11th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine
On 11th November, international activists joined Palestinian villagers in Ni’lin for their weekly demonstration against the apartheid wall that runs through their land. One week ago at the demonstration, a Palestinian youth was shot in the head with a rubber coated metal bullet by the Israeli military. The subsequent clashes with the Israeli military resulted in the latter invading part of the village and targeting peoples houses with tear gas and rubber coated metal bullets.
Israeli forces jeeps with tear-gas mounted on top of the jeeps
Today, Palestinian protesters and international activists, started off to walk towards the apartheid wall. Before reaching the wall, heavily armed Israeli forces formed a block, stopping the demonstration from reaching it. During discussion with the protesters the Israeli military starting firing stun grenades.
After this clashes began with Israeli forces firing tear gas from both guns and armed jeeps. Many of the tear gas cannisters were fired at head hight, a very dangerous tactic which has resulted in serious injury and death in the past. The Palestinians responded against this force by throwing stones.
As the demonstration got pushed closer to the village, the Israeli forces changed ammunition to high velocity rubber bullets alongside tear gas. One bullet passed just a few centimetres above the heads of one of the internationals and a Red Crescent First Responder, impacting the branch of an olive-tree.
High velocity tear gas canister shot at civilians by the Israeli forces
The Israeli military invaded the village, firing rubber coated metal bullets, a large amount of tear gas, and throwing sound bombs into the residential area. This type of invasion places many lives at risk and is collective punishment against the villagers. Whilst documenting the army’s invasion, another international activist had a rubber coated metal bullet closely passing them on a street inside the village.
Tear gas inside the village
Although there were no injuries in this demonstration, multiple people suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Tear gas in the fields
The non-violent demonstrations against the apartheid wall and the occupation in Ni’lin have been going on weekly since 2008, as attempt to get back the farm land which was stolen from the villagers.
17th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Umm al-Kheir, occupied south Hebron Hills
Almost nothing in Palestine is what you expect for the most part. And, this is so true of the negative things you see. No matter how bad you think things are or expect them to be, you are almost always guaranteed that they will be worse (usually much worse) when you actually see them. And if you tell people the truth you may be thought to be making things up. But, this is Palestine and things are this unbelievable and this bad. This was true today for me (to put it mildly). Part of our team was invited by an “inspector” from the United Nations office based here in Al Khalil to go to a Bedouin village in the South Hebron Hills where a demolition took place yesterday.
The two demolished structures – with the illegal settlement in the background
Throughout my multiple trips here I’ve been to numerous house demolitions and even sat with families throughout the night waiting for the Israeli Occupation Forces to arrive to demolish a home. I was not ready for what I saw today. On our way to the village our U.N. inspector told us a bit of the history/story of the village. But, when we arrived I just wanted to vomit and I still have a knot in my stomach as I write this. The village of Umm Al Khair was established in 1952 on land the villagers purchased. They have the deed to prove ownership. The village is currently made up of approximately 140 Bedouin (registered) refugees, (approximately 28 families) who are mostly goat herders and farmers. They came here to the West Bank from “the 48” (Israel proper) after their home village was destroyed along with over 500 other Palestinian villages by Israeli Zionists, during the Nakba which created over 700,000 Palestinian refugees.
In 1982 the illegal colonial Zionist settlement of Carmel was established right next to them (less than 50 yards away) on land they stole from the village. Even though we couldn’t see inside the illegal settlement we were informed by the individual from the U.N. that the homes in the settlement were spacious, modern, had green grass lawns and gardens and even a small goldfish pond or two and all of the modern luxuries. In contrast, the village is made up of makeshift tents, crude metal and wood structures with dirt floors. There is no running water, no electricity, and a few crude toilet facilities.
Given that the villagers own the land, according to Israeli law, they cannot be legally evicted. However, the Zionists can make life so miserable that the villagers will give up and leave. This (in all probability) will never happen. They are strong, hopeful, and determined to stay here. This is their home. They will not leave. Even the children who have grown up here and gone off and got university degrees return here to their homes.
