Category: Hebron - Page 80 - International Solidarity Movement

Journal: When walking becomes a crime

13th July 2015 | Peter Cunliffe | Al Khalil, Occupied Palestine

Last night at around 11:30 PM, we received a call from one of our Palestinian neighbors about an incident that was unfolding outside our window.

A group of five Israeli soldiers were guarding two Palestinian youth, who did not look to be older than fifteen. The kids were sitting on concrete steps, and the soldiers had them surrounded, so they could not get away. The boys were detained around 11:15, according to our neighbor.

As is our policy, we observed for a few minutes, and then tried to talk to the kids. One of the first things we do when Palestinians are being detained by soldiers is ask them (the Palestinians) if they are OK with us taking photos and video. The answer is almost always yes, but we always ask first.

Taking photos and videos has two purposes. The first is to document what is happening. The second is to let the soldiers know they are being observed. This sometimes leads to people being released more quickly, and the soldiers being less rough than would be the case if no one was filming.

The boys gave consent for us to take photos, and we started to ask them for their names, when the soldiers angrily told us to go away and physically forced us to move back. We kept asking them why the boys were being detained. What had they done?

One of the soldiers, who seemed to be the commander, and who we have had run-ins with before, told us he does not have justify to us what he and his men are doing. Another soldier, however, who seemed to be younger and less experienced, told us the truth… the boys did not have their ID with them. The reason they were stopped and made to sit down and surrounded by heavily armed troops was that they did not have in their possession the papers that every Palestinian needs to have on them, if he or she hopes to not be harassed by the army. I asked the soldier if this was the only reason, he said there was another one, but refused to say what it was.

We kept trying to talk to the boys, and the soldiers kept pushing us away. Eventually their father came, and after some discussions with them, he showed them the boys’ papers. It was only after this that they let them go, one by one. The incident took more than one hour.

Imagine living in a place where armed men can stop you and hold you- and if they feel necessary, confine you in a jail- simply because you don’t have a document on you that can tell them at a glance your first and last name, where you live, where you are from, and what religion you follow.

Palestinians are obliged to carry such ID on them at all times. Any Israeli soldier or police officer can randomly stop them, and demand to see it. If they don’t have it, things can turn ugly.

The boys who were detained were not threatening anyone. They were not carrying out a suicide bombing. They aren’t terrorists. They were not even throwing rocks, which the military often uses as an excuse to do detain, arrest, beat, or even kill Palestinians.

They were simply going for a walk, and some guys in uniforms thought they looked suspicious. A piece or two of forgotten ID led to an hour of stress and intimidation, and could have ended with arrests and possibly worse behind the closed doors of a police station or military base. The only crime these teens were guilty of was being Palestinian, and going for a walk.

Fortunately, their ordeal ended in a lot better way than experiences of others, who face similar situations on a regular basis in this city, and all parts of the West Bank which are under Israeli military rule.

Palestinian home and market attacked by settlers from illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah

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.

Shuhada Street 2015: Suffering from Israeli propaganda and ongoing military closure

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.

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.

Soldiers — 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.

Israeli soldier attempts to arrest Palestinian, activists intervene

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.

Settlers under the protection of Israeli forces prevent Palestinian shops from opening

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.”

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.