30th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
The Tel Rumeida neighborhood and Shuhada Street, in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) are still declared a ‘closed military zone’ by Israeli forces. This form of racist collective punishment deliberately targeting the Palestinian population, has now been implemented for almost 9 months.
The area was first declared a closed military zone (CMZ) by the Israeli forces on November 1st, after Palestinian residents were forced to register in order to be allowed access to their own homes. Orders for the CMZ have been repeatedly extended, and Palestinians were degraded to a mere number, that Israeli forces marked on their green West Bank ID-Cards and checked on a list of registered ‘numbered’ Palestinians to decide whether or not to grant access for men, women, old people, sick people, repair-men, medical personell etc. through the checkpoints. Anyone not registered as a number with the Israeli forces, is denied access to their own homes.
Family visiting, repair-men coming for urgent repairs, friends coming for a visit, children going to see their parents or grandparents – is only allowed for the settlers living in the illegal settlements. Palestinians are prevented from crossing the checkpoints, if they’re not registered as a number. This kind of collective punishment – obviously and deliberately racist as only applied for Palestinians – is common in al-Khalil, and aims to further increase the pressure on Palestinians to leave the area and thus facilitate the connection of settlements in a ‘Palestinian free’ zone.
27 July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Qalandia village, occupied Palestine
Late Monday evening, Israeli forces entered the village of Qalandia with 15 bulldozers and around 150 soldiers. In the village the Israeli military destroyed 11 new built houses, attacking the residents of the village with stun grenades, tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and sponge bullets. 7 persons had to seek medical care for their injuries after the assaults from the military.
In 7 of the demolished houses, families had already moved in according to Yosef Awdalla, mayor of Qalandia. The demolition notices, claiming the houses had no permits, were left outside the houses on the ground only 24 hours before the army entered the village.
One of the homeowners, Fadi Awadallah describes how his friend was walking around the house the day before the demolitions, and found a piece of paper written in Hebrew on the ground. One hour after they had figured out what the document said and talked to their lawyer, the army was already entering the village to demolish their home. Fadi, who had applied and paid for an Israeli issued licence to build in area C, did not expect the demolition order since the Israeli authorities had accepted the money and the application. When he tried to explain this to the soldiers they answered him that “they were not there to talk, they were there to demolish the houses.”
The soldiers then pointed their guns to his head and told him that if he didn’t move away from the house they would shoot him.
“They didn’t deal with us as humans, they pushed us back with violence and force” says Fadi whose family had planned to move into their dream house the following week.
“Three years ago we started to build the houses. Why didn’t they come three years ago before we spent all our money on these houses? They destroyed the houses, they destroyed our dreams” says Fadi, explaining that most of the families not only spent all their savings on the buildings but now they are also left with loans that will take them years to pay.
“We came up with the idea about building a house here because we are not allowed to use our house on the other side of the wall.” says Fadi, whose father lives in a house on the other side of the apartheid wall surrounding the village. Without obtaining a permit every month from the Israeli occupation authorities, the family are not allowed to cross the wall that separates the West Bank from Jerusalem.
Since the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1995 most of Qalandia village was classified as Area C, where israel has full control over security and civil administration. Only 2% of Qalandia is constituted as area B, where construction is permitted. Palestinian building in area C has to be permitted by the Israeli Civil Administration and since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank 1967, Israeli authorities regularly demolishe houses in area C, thus breaking international humanitarian law. According to a report released this Wednesday from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Israeli authorities have demolished more Palestinian homes in the West Bank in the first six months of 2016 than they did in any year over the past decade .
The Israeli demolition policies systematically implemented by the government and the lack of possibilities to build legally in the area constitutes the ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer of Palestinians.
As Fadi Awadallah points out, “Where are we supposed to be? In the sky? In the space? No, we are staying here.”
Sameeh Huseen holding a picture of his home that was ruined by the Israeli army.“How are we going to explain this to the next generation? How can we teach our kids about peace when this is what they see?” says Fadi Awadallah.“We are still here. We will never leave.” Ajaleen Salah Mousa has worked as a teacher for 20 years and has spent all his savings on the house, his dream. “They try to make it hard for us to live here but we will never leave.”
13th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
During one of our walks today, we came across a sight that very unfortunately is all too common in this city. A group of men and women were queuing up to go to the Ibrahimi Mosque – believed by both Jews and Muslims in Hebron to contain the tomb of Abraham – to pray.
Palestinians who come from the Souq need to go through a gate that is controlled electronically. Today, one of the border police officers manning it, for whatever reason, decided to make this a difficult and humiliating ordeal for a Palestinian.
A man, his wife, and his mother were going to the mosque to pray.The border police officer controlling the gate let the man’s wife through.When it was the man’s turn, he closed the gate, and told the guy he will not get through. No reason was provided. The man unbuckled and took off his belt and showed he was unarmed, but the officer didn’t care. The man then got upset and began yelling at the officer, who just ignored him and told him he will not be letting him through. Then he refused to open the gate that would let the man leave, effectively leaving him trapped between two gates. Exasperated, the Palestinian man climbed over the gate and started his way back home. The soldiers threatened to chase him and he ran. His wife went back with him.
What security or moral purpose can be achieved by denying a man the right to go to his place of worship, and humiliating him in front of everyone else? He was not trying to start a fight, he was trying to go and pray, along with his wife and mother.
There was no reason for such behaviour on the part of the soldier, other than a cruel display of power. Sadly, these types of things happen again and again in this city. Another aspect of the reality faced by the Palestinians living under Israeli military rule.
The man takes off his belt to show to the Border Police officer that he is unarmed.
As others watch, the man tries to plead with the Border Police officer manning the gate for the permission to go the mosque to pray.
16th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
On the 15th of July in the afternoon, the people of Kafr Kaddum took part in a demonstration against the Israeli Army’s continuing theft of their road. The soldiers checked cars going in and out of the village, and stationed snipers in the bushes and on top of the hill. The Israeli Army also brought men in dark uniforms, a special unit that is used to quell prison disturbances. They had a jeep that was loaded with teargas. Clearly, their main goal was to intimidate the demonstrators and stop the protest from happening.
Palestinian demonstrators march towards the road
Palestinians, Israelis and internationals alike were in the crowd. After some chanting, the people tried to do a march but as soon as they got close to the hill where soldiers were stationed, stun grenades were thrown at them. The Israeli soldiers also fired rubber coated steel bullets at the Palestinian youth, as well as several volleys of teargas towards both them and the rest of the crowd. Although no one was hit by their ammunition, many people suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Before leaving the Israeli Army made sure to destroy the main water pipe of the village, which will cost some 3000 NIS to repair. An overwhelming use of force was employed against a people who are simply fighting for the return of their road, which was illegally stolen from them in 2003.
29th June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
In occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), possibilities for Palestinian children to play are scarce. With the help of the Playgrounds for Palestine project, a brand-new playground was installed at Qurtuba school in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of al-Khalil.
Right to play – can you imagine that as a child, when playing, you’d need to be scared of being attacked, your parents worried whenever you’re out playing, and playing with your friends and enjoying something that is denied to you by a foreign occupying army?
The Tel Rumeida neighborhood is in the H2 area of al-Khalil, under full Israeli military control. After more than six months of collective punishment by the means of a ‘closed military zone’, deliberately designed to affect only the Palestinian population, this measure was officially lifted on 14th May 2016. Despite the lifting of some of the measures intended to forcibly displace the Palestinian population – and thus only a slightly disguised attempt at forced displacement, many of the restrictions applying on Palestinians have remained in place.
A staircase leading to Qurtuba school at the end of the tiny strip of Shuhada Street where Palestinian pedestrians are still allowed to be, is still under a complete closure – for Palestinians, whereas settlers, Israeli forces and anyone resembling a tourist is allowed to pass freely. This apartheid measure severs all the families accessing their homes through these stairs, as well as visitors to the Muslim cemetery and a weekly second-hand market of their main access, forcing them to take long detours. The many restrictions have also forced the project to carry large amounts of the materials through the neighborhood, as Palestinian cars are not allowed in the area. On one day, the workers were prevented from continuing their work on the playground and forced to leave by Israeli forces.
Palestinians carrying materials to the playground
For the children growing up in this area, childhood is short. Child-arrests, even of children less than 12 years and thus illegal even under Israeli military law that is universally applied on the Palestinian population in the Israeli occupied West Bank, are not uncommon, as are humiliations and intimidations by the Israeli forces and settlers under the full protection of the Israeli forces.
The right to play, for Palestinian children, is only a theoretical concept, that often lacks any practical meaning, when growing up next to illegal settlements under a foreign military occupation. Playing on the streets of their neighborhood for most children is dangerous, as settlers do not even restrain from attacking children. In a nearby Palestinian kindergarten, Israeli settlers overnight stole a large role of artificial grass intended to be part of the play-area for the children attending the kindergarten. With no institution to address this, the artificial grass is merely lost and missing in the play-area.
The installation of the playground at Qurtuba school, thus, is a sign of hope for the Palestinian children. An opportunity for the children to be exactly that: children. To play with their friends and enjoy their childhood, have fun and laugh.
