On 15 May 2014, Israeli courts extended the mediation process between the Israeli army and the villages within Firing Zone 918 for another three months. The Israeli army wants to use this area for training. Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organizations have condemned its bid to expel the villagers a violation of international law, which forbids forced transfer of the indigenous population of an occupied territory unless the occupying power is safeguarding them from an immediate danger.
During the previous period of mediation, the court allowed rehabilitation of damage done by storms, as well as access to the area by international humanitarian organizations. As a result, some development was possible in the area, specifically to the schools in al-Fakheit and Jinba. At the same time, as revealed in an article published on Ha’aretz, army officials admitted using firing zones as a way to deter the growth of Palestinian communities in Area C and to expel Palestinians from where they have lived since before the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
Since 8 June, the Israeli military has conducted exercises in close proximity to, and on one occasion, inside the village of Jinba. Some weeks before, the army drove armoured vehicles over Palestinian fields close to Jinba and Mirkez, damaging their harvest.
Residents of Jinba told CPT that they received a “solution” to the current legal battle from the Israeli army via their lawyers at the beginning of June. The army asked that all of the Palestinian residents voluntarily leave the area for thirty months so that the Israeli military could conduct its exercises. After that, the Palestinians could return to their homes. The villagers refused the offer, affirming they would not have anywhere to go with all their livestock. Even if the army allowed them back, no one would care for their crops and flocks for that thirty months.
The army is not asking Israeli settlers in the area to leave Firing Zone 918.
20th June 2014 | Operation Dove | Khallet Forem, Occupied Palestine
On June 18th, the Israeli army, along with border police officers and DCO (District Coordination Office) officers entered in the Palestinian village of Khallet Forem, in South Hebron Hills, and demolished seven houses, a bathroom, and a shelter.
No demolition orders were delivered for these structures.
According to Palestinian witnesses, a woman was injured by the soldiers during the operation.
The seven houses, the shelter, and the bathroom were owned by the Abu Dahar family. These demolitions involved at least 26 people, 12 of them are children.
In the same day, Israeli forces demolished the main road of Ar Rifa’Iyya Ad Deirat and built a roadblock in order to prevent the access from that road to the bypass road 356.
According to PHROC (The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council), the recent wave of demolitions, arrests, attacks, killings, and total closure of large parts of the West Bank following the disappearance of three Israeli settlers is a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. This is in direct violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that forbid reprisals against protected persons and their property, as well as collective punishment.
Photo by Operation DovePhoto by Operation Dove
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
On Wednesday evening, 11 June 2014, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child whose condition was described as very serious, were wounded when Israeli forces targeted a member of an armed group who was killed by two missiles launched by a drone in the northern Gaza Strip. Following the crime, Israeli forces admitted to committing the crime as their spokesperson, in cooperation with the “Shin Bet” security services, said that “ they targeted the aforementioned who was involved recently in launching dozens of rockets at the Israeli towns”, according to the Israeli claims.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 22:20on the aforementioned day, Israeli drones launched two missiles at a motorbike travelling near the Palestinian Naval apparatus headquarters on the coastal road, southwest of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. The bike was ridden by Mohammed Ahmed ‘Abdel Latif al-‘Aawour (33), a member of an armed group from Beit Lahia Housing Project, who was immediately killed after the upper part of his body turned into pieces. His nephew, ‘Ali Abdel Latif Ahmed al-‘Awour (10), suffered shrapnel wounds throughout his body causing him bleeding in the brain and he entered into a coma.
Hamadah Hussein Mohammed Naser (32) from Jabalia was wounded by shrapnel in parts of his body as he was travelling in his Black Mercedes car holding registration plate No. 3-00-9206 near the targeted place. Moreover, Monther Hasan al-Masar’ie from Shati’ refugee camp was wounded by shrapnel in different parts of his body also passing by the targeted area. The body of the armed member and the three injured persons were taken to Kamal ‘Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. The injury of the child and Naser was described as serious, and they were both transferred to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Meanwhile, the injury of al-Masar’ie was described as moderate. The missiles caused two big holes in the road around 50 centimetres deep.
According to field investigations and examination of the targeted place, large numbers of Palestinian civilians, especially women and children, were on the beach of Beit Lahia and Jablia. They were terrified as a result.
It should be mentioned that when the killed was targeted, he was in al-Basmah Cafeteria owned by his nephew ‘Abdulatif on the coastal road and he took his nephew with him when he left the place.
PCHR condemns this crime, which further proves the use of extra-judicial execution and excessive force by Israeli forces against the Palestinian civilians in disregard for the civilians’ lives. Therefore, PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate and effective actions to put an end to such crimes and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to fulfil their obligations under Article 1; i.e., to respect and to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to have committed the grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions.
