Author: ISM Media - Page 396 - International Solidarity Movement

Children’s Day in Nabi Saleh

5th of April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

By ISM

Young protesters walking towards the Israeli military

On Palestinian Children’s Day, the kids of Nabi Saleh played a leading role in their village demonstration, holding banners and balloons, claiming their rights to a childhood free of oppresion and occupation. However, Israeli forces, as they regularly do, quickly suppressed the demonstration.

As the crowd of protesters were marching along the road with the intention of going to their stolen water spring down the hill, Israeli border police accompanied by a skunk water truck started to shoot the malodorous water and tear gas canisters at the protesters.

Border police officers, located on the main road and on the two hilltops beside it, continued shooting tear gas canisters for approximately an hour, after which they further invaded the village, chasing Palestinian youths down the hills on the other side of Nabi Saleh. A local journalist was severely pushed, pepper sprayed and had stun grenades thrown at him by Israeli border police officers whilst covering the protest.

Nabi Saleh boy watching Israeli soldiers invading his village

The demonstration finished at around 3pm when Israeli forces retreated from the village. Then, the children of Nabi Saleh, took over their streets to celebrate their day, claiming their right to a childhood without Israeli occupation.

The village of Nabi Saleh has been demonstrating against the theft of the natural spring and the occupation since December 2009. Israeli forces violently suppress the weekly Friday protests by shooting tear gas canisters, skunk water, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets and even live ammunition at protesters. Two people have been killed, Mustafa and Rushdi Tamimi, and many others severly injured. Bassem Tamimi, from Nabi Saleh, has spent 16 months in Israeli jails for the only reason of being a prominent activist at the protests. After more than three year and despite the repression, Nabi Saleh continues to fight against the injustices of a brutal military Israeli occupation.

Weekly demonstration in Kufr Qaddum violently suppressed by Israeli forces

5th of April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

After Friday prayers, the villagers of Kufr Qaddum and international activists attempted to access the main road in Kufr Qaddum, blocked by the Israeli Army for 13 years. They were met by armed Israeli soldiers and tear gas, with many suffering the effects of the gas.

Villagers marching along the road (Photo by AlMasira)

The village has been demonstrating against the closure for the last 2 years, which cuts the village off from a direct route to the local village of Jit and Nablus city. A route which once took 30 minutes, 11km, now takes villagers an hour and a half to complete and more than doubles the distance.

The village is right next to the illegal settlement of Qedumin and has already lost two-thirds of their land to the settlement. The Israeli Army closed the road under the pretext of security for the illegal settlement.

Since demonstration begun the village has suffered incursions from the Army, with around 150 men and boys arrested, some as young as 11 years old. To date there are still 40 people in Israeli prisons, with the longest held for 9 months.

The demonstration which was well attended by over 100 villagers sought to open the road, but also referenced the killing of the two boys from Anabta on Wednesday at the nearby Enav checkpoint by the Israeli Army.

Kufr Qaddum is one of the latest series of Palestinian villagers to resist the illegal and Apartheid policies imposed by the Israeli occupation. Villagers in Bilin and Jayous both successfully protested to have the route of the Apartheid Wall moved on their lands. And most recently the village of Sabastiya demonstrated against a sewage outlet from the illegal settlement of Shave Shomron which pumped out raw sewerage onto their lands. They found out on Tuesday 2 April that the outlet pipe had been closed.

Israeli border police officers and armored bulldozer invading the village (Photo by ISM)

Protesters building a tyre barricade (Photo by ISM)

Palestinian Children’s Day

5th April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine Children’s Days around the world are intended to honour, protect and celebrate childhood. Palestinian Children’s Day, commemorated on the 5th of April each year, is no celebration – rather it is a day highlighting the horrific treatment of Palestinian children by the occupying Israeli authorities. In 2013, Children’s Day falls in a period in which arrests and detention of children by the Israeli military has become increasingly common. Defence for Children International- Palestine put the number of children currently detained under the Israeli occupation at 236. In the West Bank city of Al Khalil (Hebron), the rise in child arrests has been particularly evident – two weeks before Children’s Day, 30 children were attacked and detained by Israeli soldiers on their way to school, eyewitnesses stated that they were seemingly grabbed at random from in front of their school (see video below.)

