Category: Photo Story - Page 17 - International Solidarity Movement

Four homes demolished in Israeli collective punishment

14th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, occupied Palestine

Three storage house with demolished first floor in Al Dahia, Nablus. — Three storage house with demolished first floor in Al Dahia, Nablus

Early Saturday morning, November 14th, four homes belonging to Palestinians accused in the killings of two illegal settlers were demolished. Three of the houses were located in the Nablus area belonging to the families of imprisoned Samir Zahir Kusa, Kerem Lufti Razek and Yahia Haj Hamed.

The house demolitions are a part of a series of punitive measures by the Israeli government with the declared rationale being “prevention” of future attacks. The unlawful collective punishment, however, is breaking international law by meting out vengeance on the entire family, regardless of the fact that they haven’t been found guilty of any crime.

The case of the demolition of Kerem Lufti Razek’s home on the densely populated Al Rawda College Street, Nablus, clearly exemplifies the collective impact of the punitive measure. At 1am on November 14th, Israeli forces entered the neighborhood, forcing the residents to leave their homes, and confiscated their mobile phones to avoid video footage showing the incident. They then put up temporary checkpoints enclosing the area, and at 2:30 am started demolishing the house of Kerem Lufti with explosives.

Not only was the second floor belonging to Kerem Lufti, his parents, two brothers and one sister completely destroyed, leaving only bricks and broken walls, but also the first and third floors of the house were severely damaged and are now unsuitable for living. In the neighboring houses all windows were broken and critical structural elements were extensively damaged by the force of the blast.

Demolished home of Kerem Lutfi Razek in Al Rawada College St, Nablus

Simultaneously, Israeli forces entered the Al Dahia-neighborhood of Nablus where the family of imprisoned Samir Zahir Kusa until tonight was resident. In this case, the first floor housing the wife of Samir and their three children was completely reduced into a dusty pile of rubble and broken walls, while the two upper floors housing the family of a cousin and a brother were seriously damaged as well.

Lower floor of Samir Zahir Kusa's home reduced into rubble and broken walls — Lower floor of Samir Zahir Kusa’s home reduced into rubble and broken walls

Samir Zahir Kusa, Kerem Lufti Razek and Yahia Haj Hamed were detained on October 5th as suspects in the drive-by killing of two settlers from the notorious illegal Yitzhar settlement, Naama and Eitam Henkin, in the Nablus district on October 1st. After the detention of the men, the judge’s decision of demolition was temporarily suspended but was reissued earlier this month. In Silwad village near Ramallah the house of Maad Hamad, who is accused of killing an Israeli settler on June 29th, was the fourth home to be demolished this morning.

A 19-year old resident of Nablus witnessing the house demolition in Al Dahia stated: “If they destroy our homes, we will build a hundred new,” exemplifying that despite having to face brutality, violence, displacement and destruction, the Palestinian spirit of sumud endures.

Neighbouring home at Al Rawda College St. with damaged walls, roofs and windows

Israel is experimenting with dynamite (TNT) to demolish Palestinian homes, instead of the older procedure of using Volvo Excavators. The collatoral damage on neigboring houses was clearly visible. It is an extension of the collective punishment, which is illegal by international law.

Today released video of the Israeli army, promotes the new demolishing procedure to the world.

Demonstrations in Gaza violently met by Israeli Forces

14th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

In Gaza today, November the 13th, protestors all over Gaza aproached the fence that encloses them in a small strip of land. In the Erez border crossing (Beit Hanoun), Nahel Oz (Shijaia), Karni border crossing, and Bureij and Abassan (Khan Younis) confrontations errupted, leaving at least 18 young men injured by Israeli snipers, teargas inhalation, and others by the direct impact of the gas grenades.

On the Israeli side, the number of dead and injured – once again – is zero, neither civilian population nor military personnel were injured. This proves that the protestors doesn’t represent any kind of threat for the Israeli forces.

Throwing_back_teargas — Protestors throwing back tear gas canister

Protestors_with_flag — Youths at demonstration in Gaza

IsraeliForces — Israeli Forces on top the Apartheid Wall

Teargas_in_sunset — Teargas being fired toward protestors

Internationals and Palestinian arrested in Bil’in demonstration

13th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, occupied Palestine

Update: 15th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, occupied Palestine

Italian acitivist Antonio Fresta photographed day after been arrested and beaten by the police.

Four human rights defenders arrested in Bil’in on 13th November when peacefully observing a demonstration against the apartheid wall have been let out on bail. All were held at the police station for approximate 10 hours, interrogated, photographed and fingerprinted. Embassies of the activists contacted the police station, providing assistance to detainees. Police was first reluctant to define reasons for the arrests. Main reason presented later was an accusation of the activists being on a “closed military zone”, despite the lack of signs signifying the area as one. In case of some of the detainees the police kept changing the reason presented for the arrest. Police has so far provided no evidence for the accusations.

