Category: Hebron

Illegal settlers break into kindergarten, damage property

7th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Colonial settlers from the illegal settlements in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) have repeatedly invaded and damaged a Palestinian kindergarten located on Shuhada Street over the last two days.

On Saturday night, the colonial settlers entered the Shuhada Street kindergarten, stealing two Palestinian flags and breaking cameras installed by the Palestinian families. The kindergarten connects directly to the roof of a residential building that houses three Palestinian families, which is accessible by the settlers through this roof access.  The three families are now feeling under threat.

The following day, on Sunday afternoon, settlers again entered the kindergarten, but were surprised by the presence of Palestinians on their roof. Settlers then threw stones at the Palestinian youths before leaving. They cut a hole in the fence which protects the kindergarten entrance from illegal settlers entering. The settlers had clearly planned in advance to cut the fence as they had  brought the necessary tools with them.

Wire-mesh fence cut by the settlers
Photo-credit: Human Rights Defenders Group

Settlers from the illegal settlements, under the protection of the Israeli forces, enjoy almost complete impunity for their actions, while Palestinians under the Israeli military law are presumed guilty until they can prove otherwise. The Palestinians living in the H2-area under full Israeli military control have no institution they can turn to for protection or help in this case, but are at the full mercy of the Israeli forces and settlers. With settlers having entered the compound for two days in a row, and the water tanks on the roof easily accessible, the families now do not only have to fear even more for their safety in their own homes, but also about being poisoned through their drinking water supply. In the past settlers in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood poisoned the water tank of a Palestinian family.  Fortunately the poisoning was detected before anyone drank the water.

Hebron’s eighth annual demonstration to open Shuhada Street: in pictures

2nd March 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team  |  Hebron, occupied Palestine 

The eighth annual demonstration against the closure of the Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street districts of Hebron was dispersed by Israeli violence within five minutes of setting off this year.  Nearly a thousand attended from all over Palestine, and included Israeli and international activists.  Many were injured by tear gas.  Here are the pictures of the day:

Dismantle the Ghetto banner in Bab al-Zawiya, near entrance to the closed zone

The demo sets off peacefully with hundreds of demonstrators chanting and marching towards the military base

Israeli forces begin to shower protesters with teargas and stun grenades

Palestinian protester enveloped in teargas

In an act of collective punishment, Israeli forces bring out a skunkwater truck, and spray houses in the old city with foul smelling chemical water

After the protest is disrupted, clashes erupt in Bab al-Zawiya between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces

Israeli army attacks peaceful demonstration in Hebron and injures protesters : eye-witness accounts

24th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On 24th February several hundred people joined together for a demonstration in al-Khalil (Hebron) in occupied Palestine.  Palestinians, Israelis and international activists protested together against the occupation of  Shuhada Street and Tel Rumeida in the heart of the city, closed by the military after the massacre of 29 Palestinians in the al-Ibrahimi mosque in 1994.  The protesters marched from the centre of the city to the military base at the entrance to the closed zone but were fired upon with tear gas and stun grenades within minutes of the start of their peaceful protest.  The protesters were immediately forced to disperse with many suffering from tear gas inhalation.  Some needed treatment on site and some were taken to hospital.

ISM activists attended in groups of two and three to support, document and protest. Here are some eyewitness accounts:

Group 1

“After midday prayers people started marching towards the old city, chanting slogans against the Israeli occupation and the settlers. After about ten minutes, the march was faced by a sizeable group of Israeli soldiers and border police. They marched towards the Israeli forces nonetheless, but were soon met with two stun grenades thrown towards protesters in the front line and teargas canisters shot throughout the street. I saw a teargas canister hit a north American army veteran below his left shoulder: it is entirely plausible that it was shot intentionally into the crowd. Shooting these canisters directly towards people is not only in direct contradiction of Israeli ‘rules of engagement’ but also potentially lethal.”

Group 2

“I was in front of the demo when the teargas canisters were fired directly into the first lines of protesters.  Stun grenades exploded next to me and I couldn’t hear anything for the next minute.  Everywhere on the street were clouds of teargas expanding and the demo turned into a big escape.  I and many other protesters took refuge in the side streets, hiding from Israeli soldiers and tear gas.”

 Group 3

“Our group started near the back.  Tear gas started in great quantity within minutes  and together with a large number of Palestinians and other internationals, we scrambled up a side set of stairs and spent the rest of the demonstration trapped there, tear gassed frequently and running in different directions to escape.  There was no possibility of rejoining the march route.  Red Crescent ambulances, with paramedics in gas masks, attended to the large number of people who were suffering from excessive gas inhalation and some were taken to hospital.”

