Category: Hebron - Page 101 - International Solidarity Movement

VIDEO: Settler runs over a 17-year-old Palestinian in Hebron

22nd May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday during the early evening, several Palestinian youths were riding bikes near checkpoint 56 in the Tel Rumeida area of Al-Khalil (Hebron). At around 7pm, one youth, 17-year-old Izz Adel Bedo, from the Jabal Al-Takruri area of Hebron was knocked off his bike and run over by a settler driving a bus on the way to the illegal Tel Rumeida settlement.

Paramedics arrived within about five minutes, leaving their ambulance parked outside the checkpoint whilst they came inside to attend to the youth. By this time, approximately 15-20 Israeli soldiers and border police had arrived on the scene and were preventing local Palestinians from filming and photographing the incident, and the bus that had run over the youth had driven away from the scene.

The youth had sustained injuries to his arm and leg, and possibly also to his neck, medics placed him in a neck brace as a precaution before attempting to move him. He was taken through the checkpoint to the awaiting ambulance and was taken away to Al-Ahli Hospital for treatment.

At around the same time that the ambulance was leaving, a group of Israeli soldiers entered through the checkpoint into the H1 (Palestinian Authority controlled) area of Hebron and threw a stun grenade in the general direction of the ambulance and some Palestinian youths who had gathered. The youths then started to throw stones in the direction of the checkpoint. Israeli soldiers then launched tear gas canisters and more stun grenades.

Back on the H2 (Israeli military controlled) side of the checkpoint, approximately five or six settlers, some of them armed, were extremely aggressive in their behaviour. One armed settler assaulted a Palestinian man who was coming through the checkpoint into H2. He then argued with the soldiers, apparently demanding that they take some sort of action against the Palestinians who had gathered. He spent a further 10 minutes doing this and generally attempting to provoke a further incident. Other settlers, including the hardline settlement leader Baruch Marzel, were verbally abusing the Palestinians and international observers present.

After a further 30 minutes, the settlers left in their cars and the soldiers also dispersed. Neither the Israeli soldiers nor border police made any attempt to locate and/or talk to the driver of the vehicle.

Settlers have used their vehicles as weapons against Palestinians many times before, as has been reported previously.

VIDEO: Israeli forces fire tear gas and stun grenades at children in Hebron

21st May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

This morning in al-Khalil (Hebron), several children threw stones towards Checkpoint 29 on their way to school. At approximately 07:40, 13 Israeli soldiers and border police officers entered through the checkpoint and fired four tear gas grenades and four stun grenades at the children.

The incident began at 7:45 and lasted for approximately 30 minutes, which prevented the children from entering their schools, delaying the start of their end of year exams.

The Israeli military regularly intimidates and use weapons against school children in al-Khalil. On the 15th of May the Israeli military threw one stun grenade towards the schoolchildren, after one Israeli soldier drew the star of David on a car and wrote: I want peace.

School children also face detentions and arrests, with some as young as six-years-old.

When the exams finished today, and teachers and school children were on their way home the harassment began again. The Israeli military detained seven teachers for 20 minutes. One of the teachers spoke to an ISMer present: “We are used to this kind of violence and disturbance, the harassment is continuous and often twice a day”.

Action alert: Letter writing campaign against criminal activity in Tel Rumeida

19th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine

The Israeli occupation uses many methods to take over land – from settlements and military camps to the nature reserve and political treaties. However, the Abu Haikal family of Tel Rumeida in Al-Khalil (Hebron), faces a much more unexpected enemy: archaeologists. Currently, the family home is completely surrounded by an Israeli archaeological excavation – there is only one gate into the property, which can be shut at any time, leaving the family isolated from the surrounding city.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists – many of whom live in the surrounding illegal settlements – began digging in Tel Rumeida on Janury 5th, 2014. They claimed they were looking for the graves of Jesse and Ruth, figures from the Hebrew Bible. The IAA has also stated their intent to turn the area into a ‘Biblical Archaeological Park’, depending in what the dig turns up.

(Above text written by the International Women’s Peace Service).

Since the IAA began the dig in Tel Rumeida, the Abu Haikal family have been subject to threats, violence, and general criminal activity on their own land, such as plans to destroy or move an ancient olive tree belonging to the family.

Feryal and Arwa Abu Haikal sitting under their olive tree, trying to protect it from damage or destruction (photo from https://www.facebook.com/groups/Save.telrumeida/).

Video from the Christian Peacemaker Team in Palestine

Now the family are calling out for a letter writing campaign to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The letters should complain about the criminal activity in Tel Rumeida and demand that the IAA intervene and put a stop to these breaches of law.

