Category: Features - Page 100 - International Solidarity Movement

Photo story: newly expanded Shuhada checkpoint is even more difficult to traverse

January 6th 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

At the end of December Israeli forces re-opened the newly expanded Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). The checkpoint had been closed since December 7th, when Israeli forces had declared they would be conducting “renovations” for a then-unknown period of time.

Officially known as Checkpoint 56, Shuhada checkpoint separates Bab al-Zawiye, a Palestinian neighborhood in the H1 (nominally Palestinian-controlled and administered) part of al-Khalil and Tel Rumeida, part of Israeli military-controlled H2 and currently covered in part by a closed military zone order first issued on November 1st.

walking through wm — Palestinian family leaving Tel Rumeida, crossing toward Bab al-Zawiye

The checkpoint was rebuilt with a high fence blocking the entire street and additional turnstiles and metal detectors. The turnstiles make it very difficult for anyone carrying heavy, bulky luggage or even several bags of groceries to pass. Israeli authorities also added a completely closed off room in the center of the checkpoint, where Palestinians are questioned and searched entirely out of site of any onlookers, media, or human rights monitors.

As in previous versions of the checkpoint, there is no possibility for any car or truck – even an ambulance responding to an emergency – to pass; any vehicle larger than a baby carriage must take a time-consuming detour in order to enter or leave Tel Rumeida.

woman walking high view wm — Shuhada checkpoint as seen from a nearby window in Bab al-Zawiye, an imposing barrier Palestinian families living in Tel Rumeida must navigate

The new checkpoint has already become a flashpoint for Israeli military aggressions against Palestinians, which include the arrest of 38-year-old Wafa’ Sharabati on Monday afternoon by Israeli forces who first claimed she had a discrepancy in her ID then accused her of being a troublemaker and threatened to plant a knife on her. Wafa’s family and local activists staged a sit-in outside Shuhada checkpoint to protest her treatment and the continued humiliation and harassment faced by Palestinians forced to endure the checkpoint and the closed military zone.

family waiting for release copy — Wafa Sharabati’s family staged a sit-in awaiting her release

ppl in front of shuhada wm — A large group of local activists and residents gathered after Wafa’s arrest in front of the checkpoint, which has has been the site of countless demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of al-Khalil

rubber coated metal soldier wm — He never fired, but this Israeli soldier spent much of Monday afternoon on the roof of Shuhada checkpoint, prepared to attack nonviolent Palestinian demonstrators with potentially deadly rubber-coated metal bullets

A sign on the H1 side of the checkpoint explains the protocols for passing through: metal detector, bag search, no animals allowed through, checkpoint closed if there are any clashes. The 4th instruction reads “wait until the soldier will allow you to pass.” Sometimes people can pass in six minutes; sometimes they must wait for over an hour, outside and exposed to any weather, before being allowed to pass the few meters of turnstiles, metal detectors, fences and walls between them and the streets leading to their homes.

Lines on Monday evening left many, including young children, waiting for nearly half an hour in the cold night. Only Palestinians who are registered in the closed military zone can ever pass through the checkpoint; family members of residents, journalists, human rights defenders and internationals have all been barred. Even Palestinians who are registered have reported being forced to wait for over an hour only to be harassed and threatened by the soldiers inside the checkpoint.

Activists have planned another protest for Thursday morning to continue the struggle against the closed military zone, the even harsher regime at the newly reopened checkpoint, and the continued closure and Israeli military occupation of al-Khalil.

boy fire wm — A young Palestinian boy enthusiastically fanned the fire local residents and activists gathered around on Monday night to protest the checkpoint and all it represents

Shufa village threatened as Israeli forces begin to excavate Palestinian land

4th January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Tulkarm Team | Shufa village, occupied Palestine

On the 22nd of December, Israeli forces started excavating land belonging to the Palestinian village of Shufa. Residents fear the possibility of settlement expansion will threaten the future of their village.

shufa2wm — Bulldozer excavating the hillside. In the back sits the illegal Avne Hefez settlement.

