Author: Yara

We Are With Hana Shalabi and Al Aqsa: Demonstration in the No Go Zone in Beit Hanoun

by Nathan Stuckey

29 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Israeli riot police have entered the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound, Palestinians have struggling to protect it for days.  After 66 days Khader Adnan has ended his hunger strike, hopefully, soon, he will be home with his family.  Even before his hunger strike ended the newest one had begun.  Hana Shalabi, a young woman from the West Bank, was put into “administrative detention” on February 16, 2012.  Like Khader Adnan she has been charged with no crime.  Like Khader Adnan she finds dignity more important than food.  Hana Shalabi was only recently released from Israeli prisons, freed in the latest prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestine.  She had spent over two years in prison when she was released, she had not been charged with a crime that time either.  These are the things that inspired this week’s demonstration against the no go zone and the occupation in Beit Hanoun.

As we gathered on the road beside the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College the wind blew fiercely.  The flags did not wave in the breeze, they were held stretched out in full.  Those that did not have flags had posters of Al Aqsa.  Music played over the megaphone.  We marched quietly and quickly down the road to the no go zone.  As we approached the buffer zone the chanting began, dozens of young men pledging to defend Al Aqsa and demanding the end of occupation.  We marched to the ditch that bisects the no go zone, we stopped.  Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative of Beit Hanoun said a few words, “Al Aqsa is at the center of our nation, it is at the center of our life, we will not abandon it.”  Sabur announced that we would symbolically join Hana’s hunger strike, for two hours we would remain in the no go zone and neither eat nor drink.

Soon, the Israeli shooting began.  The first bullet I thought was perhaps the crack of a flag in the wind; there was no mistaking the bullets after that.  We retreated a bit, then the young men stopped and rallied.  The flag we had been standing by now had a hole in it.  We walked back toward the wall; soldiers appeared on top of the concrete tower from which they had so recently shot at us.  The soldiers started to fire tear gas at us.  The fierce wind carried it away too quickly for it to be really effective.  They started to shoot at us again.  The bullets whistled over our heads.  We were unarmed demonstrators, who had not so much as thrown a ball of cotton, who had no guns, being shot at by soldiers in a concrete tower.  This is the only way the occupation knows how to speak, with bullets, with tear gas.  We started to walk back toward Beit Hanoun, bullets whistling over our heads.  We stopped at the edge of the no go zone.  Some of us set down to continue our symbolic hunger strike.  The Israeli bullets began again.  They continued to shoot as we walked back to Beit Hanoun.  The entire time the Israeli soldiers shot at us Hana Shalabi refused to eat and drink, her refusal is louder than their bullets.  We will win.

Deadline extended: Submit your photos for the liberation of Shuhada street

20 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Beginning this week local organizers in Al Khalil (Hebron) and supporters have organized a series of events to commemorate the Baruch Goldstein Massacre and demand the re-opening of Shuhada Street, once the commercial heart of Al Khalil, now off limits to locals, Palestinians in general, and even international supporters following the massacre that claimed 29 Palestinian lives.

While one street may seem insignificant or small, the segregation, economic strangulation, violence, and oppression that Shuhada Street suffers is a microcosm of Zionist policy. As extremist settlers continue to harass and violently attack Palestinians and internationals, and the Golani Brigade continues to show no accountability or concern for international law, it is all the more essential that this street be the symbolic avenue of freedom for Palestinians.

An illegal Zionist settlement pollutes the very heart of a historic piece of Al Khalil now overtaken with settler violence, racial epithets, and sadly, pure hatred for Palestinians and their supporters.

The residents of Al Khalil, Palestinian activists, and International Solidarity Movement  call on the international community to display their support in a project that will showcase international solidarity for the opening of Shuhada Street.

As such we ask that the international community submits a photo of solidarity to International Solidarity Movement. This photo will be of a major street or landmark of your hometown with a display or sign of solidarity for Shuhada Street. Diversity in support for human rights can humanize the victims of Zionist oppression in Al Khalil and elsewhere.

