12 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
A newly released report submitted to the United Nations by international organizations working in Al Khalil documents a sharp increase in serious human rights violations against Palestinian civilians, particularly youth and children, living in the Old City and Tel Rumeida.
Internationals working in Al-Khalil have called for an immediate withdrawal of the Golani Brigade, citing fears that the abuses will continue to escalate and make life unbearable for Palestinians should the soldiers remain another two to five months as expected.
Since their arrival on December 27 of 2011, the Israeli Golani Brigade has shown signs of deliberate harassment and targeting of the Palestinian population of Al-Khalil. The report documents an increase in arrests and detentions of adults and children, serious physical injuries sustained while in military custody, home invasions, and an increase in the number and duration of arbitrary detentions of civilians at checkpoints. It also documents harassment of and attempts to silence international observers attempting to document these abuses.
Contrary to military justifications, these human rights violations have occurred without any observed provocation on the part of Palestinians. These eye-witness accounts, either reported to or witnessed by Internationals working in the city, are believed to represent only a small portion of the total number of abuses.
For example:
On Thursday, January 12th: Golani beat a developmentally disabled young man when he knocked on the checkpoint door after they closed it in front of him. That evening, they attacked his mother and severely beat the teenager’s younger brother, cracking his skull, and then arrested the two young men.
On Tuesday, January 17th: Golani entered a man’s home at night, pushed the family out of their house, including their 1½ year old son, and beat the father, for which he required medical treatment.
On Friday, January 20th: Golani held a 10 and 12 year-old boy behind the gate of the Beit Romano settlement. A witness said the boys had been wearing ski masks because of the cold weather, but had not been throwing rocks, as the soldiers claimed. The soldiers gave the boys’ parents a list containing the names of five other boys from the Old City, saying that if the parents brought those boys to the gate, the soldiers would release the other two.
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem continue to face an increased threat of home-demolition and forced eviction. The neighbourhood of Silwan, located to the south of the old city of Jerusalem, and with a population of over 50,000 Palestinians, is at particular risk. The city municipality, whose unilaterally drawn borders were established by Israel in 1967 when East Jerusalem was illegally annexed, plans to demolish 88 Palestinian homes in al-Bustan area in the centre of Silwan (see map below) to make way for the development of a so-called archeological park, known as King David’s Garden. If the plan goes forward, more than 1,500 Palestinians will be left homeless and forcibly transferred.
10 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Villagers and internationals assembled in Kufr Qaddoum after prayer time to demonstrate against the blocking of their main road to Nablus. The army cut off the electricity in the entire village as collective punishment for the ongoing demonstrations in Kufr Qaddoum.
The villagers, including women and many children, walked up to the top of the village, joined by internationals and press. They stopped about 100 meters from the occupation forces, where they held speeches and sang. The occupation forces started firing a huge amount of tear gas at the crowd as a couple of kids where throwing stones. Many people were affected by the tear gas, that was fired nearly constantly from then on.
Locals and supporters march in Kufr Qaddoum on February 10th, 2012
The occupation forces finally retreated into the illegal settlement, where they kept on taking pictures and filming the protesters. The crowd walked down closer, and gathered under an olive tree, to honour the memory of a man shot dead by a settler 20 years ago in that exact spot. The village was still without electricity as we left.
Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
11 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The season of settler violence – Click here for more photos
As warm days sneak into this cold month of February, illegal settlers begin their season of attacks early. Although there is no “off season” for settler attacks, the number of these criminal acts increases in the spring and summer. The residents of Asira al Qibliiya unfortunately have the experience to believe the attacks will only increase.
This was evident as a group of 20 settlers from Yitzhar illegal settlement descended on Asira on a beautiful Saturday afternoon on February 11, 2012. It was approximately 3:30 PM when the settlers gathered on top of a hill overlooking Asira and stood only a couple hundred meters from residential homes.
They were armed and dangerous as they drew closer and closer to one of the homes, but fortunately crowds of locals gathered near the home and the settlers retreated back up the hill. Within a few minutes Israeli Occupation soldiers joined the group of settlers with two army jeeps and at least four soldiers were on foot. Also joining in support were two settlement security jeeps.
This is the second settler attempt to attack Asira this year. The last attack on Asira was during the early hours of December 12, 2011. By the end of this act, three homes and a bus were damaged as reported by Ma’an News Agency.
The average weekly settler attacks have already increased in 2012. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented an increase to eight attacks the first week of February from five attacks the beginning of the year.
The belief that settlers attack more frequently during warmer weather is evident to many local residents. However, the peak time for settler attacks is not well documented. An activist from Asira, who has witnessed many of the attacks, confidently declared “that the time for settler attacks is here now.”
Amal is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
11 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The extreme Golani Unit of the Israeli military is escalating its arrests of Palestinian children in Al Khalil (Hebron), targeting boys between the ages of 12 to15 years old with at least 10 reported cases of child arrests made just in the span of one week.