Shufa village is very close to Avne Hefez, an illegal Israeli settlement that was established in 1987, which originally comprised 44 dunums of land. The settlement has continued expanding ever since and currently covers 3.000 dunums of land, all belonging to Palestinian villagers from the area.

shufa4wm — Another view of the excavation.

At the center, constructions site. Right sie: the first house of Shufa and at the far left, the first building of the Avne Hefez settlement. the road in the middle is for exclusive settler use. — At the center lies the construction site. At far right sits the first house of Shufa and at far left, the first building of the Avne Hefez settlement. The road in the middle is for exclusive settler use.

Unlike most other villages in the West Bank, Shufa is located on top of a hill, while the Avne Hefez settlement is located at a lower point. Israeli bulldozers and excavators are now digging the side of the hill where Shufa is located, just a few hundred meters from the center of the village. The landowner hasn’t received any previous notice of the excavation, and what exactly the Israeli army intends to build is still not known.One assumption is that they are trying to connect both Avne Hefez and Enav settlements with a nearby illegal outpost. Villagers fear that Israel intends to create a big settlement block in the area, by connecting these three places. Since the construction site is located at the bottom of the hill, posing a strategic disadvantage for the Israelis, the residents of Shufa are afraid that the Israeli forces will use certain measures, typically on the pretext of ‘security’, to prevent Palestinians from accessing their farm land on that particular part of the hill in the future.

Palestinians living next to Avne Hefez are already facing a lot of difficulties. Farmers are not allowed to enter their farmlands located next to the illegal settlement if they don’t hold a special permit. Israel, in turn, hardly ever gives them these permits. In a more extreme example of the harassment that farmers have to face, the Israeli military recently demolished 4 greenhouse structures in a farm belonging to a villager of Kafa, as well as uprooting more than 100 trees.

In addition to all this, the villagers in Shufa are in desperate need of an increased water supply, in order to irrigate their farmlands. But Israel doesn’t let them finish a newly constructed water pipeline that starts in the nearby village of Esba Shufa, and is planned to go all the way to Shufa. The reason for Israel to stop this pipeline construction is that part of it is meant to go through the land area designated as Area C: the territory that comprises 60% of the West Bank and is under full Israeli control. Residents of Shufa also mentioned that the neighboring village of Saffarin is facing worse water problems. They do not have a drinking water pipeline at all, and must buy water from surrounding Palestinian villages at double the normal price.Shufa is just a few minutes drive from Tulkarm. Since the 2nd intifada, Israeli forces have closed the road between Shufa and Tulkarm periodically, forcing the residents to make 32 km detours in order to get to Tulkarm. During a demonstration on Friday, December 18th, villagers from Shufa removed the illegal Israeli roadblock. Israeli commanders then promised that the road will be kept open. But until now, the road has remained closed most of the time. The few occasions when the soldiers open the road, they begin checking all ID-cards, allowing only residents of Shufa to pass through.

63-year-old widow lives in an isolated home facing a checkpoint

January 4th 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Tulkarem Team | Jubara, occupied Palestine

In the outskirts of the village of Jubara, bordering the Jubara checkpoint, sits the home of 63-year-old, Shawqiye Hamaide, Umm Yousef. Mother of two daughters and grandmother of 6 children, Umm Youssef is originally from the village of Beit Lid, but moved into this house 35 years ago when she married her husband, who was born here. Today, after her husband passed away many years ago and her daughters married and left the house, she lives here all by herself in this very isolated area.

SAMSUNG — Umm Youssef in her backyard. You can see the checkpoint right behind her.

As indicated in the orange circle, Umm Youssef's house is located right at the edge of the road reserved exclusively for settlers, in front of the checkpoint and besides the border with Israel. — As indicated in the orange circle, Umm Youssef’s house (black triangle) is located right at the edge of road 557, in front of the checkpoint (X), an earth mound (black dot) and beside the Apartheid Wall (red line).

