Category: Nablus

Video: Israeli military shooting directly at press in Kufr Qaddoum

by Axel

4 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday the 30th of March the weekly demonstration was held in the village Kufr Qaddoum outside of Nablus. This day was however the same day as the Global March to Jerusalem, meaning less media attention than normal, and also less internationals present as most of the activists attended the demonstrations in Qalandiya, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. To further minimize attendance, the Israeli soldiers had set up a checkpoint outside the village, preventing people from entering.

 The situation was also more tense than usual, as it was only two weeks ago the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) released attack dogs on the demonstrators, resulting in savage attacks and sever injuries.

 Despite these facts approximately 500 people, including about 10 internationals, gathered after the Muslim Friday prayer to march along the main road of the village that the IOF  are still obstructing even though the Israels court has approved its reopening.

 “As we approached the road block we could see that there were a lot of soldiers, approximately 35, and they had brought a tractor and the ‘skunk water’ truck,” said Odai Al-Jumah, a film-maker from the village.

When the demonstration reached the barbwire road block, they were cheering and started to talk to the soldiers through a megaphone, demanding the reopening of the road. As normal the soldiers  responded to this non-violent action by shooting tear gas, stun grenades and skunk water. But this time they did not shoot upwards to make the metal tear gas canister fly in an arc, but instead they were illegally aiming right at the crowd just 20 meters in front of them.

“I was standing on the side of the demonstration, filming when I saw one of the soldiers aiming at me. I had no where to run, so I just covered my head with one of my arms,” said Al-Jumah.

 Luckily he was fast enough. The tear gas canister would have hit him right in the face, but instead it hit his arm and then ricocheted down to his chest. Tear gas canisters are a fatal weapon used by Israel against nonviolent protesters, using the crowd dispersion weapon as a projectile directed at destroying human life, as was the recent case of Mustafa Tamimi of Nabi Saleh. He ran a few meters and then collapsed. He got picked up buy the Red Crescent staff who carried him to an ambulance where they decided to take him to a nearby hospital.

On the way they had to cross the checkpoint where the soldiers stopped them. They wanted to interrogate Al Jumah.

 “I heard the ambulance driver asking what they wanted, but they just told him to shut up and open the back door.”

 He was then interrogated for more than half an hour, a very long time as he had sever pain in his arm and chest. After asking over and over again what he was doing at the demonstration, and if he had thrown any stone, they let him go as it was obvious he was there to document and was not even a part of the demonstration. The obvious delay to reaching any medical attention is one of the many ways Kufr Qaddoum and villages throughout Palestine are impacted by Israeli checkpoints, road blocks, and longer detours sustained by the illegal Israeli occupation.

Al Jumah was then taken to a hospital in Nablus where they found no serious injury, but he had to spend the night under observation.

The soldiers were apparently very violent through out the demonstration as more then 30 people were injured, most of them from inhaling very significant amounts of tear gas.

Five were shot directly with the canisters, including the press who were merely documenting Israeli violence and lack of concern. In February Reporters without Borders released a statement condemning Israel’s targeting of journalists.

The Israeli violence did not conclude with the demonstration but continued in other forms of oppression and harassment. On Sunday April 1st four soldiers came into the village and violently entered the house of Murad Shtawi, one of the organisers of the demonstration who was recently arrested by the military.

 “I was out for a walk when people from the village said there were soldiers in my house,” said Shtawi .

 He ran back to his home, and when he got there he asked the soldiers what they wanted. They showed a picture of his six year old son, saying the child was suspected of throwing stones. The family was shocked, and started screaming at the soldiers, chasing them out of the house. The soldiers then went back to their military jeep, leaving the village empty handed.

 “They really have no limits. What possible threat can they see in a six year old boy?” asked Shtawi.

 This is a question Shtawi, Al Jumah, or the locals of Kufr Qaddoum will not get answered. The collective punishment and practice of fear tactics exercised by Zionist military and settlers against the indigenous people of Palestine and their supporters is simply central to the strategy of Israel’s apartheid.

 Axel is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Qaryut: 8 year old injured by bomb planted by Israelis

by Lydia

2 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Yemams father did not have time to respond to his son before the bomb exploded. Ripping through three layers of clothes and even more layers of skin, his father had to watch the tragedy unfold before his eyes. Yemam Mohammad Fatah Azam is just eight years old. He was enjoying a Friday afternoon with his father in the olive groves.

Situated between the illegal Israeli settlements of Shilo, Eli, and Suvat Rachel, Qaryut is not new to military and settler violence. Yamam’s story however is the first incident of its kind and has shaken the community. As floods of school children come to visit Yamam in his home, it is clear that all the parents are aware that the bomb could have been in their loved one’s hands. The children show they are upset with a handshake and sit next to Yamam in silence.

