29th July 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Al Khalil, Occupied Palestine
At 18:30 PM on the 29th of June 2015, masked settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah attacked Palestinian houses and souq (market) with a water hose and stones.
Shadi Sider, a Palestinian man, had to be hospitalized due to a stone thrown by a settler that hit him in the knee. The settlers attacked the Sider family home, the water went inside the living room, completely soaking the interior including a computer. During the attack, an Israeli settler arrived with an assault rifle. Israeli soldiers were present throughout the entire incident, they stood and watched but never intervened to stop the settler violence. They were standing above the Palestinian market, which they occupy.
Six children, all under the age of five years old, were present in the family home at the time of the attack; stones were also thrown at the property. This is not the first time that the family home has been attacked by settlers. Just last Saturday, the settlers sprayed water at the same home and threw stones. The Sider family home overlooks the settler basketball court and illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah.
Twenty Israeli soldiers were present in the souq after the incident today. They came into the Sider home, looked around, and left without speaking to Shadi Sider’s wife, whose home was just attacked by settlers. Time and time again settlers have attacked the Sider family home yet none of them are ever reprimanded for doing so.
Video provided to ISM by the Sider family.
Hundreds Palestinian shops and warehouses were closed on Shuhada Street by the Israeli army in 1994 following the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, in which twenty-nine Muslims were murdered during prayer inside Ibrahimi Mosque by Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler from Kiryat Arba. In the name of protecting Jewish settlers after the massacre of Palestinians during Ramadan, Palestinian vehicular traffic was prohibited and pedestrian access restricted in addition to the closure of businesses and municipal offices. In 1997 Israel agreed to reopen Shuhada Street to Palestinians and to restore closed shops in order to reestablish pre-1994 conditions. To this day, nearly twenty years later, none of the shops have been reopened and the street remains closed to Palestinian vehicles.
A door on Shuhada Street that has been completely welded closed.
Lately, news about a reopening of parts of Shuhada streets has been circling international media, and has been reported on in newspapers as prominent as the New York Times. According to these articles, the Israeli Civil Administration, through the mayor of Hebron, has promised that either seven (which was confirmed by an IDF spokesperson) or 70 stores would be allowed to reopen, with 70 being the most cited number. We, human rights workers from the International Solidarity Movement that are based in Hebron, have seen that, unfortunately, there is little to support these claims. The same days that the news broke, two stores were indeed allowed to open for about an hour, before they were forced to close again by the Israeli forces present.
On July 24, a Palestinian store-owner, with the permission of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, attempted to get to his shop, which is located further up on the same street as the supposed store openings, in order to restore it to workable condition. He was, however, blocked from entering his shop by a big gathering of settlers, escorted by border police. The settlers brought chairs and a tent, and sat down in the front of the Palestinians shop on Shuhada Street to have their breakfast, taunting Muslims who were fasting for Ramadan. ISMers witnessed this event. This occured again in the evening of the same day, when they brought banners, as well as the next morning. As of yet, this is the most action the stores of Shuhada Street has seen. To us, and other people who frequent the area of the Ibrahimi mosque daily, it is hard to draw any other conclusion than that the whole story is simply a another Israeli PR campaign with little basis in reality.
Welded door on Shuhada Street
We walk Shuhada Street every day, from checkpoint 56 at the start of the street to the checkpoint near the mosque of Ibrahim, and can confirm that nothing changed. Israeli forces continue to increase the arrests and detentions against Palestinians. Also, settler violence against Palestinians as well as internationals has not decreased at all. In fact, during the first couple of weeks of Ramadan, it was on the rise as many incidents occurred.
It should be clarified that the permission to reopen the stores has not shifted the complete block of this area by even one centimeter: the Palestinians are not allowed to access Shuhada Street and restrictions of movement imposed by the Israeli government between checkpoints and roadblocks for passing illegal settlements make it completely impossible to develop the functionality of economic activity.
