10 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Over two weeks have passed since the El Gelwe family’s home was demolished. They remain homeless and are currently living in a tent which was provided by Palestinian neighbors in the village of Idna, of the Hebron Governorate. The family’s tent is erected just meters away from the pile of concrete that was once their home. It undoubtedly represented so much for this family.
Saving just to be demolished - Click here for more images
The father, Jamel was visually broken as he stated, “Someone saves money their whole life and they come and demolish it.”
This home was the family’s first house and within minutes the Israeli army turned their dreams in rubble.
On the 24th of November the Gelwe family received a visit from the Israeli military “demolition services.” As is common practice in house demolitions, the Israeli military arrived in the village of Idna at 5:00 in the morning. The family was still asleep and thus in a vulnerable state. They were not given any time to save any of their property. Their house was demolished along with all of their possessions. Jamel tried to reason with the soldiers to allow them to keep their water well, but that just resulted in the soldier ordering him to move away. The family was forced to watch everything they ownedcrumble to the ground. Now they have no clothing, food, or water and with no justifiable reason as to why.
One can only conclude that the timing of these raids is a strategy used by the Israeli military to create as much terror as possible, in addition to the destruction. The family never received a demolition notice: this visit was a complete surprise to them. After living in the house for a few months they were notified this past May to stop building their house. Not only was the house already built, but the land is in Jamel’s name. The land has been passed down to the Gelwe family for generations. It is the only land they have left after the Israeli Army stole 47 dunums of their land to build the Apartheid Wall.
During a recent visit to the family it was clear to the ISM activists that this experience has caused significant emotional trauma to the family. The children were obviously distraught and scared of their bleak future. As with many Palestinian families there is little or no regular income
Just to ensure that the family adequately suffered from the experience of having their home destroyed, the Israeli military charged the family 2,500 NIS for their “demolition services’. If the family fails to pay, their fifteen year old son will be imprisoned indefinitely until they pay the fine. Not only were the Gelwe’s human rights violated, but they must pay for this abuse.
Over the last few weeks there appears to have been a significant increase in the number of house demolition orders being served and homes being demolished. The reasons for this increase are currently unclear, but one thing is certain: illegally destroying the homes of Palestinian family’s in the West Bank is not about the security of Israeli citizens. With the onset of the winter season it is inevitable that the suffering of the homeless will be more severe during this period.
Now the family is left with nothing, but they question. “Where are we going to go now?” asked Jamel. “We are thrown into this tent and tomorrow it will rain, then what?” The family of 15 is sleeping outside during the cold winter night for the 20th consecutive day.
6 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Mohammad Awad is a 16 year old Palestinian boy, he is in an Israeli jail and he is gravely ill – his family believe that he is not receiving the right treatment and that he may be dying.
As they sit in their house in Beit Ummar, a village near Bethlehem, Mohammad’s parents Ali and Amina, grow visibly angry and distressed as they recount their son’s treatment.
Documents showing the fines that the Awad family must pay to secure the release of their sons Mohammad (left, 3000 shekels) and Ahmad (right, 1000 shekels).
“He has fever, he sweats very much, he can’t sleep on the bed – he has to sleep on the ground to get some cold – he overheats and he cant move at all” says Ali. Despite the fact that he is barely eating, Mohammad’s weight has ballooned from 58kg to 92kg since he has been in prison.
Mohammad suffers from Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), an inherited condition characterized by recurrent episodes of painful inflammation in the abdomen, chest, or joints. These episodes are often accompanied by fever and sometimes a rash. Without treatment to help prevent attacks and complications, a buildup of protein deposits (amyloidosis) in the body’s organs and tissues may occur, which can lead to kidney failure or congestive heart failure.
Amina and Ali Awad – parents of Mohammad – at their home in Beit Ummar.
Ali says that Mohammad was first arrested in February 2011 after he attended a peaceful protest in Beit Ummar. He was severely beaten by Israeli soldiers during his detention and was subjected to extreme cold. Amina says, “They beat him so badly, and he was shouting and screaming and crying ‘Please stop you’re hurting me’ but they said ‘no’. I believe that is the cause of his current condition – he had the fever [FMF] in the past but it was not serious as the thing he has now.”
Ali added that, ” When he told the solider that he had hurt him in the waist they beat him again and again on purpose in his liver and they caused internal bleeding.” The bleeding in his liver was so severe that Mohammad required a blood transfusion. He was released from prison in June, only to be arrested 14 days later and sentenced to six months imprisonment for attending a demonstration in the village and throwing one stone.
Mohammad is currently being held in Ofer Prison but the family has learned that he has been repeatedly sent to hospital at Ramle or Hadassah during the past two months and then returned to prison.
