Notorious settler Anat Cohen interrupted a peaceful movie screening, which was hosted by Youth Against Settlements to commemorate the victims of the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre in 1994.
Palestinians gather around fire near checkpoint by Ibrahimi mosque, lighting candles
Every night, Palestinians gather around a bonfire in the Salaymeh neighborhood of occupied Hebron to keep watch in case of settler attacks. Today, as part of the Open Shuhada Street campaign, 50-60 people had come here to light candles in memory of each of the 33 victims of the massacre and its immediate consequences, followed by a documentary titled “Hebron Under the Microscope.”
Candles lit in commemoration of the victims of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre
29 Palestinians were murdered inside the Ibrahimi Mosque on the 25th of February, 1994, when Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein entered and opened fire at the Muslim worshipers inside. Four Palestinians were killed on the same day in the clashes that broke out around the Mosque in response to the massacre. In the aftermath, the mosque (also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs) was divided in two, with the larger part turned into a synagogue while heavy scrutiny was imposed on the Palestinians and areas closed completely to them, including an important market and the main street, Shuhada street. In protest of these closures, Youth Against Settlements organizes events around the anniversary of the massacre as part of their Open Shuhada Street campaign, held annually in Hebron and worldwide since 2010.
Palestinians gathering for the Open Shuhada Street event
During the screening of the documentary, three Palestinians were detained by the army for no apparent reason across the street along with a ten-year-old girl. The coordinator of Youth Against Settlements, Issa Amro, was also detained when trying to reason with the soldiers.
Israeli forces arbitrarily detained 3 young men and a 10-year-old girl
Then the notoriously aggressive settler Anat Cohen slowed down her car next to a group of Palestinians and hit those who could not escape fast enough. She made a u-turn and left her car to yell at and intimidate the Palestinians gathered in the street. She filmed and verbally and physically attacked Palestinians and internationals while soldiers stood by and did not intervene. Instead of stopping her unprovoked aggressions, they began loudly pushing back the Palestinians, restricting them to certain parts of the street and preventing them from documenting.
Soldiers forcing Palestinians back
Heavy arguments broke out. A man fainted and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance when he witnessed a soldier hit his wife with a gun. The army repeatedly pushed back Palestinians using excessive force. Eventually, Anat Cohen left without facing any consequences for her violent assaults and harassment, witnessed by the army and civil police.
Wael Fakhouri, a resident of the neighborhood: “We work hard to protect ourselves from settler violence.”
Contact: Issa Amro 059 934 0549 issaamro@gmail.com
24th February 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Today, like any other day, the children of Palestine prepared for their grim and demoralising walk to school through the Salaymeh checkpoint. The notorious checkpoint where Yasmin al-Zarour was shot down by Israeli occupying forces just 10 days ago. The current situation is one that is hard to imagine but is what has become an unwanted yet regrettably accepted reality for the people of Palestine under the Zionist occupation.
Following the same tedious and demoralising procedure as the day before and as far back as one cares to remember. The people crossing through the metal detectors at the Salaymeh checkpoint are made to remove (at soldiers requests) any metallic objects; be it cell phones, coins, wallets, shoes, belts, be susceptible to body searches, have their bags searched, have ID’s checked and can even be detained for hours without reason.
An Israeli soldier prepares a tear gas grenade to be shot at children
As is one of the only acts of defiance that children can show to this heinous occupation, young children gather at the base of the road to throw stones uphill at heavily combat and armour clad soldiers. The reaction of the occupying forces is swift. Like it was the day before only this time the threat of using more force is clearly evident and documented by the onlooking ISM activists.
A soldier was quick to hurl a stun grenade at the children below following the stone throwing. Ignoring the fellow Palestinian’s passing by the grenade falls well short, like it did the day before only this time no damage was done or was at least seeable to the parked cars that it landed between. Following the initial grenade the soldiers adorn their combat helmets and pass through the checkpoint. A remaining soldier on the other side of the checkpoint adjusts his M16 assault rifle to prepare a tear gas canister to be fired from it.
https://youtu.be/Y2SI9VPyVI0
As the soldiers passed through the checkpoint and were waiting by nearby shops and houses, a soldier passes another a tear gas grenade. Other young children on their way to school can be seen walking through the checkpoint but after assessing the situation and coming into close vicinity of the soldiers they make the decision to turn around and go back.
An elderly Palestinian man ushers the stone throwing children away and is clearly seen to not be happy with them. However little impact the stones may have had, the sound of the grenades going off and tear gas inhalation at 7:30am or any time of the day in a suburban area is not what any local Palestinian wishes for.
As the children dispersed the soldiers remain. It’s during this time that we notice an ambulance parked up next to the checkpoint. This ambulance belongs to the infamous Israeli settler Ofer who is supposed to be a medic. He is generally always on scene at most reported stabbing attempts and is notorious for never administering the required first aid to assist in keeping the critically wounded Palestinians alive after they’ve been shot by occupying Israeli forces. Instead he opts to instil fear into the young soldiers like in the case of Yasmin al-Zarour by claiming that bags may contain bombs or to check rooftops for snipers. While the settler Ofer may seem an unimaginable person or however far out the scenario described may seem, it is one of the very real and very horrible situations that Palestinian people are faced with.
