Author: ISM Media Group - Page 7 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli police demolish Gawi tent for the third time

1 November 2009

On Sunday 1 November 2009 at 9:50am, eight Israeli police vehicles and about 20 heavily armed police accompanied by several municipality officers arrived outside the Gawi family house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem. Despite failing to present a valid court order, they quickly demolished the tent where the Gawi family have been living since they were forcefully evicted from their home on 2 August 2009.

The tent and the few remaining family belongings – chairs, mattresses and blankets, water cistern, gas heater and food – were loaded onto three pick-up trucks and taken away. By 10:10am, the demolition and confiscation were completed.

The tent destroyed today was built to replace the original protest tent that was in a similar scenario demolished and confiscated last Thursday. It was the only shelter the Gawi family was left with since they were forcefully evicted from their home in August. With very limited chances of finding alternative accommodation and in an act of resistance, they continue to live and sleep in a tent, on the sidewalk opposite to their now occupied house.

The new makeshift tent didn’t, however, provide sufficient protection for the family against the changing weather conditions – especially evenings and nights are very cold in Sheikh Jarrah, with strong chilly winds. Over the weekend, during the heavy rains, the family was forced to sleep in an empty lorry container for one night.

Background

The Gawi and Hannoun families, consisting of 53 members including 20 children, have been left homeless after they were forcibly evicted from their houses on 2 August 2009. The Israeli forces surrounded the homes of the two families at 5.30am and, breaking in through the windows, forcefully dragged all residents into the street. The police also demolished the neighbourhood’s protest tent, set up by Um Kamel, following the forced eviction of her family in November 2008.

At present, all three houses are occupied by settlers and the whole area is patrolled by armed private settler security 24 hours a day. Both Hannoun and Gawi families, who have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah is home to 28 Palestinian families, all refugees from 1948, who received their houses from the UNRWA and Jordanian government in 1956. All face losing their homes in the manner of the Hannoun, Gawi and al-Kurd families.

The aim of the settlers is to turn the whole area into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families isjust a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces raid Al-Ein refugee camp, arrest thirteen

1 November 2009

Family holding photographs of their two sons, Yassar (20) and Ahmad (17), arrested during military night raid on El-Ein refugee camp on 27 October — Family holding photographs of their two sons, Yassar and Ahmad, arrested during a night raid on El-Ein refugee camp on 27 October

Thirteen Palestinian boys were arrested in a raid on Al-Ein refugee camp outside Nablus, Wednesday 27 October. With the exception of one, all boys were aged 17, in their final year of school, and had no previous convictions. Amongst the arrested were two brothers – Yassar, 20 and Ahmad, 17. ISM activists visited the family’s home in the camp.

Yassar and Ahmad’s mother speaks frankly of the sudden, unprovoked attack on their small home in the camp. At 2am, as the family slept, Yassar was awoken by the unmistakable sounds of the Israeli military entering the camp, soldiers knocking on nearby doors and demanding to know the whereabouts of his family. Yassar ran to wake his siblings and parents as he heard a voice at the door saying “this is the house”.

A loud knock came on the door and one of Yassar’s young brothers opened it to face 10 armed Israeli soldiers, faces masked and covered in camouflage paint. The soldiers entered the home, immediately forcing all members to hand over their identity cards. The army remained in the house until 4am, forcing the entire family to stay awake in the small front room as military personnel came and went, checking their IDs, moving through the house but asking few questions. Eventually the ID cards were returned to all the family, except Yassar, who was taken by the soldiers. The family learned soon after that Ahmad, Yassar’s younger brother had been taken from his grandmother’s house nearby, along with six of his friends.

The family is in the dark as to why the two young men were arrested. Yassar had been released 2 months ago after serving 30 months in an Israeli prison, from the age of 17. During his imprisonment his family were not permitted to visit him even once. He served half of his 60 month sentence before being released on parole – now detained again, the family fears that they will not see him for another 3 years or more. Just days before, Yassar had been telling his mother of his plans for the future – to apply for technical college this week to gain certification in a trade, enabling him to leave his employment in a food factory. Now these plans may be put on hold for years to come.

