A 14-year old Palestinian boy was detained yesterday afternoon as Israeli forces conducted a search in Hebron’s Old City. The boy was riding his bike when four heavily armed soldiers began interrogating him. Shortly after, he was taken to Bab al-Baladiyya military base.
14-year old Palestinian is detained by Israeli soldiers
Prior to the search, soldiers had stopped several men outside the base. With their IDs confiscated, they were questioned for 20 minutes on suspicion of throwing stones. One soldier attempted to intimidate ISM activists and nearby tourists by taking photos of them.
Palestinian men stopped and questioned by Israeli soldiers, IDs confiscated
After letting the men go, the soldiers entered the Old City in an apparent manhunt. They again harassed ISM activists, threatening to arrest them if they continued to take photos and illegally declaring a closed military zone in the area. One soldier then threatened an activist, saying that he had already killed one boy on that road. After ISM activists challenged them, they ran away and forced their way into a Palestinian home, taking positions on the rooftop.
Israeli soldiers run away from ISM activistsIsraeli soldiers enter a Palestinian home against the will of the occupantSoldier takes position on the rooftop
After 5 minutes, the Israelis came down and began the search again. They soon found the 14-year old sitting on his bike, and began to interrogate him. The heavily armed soldiers then escorted the boy down to the base, refusing to comment on the reason for his detention.
Soldier interrogates 14-year old Palestinian
The boy has reportedly been a repeated target for Israeli forces, having been detained 5 times already. According to a local source, the soldiers had originally sought the boy for having knowledge of who was throwing stones, but now accuse him of throwing stones himself.
Soldiers order ISM activist to stop taking photos as they detain 14-year old boy
A day earlier, the same soldiers had been filmed harassing another young Palestinian boy for no apparent reason.
Clashes broke out yesterday in the centre of Hebron as a peaceful demonstration was met with heavy armed resistance from Israeli soldiers and border police.
Demonstrators run from tear gas during today’s march in Hebron
Hundreds gathered outside Hebron’s football stadium at 1pm before marching down Ein Sarah street towards Ibn Rushd square, where a tent has been set up to honour the 1,500 prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli prisons.
Hundreds gathered to march in solidarity with the prisoners’ hunger strike
Shortly after arriving at the square, which is in nominally Palestinian-controlled H1, demonstrators were met by dozens of heavily armed Israeli soldiers and border police. Soldiers on the rooftops fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, while Palestinian teenagers responded with stones.
Israeli occupation forces await the demonstrators on their route
When the tear gas failed to deter the protestors, an Israeli ‘skunk trunk’ sprayed the crowd with putrid-smelling chemically-treated water.
Israeli army spray demonstrators with putrid-smelling ‘skunk’ water
Demonstrators flee an Israeli Jeep
In the end, the Israeli assault failed to disperse the crowd, with the demonstration only thinning out to under a hundred people after 4pm.
Israeli soldiers advance on the demonstrators
Tensions were high throughout the day. Armed patrols in the morning saw four soldiers harass a child in the market and several ISM activists in the Old City, while others watched from nearby rooftops.
Israeli soldiers patrol Hebron this morning
Israeli soldiers question a young Palestinian boy
Israeli soldiers conduct armed patrol in Hebron’s market this morning
In the evening, Palestinian youths shouted at soldiers who were in the market, and soldiers responded with four rounds of tear gas and aggressive military manoeuvres intended to scare the children.
17th May 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | al-Khalil (Hebron), occupied Palestine
Two young Palestinian boys detained by Israeli forces in Hebron during today’s incident
A Palestinian teenager was attacked in the street today by Israeli forces as he made his way through Hebron’s Old City. While talking with an NGO worker, the 18-year old was rushed by soldiers and beaten in broad daylight. Bleeding, he was taken into the nearby Bab Al-Baladiyeh military base where is he is currently detained. It is not yet known whether he will be arrested, but he can be held without charge for 7 days.