Children, who are detained regularly in Al Khalil, generally have their hands bound and are confined in dark, closed spaces such as checkpoint boxes, along with soldiers who deny access to human rights observers and in some cases the families of the children. There are regular reports of beatings, threats and torture in attempts to force children to admit to crimes.

In checkpoints in Al Khalil, there are blurred pictures of children’s faces, allegedly from demonstrations, printed and stuck to the walls for soldiers to attempt to identify children as they walk past on their way to school. A recent UNICEF investigation into children in Israeli military detention describes the whole process that often occurs in arrests and sentencing of children, criticising Israel’s failings in safeguarding children’s rights under such legal policies and principles as the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We call for an end to Occupation, so that Palestinian Children’s Day can be a celebration of childhood the rights of children, rather than a day to fight against the injustices committed by the Israeli system against the youth of Palestine.

Detained child being taken to army jeep in Hebron.

Funeral procession for two young boys killed by the Israeli army in ‘Anabta

4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, ‘Anabta, Occupied Palestine

by Team Nablus

On Thursday 4 April the village of ‘Anabta, near Tulkarem buried two of their young men. Amer Nassar, 17 and Naji al-Balbisi, 18 were shot dead by the Israeli Army at the Enav checkpoint late on Wednesday evening.

Amer Nassars body in the morgue. Photo by WAFA News

Despite reports last night that Naji had escaped the Army gunfire, he was found by the Red Crescent medics on Thursday morning after a phone call from the Israeli Army.

Last night Amer was shot in the chest and the Israeli Army prevented his fellow villagers attempts to reach him
resulting in Fadi Abu-A’sr being shot in the arm. Naji was shot in the back, indicating he was running away from the soldiers, which accords with reports taken from witnesses.

The funeral procession was joined by the entire village including Khader Adnan and fellow former hunger striking prisoners. To date there has been no information from the Israeli Army about the fate of Deiyaa’ Nassar, despite reports he was injured at the time of his arrest. His family have been unable to obtain any information from the Army on his condition or whereabouts.

The Army regularly arrest Palestinians, holding them for up to 8 days without access to a lawyer, adequate medical attention or contact with their families. This detention can continue indefinitely and has sparked the mass hunger strikes from prisoners such as Khader and the current hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi, who is in a critical condition after refusing food for over 250 days.

This escalation in violence is a familiar pattern for Palestinians. In recent months the Israeli security forces killed Arafat Jaradat as a result of interrogation tactics. The murder of Amer and Naji and arrest of Deiyaa’, also comes a day after the prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh died as a result of medical neglect.

Funeral procession today in 'Anabta - photo credit ISM — Funeral procession today in ‘Anabta – photo credit ISM

UPDATED: Two teenagers murdered at checkpoint

4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, ‘Anabta, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

At 22:30 on 3 April Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition and killed a 17 year-old boy, from the village of ‘Anabta near Enav checkpoint and east of Tulkarm. Amer Nassar was murdered with a bullet to his chest.

Fadi Abu-A'sr was shot in the lower arm. — Fadi Abu-A’sr was shot in the lower arm.

On hearing the shooting 3 boys from the village went to investigate and saw Amer lying on the floor with soldiers standing over him. The boys tried to reach Amer, but the soldiers would not let them approach and opened fire, injuring Fadi Abu-A’sr with a bullet to his lower arm.

The Army prevented ambulance crews access to Amer for 30 minutes, threatening to shoot anyone that attempted to help. Deiyaa’ Nasser, who attempted to get to Amer was arrested by the Israeli Army and taken to an unknown location.

The body of a Amer’s cousin, Naji Abdul-Karim Balbisi, 18, was found at first light Thursday morning near a house in the vicinity of the checkpoint. He had been hoped, last night, to be missing, still hiding in a factory. He was discovered, shot from behind in the torso, laying in a field.

The Israeli Army regularly open fire with live ammunition against unarmed protestors and the general population. Amer’s death is the latest in a string of recent murders committed by the Israeli Army, and came a day after the death of Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh as a result of neglect in Israeli prisons.

17 year old Amer Nasser was today killed by the Israeli army