1st October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Today, October 1st 2015, a 14-year old boy was arrested by Israeli forces in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) after being accused of stone-throwing by a settler notorious for harassing Palestinians.
Mohammed Imad Abu Shamsiyye was taken by Israeli soldiers from right outside his home just after coming home from school. Even though he was taken from outside his family home and he is a minor, Israeli forces did not inform the parents. His father was only informed about the arrest of his son by neighbours. Mohammed was physically assaulted by one soldier while being detained at a checkpoint close to his house.
They then walked him to Shuhada checkpoint, were he was forced to sit with another teen that was arrested by Israeli forces after attempting to cross the checkpoint. Mohammed’s accuser, the extremist settler, Ofer, is infamous for his aggressive behaviour towards Palestinians and international observers. He immediately drove up to the checkpoint taking videos, ridiculing and insulting internationals and Palestinians.
Mohammed (right) and another Palestinian boy detained at Shuhada checkpoint
At the same time another 17-year old boy was forced to first sit outside in the baking sun and then in an army jeep for about twenty minutes before being taken to a police station. The young man, as well as Mohammed’s arrest were based on the allegations of this one settler, that was not even in the same location as any of the two boys for the time he accuses.
17-year old boy taken to the police station by Israeli forces
When Israeli forces walked Mohammed to the military base in segregated Shuhada Street, the two settlers went along ridiculing and berating the boy all the way up to the military base. The settlers, as well as soldiers at the base kept harassing and insulting internationals present outside the military base, until Mohammed was taken to the police station in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba about half an hour later. He was finally released from the police station after one and a half hours – in total an ordeal of over two hours of arrest for a minor child.
Settlers from the various illegal settlements in al-Khalil often posses an enormous amount of power over the Israeli army that will act upon their every whim and allegation. Palestinians on the other hand, when complaining about attacks by settlers are most often ignored or even arrested.
30th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On the second day of the Jewish Sukkot holiday, hundreds of settlers continued filing into al-Khalil (Hebron) creating mass restrictions and sharp escalations in violence against Palestinians living here. Over a period of two hours dozens of them continuously invaded the roof of the Palestinian Abu Shamsiyye family home where several small children live.
Israeli soldier stands idly by as settlers invade Palestinian roof, attack female monitor.
Laughing and trying to gain vantage point to view Israeli forces teargassing, stun grenading and firing rubber coated steel bullet projectiles into crowds of Palestinians in the Bab al-Zawiya area of H-1 Hebron, the settlers spit and cursed at the children, darted towards them to frighten them, called them “Arab terrorists” and one male settler charged at and punched a female ISM international human rights monitor as she filmed him trespassing on the roof. The settler was allowed to leave the scene without incident as Israeli forces stood present but did nothing.
Shortly thereafter, as a Palestinian man and his two young sons tried to exit the gate fronting their home, a crowd of a dozen settler boys sat and stood in front of the gate blocking his exit as he politely asked to be allowed to pass. For fifteen minutes the boys kept the man and his sons trapped until an Israeli soldier finally came and told them to move.
Through the sounds of stun grenading and the blasts of high powered rubber coated steel bullets being showered onto Palestinians by Israeli forces just past checkpoint 56, the settlers, of all ages, took turns standing in the Israeli military post where they posed for photos, shouted curses and racial abuses at Palestinians and international human rights monitors and cheered each time a blast rang out.
Settlers boys pose jovially for photos after spitting and cursing at human rights monitors and shouting racial slurs about Arabs.
This was the situation just outside the Abu Shamsiyye family home alone. But hundreds of Palestinian families have been literally under siege during the Jewish Sukkot holiday began yesterday as their roads have been closed, their businesses have been attacked, their children have been arrested and their streets have undergone hours of endless assault by heavily armed Israeli forces both on roofs as well as in the streets to allow for settlers to move freely through Palestinian governed areas it is illegal for them to be, in so they could pray in the streets.
