Author: ISM Media

Israeli forces cut water supply to village in Jordan Valley

From Jordan Valley Solidarity Saturday 17th July

 

On Thursday 13th July Israeli forces came to the village of Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley, Palestine, and confiscated water pipes that supply water to the village, cutting off the water supply for all of the farmers in the village. The villagers are currently trying to reconnect the water supply that is so crucial to their livelihoods. The village relies on agriculture as its main source of income, and is currently preparing for the harvest of guava and corn as well as other fruit and vegetables, and so the recent Israeli attack on the water supply comes at a critical time for farmers.

 

This is not the first time that Israel has deliberately targeted the water supply in Bardala. On Thursday 5th July Israeli forces came to the village of Bardala and confiscated water pipes that supply water to the village, cutting off the water supply for around 20% of farmers there. Two months ago, Israeli forces entered the village to cut Bardala’s water supply and confiscate the water pipes, also arresting two farmers. Read the report from that incident here. Water is a critical way in which the Israeli occupation is deliberately squeezing the livelihoods of Palestinians from the Jordan Valley. Much of the village of Bardala is in Area C, where the Israeli occupation controls building permits and almost all areas of local administration. 87% of the Jordan Valley is designated as Area C, and Palestinians living in Area C are not given permits for building any structure, including water tanks. This means that farmers from land in Area C cannot legally set up their own irrigation systems, even though there is plenty of water in the Jordan Valley. The Israeli government deliberately restricts the water supply to Palestinians in Area C, using most of the water to supply illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Save the Children estimates that the 9,000 Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley consume almost 7 times as much water per day on average than the 60,000 Palestinians living there. Due to building restrictions in Area C, Palestinian farmers living in the Jordan Valley have no choice but to resort to connecting their water pipes to the Israeli-controlled water supply, which is deemed ‘illegal’ by the Israeli occupation. Read more about Israel’s ‘water apartheid’ policies in the Jordan Valley here.

 

Get involved with Jordan Valley Solidarity: http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/

A day of demolitions: Houses destroyed by JCB vehicles at Abu Nuwar

By Amy Hall, Lydia Noon, Eliza Egret and Tom Anderson from Corporate Occupation

Not content with continuous demolition of school classrooms, the Israeli authorities have now moved on to the demolition of homes in the Palestinian Bedouin community of Abu Nuwar.

Around 8.30am on Wednesday 4 May, Corporate Occupation witnessed Israeli soldiers, border police and representatives of the civil administration arriving in the village, which is in the West Bank district of Jerusalem, and declaring the area a closed military zone.

According to B’Tselem, nine homes were destroyed, along with three farm buildings, leaving 62 people – about half of them children – homeless. Bulldozers made by the British firm JCB were used to demolish buildings as a surveillance drone was flown overhead.

Like Khan al-Ahmar, just down the road, the Bedouin community of Abu Nuwar is being threatened with relocation by Israel. It stands in the way between annexed East Jerusalem and the huge settlement of Maale Adumim which looms over the village. The Israeli authorities plan to build thousands of settlement houses here, in the “E1 corridor”, and further divide the West Bank.

Abu Nuwar, which has around 600 residents, is tucked away behind the main road – a road people can only use by car, massively restricting people from moving with their animals. Before the Apartheid Wall was built, people from Abu Nuwar were able to sell their sheep in Jerusalem, now they can only sell in cities within the West Bank, which they say brings in a much smaller income.

Several demolitions were reported in the West Bank on 4 July. As demolitions in Abu Nuwar took place, the authorities prepared to demolish the village of Khan al Ahmar, home to nearly 200 people. Israeli Civil Administration officials took down barriers at the side of the road to give access for bulldozers and vehicles. Several people were arrested during a protest which blocked a bulldozer from getting through. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of demolishing Khan al Ahmar in May, after an international campaign to save the village and its school.

In February 2018, Israeli forces demolished two classrooms of Abu Nuwar’s school, affecting over 25 students. This was the fifth demolition or confiscation of classrooms since February 2016. In April, we interviewed community representative Abu Imad about the community’s struggle for survival. We spoke inside Abu Nuwar’s community centre which was being used as a temporary classroom for the third grade.

Why is this building now being used by the school?

An order declaring a closed military zone

We are forced to use it because of the demolition of the classrooms.

The closest school to this community was 2km away. There is no transportation and there is no good road. It’s very tiring for children to make it the whole way – children as young as five or six years old. In collaboration with some associations in the European Union (EU) we established the kindergarten and we got an order from the court that prevents the occupation from demolishing it.

