6th December 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
This afternoon in Hebron, approximately three illegal settlers, standing on the same roof as several Israeli soldiers, threw stones at Palestinian homes and cars in the old city. This act of aggression caused clashes to break out between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces, where many tear gas canisters, stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition were fired. One youth, aged 19-years-old, was seriously injured after being shot with live ammunition in the stomach.
A broken car window, the result of illegal settlers throwing stones (photo by ISM).
The settlers threw stones at Palestinian homes and cars in what is known as Small Shallala Street from a roof in the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah, damaging a number of cars. This continued for at least ten minutes unobstructed by the guarding Israeli soldiers.
After a group of 5 Israeli soldiers entered the souk (market) Palestinian youth gathered and began to throw stones. The group of soldiers returned to Beit Romano military base and shortly after a further fifteen soldiers arrived and began to fire tear gas canisters and stun grenades.
The clashes continued for more than five hours with the Israeli forces escalating their aggression by firing tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullet, stun grenades and live ammunition at Palestinian youth. One 19-year-old was shot in his abdomen and was taken to hospital for treatment, his condition is unknown.
6th December 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Asira al-Qibliya, Occupied Palestine
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Hakima Hasan Motlaq and I am from Asira al-Qibliya where I have always lived. It is south of Nablus and I’m 35 years old and I am married. I am the head of the village’s women and children’s resource centre, Retaj. This is a voluntary role. Our main aim is the empowerment of women across many fields, education, culture, and financial empowerment if we can.
Would you be able to tell us a bit about the village of Asira including some of the history?
Asira is a very old village with Roman ruins. So it dates back to the Roman age with a lot of evidence of the Ottomans being here as well. Some of the Roman ruins lie in the west of the village. The village lies 14 Km south of Nablus and is 6,440 dunams in its size. The population is 3,200. But 50% of the population are refugees of the 1948 war mostly coming from Haifa.
The economy of the village relies on agriculture especially olives, figs and almond trees. A few people work as employees of the Palestinian Authority (PA) or other groups, often NGOs. Other than this people work as builders or sometimes with cows and sheep.
Is there problems with unemployment or a lack of work in the village?
Yes. We have many graduates from the university and they have no chance of work even though they have graduated. Some young people are able to stay and work but others have had to move to Nablus or Ramallah as there is such little work in the village.
So my group Retaj have actively tried to help the women in particular who are struggling to find work. Many are stuck at home cleaning or cooking rather than living their lives. We have many workshops to help them and get them to improve themselves.
So obviously unemployment is a big problem for the village but what other sorts of problems is the village facing at the moment?
The water is a major problem. We don’t have our own water supply so we are forced to buy water in tanks for 140 shekels at a time. However in 2002 a project started with the water. Before we had our own water from local springs but the nearby settlement with the Israeli army took this for themselves. But yes in 2002 this project started but the Israelis have kept stopping and starting work ever since by withdrawing their permission for it to go ahead and then changing their minds again. Water is very expensive for us. A big family needs about two tanks a month.
Another problem is the dust which is caused by the quarry and lorries going to that quarry and back again. The pollution has caused children, and babies in particular, breathing conditions such as asthma.
We also don’t have somewhere to put our rubbish. A car comes once or twice a week but this is not enough especially in summer when the flies and smell becomes unbearable. Seven children are disabled which has been blamed by doctors on the pollution from the quarry when the mothers were pregnant.
Also, with the quarry the lorries come through the one road in the village and it’s very dangerous. We had a strike to try and stop them and said to the lorries that they could not pass. But the problem is that they need to work even if it is dangerous for the people. So yes the quarry is a also a big problem.
The school is also too far from the village. The children have to travel a long way as we don’t have buses to them. Especially in winter this is very difficult.
Yes. The problems with the pigs have only been taking place in the last 2 or 3 years so we definitely think the settlers from Yizhar are behind it. They attack people’s gardens and where food is stored as well as the crops on the farmland. Another village near here found boxes of insects that were released onto the land and destroyed much of the olive harvest so this is something that the settlers have been doing in this area for a while.
It sounds like the village has many challenges facing it. But to make this all even worse you have disruption caused by the nearby settlers. But do the settlers ever come to the village itself?
