Author: Yara

Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza: 13 year old boy dead and 18 injured

19 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza 

Israel’s price tag campaign is not waged only by the settlers in the West Bank; it is also waged against the people of Gaza.  It isn’t exactly clear what the Gaza Strip is paying the price for. In contrast to Israeli propaganda, people are killed in Gaza all the time.  This has been a bloody week.  An 18 year old mentally disabled man was shot to death on Tuesday, another young man was shot in the leg on Tuesday.  Perhaps the price must be paid simply for existing.

Overnight Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza.  Nine people have been murdered in Gaza since yesterday. 13-year-old Mahmoud Abu Samra was one of the killed, he and 18 others were injured in one bombing attack in Gaza.  The Abu Samra family lives near the former intelligence services headquarters in Gaza City.  Their house was destroyed by an Israeli bomb last night at 12:30 A.M.  Their house was completely destroyed, one of their neighbors houses was also destroyed, one more, heavily damaged.  Thirteen people from three families live in these houses.  All of these families are refugees, expelled from their homes in 1948, and now, in a repeat of history, once again their houses are destroyed.  When we arrived family members were picking through the rubble, trying to salvage what could be salvaged.

The Abu Samra house was completely destroyed.  All that is left standing is a bathroom with the door torn off, a sink, and a broken mirror in it.  Mahmoud is dead, the latest causality in the Israeli assault on Gaza.  Neighbors and relatives pick through the remains.  A shattered computer monitor sits on a pile of rubble.  Israel bans the import of concrete into Gaza, so the house will probably live on in another house after the rubble is recycled.  Mahmoud is dead, he was buried today.

Next to the Abu Samra house is the Al Helal Sporting club.  It is one of the few places for young men to hang out in the neighborhood.  When the bomb hit it was packed with young men trying to escape the heat, entertaining themselves playing football and watching TV.  Many of the injured were young people from the neighborhood at the club.

We spoke to Seham Awad, a forty five year old mother of two.  She and her nephew were picking through the rubble.  Thankfully, her son is away at university studying, her daughter is married and no longer lives with her.  Her ex-husband is in an Israeli prison, seven years into a twelve year sentence.  She is unemployed and lives on charity and help from her neighbors.  She is a resourceful woman though, her backyard, maybe 25 square  meters, has been turned into a garden.  It is overhung by a shattered trellis for passion fruit vines.  She grows vegetables on the rest of her land, in old tires that have been turned into planters, on every square meter of land vegetables grow.  Her house is small, only two rooms, now both destroyed.

Her house was also destroyed during Cast Lead, she received no help rebuilding, only some mattresses and household supplies.  She lives without windows; only sheets cover the holes in the walls that would be windows.  Perhaps, this was lucky last night, there was no shattered glass to cut her.  After the attack, she slept in the garden, on mattresses placed in the back corner.  She is undefeated, after her house was destroyed in Cast Lead she rebuilt as best she could, concrete blocks, an asbestos and tin roof, and no windows.  She expected that her house would be destroyed again, she was right.  As she said, “I expect little from life, I planted this tree, now it is big, it provides shade, that is enough.”  When asked what she would do now, where she would go, she said, “I will stay here, I will rebuild again as best I can, where else can I go?”

Her neighbors, the Abbas family was not so lucky.  Their father, Abu Akmed was injured in the bombing.  This family too is picking through the rubble, praying for their father.  Their home, heavily damaged was all that they had.  In the back a horse still lives in a small shed.  Abu Ahmed, like most men in Gaza, had no job–they’re just simple refugees trying to rebuild their lives.  Nine people crammed into a small concrete block house, now, mostly destroyed.  Out their front door you can see the old security headquarters in Gaza, heavily bombed during Cast Lead and now abandoned.

Behind the Abbas family lives Hajjer Abu Duwani.  She is a fifty five year old mother of twelve.  She is a small woman; she looks older than her years.  She doesn’t really have a house, just two tin sheds that she lives in.  A chicken coop takes up one end of her land; on the rest of it she tries to grow vegetables.  She has no job; she depends on the help of her children to live.  Shrapnel from the bombing hit her.  She has an ugly hand sized bruise on her leg, another bruise on her arm, and her head was cut with shrapnel.  She is happy, at least she is alive, Mahmoud, her thirteen year old neighbor is dead, the houses of her other neighbors destroyed.

Kufr Qaddoum cutting the wire on illegal settlements

19 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A joyful demonstration occurred in Kufr Qaddoum today, when more than 100 demonstrators successfully cut open and tore down a razor wire fence on a road leading to Nablus just outside the city.

