August 9 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank, occupied Palestine
Israeli settlers launched a series of violent attacks against Palestinians across the West Bank last night, smashing car windows and assaulting an elderly man.
Attacks took place simultaneously in multiple locations between 22:00 and 24:00 on the night of August 8, near the illegal settlements of Ofra, Efrat, Howara and Kiryat Arba, suggesting the attacks were coordinated.
An elderly Palestinian man, who was attacked by settlers throwing rocks at Howara checkpoint near Nablus, said he “would have been killed” if he had stopped driving. He was treated for wounds on his shoulder and neck.
Settlers smashed the windows of Palestinians’ cars near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, the same place where just last month soldiers dragged a Palestinian family, including a 1-year-old baby, out of their car and beat them. ISMers saw Israeli soldiers protecting settlers in Kiryat Arba last night as they vandalized Palestinian property.
Car vandalized by settlers in HebronCar vandalized by settlers in Hebron
The attacks continued today with settlers burning feed and hay bales in a village in the South Hebron Hills. Activist group Good Shepherd Collective said: “Israeli settlers burnt the animal feed and hay bales of Khaled A’mour in Adirate village in the South Hebron Hills, spray painting “Revenge” in Hebrew to make it a clear sign who was responsible. These price-tag acts of violence are routine, particularly during the election cycles where right-wing political parties are vying for the extremist support often stoke the flames.”
The latest round of violence follows the death of a settler soldier, Dvir Sorek, outside Kibbutz Migdal Oz near Bethlehem. Israeli media immediately blamed Palestinians for the killing, despite police confirming that they currently have no information on the perpetrators or motives. Shin Bet and the Israeli military have begun conducting raids across the West Bank, and establishing new checkpoints.
Earlier yesterday, hundreds of occupation forces raided the village of Beit Fajar and the Al Jalazone refugee camp as part of the massive manhunt to find those responsible for the settler’s death.
The Israeli far-right has called for settlement expansion in retaliation. Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, from Primer Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, declared that Israel’s “response” to the killing must be to “apply sovereignty on [annex] the settlements, starting with Gush Etzion.” Gush Etzion, a cluster of 18 settlements illegal by international law, is the region where Dvir Sorek’s body was found.
The international media’s widespread reporting of the death of the settler soldier and Israeli government’s swift and harsh reaction comes in stark contrast to their silence on the deaths of Palestinian civilians. This year Israeli Occupation Forces killed 87 Palestinians (19 children), none of which made international headlines. Less than 4 weeks ago, 7 year old Tariq Zebania was killed by an Israeli settler vehicle while riding his bicycle near his village, west of Hebron. Local media reported that there was no police investigation, and no arrests were made.
‘Enemies of life’ – Israeli bulldozer rips up water pipes near At-Tuwani
August 3 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine
This is the second of a series of reports documenting the control and devastation of water sources by Israel as a tool of oppression.
Israel is escalating its war on water in the South Hebron Hills, demolishing wells, ripping out kilometres of pipeline and even confiscating trucks carrying emergency water tanks to parched villages.
In the sweltering month of July, five demolitions targeting water infrastructure were carried out, leaving Palestinian farming villages without access to water.
The latest took place on Wednesday July 31, when the Israeli Civil Administration – the body that governs Area C in the West Bank – cut pipes supplying water to houses and farmland in the area of al-Jaway near At-Tuwani.
Tariq Hathaleen, a local activist from the South Hebron Hills, says that the number of demolitions on water sources has “more than doubled,” this year compared to previous years.
He told ISM: “Now in the summer it sounds like the Civil Administration has a plan to restrict Palestinian access to water in the South Hebron Hills, in Area C in general, and that’s actually to put more pressure on those people to move them away from those villages.
“Because the Civil Administration don’t have a direct excuse to expel those people from their land but the plan is to put more pressure to make them leave by cutting their water sources.”
On July 4, bulldozers destroyed three water wells outside the town of Dkeika, a day after they came to the same area and uprooted over 500 olive trees.
A village elder is detained while trying to protect water sources on July 4
The destruction of the wells and trees have affected around 1,200 people, 60 per cent of them registered as refugees. according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Four water cisterns were also destroyed on July 24 in a park between the villages of Umm al-Kheir and Umm Daraj
“I know the reality of these people,” Tariq, who was at the demolition, adds. “I call them the enemies of life and they prove this by cutting trees, by cutting water pipes, by cutting the lives of people.”
The Good Shepherd Collective, a group that advocates human rights predominantly in the South Hebron Hills, puts the escalation of demolitions down to the actions of far-right settler NGO Regavim.
Regavim, which receives Israeli tax-payers money and has charitable status, spies on Palestinian communities, looking out for structures built without a permit and reporting them to the ICA. They then speed up demolition cases in the courts through petitions.