The notorious settler Ofer and his ambulance taking personal footage
Since the shooting of Yasmin after the reported stabbing attack she is yet to be charged with, the Salaymeh checkpoint has been scheduled for maintenance. This maintenance will now see it become upgraded to appear more like the current Shuhada street checkpoint that resembles a large metal fortress. This will undoubtedly lead to longer waiting times at the checkpoint, more thorough searches and more de-humanising of the Palestinian people while settlers walk freely and have the full protection of the Israeli army.
While the spirit of the Palestinian people remains strong, nothing will change without international acknowledgment of this apartheid regime and the genocidal actions being implemented by the zionist state of Israel.
23rd February 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
It has become a regular occurance for Palestinian school children to endure physical violence, harrassment, body searches and other demoralizing acts at the hands of the Israeli miltary. For those attending school near the notorious Salaymeh checkpoint in Hebron on Tuesday the 23rd of February, only nine days after Yasmin al-Zarour was gunned down there, it was to be yet another school morning filled with excessive force as Israeli soldiers quickly resorted to stun grenades to control an eight year old Palestinian child. This excessive force experienced daily by the children of Palestine is yet another cruel and inhumane illustration of Israel’s current apartheid regime.
Israeli soldiers targeting Palestinian school children with their assault rifles
As the Palestinian school children shuffled through the Salaymeh checkpoint, Israeli forces carefully watched over them as if they were a serious security threat. The slow and broken process of queuing in the cold, taking off belts and other items whilst searching bags and bodies is a painful one to watch. In the only act of defiance that an eight year old can show, one Palestinian boy returns from beyond the checkpoint to throw stones at the soldiers. In many countries, such behaviour might be met with serious talks between the child’s parents and authorities. But not in occupied Palestine. Here in Palestine, Israeli forces regularly respond with tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades to stone throwing children.
Soldiers using the scope of an assault rifle to forcefully watch over and intimidate children
”We have witnessed Israeli soldiers tear gas Palestinian children on the way to school on a daily basis.” ISM activist
Today was no different. Israeli soldiers gathered, staring through the scopes of their assault rifles in order to intimidate and keep a forceful eye over the children. Soon after, a stun grenade is thrown by the occupied forces down the busy street. The stun grenade is off target and smashes a Palestinian car window before exploding. The distress is clear on the faces of innocent bystanders and school children as many flee and one young boy attempts to turn back through the checkpoint in fear.
”It was beyond unneccessary. To see a stun grenade being used to control an unarmed eight year old is disgusting. And who will pay for the poor Palestinians car damage? Not Israel. They are never held accountable no matter how minor or great the crime.” International activist on the scene
An Israeli soldier prepares a tear gas grenade to be shot at children
For many the rain would be enough to take the day off, but for eager kinds in Palestine, not even the oppresion from the Israeli military can deter them from getting to their place of learning. But it won’t go unnoticed. The effects of such appaulling and degrading harrassment will slowly wear down on the minds of these bright school kids. Sadly, as the children of Palestine are exposed to never ending violence and oppression, much of the world sits patiently watching the inhumanity of the apartheid regime, as if a greater reason exists to bring an end to this tyranny than the safety of the children’s lives.
School children were the target of Israeli forces stun grenades
22nd February 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
A day after 21-year old Yasmin al-Zarou was gunned down by Israeli forces when passing the Salaymeh checkpoint, many of the children were forced to walk right past where she had layn on the ground bleeding – where her blood is still clearly visible on the ground. Yasmin had passed the checkpoint on 14th February 2016, when Israeli forces shot her several times with live ammunition, critically injuring her. Instead of administering first aid to Yasmin, lying on the ground, writhing in pain and losing massive amounts of blood, Israeli forces were busy violently attacking anyone attempting to help the injured young woman.
Scene of Yasmins shooting after she was taken away in an army jeep Photo credit: Christian Peacemaker Teams Palestine
A shocking video shows Israeli medics and soldiers standing around her as she lies on a stretcher, interrogating her, not examining her or providing medical care and shoving away her outstretched hands.
A disabled man in a wheelchair was even pushed over by Israeli forces, who shortly after threw stun grenades at Palestinian residents of the area – all while Yasmin was on the ground losing blood.
Even though an Israeli ‘ambulance’ arrived, no one gave Yasmin any first aid. The ambulance was driven by the infamous violent settler Ofer, who is neither medically trained nor operates a functioning ambulance, and who never provides any medical help when arriving on such a scene. He has been seen at several scenes where Palestinians had just been gunned down by Israeli forces on the claim of having knifes, always arriving in the fake ambulance, often taking photos of the dying Palestinians and instructing others not to treat them.