Bashar, a member of the Popular Commitee explains that the planting of un-exploded ordinance (UXO)  “..is an act to intimidate us from going to our land.”

Efforts by violent Zionist settlers have been well underway to intimidate farmers from visiting their land, and recently the village has joined the popular resistance with a Friday demonstration in protest of the closure of their road by Israeli military. The road runs through the land in which many farmers reside. One farmer explained, “It brings us much comfort to have cars passing through the road, we know if anything was to happen a car would stop and support us.”

As Yamam lays in bed, not able to move much due to the wound constantly re-opening, causing pain beyond comprehension, four more bombs lay on the land near by. This case has reached The United Nations group, OCHA, who has reported this in their “Protection of Civilians Weekly Report, 21-27 March 2012.” The Palestinian Authority is also addressing the issue as well. Both have been informed of the bombs which still reside on the land of the farmers, but have not been able to make the area safe. Due to the olive groves being in Area C, the Palestinian Authority has no permission to enter the land.

Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Amani al Khandaqja, defender of prisoner rights, becomes a prisoner herself

by Robin and Axel

21 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West  Bank

Amani’s father displays the photo of his daughter, Amani, who was taken away by the Zionist military earlier this week.

Early Monday morning, on the 20th of March, Israeli soldiers raided a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, terrorized a family and arrested a young woman named Amani Al Khandaqja.

The soldiers arrived at 2am, whilst the family was sleeping, they surrounded and then entered the house. One of Amani’s brothers was awoken by loud voices outside his window, upon looking out he saw a number of soldiers interrogating members of a neighboring household.

As he ran to wake up his father, Saleh, a series of loud, hard bangs could be heard on the front door of the household.  After repeated banging, Saleh went down to open the door, and the Israeli Occupying Forces violently forced entry into Amani’s home. The entire family of 9 were forced onto the roof of their own home with their hands held above their heads and held at gun point.

According to Saleh, the trespassing soldiers were nervous and twitchy, making the situation unpredictable and terrifying for the entire family who, suffice to say, felt severely threatened.

 “I asked for permission to sit down as I have problems with my knees,” explains Saleh. “This request was denied.”

 While the family was interrogated on the roof, soldiers ransacked the house with dogs, justifying this brazen act of terrorism with the unsubstantiated and unlikely claim that Saleh’s family home might contain weapons or explosives.

 The soldiers asked Saleh repeatedly about his imprisoned son, Bassem, who has been held in Israeli prison since the second Intifada. Amani herself was also mentioned by the soldiers as they claimed she had been writing about the Palestinian struggle for equality and rights on the Internet and had been active in the support of political prisoners.

 In an interview with her father, he described her as an incredibly brave person with an extraordinary passion for the Palestinian struggle for the most basic of human rights. In any event it was clear she was wanted by the Israeli’s primarily for the fact that she had dared to put her thoughts and feelings in print concerning the illegal Zionist occupation of Palestine.

 After two hours of interrogation, harassment and threats, the soldiers decided to arrest Amani despite the fact that they did not find anything in the house and were unable to produce any material sufficient to press charges.

 As her father emphasized, “I am not worried about her destiny because she has done nothing wrong and can’t be held guilty of any crime. But my heart is breaking from her being taken away from us.”

 Despite the fact that Amani has not been accused in a court of law, let alone found guilty of any crimes, there is a great possibility that she will be held for a long time nonetheless.

 The biased Israeli legal system allows for what is euphemistically referred to as “administrative detention,” a law adopted from the British Mandate era that allows for the confinement of persons without charge or trial. Under this law a person can be held in prison for six months at a time, without being put in front of a judge or even being formally suspected of a crime. After six months, the procedure can be repeated and therefore one can be, in effect, held for an indefinite amount of time.

 Throughout Amani’s arrest the IOF soldiers repeatedly made clear their Zionist ideology and how they viewed her hopes for a free Palestine:

 “This is not Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. A popular uprising, leading to a revolution is not possible in Israel.”

 With these chilling words, and not-withstanding the irony of Israeli soldiers comparing their own country to one of  the many U.S backed dictatorships that dot the region, Amani was handcuffed and dragged into the bracing night air, away from her broken home and devastated family.

 Robin and Axel are volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

A family’s nightmare: Beaten and kidnapped by illegal settlers near Qadumim as Israeli military facilitates the crime

by Jonas Weber

23 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Samer and his two children

A family of four was kidnapped by settlers on Thursday afternoon while having a picnic close by an outpost near Qadumim. When soldiers arrived at the scene they chased away the relatives of the kidnapped family with tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets alongside settlers throwing stones.