Group 4

“Emotion, censored freedom, pain, oppression, … these are the words which describe the commemoration of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, fifty years of occupation and the closure of Shuhada Street for over twenty years.  After just ten minutes, the Israeli forces showed up in front of the crowd. They immediately stopped the demonstration, leaving no freedom to Palestinians and internationals to commemorate the Ibrahimi mosque’s victims.  The atmosphere was tense as Israeli forces started to throw teargas into the crowd.  Once again, Israel pretends to be a democracy but leaves no freedom to Palestinians to express themselves and to commemorate those they lost.”

 

Elor Azaria verdict: a personal view

22nd February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team, | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Yesterday the Israeli soldier Elor Azaria was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the extra-judicial killing of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, which happened last year in Hebron. Everybody in Hebron was waiting for the sentence. Everybody knew by one o’clock what it was. Everyone was heavy hearted. Palestinian friends compared a sentence of two years for stone throwing with Azaria’s eighteen months for murder. The implications here on the ground for what soldiers can do with impunity is also clear to all.

We at ISM had been in touch with Imad Abu Shamsiya, the Palestinian who filmed the execution, in case he wanted our support if the settlers were angry at the sentence as he has experienced large amounts of threats and harassment from both soldiers and settlers for bringing this incident to light.

Today I get email from the UK with news of how the case was reported on the BBC flagship morning show:

‘…almost all of the piece consisted of a discussion with their Jerusalem correspondent about Israeli anger that Azaria had been jailed. The fact that Palestinians were angered at the brevity of the sentence was tacked on as an afterthought. It was not explained that the Israeli soldiers are an army of occupation that is protecting settlers who are in Hebron illegally. It was not explained that Abdel Fattah al-Sherif had been lying injured and motionless on the ground for ten minutes and presenting no threat to anyone before Azaria executed him. Al-Sherif was described as “an attacker”, Azaria as “a soldier”. The framing of what happened could have been scripted by the IDF. The impression given was of the IDF acting in support of the civil authorities and being subjected to a military assault by enemy combatants. The right-wing Israeli perspective that Azaria was an inexperienced conscript who acted in the heat of the moment in battle was reported unchallenged. The alternative view that al-Sharif had committed grievous bodily harm or some such criminal assault before being totally incapacitated and that he was then murdered in cold blood by a heavily-armed agent of an occupying power was not given.’

Shame.

To see the video so bravely filmed by Imad which led to the case being heard at all:

 

Remembering the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre

25th of February, 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine

 

Today, February 25th marks the 23rd commemoration of the Ibrahim Mosque Massacre in Hebron. “On February 25 1994, a US-born Israeli military physician walked into the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron armed with a Galil assault rifle. It was early morning during the holy month of Ramadan, and hundreds of Palestinians were crammed inside, bowed in prayer. Baruch Goldstein, who had emigrated to Israel in 1983, lived in the Kiryat Arba settlement on the outskirts of the city. As worshippers kneeled, Goldstein opened fire. He reloaded at least once, continuing his barrage for as long as possible before finally being overpowered and eventually beaten to death. By the time he was stopped, 29 worshippers were killed, and more than a hundred had been injured.

The Israeli government immediately released a statement condemning the act and stating that Goldstein acted alone and was psychologically disturbed. Twenty years later, Palestinians are carrying out memorial events and Hebron’s settlers are preparing celebratory pilgrimages to Goldstein’s shrine inside Kiryat Arba.”

29 were massacred in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, the Muslim holy site at the Cave of the Patriarchs. It wasn’t only the 29 people who were killed but also many other people from the locality- people living in the area estimated about 200 people wounded from the incident happened.

After 22 years of the Ibrahimi maosue massacre, the Palestinian people are still sufering calling to end the restrictions imposed on the people living in Hebron. Every year they protest to against the rules forced on them, asking for opening the Shuhadaa’ street that has been closed for seven years!

This 7th annual Open Shuhada Street protest comes after months of increasing violence, restrictions and collective punishment imposed by Israeli authorities on al-Khalil’s Palestinian residents. At the end of October Israeli forces began imposing a ‘closed military zone‘ on the short portion of Shuhada street where Palestinians were previously still allowed to walk, along with a large part of the adjacent Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. Palestinian residents and activist groups have been nonviolently resisting the closed military zone, which requires residents to register in order to be allowed into their homes and bars other Palestinian and human rights defenders from entry. The closed military zone, along with the widespread, deadly violence and closures deployed against Palestinians in al-Khalil, has also been broadly condemned by Palestinian and international human rights groups; on the February 25th anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, Amnesty International released a public statement calling on Israeli authorities to “lift the discriminatory restrictions, end the collective punishment of Palestinians in the city and protect human rights defenders there.”