Eyewitnesses reported that Yasmin was just passing the checkpoint with her sister when she was shot by Israeli forces. While bystanders were prevented from administering first aid, Israeli forces never attempted to do so. In the end, she was taken on a stretcher in an army vehicle while the fake Israeli ambulance was still at the scene. The refusal of medical help, just a day before, on 13th February 2016, directly resulted in the death of 18-year old Kilzar al-Uweiwi close to another checkpoint in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi mosque. Even though she was shot in the neck, her autopsy indicated that her life would have been saved if she had received immediate life-saving medical treatment. Thus her death directly resulted from the Israeli forces’ policy, demonstrated repeatedly in recent months, of denying any kind of medical help to Palestinians and instead leaving them to bleed to death on the ground.
Yasmin was taken to Shaare Zedek hospital in illegally annexed al-Quds (Jerusalem), and since then information on her condition has not been released. Her parents and family are all al-Khalil residents and must carry the green Isreali-issued West Bank IDs which bar Palestinians without a permit from visiting al-Quds (where Palestinians require blue IDs); they are not allowed to visit their daughter in the hospital and are thus left completely in the dark about her condition.
The morning after Yasmin was shot, schoolchildren were forced to pass the pool of blood that was still clearly visible on the ground, and many children living in the neighbourhood were talking about the incident the day before. Several parents whose children attend a kindergarten directly next to Ibrahimi mosque were too afraid to send their children to the kindergarten after a sleepless night following the shooting.
Israeli forces have announced that the Salaymeh checkpoint, a major passage-way for children on their way to and from school, will be closed from the 21st of February 2016 for three weeks for ‘renovations’. Such checkpoint renovations have already been carried out many times in al-Khalil, with the most recent expansion of Shuhada checkpoint making passage even more harrowing for local Palestinians.
In the past week, children on their way to and from school in the area around the Ibrahimi mosque in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) have endured constant harassment and intimidation by Israeli forces. They face checkpoints guarded by heavily armed Israeli forces and the ensuing bag-searches, ID-checks and harassments on a daily basis. Six schools are situated behind Salaymeh and Qeitun checkpoints; the majority of their students can only reach their schools by passing one of these two checkpoints, as Israeli forces blocked off an alternative route with concrete blocks and barbed wire. Al-Faihaa girls school, located on the main road between the two checkpoints, has repeatedly been threatened by Israeli forces that their main gate will be permanently closed if any boys are seen crossing through the schoolyard and thus avoiding being forced to pass the two checkpoints. The main road which runs past the two checkpoint and the girls’ school directly connects the illegal settlements in the center of al-Khalil with the far larger illegal Kiryat Arba settlement on the outskirts of the city. Thus, on their way to school, Palestinian girls are often confronted with violent settlers trying to hit them with their cars – often driven on roads where only settlers and Israeli forces are permitted to drive while Palestinians are barred from operating vehicles – or physically and verbally attacking them.
21st February 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Sunday the 21st of February, the people of Hebron along with fellow activists gathered for part of a week long campaign against occupying Israel to show solidarity and oppose the closure of Shuhada Street to the Palestinian people.
Shuhada Street has been closed to Palestinians since 1994 after Baruch Goldstein, a zionist extremist, entered Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire with a machine gun, killing 29 people and leaving 125 wounded. During this time the street has fallen into the occupiers hands and has later been renamed King David Street. The Palestinian people are no longer allowed to enter the street while illegal settlers inhabit the area. The closure of this once thriving Palestinian market is the reason Palestinians protest to this day.
At 11am the people of Hebron gathered around the entrance to Shuhada checkpoint. The campaign activities of the day started by erecting a solidarity tent and displaying pictures of the occupying forces brutal show of force towards the Palestinian people. Palestinians of the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and the tiny strip of Shuhada Street that is still accessible for (some) Palestinians, have been protesting the closure of their neighbourhood since it was first declared a ‘closed military zone’ on 1st November.
Palestinians creating murals on military blockade Photo credit: Youth Against Settlements
Within a few minutes of the pictures being erected an aggressive group of soldiers from the occupying Israeli forces made their way into the Palestinian area of H1. They began by forcefully pushing participants of the campaign back towards what they deemed a suitable distance and then further when they felt like displaying more military might. From here they barred anyone from getting any closer while they began to tear down the pictures that had been erected in solidarity withthose that have suffered under the illegal occupation.
This did not stop the people of Hebron as they continued with peaceful activities. Painting large canvas murals to show their solidarity and objection to the closure of Shuhada Street.
Palestinians drawing murals Photo credit: Youth Against Settlements
At around 2pm, young Palestinian children threw some pebbles at the soldiers who were behind the armoured checkpoint. Almost instantly the waiting occupying forces emerged, hurling stun grenades at children and innocent bystanders. After a while they began to shoot steel coated rubber bullets also. Using excessive force as is a classic trademark of the illegal occupying forces.
Israeli forces emerging from the checkpoint into supposedly Palestinian controlled H1Soldier ready to attack campaigners
Tomorrow the people of Hebron will unite again to campaign against the occupation with more activities and more shows of defiance and opposition towards Israel, their illegal settlements and the closure of Shuhada Street.