Issa Amro, who was born in the old city of Hebron and is a local human rights defender, says of the situation: “The Israeli PR is trying to spread fake rumors about improvements and facilities for the Palestinians during Ramadan in the whole of the West Bank. As Palestinians, we don’t want a “nicer occupation,” we want our full freedom and self determination. The lies about reopening shops in Hebron is the best evidence to prove the real image of the occupation and the Israeli propaganda to change the apartheid image of the occupation.” Amro said that his organization hasn’t seen any improvement in Shuhada street, only more violations on the Palestinian identity of the street as well as more settler and army violence toward Palestinian children, women, and elders.
Barbed wire blocking the door to a house on Shuhada Street.
Amro says that his group is organising an international campaign to reopen Shuhada street. They had great success on 2015 by organizing more than 120 nonviolent activities all over the world, asking to put pressure on Israel to end its occupation and closure of the city centre of Hebron.
Amro added that even reopening shops without reopening all the checkpoints to let people and goods reach the shops is useless and impractical.
Israeli border police on Shuhada Street
Abed Salaymeh, a Shuhada Street resident since birth and activist in Youth Against Settlements, says: “What is happening in the main street of Hebron city makes me very angry. It’s not just because I was beaten up by a group of illegal settlers living on my street, who did that in front of the soldiers’ eyes, who not only didn’t take any action to stop them, but they let them attack and then had them leave the area while they forced us to stay home in order not to follow them. Judicially, as it is a kind of a dirty game, but also because of the lies that were spread in the media claiming that the occupation is to open shops in the street. Unfortunately people were very happy hearing that they would open some shops. This is not a gift that the occupation is giving, but this is a violated right by this occupation and must be taken back.”
This story was written by Youth Against Settlements and International Solidarity Movement.
27th June 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Al Khalil, Occupied Palestine
Below the video is an account of what happened:
Yesterday, 26 of June 2015 approximately 21:30, nineteen year old Hatem Al Mohtaseb from Tel Rumeida, Hebron, was walking up the hill of Tel Rumeida when an Israeli soldier detained him and asked for his ID. After the soldier had finished checking the Palestinian ID, the Israeli soldier then threw the ID on the concrete and told him to pick it back up.
The Palestinian man told the soldier that he is not a dog and will not pick it up off the ground and suggested to the soldier that he pick it back up and hand the ID back to him, like he had given it to the soldier at the start. The soldier then refused and began to argue.
A nearby Palestinian then picked the ID up off the ground and gave it to Hatem Al Mohtaseb. International Solidarity Movement activists that were present then walked up the hill and were discussing with the Palestinian man what had just happened. The same soldier came up to Hatem Al Mohtaseb and told him to move from the spot where he was standing in his own neighborhood. Hatem Al Mohtaseb then refused to move and the soldier aggressively shouting in Hebrew, then attempted to arrest him but ISMers stood in the way and prevented the arrest.
The soldier then complained to several male settlers walking up the road to the nearby illegal settlement. One of the settlers came right up to the activists, calling them sick people and Europa Nazis before leaving. After this point the soldier’s commanding officer had arrived and after speaking to Hatem Al Mohtaseb he decided not to follow up on
the arrest.
24th June 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Al Khalil, Occupied Palestine
Around 8:30 this morning on Shuhada street in Hebron, Israeli settlers, soldiers, and border police arrived and put up a breakfast tent right outside of two shops owned by a Palestinian man. The settlers remained in front of his shops for around three and a half hours under Israeli police and army protection.
The owner of the shops, which will be used to grind wheat into flour, is Ghassan Azzedine Abu Hadid. HRC has been working with him to facilitate the restoration of his two shops. Because of the presence of the settlers, he has been prevented from working on his shops in order to make them ready for opening.
International Solidarity Movement activists were present and asked Ghassan for a statement on what was happening to which he replied “I cannot say anything, I just want to open my shops and continue my work.”
Ghassan Azzedine Abu Hadid standing in front of the settlers and soldiers who are blocking his shops.