Their devastating impact can be seen by the steep rise in demolitions in the South Hebron Hills; 65 structures have been bulldozed or confiscated so far this year, compared to 23 structures in the same period last year, according to OCHA.
The al Dababsh family watches as their home is razed to the ground in the village of Khalet al Dabeh
“For anyone who still has qualms about the placement of blame on the state or Civil Administration for the act of demolitions, the message of these continued demolitions in natural areas should serve as a clarifying message,” the Good Shepherd Collective said.
“The state, the settlers and the organizations like Regavim that push forward the destruction of these areas, structures and resources for Palestinians are not motivated by the preservation of humanitarian rights, environmental laws, or the protection of the natural environment.”
The series of attacks on water sources in July comes after Israel ripped out a huge pipe network earlier this year that had supplied 12 Palestinian towns in the South Hebron Hills with running water.
The pipes were built in secret and took four months to install. But just six months later, Israel destroyed them, cutting the 20km lifeline.
The 12 villages have had to return to the old method of accessing water – by transporting tanks on tractors along poor roads which wears down the tyres and wastes precious work days.
Transporting water in this way adds to the economic burden of the area’s small villages, costing 30 shekkles for one cubic metre. In contrast Israelis pay just 8 shekkles per cubic metre.
And even the trucks are not safe from Israel’s war on water; on July 15, 18 water tanks were confiscated by Israeli soldiers. In the same raid, several thousand dollars of water pipeline and drilling equipment to install the pipes were also taken.
“The feeling is hard to accept, the fact that those people, those humans out of blood and flesh agree on themselves to cut other peoples’ lives by cutting the water,” Tariq tells ISM.
“It’s far from doing something legal. There’s no law in the world that says you can cut water from humans and forbid him from having water access. Its insane.”
A bulldozer destorys water wells while a Regavim drone hovers above
The South Hebron Hills is in Area C of the West Bank which means it is under full Israeli control. Palestinians in this region are denied building permits even to install water pipelines or wells, and are not allowed to hook up to the water network that Israel has laid across Palestinian land to supply illegal settlements.
As a result, villages in the area are subject to unrelenting attacks on not only their water sources but farmland and homes.
ISMer’s neck shows strangulation marks where she was dragged across the floor by Israeli border police with her Kaffiyeh
July 23 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Sur Baher, East Jerusalem occupied Palestine
Two Palestinian families lost their homes yesterday in unprecedented mass demolitions in East Jerusalem carried out by 900 Israeli soldiers who hospitalized Palestinians and ISMers in a sadistic and brutal eviction operation.
During the invasion of the two occupied buildings Israeli border police shot Palestinians at close range with rubber-coated steel bullets and kicked them down flights of stairs. ISMers were stamped on, dragged across the floor by the hair, strangled with a scarf and pepper sprayed by Israeli border police.
The International Solidarity Movement activists, Bethany Rielly, 25, Beatrice-Lily Richardson, 27, Chris Lorigan, 30, and Gabriella Jones, 20, were carrying out a non-violent action by sitting in the house of Palestinian Ismail Obeide with 30 locals in the Wadi al-Hummus neighbourhood of Sur Baher, in an attempt to delay the demolition.
12 Palestinians were also hospitalized after being kicked in the back down flights of stairs and two were illegally shot at close range with rubber-coated steel bullets.
At around 3am yesterday morning 900 hundred Israeli soldiers were bussed to the area with trucks of demolition equipment to bulldoze three Palestinian apartment blocks, including an unfinished block which they spent 15 hours rigging with dynamite.
At around 5am they smashed down the door of Mr Obeide’s house. He was standing in the doorway holding his hands out in disbelief when dozens of soldiers invaded his home immediately pepper spraying him in the face.
They used excessive force, seemingly with enjoyment, whilst firing tear gas into the enclosed space and brutalising Palestinians and international activists.
The four British nationals were sitting in a small unventilated bathroom with the door closed when a soldier opened the door and threw in a tear gas canister.
Chris said: “When the soldiers found us in the bathroom, they threw multiple tear gas canisters and shut the door. As we started to suffocate in the smallest room in the house, soldiers burst in and dragged us violently, pulling at every possible part, regardless of safety or policy.
“I was dragged by my feet and lifted up, kicked in the stomach, then one soldier in particular stamped on my head four times, at full force, then standing on my head and pulling at my hair, he then stamped on my throat and others started punching my torso. It was a sadistic display of violence by the border police.”
After he told the soldiers he would leave, they continued to beat him, throwing him through a table. At one point they also tried to pull his trousers off. He suffered a fractured rib, and severe bruising to his chest, legs and face.
