12th May 2013 | Beit Ommar Popular Movement, Beit Ommar, Occupied Palestine
On Friday 10th of April, tens of heavily armed Israeli occupation troops clashed with Beit Ommar’s defenseless youth, armed only with eagerness for freedom. Israeli forces shot countless tear gas canisters towards the young people, other civilians’ homes and shot numerous rubber-coated steel bullets, in addition to targeting citizens’ property. More than 50 people were injured, including 12 from rubber-coated metal bullets injuries and the rest due to tear gas suffocation. Two of the injured were hit in the head and urgently taken to al-Alia hospital in Hebron. Many cars, house windows and water tanks were damaged by the soldiers.
Israeli border police officer loads canisters into a tear gas launcher (Photo by Beit Ommar Popular Movement)Tear gas canisters shot at the fields (Photo by Beit Ommar Popular Movement)Protester injured from rubber coated steel bullets (Photo by Beit Ommar Popular Movement)Injured protester being taken away (Photo by Beit Ommar Popular Movement)
12th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Jalud, Occupied Palestine
By Nablus Team
At about 11 PM on Sunday, May 5, about 40 illegal Israeli settlers attacked Jalud, west of Salfit, attempting to set fire to two homes with firebombs.
Settler attacks on Jalud started two years ago from nearby illegal settlements of Yahyah (first outpost 13 years ago) and Esh Kodesh (more recent outpost). Attacks are typically on the homes of five families on the furthest edge close to the settlements, not within the village center. All those homes now have several metal protections on all windows to prevent harm based on previous attacks.
House set on fire by settlers (Photo by ISM)
Recent attacks have been at night, but have also happened during the day lasting just 5-15 minutes, say locals. The attacks nonetheless cause great damage and are always unexpected. The army arrives within minutes after the settlers and has used tear gas on residents to clear any gatherings due to settler attacks.
This attack fortunately left just scorched ground and walls as Jalud residents put out the fires immediately. However, the previous attack in February this year left a 4-year-old in the hospital with six stitches from a rock thrown at the head. Settlers also attacked a family’s car, breaking windows and causing reportedly 2000 Shekels worth of damage. Furthermore, 17 people in the past year have been hospitalized for injuries; in one instance, young children and a 3-month-old went to the hospital suffocating from a tear gas canister thrown in their home by soldiers arriving at a settler attack from Yahyah settlement near Jalud.
B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported in a press release of October 2011 that “in spite of repeated complaints by the residents of Qusra and other villages in the area – Duma, Qaryut and Jalud – and by human rights organizations, the law enforcement authorities routinely violate their obligation to protect local residents from settler attacks.”
Jalud exists in Area B, meaning the area is under Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control (Area B covers about 21% of the West Bank; another 61% is Area C, with full Israeli civil and security control). However, tear gas has been used on Jalud residents to clear gatherings of people coming to confront settler attacks.
“We don’t go to their homes throwing rocks, why do they [come attack our homes]?” said one Jalud resident. He also said that the illegal Yahyah settlement first became established, slowly taking more and more land, and then began attacks on surrounding Palestinian villages.
10th May 2013 | Operation Dove, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
On May the 10th at about 6 a.m. some Palestinians from At-Tuwani and two Operation Dove volunteers found out that 62 olive trees had been cut during the night in a field next to the Bypass road 317.
Olive trees cut down (Photo by Operation Dove)
On a small wall nearby the olive field the sentence “price tag for those who steal” was found. The “price tag policy” (Hebrew: מדיניות תג מחיר) is, according to B’Tselem, the name given to “acts of random violence aimed at the Palestinian population and Israeli security forces” by radical Israeli settlers, who, according to the New York Times, “exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise”.
The olive trees grove belongs to the Amor Palestinian family and had been planted approximately 30 years ago. The members of the family which were present on the scene were particularly shocked for the loss.
The first jeep of soldiers arrived at about 7 a.m. followed by another army vehicle and a DCO (District Coordination Office) car. Around 7.30 a.m. a police car reached the area and an officer taped the incident’s scene with a camera. One member of the owner family spoke with the policeman giving him some information about the history of the olive trees. The Israeli police did not speak with the international volunteers and did not give any further details about the investigation. Around 8 a.m. Ma’on security chief arrived near the olive trees, spoke with the police and the soldiers and took some pictures. Some ten minutes later a DCO officer tried to detain a Palestinian shepherd from At-Tuwani accusing him of lacking respect to his authority. The Palestinian man denied and claimed that he did not say nothing bad to the officer.
