22 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
As thousands of Israeli settlers and Zionists crowded into Hebron on Friday night, November 19th, and Saturday for Shabbat Chaye Sarah – celebrating Abraham’s biblical purchase of land on the site of the Ibrahimi Mosque, some Palestinian neighbourhoods experienced a surge in settler attacks.
Wadi Al-Hussain, a valley situated on the edge of Hebron’s old city was the focus of attacks. The Jaber family lives far down the hill, near to the road reserved for settler traffic leading from Kiryat Arba, an illegal Israeli settlement home to around 7,000 people, to the Ibrahimi mosque in the old city. Their house faces the settlement a few hundred metres away on the opposite side of the valley. They have experienced many settler attacks but Saturday was a particularly harrowing day for the 17 Palestinians of several generations which live in the same large house.
Um Safaway Jaber, 28, described what happened to the family.
“We were attacked around 10 times – at one point there was more than 100 settlers outside. The soldiers put a curfew on us and didn’t allow us to leave the house but the settlers were free to use this road. We didn’t accept this curfew because the settlers were attacking us and we didn’t want stones to be thrown at the house. We shouted at the settlers, they shouted at us and said bad words against us. They said ‘we will kill you’, not just harassment – it was threats. We were lucky that a journalist was in the area filming, although the journalist was bitten by settler’s dog. The settlers attacked the journalist and the guys [Palestinians] went to defend the them.”
Um Safaway Jaber’s husband was arrested by the Israeli military.
His brother, Moutasem Jaber, 21, said “The soldiers forced their way into the house and arrested my brother because he was trying to protect the women and the family from the settlers. Then the settlers went to the police station to make a complaint against us that we were attacking them! After that they came back and had a demonstration outside the house. They brought video cameras to film the reaction of the Palestinian families and they tried to attack us. “All of us went inside and we didn’t go out because we didn’t want any more trouble but the soldiers came and they put the whole family in one room, they closed the door on us and they didn’t allow us to leave the room from 1pm to 8pm. After 8pm, the soldiers left the house – we went out and we didn’t see any settlers outside, just lots of soldiers.”
Moutasem’s mother, 63 year old Um Tariq Jaber, added that ” The family was following the Israeli decision not to open our shop or be in the street but the settlers still came and attacked us.”
Many families were targeted by settlers in Wadi Al-Hussain yesterday but the Jaber family was seemingly singled out for a heightened level of violence. A member of the family, Hani Jaber, was released by the Israeli authorities on 18 October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal that saw 477 Palestinian prisoners released (with a further 550 to be released in a second phase thought to be in December) in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006. Hani Jaber served 18 years of a life sentence after being found guilty of killing a settler from Kiryat Arba.
The Jaber’s house was also attacked on the day of his release and Ibtisam Jaber, 33, Montasem’s sister-in-law, was beaten and suffered a miscarriage three days later. “The settlers came and attacked the house. Ibtisam lost her baby, nobody else was here because we were celebrating,” said Moutasem.
“I told the police that they wanted to kill him,” said Moutasem – “all of this harassment was included in the complaint to the police but we don’t expect them to do anything. The police said that the case is ongoing so we’ll see. Hani grew up in this house and now he can’t come here because he’s afraid for his life.”
Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
21 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Khaled Jarrar is a Palestinian artist and photographer from Jenin, currently based in Ramallah. In addition to photographing and documenting the Israeli occupation, he has designed a ‘State of Palestine’ postage and passport stamp. This week in an interview with Alistair George of International Solidarity Movement, Jarrar explains the idea behind his stamp, past and future plans, and the extent to which art influences political resistance.
ISM: What’s the idea behind the ‘State of Palestine’ passport stamp?
Jarrar: I had my idea three years ago. I was with my international friends and they told me about the hard time they get at Ben Gurion airport [in Tel Aviv] when they want to visit Palestine, and especially if they tell the border police that they are going to the Palestinian territories. So I was thinking – how come the Israelis decide who is welcome in our country? We would like to welcome everybody! So I said that I would make a ‘Green Card’ for my friends; a kind of ironic permit which says they can live and work inPalestine. It sends the message that we have the right to say ‘you are welcome toPalestine’. People came to a gallery in Ramallah where they filled in the ‘applications’ and got a ‘permanent resident card! They took it as a souvenir.