The main problem we face is the occupation and the settlements. In the beginning the settlement had only 18 dunams of land that had once belonged to Asira. But now they have 1,800 dunams of land taken from 6 villages including Asira but also Burin, Madama, Huwwara, Urif and Einabus. But also they come to the villages up to 3 times a week at the moment. They burn cars, burn trees, burn crops. So we’ve had to stop planting crops nearby to the settlement as they always come and destroy whatever we plant.
When they come at night they are also causing a big problem for the children in particular. The children suffer from insomnia, bed wetting and their performance at school is worse all due to the psychological effects of this constant fear. Even when they play you can see it. They are always playing violent games like “settler and Palestinian” where they hurt each other. This is their favourite game and they pretend to shoot each other and all the parents are scared for their children and the psychological damage that is being done to them.
So in the face of all these problems caused by the settlers what has the village done to try and make things better?
We can’t really do anything. But when they come the whole village comes and protects the houses at threat. This is to protect and support these people. Clashes between us and them happen all the time. But when we go to the court for these families the courts do nothing as they are Israeli courts. We are in a struggle with them [the settlers] all the time.
It sounds really difficult to do anything to directly stop this. But can you tell us some more about the women and children’s resource centre and the group Retaj that you are part of? What is the role they are playing in making things better for the village?
The idea we had for Retaj was to work with women with the help of other organisations. We created it this year on January the 14th and wanted to do something good for the village’s women and children. We currently have 70 members and have seven in our council which decides what we’re going to do and runs the group. I am the head of the organisation. The majority of the 70 women who are our members are housewives although some are younger university graduates. Our members who are housewives find that once the children have gone to school and they have done the housework they have nothing to do. So they come to Retaj. They want to improve and empower themselves as many of them left school at a very young age. They see education as a great way to do this.
We put on many workshops for them from stuff like pregnancy workshops, to healthy eating to help their children’s health but also workshops on First Aid as we don’t have a medical centre here in Asira. So now if anyone is injured, for example from the tear gas inhalation which affects the children particularly, the women in the village know what to do whether it is in the village or in her house specifically. Once women have finished the First Aid course they are given a bag of medical supplies so they really can make a difference. Recently a child hurt themselves falling over and one of our members got there and helped them until the ambulance came [ambulances are often hindered traveling to and from the nearest hospital in Nablus as two Israeli checkpoints lie on the route.] In fact this workshop has been so useful we do it for women and men now. Another incident saw a car accident happen in the centre of the village. A woman who had done the workshop managed to help out someone who was quite badly injured. This makes me happy as it feels like we are really doing something useful and positive.
So what other sorts of workshops do you do?
We do many other workshops, for example growing vegetables. They can then sell them and it gives the housewives a chance to earn some money for the family which helps a lot. I would say that for the woman in the family almost all the stress falls on her. The man leaves the house early in the morning and the woman is left with the children. She has to look after them and then cook and clean. Because she is in the house all day she is far more aware of the problems the family is facing whether it is fear of settler attacks, pollution or not having enough money. In fact the extra money that can be earned by selling vegetables can also help to put their children into the university.
We also have psychological workshops as well. They talk about the fears they have and what’s on their mind. A lot of the women really enjoy these workshops as they have a lot to say living where they do with such day to day problems.
We also have many widows and women whose husbands have left them. So they come to Retaj searching for a chance to earn money or just learn about herself by increasing her knowledge or culture. But we also do more practical workshops on women’s rights as many women are unaware that they have any. Many women do not get the land from their families that they are entitled to inherit. So we can offer women the chance to go to court and fight for this and support them when they are nervous as they are not use to these sorts of legal environments which are dominated by men.
So what does Retaj do for the children of the village?
We work with the children a lot as well. After school there is nothing for the children they are just in the street. This year 3 children have had accidents in the street with cars. One child now has a shorter leg, such was the extent of his injuries.
We do many workshops. We did one for art but it was only 2 weeks which wasn’t good as we need more long term courses and projects. So we have focused on English lessons as their English is very poor. We get about 60 children a week. We have three lessons a week for English.
Music lessons are also 3 times a week and we have over 60 children for this. Mostly playing the guitar but also singing as well. We took them to Ni’lin to a musical festival to perform with a London choir and also in Nablus with a French choir. So far we’ve also had two concerts in Asira.
But now the music lessons have stopped as we don’t have any more volunteers until February. So we’ve been trying to think what we can do with them instead. Last week we went to the zoo in Qalqiliya for example.