Her home is very old and poor; there are several cracks in the roof and walls, where water leaks in the winter. The windows do not have glass pains, but only shutters, making it very cold in the winter. Sometimes, in the summer, snakes get into the house through the shutters.

Patches of paint crack through the wall as water leaks in during the winter months. — Patches of paint come off the ceiling and walls as water leaks in during the winter months.

Water leaks in many parts of her house but she doesn't have the financial means to repair it. — Water leaks in many parts of her house but she doesn’t have the financial means to repair it.

In 2000, when the Israeli army began building the Apartheid Wall in front of her home, the soldiers threatened her to leave saying that the bulldozers’ movement of the land might make her house fall, since it is a very old construction. But despite this threat, she refused to leave. She wants to live here for the rest of her life and die in this home.

These cracks appeared when the Israeli army bulldozed the land to build the Apartheid Wall. — These cracks appeared when the Israeli army bulldozed the nearby land to build the Apartheid Wall.

She also says it is very common for confrontations to occur between the youth of the Tulkarem Refugee Camp, who throw stones from the hillside opposite her house towards the military checkpoint, and the Israeli soldiers, who fire back with live ammunition, and other kinds of weapons. There are times, as well, when the soldiers in the checkpoint practice shooting towards her house. She also has 7 olive trees in her garden, and during the harvest season, when she picks the olives by herself, the soldiers shoot in her direction.

Oftentimes, the Israeli military have trained shooting towards her house, creating this hole in the wall.

Life in this vulnerable and marginalized area has only become more stressful since the visit of a man, who claimed to be a Palestinian from the city of Nazareth, knocked on her door approximately a year ago. Saying that he wanted to marry a woman from the West Bank, he first offered Umm Youssef to buy her house for 1 million shekels. The man has come to her door 7 times this year already, finally doubling the offer to 2 million shekels. But not only she is not interested in selling her home, it is also highly unlikely that someone would want to pay such a high price and start a newly married life in a house of such poor conditions.

Finally, her suspicions about this man being an Israeli trying to continue colonizing land were confirmed when she saw him one day wearing the military uniform in the checkpoint. She says that he and another man changed their clothes to civilian clothes, and drove a car towards Tulkarem. She suspects these people could be part of the Shabak or Mossad.

The military surveillance tower as seen through her garden. Her property borders the checkpoint.

Another section of the checkpoint as seen through her balcony.

It is a common tactic of the Zionist project to use third party intermediaries to buy Palestinian land and then sell it to Israeli citizens, settlers or authority, in an attempt to continue colonizing and cleansing the native population. In many cases, Palestinians who sell their land this way do not know the intentions behind these purchases. Therefore, Umm Youssef’s decision to not sell her home away is crucial to prevent further colonization of Palestinian land.

The windows in her house only have shutters, and no glass pains, making it very cold in the winter.

Umm Youssef's home sits alone beside the hill, directly facing the checkpoint. — As shown by the red circle, Umm Youssef’s home sits alone beside the hill, directly facing the checkpoint.

Palestinian families deeply concerned about the safety of their children

The three boys – Awne Abu Shamsiyye (16 years of age), Moataz Irfaiie (17 years of age) and Nizzar Salhab (16 years of age)- who were shot on their way home on the evening of the 1^st of December have since then been harassed by Israeli forces and their families have been left in the dark about what kind of unlawful punishment will await their children.

Nizzar was shot in the upper thigh, lower torso and hip and a piece of the metal from the bullet penetrated his testicle. He was hospitalized in the Ahli hospital in Al-Khalil (Hebron) for five days and had to undergo two surgeries. The other two boys were hospitalized in Al-Khalil Alia hospital. Sixteen-year old Awne was shot by live ammunition in the sole of his foot, where the bullet exploded. He had to undergo two surgeries and stayed in the hospital for eights days. Moataz was shot in his calf and had to undergo one surgery.

