Category: Hebron

The colonial parade of Hebron

18 October 2011 | Free Paly 

A crowded Palestinian marketplace, mid-afternoon, the sun is slowly descending, and a cool breeze blows plastic bags past the feet of a jumbled crowd of young men, small boys, women in hijab with their daughters, and old men. They have gathered, this midday mass of Palestinians, with outstretched necks and searching eyes, to stare at the Israeli army trucks that have mysteriously and inexplicably planted themselves in the midst of their crowded marketplace.

Israeli soldiers, nervous-looking young men and women in green army outfits with huge rifles, stand beside the heavily-armoured trucks, scanning the immobile crowd of onlookers with cold eyes stuffed under riot gear helmets.

It is a Monday afternoon outside of Israeli checkpoint 56 in the middle of downtown Hebron, and the air is tense in Babi Zawya square. Though the square, since the Oslo Accords, is officially under solely Palestinian civil and military control, there are  Israeli soldiers on the ground and on the rooftops surrounding the market square, pointing their guns out to the crowds and hassling Palestinians to clear the emptied street. Two long tour buses have parked themselves sideways behind the army trucks to serve as barriers, blocking the Palestinian gaze from the hallowed space the IDF has chosen to occupy. Palestinian policemen form a double barricade between the IDF and the Palestinian crowds, barking at kids on bicycles or old men who try to approach the checkpoint on their way back home. International activists from ISM, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, and the Christian Peacemaker Team meander in and out of the crowd, taking pictures of the soldiers.

Finally, the reason for the midday military shutdown of a major artery of Palestinian traffic and commerce begins to slowly trickle out of the checkpoint.  Bit by bit, what looks like a motley crew of secular Jewish tourists and religious Jewish settlers makes its way down the freshly deserted street.

The Colonial Parade – For more images click here

Streaming past recently abandoned shop doors littered with Arabic graffiti and plastered with posters of Palestinian martyrs and political figures, some of the black-hatted Orthodox men walk with downcast eyes and a hurried, nervous gait, like aggravated businessmen, trying uneasily to ignore the row of armed soldiers and the immobile, gawking inhabitants of a city that stand beyond; teenagers in t-shirts and kepahs (head coverings) amble by, leisurely and confident, with smiles on their faces and cameras in their hands, laughing, pointing at and filming the Palestinian crowd.

Bearded men in buttoned-up, tucked-in white shirts stand with their hands on their hips, glaring at the crowd of Palestinians and waving angrily at the soldiers, as if to ask why the Arabs hadn’t been completely expelled from sight; traditionally-dressed mothers walk with smug confidence alongside little children, who are gleefully enjoying an afternoon stroll. In a repetition of history as ironic as it is tragic, this tour treads on occupied territory to visit the grave of Otniel ben Knaz, an ancient Jewish Judge who, in the Biblical Book of Joshua, conquered the Canaanite city of Kiryat Sefer, southwest of Hebron, and drove out the native Canaanites from their land.

This is Hebron in a nutshell, and these are the two peoples, the unhappy neighbors who walk day by day and sleep night by night side by side, a stone’s throw from the other’s doorstep on this single patch of land- the Jewish settlers, who have the path cleared and the carpet laid for them by the Israeli army; and the Palestinian residents of Hebron, who, for the moment, are forced to stand still in the army’s crosshairs and stare, from a distance, after the steps of the occupier. Settlers and Palestinians, occupiers and occupied, gaze at each other from across the street, the former like self-satisfied zoogoers, the latter with unblinking eyes that know right from wrong, that take into account, hold accountable, and count the days until freedom.

 

 

Day 4: When school becomes Israeli Occupation

16 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the 4th day of demonstrations outside of a checkpoint in Hebron, on October 16 2011, IDF soldiers shot tear gas and projected ‘The Scream’ at a group of young schoolchildren and female teachers, who were attempting to hold a lesson outside of the checkpoint as an act of protest.

Since Tuesday, October 11, the group of children and teachers have been gathering outside of Checkpoint 56 in Hebron, which blocks off the Israeli settlement from the rest of the city, to protest increased security measures at the checkpoint. For the past seven years, teachers at the Qurtuba School have been allowed to bypass the usual metal detectors and cross the checkpoint through a separate gate in order to reach their school, which lies in the treacherous area beyond the checkpoint, in between the aggressive Israeli settlements of Tel Rumeida and Admot Yishai. For no apparent reason, the army announced that it had suspended this allowance on Tuesday, and that it would now force the teachers to pass through the metal detectors and present their bags for inspection every day. At the same time, the army announced that pregnant women and people with heart devices or other medical complications, though they likewise had previously been allowed to bypass the metal detectors, can no longer do so, and must now put their physical well-being at risk on a daily basis.