Since then we have built many classrooms for the school which have been demolished or confiscated. We have been working with our lawyer and going to the Israeli court try and stop this happening.

The most recent demolition was on 4 February 2018. They did it between 2.00am and 5.00am and they used JCB machines. When they come to demolish they close the entire area and make it a closed military zone.

The remains of a classroom in Abu Nuwar, after February’s demolition

What support have you had from international governments and NGOs?

There is always logistical support from organisations providing us with water tanks. They just provide us with material to be demolished again. They try to put pressure on the occupation to stop these practices but it’s not enough. They are always shy when talking to the occupation.

We had welcomed a lot of groups of British politicians as well and we asked them to support us with a bus for students, but they have not tried to help.

Our fight is to keep presence on the land in the first place. Even though nowadays our options are getting narrower. Internationally speaking we can see that there are many countries supporting the state of Israel and we can predict that we will be living in more enclosed and pressured situations in the future.

It’s frustrating and depressing. We have many international agreements that Palestinians have the right to live peacefully and safely and they don’t respect these laws at all.

For three years they have been trying to make us willingly leave. The Civil Administration said they would give us money to leave. We didn’t even open the door to ask how much, but they seem to be ready to pay anything.

Israel begins demolition of Khan Al Ahmar and uses violence against peaceful protesters

International Solidarity Movement, Khan Al Ahmar, Palestine Friday 6th June

Peaceful protest against the demolition of Khan al Ahmar

This week, Israeli forces began preparing for the demolition of the Bedouin village Al-Khan Al-Ahmar, in between Jerusalem and Jericho in the West Bank of Palestine. They met village residents and protesters with extreme violence on Wednesday and Thursday in an attempt to clear the area and proceed with the destruction of the entire village. Palestinian and international solidarity activists have been staying in the village school, which serves over 150 children from the surrounding area, for several weeks in order to prevent the demolition. Israeli forces arrived on Wednesday with construction vehicles to start preparing a temporary road to the village from the main road to allow bulldozers to come through. Residents and activists stood in the path of the construction vehicles peacefully protest the demolition, and Israeli forces responded with extreme violence, arresting 13 people and injuring 35, 4 of whom went to hospital. A human rights activist from Israeli organisation B’tselem was amongst those detained. Israeli forces dragged one woman to the ground, removing her hijab and attacked other women. Watch a video of Israeli forces’ violence here.

A group of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists chai themselves together in front of bulldozer to protest destruction of Khan al Ahmar

 

Canadian activist arrested in peaceful protest of Khan Al Ahmar demolition

On Thursday morning, Israeli forces arrived to Khan Al Ahmar at around 7.30, to continue with the preparations for demolition. A group of eleven Palestinian, Israeli and international activists chained themselves together in front of the bulldozer, and one activist succeeded in chaining himself to the bulldozer. Israeli riot police forcefully removed three of the activists with wire cutters and violently arrested them. The activists who were arrested were from the UK, Canada and the US. They have since been released. At this point a large group of local residents, Palestinians and international activists were gathered to protest the Israeli destruction of the village. Over the next few hours they were forced back by Israeli forces, and placed in the school as the bulldozer proceeded to flatten the ground in front of the villager’s dwellings so that the demolition can take place in the next few days. Israeli forces filmed activists throughout the morning, and also prevented local journalists and human rights observers from entering the village from the main road, giving out traffic fines to those arriving.

Boys from Khan Al Ahmar look on as Israeli forces move protesters back and begin preparing for demolition of the village.
Israeli forces preparing for demolition of Khan Al Ahmar

As this statement from the village of Khan Al Ahmar reiterates, the demolition of the village marks part of the ongoing Nakba, or forcible removal of Palestinians from their homes. The community was displaced from their homes in the Naqab desert in 1950 by Zionist militias, and settled in their current homes in the hills between Jerusalem and Jericho. The area is inhabited by similar small communities of Jahalin bedouins who were also ethnically cleansed from the Naqab during the Nakba. Israel has been attempting to remove these small communities for several years as part of its plan to link two nearby illegal settlements, Kfar Adumim and Maale Adumim with Jerusalem, effectively annexing a huge area of the West Bank from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, and cutting off occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. The residents of Al Khan al Ahmar have been protesting the demolition of their village for years, filing appeals in the Israeli High Court of Justice. Human rights groups in Palestine have pointed out that the destruction of Khan Al Ahmar constitutes the forcible removal of a population, which is a war crime according to international law. The court denied the latest appeal in May this year, and ordered that Israeli government had found a solution for the residents in their transfer to Al-Jabil, near Abu Dis. The residents have refused this transfer, pointing out that the proposed site is cramped and next to the municipality garbage dump. Despite the protestations of residents and human rights groups in Palestine, Israel has been proceeding with the E1 plan since 2015, destroying 35 structures in Khan Al Ahmar and 57 in the wider E1 area. However, the Israeli High Court ruling in May this year gave the Israeli government the green light to demolish the entire village.