Rubble from the most recent demolition
Israel uses the excuse that the villagers don’t have building permits. But Israel doesn’t grant but a few building permits per year (if any) to Palestinians.
Drones routinely fly over the village photographing , looking for any sign of new construction or rebuilding and the soldiers will return and demolish again and again. And if a demolition order is given for a particular home or building, it is permanent and nothing can be built on that spot again.
There have been 5 demolitions in the past year: October 27, 2015; 1 in April 2016; 2 this past August; and the most recent one yesterday where two structures were demolished. Their Community Center which housed the kindergarten, a computer center, an after school program to help kids with homework, and a library has been demolished several times. There are some international aid programs such as the International Red Cross, several U.N. programs, and from the European Union that have helped with building materials and /or small structures for living. None of these programs, however, can help with the Community Center because it does not provide shelter for people or animals. So it is the children who suffer the brunt of these losses.
Rubble from the demolition, with the luxurious houses in the illegal settlement in the background
While one of our team members was conducting a video interview I went outside and was swarmed by young children. All smiling, laughing and excited by my presence and attention to them. All eager to show me around the village. Show me their goat herds, their small playground and push them on the swings, take their photographs with their goats. They all appeared to be happy and none the worse for ware. But what I am describing is and has been their life. They know nothing else. It doesn’t make it any less excusable for how these villagers are treated. And this is only one observation from one person visiting one of the scores of similar villages throughout the West Bank. An older woman whose home was demolished in August of this year stated before we left, “We just need the demolitions to stop. We are getting sick and tired of it.” Our U.N. person then said, everyone including most of the aid programs are feeling the same way as this woman and little by little pay a bit less attention as time goes on. Even the government, The Palestinian Authority was called this morning about yesterdays demolition and they stated they couldn’t come to look they had other things to do today.
Residential dwelling of some of the families
I’ve always thought (and said) that somewhere inside the Israeli Zionist must still have some small bit of humanity left in them. After what I witnessed today I cannot believe that there is even a shred of humanity left in any of them. Today was by far the most overwhelming and depressing day I’ve had in all of my trips here to Palestine, and I’ve seen quite a few depressing and overwhelming things during these trips.
What can you do? Join the Boycott movement in your country. Write to your elected government officials to stop funding the various degrees of genocide that Israel is committing here in Palestine. Write letters to the editor of your newspapers. Talk to your families, friends, neighbors and let them know the truth. Speak up. As long as our country continues to support the behavior of Israel with our tax dollars we are all responsible!
12th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Kafr Qalil, occupied Palestine
For the past six days, international activists joined a Palestinian farmer, Fares Deek, in the harvest of his olives outside Kafr ad Dik village, located inside Salfit governate. For the past 16 years, the area has been a target of expanding illegal Israeli settlements.
Fares field is today surrounded at the north, east and west sides by Lashem settlement, started in 2010, with 700 units inhabited and another large number under construction.
Military check-point at the metal road gate
“They surrounded all my land and cut my road coming to my land. When they finish, I think I cannot come to my land.” Fares explained about the situation he is living in.
Fares reported that until now, Israelies, have stolen 700 dunums to build Lashem, leaving seven families that own fields in the same hill, without their land, only to establish this illegal settlement.
“They stole all my neighbors lands from the north and the east. In the future maybe in the south, maybe me.”
Bulldozer expanding Lashem colony
Eight months ago, bulldozers destroyed the agriculture road that used to lead up to Fares field.
Lashem has also cut him off the road to another field he owns, now on the north of Lashem illegal colony.
It used to take Fares 5 minutes to drive from Kafr ad Dik to the land, but to reach it now he has to cross a valley, after driving through Der Ballut and Rafat villages, then he needs to climb for half an hour to the top of the mountain where the field is. The last time he visited that field for the harvest was in 2013. The time and the money needed makes it hardly worth the out-put anymore.