Over a decade after Rachel Corrie was crushed under the blades of an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, her parents Craig and Cindy Corrie found themselves in the halls of the Supreme Court of Israel. The Corries were appealing a verdict handed down in 2013 by Judge Oded Gershon of the Haifa District Court decision. Gershon ruled that Corrie was responsible for her own life by entering willfully into Gaza during a time of conflict.
“While not surprising, the verdict is yet another example of impunity prevailing over accountability and fairness and it flies in the face of the fundamental principle of international humanitarian law – that in a time of war, military forces are obligated to take all measures to avoid harm to both civilians and their property,” said Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein, Corrie’s attorney at the Haifa hearing in 2013.
This prolonged legal battle, which is approaching it’s almost 20th hearing, has taken on many different shapes over the years. The media generally focuses on evidence disputing whether or not the bulldozer operator did in fact see Corrie during the act of demolishing Palestinian homes on March 16, 2003. Much hangs in the balance in the court ruling, all of which has far reaching implications for the Corrie family, the Israeli legal system, and the broader nonviolent movement across Israel and Palestine.
Corrie’s legal unit contests that this is not an issue of murder, but a failure to protect civilians – which is covered by both a multitude of Israeli and International laws.
“We have tried very hard to let people know that this isn’t a case about murder,” said Cindy Corrie standing outside the hall of the Supreme Court, as she responded to reporters. “We want to push the issue of negligence and bring up the point of International Law and the protection of civilians.”
In the court room, Corrie’s legal representation, presented a case that the military command unit not only knew of the legal and moral obligations of protecting civilians during a time of war, and that at the very least, a proper investigation had not taken place, and at worst, there was a subsequent cover up.
Their attorneys argued that, even if the bulldozer operator did not see Rachel Corrie, he did see the other activists of the International Solidarity Movement, and that was enough to stop the operational engagement and remove civilians before proceeding.
Heading into the court room, Cindy Corrie was optimistic that they had a better chance of having tenants of Internal Law recognized and applied in the court room. “This time, instead of one judge, we will have three judges that will hear the argument,” said Cindy Corrie.
“When the former Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade Commander Colonel Pinhas (Pinky) Zuaretz, who was in charge in 2003, testified, he confirmed that the rules of engagement at the time Rachel was killed were to “shoot to kill any adult person on the [Philadelphi] route.” As another Israeli colonel who testified put it: “There are no civilians in a war zone.” By accepting the testimony of Zuaretz and others, Judge Gershon essentially accepted that the “shoot to kill” order was acceptable, which violates the fundamental tenets of international humanitarian law, mandating that soldiers distinguish between combatants and civilians,” said Corrie’s attorney after the verdict in Haifa.
Shortly after the Haifa ruling, former President of the United States Jimmy Carter said, “The court’s decision confirms a climate of impunity, which facilitates Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Territory.”
The State Defense argued that, “It’s impossible to stop during an operational mission, particularly if there is impending loss to Israeli life,” reasoning that it was impossible to expect the operation to halt during the presence of civilians, and further argued that Rachel Corrie was not a civilian and there for was not covered by International Law.
“In its appeal, Israel took things to a whole new level, arguing in its brief to the Supreme Court that Rachel fell outside the protections of international humanitarian law. Israel’s novel argument — which goes against both international law and Israeli precedent — is that only the “occupied population,” i.e., certain Palestinians, enjoy the protection of international humanitarian law, and that non-Palestinian civilians, including U.S. human rights defenders and presumably NGO workers, can be targeted by Israeli forces,” said Katherine Gallagher a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, and a Vice-President of the International Board of the International Federation for Human Rights. “If the court accepts this argument, it would set a dangerous precedent and place human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territory at even greater risk than they already are.”
Corrie’s team stated that, if it was the case that there was impending danger to Israeli lives, the operation would not have stopped after Corrie was ran over by the bulldozer and investigated the scene, and that if there was an eminent threat, they would not have used bulldozers, which are not a combat vehicle.
“There was only one armed vehicle in the operation,” pointed out their attorney. “Bulldozers are not combat vehicles.”
The Israeli state defense further argued that it’s not military protocol to evacuate activists, to which Corrie’s attorney rebutted that the military has extensive training on removing Palestinians, International actors, and Illegal Jewish settlers both before and during operations. The state countered Corrie’s legal representatives, saying “that’s just training, not war time procedures” and added that “We can’t be stopping for foreigners.”
