20th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday, at approximately 11:00 in al-Khalil (Hebron) a settler from a nearby illegal settlement approached the Qurtuba school in H2 with a gun [H2 is the area of Hebron under Israeli military civil and security control]. The settler entered the school grounds, terrifying the children with his loaded gun. After some time the settler left but the children were forced to evacuate a building and move to another area of the school. The teachers asked for international presence until school was finished that day.
The children were rushed out of school early and internationals and Palestinians stood at a prominent place to ensure the children were safe. Not long after this, a settler attacked a Palestinian and threatened another. The settler threatened to stab a 16-year-old boy and another local Palestinian who tried to film the incident. 40-year-old Jawad Abu Aisha stated, “The settler told Awne (the 16-year-old) that he would bring a knife to stab him. Awne told me and I tried to tell the soldier so he would do something but he did not do anything. When I tried to film the settler he attacked me and tried to break my mobile but did not manage to do so.”
Photo by Christian Peacemakers Teams – Palestine
Eventually, and after much prompting by the Palestinians, the soldier stepped in and pulled the settler away. Both Palestinians were left badly shaken by the attack.
20th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Late yesterday afternoon in Hebron, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian youths, 15-year-old Ahmed Alazeh and 21-year-old Dea’a Abu Dawoud.
A local Palestinian contact reported to ISM that Alazeh was charged with throwing stones at soldiers, while Abu Dawoud was arrested after saying to soldiers at the checkpoint, “what do you think, I have a knife?” after soldiers made him walk multiple times through a metal detector.
Stone throwing is a serious accusation as the Israeli cabinet recently approved a law which enables Israeli courts to sentence Palestinians to up to twenty years of imprisonment for throwing stones at Israeli military personnel.
The two Palestinians were arrested near the Shuhada checkpoint. The checkpoint leads to Shuhada street, a street in which Palestinians have been completely restricted from since 2000, and the neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida.
The soldiers closed the checkpoint while they detained the youths and awaited the arrival of police. The closure forced residents of Tel Rumeida neighbourhood to wait up to 45 minutes before being able to continue their walk home.
The police arrived approximately 45 minutes after the first young Palestinian was detained; after a few minutes of arguing both Palestinians were led to the police car and taken away.
19th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
This morning in al-Khalil (Hebron), clashes broke out in the Qeitun area starting between 07:00 and 08:00 near the Qeitun checkpoint. By 08:00 the group of Palestinian teenagers and young boys present had grown to approximately 100 individuals, since the school closed, most likely due to tear gas drifting inside. The large group of schoolchildren marched towards the checkpoint while chanting and shouting. Some of the boys threw stones at the checkpoint, though no soldier was either hit with a stone or injured.
The clash went on for one and a half hours, with Israeli forces firing many tear gas canisters at the children. Two ISM’ers present saw how a group of soldiers tried to ambush a group of children, seemingly in an attempt to arrest them.
An ISM’er present stated, “Suddenly five or six soldiers came running from an alleyway, the kids saw them in time, and fled. I yelled at them [the soldiers] that they should leave, and that it was only children.”
Overall approximately 29 tear gas canisters and one stun grenade were fired.
At around 11 am the soldiers were still stationed outside the checkpoint, aiming their guns down the street, even though no stone throwing youths were present.
14th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
Friday morning around 50 Palestinian and international activists used makeshift bridges to cross the Apartheid wall between Qalandiya and Northern Jerusalem. This non-violent direct action was in response to the restrictions Israel had placed on Palestinian worshippers wishing to access Al-Aqsa Mosque in the past months.
Activists scaled the wall one by one at around 10 am yesterday morning. Only a few hundred meters from an Israeli settlement, the activists then set about cutting through a barbed-wire fence that had been placed close to the Apartheid wall.
Once all the activists breached the wall, the group cheered and proudly waved Palestinian flags. The action finished peacefully around 11am with no arrests. This non-violent direct action was part of a campaign entitled #On2Jerusalem and it was organized by local Palestinian popular resistance committees to show solidarity with the people of Jerusalem.
Another action that was part of the #On2Jerusalem campaign occurred after where Palestinian and international activists attempted to march toward Jerusalem through Hizme checkpoint. The activists blocked Israeli traffic, waved Palestinian flags and sang pro-Palestine chants. Many of those present wore T-shirts with pictures of Al-Aqsa mosque with the text, “I am Palestinian under 50.” This text referred to the restrictions placed on Palestinian male worshippers under 50 in regards to entering the Al-Aqsa compound. Right away, the activists were met by heavy Israeli military and police presence and were therefore prevented from crossing through Hizme.
The Israeli forces shouted and pushed activists as well as journalists on several occasions and soon after Israeli forces shot a barrage of stun grenades towards the activists and press forcing them to disperse. After violently pushing two international activists carrying a large Palestinian flag, Israeli forces ended up confiscating the flag from them. One of these international activists stated, “We found ourselves holding the Palestinian flag near a group of soldiers. One soldier in front of us tore up a small Palestinian flag in front of us. Afterwards he tried to take the big flag from us. When we wouldn’t let him more soldiers helped him, we were suddenly surrounded by soldiers grabbing and pushing us, and forcing the flag out of our hands.”
Later that day and as part of the#On2Jerusalem actions, activists joined locals at Qalandiya checkpoint where clashes had been taking place for most of the morning. Israeli forces used excessive force shooting dozens of tear gas canisters and grenades in addition to stun grenades at demonstrators. Despite the Israeli army’s aggression, the non-violent demonstrators which were a few hundred in number loudly shouted pro-Palestine chants and waved flags. At one point a demonstrator was able to climb a military lookout post to hang a Palestinian flag on the top.
12th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Mughayir, Occupied Palestine
Photo by ISM
At 18:00 yesterday, the Israeli army closed the main entrance to Mughayir village until midnight. At midnight the army infiltrated the village and patrolled its empty streets for the next four hours.
Sometime between 2:30-3:30 am, villagers noticed that the mosque was on fire. Failing to put out the fire, the fire brigade was called, but by the time they had arrived from Ramallah, the fire had already spread along the ground floor of the mosque and the toilets.
Photo by ISMPhoto by ISM
While local media reported Zionist settlers as the culprits, witnesses in the village did not see who was responsible. Mughayir mayor, Faraj Na’asan stated, “Of course we know who did it. They’ve done it before in 2012. Everybody was in their houses because the soldiers were patrolling the streets. It was either the soldiers, or settlers under their protection.”
The Mughyir mosque is the second mosque to be burned by settlers this month. Meanwhile the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is infiltrated by Israeli forces almost daily. The limiting of 50 Muslim worshipers a day, and the allowing of settler tours has sparked an upheaval in East Jerusalem and across the West Bank.
Photo by ISMPhoto by ISM
“It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time that the settlers attack a holy sight and especially after the attacks on al-Aqsa mosque in these past few days,” stated Sais Mughayir. “We are facing a hard time locally and internationally. So we have to be united to enhance the existence of people in their land.”
