Author: ISM Media - Page 395 - International Solidarity Movement

Village of Sabastiya celebrates successful campaign against sewage dumping on their land

7th April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

Residents of the village Sabastiya near Nablus have confirmed that the pipe which pumps raw sewage onto their land from nearby illegal settlement Shave Shomron has been shut off. The raw sewage poisoned both olive and apricot trees belonging to the village.

The residents of Sabastiya have been demonstrating against the dumping since March this year and are now celebrating the success of their campaign. On the three occasions that the villagers demonstrated against the sewage since March they have been joined by both Israeli and international activists. The demonstrations held on Fridays consisted of villagers marching towards Shave Shomron and praying on a field nearby. The Israeli army consistently broke up the peaceful demonstrations by shooting tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades at the unarmed demonstrators, including medical staff and journalists.
Sabastiya is an ancient village located just 10 km north of Nablus. For over a decade, residents of the village have been suffering harassment from Israeli forces and settlers. In 2001 settlers uprooted and destroyed around 1000 olive trees, substantially damaging the land of several families. In 2006 the Israeli army put up a fence in an attempt to confiscate the land where the trees had originally been, but farmers from the village pulled it down.

Qusin villagers prevented from planting olive trees on their land by Israeli army

6th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Qusin, Nablus, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

On Saturday 6 April villagers from Qusin, east of Nablus, accompanied by international and solidarity activists attempted to plant olive trees on land denied access to them by the Israeli Army. After successfully planting several trees, and proceeding closer to the military road that cuts through Palestinians lands, the Israeli Army prevented the group from planting any further trees and violently detained one person, dragging them across rocks.

Planting trees in Qusin (Photo by ISM) — Activists planting olive trees in Qusin (Photo by ISM)

The group were 40 strong and soguht to plant 50 olive trees on land near a military road just outside the village. After successfully planting several trees, which they dedicated to Palestinian prisoners killed by the Israeli authorities and international solidarity activists, in an area of land someway back from the road, the group proceeded towards the land next to the road.

Ten Israeli army soldiers and border police, accompanied by settler security, then approached the group, having just observed up to that point, and prevented farmers from planting the remaining trees. One person was violently detained, after being dragged across rocks and made to sit in the midday sun, despite protests by other members of the group. The soldiers also confiscated farm tools from the group. The person was later released and the tools were returned after protests from fellow group members.

The village of Qusin has been suffering as a result of wide scale land confiscation by the Israeli occupation. This was their fifth action, previous actions related to a quarry located on Palestinian land, where local illegal settlements are dumping rubbish some of which may be toxic according to samples of labels taken from the scene.

Qusin village is in Area B (Palestinian civilian control and Israeli military control), however the land the villagers attempted to access was in Area C, under full Israeli military control. This is as a result of the Oslo Accords and effectively divides the West Bank up into Bantustans, with the majority of the land under full Israeli military control and access to the land is regularly denied to farmers by the army.

Israeli soldiers preventing villagers from plating olive trees on their lands (Photo ISM)

Israeli forces on Palestinian land (Photo by ISM)

South Hebron Hills Popular Committee member arrested during nonviolent action in Khelly Valley

6th April 2013 | Operation Dove, At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

On April 6, Border Police officers and army soldiers arrested a member of the nonviolent South Hebron Hills Popular Committee, while he was harvesting on his private owned land in Khelly Valley, nearby the village of At-Tuwani, during a nonviolent action.

The goal of this action was to affirm the right of the Palestinians to enter their land despite the Israeli Military Administration restrictions, which until today do not have any legal support.
Since 9:00 am the soldiers and the Border Police, in coordination with Ma’on security chief, prevented the Palestinian shepherds from grazing their flocks down in Khelly Valley. An old woman and his nephew were stopped as well while trying to reach the valley.

Israeli Border Police Officers arresting popular committee member (Photo by Operation Dove)

Around 11:20 a.m. some women and children from At-Tuwani went down in the valley to harvest, challenging the imposed restriction. The Popular Committee member reached them and started to work as well. A few minutes later the army declared the valley a “closed military area” but the Palestinians refused to leave, claiming their right to work their private land. This was the reason for the soldiers to arrest the only man who was attending the resistance action. At 11:30 am he was taken to the Border Police jeep and detained there for about two hours. The women and the children kept on gathering grass in the valley in spite of the soldiers’ threats and pressures (i.e. a soldier ran after a child). The nonviolent action ended at around 12:00 a.m.. Some hours later the activists of Ta’ayush were informed about the fact that the Palestinian had been taken to Kiryat Arba police station. At 6:00 p.m. he was released under the payment of 1.000NIS.
Palestinians have been facing problems in Khelly since 2004, when around one hundred cherry trees were planted by the settlers on part of the valley nearby Ma’on. Since then the Israeli administration has been confiscating Palestinian land step by step in order to annex it to Ma’on. At the end of 2011 Khelly Hill was declared “State Land” and some residential buildings were built on it. Some months later, in March 2012, a paved street was created in front of the new houses. Starting from those expansion works the Palestinian shepherds were definitely prevented from entering the area of Khelly Hill. Since January 2013 until now the shepherds were also prevented from using Khelly Valley. In the last month the shepherds were chased away 10 times by soldiers and police and 4 times by settlers.
Nevertheless the Palestinian community of South Hebron Hills area continue to resist the occupation using the nonviolent struggle.

A present to ISM from our zionist neighbours

6th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

The ISM team based in Hebron woke up last week to find that their zionist settler neighbours had left a present for them on their doorstop. A tyre , a large piece of cloth and a stone were organised onto a pile just outside the apartment door, which according to our Palestinian neighbours , symbolises that they plan to set fire to the apartment.

A present to ISM from out zionist neighbours

Settler intimidation and violence towards ISM activists is not unusual , especially in central Hebron where roughly 500 settlers are “protected” by thousands of ISraeli soldiers. The situation is particularly tense on and around Tel Rumeida where harassment of Palestinians is frequent as settlers , often armed with machine guns, share the same street.

Only two weeks ago an international was attacked by a settler, most likely because she was wearing a head scarf and several years ago an ISM activist had a bottle smashed on her face whilst settlers chanted “We killed Jesus and we will kill you”.

Outrage in Hebron following funeral of Abu Hamdiyeh

4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Tens of thousands of people arrived into Hebron on the 4^th April to honour martyr Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, who died of cancer in Israeli custody after being deprived of essential treatments for his disease. According to his lawyer, in his last weeks of life, Abu Hamdiyeh was treated for throat cancer with painkillers and antibiotics.

The funeral began at midday, with Abu Hamdiyeh’s body being carried from the Al-Ahli Hospital, around the city and eventually to the Wadi al Haria area. His body was buried in the Martyrs cemetery there. During the burial, the armed wing of Fateh, the Al Aqsa Brigade shot into the air in a gesture of respect whilst mourners watched. Abu Hamdiyeh’s family were present at the funeral and emotions ran high throughout the funeral march.

Demonstrators have since been expressing their outrage at the death of Abu Hamdiyeh and clashes between the people of Hebron and the Israeli military began before the end of the funeral and have continued for the following days. Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured with rubber coated steel bullets, as well as some who have been hit with live ammunition.

Abu Hamdiyeh’s death highlights the issue of treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, many of whom are on hunger strike protesting prison conditions and detention of political prisoners – including Samer Issawi who has now been on hunger strike for over 250 days.