21st October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | West Bank, occupied Palestine
Hashem Azzeh, 54
Long term supporter and friend of ISM, Hashem Azzeh, has tragically passed away today aged 54, following health complications exacerbated by the conditions in Al-Khalil (Hebron). Hashem, who had a long-term cardiac condition, called for an ambulance on feeling discomfort in his chest earlier this afternoon. As Palestinian vehicles are banned within his H2 neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, Hashem had to be assisted to walk the 700 meters from his house to the Shuhada street checkpoint in increasing pain. He passed the soldiers who harass him and his family on a daily basis and was accompanied into an awaiting ambulance. He passed away not long afterwards.
Only yesterday, Tuesday 20th October, Hashem picked olives together with international support from the ISM Al-Khalil team. After just 20 minutes of picking, they were interrupted by illegal settlers, armed with machine guns, who made it impossible to continue the harvest for the day. (See more here)
Within his life time, Hashem was subject to an extreme amount of harassment and abuse. Living in the infamous neighborhood of Tel Rumeida in Al-Khalil (Hebron), illegal settlers not uncommonly threw trash, stones and even human feces at his house and family within. As he described in an interview with ISM in December 2013: ”In general the daily life is really horrible. Our children get harassed on their way to and back from school. We get controlled and searched at the checkpoint every day.” Him and his wife Nisreen also tragically lost two children due to settler violence.
The inability to easily access medical assistance within Tel Rumeida was just one example he gave of the stranglehold effect of Israeli forces and illegal settlers on this neighborhood. “I used to climb a six meter wall to access my home. When my wife was pregnant I had to carry her all the way, when she was about to give birth. It took us three hours to get to the hospital.”
Hashem was an admired friend to many internationals and his house was always open for a cup of tea on the occasions that soldiers allowed passage through the street. He strongly resisted the occupation and undoubtedly inspired many people with his stoic commitment to both his family and his city.
An ISM Al-Khalil team member stated tonight, “it is hard to find the words to respond to these senseless attacks on innocent families at the best of times. As this tragic and avoidable death follows weeks of escalating violence in Al-Khalil, and years of constant harassment of the Azzeh family, we are looking back on Hashem’s words from the past…’the army and the settlers have done a lot to me here. They want me to move but I will never give up, we are still fighting until we get our freedom…‘” Our thoughts go out the family of Hashem who lost a father and husband today, and we continue to stand in solidarity to that end.
An autopsy will occur overnight to determine the exact cause of Hashem’s death and the degree to which the Israeli-delayed medical assistance contributed to his untimely passing. There will be a funeral tomorrow, October 22 at 12pm in Al-Khalil.
He will be sorely missed in Tel Rumeida and around the world.
21st October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | West Bank, occupied Palestine
”These are not tourists. These are hostile anarchists. Soldiers and residents pay attention, the characters in these photos are here to harm Israelis for anti-semitic reasons. Act accordingly.”
This message, written in Hebrew, was posted by a machine gun-wielding illegal Israeli settler outside the apartment of international human rights defenders in Hebron (al-Khalil) today. The posters show pictures of the faces of members of the ISM Al-Khalil team, as well as other international organisations working in the town. Most of the photos were taken yesterday, October 20th, while they were picking olives with the family of Hashem Al Azzeh in Tel Rumeida.
Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in al-Khalil on a daily basis with impunity. Settlers have also attacked international human rights defenders in the past.
In the last month settlers and the Israeli military have shot dead several Palestinians whom they claimed had knives. Pictures and videos taken by Palestinian activists and international volunteers have challenged these claims.
A member of the International Solidarity Movement Al-Khalil team today stated that ”the intention of this threat is clearly to intimidate international human rights defenders and to prevent them from continuing to document the acts of violence, abuses and human rights crimes that illegal Israeli settlers carry out towards Palestinians every day in Hebron’.’
Despite the threat the international volunteers intend to stay in al-Khalil.
The posters in al-Khalil calls for violence against internationals
Illegal settler photographing the international volunteers assisting olive harvest, armed with machine gun. Tuesday, 2oth October 2015
20th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank, occupied Palestine
A video posted on October 12th by Shehab news agency described as an attack on a Palestinian girl from Haifa in her twenties for allegedly trying to assault a taxi driver in Tel Aviv after an argument between them. The video shows a woman pinned to the ground by a man as passers-by argue about whether or not to beat and kill her. One woman claims she saw the woman had a knife and screams “Why are you playing around. They are coming to kill our children!” and demands her execution. Another bystander asks the man “Did she come at you with a knife?” and he replies “She put her hand in her pocket.” Yet Another kicks her in the head. Sharon Puwler from Haaretz Daily reported on 20th October 2015 that the woman did not carry any weapon.
While there undoubtedly are stabbings of Israelis taking place, there are also undoubtedly mistaken or false accusations and pressure from Israeli civilians to kill people they suspect of being terrorists. The latest example being the Eritrean asylum seeker Mulu Habtom Zerhom who was shot and beaten to death in the Beersheva central bus station after being mistaken for an Arab. Because Mulu was not Palestinian there will be an investigation committee looking into his murder.