Corrie’s representation elaborated and connected the dots, suggesting that if the previous courts had wanted to know the true circumstances and conduct a proper investigation, than it would demanded the submission of military documents and orders on that day, and that the lead investigators would have been properly trained.
“We had two 19 year old boys carrying out a murder investigation of an international – two young boys,” the attorney said. “They should have had investigators with experience.”
Bill Van Esveld, of Human Rights Watch, stressed that the military police investigation failed to interview key witnesses and neglected to cross-check statements, pointing out that military police did not visit the site in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip .
The military police also failed, according to Corrie’s legal team, to obtain vital information such as radio communications for the hours before Rachel was run over.
According to a military police investigator’s report, the head of southern command, general Doron Almog, prevented the bulldozer driver from giving testimony.
The investigation has been such a point of contention during the legal battle, disputing falsified reports, manufactured video tapes, and the inability to openly question witnesses on the day, that In 2003, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised George W. Bush there would be a “thorough, credible and transparent” investigation into Rachel’s killing.
If the judges rule in affirmation of Judge Oded Gershon’s ruling in 2012 that Rachel Corrie took her own life by resisting oppression, it opens up the doors for legitimized attacks on internationals across Israel and Palestine, whether they are activists or not because as the Israeli state defense argues, “internationals are not civilians.”
In 2003, Rachel Corrie wrote in an email home, describing her comfort as an activist, relying on International Law to keep her safe: “I am staying put in Rafah for now, no plans to head north. I still feel like I’m relatively safe and think that my most likely risk in case of a larger-scale incursion is arrest.”
Time will judge whether or not this will be the last time that an international worker writes home believing that the law is on their side in the State of Israel.
Arwa (top left) and Faryel Abu Haikal climb onto their land to halt the demolition of their property from the Israeli Antiquity Authority, hoping to enforce a police order previously issued (photo by Christian Peacemakers Team Palestine).
With only a sliver of their land left to protect, having their entire lot of land encircled by Israeli settlements, Faryel and Arwa Abu Haikal climbed over a pile of rubble and boulders and stopped the Israeli bulldozer from shearing further into their property, dumping their dignity into the back of a dump truck, and hauling away their rights. There they stood under the unrelenting sun, staring into the teeth of the approaching bucket excavator, protecting their land from the ever encroaching Israeli settlement enterprise, facing arrest and physical assault – a reality they have faced for decades. Their resilience and steadfastness held off the Israeli Antiquity Authority (I.A.A.) for at least a few hours.
The I.A.A. continues to deploy a variety of tactics to annex privately owned Palestinian land on the hill top of Hebron, including ignoring previous orders issued by the Israeli police to halt work. Under the directive of Emmanuel Eisenberg, the I.A.A. project coordinator, the excavator bucket began carving deeper into Faryel Abu Haikal’s land, breaking both Israeli and international law in the process.
“They don’t know where the land is,” said Eisenberg about the Abu Haikal’s resistance to the archeological dig. “We will keep working. We are like the wagon that goes by the barking dog: The wagon keeps going and the dog keeps barking.”
In many ways, it’s hard to disagree with Eisenberg on the trajectory of the illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank and the recent illegal activity in Hebron. More than 1,500 hundred shops or homesteads have either been squatted or blocked off, creating a Hebronite Diaspora of several tens of thousands of Palestinians. The Hebronite refugee population didn’t happen all at once, but rather has occurred and continues to occur in a system of apartheid which operates with immunity.
Since Rabbi Moshe Levinger first led his caravan to the Park Hotel in the heart of Hebron to establish the Kiryat Arba settlement in 1967, the Jewish settlers have slowly, inch by inch, piece by piece, constructed an elaborate security apparatus that only Israelis have the keys to. In Hebron, there are over 130 road blocks, dead end streets, check points, and military patrols that restrict Palestinian access to their city.
The Abu Haikal’s land and life is a microcosm of the principles of ethnic cleansing at work across Palestine today.
For the sake of expediency, this is just a short history of the aggression and assault that the Abu Haikal family has endured at the hands of the Jewish settlers and the Israeli security forces while trying to maintain a home to raise their family.
In 1984, Jewish settlers first arrived on Tel Rumeida, the historical hilltop neighborhood of Hebron, which, according to some religious texts, is where Abraham first laid claim to land. It is this historical interpretation that provides impetus for archeological digs to establish exclusive Jewish claims to the hilltop. The Tel Rumeida settlement stands today on concrete pylons built directly on a previous archeological dig. This marked the genesis of the heightened tensions that would continually boil over and spill onto the Abu Haikal’s land year after year.
