Author: Yara

Khan Al-Ahmar: Forced expulsion of Bedouins from Area C

by Alistair George

13 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

“From the 1970’s until today, the Israelis used to demolish our tents and houses but not to deport us”  says Abu Hamis, a member of the Jahalin Bedouin tribe . “We used to rebuild our places but the new policy which they are adopting is that they want to not only demolish the houses, but to deport us from the area.”

Abu Hamis lives in the tinyvillageof Khan Al-Ahmar, located in the arid, rocky East Jerusalem periphery where steep mountain slopes plummet to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.  The Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, considered illegal under international law, is visible on the hill above the village.  The settlement is currently home to around 35,000 people; however,Israel has plans to expand it to create a city of 100,000.

This massive expansion will require the transfer of Arab Bedouin communities living in the area and is part of a wider plan – outlined to the UN by the Israeli authorities – to forcibly transfer all Bedouin communities from Area C, the 62% of land in the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control.  The plan would involve transferring around 27,000 people and it could begin as soon as January 2012.

“This is a huge story” says Eyal Hareuveni, a researcher at Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.  “Evacuating Area C for all the Bedouin communities actually means taking 20% or more of all the Palestinians that live in Area C and transferring them without their consent to another area.  Legally, forced eviction is considered a grave violation of human rights, and there are some NGOs that are already calling it a war crime.”

A mass forcible eviction, which seems the most likely outcome of the plans of the Israeli authorities, would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions – which is a war crime, for which there is personal criminal liability.

There are also grave environmental concerns with the proposed relocation site for many of the Jahalin Bedouin communities, which is located next to a potentially highly toxic rubbish dump east of Jerusalem.

Furthermore, B’Tselem and the Bedouin communities of Area C claim that the plan to expand Ma’ale Adumim will sever the connection between the southern and the northern part of theWest Bank for Palestinians – effectively ending the possibility of a two-state solution.

The forced transfer of the Jahalin community

The 22 Bedouin families (160 inhabitants) of Khan Al-Ahmar have  homes that are mostly shacks made from corrugated iron and wood, with metal fences holding livestock – the primary source of income for the village.  The village had 1500 goats for over 10 years, but now they have 150.  They have a single camel, when they once had thirty.  The inhabitants are no longer allowed to work in the Israeli settlements as they once did.  Two electricity lines pass nearby, but the village is not allowed to connect to these networks, so they have to use small diesel-powered generators.  Unlike many of the Bedouin communities in the area, who have to import water in highly expensive containers, the village does have some running water.

The village’s existence is in stark contrast to Ma’ale Adumim which has swimming pools, libraries, a transport system, health facilities, shopping malls and subsidized water and electricity.

Demolition orders have been issued by the Israeli authorities for all of Khan Al-Ahmar’s structures, including the village’s school which serves five Bedouin communities in the area with 85 students.

Abu Hamis said that, “The most basic need for any human being is to have an education…after we built the school I invited the council of Ma’ale Adumim to the school in order to create some kind of cooperation between us and they came here and they showed us they are very happy that we have a school now.  Three days later we received a demolition order and the excuse was that it’s a ‘danger for the settlement’.”

 Nicola Harrison, from UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency), says that the timeline of Israel’s Civil Administration’s plan is unclear, and they refuse to show the written plans to anyone outside of the Israeli authorities. “What’s very clear is that the civil administration has confirmed that they do plan to move the Area C population who do not have a building permit, and they are going to go ahead with identifying different locations throughout Area C,” she said.  The plan would remove around 2,300 members of the Jahalin tribe in the area.

 A previous expulsion of Bedouin communities by the Israeli authorities occurred in the 1990’s, after the Oslo Agreement was signed in 1993.  However, Harrison said, “The 90’s was a compensation package after the forcible relocation, with bulldozers and multiple demolitions.  This time they are very much trying to avoid the chaos of that, and they’re going to use much smaller drip-by-drip techniques to exhaust everyone into accepting the package so they don’t have to come with bulldozers.  However, they have confirmed several times that, if the Bedouin refuse this ‘nice package,’ they will be demolished anyway and moved by force.”