The demonstration began at around 12:30 p.m., when about 100 Palestinians and 15 international activists began to march down the main road of Kufr Qaddoum. Amid the clapping and chanting, they encountered around 20 armed soldiers further down the road towards the settlement of Qadumim, standing about 50 meters beyond a razor wire fence that blocked the road at waist’s length. As the soldiers and Palestinians watched, a few ISM activists used wire cutters to sever the fence, and dragged it off to the side. The crowd erupted in cheering, and after 20 seconds the soldiers began firing volleys of tear gas into the crowd. At that point, a cat-and-mouse game ensued for about 20 minutes between Palestinians and soldiers, whereby the former threw stones and the latter shot tear gas. Through the course of the demonstration, soldiers fired tear gas at protesters’ bodies and faces, and on at least 2 occasions fired high velocity tear gas canisters.

The deliberate act of cutting the wire fence, in plain view and in plain defiance of Israeli soldiers and the illegal settlement, inspired feelings of great hope and perseverance among Palestinians and activists alike. This was the 9th week of Friday protests, organized by the Popular Committee in Kufr Qaddoum since the beginning of July. The main road, which has been used by residents of the land for centuries, has been closed at portions by the Israeli government for nine years, as part of the expansion and colonial policies resulting from the illegal settlement Qadumim, which was established in 1975. Because of the settlement, which itself occupies 600 donums of land, there is now an Israeli Military Camp on Kufr Qaddoum land, many colonial neighborhoods have been established around the settlement, and more than 3,000 olive trees have been uprooted. After this great success, the weekly protests at Kufr Qaddoum will surely continue well into the future.

75 year old woman shot in Johr al-Dik

16 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Selma Al Sawarka, or Um Ahmad, is an active woman, a mother of seven, and a grandmother of 35, who has never quit working.  August 10, 2011 dawned like most days do for her; she went out to graze her family’s goats.  She took her neighbor with her, 15 year old Keefa Al Bahabsa.

They went to the same land they usually go to. At 9:30 that morning they saw an Israeli tank and an Israeli jeep near the border.  Not an uncommon sight.  The tank and jeep left.  About 30 minutes later, the jeep returned, three soldiers got out, and opened fire on Um Ahmed and Keefa.  Um Ahmed was shot in the leg, Keefa fled to get help.  The soldiers also shot ten of the families goats.

Um Ahmed is used to being shot at by the Israelis as her land is only 600 meters from the border. Usually, she says, the soldiers shoot around her, or into the air, trying to drive her from her land; she doesn’t know why today was different, why they shot directly at her, why they shot her in the leg.  Her scarf also has bullet holes in it; only through the grace of God is she still here.

It took half an hour for Keefa to return with help, they loaded Um Ahmed onto a donkey cart, and went to the main road to meet a taxi to take her to the hospital. When I met Um Ahmed she was laying on a mat on the floor, recovering from being shot.  A pale blue scarf covered her head.  Bracelets adorned her wrists.  Her daughter sat next to her.  The room was simple, some mats on the floor, two chairs for the guests, a dresser, and small stand with a TV.

On the wall was a picture of her son Mustapha.  He was killed by the Israeli’s on Dec, 15, 2004.  Sometimes, the soldiers, or even the settlers themselves, would close the road near Netzarim settlement, the only way to go anywhere was to leave the road, and walk on the beach by the sea.  Mustapha was shot and killed as he walked on the beach. The house we are in used to be Mustapha’s house. Beside the TV is another picture, another of her sons, this one has been in prison for the last ten years.  He has eleven years left on his sentence.  Um Ahmed, like all Gazan mothers, is not allowed to visit her son in prison, for four years this has been a blanket Israeli policy.  Instead, she looks at this picture, she thinks about him in prison, while her leg heals.

“Price tag” campaign a pattern more than a phenomenon

15 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The so called “price tag” campaign is regarded to be a product of the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, yet the price tag to Israeli occupation and fanatical land grabbing is much more a general concept, aligned with the policy and practice of Israel let alone its illegal settlements. The “price tag” campaign, after all, is the settler pursuit to claim as much indigenous land while terrorizing Palestinians with arson, gunfire, vandalizing, and other forms of harassment resulting in even death. While Israelis may domestically see a difference between illegal settlers and the State, the Palestinian who loses self-autonomy and land ownership by military or by fanatical settlers never was able to tell the difference between what seems to be a mutual sharing of a national agenda.