Ten months ago I was trying to re-think and develop the project. I worked on the design for [‘State of Palestine’] postage and passports stamps. I was trying to make something beautiful, something that would fit with my ideas about humanity and not just an olive tree or a mosque – something more human than ideology or politics. I found this bird – it’s called the Palestine Sunbird. I heard a story that the Israelis tried to change the name of the bird to make it their national bird. It’s a beautiful bird and I used a jasmine flower, because it is beautiful. The Israelis actually used the bird on the design of an Israeli postage stamp in 1963, even though they wrote ‘Palestine Sunbird’ on it, which was quite ironic and paradoxical to me.
I made the design, and I was worried that it would be another project that would happen and then disappear. I needed to give a life for this stamp, and I thought it should be in the official place for stamps – a passport. Then I started to ask my friends if I could stamp their passports, but they said, “Are you crazy?’ I said, “But they only have stamps for Israel, why not for Palestine– you were in Palestine!”
The stereotype here is conflict, conflict, conflict and I want to show something beyond this, I want to show life. I started to ask people, and I could not find anybody who dared do it – then I found a French girl. She was sitting in a bar, and she gave me her passport. It was the first stamp. I started going and doing the performance [stamping passports] at Ramallah bus station and Qalandia checkpoint, and I found that people would like to do it but that I need to search for the right people. I’ve now also got t-shirts, bags, mugs [with the design].
ISM: How many passports have you stamped and what has the reaction been?
Jarrar: I’ve stamped around 180 passports. I’ve taken the emails for nearly all the people whose passports I’ve stamped, and I keep in touch with them. I did the performance in Ramallah several times, and for two days at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, and also twice in Paris– once at the Pompidou. Many people like it and find it very beautiful. But there are many people who are afraid. But this is an art project.
OK it has a strong political statement about our resistance as a human beings, not only as Palestinians. The Israelis don’t want to treat Palestinians as humans or as a nation. We are not defined as a nation by the whole world, we are undefinable – it’s like we don’t exist or we are called ‘stateless.’
Slavoj Zizek [a Slovenian philosopher] got his passport stamped in Ramallah. One guy came to him and said ‘Slavoj, don’t do it – it’s dangerous – the Israelis will arrest you!’ But he said ‘F— it, do it, do it!’ and so I stamped his passport.
ISM: How have the Israeli authorities reacted to the stamp?
Jarrar: Some people have been interrogated, but for many people the authorities didn’t even mention it. There was one guy from South Africa [who got his passport stamped], his name is Eddie – he was the first one to leave with the stamp. The Israeli border police saw the stamp and were shocked, they said, ‘This is the first time I’ve seen something like this.’ They stamped his exit visa, gave him back the passport and he left! They didn’t interrogate him at all.
The second one, from Denmark, who left with the stamp – when the border police saw it, they called someone, who called another person, and five people looked at the stamp. They didn’t say a word, just made a photocopy and then gave him the passport back and he left.
I think at the beginning the Israelis weren’t sure if this was real or art, but of course there are some bad stories that happened for some people who were interrogated and stopped. There was one girl from Holland who was stopped by the Israelis. They said ‘we are not used to seeing something like this, it is illegal.’ She said ‘no it’s not, it’s an art project, and from now on you will see many of these stamps!’ The officer interrogated her, asking ‘Why did you do this?’ and ‘Who did this for you?’ They kept her for one hour, they took her hard disk, they did a strip search and opened her luggage.
I didn’t hear officially from somebody who has been denied entry because of the stamp. But there are many stories. There is one American girl who had the stamp – she wanted to apply for work permission in Jerusalem. She had the invitation and all the paperwork. The Israeli Ministry of the Interior looked at her passport and they said – ‘you can’t apply for permission for a visa in Israel because you have this stamp in this passport. Maybe you can just remove the paper.’ So she ripped it out of her American passport, she reapplied and she got permission for one year visa to work here!
There was one girl who got the stamp, she was born in the United States and had an American passport. In 2008 she applied for the Jewish ‘right to return.’ She got an Israeli passport within 2 years. I stamped her American and Israeli passports [with the State of Palestine stamp]. She left but when she came back to Israel they asked her ‘What is this?’ She said ‘A Palestinian State stamp.’ When they said that ‘this does not exist,’ she said ‘the state of Palestine existed before the state of Israel.’ They interrogated her for an hour and they cancelled her Israeli passport. She applied for a new passport and she said that she is waiting to see if she can get a new one.”
ISM: Is the State of Palestine stamp referring to one state or is it an endorsement of the two state solution?
Jarrar: It is for a one state solution. It is a demonstration against occupation and against the partition of Palestine. I am really against the two state solution. We need to remove hate, partition and division because this is what our politicians and Israeli politicians want, so they can control us. If we have one state, the people will rule the state.