 According to Harrison, the relocation package is likely to include a plot of land, building permission, leaseholds and a certain amount of money, depending on the size of the family.  Abu Hamis says that the plans would not leave them with enough land to graze their livestock and would endanger their traditional way of life.  The area has been home to the Jahalin tribe since 1948, when they were forced to leave the Negev following the creation of Israel.  There is no doubt that Khan Al-Ahmar badly needs development, but the school and the struggle to gain running water are examples of progress.

 Environmental Issues

 Israel’s Civil Administration have indicated that they will try to re-locate around 100 Bedouin families, comprising around 800 people, to a site next to Jerusalem’s primary rubbish dump, near Abu Dis and to the homes built for Jahalin people forcibly transferred by Israel in the 1990’s.  The Jahalin communities, human rights organizations, and UNRWA are concerned that this site would endanger the health of the community.

 According to Eyal Hareuveni, “The dumpsite was supposed to be closed in 2006, then 2007, 2010, 2011 and now it’s supposed to be closed down in 2012.  95% of the dumping is from Israel, the only reason they choose to dump here is that it is cheaper than dumping in Israel….This is the legal justification because the Palestinians are ‘enjoying it’ as well.  According to the Israeli Ministry of the Environment, this is the worst dump that Israelis using.”

 The site contains 7 million tonnes of waste and the Israeli authorities have failed to monitor the gases emitted from the site, so they have no way of knowing whether it is safe.  The rubbish-choked valley is completely open for anyone to access; people from the nearby Bedouin community can be seen searching through the mounds of trash for valuable scrap metal.

The Israeli authorities plan to rehabilitate the rubbish site in order to forcibly re-locate Bedouins in Area C and house them there – however, the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim municipalities and the Civil Administration have not yet agreed on a plan to rehabilitate the site.

 Hareuveni says that relocating the Bedouins to the site of the rubbish dump is “typical of any plans that the civil administration has all over Area C…the main purpose of the civil administration is to limit the possibility of expansion for any Palestinian community.  The plan for the dump site is another example of how they don’t care about the livelihoods of the Palestinians.”

 He claims that the plans to remove Bedouins in other parts of Area C will inevitably produce more environmental problems.

In the Jordan Valley most of the areas were closed down for Palestinians because there were settlements or fire zones or nature reserves or even landmine fields.  So there aren’t any places were the Bedouin communities can keep their traditional way of life or livelihood in the Jordan Valley and the issue of water is much more crucial there than it is here.  Water has been taken by the settlements in theJordanValleyfor many years and there are established [Bedouin] communities in theJordanValleythat are losing their livelihood because of the lack of water or diminishing water resources.

 Expansion of Ma’ale Adumim and the end of the two-state solution

“This is the most strategically important expansion of settlements in the West Bank.  If this compound will be built, it’s most likely that the two state solution won’t be viable anymore” says Hureuveni.

The so-called E1 compound is the proposed site for the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim.  Around 10 Bedouin communities reside within the compound and will be forced to make way for the planned expansion, including the village of Khan Al-Ahmar.

The E1 compound was annexed to Jerusalem municipality after the Oslo agreement in the beginning of the 1990’s.  The Israelis plan to build 4000 houses here to expand Ma’ale Adumim; according to Hareuveni, the master plan for the expansion in E1 has already been passed by Israel’s Civil Administration. It only needs the approval of the Ministry of Defense.

The only road connecting the south of the West Bank to the north, that Palestinians are permitted to use, passes through the municipality of Ma’ale Adumim– it is also the only road Palestinians are allowed to use which passes through a settlement, as the road does not pass through a built-up part of the settlement.

According to Hareuveni, if the Bedouins are transferred from the area, and the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim is enacted, “it will seal East Jerusalem from the east and East Jerusalem will be disconnected from the West Bank because there will be no territorial contiguity between the north of the West Bank and the south part of the West bank. Any future Palestinian entity will be divided by a northern canton and a southern canton.”