Girl from Khan Al Ahmar waves Palestinian flag at Israeli forces preparing for the destruction of her home and the entire village.

The international community has spoken out against the destruction of Khan Al Ahmar, with some British MPs visiting the village in previous weeks, and holding an emergency session in Parliament on Wednesday. The EU expressed concern about the demolition yesterday, reiterating that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal according to international law. PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi pointed out, however, that “words of warning to Israel are not enough. If there is no serious intervention from the international community towards the Israeli government and its belligerent military occupation, other villages will be next, and more Palestinian men, women and children will be displaced for another 70 years to come.” There has been no condemnation of Israel’s attempts to destroy Khan Al Ahmar from the US government.

‘We are here and we will never leave.’ The residents of Khan Al Ahmar say they will not leave their homes.

Late on Thursday night the Israeli High Court put a temporary suspension on the demolition, but activists on the ground today in Khan Al Ahmar have reported that Israeli forces are continuing in their preparations.

 

Read this official statement from the village of Khan Al Ahmar here. The village is calling for further action from the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop the illegal demolition.

 

Salama remembers Razan

In response to a call for solidarity from Gazan women, a Jewish activist group dubbed “Return” gathered to hold a memorial for Razan AlNajar, at the location of her village of origin, Salameh.

While thousands of women marched towards the border in the Saja’iya area in Gaza, the activists held a ceremony honoring Razan and the protesters shot dead by Israeli snipers. The activist called for the implementation of the right of return and hung photos of the slain protesters placing flowers and candles on a structure that proceeded the Zionist state.

The steering committee of the Great march of return  published  a call   for people to commemorate the fallen protesters. Return has been organizing commemorations inside historical Palestine in locations including the Gaza border fence and the Israeli parliment. Other such memorials are taking place around the world.

The protestors changed Hertzel streets on the road between Salamah and Jaffa to Al-Awda street and Ben-Zvi street to Razan Al-Najar street.

“Razan did not see Salama, but she and all the refugees who are not present here physically are always present here with us, as a void an absence, something that is missing here until their inevitable return. ” stated one of the activists.

The four year anniversary of the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir

The 2nd of July 2018 is four years to the day since the kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu
Khdeir, a 16 year old Palestinian boy from Shu’fat in East Jerusalem. The shocking nature of his
murder and its context, occurring only 6 days before Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza, make it a
painful memory for Palestinians.

Mohammed was waiting for friends to eat the pre-dawn meal in Ramadan and was outside his home
at 3.45 in the morning. He was dragged into a car by two or three settlers. He screamed “father, save
me!”. The four settlers who took part (two of whom were minors) then proceeded to beat
Mohammed, covered him in petrol and set him on fire while he was still alive. The autopsy confirmed he had inhaled the burning material confirming he was still alive when he was set on fire and that he suffered internal as well as external burns covering 90% of his body.

Relatives of Mohammed Abu Khdeir hold pictures of him outside his home in Jerusalem (photo: the Guardian)

While many in the Israeli government expressed condolences the violence against the boy’s family
was not yet at an end. His cousin Tariq, a US citizen, was beaten and arrested by police in east
Jerusalem only a few days later. He recalled “they hit me, and they kept hitting me and then I fell
asleep and then I woke up in the hospital.” The police said there he had been involved in violence
but journalists noted that there was no mention of this accusation at the court hearing. He was 15 at
the time.

While the killers were eventually sentenced (although the minors may be released in under 15 years)
the horrific incident must not be viewed as an isolated outbreak. Instead it should be located within
a collection of sentiments coming from the settler community, the military, the media and the
government of Israel. The inevitable result is terrorism against Palestinians. From Mohammed’s killer
Ben-David to the settlers who spat at the Abu Khdeir family when they arrived in court, to even the
Israeli government, the Palestinians and their children are “little snakes” and “Wild Beasts” and
legitimate targets for violence. At 16 Mohammed Abu Khdeir was training to be an electrician.