Category: Hebron

Eight children from Beit Ummar facing suspension from their village of residence

by Satu

26 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Eight children between the ages of 14 to 17 years old were arrested in Beit Ummar during night raids from 6th to 11th of March conducted by the Israeli occupation forces following a nonviolent solidarity demonstration for the hungerstriker Khader Adnan on the 21st of February.

On Tuesday 20th of March the youth went to court at the Israeli military court at Ofer and faced a sentence of being banned from Beit Ummar, where they live with their families, for a period of 6 months. The youth are being accused of throwing stones at Israeli military installations. The detainees are Ayesh Khalid Sabri Awad (17 years), Basil Khalid Hassan Abu Hashim (15 years), Zain Hisham Khalil Abu Maria (15 years) Sami Amer Ahmed Abo Joudeh (16 years), Emad Mohammed Saed Solaiby (16 years), Mohab Jawdat Adi (14 years), Bilal Mahmud Awad Ayyad (16 years), and Ahmed Ali Mahmoud Solaiby (16 years)

The announcement of the sentence aroused opposition on the part of family members of the accused, leading to removal of the family members from the court and adjournment until the 25th of March. Issa Solaiby, father of Ahmed, says his son was also beaten by 4 soldiers in the court.

Hisham Abu Maria, father of Zain , claims that the children are being pressured to agree to false accusations.   He said, “They made him (Zain) say he threw rocks at the soldiers even though there were no soldiers” present at the time noted in the charges.

The village of Beit ummar has around 17000 inhabitants and is surrounded by illegal, Zionist settlements. According to Issa Solaiby a member of the local Popular Committee, Beit Ummar used to consist of 33 000 dunams of land. The building of the separation wall by Israel and a road that is closed off to Palestinians took 13 000 dunams of the village land.

Since then an additional 3000 dunams have been stolen by settlers living in illegal Israeli settlements. The inhabitants of Beit Ummar suffer from violence from the settlers living in the surrounding settlements. Issa Solaiby also complains that the settlers  prevent the farmers from access to their own land and destroy olive trees and grape vines.

In March the settlers living in illegal Beit Ain settlement destroyed 14 olivetrees, 21 grape vine plants, and 2  citrus trees from the village in an act of incitement.

According to Issa the settlers also enter the village with soldiers and guns to make the villagers aware of their aggressive presence. One year ago 17-year-old Yousef Ikhlayl was shot and killed by Israeli settlers as he was farming with his father. His killers remain unpunished.

Many of the villagers have been arrested and gone to jail. Imprisonment is a problem especially with young people. According to Muhannad Abu Awwad 10,000 villagers have gone to jail and at present 30 inhabitants, most of them under 16, are serving time in Israeli occupation prisoners.

Muhannad himself went to jail for two years from the age 21 until 23 and is now studying law.

Satu is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Al Khalil: School children reflect on changes in Israeli military following presence of ISM volunteers

by Edna

25 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The safe, comfortable, winsome childhood I had growing up in suburban America is a completely theoretical concept for the Palestinian children in the West Bank.

I’ve realized this while volunteering as a human rights observer in Hebron. One activity that entails is sitting and watching kids, ages six to thirteen, walk to the all-male Mutanabi school. It sounds like a silly endeavor; but in reality, it’s a deplorable necessity.

This was illustrated when, on a tour introducing the volunteers to the students, a teacher asked his third graders to stand up if they had ever been beaten up by soldiers on their way to school. Eight of the thirty did. He then asked them to stand if they had been bothered by soldiers since we had been there. They all sat down. One boy thanked us, saying “I feel safe now,” as his eyes brimmed with tearful sincerity.

From February 27th to March 2nd of 2012, there were thirty-one cases of the school’s 268 students being verbally and/or physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers. In addition, teachers were detained daily, preventing them from being able to teach their classes. In the weeks since the ISM was asked to come, there have been zero cases of harassment and detainment. The soldiers have also moved from standing at the edge of the school’s driveway to an adjacent house’s rooftop.

