25 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Over 33 Palestinian-owned olive trees were uprooted by the Israeli military in the village of Qusra, near Nablus, when the military entered the village around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, July 17. For one hour and a half, Israeli soldiers and equipment uprooted the olive trees.
When International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers arrived, the Israeli soldiers had already left, but four armed border police officers appeared in an armoured vehicle. Three Qusra residents took the ISM on a tour of the land that was cleared earlier that morning. The border police followed closely. Nothing was visible but holes in the dry soil where the trees used to stand.
The farmer who owns the land explained that the field had not been worked on for 18 years. This served as the legal argument for the clearing. The military had no formal court order, which is otherwise required, for the uprooting, and they came without warning.
The two other young men showing ISM around were approached by the border police and asked to present their identification. As they were not carrying ID on them, the officers detained them behind their vehicle and ordered the internationals to leave the field. When the young men reappeared, they said that they were violently searched and threatened against talking to internationals.
“I said I didn’t know who you were, so that I would not get arrested,” said one of the young men, “but if you had not been here, they would have beaten me and probably arrested me. Now they are too afraid of your cameras.”
The uprooting of olive trees and the consequent destruction of livelihood may be one of the gravest threats that the people of Qusra face from the Israeli forces which occupy their land. It is by no means the only one.
Walking through Qusra, the young guides point to a home that has recently received a demolition order.
Later, ISM volunteers visited a shelter belonging to Qusra resident Fathallah Abu Readeh. He explained how he one morning he awoke to a note from the Israeli authorities ordering him to remove the shelter within 7 days, along with some scrap cars on his own land. The note was written in both Arabic and Hebrew, but as Readeh doesn’t read Hebrew, he missed the correction in the Hebrew text stating 3, not 7, days of notice.
“They did this on purpose, just to be able to punish me,” says Fathallah.
Apart from various forms of harassment by the Israeli military, Qusra is regularly exposed to attacks from the adjacent, illegal Israeli settlement of Migdalim. Earlier this year, a mosque in the village was set on fire by Migdalim settlers.
Nina and Saffron are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).
To the embassies, consulates, and international, Arab, and Islamic representative offices;
To domestic and international humanitarian and human rights organizations;
To all domestic and international media outlets that have visited the steadfast village of Aqaba, and to those that have not visited;
To Israeli humanitarian and human rights organizations;
Al-Salam (Peace) Street remains closed before your eyes,
And to the residents of Al-Aqaba village since 18 April 2012…
The destruction of Al-Salam street in Al-Aqaba
The people of Al-Aqaba village call upon you to intervene to open Al-Salam Street, which was destroyed and then closed by the Israeli military on 18 April 2012. Israel knows that the people of this small village call for peace despite the injuries and the harassment inflicted upon them and despite the fact that they are deprived of vital services, particularly drinking water; they are denied the right to build; are isolated and blockaded; and they are frequently served with demolition orders for their homes, their roads, their agricultural land, and the entrances to their village.
The destruction of Al-Salam street in Al-Aqaba
We place this sacred trust in each and every one of your hands, without exception, to immediately intervene to open Al-Salam Street in Al-Aqaba, in order to help the isolated residents, particularly the farmers, the students, and the sick.
We reiterate our call for a resolution to the problem of Al-Salam Street.
25 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
“I have not slept all night.” The words of a young man from the Bilal Al-Najjar youth cultural center in Burin, after a night of raids by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the town.
On Monday 23 July at 9:30 p.m., some 20 IOF military jeeps entered Burin, a village of 3,000 inhabitants located southwest of the city of Nablus. The Israeli military closed all entrances to the town, isolating it during the invasion. Burin’s residents are accustomed to such raids on a weekly basis, but usually they occur much later at night. This time, as the military entered Burin, many residents of the town were still outdoors and encountered the IOF jeeps on their streets.
During the invasion, soldiers repeatedly fired tear gas in the center of Burin, even inside of residents’ homes. A woman of 65 had to be evacuated by ambulance to hospital in Nablus after suffering suffocation from the gas.
Accompanying the military were 5 Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal settlement. According to Palestinian witnesses, the settlers at first were hesitant to leave the military jeep that they arrived in, but the back-up of the Israeli military encouraged them. The settlers took photos of the new Bilal Al-Najjar cultural centre, still under construction, and the old original center.