On Tuesday, the teachers refused to submit to inspection at the checkpoint, and instead held an impromptu silent demonstration on its Palestinian side. At 9 AM their students, between the ages of 6 and 13 and now deprived of education, marched to the checkpoint carrying signs and chanting slogans. Shockingly, nine children were sent to the hospital with injuries, as Israeli soldiers threw them up against stone walls, kicked and hit them with the butts of rifles, and forcibly dragged them through the checkpoint, and as one settler attempted to push them out of the way with her car as she drove by.

The next day, teachers again refused to walk through the metal detectors or submit to inspection, and this time, as an act of protest, students and teachers held lessons outside of the checkpoint. On Thursday, they held lessons outside of the checkpoint again, and were joined by the Director of Education in Hebron, representatives from the Governor’s office, and local and international press. During the peaceful demonstration, students sat on the ground outside of the checkpoint during lessons, and stood up at intervals to chant ‘we will not return, we want our right to education!’ This time, soldiers and border police closed off the checkpoint with barbed wire, and pushed students and teachers out of the area.

On Sunday, teachers, students, Palestinian locals and officials, along with international activists and press, gathered for a peaceful demonstration outside of Checkpoint 56. Mohammed Abutherei, Director of Education in the Hebron Municipality, was optimistic.

“God willing the army will allow the students and teachers to pass normally,” he said, “because for four days now the children cannot learn properly! Why do they do this to our students?”

His optimism was short-lived, however, when a line of about 20 soldiers and border police pushed the schoolchildren back from the checkpoint, and announced over loudspeaker that the crowd would be arrested if it did not disperse within 5 minutes.

“This is their character!” exclaimed Tamer, a Palestinian activist from the group Youth Against Settlements, based in Hebron. “This is their behavior, this is their ethics! Yes, we are terrorists,” he said sarcastically, “because we want to learn, we want an education!”

When the crowd remained, soldiers projected a high-pitched siren noise nicknamed ‘The Scream,’ and fired rounds of tear gas to forcibly scatter the crowd. In the rush to flee, one teacher was arrested, and at least 5 were injured as multiple rounds of tear gas were fired down the main streets of Hebron for 20 minutes in the middle of the morning commute.

Though the teach-ins and demonstrations have garnered much international attention, at the moment there is unfortunately little else that can be done to break the iron barricade of Israeli regulations, which need answer to no higher authority.

“We have contacted the Palestinian DCO [District Coordinator’s Office],” said Abutherei. “we have contacted TIPH [Temporary International Presence in Hebron] and many other organizations for human rights, but nobody can do anything.” In Tamer’s words, “[they] don’t have any tools to use except protesting,  calling demonstrations. ” “What can we do?,” he said.

Both Tamer, who works on the ground with Youth Against Settlements to document and demonstrate against settler and military violence, and Abutherei, who protects the rights of students and teachers through legislation in the Municipality, are suspicious of territorial motivations underlying the Israeli army’s seemingly random decision to force Qurtuba School teachers, who as individuals have peacefully passed through Checkpoint 56 for seven years, to now submit to daily metal detector scans and personal inspections.

Abutherei said, “I’m afraid the settlers want to take the school. Now that the school is closed [for these days] I’m afraid the settlers will attack the building, or try to take it over”. Similarly, Tamer claimed that “this is the first step for evacuating the school. They want to close the school because this is an apartheid state. They want to make the whole area for Jews only.”

The Israeli army may be seeking simply to make life more difficult for the teachers of Qurtuba school, or they may be seeking to escalate a conflict as a pretext for imposing harsh restrictions upon the school, or for forcibly closing it alltogether. Either way, this is only the latest incident in a long legacy of resistance centered around the Qurtuba School.

Says Abutherei, “its very hard to have education in H2 [the Israeli settlement district of Hebron]. The occupation effects [the children’s] social health. The students suffer from fear, worry and sadness. How to get an education, how to learn to read when you are attacked by settlers on the way to school? The same for the teachers…we need students to learn in safety, and not to have to worry about these things.”

 

From the clothesline to her son, Hebron mother copes

13 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Thursday 13th October Mohammed Maher Abu Rumaila was arrested by the Israeli Army as he was returning to his home in Hebron’s Old City. The Israeli army alleged that Mohammed had been throwing stones in the Old City the day before Wednesday and he is now being held in Gush Etzion Prison.

In an interview today with ISM volunteers Mohammed’s mother, Fatihia Abu Rumaila, explained.

“Mohammed was arrested in the street. The Israeli’s said he had thrown stones, but he didn’t. He was working in Israel at the time they say he was throwing stones.”

The 20 year old’s family believes he will appear in Court on Sunday 16th October 2011. Fatihia explained that the family cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, and therefore Mohammed will be represented by a lawyer from the Prisoners Club. She feels “heartbroken, sad and scared,” and all she can do is hope for justice.

Fathia says:”I am afraid of letting my children leave the house but what can I do forcing them to stay in side will just create another prison for them.”

The court of Mohammad was postponed until the 23rd of October, which is a very common used procedure of the Israeli court system continuing postponing courts. He has been taking to Ofer prison where he properbly will stay until his court.

