Category: Features - Page 49 - International Solidarity Movement

Photo story: Gilbert checkpoint impeding Palestinian daily life (January 2017)

31st January 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

In the old city of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), Palestinians’ freedom of movement is impeded by a large number of Israeli checkpoints. In the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, many school-children and teachers are forced to pass at least one, often more, checkpoint daily on their way to school. The Israeli occupation seriously disrupts the right to education for Palestinians in al-Khalil.

One of the checkpoints that Palestinians have to pass in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood is the ‘Gilbert’ checkpoint in the heart of the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. This checkpoint divides the neighborhood, enforcing the Israeli forces’ checkpoint regime on Palestinian residents only. Israeli settlers enjoy full freedom of movement and rights in and around the illegal settlements. This photo-story of the Gilbert checkpoint illustrates what this limitation of movement means to Palestinian civilians in every day life.

Palestinian journalists were denied entry through the checkpoint, as they were on their way to Shuhada Street, to document Palestinian school children walking through checkpoints on their way to school. — Palestinian journalists were denied entry through the checkpoint. They were on their way to Shuhada Street to document Palestinian school children walking through checkpoints on their way to school.

Palestinian child is stopped on his way to school is stopped at the checkpoint, as the soldier decides to check his schoolbag. — Palestinian school-boy has to pass his school-bag for a bag-search, before being allowed to continue on his way to school.

Tel Rumeida, Gilberts Checkpoint — Israeli soldier searching the bag of a Palestinian woman. Officially, these bag-searches are for ‘security purposes’, but Israeli forces often arbitrarily search only some bags. At this checkpoint they mainly search women’s bags, while allowing men to pass without being searched. Palestinians are robbed of even the tiniest bit of privacy at the Israeli forces’ checkpoints.

Group of Palestinian school children passing through israeli military checkpoint — Group of Palestinian school children passing through Israeli military checkpoint. Children are not exempt from the Israeli forces policies and are forced to pass metal detectors daily. On their way to school. Israeli forces sometimes search their bags or force them to wait while checking another Palestinian.

Palestinian child passing through checkpoint and a large group of israeli forces on his way home. — Palestinian child passing through checkpoint and past a large group of Israeli forces on his way home. An ‘innocent’ childhood is denied to Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation. Sadly, they have to pass large groups of heavily-armed soldiers on the way to school. The practice of soldiers conducting exercises of how to shoot Palestinians to death at checkpoints in civilian Palestinian neighborhoods are the norm rather than the exception.

Palestinian school children passing israeli military checkpoint on their way to school — Palestinian school children passing Israeli military checkpoint on their way to school. These checkpoints often are the reason for Palestinian school-children to reach school late, as they might be delayed, denied to pass or searched.

Palestinian man is kept waiting for several minutes in front of the checkpoint, as israeli forces are checking his ID, violating his freedom of movement. — Palestinian man is forced to wait at the checkpoint, but forced to move several meters back, as Israeli forces check his ID, violating his freedom of movement.

Israeli forces are detaining a Palestinian woman at the checkpoint, unaware that a member of UN delegation is present. — Israeli forces are detaining a Palestinian woman at the checkpoint, unaware that a member of a UN delegation is present. According to international law and the recent UN resolution, Israeli settlements in the Israeli occupied West Bank are illegal.

Israeli forces trespassing Palestinian owned shop located in front of the checkpoint in Tel Rumeida. — Israeli forces ‘checking’ Palestinian shop located near the checkpoint. All commodities and general necessities have to be bought on the other side of the checkpoint, as the area locked up within the checkpoints has no shops. So, whenever a Palestinian needs to buy groceries, he or she must pass the checkpoint.

The checkpoint regime: Israel and the fragmentation of Palestinian society

31^st January 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

There are 17 permanent checkpoints in the H2 area under full Israeli military control in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), manned by Israeli forces and impeding Palestinian freedom of movement. The official rhetoric of the Israeli government is that these checkpoints serve ‘security purposes’.

In total contrast to this ‘security rationale’, Israeli forces within al-Khalil have often illustrated how the checkpoints rather serve the purpose of humiliating the civilian Palestinian population and dictating their movement. Whereas most of the checkpoints are theoretically in operation 24hrs a day, a checkpoint near Ibrahimi Mosque is closed every evening around 9 – effectively imposing a nightly curfew on the Palestinian population in this area; in order to circumvent the checkpoint, Palestinians would have to take a half-hour long, extremely hilly detour.