It will also facilitate the breaking up of the Ramallah – East Jerusalem -Bethlehem economic link which comprises 35-40% of the Palestinian economy

 There are currently no credible plans for an alternative road for Palestinians to use. Israel had begun to build part of a road that could eventually pass near Jerusalem but the project stalled in 2007.  Hareuveni adds that there is another alternative, “but this seems like a fantasy – it is called ‘Road 80’ that is supposed to encircle all of Ma’ale Adumim block and connect them [Palestinians] back to Ramallah – but this is a huge engineering project that will cost billions of dollars, and there is no approval.”

Hareuveni says that when articles are published in the press, they usually only cover one part of the story, focusing on either the house demolitions, or the plan to move Bedouin communities to the rubbish site, or the plans to expand the E1 compound – with all issues covered in isolation.  However, he insists that “all these [issues] are interrelated.  They wouldn’t do anything with the Bedouin communities unless there was some wish to expand Ma’ale Adumim to E1, and they wouldn’t speak about transferring the Bedouin communities unless there was the option of expanding the Jahalin village near the dump site.”

As UNWRA and many human rights organizations claim, the forcible transfer of people under occupation is a grave breach of the Geneva Convention and a war crime with personal criminal liability for those in power.  Furthermore, the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim will, in all likelihood, carve up the West Bank into unconnected northern and southern cantons, destroying any possibility of a future two-state solution.

It is under this threat that Abu Hamis of the Bedouin Khan Al-Ahmar village makes an appeal to mobilize forces.

“[We need to] put pressure on the Israelis to stop their plans,” said Abu Hamis. “We want to live in freedom, we want to live in dignity in our land here and we want our children to live in the best conditions without any problems or deportation…Next month, there is a real danger that we will be pushed from this area – we need all of you to be beside us.”

Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Burin: Youth football surrounded by monuments to Israeli occupation

by Ben Lorber

12 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the 7th of December, a windy Wednesday morning behind the boys’ school in the Palestinian village of Burin, 15 teenagers, dressed in red uniform, took to the football field under the coach’s whistle. As the team began its warm-up exercises, another youth team arrived from the neighboring village of Huwwara, led by its determined coach. Under the morning sun, the football game began. As fans, coaches and players cheered and yelled from the sidelines, a Burin teenager scored a goal in the first ten seconds, setting the tone for the rest of the match. Two hours and two injuries later, Burin came out on top 4-0 against Huwwara, bringing the season’s record to 8 wins for Burin, 1 win for Huwwara, and 2 draws. As the boys walked away sweaty and satisfied, the school bell rang and children poured outside for recess.

In occupied Palestine, the youth football league becomes, not a routine taken for granted, but a rare blessing. “We love to practice and to play,” said the Burin goalie, “but usually we cannot play on this field, because we are afraid of the settlers or the army. And there is nowhere else to play.” Overlooking the boy’s football field on all hilltops, the illegal Israeli settlements of Yitzhar (birthplace of the extremist “price-tag campaign” of violence), Bracha, and a Bracha outpost loom menacingly.

A match to escape Occupation - Click here for more images

“When times are good”, says Ghassan Najjar, co-coach and former Burin football player, “when there are no attacks, we can play. When times are bad, we cannot get together and have games.”

At 21 years old, Najjar’s memories of his own days on the field are still fresh in his mind. “Children here have no outlet. They are lost. They cannot play on the streets because it is too violent, but they do not want to sit at home…my outlet, when I could play, was football.”

Though the last month has spared the village of settler attacks, Israeli soldiers arrive at the school almost on a daily basis.

“The boys’ school,” says Ghassan, “is right by a settler military road that heads up to the settlement. Sometimes the army comes into the principal’s office and says that he cannot let the boys outside of the school to play, for no reason. There is a 24 hour presence of the army outside the school, and the boys are frequently forbidden from leaving.” A football game, like outdoor recess, is a precious window of opportunity for children accustomed to living in fear.

Football- of which the Algerian philosopher Albert Camus, a devoted football goalkeeper before turning to intellectual pursuits, once said “all I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football”- has long cemented Palestinian culture and spirit. Time and again, it appears on the scene as a potent weapon in the resistance struggle, as on October 11, when a football game erupted on the front lines of a hunger strike solidarity protest outside of Ofer Prison in Ramallah.

