Category: Features - Page 89 - International Solidarity Movement

‘It is my job to scare Palestinian children’ – Israeli forces justify intimidation of kindergarten children

6th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Kindergarten-children in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) often face harassment and intimidation by Israeli forces on their way to kindergarten.

Listen to this audio recording of a discussion between an international volunteer and the soldiers about why the soldiers ‘have to’ scare the kindergarten-children and see it as ‘their job’.

Israeli forces justify the intimidation and harassment of the children, between the ages of 4 to 6 years, that are forced to walk up a broken path – as the paved road on the other side of the fence is only allowed for Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in al-Khalil – and then past a checkpoint on their daily way to and from the kindergarten, saying that they ‘need to scare them’ because otherwise they would ‘grow up and stab a soldier’.

Listen to the full recording:

Help Josefin get her visa to stay with her husband in Hebron

5th March 2016 | Hebron, occupied Hebron

25-year old Social Work student Josefin Herbach from Germany and 23-year old Abd Elrahman met doing human rights work in occupied Hebron. They were married on the 11th of November, and as Josefin planned to stay in Hebron to live with her husband, she applied for a “spouse visa” through the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in occupied Hebron.

The Palestinian Ministry can only pass the request to the Israeli authorities, who are the ones who decide who is allowed to reside in the occupied Palestinian territories and for how long, including spouses of Palestinians. On January 6th, Josefin Herbach received notice from the Israeli Ministry of the denial of her spouse visa, and that she had until the 10th of January to leave the country. Being left with no alternative, she decided to hire a lawyer to appeal this decision. Since then, the Israeli State has repeatedly asked for extensions of the court’s deadline to present their opinion on the case, and on the 4th of March has asked for yet another month to ‘prepare an offer’.

Abd Elrahman explains: “Every aspect of our lives is controlled by the Israeli occupation and they are constantly trying to make us leave. Israeli soldiers enter our homes and threaten to arrest and even kill us. But we still stay on our land. Now they want to deny my right to live with my wife.”
“I consider Al-Khalil as my home. I have a life here, all my friends and my husband. I can’t leave now. I have nothing to go back to in Germany,” Josefin says about her visa denial.

Josefin is legally able to remain in the West Bank while the court proceeding drags on, but she cannot leave the country with her husband to visit Josefin’s family in Germany, who she has not seen since the marriage. Abd has not had the chance to meet his wife’s family yet, for fear that if they left the country, she would never be allowed to re-enter.

“It’s an impossible choice – if I go visit my family in Germany, I would not be able to come back and live with my husband; and if I stay with my husband here I can not see my family”, explains Josefin.

Josefin and other human rights defenders monitor the checkpoints and provide protective presence for Palestinian children on their way to and from school in Israeli-controlled parts of occupied Hebron. Palestinian children routinely face harassment and violence from tear gas to arbitrary arrests and threats from settlers living in adjacent illegal Israeli settlements. In some areas of Hebron parents fear sending their young children to school without international presence.

Josefin and her husband needed 15.800 shekels to challenge this unjust ruling in the Israeli High Court which is the only legal route available to them. They have raised 1.800 shekels so far, which leaves them with 14.000 shekels (about 3.300€ or 3.900$) to pay for the lawyer.
Support them here.

To stay updated on Josefin’s case, support and share the facebook-event.

For more information: josefin.herbach@arcor.de, 00972-597570178

Israeli forces attack peaceful demonstration and suffocate civilian population

5th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine

On 4^th March 2016, the village of Ni’lin held their weekly protest against the illegal Israeli occupation, the illegal settlements and the theft of the village’s land.

Israeli forces ready to shoot at unarmed protestors

Israeli forces attacked the peaceful demonstration inundating the whole area with massive amounts of tear gas. As they came into the village with their jeeps, they directly targeted houses and a public park and thus the civilian population not even involved in the demonstration. Many suffered excessive tear-gas inhalation, ten needed treatment by medical personnel, including a 3-year old boy that was playing with his friends in the public park. Israeli forces targeted the ambulance assisting the injured by firing tear-gas straight at it. Additionally to the large amounts of tear-gas, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets at protestors, injuring one person in the leg.