Over the last few weeks, soldiers at Shuhada checkpoint have been observed twice sleeping inside the checkpoint. On 12th January 2017 Israeli forces were fast asleep in the checkpoint, thus effectively shutting down any kind of movement for Palestinians, who were stuck outside the turnstile as they waited for the soldiers to wake up and manually open it for every single person. On January 30th, one of the two soldiers supposedly ‘working’ in the checkpoint was asleep again. Both of the soldiers were sitting behind the bullet proof glass, with one of them obviously asleep, in plain sight of anyone crossing the checkpoint. When asked in surprise, if the soldier is sleeping, the soldier that was awake just shrugged his shoulders.

The official rationale of ‘security reasons’ for the implementation of this checkpoint-regime seems pointless. If soldiers are asleep at checkpoints, unaware of their surroundings, how are they really maintaining security? Instead, the checkpoints serve the purpose of fragmentation and humiliation. They lead to the fragmentation of Palestinian civilian neighborhoods: dividing neighborhoods in the same city from each other by fenced off checkpoints, separating families from work, schools, medical care, basic necessities such as cooking gas or a pack of rice. Additionally, the checkpoints perpetuate the all to common humiliation of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli forces; they force Palestinian men to take off their belts ‘for security reasons’ when they pass through the metal detector at the checkpoint – the soldiers clearly know that the belt is setting of the metal detector and even say so – but force everyone to take it off anyways, merely to humiliate innocent people. The long lines in the rain, where Palestinians are forced by the Israeli forces to ‘wait’ to be allowed to pass the checkpoint without reason destroys their sense of worth and dignity. They often have to stand in the pouring rain with no shelter indefinitely. In this system of humiliation, even a less than a month old baby is a ‘security threat’ and treated as such, without any regard for humanity.

In the end, the checkpoint-regime is solely implemented for this kind of humiliation and fragmentation: aiming to create a coercive environment that will facilitate forcible displacement of the Palestinian population. The checkpoints facilitate the expansion of existing illegal settlements. It allows Israel to eventually grab enough land to connect a consistent stretch of illegal settlements that are free of the indigenous population, the Palestinians.

Sebastiya will not be ruined

24 January 2017 | International Solidarity Movement| occupied Palestine

The Israeli Forces have been making their presence known in Sebastiya almost daily; sometimes just for show, and other times with bulldozers under the guise of ‘maintence and cleaning’. But, when exactly did a bulldozer ever clean up a site? Instead, what they are doing is destroying these relics from history, knocking over pillars, moving rocks from one area to another, and adding a fence for ‘protecting’ the area. In the last months, they have come and destroyed homes and shops all around area c.

As you walk through the old ruins in Area C, you can see 360 degrees, and in that view are Palestinian villages, olive groves, and pockets of settlements surrounding them on all sides. A few months ago, the settlement Save Shamron burned down a field of olive trees that belonged to two different villages, Sebastiya and Dershab nearby. In 2013, there was a demonstration against sewage problems in the area due to this settlement. The locals with support from ISM and other international groups protested until they removed the sewage from the waters. (link)

Bulldozer knock over ancient ruins in name of ‘maintenance’

Sebastiya is a beautiful small town northeast of Nablus up in the hills. It is a site of many ancient Roman ruins, including sites from Herod’s dynasty, sites of Alexander the great, and a chapel and mosque of Nabi Yahya (John the Baptist) that remains today a pilgrimage site for Christians and Muslims. The land has traces back to the Canaanites and the Jews, and therefore is a place that the Israeli government would love to have control over. The town is divided by areas A, B, and C. Most of the villagers live in area b, and most of these important archeological sites happen to fall in area c.

stones for blocking the Israeli forces from entering

The municipality receives threats that they will be returning, and fortunately the town is working well together to stand up against the militarization of their land. They are currently in a process in the courts to make the area a ‘world heritage site’ under UNESCO. This would protect the area from the Israeli government, as it would be under international control.

About one year ago, a group from the village decided to post a Palestinian flag on the hillside by the ruins. Immediately, this action was met with force by the Israeli occupation forces through teargas and arrest of seven young men between the ages of 18-22 years. Two of them remained in prison for almost a full year, and were just released recently. This continues to be a battle, and the village will continue to fight for the right to their land, and these ancient sites.