Once a locus of national consciousness, Palestinian football was deliberately denied international recognition by the Zionist enterprise until the Palestine Football Association was recognized by FIFA in 1998. “Prior to 1948”, says Issam Khalidi in ‘Body and Ideology- Early Athletics in Palestine (1900-1948)’, an excellent study of the politics of sport in Palestine,

There were some 65 athletic clubs in Palestine…these clubs had a tremendous impact on the lives of Palestinian young people, shaping their character and preparing them for social and political involvement…these athletics teams provided a social, national and institutional base for Palestine’s political organization in the first half of the twenty-first century. They developed alongside and in response to Jewish immigration and the Arab-Zionist confrontation. Athletic clubs were important in evoking the Palestinian national consciousness, [and] sustaining connections between villages and cities…the advancement of organized sports in Palestine was closely linked to the development of education. Even though education officials did not emphasize physical education programs in schools, most institutions had competitive football teams.

In 1998, the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, in his book Remnants of Auschwitz, recounts Holocaust survivor Primo Levi’s tale of a football match in Auschwitz concentration camp, held between members of the SS and members of the Sonderkommando, a Jewish unit forced by the Nazis to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims. The match was improvised at Auschwitz, during a brief respite from the work of death.

“Members of the SS,” remembers Levi, “and the rest of the [Sommerkomando] squad are present at the game; they take sides, bet, applaud, urge the players on as if, rather than at the gates of hell, the game were taking place on the village green.”

Agamben comments that this moment of apparent normalcy is “the true horror of the camp…for we can perhaps think [now] that the massacres are over- even if here or there they are repeated, not so far away from us.  But that match is never over; it continues as if uninterrupted. It is the perfect and eternal cipher of the ‘gray zone’, which knows no time and is in every place.”

Agamben was drawn to the simple normalcy of this football match, chillingly suspended in the furnace of utter moral depravity. The “everydayness,” the banality of Levi’s football match reappears in the timeless normalcy of this Wednesday morning football match in Burin. In the heat of the game, oblivious to its surroundings, football is football. In Burin, however, everyday life is juxtaposed, in the football match, not with, as in Auschwitz, the barbaric evil of the oppressor, but with the resilient spirit of the oppressed. Even in Auschwitz, a mundane game of football, suffused with the smell of burning flesh- a testament to the normalcy of evil; even in Burin¸ a mundane game of football, surrounded by the foreboding faces of illegal, violent settlements- a testament to the strength of a people’s right to exist.

In each case, the ‘match is never over’, the struggle ‘continues as if uninterrupted’, and we are reminded and warned of the constant reality of oppression. In Auschwitz, the oppressors were there on the field, and the football game thereby showed itself as a sadistic, macabre dance of death; in Burin, the oppressors sit silently on the hilltops, and the football game thereby shows itself as a spark of resistance, feeding a flame of survival.

 Ben Lorber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

Qalandia: White sky of tear gas looms over apartheid wall construction

by Rana H.

9 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Peaceful protesters came face to face with Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in Qalandia on Friday before soldiers began to fire tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the civilian group including children, women, and elders. Qalandia village is protesting the construction of the apartheid wall that will cut through their land.

Following the Friday prayer, a procession marched down a dirt path flattened by Israeli bulldozers to a fenced in area where the bulldozers were parked. Two jeeps full of soldiers were quick to arrive and met the march at the fence.

Qalandia refuses the desecration of Palestinian land - Click here for more images

“We resist with peace, as we learned from Bil’in!” chanted the demonstration, among other slogans that criticized results of Israel’s occupation such as the wall. “We are here to resist against the settlements and the wall that steal our land and divide us,” said one of the protest leaders. The procession was joined by activists from Israel, France, America, Canada, and Switzerland.

Although protesters were peacefully chanting, and not advancing, the Israeli military began showing aggressive movements such as pointing guns directly at protesters and pulling out tear gas and sound bombs, hinting at the assault to come. Some soldiers also began to snap photographs of protesters’ faces, despite that they had not committed any crime.