The next year, the Abu Haikal family’s land was trespassed by settlers looking to establish religious significance on the land by praying on it, a tactical first step that often leads to the construction of a synagogue.
A few years later in 1991, the Israeli Army sent a formal letter to the family informing them that they were confiscating parts of their land (plot 54) for military purposes, which then was reconstructed into an army barracks. To this day, the Abu Haikal family has a military base in their backyard, a backyard that for generations has been cultivated by their family. Their field of family memories is now the staging grounds for night raids into Palestinian homes.
The following year, settlers brought a caravan to another corner of the Abu Haikal land (plot 53). Fortunately, they were able to halt the annexation of that plot – temporarily.
February 25, 1994, is a day that will live in infamy. The American-born, Jewish religious extremist Baruch Goldstein entered the Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounding another 125. The following day, the Israeli military responded by taking over the Mosque of the 40 Companions which had been on the land of the Abu Haikals for centuries. Their place of religious sanctuary was stripped out from underneath of them, even though it had little connection to the incident.
As the construction continued on the illegal settlement near their house and the Jewish extremist population of Hebron started to swell, the attacks on their land and family continued in frequency and heightened in intensity.
On July 2, 1998, Jewish settlers cut down three trees on their property and brought a bulldozer to uproot more, but the family was able to utilize the law and nonviolently halt the destruction of their property.
A year later, in July, the internet icon of settler violence in Hebron, AnatCohen along with her children and eight settlers, trespassed on their property (plot 54) using a footpath between the Abu Haikal houses to the settlement. The Abu Haikal family objected and the settlers, as they had so many times before, resorted to violence. Escalations involving 40 settlers erupted, and a settler with a wooden stick bludgeoned Arwa Abu Haikal, seriously injuring her. Despite the trespassing settlers and the initial aggressions, it was the Abu Haikal family that was issued fines, having to pay 1,500 shekels.
The settlement expansion continued under the guidance of a familiar face: Emmanuel Eisenberg. Eisenberg was responsible for the oversight of the archeological dig that led to the illegal settlement of Ramat Yishai in Tel Rumeida.
Despite the years of attacks and threats of land confiscation, on Jan 22, 2000, the Abu Haikals renewed the rental agreement with the Israeli Authorities and paid a year in advance, keeping the hope that justice would be realized. Signing the protection tenancy wasn’t about the land for them, it was a commitment to resist the illegal settlement expansion, knowing that years of harassment and violence awaited them.
Within three months, 70 settlers had occupied their land inside a structure. The Abu Haikals again called the police to evict the settlers from their land. The rule of law prevailed in that moment, but the leniency, which borders on absolute impunity, led to almost 100 settlers again attacking the Abu Haikal family on their land. Again, it was the Abu Haikals who had to pay 3,000 shekels in the aftermath.
When the Second Intifada broke out in September 2002, the pressure cooker which is Tel Rumeida, was quickly turned into a strategic Israeli military asset, and homes overlooking the city had their rooftops transformed into lookout towers and sniper positions. The Call to Prayer, the spiritual serenade from the mosques on the hill top, was replaced by the sounds of bullets cutting through the air and rocketing through their neighbors’ houses. For the next three years, curfews would further restrict the ability of the Abu Haikal family and others to even leave their house and provide for their family.
Shortly after the Second Intifada erupted, Wadea Abu Haikal (age 16) was attacked on the street in front of the house, and the stones hurled by the settlers broke his nose. The soldiers explained they could not protect the family, and prevented them from accessing their front path to the road in front of the settlement.
The Israeli authority then approached the Abu Haikals about putting a fence around their plots of land (53, 52) to help keep out the settlers. The key to the gate was never handed over the family.
One month later, the Israeli authorities refused to accept their rent, and plots 53 and 52 were declared a closed military zone. The fruit orchards would soon bear their last harvest.
The same year in September, despite being a closed military zone, Israeli settlers celebrated Sukkot on plot 52, building a wooden structure associated with the holiday on their land. A few weeks later, the booth was dismantled by the Israeli authorities. The settlers responded to Faryel Abu Haikal’s petition to remove the illegal booth by attacking her on the way home from school where she worked.
During the 2002-03 military campaign, it was normal for the military to show up during the month of Ramadan, a holy time for Muslims who fast during the day and then at sunset, break their fast in communion with their family. Routinely the military showed up and pulled the family out of the house to disrupt their religious practices. The Abu Haikals creatively resisted, preparing tea and taking nuts and seeds with them as the guards sat them on the ground. They refused give up their tradition, their religious rights.
