Author: ISM Media - Page 23 - International Solidarity Movement

Abduction and death threats in Tuwani

Occupation forces abduct 40 year old Palestinian from Tuwani.

Since October 7, Mus’ab Rawai and his family have endured intensifying harassment and intimidation by illegal settlers from the nearby outpost of Havat Maon. Built on stolen village land, it has some of the most violent and “ideological” settlers in the area.

The family home, which is located on the edge of at-Tuwani in Masafer Yatta, the village the family have called home for generations, became a target for attacks as the nearest home to the outpost following its establishment eighteen years or so ago. The family were prevented from accessing their grazing land for livestock and were often subject to violent attacks.

Over the past seven weeks, Mus’ab and his family have been subjected to almost daily harassment by heavily armed settlers / settler militia (most wearing army uniforms) from the outpost. This has taken the form of everything from preventing access to their land for harvesting olives, theft of equipment and vandalism to physical attacks and beatings, death threats and raids by soldiers / settler militia.

On one such raid five weeks ago, internationals were with the family and witnessed the aggressive behaviour, including smashing of mobile phones, physical manhandling, extensive damage done to property and food stores under the pretext of a search and threats to “come back and do much worse”.

Today, the family were subject to a further serious attack by two heavily armed settlers accompanied by three “soldiers” who invaded his home. Mus’ab recognised them as the same group who had invaded his home and beat him and his brother two weeks previously as they objected to the family looking out from their home towards the settlement

On this occasion, apparently incensed by Mus’ab letting his sheep graze on his own land adjacent to his house, one of the settlers (in army uniform) pointed his gun at Mus’ab threatened to kill him or anyone who came to help. The settler threatened to kill his wife and children, directing his weapon towards them, telling the women that if they didn’t get back in the house he would kill them all.

For no reason, the settlers then took Musab’s 40 year old brother, Amjad, zip tied his wrists behind his back and tightened them further and forced him to the ground when he complained they were to tight and then abducted him, throwing stones at Musab’s house as they did so. The settler-soldiers kept him captive for around one and a half hours, a period of intense anxiety for the family. He was taken by another group of soldiers in a vehicle along the main road to around 15km away from the village and ordered out. From there he had to find a lift back.

The cumulative effect of these incidents is having a devastating impact on the family’s wellbeing. The constant stress of anticipatory anxiety as to what will happen next, of having to maintain watch at night every night , and the sense of injustice arising from the impunity with which the illegal settlers perpetrate their crimes, takes its toll.

Zanuta: The Return

On November, 29th 2023, International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, Palestinian villagers forcefully displaced from their lands through threats of murder by Israeli settlers, returned to their village, Zanuta, in Masafer Yatta.

Supported by Israeli activists, and with international press in attendance, the villagers made their way to the site despite the road entrance having been blocked by the Israeli occupation forces. Soldiers did not prevent villagers from accessing the site but stipulated that they were not to repair any structures or build anything new.

*Ethnically cleansed, abandoned village of Zanuta; photo by Bob*

After the soldiers left, a group of settlers turned up and threatened the villagers that if they remained at the site then they (the settlers) would “throw a big party”. The implication being that the villagers would be attacked.

As the villagers and activists were leaving, an armed militia, suspected to be settlers, wearing army uniforms and masks arrived. They stopped the villagers, searched the cars and inspected their IDs. Under observation from the activists and press, the militia let the Palestinians go.

The villagers of Zanuta have exercised their right, in the face of intimidation and threats, to return to and reclaim their homes and land.

“Isn’t it enough?”: Water in Um Al-Khair

Villagers in Um Al-Khair have been repeatedly prevented from bringing their sheep to graze on the outskirts of the village. In one such recent incident, settlers attacked the Palestinian shepherds, and together with Israeli police and civil administration officials claimed that the village’s water infrastructure was on settler land, and threatened that the residents of Um Al-Khair would be prevented access.

*Water infrastructure threatened at Um Al-Khair*

Umm al-Khair is a small Bedouin herding community. Its history is woven with the history of Palestine. Its Bedouin villagers were forced to flee their ancestral lands in 1948, a forced ethnic cleansing known as the Nakba, a word in Arabic analogous to the Hebrew Shoah, both meaning catastrophe. These refugees resettled in Um Al-Khair: “the good place”.

Within meters of Um Al-Khair lies Carmel, an illegal Israeli settlement began in 1980 and 1981. Um Al-Khair is now surrounded on three sides by the settlement, described as a “green oasis that looks like an American suburb”. Meanwhile, in stark contrast, over 100 homes, many simple tin structures, have been demolished by the Israeli Army in Um Al-Khair, a village of mostly children and youth.

Um Al-Khair is a village of artists and poets, who have continually rebuilt from the ruins.

*Roses and a mural in Um Al-Khair stating “We will not leave Umm Al-Khair”*

*Mahmoud Darwish quote on mural in Um Al-Khair*

*Mural about remembrance and perseverance in Um Al-Khair*

Like many nearby Palestinian communities it is threatened with complete erasure. The water network now threatened is the only source of water for the people of Um Al-Khair.

In the words of one resident of the village, “I really do not understand what this damned hatred is. Why are people being fought by cutting off their water, and breaking the water network?… Water is a right for everyone… No one can live without water, so why are we always the ones who suffer? Isn’t it enough to attack us? Isn’t it enough to demolish our homes? Isn’t it enough to prevent us from obtaining electricity? Isn’t it enough to confiscate our lands? Cutting off water networks is a shameful and scandalous crime. I really wonder when the settlers will cut off our air? If they can, they will.”