A protester hung the Palestinian flag onto the fence surrounding the bulldozers and the flag easily stuck onto the barbed wire. At this point, a couple IOF soldiers became enraged and began to push and strike protesters, including at least three women. Chaos broke out as the IOF unleashed sound bombs, causing demonstrators to try to distance themselves from soldiers. Before people could get away, tear gas began to fly through the air. Soldiers continued to shoot tear gas at the people: a procession including many women, children, and elders who were visibly unarmed and had not committed any crime.

The cloudy white sky made the high-velocity tear gas canisters almost impossible to see until they landed among the crowd – an incredibly dangerous situation to fire in, which could have ended lethally as was the case in An Nabi Saleh when Mustafa Tamimi was killed after being shot in the head.

Soon after, soldiers began to fire rubber-coated steel bullets as well.

Despite the obvious danger of facing these weapons, protesters continued to attempt to re-gather themselves and continue chanting for almost one hour. Young boys stood unabashedly in the front lines, dodging rubber-coated bullets and gas.

Eventually, protest leaders called the group back to the village and the demonstration ended.

 Rana H. is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement. 

Sheikh Jarrah: Al Kurd family faces 30 day deadline

by Samar and Meriem 

11 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

ISM has been following the situation of the Al Kurd family from Sheikh Jarrah since 2009 and has kept a presence in the garden of their home.

The Al Kurd family is of five other families targeted by these evications.  The Fawziya Al Kurd family was evicted 9 November 2008. And the Ghawi and Hanoun families were evicted on 3 August 2009.

The Nabil Al Kurd family was evicted from one of their houses on 3 November 2009, and settlers finally moved in on 1 December 2009.

Illegal, Zionist settlers have decorated the Al Kurd home with Israeli flags.

On December 4th  Nabil Al Kurd and his mother, accompanied by international and Israeli activists went to the Court of Magistrate in Jerusalem and sat in the courtroom. After 40 minutes of intense argument between the lawyer of the family and the lawyer representing the Jewish committee, the decision left the Al Kurd family with 2 options regarding their home.

The first option would involve paying rent from now in addition to the amount of “years of rent” and signing a paper stating that the Israeli government, being the owner of the land, would not need any kind of authorization if they decided to use the land. If the family refuses to fulfill the conditions of the first option, they would face the second option:  the family would could be evicted at any time.

The judge gave them 30 days from the time of the court hearing to decide which option they want to follow. By choosing the first option the family that lives in this house since 1959 and were declared owners of their home by UNRWA, would handover their ownership to the Zionist community. The second option means giving up any little hope left to keep their house.

A Zionist settler occupying a home in Sheikh Jarrah

UNRWA recognized  the house as property of the Al Kurd family and owners of the land on which it is built.  However, Zionist organizations, with the support of the Israeli legal system are trying to colonize  Sheikh Jarrah and what is left of East Jerusalem. The Israeli government continues its goal of judaization (and de-arabization) by openly exercising  ethnic cleansing: that is, they wish to gain more land with as little arabs as possible.

Activists from all over the world have established a nightly presence in sheikh Jarah to protect the family from settlers attacks but also to show support and solidarity to all Palestinians living in Sheikh Jarrah.

 Samar and Meriem are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).

Mourning Mustafa Tamimi as Israeli soldiers escalate violence

by Alistair George

11 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Over two thousand people attended the funeral of Mustafa Tamimi in Nabi Saleh today.  Tamimi was killed during a protest in Nabi Saleh on Friday after he was struck in the face by a tear gas canister fired at close range by the Israeli military.  He was 28 years old.

Mustafa Tamimi (left) a moment before his injury. Circled in red are the barrel of the gun and the projectile that hit him. Picture credit: Haim Scwarczenberg

At least six people were arrested and several people were injured as the Israeli military reacted violently to protests following the funeral.  Despite the nature of Tamimi’s death, the Israeli military continued the practice of  firing tear gas canisters directly at  protesters.  Although it is permissible to fire tear gas canisters in an arc to disperse demonstrations, it is forbidden to use them as weapons by firing them directly at protesters.