We go in pairs of internationals armed only with a camera. Our presence should not change a sophisticated army’s procedure as significantly as it did. To me, this influence clearly shows that they know that what they’re doing is wrong, and would be unable to be justified to an international audience. This is especially true as the checkpoint separates Palestinians from Palestinians, making the excuse of security for the illegal Israeli settlers irrelevant. There is no reason for their presence other than harassment.

It’s effective. Not only do the kids hate school because they associate it with soldiers and their threat of abuse, but their motivation and ability to focus is hindered because they feel constantly unsafe, anxious, and scared. Nervous habits like nail biting and pant wetting (after misinterpreting a noise, for example) is common. Also common is aggressive behavior, which the school’s psychologist says is the biggest problem. He holds the soldiers responsible, saying that their behavior exposes the kids to violence from a young age, teaching them to act in violent ways and normalizing its usage.

People have said that it’s a shame Palestinian children are taught hatred and violence. I agree, I suggest that the Israeli Occupation Forces change their inhumane and unnecessary treatment of minors . Israel’s accountability to international and humanitarian law should not be a temporary change of plans induced by international presence. It’s not optional. It’s not conditional. A permanent change of policy is imperative.

Edna is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

Golani Brigade rampages through the Pharmacy District of Al Khalil

by Rune 

19 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Pharmacy District, once a prosperous part of Al Khalil (Hebron) centered around the now closed pharmacy, is now subjected to the violence and harassment of the Israeli military which continues to abuse residents of this historical area.

Monday night International Solidarity Movement activists in Al Khalil received a call that there was trouble in the area at the checkpoint. Four volunteers went there and witness around 100 soldiers in full combat gear and military vehicles, including 3 police cars.

“We stayed there from 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm, trying to figure out what was going on. We witnessed one arrest of a 25-year old man, who was blindfolded and put into a police car around 11 pm. He was released later that night, around 2 am. Soldiers also detained four people, and feigned shooting their guns at some of the houses,” said on international volunteer.

Thursday at noon the volunteers went to speak with Palestinians from the area about the situation with which they must cope.There international activists met a man who has a small metal workshop, who told us how the occupation makes his work a lot more difficult. Recently roadblock gate with barbed wire on was added to the checkpoint, so now people going through have to pass through a turnpike one by one. The turnpike doesn’t allow large objects to pass through, so the workers will have to wait for the soldiers to come open the gate, which can take quite a while, even in urgent situations.A Palestinian fire truck stopped at the Kaytuun checkpoint. Notice the soldier on the roof doing nothing to let it through.

 

A Palestinian fire truck stopped at the Kaytuun checkpoint. Notice the soldier on the roof doing nothing to let it through.

“While we were there, a fire truck on call for an emergency came to the closed roadblock gate. A soldier on an overlooking roof, just sat there finishing his cigarette, before slowly walking to open the gate. It took four minutes before the fire truck was through, and one of the local residents said that when there were no internationals around, it could take up to half an hour,” said an ISM volunteer.

This week ISM volunteers also met  Ismael Ahmad Osman, 46,  a father of  four sons and two daughters. He told ISM that the soldiers often harass the people in the area. There were soldiers searching the houses multiple time during the weekend, and on Saturday they were especially rough to him and his family.

Ismael went with his 20 year old son to buy groceries, and on their way back, a group of soldiers took the son away for questioning and a body search. There they beat him, and because he defended himself, they beat him even more. His father heard it, and rushed in, and they stopped only because he apologized for his son’s behavior. As he recalls it, it was very undignified having to apologize for his son getting beaten up.

Ismael Ahmad Osman with his son and daughter.

“The simplest human right is to go inside your house with dignity,” he said, before continuing his story.

10 minutes after he got home, the soldiers from the notorious Golani brigade came back, searching his house, handcuffing and beating his four sons, before turning on Ismael himself.

In front of his 2 small daughters he was beaten badly, and when he asked for his medication, they allowed him only some of it, denying his wife to give him his asthma medicine as well.