Soldiers harrasing Hebronite youth on Wednesday the 12th of Oct after a small protest in the city

Mohammad was arrested the first time in the spring 2009 when he was17 years old and kept in Israeli prison for three months at that time the alleged crime was caring a small knife in the old city where he lives. His little brother Ahmad was arrested in the spring 2010 when he was 13 years old. Ahmad as well was unrightfully accused of throwing stones and spent two weeks in prison.

Fatihia and her family live in the heart of the Old City, an area known for it’s confrontational and violent Zionist settlers, she says.

“We are suffering from the Jewish settlers. They throw stones at us about twice a month, and they steal our clothes from our clothes lines.”

Hebron school demonstrates for third day: “Without teachers there is no school”

13 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

For the third morning children and teachers from Qordoba Scool gathered on the H1 side of Checkpoint 56 at 7.30am. The children, with the support of their teachers and the Director of Education in Hebron, Nisreen Amro, peacefully protested against heightened “security measures” that were introduced by the Israeli Army on Tuesday 11th October 2011.

The protest was covered by local, national and international press.

School children as young as 6 years old had their lessons outside, sitting on the floor by the checkpoint while standing at intervals to passionately chant, “We will not return, we want our right to education.”

The Director of Education in Hebron, representatives from the Governor of Hebron’s office, and teachers from Qordoba School attempted to reason with the soldiers, however the army continued to refuse anyone entry through the checkpoint gate. The Israeli Army’s response to the children’s peaceful protest was to send approx 10 soldiers and border police through the checkpoint to push the children further away from the checkpoint entrance.

For the past seven years teachers have had an agreement with the Israeli army that they can pass through the checkpoint gate instead of  the metal detectors. However two days ago without giving prior notification the Israeli army changed the rules – they are currently insisting that everyone, including teachers, pregnant women and people with heart complaints/ pace makers must pass through the metal detector.

As previously reported by ISM the children’s impromptu protest on Tuesday 11th October resulted   in a number of children requiring hospital treatment after being hit (with the butts of rifles) and kicked by both the Israeli army and the Israeli Police. Initially ISM reported that 7 children were taken to hospital, however today the father of one of the injured children informed ISM that 9 children were taken to hospital with injuries (1 boy and 8 girls). Fortunately all 9 children were able to leave hospital after a few hours.

Today ISM volunteers interviewed 11 year old Yazan Sharbati, one of the boys violently dragged into the checkpoint by an Israeli Police Officer on Tuesday 11th October as seen in the following video.

Sharbati stated, “There were no teachers in the school and so we protested to the army that we wanted our teachers. The army told us to go back to school, we told them that without teachers there is no school.”

Sharbati was asked how he felt when the Policeman grabbed him and pushed him into the checkpoint.

Hebron students continue to advocate – Click here for more images

“I was so afraid that something bad was going to happen. He pushed me very hard,” he said.

When asked if he intends to continue protesting against the closure of the gate at Checkpoint 56 Sharbati replied, without hesitation, “Of course”.

The Director of Education for Hebron, Nisreen Amro, said to ISM volunteers “If the Israeli Army does not reverse their decision by Sunday, chalkboards will be brought to the checkpoint and lessons will be held here.”

At the end of the protest as ISM volunteers left the checkpoint they observed soldiers refusing to allow a far along, pregnant, Palestinian lady through the checkpoint gate. She and her toddler were forced to climb the steep hill next to the checkpoint in order to avoid the metal detector.

International volunteers will continue to observe and report on any future protests.

Teachers in Hebron give lessons at Checkpoint 56

12 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

This morning the pupils and teachers from Qutuba School protested against the treatment of teachers at checkpoint 56. When, for the second day running, the teachers were not allowed to use the checkpoint gate that they usually use, they refused to pass through. In response at 8 AM the school closed, and the pupils came out to take their lessons outside of the checkpoint.

Addressing the children at the beginning of a lesson one teacher said, “Until the teachers are allowed to pass around the checkpoint we will have our lessons here.”

At the same time thousands of Palestinians gathered near the municipality of Hebron in a solidarity demonstration with the hunger striking prisoners. Here there were speeches from the head of the prisoners club, Amjad Najjar and the governor of Hebron, Kamil Hamid. In the square where the demonstration took place there have been tents forming a solidatarity camp for the prisoners for the last one and a half weeks. The demonstration ended peacefully at 10am.

Lessons resume at Checkpoint 56 - Click here for more images

At the same time, away from the demonstration, in the old city, there were reports that some settlers had attacked Palestinians. The settlers reportedly threw stones at the Palestinians, and after a short while the Israeli Occupation Forces arrived. When the Palestinians did not disperse immediately, the soldiers shot tear gas canisters directly into the crowd and made 4 arrests. One of the detained men is Fatel Dendis, 20 who has learning difficulties. After half an hour of unrest the Palestinian Police arrived and dispersed the Palestinian protesters.

In an act of collective punishment the soldiers demanded that all traders in the Old City to close their shops immediately, and offered no indication of when they would be permitted to re-open.