A Day in the life

26 January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
Al-Khalil is unique from other villages, towns, and cities in the West Bank. Illegal Zionist colonial settlements are situated right in the center of the Old City. Whereas, elsewhere the illegal settlements are outside of the Palestinian towns and cities. This makes life here extremely difficult for the Palestinians. Freedom of movement is extremely limited and it is difficult to put it mildly.
The city is divided into H1, administered by the Palestinian Authority, and H2, controlled by the illegally occupying Israeli military forces. There are scores of roadblocks and around 20 checkpoints a. At the checkpoints Palestinians are subjected routinely to having to present their ID, go thru metal detectors, have their bag searched, and body searches by heavily armed Israeli Occupation Forces. They are also frequently detained if the soldiers don’t believe the ID is in order and denied access, preventing them from going to work, getting home or carrying on their normal daily lives. Entire streets are closed to the Palestinians, such as Shuhada Street which was the main market place until 1997. Nearly 500 shops and most homes, and all Palestinian foot traffic as well as vehicles were shut down and out by the Israeli forces . Approximately 4000 school children must pass the checkpoints daily on their way to and from school and are often subjected to tear gas being fired at them for being accused of or suspected of throwing stones at the checkpoints. Ambulances and other emergency vehicles are also denied access as well.
Israel says it is all for “security reasons”. In reality it is all about harassment and intimidation of the Palestinians and to make their lives more difficult than it already is living under the illegal colonial Occupation. If a Palestinian is denied access thru a checkpoint they can generally walk (often some distance however) to another checkpoint and get thru. Soldiers may just check women’s hand bags and not ID cards and a man who sets off the alarm walking thru the metal detector may not be stopped. Two hours later or the next day every ID is checked or sometimes none are checked. The same holds true with Internationals. Some days we are denied access if we do not give the soldiers our passports so they can photograph them, which is illegal under their own Israeli law. Only a member of the Border Police can legally, physically take our passport or arrest us. Other days they don’t even ask to see our passports. Sometime the soldiers make up their own rules as they go along. When we were confronting soldiers regarding the arrest of a youth, their commander told us he would arrest us if we talked to his soldiers because he said so and he was the law. Another time it was no photographs because he is the law and makes the rules and says so. Unfortunately, he is partially right. The soldiers are the law. They have all the loaded guns and tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets and the rest of their equipment. They can even get away with outright murder of Palestinians. Most of the soldiers are barely out of high school and drafted into the military, heavily armed and look scared to death because they truly believe that every Palestinian wants to kill them and their family. The vast majority of Palestinians just want the illegal Occupation to end and be able to have some peace in their lives.
The Old City market place once full of shops, shoppers and tourist now only see a small percentage of the business it once had. Many of the shop owners cannot afford to stay in business but stay open because it is the only form of resistance to the illegal Colonial Occupation.
Twenty Palestinians were murdered by the Israeli military forces between October 2015 and February 2016. Amnesty International called these killings extra-judicial executions and the Tel Rumeida area was declared a “closed military zone” by the Israelis in 2015 with further restrictions on the Palestinians who live in this area.
As Internationals our day starts at about 6:45 A.M. we head out to various checkpoints for the morning school runs. We have to walk a little over 100 meters to the nearest check point. Wait to go thru the turnstile gate, then into the small concrete bunker and thru metal detector, sometime we don’t even empty our pockets and just ignore the soldiers behind their 2-3 inch bulletproof glass and try to continue out the next door back into the caged area and exit thru another turnstile. Some days we win. Some days we don’t and have to empty pockets, remove belt, sometimes shoes, show our passport, etc. before we can continue on our way. If we refuse to give them our passport they can turn us back which means a taxi ride to another checkpoint to get thru. Sometimes we can argue with them and they let us pass. But this gets more and more difficult as time passes. The repression by the illegal Occupation forces increases bit by bit daily. Palestinians aren’t so lucky, they have no choice. They must comply or risk being detained, arrested, or even shot for non-compliance.
After we get thru the first check point it is on to a second open-air checkpoint where we monitor numbers of men, women, children, and teachers passing thru and the amount of difficulty they have, numbers of people denied. The female teachers more often than not refuse to go thru the metal detector. Sometimes they win-sometimes they don’t. But all are subjected to ID checks, bag and or body searches depending on the will of the soldiers. Again, so much for “security concerns”. There are about 10 checkpoints that are monitored by three of the International groups mornings and afternoon when school is in session. Most of the Palestinians are glad we are here and greet us. Some of the kids may stop for a few minutes and practice their English. One teacher even stops occasionally and gives us an apple.
This afternoon we were asked to come to the South Hebron Hills to meet with one of the local village committees about what they need. There are home demolitions, as well as night raids by the illegal colonizing Israeli Occupation Forces, and farmers being attacked by settlers from the nearby illegal colonial settlements. They are working with other International organizations to get tents for families when homes are destroyed but need protective presence in homes at night and in the fields during the day. This is only one of hundreds of villages in the same or similar situation and it is near impossible to do it all. We offer what help we can.
Meeting with a family who had a home invasion several nights ago by the soldiers and hearing the story of the trauma and terrorization of this family because of the Occupation, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going thru the mind of the five year old sitting in his living room where 14 people had (also invaded, in a sense) gathered to hear the family story. He has to pass thru two check points to get to and from Kindergarten, his home is invaded in the middle of the night and family locked in one room while the Occupation forces ransacked the home for no good reason. He lives right next to a settlement and is not safe to be able to play in his own yard. This is only one child, one family in one city in all of illegally occupied Palestine.