Palestinians who are killed are assumed guilty by default. In the case of the Palestinian woman in the video taken in Tel Aviv, if some of the bystanders hadn’t intervened and the woman had been lynched it would have been reported as: “knife wielding terrorist neutralized”. This is how the Israeli media portrayed 23 year old Ahmed Sha’ban from Ras el-Amud in Occupied East Jerusalem. Al Quds Newspaper published a video showing an Israeli security guard shooting twice directly at Ahmed’s body after he is already on the ground. An Israeli eye witness is heard stating: “Central bus station in Jerusalem, just now, a terrorist was exterminated, bro, right in front of me! Right in front of me he shot him ten times! Ten bullets were shot at him now! It’s such a mess here! I don’t know, he didn’t touch anything… He didn’t have a knife in his hand. Everyone shouted ‘terrorist’. The security guard shot him. I am telling you the bullets are right in front of me. My head hurts.”
Israeli officials have been criticised by human rights organisations for calling on Israelis with licensed guns to carry them in public and to kill any suspect. They have made it clear that it is not necessary to determine if the suspect is holding a knife before shooting to kill. At a press conference on October 8th Israeli Minister of defence Moshe Yaalon stated “Right now it is required primarily to be vigilant, determined, to respond quickly to any local attack, to eliminate the terrorist stabber or the perpetrator, stone thrower and the like, immediately on the spot. This is the answer to this kind of terrorism.” Other Israeli officials rushed to echo the sentiment On the 11th of October MK Yair Lapid Head of the Yesh Atid party said on a televised interview,” whoever takes out a knife or a screwdriver or whatever it may be, needs to be shot to kill”, adding “don’t hesitate. Even at the start of an attack, shooting to kill is correct.”
There have been many cases of alleged knife wielders shot in the last months since the killing of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun in Hebron that Amnesty international categorized as an extrajudicial execution. They all deserve an investigative committee. Whether a suspect is falsely accused or did actually carry out an attack, shooting and/or killing people who do not constitute an immediate threat to anyone is war crime.
On October 4, at 4:00 in the morning, 8 Palestinian men were arrested under extremely violent conditions by Israeli forces in the city of Nablus, North West Bank. The men have been accused of participating in the killing of two illegal Israeli settlers driving a car on the Beit Furik road on October 1st. According to a spokesperson for the families of the accused men, no evidence has been presented to uphold the accusations.
Arrest Operations
Karam Al Masri, 23 years old, was violently arrested in the Nablus hospital. According to the spokesperson, Al Masri was lying in recovery from an operation on his left shoulder, which had been injured in a work accident in a Nablus iron factory.
Approximately 20 men from the Israeli security forces stormed at 4:00 in the morning with guns into the hospital to kidnap the patient who was sleeping in room 302. When leaving the hospital, they broke the cameras in order not to leave evidence, but you can watch the video when they entered searching for Karam al Masri here.
At the same time, the three cousins, Samir al Kusa, 23 years old, Zahi al Kusa, 32 years old, and Abdullah al Kusa,19 years old, were arrested while sleeping in their homes in Nablus and Askar refugee camp, were Samir was visiting his parents in law.
Samir’s 25 year old wife and 50 year old mother were both beaten up by the Israeli forces. Samir was first beaten brutally, then forced to walk down the hill while bleeding heavily, then put to the ground where soldiers began beating him again, kicking him with guns, to the point that even one soldier urinated on him. Nearly 300 soldiers participated in this operation.
In the case of Zahi and Abdullah al Kusa, who were staying in the same home, they had their house raided, furniture destroyed, and their families terrified with gun shots. Both were forced to step out the house, strip off their clothes, beaten up, forced to walk naked in the street, sworn and cursed at and humiliated. When another cousin of the men tried to take a picture, a soldier shot into his leg at such close range that the bullet entered the leg and came out, and managed to enter and come out the second leg, too. This man spent 4 days in the hospital. He is 21 years old.
Meanwhile, Rasem Khatab, a 37 year old nurse, was working in a night shift in the hospital at the time he was arrested. Israeli forces took him to his home, raided the house, broke the furniture, beat him in front of his wife, 2 daughters and parents. This operation included approximately 40 soldiers.
Even more shockingly, Ragheb Elawi, a 35 year old man who had recently undergone 2 heart surgeries and remained in his house in state of recovery was also violently arrested. Israeli soldiers stormed his home at 4:00 am terrifying, once again, his whole family, to arrest him. Despite the fact that this man is evidently in a delicate state of health, he was also beaten in front of his family.
In addition, Zeid Ziad Amer, 23 years old, and Yahya Hajj-Hamad, 24 years old, were also arrested at the same early hours in the morning in similar conditions of violence, raiding their homes, waking up their families and beating them up.
In all these cases, the soldiers blocked the neighborhoods, surrounded the houses, guarding them outside, after having closed the entrances of the city.