Around 8.30 a.m. an Israeli soldier in charge of analyzing footprints started his investigation on the field. At the end of his research he declared that 6 people damaged the olive trees (5 men and 1 woman) while others were watching from distance.
In the afternoon, at about 2.30 p.m. a group of settlers set fire to a Palestinian wheat field close to the Palestinan village of Tuba. A Palestinian teenager saw them from distance while they were running away. The field belongs to the Aliawad family that has immediately called the Israeli police. When the police arrived the kid and his brother have been driven to the police station of Kiryat Arba for filing a complaint.
The olive trees and the wheat are an essential resource for the Palestinian community in South Hebron Hills area and their damaging causes a serious economic loss.
Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly committed in the nonviolent popular resistance against Israeli occupation.
Operation Dove maintains a constant presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
Palestinian woman expresses her devastation at the destruction of the olive trees (Photo by Operation Dove)Message from settlers: “price tag for those who steal” (Photo by Operation Dove)
10th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Azmut, Occupied Palestine
By Team Nablus
On Friday 10th of May, around 60 people from the village of Azmut, near Nablus, supported by 6 international activists, demonstrated against the Israeli occupation and systematic land theft by illegal settlements. The action was successful, but the residents continue to suffer heavily the effects of Israeli policy in the West Bank.
Demonstrators walking towards stolen Azmut land
The demonstration started from Khirbat al-Aqrabaniya, a village situated at the base of the hill where the settlement of Elon Moreh was illegally established in 1980. The protesters walked for about one hour over the hill to reach a big plane of land (around 500 dunums), which was recently stolen in a land-grab by the settlers of Elon Moreh. After the community of Azmut gathered for Friday prayer, Palestinian flags were placed on the land that the villagers have been working for centuries.
After this, the demonstration moved to the road that was lately built up by the settlers to reach the land that they have taken from Azmut. The protesters blocked the road with large rocks in order to prevent settler’s tractors and cars entering the land. Israeli soldiers and settlers were unaware of the surprise action and were not present in the area during the demonstration.
View of Elon Moreh settlement from Azmut village
The village of Azmut has faced many problems since the start of the Israeli occupation, and their situation was aggravated by the illegal construction of Elon Moreh – stealing over 50% of the village land. The settlement was further expanded four months ago, stealing even more land. As well as this land grab, the farmers of the village are weekly harassed and attacked by the settlers, especially during the olive harvest.
Within the last months settlers have cut down olive trees and attacked houses with rocks, terrorising their inhabitants. Israeli occupation force’s incursions are also part of the daily life of the village. Every week Israeli soldiers come into the village, either for inspections or to arrest people. In the last two months 7 people have been arrested and 5 of them are still in jail in “administrative detention”, without any charge or trial.
The residents of Azmut are struggling for justice and their legitimate right to work their land, and they will not give up protesting until this situation changes. The Israeli land appropriation policy, the settler’s violence and arbitrary arrests by Israeli soldiers are an obstacle to peace and therefore must stop immediately.
Palestinian flag placed on Palestinian land recently annexed by Elon Moreh
11th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Al Walaja, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Red Crescent medics treat people attacked with pepper spray
On Friday 10th May, Palestinians from the village of Al Walaja protested against a new road block, placed by the Israeli army in one of the two roads giving them access to Bethlehem. The iron barrier that was placed earlier this week, is part of a plan to annex land that belongs to Al Walaja and expand the illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo.
After the Friday prayer at the mosque, Palestinians marched to the barrier with the intent to cross it and reach on foot their land that is now being cut off by the road. They were prevented by the Israeli army, who violently pushed protesters away. Soon after Palestinians had reached the barrier the Israeli army started throwing sound bombs and tear gas amid the crowd which included children.
Soldiers attempting to arrest young man trying to access his land
Israeli soldiers also used pepper spray on protesters, two of whom had to be removed by medics and transferred to the yard of a neighboring house to receive medical care. The Israeli army followed them to the entrance of the house and threw a sound bomb in their direction. The army also tried to arrest a minor who managed to get away by the intervention of many of the protesters who ran to his aid.
Al Walaja is located between the Green line and the Israeli annexation wall, which effectively surrounds its land. Palestinians of Al Walaja were already displaced during the Nakba in 1948 and the annexation of Jerusalem and many of them are still living in refugee camps in the Bethlehem region. Of those that returned to rebuilt Al Walaja where it stands today, many have faced house demolitions.