ISM: So you don’t support the Palestinian Authority’s bid at the UN for Palestinian statehood?
Jarrar: I’m not with this. The United Nations are the ones that partitioned Palestinein 1947 – why go to the one who is hitting you to ask for his mercy?
ISM: You’ve also designed postage stamps?
Jarrar: I have a gallery in Paris and my gallery asked the post office there to print these postage stamps and they refused. We found a printers that likes to do political stuff and they printed them. I exhibited them at an art fair in France.
We used to sell this postage stamp with an actual price – 750 fils, which is the old Palestinian currency, around 75 cents. So at this art fair there was a lot of expensive artworks there – like some that cost over 2 million Euros and my stamps cost 75 cents, so they compared them and made a lot of promotions for us so a lot of people came to buy the stamp – it was fantastic.
I asked people to use them on actual letters, you can use them next to the official stamp and see what will happen. I don’t know yet exactly what will happen, if they will reject it, if it will arrive or not – I’m waiting for people to tell me if they have arrived.
Everything is controlled by the Israelis. If you send a letter from England to me in Ramallah, maybe it will take 6 weeks. My gallery [in France] sent me the postcards for the fair two months ago and I haven’t received them. Maybe the Israelis didn’t let them pass and they threw them away. I’ve been to Paris, been to the art fair, but the invitations didn’t arrive yet!
ISM: Can you talk about some of your other work as an artist?
Jarrar: I am also a photographer – I staged an exhibition called ‘At the Checkpoint’. I took photographs at the checkpoints in 2006 and in 2007, and I exhibited them at the Israeli checkpoint, where the Israeli soldiers themselves could see them. Some were very angry, they didn’t know what to do. It was provocative but at the same time it was very peaceful. One soldier spotted himself in the picture and he was very happy to be in an exhibition!
An officer came with four soldiers – he ordered them to remove the photos [from the fence at the checkpoint] and arrest the organizer. But I had invited foreigners, Israelis, the press and this was protection for the exhibition. One woman from Machsom Watch went to the officer and said, ‘Look, this is not a demonstration, this is just an exhibition.’ We told him we would leave in two hours so they left us alone and it was OK. I did it twice, once at Huwara checkpoint and once at Qalandia.
I am hoping to do a book about my projects with Simon [Faulker, an academic at Manchester Metropolitan University].
I also did an exhibition and project about people who are using sewage tunnels to sneak to the other side in Jerusalem [from the West Bank] to visit their families and for social, economic, and religious reasons.
I made a video about it called Journey 110, and I’m making a long documentary because I was observing the whole process of sneaking to Jerusalem for four years. Now the tunnel is closed but when it was open I used to see 500-600 people use it in three hours. But there’re not only tunnels, there are other ways [to reach Jerusalem].
Journalists are there to document it and smugglers also try to play their games and make money. Sometimes they pay money but they find on their journey that the tunnels are closed, or the walls are too high, or there are Israeli soldiers. It’s really challenging – they are trying to live and survive and this wall will not stop anything. So with this issue I’m really destroying the idea that this wall is for security reasons. So many people manage to enter Jerusalem and none of them are suicide bombers, they are people looking for life. It’s not just about Palestine and Israel, it’s also about really basic issues – the need for life. It should be finished in April 2012, I have struggled to find the money.
ISM: Have you any future plans for the ‘State of Palestine’ project?
Jarrar: I have been invited to the Berlin Biennale and hopefully I will print some more postage stamps – I have a new version with Hebrew, as well as Arabic and English. I was having a conversation with a girl fromNew York, she said ‘you know that there were Jews living in Palestine before the occupation and they were Palestinian?’ I said of course and this was a mistake [not to include Hebrew] so I’ve fixed this mistake.
My work is being exhibited in London for a group show, starting on 23 November [‘Passport to Palestine at La Scatola gallery]. But I’m not going – they invited me really late and it is difficult to apply for a visa to theUK, you need a lot of time and I tried to apply twice before and I was refused because of the bureaucracy. I will send a stamp and someone will be an ambassador for the ‘State of Palestine’ who will be stamping the passports. There are other events [to stamp passports] in Copenhagen on 29 November. In Brussels there is a magazine [A Prior magazine] event so I will be stamping passports and magazines there on the 25 November.
ISM: What impact has the project to stamp passports had?
Jarrar: I’m not sure exactly. I’m trying to create a new reality and a new way of resisting occupation. Maybe this will raise awareness for other artists in the world, showing them how they can use new ways of resistance for freedom and equality and humanity all over the world, not only in Palestine.
