21st April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Settlers from the Tel Rumeida area in Hebron gradually cut down 15 almond trees on privately owned Palestinian land over the last two weeks. The settlers also installed an irrigation system and planted seeds with the clear intention of taking over the land. The owner of the land has complained to the police and army on several occasions to no avail. Destroyed almond tree in Tel Rumeida
“The police just showed up, watched the settlers and then went away.” “The trees are very close to my heart, my children used to play around them.”
The Palestinian family Abu Heikel is renting the land from a Palestinian Jew called Jofef Ezra who fled Hebron during the 1967 Israeli invasion of the West Bank. The Ezra family continues to rent its property to the Heikel family to prevent the land from falling into settler hands. With the army on call to defend the settlers on their various, usually violent, whims, there are serious doubts that Ezra`s wishes will be fulfilled. Palestinians by contrast have little to no legal support or protection against their aggressive neighbors.
Settlers in Tel Rumeida regularly occupy parts of privately owned Palestinian property under the pretext that the Bible has given them permission to do so. As long as the Israeli army continues to tolerate the settlers’ illegal activity and offer them protection whilst attacking and arresting those resisting them, the expansion of illegal settlements and the level of settler violence is likely to continue escalating.
20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
UPDATE: Child arrests in Hebron continue today as a 15 year old Palestinian boy, Az Dweik, was arrested in the morning. He was allegedly carrying a knife around the Ibrahimi mosque and taken to the Kiryat Arba police station. The Israeli authorities regularly falsely accuse children and adults in Hebron of carrying weapons as a pretext to arrest or detain them (including tragically in the case of Mohammed Salayme who was killed in 2012). 5 eyewitnesses say they saw Az`s face and wrists covered in blood whilst in custody of the soldiers. He is currently being detained at Ofer prison near Ramallah. In the afternoon Muhammad Almayele, 9 years old, was thrown to the ground near Shuhada street by three soldiers before being held in an an army base for one hour. A soldier told us that “The reason we scare them is so that they don’t come here again.”
Muhammad Almayele , 9 , being arrested by soldiers
By Team Khalil
Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes.
Ahmed’s arrest
He was then driven in a military jeep to checkpoint 56 where he was eventually released into the custody of the Palestinian police, who registered Ahmed’s details and completed some paperwork before taking him home to his family. Upon questioning by international activists, Israeli soldiers claimed that Ahmed had been arrested due to throwing stones at the Israeli military in the morning, however Ahmed denies this. The Israeli occupation forces regularly accuse children and young men of stone-throwing and use this as an excuse for arrests, which often happen at random.
Ahmed’s arrest comes as part of a series of increasing arrests and detentions of minors in the Old City of Hebron in recent months. “Occupied Childhoods”, a report on child-arrests compiled by the Hebron Christian Peacemaker Team is available here.
In March 2013, UNICEF released a damning report in which it harshly critized the “ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system [which] appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized”. You can read this here.
20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Hashem Al-Azzeh, activist and resident of Tel Rumeida (a neighbourhood in Israeli-controlled H2 Hebron) was today attacked by Israeli settlers who broke into his brother’s house and attempted to force their way through his garden.
Hashem caught the settlers leaving the house at around 11am, and when he questioned them about their presence on his premises, they replied that God had given them this land, according to the Bible. Quickly several other settlers arrived on the scene and soon around 20 settlers, in addition to 20 settler children, occupied Hashem’s front porch as well as the path leading up to it.
The settlers tried to force their way through Hashem’s garden and backyard, but he managed to stand his ground and insisted that it is illegal for them to pass between the Palestinian houses. After approximately 20 minutes, around 10 soldiers arrived at the scene, after a nearby guard had previously been alerted by Hashem’s children.
