissue were removed from his head and an internal hemorrhage was stopped. It is likely that he will need several more surgeries to correct his vision, and at this point it seems the only brain damage he has incurred affects his sight.
Bil’in village has held protests at least once a week since January 2005 against the separation wall that cuts through the village, and almost every week non-violent protestors are injured by the military’s violent repression of their demonstrations.
For more information:
ISM media office 02 297 1824
IOF armoured bulldozer used to demolish homes in Askar camp
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today, August 15th 2006, at approximately 1 am, soldiers of the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) launched a military incursion into the Askar Refugee Camp (population 15,000), in the Nablus region. During the military operation, two homes were bulldozed, at least four homes were occupied, seven people were reported injured, one woman died due to being blocked from reaching a hospital in time by the army, and at least five were arrested.
People inspect the rubble of a demolished home
The incursion lasted approximately ten hours, and ended around 11am. The siege utilized a large military force including three armoured bulldozers, over twenty military jeeps, three armoured troop transports and at least seven hummers. During the attack, two homes were completely demolished by bulldozer, and four homes were occupied by the IOF and used for military purposes. This process included using the windows of homes as sniper positions. While such operations were ongoing, families were forcibly removed from their homes and made to congregate in the street or in neighbours´ homes. Also, during the assault, many automobiles were smashed and shot, while at least one was burned. Following the incursion, the electricity was cut in the entirety of Askar Camp.
There were at least eight injuries during the assault according to the manager at Rafidia hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC). Rafidia hospital reports treating four individuals, two of whom were shot by rubber coated metal bullets, and two of whom were shot by live ammunition. The PRCS reports treating two individuals, one shot with rubber coated metal bullets, and one hit with shrapnel in the back. In addition, the UPMRC treated one woman who was injured in her eye by shrapnel from a concussion grenade. The nature of the other three injuries are unknown.
Many people throw stones and burn tires in protest of the invasion
During the early hours of the operation, an elderly woman of the Tibi family had a heart attack, and because her ambulance was prevented from reaching the hospital in a timely manner, she died upon reaching al-Watani hospital. After the woman was transported via ambulance, the IOF prevented the family from arriving to the hospital to view the body. After the woman was evacuated from the house, the IOF occupied the home, and used it as a firing position. From this occupied house, IOF soldiers fired live ammunition and threw concussion grenades at international activists and unarmed Palestinian youths.
All of the arrests were from the Annadi family. During the incursion, the mother, three cousins and nephew of a man named Murad were arrested and transported to an unknown location. Murad is an employee of the Palestinian Authority.
Seven international ISM activists, two Palestinian ISM activists and one Palestinian volunteer with the UPMRC joined with the people of Askar to provide support during the incursion. During their work, the IOF assaulted the internationals, attacked them with concussion grenades, and fired live ammunition in their direction on four separate occasions. The ISM activists were able to de-arrest five men, four by negotiation and advocacy and one by physical intervention.
Such incursions are a frequent occurrence in the villages, towns and camps around Nablus. Approximately forty days ago, the IOF came into Askar Camp and assassinated one man.
For more information please contact:
Saif (Arabic, Spanish, English): 00972599963273
Lina (Swedish, French, English): 00972548139195, or 00972599076568
Israeli activists have uploaded a video of the shooting of Lymor and the initial violence of the Israeli military in Bil’in on Friday, August 11th. To view it click here. Higher quality for broadcast is also available from the ISM media office
The video clearly shows the Border Police unit firing on the demonstrators from close range. There is no evidence that the soldiers were in danger. Typically, the military spokesperson has claimed that “activists threw stones” and Haaretz’s article yesterday reiterating the same false information. The video also clearly shows the commander of the unit saying, “This is Lebanon!” as he orders his force to fire on retreating demonstrators, and “I will not allow a demonstration during wartime!”
The commander, Majdei, made this decision despite a military court decision in August 2005 that people in Bil’in have the right to protest on their land on the village-side of the apartheid wall. Every week since the wall was finished in March 2006, the Israeli military has also denied them the right to protest on their farmland on the other side of the wall. The wall separates villagers from 60% of their farmland, half of which has already been annexed and developed by Jewish settlements.
In addition many villagers have been arrested in the night during army raids for participating in the demonstrations in Bil’in. Two villagers are still in prison: Esaam Matar, 29, has been imprisoned eight months and the military has ruled he is to be deported to Jordan; and Muhammad Burnat, 19, has been imprisoned for 3 months and has not yet had a trial for his alleged crimes.
According to official military regulations, which were reported in the Hebrew version of Haaretz today, soldiers are not allowed to fire from a distance closer than 40 meters. They are instructed not to fire at vital areas of the body and only to fire when they are in immediate danger. Each week during demonstrations in Bil’in, many non-violent demonstrators are injured in the head, neck and chest.
The Israeli who was shot in the head and a Danish woman beaten with a gun on Friday are the most serious injuries the army has caused since Ramzi Yassin, who was shot in the head with a plastic-coated steel bullet. Ramzi, from Bil’in, was handing out water during a demonstration in Bil’in on July 8th 2005, when he was shot in the side of the head. The bullet caused severe bleeding of his brain and he was left unconscious for 7 days and with permanent brain damage. Haitham al Khateeb of Bil’in, Yonathan Pollack, an Israeli, BJ from Denmark, and Phil of Austrailia were hospitalized at different times all for rubber bullets injuries to their heads at close range at Bil’in demonstrations, except for Haitham who was hit by a tear gas canister fired at his head.
Lymor, who was shot on Friday, is currently in a stable condition at Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv. It took the ambulances about an hour to get from the site where he was shot to the hospital. He was taken in for immediate surgery which took 3 hours, and a rubber bullet as well as shards of bone and damaged brain tissue were removed from his head and an internal heomorage was stopped. Before the surgery he was totally clear and aware even though he was in a lot of pain. After the surgery he was moving his arms and legs while he was under sedation. He was taken off sedation around 7pm yesterday evening. He can move his limbs and can talk but is having trouble with his vision.
Rina, from Denmark, is also currently in the hospital in Hebron, suffering from severe concussion caused by an Israeli soldier beating her with his gun. She is stable, but is still having trouble walking on her own.