ISMer in hospital being treated for a fractured ribISMer with severe tissue damage to right hand
Beatrice was also dragged out and her hands crushed so badly that she suffered severe tissue damage to her right hand which will be permanently misshapen unless she gets cosmetic surgery and a fractured knuckle on her left hand. She was bruises across her arms, hips and inner thighs.
Gaby was severely pepper sprayed in the face and hands and soldiers ripped her shirt revealing her bra, leaving large bruises on her right arm.
Bethany was dragged by her Keffiyeh around her neck out of the bathroom. Soldiers then pulled her out of the room by her hair. She said: “A soldier dragged me by my keffiyeh across the floor strangling me until I screamed when he then crushed my neck under his knee. I couldn’t believe the pure aggression they were using against us. I was in such a state of shock the whole time that I couldn’t open my eyes. As they dragged me by my hair as I choked from being strangled and the tear gas I heard them laughing at me. We were unarmed civilians using peaceful means to try and delay them destroying Ismail and his family’s home that they worked so hard to build. Hundreds of soldiers were bussed in to do this. Is a house demolition a military operation anywhere else in the world? This is the reality of life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.”
ISMer with bruising on arm and ripped shirt where soldiers pulled it apart
The four activists were all admitted to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem where they were treated for their injuries.
Three international activists, from Britain, the US and France were locked in a different room in the same house with around 15 Palestinians. Soldiers threw sound grenades into the room and continued to throw two more even after the Palestinians said they would leave.
A US national who did not want to be named said: “The Palestinian men began saying ‘hallas’, saying they were done, ‘open the door.’ They held hands up and then again, a soldier threw a sound grenade in and closed the door, and then again. And this was after everyone had stopped resisting, but the brutality kept going. Then one by one they very roughly, very aggressively, unnecessarily rough, as these men were holding their arms up in the air, grabbed the men and shoved them out of the door. They grabbed people fingers, it appeared as though they intended to break them. Then we got to the stairs and they were kicking us down the stairs in the lower back and several of the Palestinian boys they kicked so hard that they tumbled down the stairs and this was when there was no resistance at all going on.” A video of the moment when soldiers burst in is shown below (taken by US ISMer).
ISM activists from Britain, Spain and Austria were in another house which was also demolished.
Nine Israeli and international activists were in the house of Ghaleb Abu Hadwan, with his 4 daughters, son and grandfather.
Edmond Sichrovsky, an Austrian activist of Jewish origin, who was in the house said: “Border police broke into the house and dragged out the Palestinians, knocking the grandfather to the floor in front of his crying and screaming grandchildren. Everyone with a cellphone was forcibly removed from the house. Once there was no one filming present, they attacked me and 4 other activists. I was repeatedly kicked and kneed, which left a bloody nose and multiple cuts, as well breaking my glasses from a knee in the face. Once outside, they slammed me against a car while shouting verbal insults at me and women activists, calling them whores (Sharmuta).”
ISMer holds glasses which were broken after being kneed in the face by a soldierSpanish ISMer after being hit in the face with a gun by the border police
A US activist was kicked in the stomach and Spanish activist Ivan Rivera was hit in the head with the but of a gun.
Yesterday’s demolition of Wadi al-Hummus has made national news but due to the lack of media presence inside the family homes the extent of the violence and sadism perpetrated by IOF on Palestinian citizens and international activists has remained largely unreported. ISM activists are sharing their personal accounts of yesterday morning’s events including being brutally beaten, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, strangled and laughed at in the process of non violent resistance even after compliance, but urge the international community to recognise the fact that the treatment of Palestinians is incomparable.
After everyone was evicted from the two occupied buildings, Israeli forces proceeded to destroy them while continuing to put dynamite on every floor of the unfinished building. The three buidlings, which are in Area A under full Palestinians Authority control, were destroyed yesterday for ‘security reasons’ using an Israeli 2011 military order that states any house within 250m of the apartheid fence could be demolished. The Wadi al-Hummus neighbourhood is on both sides of the fence, which is illegal under international law. 17 people including Mr Obedi, his wife and their six children are now homeless (a video of the demolition of their home is shown below) as well as the family of Mr Hadwan. And the 350 people who were to live in the unfinished block now have lost their future homes. A video was posted of Israeli soldiers laughing and cheering as the unfinished block was demolished by thousands of explosives. Evidence of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine is more apparent than ever in efforts like the destruction of these three blocks in Wadi al-Hummus, and hundreds more demolition orders, by the Israeli government.
Ismail stands proudly in his beautiful kitchen the day before its razed to the ground
June 18, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills, occupied Palestine
The al-Dababsh family watch as their home is demolished. Pic: Basil Adraa
Occupation forces went on a demolition spree yesterday in the South Hebron Hills, bulldozing the homes of four families in two villages.