ISM’ers approached the Israeli border police whilst the settlers were still present outside Ghassan’s shops and asked if any of them spoke English, to which they replied no and proceeded to call some Israeli soldiers over. An ISM activist asked the soldier “Just wanted to know, why you are allowing this tent to be here in front of this Palestinian man’s shop? Why are the settlers here and why are they being protected by the army and police?” The Israeli soldier replied “This is your opinion. We are just here to protect the settlers.” ISM activist then states “You know that the New York Times is planning on publishing an article that 70 Palestinian shops on Shuhada street are ‘supposed to be opened’, but the reality is this *activist points to the settler tent preventing Palestinian shop from opening* you know that this *points again at the tent* is going to go world-wide, right?” Israeli soldier replied “OK…let me tell you what the Arabs do to us.” ISM activists at this point then noted that the Israeli soldiers across the street were yelling at the soldiers speaking to the activists. ISM activists can only assume that they told the other soldiers not to speak to us, as the conversation then came to an end.
Israeli forces guarding the settler tent.
At around 12:00 PM, most of the settlers walked back to the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah. Only one settler remained behind as the Israeli army helped him to pack the tent and chairs away.
Another Palestinian shop owner, who would like to remain anonymous, told ISM activists: “This is not the first time that Israeli settlers and soldiers have done this, they targeted these two shops specifically because they are getting ready to be opened. The settlers caught wind that this Palestinian man was planning on opening and now they are here with the tent.” He then stated about the recent news of 70 Palestinian shops opening on Shuhada street as “an Israeli publicity stunt.”
It is important to note that without the presence of the Israeli soldiers and border police, the settlers would not have been able to set this tent up in front of Ghassan’s shops. This event was clearly planned by settlers in conjunction with the Israeli forces.
Settlers blocking Ghassan’s shops.Palestinian women walking past the heavily guarded area around the tent.
12th June 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Al Khalil, Occupied Palestine
At Kafr Qaddum’s weekly demonstration yesterday, 12th June 2015, Israeli occupation forces invaded the village hours before the protest was set to start. Five Palestinians were shot with live ammunition. Two were shot in the leg, one was shot in the arm and two were shot in the abdomen. One of the men shot in the abdomen was in a critical condition for some hours after being transferred to hospital.
Blood stained shirt in the streets of Kafr Qaddum
The 35 year old underwent surgery to remove part of his intestines that had been damaged by the bullet. Following the operation the man’s condition stabilized. The man was not participating in the protest, he was shot while in his home standing next to the window. His injury highlights the collective punishment of the entire village for their efforts to resist the restriction of their right to freedom of movement. The local villagers said that the Israeli forces’ new tactic of extreme violence was an attempt to scare the residents into ending their weekly demonstration.
Muhammed Mhaid being carried from his home to the ambulance by protesters
After the occupation forces invaded the village they used the ‘Skunk truck’ to spray protesters and homes with foul smelling liquid. Palestinian youth began to throw stones and reflect sunlight into the eyes of the military and police by using mirrors. These actions were met with immediate use of live ammunition.
Protesters using mirrors and slingshots
Israeli police snipers targeted anyone who passed within range and which resulted in the previously mentioned injuries. The two men that were shot in the arm and leg are both still in hospital and awaiting surgery after the bullets penetrated the bone and inflicted serious damage. Two other villagers were taken away by ambulance after suffering severe tear gas inhalation. However, many of the injured protesters were forced to travel in civilian cars to the hospital because of a lack of ambulances at hand to deal with the quick succession of injuries.
People caught in one round of tear gas amongst many fired in the village
The locals of Kafr Qaddum said that it was the first time in years that the Israeli forces had so aggressively invaded the village before the Friday demonstration had begun. In 2011 the village had had a similar response when they had organised the first demonstrations in protest against the closure of the main road connecting Kafr Qaddum with the neighboring villages and the city of Nablus. The road had been blocked because it ran through the illegal Israeli settlement named Qedumim.
Rubber tires set alight on the road leading to Qedumim
The village has seen an increase in such restrictions over the last few months. On the morning of 12th June the main entrance was blocked off by military jeeps and Israeli soldiers, who were denying people access into Kafr Qaddum, claiming it was a closed military zone. Locals stated that this was a daily occurrence in recent weeks. And that not only have the occupation forces been blocking the entrance but that they have been raiding the village in the early morning.
Protesters using slingshots to throw back tear gas canisters
Kafr Qaddum’s residents are undeterred by the excessive violence they face on a daily basis. Following the harsh suppression of the demonstration on Friday, local villagers declared they will hold another demonstration on Saturday 13th June in protest against the regular early morning military incursions into their village.