Five months ago Ahmad was briefly detained for questioning by the PA, allegedly because a friend of his had mentioned his name to Israeli soldiers when he was detained at a checkpoint. The PA police subsequently came to Ahmad’s house and told his family that “We can take him now, or the Israelis can come and take him later”. Understandably, Ahmad then surrendered to the PA police. This case illustrates clearly that the Israelis can, and do, give orders to the PA, whose forces then carry out the dirty work within the West Bank for Israel.

Yassar and Ahmad are both being held at Huwwara prison and their mother alone has been granted one visit, on the 1st of November, after being in contact with different legal groups working for the rights of prisoners of the illegal occupation.

There are currently 11,000 Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel, many of them with no access to legal aid, education or their families in Palestine.

Village of Iraq Burin invaded by Israeli army in the aftermath of a settler attack

31 October 2009

The village of Iraq Burin, in the southern region of Nablus, came under attack again today in a display of force yet more brutal than last Saturday’s clashes with settlers and Israeli military forces. Palestinian youth clashed with 30 settlers on the edge of the village only to be driven back, as Iraq Burin was invaded by approximately 50 Israeli soldiers, firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and sound bombs on civilian residents. One man and woman were injured and another man arrested.

In a repeat of last week’s events, at 2pm 30 settlers approached the eastern edge of Iraq Burin from the illegal settlement of Bracha, reaching a now-decrepit well that lies on a small hill opposite the village. In a bizarre display of provocation (the well is located in very close visual proximity to Iraq Burin itself, and well within its rightful territory) the settlers proceeded to not only pray on the lands, facing the Palestinian youth that had gathered on the opposite side of the valley to watch, but in fact descend in to the well to swim.

The theatrics were shortlived however, as once again the settlers took up stones and began hurling them at the young boys from the village, who returned the attack with more stones. The Israeli army, who had been observing the situation from the nearby military watchtower that lies between Bracha and Iraq Burin, chose only now to intervene. 40 soldiers, arriving in six jeeps along a small agricultural road from the settlement now entered the fray on foot, driving the Palestinians back to defend their village as the settlers retreated, of their own volition, to the well to watch the ensuing violence from their vantage point.

As the youth were forced back to the village by the army, another two jeeps carrying a further 10 soldiers entered Iraq Burin from the western side, trapping them between the two units. Israeli Occupation Forces, now well within the confines of the village unleashed a torrent of tear gas and sound bombs and fired rubber-coated steel bullets at the retreating Palestinian youth.

Three ISM activists entered Iraq Burin at approximately 4pm, to the sound of gunfire and detonating tear gas and sound grenades. The stench of the gas and smoke hung heavy in the air as young boys with rocks – their only weapons – in their hands ran past and families – some huddled around their windows, some gathered on rooftops – watched the scene unveil below. Activists witnessed IOF forces aim long-range tear gas directly at youth in the street, passing less than a foot from their heads, and sound bombs fall within metres.

The army exited Iraq Burin a half hour later, firing more gas back upon the village as they went. Not long after a Red Crescent ambulance was able to depart for Raffidiya Hospital, to provide Sayad Faqeeh with immediate medical attention. Faqeeh had been hit directly in the foot by a long-range tear gas canister, which not only releases clouds of suffocating smoke but at a range of 350m is often used by the IOF as a – at times, fatal – weapon itself.

As activists were able to move through the village they discovered a second victim, Salwa Faqeeh. An Israeli soldier had beaten her in the face and chest with the butt of his gun as she tried to stop them beating her husband, Wael Faqeeh, who was subsequently arrested. ISM learned that he had been released approximately 3 hours later.