In the immediate family, only Mohammad’s sister Rahaf, 7, has been allowed to visit him. She first alerted the family that Mohammad’s condition had deteriorated when she visited him in prison with a cousin – she returned saying that her brother was swollen and dreadfully ill.
On 2 November 2011, Mohammad had a court hearing which his mother attended – but Mohammad was not in the court. “We didn’t get information why he wasn’t there,” said Ali, “but the manager of the prison himself came to the judge – we knew this from the lawyer – and told the judge that [the prison] can’t be responsible if anything happens to Mohammad, [since] he’s now in hospital, in very bad condition, and we recommend that we release him.” The judge also recommended that he be released, but he needed approval from the Israeli intelligence – and they refused.”
According to Ali, “The manager of the prison himself called [him].”
“He told me, ‘your son is in a very bad condition and we can’t do anything for him so I will try to release him to be treated on the Palestinian side.’ So I’m afraid that my son is dying.”
Amina last saw her son in court on 28 November 2011. “He was very bloated and swollen all over his face and body, and it was not normal at all.”
Mohammad’s parents believe that the prison authorities have been giving Mohammad the wrong treatment that may be harming him even further. “When he was released for the first time, he smuggled some drugs out that he was being given [in prison]” says Ali, showing ISM the Allopurinol tablets given to Mohammad. “We asked a doctor what these was for, and he said these pills were for another disease, not for Muhammad’s condition. The doctor told him that it is vey dangerous to take this drug, and we’re sure now that they are giving him the same drug.”
The family has asked the prison authorities for Mohammad’s medical reports but they have refused to produce them. There is no cure for his condition but when he was out of prison Mohammad was taking Colchicine and antibiotics to manage his symptoms. Yet his rapidly deteriorating health and the statements from the prison manager suggest he is not receiving the correct medical attention.
The Israeli team of Physicians for Human Rights has attempted to visit Mohammad in prison but has so far been denied access by prison authorities. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem picked up some medicine for Mohammad but was also denied access to the prison by the Israeli authorities. The family claims that they have not been able to give him any supplies at all whilst in prison.
Mohammad is due to be released on 22 January 2012 – however, the family must pay 3000 shekels as a fine to secure his release. If they are unable to do so, he will serve a further three months in jail. His parents believe that his life is in danger and if he spends much more time in jail, without receiving correct treatment, the likelihood is that he will die. Mohammad’s brother Ahmad is due to be released from prison in three months but the family must find a 1000 shekel fine to secure his release, otherwise he will serve an extra month in jail. Ahmad also suffers from Familial Mediterranean Fever but his health is much better than Mohammad’s. If they do manage to pay the fines, the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners usually pay it back – but Ali says this only happens around three years later.
As Ali shows us the documents from the military detailing the fines, he says that he doesn’t have the money and has no way to raise it as he is currently unemployed. “We are suffering from a very bad economic situation” he said. “I cant work inside settlements or inside the green line and most of the work is there. Also I am ill – I have asthma and I have heart problems now and can’t work.”
The targeting of the family
Mohammad’s parents have not been allowed to visit him in prison and they have difficulty getting information. Two of Mohammad’s brothers, Saddam, 21, and Ahmad, 19, are also in prison. Mohammad’s younger brother Hamza, 15, is not allowed to visit. When he was 14, he visited Mohammad during his first sentence, yet Israeli authorities detained and interrogated him for three days and then banned him from visiting in the future.
Now that all of his brothers are in jail, Hamza is terrified that he will soon be arrested. At night he paces around the house, looking out the windows for the Israeli military. “I am very depressed,” said Hamza, “I don’t have any hope that I will stay here at home, the Israeli army can come here at any time and detain me and take me to jail.”
The military has arrived in the night to arrest members of the family before – Ali has been detained eighteen times, although he claims that he has only resisted the occupation nonviolently by attending peaceful protests. “The detention of our children caused a medical condition for my wife,” said Ali – “She takes drugs for her nerves as she’s always worried and the doctor told her this is very serious. She’s on medication for anxiety and depression.”
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a “child” as “every human being below the age of eighteen years.” According to Israeli military order 132, Palestinian children aged 16 and older are tried and sentenced by Israeli military courts as adults. By comparison, juvenile legislation defines Israeli children as age 18 or younger. A Palestinian child’s sentence is decided on the basis of the child’s age at the time of sentencing, not when the alleged offence was committed.
According to Addameer, a prisoner support and human rights organisation, there were approximately 176 Palestinian children (under the age of 18) detained in Israeli prisons, as of September 2011 and around 700 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts. Since 2000, more than 6,500 Palestinian children have been detained. The most common charge brought against children is for throwing stones – an offence which can incur a 20 year prison sentence.
Addameer reports that “the majority of children report being subjected to ill-treatment and having forced confessions extracted from them during interrogations. Forms of ill-treatment used by the Israeli soldiers during a child’s arrest and interrogation usually include slapping, beating, kicking and violent pushing. Palestinian children are also routinely verbally abused.”