ISM: This reminds me of Juliano Mer-Khamis’s [former director of Jenin’s Freedom Theatre] idea of a ‘Cultural Intifada’. Do you see your work in this way and to what extent do you think art can influence political reality?
Jarrar: Yes I do. I believe that art can create reality. I don’t believe in this kind of art that tries to separate itself from politics and reality – they can’t be separated. So politicians try to control our lives so we should be responsible [as artists] and fight and to express our feelings; not only to talk and make exhibitions in the gallery where just a few people can come and say ‘oh this is beautiful’ and after that you can throw it in the garbage. So I think art should make a difference and we should use art to send our message loudly to shake and provoke the system and to say to the politicians ‘stop – where are you taking us?’.
Alistair George is a volunter with ISM (name has been changed).
20 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Over 1000 American and International Zionists joined 700 extremist settlers in Hebron this weekend to celebrate the reading of the Torah portion detailing Abraham’s biblical purchase of Hebron land, and to assert sovereignty over the Palestinian residents of Hebron.
On Friday, many Zionist visitors camped in tents on Israeli-controlled Shuhada Street. Inebriated from the Shabbat festivities, the visitors harassed local Palestinians throughout the night.
On Saturday, soldiers stationed themselves through the streets of Hebron’s Old City, forcing the shutdown of Palestinian shops, while swarms of visitors were treated to an extensive settler-guided tour championing the Jewish roots of Old Hebron. In what was advertised by the Hebron Committee as “the most unforgettable Jewish experience of a lifetime”, throngs of young, mostly American males clapped and chanted ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ (‘life to the people of Israel’) and other nationalistic chants, while Palestinian residents were forced to the sidelines of their own streets and kept there by soldiers. Throughout the day, 7 international activists and 2 Palestinians were arrested.
While a few visitors were respectful to Palestinian shop owners and residents, many were outright hostile. Mohammed Awawdeah owns a small shop in the old city, selling glass bottles filled with intricate colored sand patterns. Some of his bottles were smashed by a passing settler.
“He came and broke my stuff,” Awawdeah says. “I told the police but they are not here for us, they are here for the settlers…I am not even angry for my stuff, I’m angry at the soldiers who let them do this”.
Hamday Dwaik decided to close his bakery in the old city, since his shop was targeted by settlers during the event last year. “The settlers don’t want me to open. If I open they will throw my products on the ground, no one will buy it”.The Israeli police have taken the details of the incident and said that they intend to carry out an investigation.
Laila Slemiah, who works in Women In Hebron, a woman’s collective in the old city selling kiffiyehs and embroidery, was determined not to close her shop.
“I know I won’t have any business today,” she said, “but I have to stay open. I’m not scared of them.”
Clashes were also reported between visiting Americans and international activists. One activist relates that “as we were walking, a group of young American Jewish boys got into an argument with us. They became threatening towards us, and one of them had an M16 around his waist. They told us they would break our camera, they told the nearby Palestinian shop owner they would burn down his shop, they told me I would be dead on the floor.”
As this event is touted by the Zionist community as a Biblically-ordained ‘return to the homeland’, an organization called Project Hayei Sarah has been founded in the U.S. and Israel, offering alternative interpretations of Abraham’s Biblical relationship to Hebron that challenge the attempted Zionist appropriation of this legend to legitimize territorial conquest.
Video: “Only Jews Can Walk Here”
Seven international observers were detained by the Israeli police over the course of the day. At around 8 am, five international activists were detained after they were observing the checkpoint in Israeli controlled H2 area. They were held at Kiryat Arba police station for 8 hours and were threatened with charges of ‘interfering with police work’ unless they signed a statement agreeing not to be in the H2 area for a week. Two other international activists were detained at around 2:35pm today after attempting to film settlers passing through the old city; they were taken to Kiryat Arba and held there for around 2 hours. They were released without any further action being taken.
As darkness fell and the rain became harder, the tour ended. Large groups of settlers gathered in Palestinian areas of Tel Rumeida. A rowdy group of around 15 settlers chanted and attempted to intimidate Palestinians outside a shop in Tel Rumeida at around 5pm. The Israeli police were called and the group dispersed shortly afterwards.
Alistair George and Ben Lorber are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement. Ben Lorber also writes for the Alternative Information Center.
18 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The solar panels in the village of Imneizil, near Hebron, became effective almost two years ago, improved the living conditions for about four hundred inhabitants in the village, but recently residents learned that the Israeli army issued a demolition order for the solar power installations.
