24th November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus-team | Burin, occupied Palestine
On Sunday at 10 am, November 22th, approximately twenty settlers from Yitzhar settlement attacked a boys’ school in the village of Burin, south of Nablus. According to local officials, the settlers attempted to raid and attacked the school with stones.
Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported that the group of settlers gathered near the school and proceeded to pelt it with stones in an apparent attempt to raid it. WAFA also reported that the village locals gathered near the school to fend off the settlers’ attack, after which soldiers arrived at the scene and proceeded to attack locals, leading to clashes in which Israeli forces reportedly shot live ammunition and rubber coated steel bullets. The settlers dispersed without being detained or arrested.
Earlier the same day, human rights defenders picking olives in the area noticed a group of settlers gathering near the road leading to Yitzhar settlement. They seemed to be observing the school from a distance, possibly preparing for the attack an hour later.
The village of Burin is trapped between Yitzhar and Bracha settlements, and together with the settlements’ steady expansion come grave concerns about increased settler violence and restricted access to Palestinian lands. Settlers attacking schools and olive farmers and the presence of military forces contribute to the impact on the mental and physical health of Palestinians, including children.
Israeli authorities routinely fail to provide security for Palestinians and to take adequate law enforcement measures to prevent escalating settler violence. The failure in this case to hold settlers accountable for their violent acts follows a common pattern whereby they are allowed to engage in criminal behavior with complete impunity.
Settlers gathering to observe the school from distance.The building housing boys in the age of 10-12 in which settlers attacked.Israeli forces observing the school after the attack.
Yesterday, November 23rd, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager at the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus. Samah Abd al-Mumen Ahmad, a Palestinian woman who was shot in the head in the crossfire as she drove past the scene, is currently in the hospital in critical condition.
Palestinian teenager killed at the Huwwara checkpoint on November the 23rd.
The incident occurred only 24 hours after the last killing at the checkpoint, where a 16 year old Palestinian girl was run over and then shot dead by a prominent Israeli settler. Taha Ahmad Qatanani from Nablus was run over and shot by Gershon Mesika, the former head of the “Samaria regional council” which represents the illegal settlements in the northern West Bank.
Car in which the woman was shot in the head.
In response to the events on November 22nd, the Israeli army forced all shops and restaurants in the village of Huwwara to shut down until the following morning. The forced closing of shops is a frequent occurrence in the occupied West Bank, and a Israeli soldier in the village described the action as “collective punishment” when asked about the reason by an ISM volunteer.
Furthermore, residents of Nablus trying to pass the checkpoint were only allowed to enter, but not leave, the city. The checkpoint is crossed by route 60 which connects Nablus with the central and southern West Bank. Route 60 is one of the only roads in the West Bank used by both Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
Israeli forces at the scene where a Palestinian teenager was killed on the 23rd.
22nd November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
After being allowed back to their legally owned apartment in Tel Rumeida in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) on Thursday, international human rights defenders were kicked out from their home for the third time by Israeli forces the following day.
Internationals kicked out from their home Photo credit: Human Rights Defenders
The draconian restrictions of the ‘closed military zone’ orders had been slightly lifted on Thursday with no new order issued.
Israeli forces preparing the paper to kick out internationals from their home
The lifting of the closed military zone orders gave the impression that Palestinian residents could, for the first time since weeks, be able to pass the street without being detained while Israeli forces would check their IDs and names on a list of ‘residents’. The international solidarity activists returned to their legally rented house on Thursday afternoon. After only one day, police and soldiers came into the house on Friday afternoon ordering them to leave immediately. The order Israeli forces showed to the internationals was clearly only a photocopy without an official stamp or signature. When the internationals showed their rental contract, the police officer started yelling at them and threatened them saying if they ‘don’t leave within ten minutes, [he] will use force’. Due to the threat of physical violence – that was used on internationals before when they were illegally evicted from this apartment – they decided to leave.
Photocopy of a military order with handwritten dates
Two days later, on Sunday, when attempting to go back to their house, Israeli forces showed the internationals an order dated to the end of the week. When internationals then requested to be allowed to go to their apartment, as this order was not in place at that particular time, they were ordered to wait for no reason. A few minutes later, a jeep with more soldiers drove up and one of them was clearly seen holding a pile of papers, writing something on one of them. He then handed the paper to a soldier that presented it to the internationals as a new closed military zone ‘order’ for that day. It was obvious that soldiers are now having blank copies of ‘closed military zone’ orders that they can fill in arbitrarily with any dates.
Closed military zone order for the end of the week
Since 1st November, the Israeli forces have been bringing new ‘closed military zone’ orders, renewing them every day. Virtually every Palestinian passing in any direction has to undergo humiliating, degrading and violent bag- and body-searches at gunpoint as well as ID-checks. The area covered by that order was deliberately designed to encompass only Palestinian residents and international human rights defenders while excluding the neighbouring illegal Israeli settlement, thus entirely exempting Israeli settlers from these tactics.