Israeli occupation forces left the village at 11:30 p.m., after two hours in the village.
“We are leaving now but we will return very soon,” threatened the commander of the Israeli forces present in the village of Burin Monday night. Indeed, 5 military jeeps returned that very night at 1 a.m. to patrol the residential streets.
Thousands of olive trees in Burin have been burned during attacks by settlers from nearby illegal Israeli colonies
The residents of Burin suffer such raids on a weekly basis, and the presence of Israeli military jeeps in their village is constant. These occurances prevent many from a peaceful night of sleep, for fear of arbitrary arrest or injury during the invasions.
A youth from the Bilal Al-Najjar cultural center recalls a similar raid on Burin three months ago. Several youth were arrested and to this day remain in administrative detention (no charge, no trial) in Israeli prisons. Many fear the same fate.
Burin is a town which, apart from the regular nightly military incursions, also suffers repeated violent attacks by Israeli settlers from the two adjacent illegal settlements, Yitzhar and Bracha.
Alma Reventós is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
21 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
In the peaceful landscape of the South Hebron Hills, the occupation of the land is a daily struggle. Whilst life seems to be quiet and smooth the Palestinian communities often have to forget their daily life problems to focus on a bigger issue: resisting expulsion from their land.
As does 60% of the Palestinian West Bank, the South Hebron Hills lies in Area C, meaning it is under complete Israeli civil and military control. Palestinians residing in Area C live under harsh conditions, facing land confiscations, house demolitions, and access to water and electricity.
Furthermore, a 7.5 acre area within the district of Masafer Yatta, including 12 Palestinian villages, were designated in the late 1970s by the Israeli Occupation Forces as ‘Firing Zone 918’, a closed military zone. In 1999, evacuation orders were issued to remove the inhabitants of the villages, claiming that they are non-permanent residents and ignoring their ancient culture.
In Al Mufagarah, the 15 families are living in caves, tents, and a few stones houses. As their ancestors have been doing for ages, the families farm and graze. Its population, originally from the nearby village of At-Tuwani moved 4 kilometres south to set up the village of Al Mufagarah by the end of the British Mandate. At first, it seemed that nothing had changed. Secluded on a hillside, Al Mufagarah is accessible only by a rough dirt road. It stands quiet, facing the Naqab desert.
Its 160 residents, as do the 12 other hamlets of the firing zone, maintain a unique way of life with many living in or beside dug caves. Studies have shown that cave dwellers have been living in the southern Hebron hills since at least the 1830s. As families expanded, they build tents and a few stones houses. The community relies for its livelihood on growing grain and olives, husbandry of sheep and goats, and on the production of milk and cheese.
“Unfortunately, nowadays, we are facing issues my grand-father would have never expected!” said Mahmoud. “We started building a few stones houses in the ’80s; but then, with the expansion of the 4 nearby settlements, the Israeli Civil Administration wouldn’t deliver building permits anymore.
Even though in 2007, I decided to build a 60m² bricks house on the top of my cave because it is too small for my wife and my 14 children. But the 24th November 2011, the Israeli bulldozers came and destroyed my house as well as the mosque and the container for the collective power generator.”
Most of the villages of the South Hebron Hills have been forcibly displaced or demolished, often times with the building of new settlements. Moreover, according to the Israeli non-governmental organization Peace Now, between 2000 and September 2007, 94% of the building permits requested in Area C by Palestinians were turned down. While only 91 permits were issued to Palestinians, 18,472 new homes were built, illegally by international law, in order to expand the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which currently house 400,000 settlers.Heavy restrictions on freedom movement, work and business isolate these communities and have increased poverty among the population.
Furthermore, the closed area has no physical infrastructure. There are no paved roads leading from the villages. They are not linked to a power grid, telephone lines, a running-water system, or a sewage system. The normal water supply is rain, saved from the rainy season. Although the water table in the area is healthy enough to be able to build a well, the military does not permit this. Even building a structure for rainwater catchment is forbidden. As the rain water does not last through the dry season and the inhabitants have to spend roughly 10-15% of their income to buy water, brought by tanker from an Israeli company, Yatta.
The community attempted a few years ago to run electrical lines from At-Tuwani village but it was, as always, shut down by the military. Nowadays, only Mahmoud has a small power generator that he uses strictly from 7-10 p.m., and all activities needing electricity are coordinated into this time. This includes using the washing machine, charging cellular phones and flashlights, as well as watching their favourite soap opera.