Following more beatings, including kicks in the ribs and hits on the shoulder with the butt of the soldiers’ guns, he went unconscious and fell to the floor, before the soldiers gave him an injection and allowed his family to send for an ambulance. Three of his sons followed him to the hospital, where the x-rays showed a broken rib.

When ISM volunteers met him five days after the attack, his arms still had large bruises.

When they got back from the hospital to their family house, the soldiers were still there. They had handcuffed the son who stayed behind to try and calm the family. He was beaten some more before they blindfolded him and forced him into a jeep. They drove him to a village on the outskirts of Hebron, took off his handcuffs, and kicked him out, still blindfolded, not knowing where he was. He managed to stumble to a nearby house, where the family there drove him home.

“The next night they came again, searched the house and beat up the sons once more,” Ismael says with a sad smile as he finishes his story. The recent events have been hard for him and his family; the two daughters are very scared and since then, they have been wetting their beds at night.

This is unfortunately only one of many recent examples of excessive soldier violence against Palestinians.

Rune is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

The implications of arbitrary Israeli military night raids in Al Khalil

by Mira, Rune and Paige

19 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

With the change of the  Israeli army brigades last week, it has not been quiet in Al Khalil. It seems like the new soldiers are using the city as a training field.

It started about  one about a week ago, on Sunday March 18th, when the 100 soldiers from the Kfir brigade arrested one boy, closing down several streets in the process.  On Sunday the streets were once again filled with hundreds of soldiers, many houses were raided, and many more Palestinians were detained for several hours without reason.

The raids began at approximately 9:00 PM in the Tel Rumeida area, and continued well past midnight on Shuhada street, near the Qeitun checkpoint, and in the area of the Qordaba girls’ school.  At 10 pm around 100 soldiers escorted 17 men and teenage boys taken during the house raids through Qeitun checkpoint where they were forced to stand lined up against the wall while soldiers screamed at them in Hebrew.  All were eventually let go, though four young men were held until 1:00 AM.

Among the raided houses, is the home of the Abu Mohammad family which had suffered much harassment from the military in the past few months.  The house is split in two parts, and about 2 months ago the soldiers started to occupy the left half of the building, forcing the almost 30 people living there to move to the right part. The families living in the house have filed a lawsuit that is yet to be decided. Sunday night the soldiers raided the entire house, forced all the inhabitants outside and searched every room. After that they moved to the roof, were they broke the water-pipe, and stayed for several days. The water is leaking in the house, but the tenants are not allowed to go on the roof and fix it.

The house of the Abu Ahmed family was raided three times throughout the course of the night, the Israeli army forcing the family out on the street while the soldiers searched the house again and again. Three  generations live in the house  including four children all under the age of 7. The soldiers did not explain why they were there or what they were looking for. A 65 year old resident of this house explained  that this is normal for them.

In another house raid near the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah, a young girl fell and hit her head and was unconscious for several minutes after soldiers forced her and her family out of their front door.  As the ambulance could only reach as far as the checkpoint at the end of the road, the girl was forced to walk to the checkpoint to meet the ambulance.  The soldiers at the checkpoint prevented her from crossing to the ambulance for fifteen minutes.

Mira, Rune, and Paige are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).

Video: Illegal settlers in Al Khalil attack Palestinian student

by Satu

19 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday 18th of March, an 18-year old Palestinian student, Mustafa Abu Salime, got attacked by settlers between Checkpoints 56 and Gilbert. Mustafa passed the Gilbert checkpoint on his way to visit his friends. He saw three settlers talking to a soldier. Few meters down from the checkpoint the same settlers came behind him and sprayed him with pepper spray and started beating him.

The settlers hit him on his head, back and knee then pushed him on the ground and kicked him. In the attack Mustafa lost his eye glasses and phone. The soldiers did not interfere. After the beating the soldiers came and made him stand next to the wall while they did a body search of him before taking him to Checkpoint 56.   From the checkpoint Mustafa was taken to an army ambulance, in which he was driven around and questioned before they handed him to the Palestinian ambulance that took him to the hospital where he spent two hours. Issa Amro, a local human rights activist, filmed the ordeal and can be viewed  here.

Satu is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).