22nd November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Tuesday, 17th November, several groups of soldiers raided houses in the Wadi al-Hurriya neighborhood of al-Khalil (Hebron), an H1 district legally outside of Israeli control. From 7.30pm, Israeli forces were present in the area, divided into groups of 7-12 soldiers and entering every house and business on designated streets. At some of the residences they entered by force, violently smashing through doors. They checked every I.D card of the residents and also, according to soldiers who confronted the ISM volunteers, searched for weapons. Later in the night they informed the volunteers that they were looking for weapons and collecting data in order to prevent potential stabbings: “yes, some people are scared. But some people have reason to be scared.”
Soldiers on street while the unit searches Palestinian house with flashlight
Each group of soldiers patrolled different streets and dark alleys, checking each house and entering with backpacks, mapping equipment, bullet-proof vests, and cocked machine guns. On entering houses, 2-3 soldiers remained outside to “secure” the entrance, periodically pointing guns at passers-by and preventing vehicle and pedestrian passage through the streets.
Israeli forces take over streets of Wadi Al-Hurriya, stop and search cars
The raids lasted until at least 12.30am, after which one unit was witnessed occupying the second floor of a Palestinian house – the other half of which was inhabited by a Palestinian family – and could be heard setting up sleeping equipment. According to the soldiers questioned on site: “no, we are not inside a Palestinian house, they are not living in this house.” The residence is located within 500 meters of an army base and checkpoint bordering the H2 restricted area of al-Khalil.
Israeli forces patrol streets
It was reported later from residents who were in contact with ISM that furniture and property was damaged on the night. This is typical of night raids on Palestinian houses, and in other incidences money and other property has also been stolen. While these raids have been used extensively in the al-Khalil district in recent weeks as part of a tactic of intimidation, it is unclear as to whether the policy of raiding the H1 district and squatting family homes will continue.
21st November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
Monday 2nd November 2015, Israeli forces again attempted to prevent international observers from monitoring a checkpoint in a flashpoint location in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Settlers from the illegal settlements in al-Khalil physically attacked internationals while soldiers where standing idly by watching.
As on every morning, international observers were on their way to checkpoint 55, dividing Shuhada Street into a small stretch where Palestinians are allowed to walk, and the former main Palestinian market which is now a ghost street emptied of Palestinians, who are prohibited from entry. On the way there, the three international observers were stopped by soldiers while walking past another checkpoint. Soldiers ordered them to pass through the checkpoint, even though that was in the opposite direction to where they were going. The Israeli forces at first refused to give a reason for this order and then explained that it was, ‘a rule’ and that, ‘they say so’.
School-children climbing the stairs to their school
A official order for a ‘closed military zone’ was in place the day before, but had expired today. Still, Israeli soldiers claimed that the internationals did not live in the area and therefore were not allowed to be there. At one point, soldiers grabbed one of the ISMers by his arm, saying that they were going to arrest him. When reminded that, as soldiers, they were, according to the Israeli law, not allowed to arrest internationals, they refrained from the arrest and instead noted down his passport number. During the whole discussion, internationals were repeatedly threatened with arrest, for no reason.
Israeli soldier writing down passport number of an international
When the internationals were finally allowed to proceed to the checkpoint close to Qurtuba school, after about 15 minutes, the soldiers there prevented them from standing at the checkpoint, stating that, ‘their existence is a provocation’. Thus, not being allowed to stand close to the checkpoint, the internationals were forced to walk up and down the street, accompanying the school-children towards their school.
Children gathering before passing down the stairs in the afternoon on their way home from school
In the afternoon, Israeli forces arbitrarily decided to forbid internationals from going up the stairs to the school, forcing them to remain at the bottom of the staircase. Due to their fear of being attacked, all the children left the school together with their teachers – and were allowed to pass through Shuhada Street on their way home, contrary to the previous day, when soldiers denied them their right to go there on their way home. Right after the children had passed, the infamous, violent settler, Anat Cohen, drove up in her car, trying to knock down one of the internationals with her car. She then – in plain view of a group of four soldiers – physically attacked the two internationals, hitting them in the face several times, punching them and trying to break their cameras. Even though the internationals asked the soldiers to intervene, they merely stood by, watching. An elderly settler man pushed one of the internationals, and another one tried to grab the camera from her hand. Throughout the whole attack, the settlers present, as well as settlers from the nearby illegal settlement watching from their windows, insulted the internationals calling them ‘Nazis’ and telling them to, ‘go to Auschwitz’. Requests by the internationals to make a complaint against the violent attack were ignored.
Watch a video of the attack:
The soldiers, in the morning, occupied with harassing and intimidating international observers, let school-children pass up the stairs to the school and kindergarten without harrassing them any further. While female teachers were allowed to pass without being stopped, male adults coming down or up the stairs were stopped and ID-checked by the soldiers. With the escalation of violence and harassment against Palestinians in recent weeks, the way to school for the children has become increasingly intimidating and dangerous, not only for the school-children, but also their parents and teachers.