The misery continues for Palestinians existing in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
30th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Gaza, occupied Palestine
Chaos in the streets of Gaza. Israeli forces showered the strip with gunfire while Palestinian medics ran frantically to evacuate those crumpled on the ground with blood rushing from holes in their bodies before racing for cover themselves. Running from the violent, precision Israeli military assault, some were felled in the act as lethal and non lethal projectiles met with their skin. …And behind a waist-high concrete cylinder a Palestinian father and his 12 year old son Muhammad took cover.
It is the second day of the second intifada and it was fifteen years ago today.
The spark of the furious uprising was lit by then Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, after visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Violence saturated Jerusalem, soon racing through the West Bank and Gaza. A second mass uprising, an intensified Palestinian resistance to Israel’s criminal subjugation of them. Four and a half years of shaking off.
Photo of Mohammed hiding behind his father Photo credit: France 2
If any image were to encapsulate the tragedies of what was termed in the report following the incident, where Israel issued an apology for the boy’s murder, describing it as a ‘fog of war,’ it would be a young Palestinian boy and his father kneeling on the ground, eyes wide in terror just seconds before the unthinkable happened. Filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian cameraman freelancing for France 2, Jamal al-Durrah and his 12-year-old son Muhammad are seen, backs pressed against the wall, Jamal’s arm shielding his young son whose mouth is oval with what must have been a paralyzing fear. And then the shots.
When the cloud of dust cleared, the boy is on his side, draped over his father’s lap.
Throughout an enduing four and a half year widespread Palestinian resistance, with all of its gut wrenching failures, and with the solace and strengths of solidarity en masse coming from both the history before the second intifada and the aftermath in its’s wake, the slaughter of Muhammad al-Durrah continues to be a defining moment. A young boy viewed guilty through the eyes of the Israeli military due only to the origin of his birth.
In the investigation to follow, an Israeli-initiated tug of war of blame across the grave of and over Muhammad’s murder ensued. Where initially the Israeli government took blame and expressed public relational regret with an apology, that space soon became occupied with denials, accusations and disturbing tales of Palestinian’s faking the boy’s death. If only Palestinians weren’t so busy mourning the actual mass murders of their children in order to be able to spontaneously arrange for the staged murder of one, a second intifada might not have been necessary, nor a third or a fourth for that matter.
Without politicizing the end of a human life, in a 67 year crime drenched in politics; fifteen years ago today a terrified little boy was shot to death while he hid beside his father. And the world should remember his name.
29th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestin
Today in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), Israeli forces ruthlessly attacked a peaceful demonstration.
The demonstration was organised against the Israeli forces deadly shooting of 18 year old martyr Hadeel Hashlamoun at a Tel Rumeida checkpoint yawning into segregated Shuhada Street.
Israeli forces started shooting endless rounds of stun-grenades at the protestors. An ISMer present there explains: “The sound of stun grenades kept echoing throughout most of the day.” Many of the stun grenades were also directly targeted at Palesinian family homes’ roofes as well as fruit stands in the neighbourhood around the checkpoint.
Israeli soldier shooting rubber-coated steel bullet from a Palesitnian house
In the evening, rubber coated steel bullets were shot by Israeli forces at the youth. At least two persons were injured, one in the arm, and another one in the leg.
Israeli forces targeting demonstrators with rubber-coated steel bullets
Unproportional use of force against Palestinian demonstrators is widespread throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Watch a video of Israeli forces shooting rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstrators:
27th September 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Nabi Saleh, occupied Palestine
On the 28th of August, Mahmoud Tamimi was arrested in Nabi Saleh during the weekly non violent demonstration. Every Friday, just after the prayer, the residents demonstrate against the expansion of the illegal settlement of Halamish which has continuously confiscated Palestinian land as well as the only water source of the village: ‘Ain al-Qaws.
During the Friday march towards the expropriated lands the residents were stopped by Israeli forces using excessive brutality, shooting tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets, live ammunition and sound grenades against civilians. Additionally, demonstrators are often arrested and beaten up.