They also do psychology workshops with the YMCA. They draw what they feel and we tend to focus this on children living closest to the settlement.
So who are the volunteers?
In English and music all the volunteers are international. Initially I did some English lessons but it was too much work as I have a lot of other things to do with Retaj. Then ISM and other groups started doing the English lessons.
But sometimes the psychology and art workshops are run by groups and individuals from Palestine.
And how are these projects funded?
We have no income source so everyone is a volunteer. We don’t want to have to ask the children for money we just want them to learn. Trips like the one to the zoo last week was paid for by the YMCA. We proposed to them that they do this and they were happy to and took 18 children on this trip.
But this is a problem with having a lack of money. The Retaj centre is a very old building that needs work. The building was in fact donated by a woman of the village for us to use. But yes it does need work. Some groups are happy to help including Première Urgence but they can’t fund the whole renovation.
As you come into the village you see that a water project is going on and you mentioned it briefly earlier. Can you tell us a bit about this?
It’s funded by U.S. Aid. It’s been carried out by a company from outside Asira so we have little to do with it. But it is very important for the village as water is so expensive. However I believe the village council has made a mistake with this project as we have so little involvement. Yesterday the company dug into the ground and there was no electricity for four hours.
But another issue is that the settlers attack it all the time. One time they burned down the room with all the equipment in it. On other occasions they have stolen materials and take the CCTV tape when they do this. Because of this the company wants the village to put a guard by the project at night but this would be very dangerous for someone as they would definitely be attacked.
For me I also find this difficult as it’s U.S. Aid funding it. The U.S. government protects Israel. It gives them arms. Not only this but they say we are guilty and Israel is innocent. We are terrorists and the Israelis are victims. The truth is that the U.S is lying and don’t care about us and whether we live or die. They give us small projects but give the Israelis money and guns to kill us. I boycott all U.S Aid projects and refuse to work with them. With this project in particular something is wrong anyway. When work started in 2002 the Israelis immediately took more land for the nearby settlement and said go ahead and have your water project. But when there is pressure on them to not take more land they oppose the water project. So only while we lose will they allow us this small project.
What does the future hold for Retaj and Asira?
We hope the future will be good for Retaj and the women and children of the village. We want to be involved with other projects that will empower people in the village. We hope that we can have a specific centre for the children to learn English and music but also do other things we haven’t done before like sports. We also want the children to learn how to perform dabke (a traditional Palestinian dance). We have started to meet other women from villages around Ramallah and Nablus who are doing similar things or want to start to. This looks like it might be really useful and we can share skills with each other. We have already helped some potential new groups with the applications they need to complete to become registered groups or organizations.
So yes, hopefully the future will be good for Retaj and Asira. Insha’Allah [if God wills it].
After a month laden with demonstrations and debates in the Interior Affairs Committee of the Knesset, this Saturday will see the largest event held thus far in the Naqab (Negev), with thousands of protesters expected to arrive from around the country. Parallel protests will be held in Gaza, Ramallah, Haifa, Berlin, The Hague, Cairo and 25 other cities around the world. This is a critical moment: the fate of up to 70,000 Palestinian-Bedouin indigenous to the Naqab (Negev) will soon be determined.
In their words, “We are human beings and citizens, but the Prawer Plan treats us like animals who can be moved around from place to place with no consultation or regard for our wishes. This Saturday, we will stand with our supporters from near and afar, and call for the recognition of the villages denied recognition and for a halt to this cruel plan.”
The Prawer-Begin plan will allow Israeli police to use force in its expulsion of Palestinian-Bedouins. It will also permit the police to arrest and imprison any Palestinian-Bedouin up to two years for violating the law. The plan negates Palestinian-Bedouin ownership rights in their ancestral land, it gives Israel’s Prime Minister unprecedented powers to implement the plan and it legitimizes the use of violence and coercion in the execution of the plan. Moreover, it is a plan that has at its heart the demographic transformation of the Naqab (Negev) area, by expanding Jewish-Israeli presence on the expense of the indigenous Palestinian-Bedouins. In short, the Prawer-Begin Plan rises to a crime against humanity as delineated in the Rome Statue, Article 7.1 (d) and 7.2 (d).
“The state is treating us like objects to be shunted about,” says Huda Abu-Obeid, a law student and an activist against the Prawer Plan. “We are being denied the basic right to decide our own fate – to decide where to live and how to dispose our property, our basic right to a home. But we will not give up and will continue to resist the Plan nonviolently.”