“We are harassed on a daily base by settlers, soldiers, police, and border police. But I am determined to behave the opposite way of their actions. We will get Al Mufagarah back on the map and bring its people from the caves within to the outside in houses,” Mahmoud says.
On 19 May 2012, the community of Al Mufagarah, supported by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, launched a campaign called ‘Al Mufagarah R-Exist’, to build 15 bricks houses. Every Saturday since the launching, Palestinian, Israeli, and International activists have gathered to build the houses and support the community in its struggle to remain on its land.
On June 10, after only 3 houses had been completed, Al Mufagarah received orders from the Israeli Civil Administration to halt construction. On July 16, a demolition order was received concerning the first house built, which should be implemented within 3 days.
Like Susya and many other villages from Area C, the existence of this community is jeopardized.
They need your support: advocate, lobby, donate, demonstrate.
VLR is a photojournalist based in Palestine since 2011 reporting life under occupation.
This article was originally published with an error in the name of the village Al Mufagarah. It was corrected from Um Fagarah to Al Mufagarah on 30 July 2012.
21 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Walking through Askar Refugee Camp | Alex Marley
A short distance from Nablus one finds the community of Askar camp. What appears as a suburb or cut-off of the city, is actually a refugee camp. Established in 1964, it today houses some 6,000 people in 1 square kilometre. The inhabitants are both descendants of and those themselves that were once pushed off their lands by Israel. This year, it has been 20 years since the first solidarity funding showed up in the camp, and 10 years since the camp was devastated by the Israeli army during the second intifada.
The secretary of the Social Development Center (SDC) for children and the disabled, explains the dire situation in the camp. Most of the week, water is only available 2 hours per day. 30% of the inhabitants are unemployed and lack a real income. The camp finally established a medical clinic, but it has only one doctor for the 6,000 residents of the camp.
Some improvements have been made. Swedish workers arrived in 1992, and the following year, a three-year support package of 30,000 dollars arrived. Buildings and buses have been acquired, and international volunteers still work with the SDC.
For the residents of the camp, one fact remains. No amount of money or construction will bring a solution. The refugee camp is a temporary home for a people who were forced from their true homes. True solidarity lies in the fight for the right to return.
A teacher at the SDC showed members of the International Solidarity Movement a second attraction that the camp has to offer visitors. At the site of an old kindergarten, 7 white tombstones makes up a monument for victims of the second intifada, ensuring some of what occurred in April 2002 will not be forgotten.
The 7 tombstones include a man shot in the head by the Israeli army while going to his neighbour to ask for food, three men killed by a missile that struck their residential area, the daughter of one of the missile victims who was shot and killed, and another who was very ill and died when an ambulance coming for him was denied entrance to the camp by Israeli forces.
The tombstones of victims of Israeli military violence during the second intifada | Alex Marley
The Israeli military machine devastated Askar Camp during the second intifada. The road at the entrance of the camp was trafficked by tanks instead of cars. From the mountain top across the valley, Israeli forces were able to shoot directly into the camp. Many houses were razed and badly damaged. In total, Askar Camp lost 33 lives during the second intifada. Many were arrested and 50 residents remain to today in Israeli prisons.
Although much has changed since then, a resident of the camp, Naser, can still identify big problems for the refugee camp.
Medicine and equipment for care of children with disabilities is very expensive, and must go through Israel, which further complicates its arrival. There is a lack of assistance from both the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and the Palestinian Authority. Both are represented in the camp, but do not offer enough to the inhabitants.
The entire camp falls under Area C, meaning it is under full Israeli civil and military control. Thus, Israeli soldiers and armed settlers are known to enter the area and harass its residents. Extremist settlers use the presence of the Tomb of Yousef as a premise to invade the area and increase their influence.
For the children of Askar camp, their minds and memories are saturated with the trauma of living under Israeli military occupation.
The Social Development Center has its own girls team in football. Naser explains how they have travelled to a number of countries in Europe to play games and meet other teams. In the end, they all return to a reality of soldiers and restrictions on movement.
While the children are able to secure a 20-day visa to visit Europe, they are not allowed to visit their own capital city, only 45 minutes away.
“Our dream is to visit Jerusalem.”
Hakim Maghribi and Alex Marley are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).