Fare’s mother watching the destruction of her land
Two other settlements, Pedu’el to the south and Ale Zahav, behind Lashem, to the east complete to enclose his field. Just like Lashem, the illegal colony of Pedu’el, is also being expanded. Also to the north of Kafr ad Dik, the village Fares lives in, the new illegal settlement of “Sahar” is being formed on top of the mountain that Palestinians know as, Daher Subeh.
The area is being advertised as a quiet, peaceful place for Israelis to move to, according to Fares Deek.
“Israeli wants to encourage people to live here. As living cost is less, all the water you want is available, good for factories and no taxes!
maybe in the future in Salfit area all the mountains will become settlements.”
Bulldozer working in Pedu’el illegal settlement
“They work quickly, building new units, they look carefully at Salfit area. Compare Jerusalem area and Salfit area, they are doing the same.”
During the first day of the harvest, many settler colonists showed up at Fares field. Some of the colonists where openly carrying firearms and monitored the family while picking their olives.
“I have a bad feel about zionism. About anyone who came to take your land, to take your freedom, and take your hope. How would anyone in the world feel if he had to go through all this?
What that can make people feel? A bad feeling”
There is a well in Fares land that he used to use for drinking water, but 6 years ago after settlerers started to throw down big rocks and to take baths inside it, he couldn’t use it any more.
Dust is being spread from the bulldozers working on Lashem, causing damages for the olive trees.
Bulldozer working at the edge of Farres land at the place where they cut his agricultural road.
“All the years the harvest suffers because of the dust. The olive trees cannot breath good air because of the dust. They are between life and death.”
As we drove with the family towards the field the second morning harvesting, the Israeli army had put up a check-point at a metal road gate in the exit of Kafr ad Dik. The team was stopped for a total of 28 minutes by the four soldiers that were operating this checkpoint. Even though Fares said that he was going to pick his olives, the soldiers demanded to check IDs and kept asking questions.
When we finally got told to leave, Fares said that this was a common occurrence.
“They are doing this only to stress the people.”
This road gate was closed for 5 years between 2000 and 2005, forcing the people of Kafr al Dik to take an alternative route in order to exit the village, Fares explained.
Fares also reported that he has frequent visits from the Israeli forces while working in his field. He explained that there is a military tower in Pedu’el and sometimes the army will arrive very quickly after he enters the field.
“They tell me I have to have a permit to bring people here. I tell them that this is my land I’ll bring people here anytime I want. Sometimes they tell me you have to go back before the sunset. This makes me afraid about the future, about the land, what will happen in the future. I’m not having big problem now, but they will finish the units and come to live here in Lashem, they will tell me “you have no permit to come here”. Maybe they will put gates, fences. That is the future”
Also he thinks that Lashem will be finished in one to two years and that he is not sure if he will be able to harvest the olives next year.
“I’m afraid about the future, about the situation in Palestine, about Salfit, about my village. Israel is building more and more units in all settlements and started to build three new settlements since 2010 till now. That means cut more and more land, making new streets. Where is the solutions if they build more and more? The idea of a Palestinian state will die. And the pressure on Palestinians is always more. That is very bad”
“I want to tell people that we suffer and I invite people to visit Palestine to see with their own eyes to know who has the right to live here. I want to encourage Palestinian people to stay in the land as well.”
2nd November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Kafr Qalil, occupied Palestine
On 31st October international activists joined a Palestinian farmer and his family in Kafr Qalil to pick their olives. There was no interruption during the harvest this day, but there was a strong sense of pressure that is always present for Palestinians living under Israel’s illegal military occupation. The land that was worked on is between the illegal Israeli settlement Bracha and the road that leads up to the settlement. The family has been attacked and physically assaulted by settler colonists from Bracha in the past.
The main road to Nablus in-between the two Israeli apartheid roads. The road in the foreground leads to Bracha illegal settlement and the road seen above the main road leads to Elon Moreh settler colony.
The farmer reported that he was only given 6 days of permission by Israel to finish harvesting his own land, but said that he would need at least 20 days to be able to pick the olives from all of the around 300 trees that he owns.