Abu-Obeid adds: “Imagine the State of Israel enacted a law forbidding citizens whose name starts with an A to live west of Route 4, in central Israel. The Prawer Plan says something similar to the Palestinian-Bedouins of the Naqab – it forbids them from living and holding property west of Route 40. The government is trying to present the plan as ‘in the best interest of the Bedouin,’ while with one hand it is acting to destroy Bedouin villages through the Prawer Plan and with the other it is building new Jewish localities in the Negev, some of these in the very same places where the villages stand today.”
“The plan is titled ‘The plan to regularize Bedouin settlement in the Negev’, but it does nothing to solve problems and regularize our settlements – it stipulates only destruction,” says Fadi El-Obra, a 29-year-old from Rahat, active against the Prawer Plan. “What about the people the government plan to deprive of their homes? We Palestinian Bedouins live in the villages because our livelihood depends on it; you cannot uproot an entire population and urbanize it without consultation – and that is precisely what the government is doing.”
Israel’s government claims that the plan’s objective is to ‘modernize’ and ‘alleviate’ the socio-economic conditions of Palestinian-Bedouins runs counter to many historical facts, and is racist on its own. First and foremost, the Israeli government did not approach the Palestinian-Bedouin community to ask them for their needs, nor did they consult the Palestinian political leadership within Israel. This is a plan devised by the government without any input from those immediately and directly affected. Second, unlike Israel’s claim Palestinian-Bedouins are not ‘nomads’, they have settled in villages more than a century ago and have lead a sedentary, agricultural based life on their ancestral land for decades now.
The central rally will take place at 3:30 pm at the Hura Junction on Route 31 in the Naqab.
18th November 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Charlie Andreasson | Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Muhamad al-Zaza. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
An hour before dusk, an armed drones flies low over the rooftops, taking its time, seeking. A few miles away, someone sits, perhaps a young man, perhaps a woman, in front of a screen, secure in a command center. Soon this faceless person will find a target and fire the drone’s deadly cargo.
Two boys, cousins, 14 and 15 years old, were playing as boys in that age often do, kicking a ball between them. Adulthood had not yet begun, the future was still made of dreams, and neither was aware of what was just about to befall them.
Meanwhile the man or woman in the command prepared to fly the drone back to its base, make a neat landing, and perhaps get for a pat on the back for a successful mission.
It was 19th August 2011.
Muhamad al-Zaza woke up lying in his own blood next to his cousin Ibrahim al-Zaza. He screamed, but only for a brief moment before he fell into unconsciousness. Muhamad would never hear Ibrahim shout again, nor would they ever kick another ball. Ibrahim died a month later from his injuries, after weeks of struggle against death. Another number for the statistics. Another casualty of the military occupation’s cruelty. A 14-year-old boy who had to atone with his life for the crime of having been born on the wrong side of the separation barrier.
When Muhamad awoke, he lay bandaged at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, more or less like a mummy. And there could he have died as a direct consequence of the siege. The medical equipment necessary to save the life of someone as badly injured as the two boys was not there. They had to get treatment elsewhere. Still, it took eight days before they were allowed to be transferred to Kaplan hospital, in Israel, the nation behind the attack and which caused their injuries. They were admitted not in recompense, but on a commercial basis, a cynicism that exceeds the limit of the possible.
Ibrahim was immediately placed in an isolated room when he arrived at Kaplan hospital. He had lost a lot of blood and both hands, and most of his internal organs were injured. All efforts to save him were in vain. For Muhamad, the odds were better, but his condition remained critical. Surgeons places eight nails in his leg, and it took several more surgeries to clip muscles and tendons in his legs and hands.
But the hospital was an oasis of humanity for the eleven months he stayed there, very different from what he would encounter during his journeys between hospitals. First he went to Jerusalem; for two months in rehabilitation; then to Nablus, for a month; for back surgery; and then to Egypt. He was refused ambulance transport, and only after a physician at Kaplan hospital, Dr. Tzvia Shapira, paid out of her own pocket could it be arranged. The harassment continued at military checkpoints, with the constant threat soldiers would deny him passage.