Get creative with your slogans and locations! Please note that multiple photos from the same location will not all be published, so local organizing in deciding a location in your community is suggested, or the ISM media team will select 1 photo from each location.

In order to participate, please submit a photo to palreportskhalil@gmail.com and keep in mind the following guidelines:

  1. In the subject line of your email please be sure to write “Open Shuhada Street Photo Campaign”
  2. Photos should not be a maximum of 1 MB
  3. A poster, sign, clothing or any other visual statement supporting the opening of Shuhada Street should be visible in the photo along with the landmark or major street
  4. It is not necessary for individuals to be a part of the picture, as your privacy is honored, however if individuals can please indicate their names (if they wish to be identified)
  5. Please include a location of the photo (example: Hollywood sign, Hollywood, California) in the email
  6. Include the date when the photograph was taken in the email
  7. If the visual is written in a language other than English, please write the statement in the body of the email in order to be translated.
  8. Photos are original and not edited or borrowed from another entity
  9. Please submit photos no later than April 2nd

ISM Palestine looks forward to receiving your photographs. Stay tuned for a publication on April 4th on palsolidarity.org.


Clashes and arrests in the town of Tur

by Asmaa Thaher

28 February 2012 | Jerusalem Center for Media

Broke out this evening clashes in the town of Tur East Jerusalem and the occupation forces arrested two young men from the region.

Our correspondent said that the clashes broke out near Al-Maqased hospital and Tur club down to the Sawwanah neighborhood crossroads.

He said that the occupation authorities used large amounts of tear gas, rubber and sound bullets, and youths response with throwing stones and iron bars at soldiers.

Witnesses said that soldiers arrested two young men at least in the confrontations that take place in the town for the fourth day in the neighborhood protesting to storm Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday.

Arrests and nonviolent actions in South Hebron Hills

26 February 2012 | Operation Dove

On February 25th Palestinian men and women, elders and children, together with Israeli and international activists gathered for two demonstrations organized by the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee.

The first demonstration, attended by approximately ninety people, was planned in response to twenty-nine trees being cut down during the last four months on private Palestinian property near the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on. During the action the participants planted about thirty small olive trees on a hill near the village of At-Tuwani. The demonstration was guarded by the Army, the border police, the police and the DCO (District Coordination Office), nearly forty officers overall.

Later the demonstrators headed towards Saadet Tha’lah, where on the 15th of February 2012 the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) bulldozers demolished five structures (http://www.operationdove.org/?p=698 ), to express their solidarity and closeness to the inhabitants.

At the meantime, two fifteen year old boys from the village of Tuba were grazing their flocks in the Palestinian Um Zeitouna valley near the Ma’on settlement despite the several prohibitions imposed by the Army and the settlement security chief. As reported by two internationals witnesses of the event, the latter was present during the incident. The two teenagers were arrested and detained in Kiryat Arba police station and released in the evening with a denial of access for the following two weeks to the area where they were taken by the soldiers.

The policy of restrictions, closures and demolitions carried out by the Israeli army, combined with the continuous harassment made by the settlers of the area, denies Palestinians’ human rights, hindering them to live in their villages, to cultivate their lands and to graze their flocks and preventing the development of local communities.

Nevertheless, the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills are strongly involved in affirming their rights and resist to the Israeli occupation choosing the nonviolent way.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://goo.gl/e9QUi