A Song from Gaza: Alone (لوحدك)

Alone/ لوحدك is a poem by Egyptian poet Ehab Lotayef performed by Haidar Eid on the music by Reziq JuJu.

Haidar Eid is a professor at al-Quds University in Gaza City now trying to stay alive in the midst of the genocidal attack by apartheid Israel on Gaza.

Haidar wants to express the feelings of the people in Gaza, that the world has left them alone.

Lyrics:

لوحدك

Alone (On your own)

لو الدنيا ضاقت وجار الزمان

ومات الضيا واستبد الظلام

When your world collapses, when times are most difficult

When light suffocates, when darkness reins

(x2)

وهانوا الكرام وسادوا اللئام

وتهنا ما بين الحلال والحرام

When the righteous are oppressed, when the wicked rule

when the world can’t distinguish right from wrong

وحده صوتك ينور ليالي الأسية

بكلمة جريئة تناجي النهار

Only your voice will illuminate these harsh nights

with a brave word, that summons daylight

(x2)

لو ناسك خنوعة وصاحبك جبان

يحب المراوغة، يخاف م الكلام

When your people submit. When your friend is a coward

afraid to rise up, afraid to speak

(x2)

في وسط المظالم وتحت الحصار

يا واقف لوحدك مفيش لك خيار

In the midst of injustices and under siege

You, who stands alone, have no recourse

غير صوتك: تنور ليالي الأسية

بكلمة جريئة تناجي النهار

But your voice: illuminate the harshest of nights

with a courageous word, usher daylight

(x2)

Human Rights Defender Accused of Supporting Terror

Alison Russell, a Scottish-born Belgian citizen and Human Rights Defender, was detained by the Israeli occupation authorities while documenting the demolition of a house in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank.

She was deported after very perfunctory proceedings at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. Israeli police alleged in a public statement that Alison “supported a terrorist organization”. Her attorney pointed out that this claim had no basis. Nevertheless, the presiding judge issued a verdict couched in fiery nationalist rhetoric, claiming that “There are many faces to Hamas terror. There are various kinds of terrorists. Some terrorists wield guns and bombs while others use a computer keyboard”.

The Human Rights Defender was taken to the Ben Gurion Airport, and deported, with a decree issued to bar her re-entry. Itamar Ben Gvir, the Kahane linked Minister of Police in the Netanyahu government, issued a personal statement celebrating “The deportation of the Belgian terrorist supporter who had supported the Hamas Nazis” and “congratulating the Judea and Samaria Police for their good work”.

In the last month and a half, the charge of being a “supporter of a terrorist organization” has become an excuse for an extensive campaign of political persecution against anyone who dares to post any protest the unfolding genocide in Gaza. This is affected against Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship, and against Israeli Jews such as the teacher Meir Baruchin who was detained for almost a week on completely unfounded charges. In the Gaza Strip, a far more brutal procedure for the same allegations is implemented. A Gazan journalist or political activist accused of “supporting Hamas” may expect to be targeted and/or have their family targeted by a missile from an Israeli warplane. Such was, for example, the fate of Ahmed Abu Artema and countless other Palestinian activists and journalists.

Nowadays in Israel, all it takes to be charged with “supporting terrorism” is to express sorrow and pain over the killing of children in the bombing of the Gaza Strip. State Attorney Amit Isman strongly criticized these detentions, but Israel’s police, controlled by Ben-Gvir, persist in carrying out such detentions.

In the case of human rights defender Alison Russell, the far-fetched charges of “supporting terrorism” or “keyboard terrorism” cover up the real reason for her detention and deportation. In court, the state asserted that “she had many times disrupted the activities of the IDF troops, whenever she came in contact with them”. Indeed, it is highly disturbing for the troops to have outside observers and witnesses present where acts of oppression take place, which often constitute blatant violations of International Law.

Not in vain do the soldiers regularly confiscate the mobile phones of activists and even the footage of international TV crews. Alison, like the other human rights defenders who come from all over the world to express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their difficult time, together with Israeli people of conscience, are struggling to stem the wave of ethnic cleansing which is going on all over the West Bank, under cover of the war in Gaza.

The shepherd communities, the most vulnerable part of Palestinian society, have become the target of a brutal attack by the fanatic settler militias, and already sixteen such communities have been forced to leave their land under violent attacks and explicit threats of murder.

The tiny villages at Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills are attacked by settlers on one side and the army on the other: The settlers attack the villages, destroy whatever is at hand and threaten entire communities with murder, and in these criminal acts they enjoy complete immunity from the police and army. For its part, the army arrives to destroy the houses of the villagers, houses which were declared to be “illegal” by the Supreme Court. Alison was detained and deported when she tried to document the destruction of one of these houses..

The police had stated “a deportation order from Israel” was issued to Alison, as well as a decree to “prevent her from entering Israel” in the future. We would like to emphasize that Alison never wanted to “enter Israel”. She wanted to come to the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, by the express invitation of Palestinian residents to document and intervene in human rights abuses and stop an ongoing nakba.

In the words of Alison herself, “The UN, created when the world was saying ‘nie wieder faschismus,’ has given up on Palestine. But right now, right here, in a tiny little corner of Palestine, there are a dozen villages that are under direct and immediate threat. When the handful of determined people that are here manage to organize a group to sleep in the hamlets, we delay their expulsion…I’m here ‘cos I really think our action is effective. Please make it more effective by getting involved too.”