The soldiers, who had just been woken up, mostly merely stood around watching and seemed at a loss about what to do. They did not confront the trespassing settlers and did not tell them to leave and stop harassing Hasehm. However they stopped the two Palestinian workers who had been decorating the house from working and confiscated their ID cards. A Swiss journalist who arrived at the scene to document the incident was refused access and removed by the army despite presentation of his official press card. A German activist was also removed from the scene after being repeatedly insulted and pushed by settler children with the soldiers looking on.
After around 45 minutes, the settlers seemed to get bored of discussing with and insulting Hashem and international activists, and gradually returned to their homes in an illegal settlement which is located just above Hashem and his brother’s houses. After they had left, the Israeli police arrived on the scene and asked Hashem some questions about the incident, however it is highly unlikely that there will be any legal consequences for the settlers who enjoy virtual impunity (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44412#.UXLrWKJIimg)
The police also registered the construction workers’ details and said they needed a permit to continue working in the house. They will most likely be arrested if they attempt to return without a permit, which is next to impossible to obtain.The house that the settlers broke into belongs to Hashem’s brother, who currently lives in another part of Hebron but plans to move back into his house the coming week. Hashem has been overseeing refurbishments during the last 10 days.
The settlers’ attack is clearly an attempt to intimidate Hashem, his brother and their families and forms part of a long series of attacks and violence against Hashem. Over the past 15 years, Hashem’s house has been invaded and turned upside down by settlers and soldiers several times, with furniture and equipment smashed. He has had bullets shot at and inside his house, narrowly missing him and his family. Hashem has been threatened, intimidated and beaten up by settlers, of which the scars on his face bear witness. His wife has suffered two miscarriages due to being beaten by settlers. His children are also regularly attacked, beaten up and have stones thrown at them. The fruit trees in his garden have been poisoned, and he has been prevented from harvesting his olives due to settler attacks.For an excellent report on settler violence across the West Bank, click here : http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/32678
20th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Ahmed Ibn Bilal Abu Rumeileh, a 12-year-old boy from Hebron, was today arrested in the Old City and detained for over an hour before being released. Ahmed was riding his bike through Bab Al-Baladia when six Israeli soldiers stopped him and arrested him, seemingly completely at random. Ahmed was blindfolded and taken to Beit Romano army base on Shuhada Street, where he was detained for around 45 minutes.
Ahmed’s arrest
He was then driven in a military jeep to checkpoint 56 where he was eventually released into the custody of the Palestinian police, who registered Ahmed’s details and completed some paperwork before taking him home to his family. Upon questioning by international activists, Israeli soldiers claimed that Ahmed had been arrested due to throwing stones at the Israeli military in the morning, however Ahmed denies this. The Israeli occupation forces regularly accuse children and young men of stone-throwing and use this as an excuse for arrests, which often happen at random.
Ahmed’s arrest comes as part of a series of increasing arrests and detentions of minors in the Old City of Hebron in recent months. “Occupied Childhoods”, a report on child-arrests compiled by the Hebron Christian Peacemaker Team is available here.
In March 2013, UNICEF released a damning report in which it harshly critized the “ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system [which] appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized”. You can read this here.
17th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
This morning an Israeli jeep drove around an area of Hebron that is home to 5 schools as children made their way to class. To get to school, the pupils of these schools already need to pass through a metal detector at checkpoint 29.
In the same place 27 school children were dragged into army jeeps and arrested on the 20th of March this year. At the time the soldiers claimed they were trying to find children who they claimed had thrown stones.
The army’s presence at the schools causes the children to gather and shout at them from the balcony of their classrooms, which the soldiers are fully aware of. Their continued presence around these schools is clearly designed to provoke the school children into throwing stones at them .
Last week, after another army visit to the Al Khalil UN school, the head master told us that the soldiers had claimed that children had been causing problems at the checkpoint on their way to school that morning. This was blatantly a lie considering International activists had been monitoring the checkpoint all morning without witnessing any problems.
On top of provocation the army’s presence is also designed to intimidate the school children who can be seen running away in the opposite direction of approaching army vehicles.