Young boy that was playing in park receiving treatment

Israeli forces also flew a remote-controlled drone over the protest, filming.

Drone seen in the sky over the Ni'lin protest — Drone seen in the sky over the Ni’lin protest

Peaceful demonstrators tear gassed by Israeli army at Bil’in

4th March 2016| International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Bil’in, occupied Palestine

Today, groups of Palestinians, Israelis and other activists from around the world marched together in solidarity to oppose the zionist regimes annexation wall and illegal settlement of Modin Ilit. The settlement has been built on part of the once Palestinian land from the town of Bil’in. In 2007 after 9 months of daily protesting, the Israeli court ruled that the wall be re-routed. However after major delays only parts of the wall have been re-routed. 9 years later the locals are still peacefully protesting weekly for the return of the rest of their land from the Israeli government.

Piles of used tear gas grenades from past demonstrations — Piles of used tear gas and stun grenades from past demonstrations

The demonstration started around 1pm after prayer as it has been every Friday for the past 11 years. Palestinians, Israelis and fellow activists assembled in front of the mosque and began the march to unite against the annexation wall which provides shelter for the illegal settlement of Modin Ilit.

However the peaceful demonstration was unfortunately cut short as Israeli soldiers had already mobilised and made their way onto Palestinian territory in anticipation for the march. The demonstrators were met with a barrage of tear gas fired from a distance by the occupying Israeli forces, not allowing them to progress further. While the tear gas rained down around demonstrators it also landed in several of the local Palestinians yards and homes.

While protesters re-assembled and tried to march on, more and more tear gas was fired causing them to end what was a peaceful march to oppose the barbarous acts of the Israeli government.

The occupying forces will continue to use excessive force in territories that do not belong to them just as the Palestinians will continue to protest peacefully until the world notices these heinous human rights violations being committed by the zionist government and the stolen land is returned to the Palestinians.

A Palestinian man and a Israeli man stand together in opposition to occupation

Illegal settlers of Kiryat Arba abuse Palestinians and volunteers

3rd March 2016| International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Saturday, 27th February 2016, as two ISM volunteers were walking on Prayer Road, right next to the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), they were attacked, threatened and insulted by settlers while Israeli forces were watching.

When the internationals were passing by, turning their backs toward a gate that is used as an entrance for the settlers and while looking the other direction over al-Khalil, the settlers immediately threw a stone at them. Shortly after, 2 or more settlers appeared at the fence and began yelling and cursing the volunteers in an extremely abusive and vulgar manner. When the international human rights defenders tried to engage, the settler became more abusive, one of them walked out of the gate, put his hand on a hand-gun he was wearing on his belt and openly threatened the internationals that he would not hesitate to use the gun on them. He repeatedly stated that he was going to shoot them, while another settler brought and unleashed a dog outside.

As the volunteers turned to return from where they had come from – the only option as Israeli forces were entirely ignoring the hate-speech and open threats to their lives and well-being by the settlers, an Israeli soldier with two cups of coffee walked out the same gate the settlers were using. When asked by the internationals why he did not intervene and stop the settler at any point, he claimed he hadn’t seen the stone-throwing. In contradiction to that, he then quietly said that the settler was not like most.

This clearly illustrates the impunity settlers enjoy in the occupied West Bank. Regardless of their actions, they are enjoying the full protection from the Israeli forces. Whereas for the international human rights defenders making official complaints with the Israeli police is at least a theoretical possibility, Palestinians making their way to the police station in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba have repeatedly been told by the civil police that they were not even taking complaints against settlers by Palestinians. The Palestinian families living in the direct vicinity of this illegal settlement thus are forced by the Israeli government to endure the harassment, intimidation, verbal and physical violence by settlers they are exposed to ona daily basis without any way of addressing this impunity.