It was around 4.30 pm on Thursday that the El Seddi family, who were eating almonds on their families land in the outskirts of Jit, east of Nablus, was kidnapped by a gang of settlers. The settlers approached the family on four wheelers in a group of about ten young men with their shirts wrapped around their heads to conceal their faces.

The family was dragged down the valley by the settlers who were armed with big sticks, and forcing the mother to say to their children that “this land does not belong to us.”

The youngest of the children, only 2 years old, took no notice of this and blatantly told the settlers what he thought of them in response. The father, Samer received many blows during the descent into the valley, and the day after his face was swollen and patched up.

The little three-year old girl also sustained wounds on her legs, and the mother says that she was constantly being pushed around and taunted by the settlers while carrying her children.

After about half an hour Samer’s father Ibrahim and two of his brothers became worried for the family and went to look for them. As they climbed a hilltop adjacent to the settlement they saw how the family was being dragged up the hill towards the settlement.

” They have an old dried out water well by the outpost, we think their plan was to throw the family in there,” said Ibrahim Jamil Khader, who hides a black eye behind a pair of big shades.

When the settlers realized they had been discovered they momentarily released the family who started running towards their relatives on the adjacent hill. Right behind them 25-30 settlers followed. When the family reached the top of the hill adjacent to the settlement, Israeli soldiers had arrived at the scene.

It soon became obvious however that they had not come to apprehend the kidnappers. Instead Samer’s father and brothers had to stall the soldiers and settlers while the family made their way back towards the village.

“As I was talking to the soldiers one of the settlers jumped out  in front of them and punched me in the face. I asked the soldiers why
isn’t he here to care about our lives and he answered that ‘We can’t fight these people, they are dogs.'”

The three men were chased off by the soldiers shooting tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets as well as the settlers who threw stones. There have been problems with the settlers before but something like this has never happened.

“No one was prepared for this, says Ibrahim. The children are mentally exhausted, and we are afraid that they will be traumatized by this.”

The military has a different view on what happened that day.

“The official story is that the family was lost in the hills and that the settlers helped them find their way back. They are so full of lies,” says Ibrahim.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Nablus marches for Hana Shalabi

by Christopher Beckett

21 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On March 19th 2012, in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, ISM volunteers joined demonstrators in solidarity with Ms. Hana Shalabi, now entering her 35th day of hunger strike.

Marching from outside the headquarters of the Red Cross, a group of around a hundred demonstrators marched towards Nablus city centre waving flags, signs and ‘Free Hana Shalabi’ posters. Some of the people attending were the parents of prisoners held illegally by Israel and held aloft photographs of their missing loved ones as they chanted slogans ranging from ‘Free Hana Shalabi’ to End Administrative detention’ and ‘End the occupation’.

Hana was violently abducted from her home in the West Bank village of Burqin on the 16th of February 2012 and was taken into Israeli custody without justification or pretense. Only after she was in custody for close to two weeks did the Israeli courts issue an ‘Administrative detention’ order on the 29th of February.

Administrative detention is the arrest and confinement of individuals by the state without charge or trial, ostensibly for security reasons. Amnesty International believes that administrative detention breaches Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which “makes clear that no-one should be subjected to arbitrary detention and that deprivation of liberty must be based on grounds and procedures established by law”.

According to Amnesty International, approximately 310 Palestinians are currently held in administrative detention inside Israeli prisons. Administrative detention allows Israel to hold detainees for indefinitely renewable six-month periods. The arrest is granted on the basis of ‘secret information’ and without public scrutiny. Therefore, administrative detainees and their lawyers cannot defend against these allegations in court. Hunger strike is therefore the only non-violent method of resistance open to prisoners whose sole demand is that their human rights are respected in accordance with international law.

In a recent report, Amnesty International expressed particular concerns that prisoners in administrative detention were being “held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.” Hana Shalabi had previously spent two years in administrative detention but was released last October as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated between Israel and Hamas, making this the second time she has been held in this way.

In the last few days we have begun to receive reports that Hana’s health is deteriorating rapidly. ‘Physicians For Human Rights’ have made clear their concern for Hana Shalabi’s life. The organization also expressed its alarm at the recent proposal that doctors and prison staff are still considering the possibility of force-feeding, despite the fact that international treaties explicitly forbid this. A call to action has been issued by various groups in solidarity with Hana and others held alongside her. According to Palestinian human rights group Addameer, at least 24 other prisoners our at various stages of hunger strike inside Israeli prisons. This includes Ahmad Saqer, the longest serving Palestinian prisoner under Administrative detention, held since November 2008.

Christopher Beckett is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).