Tel Rumeida: As locals march for rights, Israel sprays funeral procession and injures journalist

by Aaron and Silvia

26 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The divided city of Al Khalil (Hebron) was transformed into a war zone this Friday, as thousands of Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists attempted to peacefully reopen the segregated Shuhada Street and were violently attacked by the Israeli military. Soldiers and riot police used tear gas, sound bombs, sonic weapons, and foul-smelling ‘skunk water’ to break up demonstrations at three different locations, resulting in numerous injuries that sent at least 95 to area hospitals. The demonstrations were the culmination of a week of protest against the closure of Shuhada Street and commemorated the 1994 Goldstein Massacre, in which a Zionist extremist murdered 29 and seriously wounded over 150 Muslims praying at the nearby Mosque Al-Ibrahimi. The call for this Third Annual Global Day of Action to Open Shuhada Street resulted in over 35 actions internationally, organized by scores of groups. In Al Khalil, two local demonstrations (organized by Youth Against Settlements and Hebron Defense Committee) directly confronted the racist laws preventing them access to their once-main street in the heart of the City.

Youth Against Settlements

The larger demonstration left after prayers at the Wassaya Rasoul Allah Mosque in the economically strangled Qeitun neighborhood, just inside the Israeli-controlled H2 zone of Al-Khalil. From there protesters marched and bussed two kilometers towards the Qeitun checkpoint, at which Palestinian are denied access to Shuhada street. Along the way, youth activists from across the West Bank kept the atmosphere festive with chants, drums, banners, and street theater. Activists in white clothing covered in red paint lay down across the road, bearing messages of “The Occupation is Killing” and “End Israeli Apartheid”, to represent the economic, emotional and physical suffering of Palestinians under Occupation.

As activists neared the military’s position some hundreds of meters from the checkpoint, they were quickly attacked with repeat volleys of tear gas and sound grenades, driving protesters back and disrupting the peaceful march. Soldiers arrested local organizer Badia Dweik (39), a member of Youth Against Settlements, along with five other Palestinians. As the military pushed forward with further barrages of tear gas, sound bombs, and a noxious-smelling chemical deterrent called ‘skunk water’, demonstrators scattered over several city blocks in every direction. Yet protesters of all ages and backgrounds returned again and again to confront the military aggression, some with stones and burning tires, but most with their presence, voices, and cameras.

Hebron Defense Committee

Demonstrators met with the Hebron Defense Committee in the troubled neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, where Hanaa Abu Haikl has set up a tent in defiance of the closure of the main road leading to her home which forces her and her elderly parents to climb a rocky wall to enter. Settlers in the area have attacked her family with torrents of abuse and violence, even going so far as to set fire to her car. Surrounded by the charred remains of ancient olive trees, the site is now particularly tragic. Their blackened trunks are a painful remainder of what the illegal occupation has cost the Palestinians of Hebron.

The burnt skeletons of the olive trees were decorated with the Palestinian flag on the morning of Friday 24th Febuary. One hundred and sixty Israelis, Palestinians and internationals came together for the morning prayer and a brief discussion of the effects that the closure of Shuhada street has had on the people of Hebron. The atmosphere was impassioned as Hebron Defense Committee leader Hisham Shabarati described the plight of the Palestinian people through the illegal Israeli occupation.

Some 800 demonstrators walked towards an army of soldiers with their hands in the air in a show of peaceful, non-violent resistance. Despite this clear and non-threatening gesture, Israeli soldiers forced their way into Palestinian homes and roofs and began shooting tear gas and sound bombs at the protestors before the demonstration had moved 100 meters. One sound bomb caught a female reporter from the Israeli human rights organizaion B’Tselem in the back. The grenade blew a hole through her bag, badly burning her hand and back.

The march for Shuhada Street | Click here for more photos

A funeral procession was caught up on the street whilst the demonstration was in process. Protesters stood by to allow the body to be carried forth but Israeli soldiers used this opportunity to shoot skunk water at the demonstrators, which hit the body of the deceased and outraged the family.

Fifteen people were injured and brought to hospital following the demonstration and one person was arrested. Though the action ended prematurely, Hebron Defense Committee member Sami stated that the demonstration was “useful”, explaining that it “brought attention to the pressure put on Palestinian people in Hebron. We are here and we’re not going to move; We do not accept the military machine and its response towards non-violent resistance”.

Aaron and Silvia are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).