Category: Reports - Page 126 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli forces continue to target human rights activists during the wave of house raids in Hebron

26th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On the 17th of November, around one hundred and fifty Israeli soldiers advanced into Jabal Al-Rahma neighborhood – a neighborhood in the H1 area of Hebron (al-Khalil) just outside of the H2 area that is under Israeli military control. From 7.30pm until 3am the following morning most of the houses in the neighborhood were raided, amongst them the house of human rights activist Badee Dwaik.

On this particular night the soldiers split up to check and register the I.D.s of male Palestinian family members in the whole neighborhood. According to Badee, the soldiers stayed in the house, in which there are six apartments all belonging to the Dwaik family, for around two hours and “were very aggressive” according to Badee.

Upon entering the house, the soldiers forced the nephew of the human rights activist—who has been documenting the incidents in the neighborhood— into a corner and beat him in front of his father, mother, brother and uncles. “It was a scary situation for the kids” describes Badee who managed to document the brutal encounter. When asked for the military order to search the houses, the Israeli forces completely rejected the request and entered the building nonetheless. They started by searching the house Badee’s brother before they reached the apartment of human rights activist Badee.

The family was forced to stay in the living room, while the soldiers searched every room of his house. “They took things from the cubbord and threw it and broke the gold box from my wife”, illustrates Badee.

Badee, who is documenting, monitoring and reporting for Human Rights Defenders Group was filming, while the soldiers aggressively searched his house and confiscated a number of Palestinian flags. The soldiers told him that he should stop filming the raid of his cousins that followed the thorough search of his house. Badee explains that the raid of his house was especially severe because “I was filming them and they didn’t like it”.

Before leaving the house, the Israeli forces broke the camera of the human rights activist, adding it to the list of important documenting devices that the Israeli forces have been intentionally breaking.

Since the beginning of this year, the Israeli forces have broken a total of four cameras and a computer that the Human Rights Defenders Group used to document the growing harassment, intimidation and violence by soldiers and illegal settlers alike. Badee explains that human rights activists “are becoming a target for them (Israeli forces) because we document about Israeli crimes and humiliation of families”.

During the wave of house raids and arbitrary closures as a ‘closed military zone’ of Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street Palestinian human rights activists have been a target and systematically stopped by the Israeli forces to hinder them from fighting for human rights and justice through documenting and monitoring the hideous crimes of both Israeli settlers and soldiers.

The wave of house raids that have been happening all over Hebron create a situation where the families are left feeling unsafe in their own homes and “get scared and psychologically tired” of the situation explains Badee. “It is a nightmare for the families” to experience these arbitrary house raids says Badee and as long as this keeps happening Palestinian families live in constant fear and injustice.

All credits for pictures and video: the Human Rights Defenders group

Arbitrary arrest of two internationals in Hebron

26th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Sunday 22^nd November 2015, two international solidarity activists were arrested by Israeli forces on the allegation that they were ‘staying in a closed military zone’ in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

One German human rights defender passed a checkpoint manned with a group of half a dozen soldiers with two Palestinians and another international. They were not stopped on their way by the soldiers and were allowed to pass without any problems. After visiting a house in the neighbourhood however, they were immediately stopped by soldiers when stepping on the street only twenty minutes later. Soldiers immediately questioned them about what they were doing and ordered them to walk down the hill instead of up, the direction they were headed. When the internationals asked for a reason, soldiers called the police, but allowed the Palestinians in the group to leave. An American activist was also allowed to leave as she was Jewish, whereas the German was detained by the soldiers and not allowed to leave. According to the soldiers, the detained activist was ‘the reason for everything bad in the world’ and ‘should go to Syria’ to die there ‘as the world would be a better place without her’.

Another group of internationals was going to a shop in the same neighbourhood. The three of them were yelled at by soldiers, and one out of the group was ordered to come towards the soldiers whereas the other two were ordered to leave immediately or they would be arrested. Even though in the beginning the international argued that then she would be entering a closed military zone, which she wasn’t allowed to do, soldiers kept insisting. In the end the French activist did approach the soldiers as they kept requesting her to do so – only to be arrested for entering a ‘closed military zone’.

Both the French and German activists were held at the Givat Ha’vot police station in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba for in total nine hours. In contrast to two Palestinian prisoners held at the police station, they were treated well. One Palestinian youth, only 18 years old, had already been at the police station for 16 hours when the internationals were taken there. He was visibly shaken and told the internationals that he would be taken to Ofer prison. Another Palestinian youth, about 16 years old, was walked past the internationals hand- and foot-shackled, visibly in great pain, trying to hold his stomach while walking bent over in extreme pain. No medical aid was given to him, instead he was forced to sit on the ground outside.

At one point, everyone including the two Palestinian youths, the two internationals and an Israeli prisoner were made to leave the only at least slightly heated room and forced to sit outside in the cold for about an hour as soldiers and police was bringing food and drinks and were audible enjoying themselves inside. Any requests for blankets or being allowed back inside were completely ignored or denied. When the internationals asked for food they were only given some bread and a tomato.