12404149_1054864131242785_1199754815_n — Paper from the Israeli Civil Administration Photo credit: Human Rights Defenders Group

After being discharged from the hospitals, all three boys returned to their homes in Tel Rumeida, where they continue to undergo medical treatment. Shortly after all boys had been discharged, Israeli forces came to the homes of all three boys looking for them. The Israeli forces thoroughly searched Awne Abu Shamsiyye’s house and even the homes of his neighbors; Awne was luckily not around at that time. The Israeli forces returned following day at 2:00 am to search the house for Awne again and when they couldn’t find him they came back at noon to give the family a paper. The paper ordered the family to deliver Awne to the Israeli Civil Administration, the Israeli governing body that operates in the West Bank. The other two families also received a paper giving them a deadline to deliver their sons to the Israeli DCO (District Coordination Office) by Sunday the 20^th of December 2015 at 2:00 pm.

On the 20^th of December the three boys went to the Israeli DCO in Al-Khalil accompanied by their families and a lawyer provided by the Human Rights Defenders Group. After waiting around at the DCO the boys were told to go to the police station located in the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba in Al-Khalil (Hebron) instead. Upon arrival at the police station they were sent back to the Israeli DCO on the claim that it was the responsibility of the DCO to deal with the boys. The families refused to go back to the DCO the same day and the police took the phone numbers of the fathers of the three boys. The families were told that the commander would get in touch with the families the next day to inform them about the unknown fate that awaits the three boys. However, until now the commander hasn’t got in touch with any of the families.

12436041_1054864514576080_1902095659_n — Waiting in front of the police station in Kiryat Arba Photo Credit: Human Rights Defenders Group

The families are deeply concerned about the safety of the boys and feel highly uncomfortable because the boys could be arrested, attacked or shot at any time. The boys are still under threat and need to be extremely careful when moving in their neighbourhood, which has been a ‘closed military zone’ since November 1^st 2015. Earlier today, the 3^rd of January 2015 the commander stopped the father of one of the boys, Imed Abu Shamsiyye and told him that if he saw Awne again he would shoot him. Not only is this a direct threat to the life of Awne, it also confirms the concerns voiced by the families about the safety of their children and their concerns that the Israeli forces would attack the boys “when nobody is watching”. Although Imed told the commander that the families had followed all of their orders and have proof thereof, it is only a matter of time until the Israeli forces will resort to yet another crime.

14 Palestinians finally laid to rest in occupied al-Khalil

2nd January, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

On the 2^nd of January 2016, thousands attended the funeral of 14 martyrs in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). A demonstration following the funeral, against the continued killing of Palestinians with impunity by the Israeli military and Zionist settlers, was attacked by Israeli forces.

Part of the massive funeral procession walking up the road toward the Martyrs’ cemetery

The new year in the occupied West Bank began with the handover of 23 bodies that the Israeli government had been withholding from their families, some for over two months. These 23 young Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces or settlers claiming that they had been carrying out attacks; in many cases, eyewitnesses reported that Israeli forces planted evidence on the bodies or killed the alleged attackers when they posed no imminent threat. Israeli forces then took the bodies of the Palestinians killed and the Israeli government refused to return them to their families, denying them funerals and proper burial.

17 of the 23 bodies that were finally returned to their families were from the al-Khalil district. Of these 14 were from al-Khalil city itself, and were thus buried on Saturday in the Martyrs’ cemetery of al-Khalil. Thousands of people marched in the funeral procession from the Hussein mosque to the cemetery, with the fourteen bodies carried on the shoulders of their families. The families of the young men killed finally had the chance to bury their loved ones in an appropriate manner and grieve their loss.

One of the 14 bodies of Palestinian youths being carried down the road in al-Khalil

As the procession was passing by a road that leads down toward Shuhada checkpoint, Israeli forces threw stun grenades into the street even though no one was approaching or even near checkpoint.