Farmers in the village of Kafr Qalil have been targeted in settler attacks over several years. There have been various reports of settler colonists stealing crops, farming equipment, animals and throwing rocks at the Palestinian families as they harvest. Israeli forces have also repeatedly stopped farmers from reaching their land.
Teargas canister found leaving the olive fields after the day’s harvest.
The village has also lost land to the illegal settlement Bracha and its outpost, both of which are built on land that belongs to Kafr Qalil and the nearby Palestinian village of Burin.
In May 2013 Israel issued a military order that confiscated a further 3.55 dunums of land that belongs to Kafr Qalil in addition to the many dunums stolen over the years to establish and spread the illegal settlements in the area as well as to be used by the Israeli forces.
Furthermore, Israel has confiscated land from Kafr Qalil to construct two bypass roads. One road links the illegal Bracha settlement with the nearby Huwwara military checkpoint and the other road provides exclusive access for settler colonists between the same checkpoint and another illegal Israeli colony, Elon Moreh. These roads can only be used by Israelis and Palestinians are forbidden from driving on them. The Israeli bypass roads are one example of the apartheid-like system Palestinians are forced to live with under Israel’s illegal military occupation.
2nd November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
A Palestinian female was arrested on the 1st of November near Qeitun checkpoint accused of carrying a knife. Eyewitnesses described her being ordered to kneel on the ground, open her dress and loosen her hijab in public, before being handcuffed and escorted behind the gate at Qeitun checkpoint. However, none present saw any sign of the knife she was accused of carrying. The Palestinian woman was initially attended to by around seven armed soldiers, who were joined shortly afterwards by two jeeps each carrying several more, including female officers who presumably conducted a more vigorous physical search. Internationals present were forced back and ordered not to photograph or film the ensuing incident.
Woman detained at Qeitun checkpoint
Her four children, aged 10, 8, 4 and 1, lingered ominously at the checkpoint gate, hoping to see their mother emerge unscathed. Unfortunately this was not to be as she was later walked to the nearby police station were she may be detained indefinitely. As explanation for her arrest and the time frame of her detention, an Israeli officer claimed, “we are not above the law”, implying that they would conduct themselves in a lawful manner whilst carrying out their investigation against her.
Arrested womans children wait at the checkpoint gate hoping to see their mother return
Such statements as this offer little comfort to her children or the Palestinian residents of Hebron, who are far too aware of Israeli policy against Palestinian arrestees and the stark double standard between the laws that exist for Palestinians and the laws that exist for Israelis. Putting to one side the humiliating way in which this woman was treated and the total disregard for cultural sensitivities as regards the removal of her hijab in public (in which concealment of a knife is almost inconceivable), in the eyes of the law, Palestinians’ rights are hugely diminished relative to the Israeli settlers that occupy the same space. In fact, they are subject to two entirely different legal systems.
Palestinians arrested in the West Bank area are, after intensive interrogation, sentenced and trialled in Israeli military courts. However, an Israeli arrested for an identical offense, within the same jurisdiction, is sentenced and trialled in Israeli civil courts. The differences between military and civil law are vast and are designed to legitimize discriminatory and oppressive policies implemented against Palestinians in the name of maintaining Israeli “security”. In 2010 it was revealed that a whopping 97.4% of Palestinians trialled in Israeli military courts are convicted of the crimes of which they are accused. Bearing the brunt of this prejudiced system are Palestinian youths, who, under military law, can be detained initially for up to 6 months for otherwise minor offenses. The most common of these is stone throwing, which carries with it a potential 20 years in prison. Any West Bank Palestinian, under the military law, is immediately presumed guilty – unless he or she can manage to prove otherwise – whereas at the same time settlers from the illegal settlements in the West Bank are presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
The only distinction between these two peoples is ethnicity. Therefore, differential treatment of Palestinians by law enforcement and judicial systems is fundamentally racist. These are facts from which Israel cannot escape, and for which the international community must hold Israel to account.