“When the electricity came, we could have light at night. So right now, we could sit with our friends in the night, and we can see each other,” said 25-year-old Nihad who has seen her life change since electricity become available in Imneizil. She talks about how the school now has access to computers and printers, and how radio and TV have connected the village to the rest of the world. Now they have washing machines, and refrigerators that make it possible to store food.
Nihad gives her 3-year-old son a hug and states that she also has a four-months’ baby at home.
Threatening the light of the village - Click here for more images
” Earlier, women used to go to Yatta to have an ultrasound. It is far away and it costs a lot of money to go there. Now, those who are pregnant can have ultrasound here at the clinic.”
Before the installation of solar panels, the village had no electricity, and the evenings were sparsely lit by dangerous kerosene lamps and candles. A few households had access to diesel generators that were used at parties and weddings.
The solar cells that have been installed cannot satisfy the village’s full electricity needs, but it is sufficient for moderate household consumption, and the needs of the school, health clinic, and common water pump. During the day people are trying to limit their consumption for the school to have enough electricity.
The project was planned to be extended so that later there would be electricity for regular usage. But in October, residents learned that the Israeli army issued a demolition order for the solar power installation. The consequence is that the power will be lost for forty households, they health clinic, and the school. The reason is that the solar panels were constructed without a permit from the Israeli Civil Administration which controls the occupied territory of Palestine.
– When I think about that they will cut our electricity, I am very, very angry, Nihad says.
Imneizil is not the only village in Palestine affected by the demolition policy. During the years between 2000 to 2007 nearly five thousand demolition orders were issued for Palestinian buildings, of which one third were implemented.
“They never requested a building permit here,” says Ali Mohammad, head of the village. “And you see that the other structures in the village were built thirty years ago. So we never applied for a building permit for solar panels, either. If we would try to apply, we know that we will never get a permit.”
The reason for the Israeli Civil Administration’s influence over Imneizil is that the village is located in what is known as Area C, which is under Israeli civil and military control.
“It is apparent to us that it means to displace us from here, to push us out of this area, silently, without declaring it, Ali Mohammad continues.
The solar panels were installed in cooperation with the Spanish organization SEBA. A spokesperson for the organization says that they appealed the demolition order through a lawyer, whereupon the Israeli Civil Administration issued a new demolition order. The demolition order is now frozen pending a court decision. But hope is fading that the half-million dollar project can be saved.
Demolitions are illegal under the Geneva Convention. The Fourth Geneva Convention 53rd article provides that: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons […] is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”
“I don’t think these solar panels cause any harm to anyone,” Ali Mohammad says. “They’re not affecting anybody. They’re not cutting the road to the settlement. I cannot understand what’s the point of coming here to demolish these solar panels! Now we’re astonished with the Israeli Authority’s demolishing orders. We’re feeling that we are hanging between the ground and the sky. ”
Imneizil is located in Area C, which makes up 62 percent of the West Bank area. Building permits for houses and other devices, such as structures for collection of rain water, must be applied for from the Israeli Civil Administration.
Jenna Bereld is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
18 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Following last week’s violence in the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, international observers and activists were today denied entry into the village by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers said that the entire village was a closed military zone and provided paperwork that seemed to support their claim. The internationals were followed and harassed by the Israel military as they attempted to leave the village.
Every Friday the village of Nabi Saleh organizes a march to protest the 2009 confiscation of an important water source by the Israelis. Last week Abu Hussam Tamimi suffered injuries after being shot in the face at close range by Israeli soldiers, in violation of international law. Also last week an 11 year old boy from the village suffered rib injuries from a “rubber bullet”*
Five international activists from the International Solidarity Movement were denied entry to the village while attempting to document this weeks protest. After leaving the main entrance to the village the activists were followed by military jeeps and harassed by soldiers.
When it became clear that any entry to the village was impossible, the activists tried to obtain transportation back to Ramallah. The Israeli military prevented taxis and services to stop to pick them up.
The video below shows activists asking soldiers to allow them to travel back to Ramallah. After approximately two hours the activists were able to find transportation out of the area. The van was followed by an Israeli military vehicle for several kilometers.
Last week an ISM activists was detained for several hours after being arrested in Kufr Qaddoum while photographing the weekly protest there. He was falsely accused of throwing stones and was physically abused by the Israelis. He was released later that night.
* Israel commonly uses the term “rubber bullets” when describing round steel bullets with a thin rubber coating
Wahed Rejol is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
