Category: Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Militant supporters of the illegal settlers of Hebron attacked Human Rights Workers (HRWs), Palestinian teachers and children at approximately 7:40 this morning.

The small team of HRWs were on the street this morning ready to protect Palestinian children on their way to school. Attacks on Palestinian children are common, and tension in the area has been high during the Passover holiday period, when the settlers receive thousands of visitors who support their extreme militant actions.

While the HRW team waited for the children, a bus from Jerusalem full of young settler supporters arrived at the end of the street. About 15, aged in their late teens or early twenties got off the bus and gathered at the end of the street. Within minutes they walked up the street, heading for the HRWs and some Palestinian teachers and children.

They started to throw stones, and yelled “We’re going to kill you!” A Danish camerman from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) started to film, and immediately became a target for the settler group. The cameraman ran away. The settler group then attacked the other human rights workers, including Sister Anne Montgomery (who will be 80 in November) a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). She was stoned, as were Tore (29) from Norway, and Karien (46) from Germany. Soldiers from the Israeli Army watched the entire incident and made no attempt to intervene.

Despite being attacked, the HRWs managed to protect two Palestinian teachers and three children who were on their way to the nearby school, which is next door to the settlement. The Palestinians were able to shelter on the first floor of a nearby building.

The attack finally stopped when the police arrived, and the attackers ran back to the settlement. All the HRWs have bruises from kicks, punches, and stones. Anna (21) a Swedish woman from the ISM was wounded by a stone. The HRWs have reported the incident to the police, but if past experience is a guide, the police are unlikely to take effective action against this unprovoked attack.

For more information:

Anna (ISM witness): 054-3045205
ISM Media Office: 02-2971824

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Over Passover holiday, under the guise of a “Closed Military Zone” (CMZ) the Israeli authorities in Hebron have been excluding Palestinians and international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) from the streets of the Old City and Tel Rumeida areas.

The CMZ order has been selectively applied against Palestinians and HRWs since the Passover holidays started, while Israeli settlers in the area and thousands of Israelis visiting the settlements in the Old City and Tel Rumeida areas have been allowed to walk freely around the H2 area without being subject to the military closure, making the CMZ in effect an apartheid order.

From the rooftop of their enforced confinement in their apartment in the Tel Rumeida area, HRWs have witnessed soldiers pointing their rifles at Palestinian children to drive them indoors, when they had come outside to play football. Palestinians in general have been largely forced off the streets.

Two days ago, HRWs had been physically removed from the Tel Rumeida by the military as they cleared the street for the settler-supporting Israeli visitors. At 7am on th 19th of April, the order was said by the military to have been extended until an undisclosed date. However, soldiers have yet to produce a copy of this alleged new order.

For a copy of the previously issued CMZ order, see palsolidarity.org

For more information:

Anna: 054 304 5205
ISM media office: 02 297 1824 or 057 572 0754

The military order for April 18. Volunteers have not been shown the current order.

On Sunday, April 16 at 20:00 the Israeli military in the H2 area of Hebron established a closed military zone order for “persons or groups disturbing the order,” effective until April 18 at midnight. At 7:00 in the morning on April 19, the order was said by the military to have been extended until an undisclosed date.

This order, in practice, has been applied to human rights organizations and individual human rights observers, including ISM, the Eccumenical Accompaniment (EAPPI), the Christian Peacemaker Team, and the Tel Rumeida Project. Individuals from these organizations have been seized from the Shuhada street area in H2 and escorted to the H1 area, or forced to stay inside of their homes.

The order was originally justified by the military as being a special precaution taken for the holidays. However, the closed military zone order has been extended beyond the period of the Passover celebration. The presence of international human rights observers within the H2 area has proven to be an effective deterent to settler violence over the past several years. These well-established, internationally recognized organizations are currently being prevented from maintaining an active presence in the streets of H2, and we are deeply concerned by the potential threat this will cause to Palestinian lives.

Elizabeth Detwiler
International Human Rights Observer, Hebron
(052) 598-4344