A convoy of border police, Israeli Civil Administration officials, soldiers and two JCB bulldozers arrived in the village of Khalet al Dabeh at around 9am to destroy a house belonging to Mohammad al Dababsh.
Twelve members of the al Dababsh family including seven children, who have lived in the region for generations, are now homeless and have been given tents to sleep in by the Red Cross.
“People used to live in tents and caves and they had their dream come true to live in a house – they came up from under the ground into the light,’ Basil Adraa, a youth activist from the neighbouring village of al-Tuwani, told ISM.
“Now they have gone back 10 years, living before without light and houses.”
Adraa along with other local activists and ISMers arrived to Khalet al Dabeh just ahead of the demolition.
Members of the al Dababsh family were shouting in distress and at one point attempted to run through the line of border police – who had announced a closed military zone around the house – in a bid to protect his home before it was raised to the ground.
Omar al Dababsh was thrown to the floor by soldiers as he ran. His injuries required urgent medical attention and he was taken to Hebron hospital.
Soldiers also shoved local activists and ISMers in the scuffle.
A Palestinian man lies injured after being thrown to the ground by occupation forces by his demolished home
Adraa was filming the demolition from a roof near the al Dababsh house when soldiers threatened to throw a sound grenade at him if he refused to get down.
A separate building storing solar panel batteries was also destroyed and the panels were confiscated.
After forcing a family of 12 into homelessness, the convoy moved on to the village of al Halawe where they destroyed a further three homes belonging to the Aram family.
Adraa told ISM that a ‘demolition day’ has happened every week this year, except during Ramadan when there were two demolitions in five weeks.
The region of the South Hebron Hills is in Area C of the West Bank where almost all construction by Palestinians is banned by the Israeli government.
Most of the region’s 30 Palestinian villages have demolition orders on at least one building meaning they could be bulldozed at any time.
Local activist group, the Good Shepherd Collective, which raises awareness about demolitions in the South Hebron Hills area stated on its Facebook page: “It is worth noting that these demolitions, injuries, and confiscations do not simply impact and traumatize the families and individuals immediately affected – demolitions, especially during the oppressive heat of the summer, force families to rebuild in order to meet their basic needs, and in the meantime rely on their extended family and community members.”
An Israeli border police aggressively pushes locals and humanitarian observers
Adraa added: “It seems like a Nakba for these people, because the biggest goal for the occupation is to evacuate the people from these villages to the cities. So in this kind of demolition, big demolition, it’s a serious step to evacuate the people and take them from their land which is illegal by international law. They want to demolish houses so that the settlement can expand.”
Despite the ban, which also forbids Palestinians to hook up to the electricity grid and water supply, illegal settlers in the region continue to construct new buildings unimpeded by Israeli forces.
A call for international human rights defenders to come to Palestine mid May (May 13 – May 19th) 2019 to support the cultural boycott of the Eurovision Singing Contest in Tel Aviv.
The Situation
Whilst the colonization forces prepare historical Palestine for the upcoming Eurovision singing contest, the stage is also being set for further oppression and genocide of the Palestinian people.
In the recent months Israel has escalated it’s bombing campaigns in Gaza and executions and harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank.
In this atmosphere of death, Israeli officials force millions of Palestinians to live in squalid, oppressive conditions, and Palestinian civil society cries out for a total boycott of Israeli products, institutions and cultural bodies, absurdly, a singing contest will bring tens of thousands of visitors to Tel Aviv.
Soon, Israeli customs will face packs of tourists as the international community floods in to attend the Eurovision, and participate in the farce, If they can get through Israeli customs, that is. Human rights activists who try to enter historic Palestine are usually subjected to harassment and abuse and are often refused entry. There are too many things Israel does not want them to witness document and show the world.
Your Role – if you are able to enter Palestine
As someone coming to Palestine to work in solidarity with the popular non violent struggle to end the occupation, your work will involve monitoring and intervening in human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, reporting on incidents of settler and military violence perpetrated against Palestinians, resisting land annexation and home demolitions, attending demonstrations and responding to needs and requests as they arise.
Your Role – If you are denied entry
Israeli Apartheid governments have consistently interrogated, harassed, denied entry, black-listed, and forcibly deported would-be human rights monitors making it impossible for them to witness and expose Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. These deportation attempts can be resisted and challenged in Israeli courts.
Having international human rights defenders in detention and/or going through the court system during the Eurovision song contest is an opportunity to draw attention to the host’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, reminding the world that Israel has much to hide.
Contact us prior to your journey and we will do our best to provide legal support in this event.
We ask that you answer the call to come and bear witness, to support the Palestinian campaign for boycott divest and sanctions, to intervene, to act.