The fourteen people buried this Saturday in occupied al-Khalil are:

Basil Bassam Ragheb Sidr, 20, shot dead on 14^th October 2015
Fadil Abdullah Qawasmi, 18, shot dead by Israeli settlers on 17^th October 2015
Farouq Abd al-Qadir Sider, 19, shot dead on 19^th October 2015
Saad Muhammad Youssef al-Atrash, 19, shot dead on 26^th October 2015
Shadi Nabil al-Qudsi, 22, shot dead on 27^th October 2015
Izz al-Din Nadi Abu Shkheidem, 19, shot dead on 27^th October 2015
Humaaam Adnan al-Saeed, 23, shot dead on 27^th October 2015
Islam Rafiq Hammad Ibeido, 23, shot dead on 28^th October 2015
Mahdi Muhammad al-Muhtaseb, 23, shot dead on 29^th October 2015
Malik Talal al-Shareef, 25, shot dead on 5^th November 2015
Mustafa Fadhil Fanoon, 15, shot dead on 4^th December 2015
Taher Faysal Fannoun, 19, shot dead on 4^th December 2015
Ibah Fathi Miswadeh, 21, shot on 7^th December 2015
Abd al-Rahman Miswadeh, shot dead on 7^th December 2015

The three Palestinians buried in the al-Khalil area are:
Hamzeh Moussa al-Imla, 25, shot dead on 20^th October 2015. Buried in Beit Ula
Fadi Hassan al-Froukh, shot dead on 1^st November 2015. Buried in Sair village
Omar Arafat Issa al-Zaaqiq, 19, shot dead on 27^th November 2015. Buried in Beit Ummar

After the funeral procession for Omar al-Zaaqiq, Israeli forces injured 12 protesters with rubber-coated steel bullets, including two that were shot in the head.

After the funeral in al-Khalil dozens of young Palestinian men braved wet, cold weather to gather in the streets of Bab al-Zawwiya neighborhood around Shuhada checkpoint to protest the murder of these martyrs. Israeli forces advanced from Shuhada checkpoint and threw stun grenades into the streets. They also pursued a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance that was driving up the road with its lights and sirens on in the H1 area of al-Khalil, the part supposedly under full Palestinian control. Israeli forces stopped the ambulance and threw a stun grenade at it, forcing medics to drive back in the direction they had come.

Israeli forces occupied a building and roof in Bab al-Zawwiya, using their vantage to aim down at protesters, mock the demonstrators and throw stones at them.

Palestinians and internationals documenting the Israeli forces’ violent attackon the demonstration were directly targeted by Israeli forces. Local activist Imad Abu Shamsiya was shot in the foot with a rubber-coated metal bulle by Israeli forces. One international was hit in the hand with a rubber-coated metal bullet when clearly holding a camera filming the event. “We were standing in the street taking photos of the soldiers aiming their rifles at demonstrators and realized that they were aiming right at us when a rubber-coated metal bullet hit right above my head,” another ISM activist recalled.

soldier further away — Photo taken just before Israeli border police aimed a rubber-coated metal bullet just above an ISMer’s head

Israeli forces indiscriminately fired rounds of plastic-coated metal bullets that, in contrast to the rubber-coated metal bullets, were not aimed and targeted at individuals but would instead hit anyone in the vicinity. The clashes ended after over two hours of confrontation with Israeli forces, with no severe injuries.

While the families of the 23 young Palestinians returned on New Year’s Day were finally able to bury their loved ones, other families are still waiting and demanding the return of the bodies of their family members killed by Israeli forces or settlers. This inhumane tactic of keeping the bodies from the families, thus denying them the possibility of holding a funeral according to their beliefs, clearly violates article 17 of the 1949 Geneva Convention: I “[Parties to the conflict] shall further ensure that the dead are honourably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged, that their graves are respected, grouped if possible according to the nationality of the deceased, properly maintained and marked so that they may always be found.”