October 22, 2003 was a day that changed Arwa Abu Haikal’s life. A Palestinian was shot. Knowing that soldiers would quickly mobilize to shut down roads and lock down access paths to her home and that her younger siblings would need to be attended to, she left her work at Bab Al Zaweyah, a 20-minute walk up hill to her house. As she walked down the road, a soldier stopped her and held a gun to her head, threatening her life if she continued her walk to her home. Frightened, but undeterred, she continued, forcing the soldier to make the decision between murder and humanity. Shortly after, the IDF brigade besieged the house, dragging the family out onto the street. Her parents were unable to preempt the lockdown and had to wait until 1:30 am before the streets were reopened. As the parents waited anxiously, not knowing if their children were safe, the children sat by themselves outside the home in the cold and the dark. The Israeli military proceeded to unload round after round from their machine guns into the walls, furniture, closets, and cherished belongings while the family sat helplessly outside. Some of the holes remain today.
Two days later, the soldiers returned and took the mother of the household, Faryel, into a separate room and questioned her for four hours as the rest of the family sat helplessly.
The following year, the settlement expansion continued and Jewish extremists took control of the elderly Al Bakri couple’s home nearby. They later build structures on the Al Bakri garden. The close proximity to the Abu Haikal’s house led an increase in frequency of attacks on their home, forcing them to put metal cages around their windows.
“Our windows have been broken several times over the years, until finally we were forced to put metal grates around them,” said Faryel Abu Haikal. The Abu Haikal had to replace the windows with their home money, a situation unique to the occupation: the oppressed have to pay for the aggression of the oppressor.
The settlers found other ways to cause damage to the family’s home in the hopes of driving them off the land.
Settlers systematically razed the olive trees and stole their harvest. When their grape vines had matured, those too were consumed by the indifference of extreme Jewish ideology. Fires to their dried up field continued over the next several years. By 2006, half of the trees on plot 52 had been cut down and destroyed by settlers, and what was left had been burnt by almost continuous arson.
Two years later in December of 2009, the military entered the Abu Haikal house, pointing their guns in the face of the males in the room. The women of the house stood between the guns and their men. The soldiers responded with extreme force and attacked the family, many of whom were badly beaten. The four who had resisted the assault were arrested and had to pay a 1,000-shekel fine a piece.
Over the next four years, settlers held women’s Torah groups on plot 52, right outside the family’s salon, singing, discussing the Jewish heritage of the land, and praying in the hopes of establishing a synagogue.
The repeated attempts by Jewish settlers to establish claims to the land continued, as they planted 200 vine plants and an irrigation system on plot 52, forcing the Abu Haikal family to seek legal remedy. Again, they had to take time off from work, renegotiate responsibilities away from the home, and convince the Israeli police to intervene. After six long weeks the army removed the vines.
In April of 2012, the settlers cut more trees on plot 52, again with the protection of soldiers. The Abu Haikals continued to advocate and speak up in the hopes that one day the international community would respond.
There was a small victory in the small Palestinian neighborhood in Tel Rumeida. In 2014, Israeli High Court granted possession and the return of Al Bakri family land . . . but ordered the family to pay the police the costs for 50 police officers to remove the settlers. The court would attempt to recover the cost of eviction from the Jewish settlers. That has yet to happen.
One month later, plot 53 was consumed by the archeological dig that was never about archeology, but rather the establishment of a biblical museum. On February 5th, 2014, the I.A.A. moved onto plot 53 with a bulldozer and uprooted all the cherry trees. It also blocked a well-used right-of-way and replaced it with a longer, narrow footpath around the edge of the property that descends a steep, precarious slope.
Despite their land being confiscated, a week and a half later the Abu Haikals paid their rent up to 2015 in order to confirm their continued legal ownership of the land. The money was accepted by the Israeli institution, but excavations continued.
Despite a police injunction to stop working, on March 26th, Emmanuel Eisenberg and David Ben Shlomo supervised the destruction of another section of the retaining wall, representing the border between plots 54 and 53. The Mayor of Hebron, Dr. Dawood Al Zatari, visited the area and stated that he was going to pursue legal remedy to the confiscation of land. His words have yet to lead to action.
Even after 20 years of extreme, systematic and planned abuse built by detailed policy after policy, the Abu Haikals continue to resist, even though so many times the expansion around their land has continued.
This week they were able to risk their lives in order reinforce a police order to stop working. The police orders should have stopped work, but as Eisenberg has said so many times, he doesn’t “give a shit,” and reminded everyone that at the end of the day, “We will keep working. We are like the wagon that goes by the barking dog: The wagon keeps going and the dog keeps barking.”
