Ashraf was arrested again on the 27th of October 2017 while giving a group of French solidarity activists a tour of the land that his village of Bil’in won back from the nearby Israeli colonial settlement of Modi’in Elite through their creative popular protests. He was accused of throwing stones at the occupation forces, an accusation he denies. His arrest is the latest in hundreds of incidents of abuse and harassment against Ashraf and other Bil’in activists in an attempt to end their protest against the Apartheid wall and colonial settlement built on their land. But, Ashraf and Bil’in remain defiant.
Ashraf on top of a crane lifting mobile homes to expand the colonial settlement on Bil’in land.
Ashraf’s siblings, Basem and Jawaher were both killed in separate incidents while nonviolently protesting the illegal wall constructed on their land. Their murders only fueled Ashraf’s determination to continue to resist, despite being wounded and arrested repeatedly including an arrest in 2011 when he was imprisoned for 8 months.
Ashraf at his wedding dancing with pictures of his murdered siblings
On the 27th of October Ashraf accepted a plea bargain under which he will remain in prison for 3 months and pay 5000 shekel in addition to a suspended sentence of eighteen months for five years. Had Ashraf not accepted, he would have remained in detention until the end of proceedings against him which would last for a year or more. “Israel is not a democracy. It is not ruled by laws. It is a criminal occupation that is ruled by force alone,” Ashraf told the ISM.
Two other activists from Bil’in are currently in military jail. Leading Human Rights defender Abdullah Abu Rahmah has been imprisoned since the 19th of November 2017 when over a dozen military Jeeps invaded Bil’in village at 2:30 AM and entered several homes. Abdullah who is accused of “damaging the fence” stated, “the occupation has used many methods including, killing and injuring, raiding our homes in order to stop us from exercising our right to protest and struggle against the occupation. But we will not stop struggling until the occupation is dismantled.” 16 year old Ahmad Abu Rahmah of Bil’in, who was also arrested in the raid, was accused of throwing a stone.
Update, December 13, 2017: Abdul Khaliq Iyad Bernat, Hamza Ghazi Al Khatib, and Malik Yassin were arrested today in Bil’n, and Ahmed Adeeb Abu Rahma was arrested yesterday. All four are in their final year of high school. They will join Abdullah, Ashraf, and Ahmad Abu Rahmah in military prison.
Update December 14, 2017 : Abdullah Abu Rahma was released from military prison on bail a fine and conditions. Abdul Khaliq Iyad Bernat, Hamza Ghazi Al Khatib, Malik Yassin, Ahmed Adeeb Abu Rahma, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Rahma and Ashraf Abu Rahma all from Bil’in remain imprisoned.
The picture might look beautiful, but the water badly smells of sewage water.
November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
The farmers in South Bruqin have had to face the difficulties living next to, and having land stolen by, the illegal settlement of Bruchin since 2000. The last eastern expansion of the settlement led not only to a new settler road cutting through the Palestinians olive grove, but also a river of sewage water running through the hills. The Abu Skandar Samara family has been farming the soil in Bruqin for generations. ISM activists met a few of the family members sharing the field, and were shown a story of sabotage, land theft, and violence.
A small stream of sewage water – one that, needless to say, carries an awful smell with it – begins at the fence for the settlement and runs down the hill, flooding multiple terraces beneath it. From the flattened grass on either side of the stream, it’s clear that the flow of the toxic water is sometimes higher, creating a wider stream. Obviously, it pollutes the soil for all of the surrounding trees, not just those in the stream’s immediate vicinity.
Abu Skandar and his son are digging canals to divert the water.
Since the illegal construction of the settlement houses, the road to Bruchin settlement has also been expanded. Abu Skandar told ISM activists how he went to sit in the path of the tractor when workers started uprooting his trees in order to make space for the new road. Soldiers escorted him away. “I will keep resisting, even if it means I die in the fields,” he said, pointing to one of the trees surrounded by sewage water. “I planted that with my parents in 1966. Even when Israel occupied the West Bank after the Six-Day War, we kept using our soil.”
Abu Skandar and his son are digging canals to divert the water.
Some of the flooded trees are just a few months old. When Mekorot water company built a pipe for the settlement, destroying Abu Skandar’s trees, a French organization called POI donated money specifically for new olive trees to plant. “These trees will die now,” Skandar sighed.
Abu Skandar, his sons, and his nephews have all raised the case of the sewage water to the District Coordination Office (DCO). Skandar also tried to raise a case about the road. However, the manager for Mekorot’s project told Skandar, “This will continue no matter what you think or do.” Skandar said that, of course, he doesn’t have the necessary resources to win such a case against a large corporation.
One of the young trees about to die.
When Israel began construction of the road in the beginning of January, the family and the DCO managed to delay construction for a month. As a result, Mekorot promised to clear the garbage and the big rocks left on the family’s land after the construction, but no action was ever taken. The road was built and the family had to move the rubble and the rocks themselves.
Trees are damaged where the new illegal settlement road is being built.
The Salfit industrial zone was illegally built in 2000, when a military camp was created where the illegal settlement Bruchin is located today. The industrial waste and pollution has since spread across much of the surrounding area. The pollution has attracted boars to the land, which has prevented the farmers from growing beans, grapes, or figs, leaving the olive trees as their only source of income. The village of Bruqin also has a disproportionately high rate of hospitalization in Palestine. Just a month ago, a 15 year old girl died of cancer.
The new, eastern section of the illegal Bruchin settlement.
The Samara families ISM activists met in South Bruqin hope they will get their land back. They will keep resisting and continue to say that nothing will keep them from tending their land. Every week, Abu Skandar transports clean water 4 km to his trees.
3rd December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine
On Friday the 1st of December, occupation forces at the Qeitun checkpoint blocked the way to the mosque for an extra long time, thereby delaying Palestinian families on their way to prayer in the Ibrahimi mosque.
To reach the Ibrahimi mosque, Palestinians who live in the nearby Qeitun neighborhood have to pass through 3 to 4 checkpoints. This is the only possible way for them to reach the mosque.
The occupation forces installed 12 military checkpoints within 250 meters from the mosque.
At 11:35 we observed around 50 men, women, and children waiting at the 1st checkpoint that it is necessary for Palestinians to pass through before continuing on their way to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th checkpoint that separate the Qeitun area from the Ibrahimi mosque.
1st checkpoint where around 50 men, women and children were waiting to pass trough.
At the 1st military checkpoint, the people from the Qeitun area had to pass through a steel turning gate, then through a concrete bunker one by one. In this bunker, they were detained for a long time and forced to follow instructions from the Israeli border police sitting behind the bulletproof glass in the checkpoint. Finally, they had to pass through a second steel turning-gate.
The severe delay at the checkpoint meant that many of the Palestinians living in the Qeitun area missed most of the prayer.
The 2nd checkpoint, in A-Sahla near the Palestinian court, was unmanned that day [archive video, 2016]
From this checkpoint leading into H2 from the Qeitun area, we went on to the checkpoint on Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi street. Here we passed by two of the young men who had previously gone through the Qeitun checkpoint. They were now being detained at the 3rd checkpoint on their way to the mosque for about 10 minutes.
3rd checkpoint located at beginning of Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi street.
When the young men were finally let through by the border police, the prayer had ended and there was no need for them to move on to the 4th checkpoint, which has recently been built in front of the mosque, severely damaging this Palestinian World Heritage site.
4th checkpoint located in front of the Ibrahimi mosque.
Since begin 2016, the Israeli state has been very active in creating new constructions and apartheid regulations in the old city of Hebron. These include the replacement of existing Arabic street signs for ones created exclusively for settlers and tourists, the creation of numerous walls, fences, gates, razor wire fences and new checkpoints, as well as the exclusion of unlisted Palestinians from the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. On top of this comes the creation of the steel and concrete checkpoint in front of the Ibrahimi mosque.
Moving around in H2 has become dehumanizing and deeply frustrating. As a result, the streets are empty much of the time.
It is no longer crowded on Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi street between the two Israeli checkpoints.
26th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Jordan Valley Solidarity | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine
Israeli forces have sent out demolition orders to two villages in the northern Jordan Valley, where they plan to demolish the homes of around 300 Palestinians. This is part of the Israeli military’s ongoing efforts ethnically cleanse the Jordan Valley and annex it to Israel.
The Jordan Valley Solidarity group has already reported residents overhearing drones gliding over the area and Israeli soldiers frequently halting residents for ID checks.
The village Al Maleh is situated close to a Israeli military base.
The Ein El Hilwe and Al Maleh families’ stories are a perfect example of what life in Jordan Valley can mean. None of the two families have been directly informed by the Israeli military forces about the plans to demolition of their homes. On the 1st of November, the demolition orders were left in the form of a note under a rock close to their homes. The notes weren’t noticed until the 9th, which meant that they had an even shorter period of time to find a solution. Despite the frustration and the difficulties of the last weeks, the residents of both the villages are determined to stay on their land and to face the harassment of the Israeli occupation forces. “My grandfather and my father both lived here before me and before the Israeli occupation. My family has owned this land for so long”, says Qadri Daram from Ein El Hill village, descrbing the constant harassment his family has had to face for decades. “They have been using the same strategy for years to get the Palestinians out of here. But before the Oslo agreement there were more military bases here and soldiers. Then the soldiers went away and the Israeli settlers arrived.”
Qadri and his family have lived on this land for generations. Now he and his wife and children have to face many difficulties. They are not allowed to build anything on their own land and are forced to live without water and electricity, while the illegal Israeli settlement nearby is equipped with all the comfortabilities they need. The water for the settlement is taken from a local spring standing near to Ein El Hilwe, while Qadri and his family have to buy water.