In the immediate aftermath, friends of the boy threw stones at the base’s gates in protest. Soldiers emerged from the base firing volleys of tear gas and stun grenades. The boys ran, but after a manhunt through the Old City two were found and detained in the base. Soldiers refused to explain their actions when questioned by ISM activists.
Israeli soldiers have beaten and detained a teenager in Hebron’s Bab al-Baladiyeh military base
A manhunt continued through the tunnels of the Old City, with conflicting reports suggesting another boy may have been detained. The soldiers eventually passed through the Ibrahimi mosque checkpoint towards Shahuda street, where ISM activists were harassed and spat on by Israeli forces.
Two Palestinian boys are detained by Israeli occupation forces after a brief manhunt
The two young boys were eventually released from detention, but the 18-year old is still being held, along with possibly another boy. The 18-year old has reportedly been harassed repeatedly by soldiers in recent days. Last week, he was cut on the wrists by Israeli interrogators after they accused him of lying to them. His relatives have apparently also received harassment from soldiers this past week.
Palestinian teenager’s cut wrist after being detained and interrogated by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Khalil on the 8th of May
4th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Shuhada checkpoint gate. To the left, the closed-off room through which one must deal with Israeli forces behind a bullet-proof screen before being allowed – or denied – passage.
Earlier this month, an international woman was ordered to ‘take off her clothes’ after setting off the alarm whilst passing the metal detector at Shuhada checkpoint, occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). This is a personal journal of the events.
Humiliation, harassment, intimidation – a daily occurance for anyone required by the Israeli occupying forces to pass through Shuhada checkpoint to reach their home. This is how the Israeli occupation makes it’s presence felt and enforces its inhumanity, and it rarely comes as a surprise anymore. Still, when the metal detector alarm sounds and the soldier nonchalantly tells a woman to ‘take off her clothes’, she’s is taken aback: Who gave them the right to even ask something like that? Do they not have the tiniest bit of decency? Do they think that their automatic weapons – ready to shoot at any time – give them the right to make such a request?
Inside the checkpoint – in a room closed to outside observation – heavily armed, stern-faced young soldiers ask a woman to undress. It is painfully apparent that this is not simply a bad joke. The small room begins to feel as though it’s getting smaller and smaller as more soldiers begin to enter from outside and gather behind the bullet-proof glass. With all their buddies present for this show of power and superiority, one of them claims that it’s just for “security” – to ask a person to remove their clothing in plain view of heavily-armed soldiers. It’s “just about security” when they tell you that, if you’re not willing to take off your clothes, you’re hiding a gun – all the while firmly gripping theirs.
How dare a woman have the audacity not to immediately follow an occupying soldiers’ orders? To even dare to call out their lack of decency? But occupation has never heard of human dignity. To the eyes of the occupation, having a number male soldiers and surveillance cameras watch at arms length whilst a female soldier commands a woman to get undressed in a checkpoint just another part of the routine treatment of the occupied population. Just another case of a heavily-armed Israeli soldier ordering someone to do as he wishes as a show of power: a power bestowed upon him by a machine-gun and the knowledge of the unfaltering support and impunity – both social and military – behind his actions.
When it is finally discovered to be the woman’s boots setting off the alarm (a daily and usually unproblematic occurance) and noone cares to check the boots nor the woman’s bag, it is clear that the objective here is not security but humiliation. But this is how the Israeli occupation operates: by inflicting the most humiliation possible on the occupied population to break its spirit. Humiliation, humiliation, humalition. Day in and day out.
Tucked within the antiquated corridors of the municipality of Bethlehem, there lies Aida Camp, established 1950. The densely populated cement structures, thinly outlined by narrow passageways, are a living summation of the occupation of Palestine itself.
Scraping elbows with the massive checkpoint pathway between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, hedged by the West Bank apartheid separation wall and situated nearby two large illegal Israeli settlement blocs, Aida camp sits on the front lines of the Palestinian struggle to exist in the grim face of an ethnic cleansing.