The IAA have an online form for contact on their website, so please write your own letter or copy the one below.

http://www.antiquities.org.il/contact_us_eng.asp

* * * * * * *

Mr. Shuka Dorfman, director
Israel Antiquities Authority,

Dear sir,

I was shocked to hear reports of officials and workers of the Israel Antiquities Authority being involved in criminal activities in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Apparently they have been involved in criminal damage to neighbouring properties, trespass, assault on international observers and damage to cultural heritage.

Emmanuel Eisenberg appears to believe that he is above the law. He has been filmed making racist comments and issuing threats to the Palestinian residents of the area. For the IAA to retain any credibility I would think you would need to discipline him and hold him to account.

This criminal activity and damage to cultural relics strengthens the perception that many people hold that IAA’s activities in Tel Rumeida are not guided by principles of scientific archaeology but are a political ploy to enable extremist Jewish settlers to steal more land from Palestinians, which is contrary to international law.

I trust you will act speedily in this matter before any more property is damaged, trees destroyed or people injured.

Yours sincerely

Fighting for the history of Tel Rumeida

17th May 2014 | International Women’s Peace Service | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

At first glance, the presence of an archaeological site seems quite positive, or at the very least harmless, however a quick look at the politics surrounding the Tel Rumeida excavation shows that this is far more sinister than a simple historical inquisition.

Under the Oslo Accords, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) must coordinate all of their work in the West Bank with the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. In Tel Rumeida, Palestinian officials have been denied entry.

IAA archaeologists – many of whom live in the surrounding illegal settlements – began digging in Tel Rumeida on January 5th, 2014. They claimed they were looking for the graves of Jesse and Ruth, figures from the Hebrew Bible. The IAA has also stated their intent to turn the area into a ‘Biblical Archaeological Park’, depending on what the dig turns up.

While no uniquely Jewish artifacts have been found, Palestinian officials confirmed that the settler-archaeologists have destroyed several Muslim graves that were found on the site. Residents of Tel Rumeida have reported that IAA employees are also in the process of bulldozing an ancient Canaanite retaining wall. For them, the deliberate annihilation of non-Jewish history in Hebron is anything but innocuous.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority has been a tool for settlement expansion and land grabs in the West Bank for a long time, including the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, the town of Khirbet Susiya, and other settlements within Hebron. The strategy is simple: Archaeologists enter an area and search for signs of uniquely Jewish history. When a site or artifact is discovered – or possibly fabricated – the area is declared to be an integral part of the ‘Jewish State’. To ‘protect’ the land, a settlement is built on top of the site, driving away the Palestinian owners.

Video courtesy of Christian Peacemaker Teams

Nakba Day demonstration in Al Walaja: “Al Walaja is one of the symbols of the past and present displacement”

16th May 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Al Walaja, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday 15^th May, villages from Al Walaja marched for their right of return, on a day marking the 66^th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic). The demonstration was met with violent repression from Israeli forces with many tear gas canisters fired at the protesters.

In 1948, 70% of the population of Al Walaja was displaced and forced away from their land, as a result of the ethnic cleansing carried out by Israeli forces. After the six day war in 1967, half of the remaining land was occupied by the illegal settlements of Har Gilo and Gilo, leaving the village with only 15% of its original land.

66 years since the Nakba and the land in Al Walaja is in the so called “seam zone”. The seam zone is a term used to describe the land between the Green Line and the Apartheid wall. The seam zone is a closed area for Palestinians and is regulated by a permit system. Palestinians who live, work, and visit the area are forced to apply for a permit to enter the zone, controlled by Israeli authorities. The permit system in the seam zone consists of 12 different types of permits which, need to be renewed frequently and can easily be denied by the Israeli authorities. The apartheid wall (declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004) is also planned to surround the entire village, which will leave the residents with one entry and exit point.

For the Nakba day this year, over 64 associations called for a demonstration in Al Walaja, calling for the right of the Palestinians to reclaim and return to their own land.

“Al Walaja is one of the symbols of the past and present displacement,” said one of the speakers at the demonstration.

Many protesters arrived from different areas in the West Bank, including children the nearby Aida refugee camp

The demonstrators gathered in a large tent at the end of the village, speeches were made, and then the head of the demonstration went downhill to where a metal fence separated an area of the village from the main road.

When the people attempted to pass over this “border”, approximately 20 Israeli Border police officers arrived and tried to stop this action, proceeding to throw stun grenades and fire tear gas canisters at the protesters. Palestinian youths then began to throw stones as several military jeeps arrived, along with approximately 100 Israeli soldiers and border police officers

The Israeli forces climbed up the hill, firing tear gas inside the tent, which was mainly filled with children and elderly men and women. The military forced the occupants out and proceeded to destroy the tent.

Fortunately there were no serious injuries, two journalists and two Palestinian youths were shot with tear gas canisters and received treatment from Red Crescent medics in from Al Walaja, and many demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation.