9 December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine
Clashes continued throughout the weekend in Hebron, after Palestinian civil society groups called for “three days of rage” in response to Donald Trump’s widely unrecognized declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Across the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians organized general strikes, as well as non-violent marches and demonstrations, all of which were met with military violence by Israel.
In Hebron, the violence from the Israeli army included the use of numerous rounds of tear gas, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets, and live ammunition against the press and civilians, including passing families and the elderly. Soldiers also entered shops and forced businesses to close, causing further disruption to daily civilian life. Some young Palestinians resisted the Israeli army’s invasion using stones, and also by throwing the Israeli army’s own tear gas canisters back towards the soldiers.
On Friday alone, between 15 and 20 Palestinian minors were arrested, including at least five that weren’t involved in the clashes, one of which was taken straight from his home. Of the five boys that ISM activists witnessed being arrested, four of them were brutally beaten by large groups of soldiers after they were subdued and handcuffed and posed no threat to the soldiers. As of 5:00 PM on Saturday, two of the boys remained hospitalized due to their injuries.
In declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Donald Trump formalized the United States’ position as one in contravention of international law and the opinion of the international community. The international community has expressly stated – through UN Resolution 181 and others – that it doesn’t recognize any claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem by Israel, which is why most states maintain their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem.
December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine
In response to Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel hundreds of heavily armed Israeli soldiers invaded the Palestinian controlled areas of Hebron to clash with demonstrators. The clashes were likely also fueled by a general strike of work and schools by Palestinians.
An elderly man waits to go home on a street taken over by soldiers. Such disruptions of Palestinians’ daily lives are common in occupied Hebron.
At roughly 10:30 AM, at least two groups of over 50 soldiers each entered H1 (Palestinian controlled Hebron) with rifles, tear gas cannons, sound bombs, and rubber coated steel bullet magazines. They entered through Checkpoint 56, from which they went into the city center, home to shops and restaurants, as well as innocent bystanders.
An elderly man, who was hit by tear gas while walking down the street, is helped to safety by a Palestinian Red Crescent Society medic.
Dozens of Palestinians, including small children, the elderly, those documenting the scene on their phones, and hospital patients at the Alia Hospital – at which soldiers fired multiple rounds of tear gas – were injured by tear gas and sound bombs. The soldiers also fired live ammunition aimlessly at buildings with no regard for civilian safety, a war crime and form of collective punishment. One boy, age 15, was shot with live ammunition when soldiers fired numerous rounds down a populated street. They then surrounded him, confiscated videos of the incident, and arrested him.
The blood of a 15 year old Palestinian boy shot by Israeli soldiers.
As of 3:00 PM, at least 7 young boys were blindfolded, handcuffed, and brought back into Checkpoint 56. At one point, soldiers held and terrorized an eight-year-old boy in a secluded, trash-filled corner of an alleyway, and proceeded to use him as a human shield while they walked up and down the street.
Protests are likely to continue throughout the West Bank and Gaza for at least the next few days, and possibly even longer, after Donald Trump formalized the United States’ position on Jerusalem as one in contravention of international law and the opinion of the international community. The international community has expressly stated – through UN Resolution 181 and others – that it doesn’t recognize any claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem by Israel, which is why most states maintain their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem.
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.