 At least seven people were treated by the Red Crescent paramedics and one protester was taken to hospital after suffering from severe tear gas inhalation and respiratory problems.  One protester sustained a wound to the head, which paramedics suggested came from being struck by a tear gas canister.

 Over 100 people gathered at the hospital in Ramallah this morning from 9am.  Just before 10am, Tamimi’s body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, was carried from the hospital through central Ramallah.  The crowd chanted slogans and waved Palestinian flags as they carried his body – some held up posters showing a photograph of Tamimi’s bloodied face; his orbital lobe was smashed where the tear gas canister hit his right eye. Tamimi’s body was then taken in an ambulance to Nabi Saleh, the village 20km north of Ramallah where he lived.  A long procession of cars and taxis followed as people joined from Ramallah for the ceremony.

 Upon reaching Nabi Saleh, mourners gathered and walked up the main road leading to the mosque in the village. The approach was strewn with spent tear gas canisters from previous demonstrations. Tamimi’s body was taken to the family’s house and then to the village’s mosque at around 11:30. The village’s mosque was packed and people performed the noon prayer, followed by the Janazah prayer, customary after a death. Tamimi was then carried to the village’s cemetery where he was buried as mourners chanted and made speeches.  Bouquets of flowers and tributes were laid over his grave.  As the funeral drew to a close, hundreds of demonstrators headed out of the village to protest against the killing, where they were met by several military vehicles and dozens of Israeli soldiers.

 The military fired tear gas canisters and deployed a foul-smelling water cannon at protesters, some of whom threw stones in response.  The military fired tear gas canisters directly into houses and gardens lining the road at the entrance to the village.

The mourning of Mustafa Tamimi - Click here for more images

Several protesters headed out of the village down the slopes towards the Ein al-Qaws spring, which is the focus of the weekly protests in the village.  The spring and surrounding area was taken over by residents of Halamish, a nearby illegal Israeli settlement, in 2009.  Hundreds of protesters have been injured in Nabi Saleh but Tamimi was the first fatality during the demonstrations in the village.  Tamimi was the twentieth person to be killed at similarWest Bankdemonstrations over the past eight years, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

 The protesters confronted Israeli military personnel on the road, demanding to know “who killed Mustafa?”.  The military responded to the peaceful demonstration by violently shoving, choking and kicking Palestinian and international protesters.  Soldiers dragged one protester across the road by his neck and crushed another’s head into the ground with his arm.  One soldier grabbed a poster of Tamimi and tore it up.  They detonated sound bombs in the middle of crowds of protesters, the explosions causing ringing in the ears.  They also fired tear gas canisters directly into crowds of protesters.  At least two international protesters were arrested, including a member of ISM, and four Israeli peace activists were arrested.  They are currently being held at Abu Dis station, near Ramallah.  No Palestinians were arrested.  The Israeli military violently shoved a number of press photographers who were attempting to cover the protest.

 Ibrahim Bornat, 28, was with Tamimi when he died; “We were alone, with the rest of the protest quite far behind.  We were chasing the jeep, telling it to leave the village.”  Bornat says that one jeep waited for them, opened the door and fired two tear gas canisters directly at them, from a distance of around three meters.  When the first tear gas canister was fired, Bornat claims that “Mustafa pushed me so it went over my head, the second one hit him but I didn’t realize…I thought maybe he had passed out from the gas.  I went to him and turned him over and took the cloth off his face.  It’s worse than any words I can say…the side of his face was blown off, the eye was hanging out and I pushed it back but I could see the inside of his head.”

 Bornat says that, although Tamimi’s heart may have been revived later temporarily, he knew he was dead – “When I was holding him, I’m sure that he died in my arms.  He let out a gasp and his soul left.”

 According to Bornat, there were no ambulances around, so they put Tamimi in a service [communal taxi] but the Israeli military stopped it and tried to arrest Tamimi, until they realized how seriously injured he was.  Bornat says that Tamimi lay on the ground for half an hour, receiving treatment by the Israelis, until someone fetched his ID card; “They were doing something but he needed to be taken to hospital right away.”

 Bornat was not surprised at the actions of the Israeli military – “The occupation maintains itself through killing” he said.

 Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).