For the internally displaced residents of the camp, a predominant feature of life inside Aida is the near daily child arrests that occur. This specter links arms with prolific doses of teargas that are hurled by occupation forces over the wall, drugs being smuggled inside, staggering unemployment rates and regular military incursions.
Conflating the elements of imposed unrest in the camp, Aida has been termed a ‘gateway’ for drugs being that it is located in the space yawning from the physical intersection of occupied and occupier. Resident’s note a common scenario that unfolds in the camp. “The soldiers raid the camp and everyone goes running to hide. The outside drug dealers come once the soldiers scare everyone away and hide the drugs in the cemetery and then the local drug dealers retrieve the drugs and deal them inside the camp.”
From his office in the vibrant center of the non-profit Alrowwad, an “independent, dynamic, community-based” bastion of culture and empowerment in Aida, Dr. Adbelfattah Abusrour, Alrowwad’s founder, poetically unfolds the organization’s vision for the people of Aida camp. “We believe it is important to introduce creative elements for the children. Games, theater, photography, painting. I call this beautiful resistance. Children should have access to this experience.”
In the face of overpopulation and occupation, camp resident Dr. Abdelfattah knows the emotional pipeline that Aida’s youth faces, “Aida is a hotspot because it is so near the border. They want us to be silent on every level. They target the young to be collaborators. The high unemployment rates lead to despair. And when children feel despair, they feel unsafe. At that point, the best thing is to want to die.”
But with Alrowwad injecting an intoxicating blend of art and fire into daily camp existence, the trajectory manifests, colorfully so, “We want children to express themselves in the most beautiful ways. To want to live for Palestine. Not to die for Palestine. The issue is that people cannot tolerate injustice for eternity. It varies, our tolerance for injustice. For me, I can make a play or a painting, for someone else, he will blow himself up.”
“Home of Hope, Dream, Imagination and Creativity”
The Alrowwad center features a bright classroom area stocked with books on arts and history of various countries and cultures, a radio station, theater and more. With an arts unit, media center, women’s program and environmentally centered project, Alrowwad leaves no creative stone un-turned. They have taken their programs on international tour to share the beauty of their creations, as well as to “show the children what life in a free country is like.” However, the occupation, insecure with the world gaining view of expressive, dignified Palestinian life, has harassed and even gotten their international shows cancelled, “The Zionists have contacted our venues around the world and told them that we are terrorists and they need to shut down the show, and sometimes they have.” But Alrowwad presses on.
On this warm afternoon, children crowd around computer monitors while teachers and volunteers sweep busily through the room, guiding and interacting, a conference of cheerful sounds. Juxtapose this scene with the tragic display just over one year ago when 13-year-old Palestinian youth Abed al-Rahman Shadi Obeidallah, was shot in the chest by Israeli forces, “by mistake” as he made his way to his home in the camp after school. Abed’s murderer was held to no accountability.
Dr. Abdelfattah’s mission is to create safe, expressive spaces for the Palestinian youth of the camp, to abolish the pipeline and create a life not prescribed from the miseries of injustice. “The international community doesn’t care about our politics. Nothing is fine being reduced to a humanitarian cause, a political cause. This is more humiliating than occupation itself. And it’s challenging to change that. Arts and culture are not a priority. But this is what are pure bridges between us as human beings. It’s what brings us closer rather than marginalizes us.”
Through daily military incursions and the arresting theft of Aida’s children, the beautiful resistance that Alrowwad conjures and enforces is the importance of education as a weapon against oppression. But an education that is rewritten from traditional norms, “Education has always been based on dictation and memorization. It is up to the teacher to bring out the student’s excellence. We don’t want to be these gods of knowledge. We teach them to have fun. The essence of this is to give these possibilities and build the human before building the knowledge.”
With a nearby, illegal separation wall force-instilling a sense of otherness, along with the grinding oppression and onslaught against Palestinian tradition, life and identity itself, it is the beautiful resistance of Dr. Abdelfattah and the Alrowwad organization that is painting, for Aida’s youth, a dynamic and electrifying way forth.
Israeli soldiers patrol Hebron this morning