The Israeli settler, clearly psychologically disturbed, kept talking about the ghosts talking to him, all because of a spell that a Rabbi put on him. Still, he was released after a few hours. The two internationals were released after about 9 hours only when agreeing to sign conditions barring them from the ‘Tel Rumeida area’ of al-Khalil for 15 days. Even though they were released in the middle of the night around 2 o’clock they were from staying in their respective homes as they are in the are signed for. Unfortunately, nothing is known so far about the two Palestinian youths held at the police station. What can be said for sure though is that in Israeli military courts they will not even have the chance of a fair trail or at anything even distantly related to justice.

Israeli army uses Palestinian neighborhood for military training exercises

25th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

In Qaitun, a Palestinian Neighborhood of Hebron, situated in Oslo-defined Area H2, Israel has the authority for administrative and security control.

Israeli administrative control results in Apartheid: Palestinians will never get permission for doing anything, as building, extending or repairing their houses, and all other sort of things. Israeli citizens get permission for almost everything they want in occuppied Hebron H2.

Israeli security control results in the abuse of many human rights including extrajudicial executions and using the Palestinian neighborhoods for military training – as today.

Three teams of at least seventeen soldiers each, invaded several Palestinian homes on a random basis, and detaining the family. They went inside the house to the rooftop and tried observation and shooing possiblities from there. After some 15 minutes they went down again for raiding another home.

Most of these soldiers looked very young as if they were barely out of high school. They were heavily armed and many appeared to be nervous. This could have led to an extremely dangerous risk to Palestinians and anyone else near their training exercise.

A trainer, sided by a personal bodyguard, instructed them how to invade houses and do other military things as stopping civilians and cars in this Palestinian neighborhood.

In the three hour training they invaded more than 20 homes.

Some young soldiers in these group had US-army helmets, which indicates that they might have arrived from the US for this training and serving the Israeli army.

Intimidating nightraids and arrests in the peaceful village of Osarin

22th november 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Osarin, occupied Palestine

In the night of the 21st of november the village of Osarin was raided by Israeli forces. Approximately 60 Israeli soldiers entered the small village of only 2000 inhabitants at 1 AM and gathered in the central part of the village where they immediately confiscated one of the homes.

The soldiers split up in 5 groups of 12 soldiers. Each group went to a separate home to arrest a boy. The young boys (ages ranging 15 to 20) were handcuffed and taken with their fathers to the confiscated house in the center of the village for interrogation.

The boys were informed by the soldier they were arrested for throwing stones at the Israeli forces a few days earlier and for shining with laser lights. The boys were than interrogated by the soldiers. One boy explained how he was forced to strip naked in front of the soldiers so they could make sure he didn’t carry any weapon on him. All the boys were told to stand on one leg with their heads against the wall for over a hour.
All of the boys were released after 2 hours of interrogation. One of the boys’ fathers who works in Israel was told by the soldiers that he would loose his job if his son ‘made trouble’ again. The next day one of the village officials went to meet with the Israeli forces. They told him straight forward that no boys in the village could ‘make trouble’ again. In his response he explained that he could only speak for his own child, not the others.

The night raid on Osarin came after the army set up 2 road blocks around Osarin (both alongside the route 505 highway) which were ment to prohibit the movement of local Palestinians and close off the small village from surrounding areas.

This wasn’t the first time soldiers raided Osarin, local residents explained that the village was raided 2 times before the road blocks. Each time a group of 20 soldiers would enter the village in the middle of night when everyone was asleep. They would set off sound bombs and shoot in the air just to deprive people of their sleep. The local residents of Osarin said that these raids had no purpose and were just pure intimidation of the village and its inhabitants.

Fifteen masked settlers attack olive field in Burin

24th november 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Burin, occupied Palestine

On November the 24th at approximately 10 am, fifteen masked settlers from the Yitzhar settlement near Burin, south of Nablus, rushed toward an olive field where four Palestinians and two internationals were harvesting.

Twenty minutes earlier, the Yitzhar security car, which is usually driven by the head of the settlement security Isaak Levy, was parked on the hilltop from which the fields could be observed. During the next twenty minutes, more settlers gathered on the hilltop and then ran, still in the presence of the settlement security, towards the field, causing Palestinians and internationals to gather olives, tarps and ladders and flee.

15 masked settlers attacking olive field. — 15 masked settlers attacking olive field in the presence of the settlement security .

Further down the hill, another farmer reported that he could see the settlers uphill breaking off branches from the trees and starting a fire, but Israeli forces prevented the farmers from reentering the field, claiming that the permit for entering the field to harvest was not valid until Saturday.

Israeli forces preventing Palestinians from reentering the field.

The olive field was also attacked earlier this month, on November 2nd, when settlers entered the land and started a fire on the grass next to the olive fields. As in virtually all cases, the settlers committed the crime without being held accountable.

On a neighboring field, five masked settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement on October 31st attacked the olive field in the presence of both Israeli forces and Levy.

Levy’s presence has been noticed on numerous occasions just prior to and during violent settler attacks on internationals and Palestinians.