Photos of Muhamad’s hospitalization. (Photo by Charlie Andreasson)
When Atef al-Zaza, Muhamad’s father, begins to talk about Dr. Shapira, his eyes glitter like distant stars. She did not let Israeli propaganda and war rhetoric obscure her vision, but saw his son as a human being, and started a fundraising campaign to enable his continued operations and rehabilitation. But despite the warmth that surrounded Muhamad in her care, fear crept in every time he heard the sounds of F-16s from a nearby military airport. He feared not only for his own life, that they would come to finish the job, but also for his family and his friends in Gaza.
I asked him what he experiences today, two years after the attack that could have ended his life, when he hears the sound of the drones as they fly over the rooftops. Muhamad first threw a pleading glance at his father, who said that the nightmares his son once had no longer wake him at night. But when he began to describe the feelings the sound of the drones raise, I saw discomfort reflected in his face, a face whose muscles he struggled to control, and asked another question.
I asked him if he thought that the soldier who controlled the drone experienced it like a computer game, that the people maimed at a safe distance were not of flesh and blood, of emotions and dreams, but just something fictitious on a screen that generates points. This time the answer came immediately, and it was clear he had asked himself the same question. To him it did not matter if the pilot saw it as a computer game or not. “The soldiers, before they sit down in front of the levers, already have dehumanized us Palestinians,” he said. “They do not see us as people. If they did, they could never have done this to us. I would not talk to the soldier if we sat as you and I sit now. Now words can be exchanged between us, not as long as we are not people to them.”
“And,” he says, hesitating a little, “I ‘m afraid that I would hate him, that such a meeting would only produce a worse side of me.”
He pronounces the words with a calm voice, and I try to see the boy as he was before all this happened. The scars he showed me, covering large parts of his body, were obviously not the only ones caused by the drone attack.
The bill for the first eight months of Muhamad’s care in Israel landed on the Palestinian Authority’s desk. A fundraising campaign Dr. Shapira started funded the rest. But more surgery is needed for Muhamad to be able to return to a normal life, something very evident when he showed the injuries on its legs and hand.
During the interview, none of us knew that Dr. Shapira had just launched a new fundraising campaign to at least be able to operate on Muhamed’s hand. When Atef learned this, his eyes again glittered like lightning. But he knows that his son’s story is not unique, that many similar attacks have affected others, and that Dr. Shapira is not enough for everyone.
11th November 2013 | Operation Dove | At Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
The Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills is growing at a phenomenal rate since the beginning of October. On Saturday November 9, the activist group of Ta’ayush (an Arab and Jewish grassroots nonviolent movement) and international peace activists entered the outpost in order to document the illegal works taking place and to ask the Israeli authorities to stop the expansion.
The activist group videotaped a large construction site, but settlers and the Israeli police and army prevented them from fully documenting the expansion of Havat Ma’on. Furthermore two masked settlers attacked the activists, throwing stones at them. In spite of the presence of the Israeli police, there were no consequences for the attackers.
Later, two settlers from Havat Ma’on came toward the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani. One settler approacheda Palestinian home and provoked the residents. A group of Palestinians from the village gathered near the house and the settler was distanced by the police.
The inhabitants of the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani and international observers have documented the expansion of Havat Ma’on since October 6, when they photographed a scraper while it was entering the outpost; they also later heard noises from the construction works. Several days later, internationals documented an excavator digging the land. Documentation of the entire construction process was not possible, however, because of the presence of woods that obstruct the view.
Despite receiving several notices of this expansion, when an Israeli activist informed the Israeli official responsible for the infrastructure of Hebron and the South Hebron area from the District Coordination Office (DCO), the official declared that DCO officers inspected the area and did not see any construction work.
From Havat Ma’on outpost come a lot of violence and threats against the local Palestinian communities. Just in the lands surrounding the outpost, Operation Dove volunteers have recorded a total of 43 incidents since the beginning of the 2013 in which local settlers are involved: 13 cases of Palestinian property damages (primarily olive trees); 13 violent attacks and 17 harassments and threats against Palestinians, Israelis and internationals.
While the Palestinian and Bedouin villages of Area C, including the South Hebron Hills, suffer from Israel’s ongoing policy of demolitions and threats, the nearby outposts and settlements continue to expand.
“Most of Area C has been allocated for the benefit of Israeli settlements, which receive preferential treatment at the expense of Palestinian communities, including with regard to access to land and resources, planning, construction, development of infrastructure, and law enforcement” declared the United Nations OCHA oPt (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestinian territories) in the report regarding the Area C, issued on January 2013.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