The term “price tag campaign” is a so called phenomenon that comes as a reaction to the demolition of settler construction by Israel, with illegal settlers seeking revenge for such destruction on innocent, Palestinians of nearby villages. If Israel is destroying small structures within settlements, one might think it is taking a step towards stopping the settlement projects. Yet despite the illegal status of settlements, Israel continues to include them in official “national priority maps” with soldiers at hand to protect illegal pursuits at the cost of Palestinian rights and peace. Thus the price tag campaign is nothing more than a pattern in illegal Israeli occupation.

In mid-2010 illegal structures in the illegal settlement of Bay Ayen near the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar were destroyed by Israeli military. Settlers attacked the Safaa neighborhood of Beit Ommar in what became to be a systematic and regular pursuit to destroy groves with arson, damage buildings, and threaten the overall security of locals. When the Israeli military showed up during one particular instance, it arrived just as residents of the Palestinian village began to leave their homes to see what was going on.

The Israeli military fired tear gas and stun grenades at the Palestinians, injuring a number of residents while the assailants left protected and not apprehended

The Palestinian village of Burin can also attest to the relationship between Israeli military and Israeli settlers. In 2009 for example, a group of international observers saw about 50 settlers descend from their illegal settlement carrying rifles and assaulting the 13 members of Ghalib Najjar’s household. When the Israeli military showed up and allowed the settlers to leave without consequence, the military threatened the international observers from reporting or photographing the event. Snipers were positioned at the top of the family home, and international observers were threatened to be detained.

Islam Fakhuri  currently living in the H1 area of Hebron, also reveals the collaboration between settlers and Israeli military forces.

“My father had two shops – souvenior shops—on Shuhada Street In 2000 under the intifada, the army came into our house one day and they said they want to buy our house. I said, ‘this house is not for sale. We don’t want to sell our house to you, not to settlers.’

Fakhuri continued to describe what formulated to be settler and military collaboration.

“That night around 2am, they came back and set our house on fire. Two children of my family sleeping in one room died from the fire. And then the army came back and forced us to move out. You see, my house is empty now. Everyone has the same story like mine. You can speak to Abd Sadr. The children from his family died from that, too.”

He pointed to a building nearby to illustrate his experiences.

“You see the building up there, it was the office for lawyers and doctors, and now settlers live there. Beit Haddasah and Abram Avinu used to be a hospital for Palestinians. No more.”

These violent actions occur  almost weekly, outlining various villages throughout the West Bank with some Israelis even calling on the Israeli military to act more responsibly. But how can one ask a military to act responsibly when its State continues to violate international law and disregard Palestinian rights?

Whether one is looking at Nabi Saleh,  the Jordan Valley, Hebron, Sheikh Jarrah,  and the places erased of names and labeled in the language of imperialists—it is clear.

The colonial state has merely birthed violent colonialists who take it upon themselves to do what the Israeli military traditionally does. And thus, to the Palestinian both are the same.

One wears fatigues, but the two carry guns.

Illegal settlement, Qadumim, upheld over Kufr Qaddoum’s rights

13 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday the 12th of August, the weekly demonstration called by the local Popular Committee in Kufr Qaddum was held. Despite the blazing heat and that most of the participants are fasting for Ramadan, an impressive contingent of around two hundred began the march towards the illegal Israeli settlement of Qadumim. Sitting at the head of a spit of land, protruding, in violation of international law, past the green line by seventeen kilometres into the West Bank, the settlement has brought with it the land confiscations, restrictions on movements, and arbitrary harassment that typifies Zionist incursion into Palestine.

Before passing the last house in the village, the noisy and spirited mass was confronted by two groups of Israeli soldiers; one blocking the road to Qadumim along with Border Police, and the other on higher ground to the left, on a ridge above an olive grove. Those on the left are recognised by some of the demonstrators as being armed with rubber coated steel bullets. After a standoff in which the crowd voiced their anger at the forces of the occupation and reasserted their rights to freedom and self determination in the face of carefully planned ethnic cleansing, the military opened fire with volleys of tear gas.

Some young Palestinian men answered each volley with stones and defiance as the amount of gas fired steadily increased. Over the course of an hour or so, the back and forth continued, ending with an unknown number of mostly older people treated by the Red Crescent, converting the Mosque into a makeshift field hospital although no one was seriously hurt. At one point several soldiers managed to out flank the front of the demonstration, throwing sound bombs directly into groups of people. Towards the end, the Israeli military deliberately fired high velocity tear gas rounds into dry scrubland, setting alight a large olive grove, owned by Kufr Qaddum.