The area has been declared a closed military zone.
Qadri used to get the water for his community from there, but when the settlers came they started using it as a swimming pool, claiming it was a holy spring, which made the water dirty and undrinkable.
The water source is an ongoing issue, and has been used as a weapon by Israel since 1967, when it took control of Palestinians’ water supply.
The ways Israel tries to hinder the Palestinian access to water are many. The state often prohibits any kind of maintenance or improvement of the hydric system, draining the groundwater sources from deeper sites. It enables the damaging and drying up of the more superficial Palestinian water sources.
The ways Israel tries to hinder the Palestinian access to water are many. The state often prohibits any kind of maintenance or improvement of the hydric system, draining the groundwater sources from deeper sites. It enables the damaging and drying up of the more superficial Palestinian water sources. It allows untreated sewage to flow from settlements onto Palestinian land. It drains the sources throughout the settlement water system. It targets the water infrastructure during military attacks. It confiscates or destroys tanks for rain collection. Finally, it tolerates and sometimes encourages direct sabotage by the settlers, such as the chemical poisoning of Palestinians’ water and the damaging of their personal tanks and structures.
The Palestinians in the area have to buy water for both themselfs and their animals. The local water spring leads up to the nearby settlement and army bases.
In addition to the weaponization of water, Israel has used military firing zones as a way to annex Palestinian land. Those who drive along the road from Tubas can see warning signs every few meters, declaring the adjacent land a firing zone. This is how the Israeli army declares that particular areas are for live weapons military training, despite the fact that Palestinian villages exist on them, many of which are forced to evacuate with no redress or compensation. Because of these continuously increasing restrictions on their movement, shepherds have been experiencing more difficulty finding places to herd their goats, forcing them to buy feed for them, a far more expensive and less healthy alternative.
Qadri’s story is just one of many stories Jordan Valley residents can tell, as the situation has been getting steadily worse since the occupation began in 1967. Before 1967, over 320,000 Palestinians were living in the Jordan Valley. Now, the number is around 60,000.
“Our children don’t even have the right to enjoy life,” Qadri says. “They cry during the night. They are scared. I think every child in the area needs a psychologist.”
In the village Al Maleh, the situation is similar. The future is uncertain, but everybody is determined to resist on their rightful land. The families listen desperately to the news everyday, waiting for answers. And now, they’re asking the international community for help and solidarity in their search for a peaceful and safe existence.
15th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwarra, Occupied Palestine
Israeli settlers of Yitzhar, set fires in two places in Palestinian olive fields around their illegal outposts, and attacked a group of farmers a day later, under the eyes of around 30 border police, present at the site.
On Sunday 5 November, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, ISM activists saw smoke coming from olive fields on both hillsides underneath an outpost of Yitzhar, the illegal settlement south of Nablus, built on the Hill between the Palestinian villages Huwarra and Burin.
It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Since the expropriation of the farmland of Huwarra, Burin and Madama, and the illegal creation and steady expansion of the Israeli settlement Yitzhar, violent settlers do anything they can to harm the Palestinian farmers and families without any risk of being punished for these crimes.
Attacked in 2016. No sign of life a year later.
A farmer from Burin, whose olive field was set on fire, explained to us that the settler group chased him and his two companions and that they managed to escape.
The Palestinian Fire-brigade of Burin waited for permission from the Israeli authority to extinguish the fire, which they apparently did not get.
Israel is authoritative for the security in Area-C, and should instead of blocking the Palestinian Fire brigade, fight any fire in Area-C themselves, which it has not done in the 25 year since this authority was agreed on in the Oslo accords.
Instead of this, we saw border police, settler security and the settlers side-by-side in the illegal Hilltop outpost, looking at the burning fields.
The next day, 6 November 2017 already at 8:30 AM, a group of nine settlers tried to attack farmers and workers who had official permission of the Israeli security authority, to harvest and cultivate the fields of the Owda family, which was partly burned down the previous day.
The large group of border police refused us entrance to the the area, which apparently was declared a closed military zone. The commander showed us the declaration on a paper, which didn’t show many details.
Instead of assisting the farmers, we could only be remotely present and filmed the situation from a distance. We again witnessed a close cooperation between the settlers, the settler-security and the border police. The threat of an instant attack was constantly felt that day.
Around 14:30, a group of around 20 settlers attacked the farmers, and most border-police did little to avoid it and arrested none of the settlers. Instead it commanded the farmers to stop their work and quickly leave their land.
Settlement outpost are illegal, even by Israeli law, although that law may change one day.
In February 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed a new law to legalize all 4000 illegal outposts. But, the High Court had concerns and postponed the implementation in August 2017.
However, if that law ever comes to reality, it would accept these 4000 outposts as new settlements ready to expand, and would give legality to the expropriation of more private Palestinian land, in a clear violation of the Oslo Agreements of 1993.