With three of their four sons in prison, it seems that the family has been singled out and targeted by the Israeli authorities.
“All Palestinians are targeted, not just my family” said Ali. “But from the first Intifada I have been a member of a legal movement – I’m not doing anything illegal, I’m just demanding my people’s rights. I don’t do anything to hurt anyone, I just demonstrate.”
Amina says that she believes that the Israelis are doing this as “revenge.” “My sons are innocent and they don’t do anything bad.” Ali added that he believes it to be “revenge against all Palestinians, but we are a special case as I was detained [so often] in the past. Also I have land near Karmei Tzur [an illegal Israeli settlement] and they are trying to take this land. They have made me many offers to buy the land and I refused so they hate me. I told them go to hell this is my land I will stay here, and I will die here.” Ali also shows us the protruding bone in his hand which was broken by the Israeli military a few months ago after he was detained during a peaceful protest in Beit Ummar.
Ali is trying to stay hopeful but he admits that it is difficult. “My son is only 16 years old, he is very ill, he needs medical treatment but they don’t care. My son is ill, I have a problem with my heart, my wife has a problem with her nerves, but I thank God that we are still alive.”
Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
3 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Settlers from Avraham Avino targeted Palestinians in the Old Souq in Hebron during the Saturday market on December 3rd 2011. At approximately 11 AM Five unmasked settlers, aged around 20-30, threw concrete blocks down from a roof above the Old City at the booths outside of the shops, and at the people passing. The blocks were of considerable size – each weighing around 5-10 kilos. As they were thrown from a height of eight meters, anyone hit would be severely maimed or killed. Some of the blocks became lodged in the roof above the shops while some landed in the street.
Extremist Zionist settlers aim for Palestinians - Click here for more images
To access the Souq the settlers had to pass over the roofs of several Palestinian families in clear view of the military posts that are stationed on the rooftops. They were standing next to a military post as they threw the concrete blocks – uninterrupted by the military.“If it was a Palestinian (throwing stones from a roof), he [the soldier] would shoot him!” a shop owner said.
A witness identified two of the settlers as people who had taken part in an attack on Palestinians two years ago when the Eawawy family´s home was burned down. The arson was investigated by the Israeli police, as the Old City is in Israeli controlled H2, but asthe police have failed to take action even though the perpetrators have been identified. The shopkeepers were reluctant to report today´s attack to the police due to the Israeli authority´s failure to investigate settler attacks.
International observers arrived at the area before the military, who arrived after they had been contacted by the Temporary International Presence in the City of Hebron (TIPH). Attacks by settlers who live next to the Old City are frequent and the residents have had to attach netting above shops and streets to protect frequently targeted areas.
Andrew Michaels is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
20 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Over 1000 American and International Zionists joined 700 extremist settlers in Hebron this weekend to celebrate the reading of the Torah portion detailing Abraham’s biblical purchase of Hebron land, and to assert sovereignty over the Palestinian residents of Hebron.
On Friday, many Zionist visitors camped in tents on Israeli-controlled Shuhada Street. Inebriated from the Shabbat festivities, the visitors harassed local Palestinians throughout the night.
On Saturday, soldiers stationed themselves through the streets of Hebron’s Old City, forcing the shutdown of Palestinian shops, while swarms of visitors were treated to an extensive settler-guided tour championing the Jewish roots of Old Hebron. In what was advertised by the Hebron Committee as “the most unforgettable Jewish experience of a lifetime”, throngs of young, mostly American males clapped and chanted ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ (‘life to the people of Israel’) and other nationalistic chants, while Palestinian residents were forced to the sidelines of their own streets and kept there by soldiers. Throughout the day, 7 international activists and 2 Palestinians were arrested.
While a few visitors were respectful to Palestinian shop owners and residents, many were outright hostile. Mohammed Awawdeah owns a small shop in the old city, selling glass bottles filled with intricate colored sand patterns. Some of his bottles were smashed by a passing settler.
“He came and broke my stuff,” Awawdeah says. “I told the police but they are not here for us, they are here for the settlers…I am not even angry for my stuff, I’m angry at the soldiers who let them do this”.
Hamday Dwaik decided to close his bakery in the old city, since his shop was targeted by settlers during the event last year. “The settlers don’t want me to open. If I open they will throw my products on the ground, no one will buy it”.The Israeli police have taken the details of the incident and said that they intend to carry out an investigation.
Laila Slemiah, who works in Women In Hebron, a woman’s collective in the old city selling kiffiyehs and embroidery, was determined not to close her shop.
“I know I won’t have any business today,” she said, “but I have to stay open. I’m not scared of them.”