On the 28th of August, in the course of the demonstration I, as a foreigner, was arrested by Israeli forces together with the 19-year old Palestinian Mahmoud Tamimi.
Both of us have been brutally beaten by the soldiers with punches, kicks and the butts of their guns. Both of us were arrested and secluded for 6 hours, kept blindfolded and handcuffed in a small room in a military base.
Afterwards, we were taken to the police station based in the illegal settlement of Ben Yamin and, at that point, our paths were divided: he was brought to the military prison of Ofer and I was brought to “Ramle” near Tel Aviv.
Within a few days, my predicament was positively solved: I was acquitted from the charges of throwing stones and other objects, and returned to be a free citizen. Regarding Mahmoud, although the charges were exactly the same, because he’s Palestinian, the situation is completely different: in fact Mahmoud is still under arrest in Ofer military prison and is waiting to attend his first hearing, to be held on the 28th of October, that is 60 days after his arrest. In my case, the first hearing took place the day after my arrest.
Israeli soldier arresting Mahmoud
Mahmoud is now under threat of a penalty of a minimum of 7 months which, under the practice of military law and consequently administrative detention used on the Palestinians of the West Bank, this sentence can be arbitrarily renewed for additional 6 month periods of imprisonment.
The absolute asymmetry of treatment endured by me and Mahmoud is a blatant demonstration of the discriminatory laws applied by Israel for over 40 years towards the Palestinians. According to the International law, the application of military laws in occupied territories is completely illegitimate.
Israeli soldiers use brutal force on Mahmoud
Mahmoud will be accused by military personnel covering the role of persecutors and will be judged by some other military personnel covering also the role of judges. He doesn’t have the right to be tried in front of a civilian court, although Mahmoud is a civilian – and not a soldier. All of this because he’s a Palestinian.
Even if the evidence does not indicate his guilt,just the fact that he’s in a military court with both the prosecutor and the judge from the military, will most likely result in a guilty verdict. The procedures in military court are not about establishing the truth, the possibility of establishing a defense is extremely slim, justice simply isn’t done in a military court. It’s about punishment, punishment to weaken the Palestinian resistance to an illegal occupation, even if this resistance is non-violent.
Mahmoud in court
Within this system, it must be said, settlers from illegal settlements in the West Bank are judged in front of civilian courts, not military courts – just because they have a different status: they are not Palestinians.
In my case, hard evidence would be required to bring charges against me, for Mahmoud in contrast, as a Palestinian, no evidence is required at all. All the trial is only based on the statement of 18-year old soldiers.
Of course, when an international is unjustly beaten and arrested the media reacts with utter disapproval attracting the medias’ attention and causing the civil society’s indignation. When it’s a Palestinian receiving the exact same treatment, however, the reaction is quite different. Mahmoud‘s case seems to be totally forgotten. Currently he is still rotting in a prison cell in Ofer military prison, while being entirely ignored by the media and the international community.
Mahmoud Tamimi is only 19 years old, he has 2 brothers and a sister. His uncle is Rushdie Tamimi, one of Nabi Saleh’s martyrs killed by the Israeli forces 3 years ago on the 19th of November. He died following an intense shooting during which he was inured in the thigh and the stomach. Rushdie is already the second martyr in a village which counts only 500 inhabitants. Considering the dimension of the village, they are indeed suffering from significant losses. However, we must keep in mind that in the Occupied Palestinian Territories the violence and the killings are daily and are perceived by the so called civilized world as casualties of a 60 year old conflict.
Mahmoud at al-Aqsa mosque
Let’s take a stand and spread Mahmoud’s story, let’s not forget him. We should show the world that the treatment a Palestinian youth receives – and thus the live of a Palestinian – is not less worth reporting about in the media and has to receive as much attention and result in an outcry as that of an Italian citizen. Let this not be about the rare case of an international being maltreated by Israeli forces, but about the every-day harassment, violence, illegal detentions and arrests of Palestinians.