The Saturday attacks are fast becoming an expectation for the people of Iraq Burin, who say this year has seen a chilling increase in the level of settler violence in the region. The Israeli military’s subsequent display of brute force may have become a harsh reality for the village, but serves only to strengthen its spirit of resistance.

Villagers from Burin plant 50 olive trees to replace those destroyed by settlers

29 October 2009

On Thursday, 29 October, a group of international activists accompanied Palestinian farmers and villagers from Burin to the planting of approximately 50 olive trees as a part of the ‘10,000 Trees for Nablus’ campaign to replace some of the trees destroyed by settlers during the harvest.

Although the Nablus region saw fierce rains on the morning of the tree planting, there was a strong turn up when the action began at noon. Around 60 pupils from the Burin Girls School joined the march to the fields, followed by many more Palestinians of all ages. The demonstration was also attended by 30 members of the French solidarity organisation CCIPPP (Campagne Civile Internationale pour la Protection du Peuple Palestinien). In total, the tree planting was attended by between 150 and 200 people.

Although the trees were planted close to the city of Burin, and not in the threatened lands near the illegal settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha, the planting was an important act of resilience and a testament to the Palestinian steadfastness in their demand to be allowed to work their fields. It is hoped that this will be only the first of a series of tree plantings around Palestine, including in the threatened lands found around almost every illegal settlement in the West Bank.

These acts are vital due to the constant harassment by settlers. In Burin alone, this season has seen farmers and activists threatened by armed settlers on the 16 October, an arson attack against a building under construction on the 13 September and the cutting down of some 150 olive trees by masked settlers with chainsaws on the 28 September. When farmers attempted to protest this criminal act on the following day, they were forced off their land by the Israeli military.

Settlers and army attack farmers in Qaryut, leaving five wounded

27 October 2009

At around 8am, on Tuesday 27 October, olive farmers from the village of Qaryut, south of Nablus, were physically assaulted by settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Shilo. At least two Palestinian children were injured by the settlers, one sustaining an injury to his arm and the second one to his foot. When the Israeli forces arrived, they allowed the settlers to leave the scene, as the soldiers started attacking the Palestinians. One man was hit in the back of his head by a soldier’s rifle, only to find himself detained. The Palestinian farmers were ordered to stop picking and return to Qaryut.

Shortly afterwards, however, the village was raided by the army. Fearing that their fathers, husbands and sons would be arrested, the local women formed a human chain around them. The Israeli army responded to this non-violent act of resistance by showering the women with pepper-spray and hiting them with their rifles. It was at this time that Wegdan Mohammad Khalid, a 42 year old woman from Quryat was hit in the back with a rifle butt by an IDF soldier. She was taken to the emergency room at the Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus, suffering from great pains in her back. According to Red Crescent medics, at least five Palestinians were treated for injuries during the morning.

In spite of the heroic, non-violent resistance by the women of Quryat, the army managed to arrest one Palestinian and detained him at the police station in Shilo. Following the arrest, a large congregation of Palestinian men and women assembled near the settlement, demanding his release. For several hours, the villagers stood in solidarity with the detained man and were repeatedly pushed around by the Border Police, who prevented them from getting closer to Shilo.

The attack occured on one of the limited dates the District Coordination Committee (DCO) has allocated to Qaryut for picking olives. Today’s events will thereofre have a significant economic impact on the village, as they have been left with a very little time to pick the remaining olives. The DCO dates in theory allow Palestinians to pick their olives in a safe environment, as the army is obliged to protect them from violent settlers on days that have been allocated to them. It is very unlikely that a new date will be given to the village.

Tragic and pointless as this incident was, Palestinian farmers are regularly subjected to such harassment. In April of this year, 900 dunums of land were stolen from the village for the construction of roads solely for the benefit of the army and illegal settlers. While this is defended as ‘necessary for logistics’, there are already reports of the land being used for agriculture by the settlers. Qaryut is surrounded on three sides by these illegal settlements and as such finds itself in a very difficult situation.