Afternoon and evening patrols of the Souk (marketplace in the Old City) and around some of the residential areas near the checkpoints can be calm (some of the time) except for the armed Isreali forces asking to see your passport or what you religion is. Al Khalil is a beautiful city built on a group of hills and the views can be spectacular and can sometimes make you forget (for a minute)you are in the middle of the longest illegal military occupation in history by a Country that is committing genocide on an entire group of people.
Afternoon patrol last week was spent walking thru the Souk and visiting with several of the merchants. You are invited in (with no expectation to buy anything) and make your presence known and talk about how bad business is because very few tourists come to Khalil anymore. Toward the end of this patrol (there were 3 of us) we encountered a Palestinian girl of about 10 years old. She was extremely frightened and distressed to put it mildly. She was talking so fast we couldn’t figure out what she was saying and even a phone call to an Arabic teacher couldn’t figure out what the problem was. She was all but in tears. There were a half dozen Israeli soldiers close by working on installing another barrier near a school we just walked by. Then she said something about “settlers”. She thought we were settlers. We had removed our Kafeyas earlier to avoid problems on Shuhada Street with settler youth. As soon as we took out our Kafeyas and put them on and said “we love Palestine”, she almost melted into relaxation and wanted to walk with us to the checkpoint on our way home. But since we had to walk down Shuhada Street and Palestinians are not allowed there we had no choice but to send her in the opposite direction. Never saw her again or what happened to her.

Last night before we even began our night patrol we received a call about soldiers in the Souk. When we arrived along with a team of Internationals from another organization soldiers were arresting a 14 year old boy for allegedly throwing stones. At least three soldiers wrestled him to the ground and tried to put plastic ties on his wrists behind his back while other soldiers approached us and prevented us from photographing the incident and took cameras and deleted the photos already taken. They also threatened us with arrest if we continued to photograph or even talk to them. We followed the soldiers to the army base where the child was held, to be held until let go or charged.

Some of these stories are unfinished simple because the illegal Israeli Occupation isn’t over and the stories will continue. And for every story you see, hear about, participate in you are pretty much guaranteed that there are probably another 100 or 500 or thousand you don’t hear about that are far worse than these.
This is not a story about Internationals. It is the story of some of the people of Al Khalil. Every once in a while it turns out we end up being a small part their story But we are here to support them in their struggle, because our struggle is directly connected to theirs.

Last words. The other day visiting a shop keeper in the Souk she said, “ You come, you go, we live, we die, you still come, and we still here living and dying. Inshallah!”

Israeli forces harass 3 children in Occupied Hebron, arresting 1

25th January 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

At 8:30 pm on January 24th, two young Palestinian boys–14 and 12 years old–were stopped in the streets of the old city of Hebron by six Israeli soldiers, who were armed with assault rifles. They accused the boys of throwing stones. The soldiers forced them to go to a wider street, where they pushed the oldest one on the ground. Two of the soldiers jumped on him and tried to forcibly restrain him. They tried to get his arms behind his back to cuff them with a tire rap, but were initially unsuccessful–struggling with the child for more than 5 minutes. While the soldiers were busy trying to restrain the older child, the 12 year old boy walked away, forgotten by the soldiers.

On their way back to the army base with the boy, they captured another child, only 10 years old, and forced both children inside the gate.

Occupation forces army base between the Shuhada street and the Old City

After a few minutes the Israeli forces in the army base decided to release the youngest child, but transported the 14 year old to an undisclosed police station. These police stations are notorious for humiliating interrogation methods and physical and psychological abuse.

As the violence of the occupation escalates, the Israeli forces are even more concerned about negative publicity. The escorting soldiers threatened us and even took our cameras in order to destroy all pictures that were taken.

“No Pictures!” – Using photo cameras is not allowed in this ‘only Jewish Democracy’

This policy comes shortly after a soldier was sentenced for manslaughter because he followed an order from his commander and executed an already heavily wounded Palestinian. There have been more than 230 executions since September 2015. Only a few of them reached the mainstream media and only one led to a possible punishment, because it was captured on video and released on the internet.

There were questions over most other alleged ‘terror attacks’ and independent investigation was demanded, but none of these deadly incidents led to any action. Extra judicial killings of accused Palestinians, the theft of their dead bodies, and the destruction of their family homes are all common practices of this occupation. But, the world rarely is told of the atrocities and justice is rarely sought.