To this day, only Zahi al Kosa’s parents have information about their son, who will be imprisoned for two months with the highly likely possibility that the imprisonment will be extended indefinitely after the next military court hearing takes place. He is being held in the Megiddo military prison.
Samir and Abdullah are jailed in the Petah Tikva prison, without any other information available. The whereabouts of all other 5 prisoners are unknown until know. Neither their families, lawyers nor the Red Crescent have any knowledge about them.
House Demolition Orders
In the morning of Thursday 15th, 11 days after the 8 men were arrested, three of the men’s families received home demolition orders from the Israeli forces. The Al-Kusa family’s home is located at the top of the South mountain in Nablus, in the Al Dahiyya neighborhood, right below an Israeli military base. This house has already been evacuated by the family, and since it is on the first floor of a three story building, the army plans to fill it with concrete.
The Al-Kusa family home on the first floor of the building is now abandoned, waiting to be filled up with concrete by the Israeli army.
The homes of Karam al Masri and Yahya Hajj-Hamad have also been emptied by their families, who have moved to other family members’ homes, while they wait for their houses to be torn down.
These house demolition orders notified that they would be carried out within 48 hours, but even though the date has expired and the destruction hasn’t happened yet, it is common knowledge that the Israeli army can carry out these actions a long time after the orders have expired. In many cases, the houses can be torn down weeks, months or even years after demolition orders expire, representing a clear tactic used by Israel to create a psychological warfare and stress in the Palestinian population. Today, in the neighborhood of Al Dahiyya, all the neighbors living around these three homes are unable to sleep in the night because of fear that the army might come at any time.
What is even more concerning, is that the families of the imprisoned men are going through enormous distress from the uncertainty of their sons’, brothers’, husbands’ and fathers’ futures, in which they fear the very highly probability that their loved ones may be sentenced anything between 20 years to a lifetime in jail.
It is important to understand that these actions are part of a larger strategy that Israel conducts as a form of collective punishment and psychological torture towards Palestinians. The Israeli government has recently approved a new policy that states that, in case the government decides that a Palestinian is a ”terrorist” who wants to kill an Israeli civilian, settler, army or police, the government will take the right to kill him, not return the body to the family, later demolish the family’s home and subsequently forbid the family to build a new home in the same site of the demolished house. Given that Israel most of the time decides in an arbitrary manner and without any grounds that Palestinians are ”terrorists”, not only does it punish the people it claims to be dangerous, but also punishes their whole families, therefore proving to be extremely abusive and unjust in their law and actions. This form of collective punishment not only puts an enormous amount of psychological pressure on the Palestinians, to say the least, but also facilitates Israel’s ongoing plan of stealing their land and expanding its colonization project.
19th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | West Bank, occupied Palestine
Recently weakened by heart attack and subsequent surgery, Hashem made his way slowly down the hill from his home in the Tel Rumeida section of al-Khalil to meet with the group of internationals from whom he requested assistance in picking what was left of his harvest of olives after settler theft.
Though no such law exists, the internationals were disallowed to get through the simple stretch of two minutes walk to get to Hashem’s land. After taking a back way to the property, Hashem was seated, trying to catch his breath after pointlessly walking down the hill only to be yelled at smugly by the near dozen Israeli forces to leave.
Within twenty minutes of the harvest’s commencement for the two trees left bearing fruit after settlers picked the area clean in recent weeks, a settler armed with an m-16 machine gun descended into the olive groves from the settlement up against Hashem’s property and began approaching the family members and volunteers, taking close up photos of them. Two settler women shouted abuse at the harvesters from the yard and window of the settlement.
A settler woman laughs as she and two others harass Palestinian farmers and international monitors.
Israeli forces and Israeli police arrived on the scene and rather than interrogating the armed man who was visibly and audibly harassing the family and volunteers picking, they approached Hashem and ID checked him while one of the women continued to shout abuse unabated, “Why are you stealing our olives! Go back to Germany and pick olives!” An all-purpose attack against anyone questioning settler violence, harassment, theft and brutality is that you are, without question or reason, a Nazi and you should go back to Germany.
Israeli forces, rather than end the abuse and let Hashem’s family, already the constant recipient of vicious settler abuses, harvest in peace, the family and international monitors were asked to hurry up and finish the harvest so they could be on their way. This wasn’t a difficult request to grant as there were nearly no olives left to harvest after the theft.
Machine gun armed settler photographs a Palestinian woman as she tries to harvest on her land.
Hashem’s struggles with settler abuse during his harvest in just the latest in a string of torment against Palestinian farmers, many whose only income is wrought from the olive harvest. In Burin, masked settler terrorists set fires to Palestinian farmer’s trees and property, splitting open the head of a British foreign national monitoring the harvest from close range with a stone and smashing the windows of a Palestinian farmer’s car.
Israel, who is purportedly addressing security concerns, has done nothing to help the situation. They have managed to exacerbate the escalating situation by sending additional Israeli forces into al-Khalil and enacted bag and body search protocol for Palestinians passing by on Tel Rumeida streets on their way to school, work and home.