The arrest of Dwaik and Sultan
On February 2, 2012, 12-year old Islam Dwaik and 13-year old Ahsan Sultan were walking near Tel Rumeida. According to the two children, they were on their way to register for English courses. During their walk Israeli military accused the youth of throwing a stone at Israeli soldiers patrolling the area, with 12 soldiers arresting the two boys and walking them through Shuhada Street and into the illegal settlement of Abraham Avino.
Dwaik and Sultan stated that as they were walking, they noticed military was following and “running near them” until they were arrested.
The youth were detained for a total of three hours, which included them being escorted by military to their homes. Once they arrived at their respective households, soldiers threatened that if their children were arrested in the future, that the parents would also be arrested as well.
A local Palestinian stated that as the military paraded the youth into Shuhada street, it was “as if they were making an example of them and their families.”
In another incident on Saturday, February 4th, during a settler tour in the old city of Al Khalil , Israeli military alleged a single stone was thrown towards the heavily armed soldiers while the illegal Israeli settlers and Zionists were returning to their illegal colony. The settler tour is a weekly activity of the Israeli settlers and Zionists, where they take a tour of the Palestinian old city with armed soldiers as escorts, in an attempt to claim heritage, taunt locals, stifle local businesses, and invoke their presence as occupiers.
Volunteers from International Solidarity Movement, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), and The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) were on the scene when six Israeli soldiers claimed the stone was thrown, who then sought out Palestinian youth who were in the area. The soldiers found three boys between the ages of 12 to 15 years old, threatening them and their families with arbitrary arrests. International activists and observers were barred from getting near the detained youth, who were later released.
Another incident was reported by an international volunteer on Monday, February 6th. Volunteers from Temporary International Presence in Hebron witnessed the arrest of two boys near Qordoba school, while soldiers threatened their school principal.
Two 11 year old boys from Qordoba school, detained by Israeli military
The female, international volunteer described the event:
Two 11 year old boys were detained at Qordoba school. Towards the end of our monitoring period this afternoon, as we were leaving the area, the TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) and I saw 6 soldiers armed with M-16’s run urgently up the hill towards the school. We then heard 6 soldiers shouting violently at the children and heard children screaming and crying.
The three of us ran up the stairs to find the soldiers pulling the boys by their clothes to take them to the police station. The teachers from the school were still on the school grounds and surrounded the children to protect them and attempted to talk to the soldiers. The soldiers yelled at the teachers several times to “go away.” Finally, the principal came out and intervened. The soldiers made the teachers leave and allowed the principal to stay and talk to them on the boys behalf, since she told him the parents were at home and not near the school.
The soldiers were accusing the boys of throwing stones at the Israeli settlement (Beit Hadassah Settlement) across the street and down the steep hill from the school. The principal explained that the boys were playing and started to fight with each other and did not intentionally throw stones at anyone. TIPH said while they had been standing near the school, they only saw the boys playing. They did not see anyone throw a stone. The principal pleaded that the boys not be arrested.
The captain for these soldiers, who was negotiating with the principal of the school, threatened her by saying, “Next time if stones are thrown at the Jewish people, I will take the nice little children to the police and I will make a big (something inaudible stated in Hebrew or Arabic) at your school.”
He then told the principal and the students they were free to go.
After the incident, TIPH and I talked to the principal. The children who were involved and another student who had been playing with them were crying hysterically and were visibly traumatized by this incident.
In October 2011 Qordoba school was the scene of Israeli violence against school children, as soldiers obstructed access to the school and assaulted male and female students as they demonstrated for their right to education.
Arrests were also made on February 9th after violent incursions by the Israeli military. The soldiers arrested three youth, whose ages range between 14 and 15 years old. According to WAFA News Agency, the arrests were made following the use of tear gas and sound bombs to raid Palestinian homes.
Palestinian youth have been manipulated through military arrests, according to the Defense for Children International, which launched its current campaign against such treatment in 2001. According to DCI children are arrested and used to incriminate other Palestinians through typically illegal or forged testifying, applying pressure to the communities of arrested youth to create subservience and fear, and to set an example out of those politically active, enticing entire communities to become fearful of exercising freedom of speech and assembly. And in some cases, youth are arrested and subdued into becoming informants for the Israeli military.
According to the Palestinian Information Center, a total of 3,200 Palestinians were arrested by Israel in 2011 alone, 383 of those being children. Approximately 350 Palestinian youth are currently imprisoned by Israel. The issue of administrative detention is under fire as Khader Adnan continues to withhold food consumption in an act of civil disobedience against Israeli arbitrary arrests and extensions of its illegal administrative detentions. Yet to further Israel’s lack of regard for international law, the rights of defenseless children are being violated to continue Israel’s illegal and violent occupation as the Golani unit continues to target youth in Al Khalil.
By manipulating arbitrary child arrests as a means to pressure the Palestinian community, Israel stands in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which it is a signatory.
Satu Gustfasson is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