As the video evidence clearly portraits, the Italian activist Antonio Fresta was repeatedly denied medical assistance by the ambulance personnel during the arrest. The police officers refusing the medics to approach or place Fresta on a stretcher were identified by their first names, Nikolai and Ruslan. Both were in border police uniform and appearing to be of higher rank. Fresta had the sim card of his phone confiscated and later returned by the police. Fresta’s credit card also disappeared from his personal belongins after they were taken by the police.

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Four human rights defenders have been arrested this afternoon at a demonstration against the apartheid wall in Bil’in. Approximately sixty villagers and supporters spread out throughout the valley and the human rights defenders were peacefully monitoring the situation when they were attacked.

Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib, American Jewish Code Pink activist, a Finnish activist and Italian activist, Antonio Fresta, were arrested. Antonio was assaulted and repeatedly pepper-sprayed from close range in the face. They are presently still detained.

Italian brutally pepper-sprayed and arrested — Italian man brutally pepper-sprayed and arrested

At approximately 1pm two women, an American and a Scandinavian, were walking along the road near to the wall with 3 other people when Israeli Forces advanced and detained both of them. When Mohammad al-Khatib approached the Israeli forces to question why the women were being detained, he was also detained and arrested. The soldiers then shot several rounds of teargas across the valley, and ran after a Chilean and Italian filming nearby.

American woman peacefully participating in the demonstration arrested

According to Australian ISM volunteer Phoebe, who was also present at the scene, “there were just a few men throwing stones at the wall, far away from two jeeps, and far away from those they arrested, and then they seemed to come directly for our friends and arrest the first Palestinian who came near them.

“While moving away from the rain of teargas, the Italian was chased, beaten and pepper-sprayed repeatedly, before being arrested and dragged into a jeep by Israeli forces. Despite the fact that he did not resist arrest nor break any perceivable law in his actions, he was denied medical assistance from the nearby ambulance and has been taken directly into custody. The Chilean activist stated “We were running because they were shooting and I think Antonio fell. They sprayed him right in the eyes again and again. I told them we are not doing anything wrong, but then they kept going.”

The Italian man brought to the military vehicle

Italian_man_3 — Antonio Fresta beaten by soldiers after being pepper sprayed.

Another bloody Friday in Gaza

October 8th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

Israeli Forces shot and killed a 23 year old on Friday, the 6th of October, in demonstrations east of Khan Younis in the southern part of the Gaza strip. The man was identified by The Ministry of Health in Gaza as Salameh Moussa Abu Jame and was the 75th Palestinian to be killed since the beginning of October. Five others were injured in the clashes, from a combination of tear-gas and live ammunition.

Furthermore, in demonstrations in Nahel Oz and Karni border crossing, both in the area of Shijaia, Israeli forces shot tear gas and live ammunition at the civilian demonstrators injuring 30.

Palestinian youths at the demonstration in the Shijaia area.

“The youth will not tire, ’till your independence”

November 7th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

Today, at 6 pm local time in Occupied Jerusalem, Palestinians and supporters gathered in peaceful events all over the world to sing the “unofficial” Palestinian national anthem, Mawtini (In Arabic موطني).

Crowds gathered to sing in Arafat Square, Ramallah

Events were scheduled to take place in Occupied Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jericho, Jordan Valley, Jenin and Salfit, and schools throughout the West Bank were encouraged to chant Mawtini during the school day and upload videos to the Facebook page of the #Mawtini-event. On the Facebook-event, posts from Ivory Coast, Syria, Gaza, and others show the wide international solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people.

Crowds sing 'Matwini' in Ramallah — Crowds sing ‘Matwini’ in Ramallah

The beginning of the second verse reads: “The youth will not tire, ’till your independence” and is a clear symbol of the current situation on the West Bank; the young generation growing up under the Oslo Accords of 1993 are the ones exerting their political power by risking their lives. They have grown up in a world where the occupation – among many other things – took away their freedom of movement by temporary check-points, road-blocks, and denying them access to Jerusalem.

Seeing the diverse attendance and participation and listening to the poem written by the Palestinian poet Ibrahim Toukan shows the anatomy of the Palestinian people; for decades they have had their freedom of movement stolen, had their children killed, and had their villages divided by the Apartheid Wall but they continue to exist and to resist with dignity and joy.

“Mawtini (my homeland) will I see you in your eminence reaching the stars?”

See a version of the original song here