Clashes were also reported between visiting Americans and international activists. One activist relates that “as we were walking, a group of young American Jewish boys got into an argument with us. They became threatening towards us, and one of them had an M16 around his waist. They told us they would break our camera, they told the nearby Palestinian shop owner they would burn down his shop, they told me I would be dead on the floor.”
As this event is touted by the Zionist community as a Biblically-ordained ‘return to the homeland’, an organization called Project Hayei Sarah has been founded in the U.S. and Israel, offering alternative interpretations of Abraham’s Biblical relationship to Hebron that challenge the attempted Zionist appropriation of this legend to legitimize territorial conquest.
Video: “Only Jews Can Walk Here”
Seven international observers were detained by the Israeli police over the course of the day. At around 8 am, five international activists were detained after they were observing the checkpoint in Israeli controlled H2 area. They were held at Kiryat Arba police station for 8 hours and were threatened with charges of ‘interfering with police work’ unless they signed a statement agreeing not to be in the H2 area for a week. Two other international activists were detained at around 2:35pm today after attempting to film settlers passing through the old city; they were taken to Kiryat Arba and held there for around 2 hours. They were released without any further action being taken.
As darkness fell and the rain became harder, the tour ended. Large groups of settlers gathered in Palestinian areas of Tel Rumeida. A rowdy group of around 15 settlers chanted and attempted to intimidate Palestinians outside a shop in Tel Rumeida at around 5pm. The Israeli police were called and the group dispersed shortly afterwards.
Alistair George and Ben Lorber are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement. Ben Lorber also writes for the Alternative Information Center.
18 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The solar panels in the village of Imneizil, near Hebron, became effective almost two years ago, improved the living conditions for about four hundred inhabitants in the village, but recently residents learned that the Israeli army issued a demolition order for the solar power installations.
“When the electricity came, we could have light at night. So right now, we could sit with our friends in the night, and we can see each other,” said 25-year-old Nihad who has seen her life change since electricity become available in Imneizil. She talks about how the school now has access to computers and printers, and how radio and TV have connected the village to the rest of the world. Now they have washing machines, and refrigerators that make it possible to store food.
Nihad gives her 3-year-old son a hug and states that she also has a four-months’ baby at home.
Threatening the light of the village - Click here for more images
” Earlier, women used to go to Yatta to have an ultrasound. It is far away and it costs a lot of money to go there. Now, those who are pregnant can have ultrasound here at the clinic.”
Before the installation of solar panels, the village had no electricity, and the evenings were sparsely lit by dangerous kerosene lamps and candles. A few households had access to diesel generators that were used at parties and weddings.
The solar cells that have been installed cannot satisfy the village’s full electricity needs, but it is sufficient for moderate household consumption, and the needs of the school, health clinic, and common water pump. During the day people are trying to limit their consumption for the school to have enough electricity.
The project was planned to be extended so that later there would be electricity for regular usage. But in October, residents learned that the Israeli army issued a demolition order for the solar power installation. The consequence is that the power will be lost for forty households, they health clinic, and the school. The reason is that the solar panels were constructed without a permit from the Israeli Civil Administration which controls the occupied territory of Palestine.
– When I think about that they will cut our electricity, I am very, very angry, Nihad says.
Imneizil is not the only village in Palestine affected by the demolition policy. During the years between 2000 to 2007 nearly five thousand demolition orders were issued for Palestinian buildings, of which one third were implemented.
“They never requested a building permit here,” says Ali Mohammad, head of the village. “And you see that the other structures in the village were built thirty years ago. So we never applied for a building permit for solar panels, either. If we would try to apply, we know that we will never get a permit.”
The reason for the Israeli Civil Administration’s influence over Imneizil is that the village is located in what is known as Area C, which is under Israeli civil and military control.
“It is apparent to us that it means to displace us from here, to push us out of this area, silently, without declaring it, Ali Mohammad continues.
The solar panels were installed in cooperation with the Spanish organization SEBA. A spokesperson for the organization says that they appealed the demolition order through a lawyer, whereupon the Israeli Civil Administration issued a new demolition order. The demolition order is now frozen pending a court decision. But hope is fading that the half-million dollar project can be saved.
Demolitions are illegal under the Geneva Convention. The Fourth Geneva Convention 53rd article provides that: “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons […] is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.”
“I don’t think these solar panels cause any harm to anyone,” Ali Mohammad says. “They’re not affecting anybody. They’re not cutting the road to the settlement. I cannot understand what’s the point of coming here to demolish these solar panels! Now we’re astonished with the Israeli Authority’s demolishing orders. We’re feeling that we are hanging between the ground and the sky. ”
Imneizil is located in Area C, which makes up 62 percent of the West Bank area. Building permits for houses and other devices, such as structures for collection of rain water, must be applied for from the Israeli Civil Administration.
Jenna Bereld is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
