Category: Reports

Red Crescent attacked during settler raids in Qusra

1 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Qusra, Occupied Palestine

While people around the world were celebrating the start of a new year the Palestinian town of Qusra in the West Bank was under attack. Around midnight 1settlers entered the agricultural outskirts of the town, uprooting approximately 250 trees. Reports from some of the villagers spoke of the Israeli Army lighting parachute flares over the olive groves to assist the vandals.

After a long night, the settlers returned in the morning with dogs. An elderly woman was home alone when she heard stones begin to pelt the outside of her house. Angry voices screamed “come out Arab men, come out and fight”. They trashed the tractor parked in her driveway, smashing its windows. Large stones built up on her rooftop, still visible when ISM visited her a few hours later.

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The woman called for help and villagers responded by marching en-mass towards her house. At this point the settlers fled to a hilltop above the town and the Israeli Occupation Force moved in.

Angry clashes followed between the villagers and the Army causing significant casualties: at least 5 people were hospitalised; approximately 20 people were treated on the scene for inhalation of tear gas; around 15 sustained injuries from rubber bullets. While the Army engaged villagers in Qusra, reports came that the settlers had moved on to the village of Jalud. They set up a makeshift roadblock between Jalud and Qusra, terrorising Palestinian cars moving between the two villages.

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At around 3pm a Red Crescent driver was driving supplies between Jalud and Qusra when he encountered the roadblock. The driver – Abdul Kareem Hassan – had his vehicle stopped and was pelted with numerous large stones by the settlers. Every window of the vehicle was smashed and Abdul Kareem suffered blows to head from the stones. By the time he was able to reach Qusra he was bleeding from the head and suffering respiratory stress.

A local resident told ISM he could not remember a week in the last two years when Qusra did not suffer from some kind of settler initiated aggression. Today’s attack, however, was particularly severe and an unwelcome start to the new year for the people of Qusra.

 

 

Israeli military conducts illegal operations in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

by Wyatt Black

31 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Israeli occupation forces have shown a large amount of aggression recently in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Al Khalil (Hebron). Three Palestinian homes near the ancient Jewish cemetery were entered and searched on the 30 December. Another apartment rented by internationals had soldiers attempting to forcibly enter that same night, the armies’ alleged reason was to get onto the roof.

Today (31 December) Israeli army personnel entered deep into the H1 Palestinian-controlled area of the neighborhood at 4 pm and apprehended a person at a shop who was using a knife for his work. They detained him for more than an hour, during that time he was kept blindfolded.

The Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron of 1997 cites that “Israel will continue to carry the responsibility for overall security of Israelis” and that “both sides reiterate their commitment to maintain normal life throughout the City of Hebron and to prevent any provocation or friction that may affect the normal life in the city.” In the above described case there is no doubt the Israeli military overstepped their bounds. There was no security threat to any Israeli, therefore apprehending anyone or entering any place was a clear violation of the Oslo III agreement.

When activists arrived at the scene there was no explanation given by the Israeli army for why they handcuffed the Palestinian worker and put him into a police car. The army commander demanded instead that the international asking questions hand over his passport. When the international refused and asked for a police officer, the commander insisted upon having it, even though he has no right to obtain such identification.

In addition threats have been made by soldiers to internationals living in Tel Rumeida. Sound bombs have been used at night in the H1 area around Palestinian homes as well and there have been unconfirmed reports of beatings inflicted to Palestinians by the army.

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Israeli soldiers in H1 and H2 area in Hebron

 

Wyatt Black is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

 

Villagers in Yasouf plough land near Za’tara checkpoint despite settler harassment

31 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Yasouf, Occupied Palestine

For the last 11 years the villagers of Yasouf were denied entry to their land next to the road by Za’tara checkpoint. This land used to provide the village with much of what was needed in terms of vegetables. Over the last week they have successfully worked some of this land, but not without harassment.

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On Wednesday, when the villagers first attempted to plant corn in their fields, inhabitants of the nearby Israeli settlement, Tappuah, disrupted this attempt and drove the residents of Yasouf away. Later, in the  night, settlers also uprooted 12 trees on the other side of the village, belonging to a farmer who has been targeted violently three times in recent years. The villagers returned on Sunday more determined to work their land and, again, were confronted with a crowd of approximately 50 settlers. The village elders managed to negotiate the right to remain on this land with the Israeli military. The group of Israeli settlers, not content with disrupting much of a day’s work, went on to burn a tree and destroy wheat fields on the opposite side of the village.

The villagers of Yasouf expressed cautious optimism about being able to plough their land near Za’tara checkpoint, despite having to deal with crop destruction and confrontations. The work is by no means complete; only a small part of their farmland was actually ploughed and only time will tell if the harvest makes it back to the village successfully.

Za’tara checkpoint is a crossroads for two extremely segregated people, divided by an apartheid system. We were told by members of the village council that Palestinians are often insulted and randomly beaten whilst they go about their lives here.

 

Further incursions into Urif

30 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Occupied Palestine

International Solidarity Movement, Urif, Occupied Palestine – Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Urif for the fourth time in six days on Saturday 29th December.

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Urif has been attacked by settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Yizhar on every Saturday in the past few months. Armed settlers protected by soldiers go down the hills overlooking Urif and start throwing stones at the local school as well as homes situated on the outskirts of the village.

Yesterday, instead, a group of settlers stayed on a hilltop near the village watching Israeli soldiers chasing away people that had gathered near the school to defend the village in case of the usual settlers’ attack. Israeli soldiers and Border Police went into the centre of the village at 2:30pm and stayed until 6:30pm shooting tear-gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and stun grenades at people, vehicles and houses in Urif.

2In one particular incident, a group of soldiers that had positioned themselves on a balcony started shooting tear-gas and rubber-coated steel bullets directly at international human rights observers standing on a roof in front of them.

In the past five weeks daily settlers’ attacks, followed by Israeli army aggression at those who go to confront the settlers, have completely disrupted life in Urif. On the nights of Monday and Wednesday soldiers, without provocation, entered the village at 1:00am and shot tear-gas and stun grenades until the early hours of the morning. On Thursday, Israeli soldiers attacked a school with tear-gas and stun grenades, sending scores of three to six year old children running down the hills of Urif, and then imposed a curfew on the village. The massive amount of tear-gas shot in the village has also led to seventeen women having a miscarriage in the past month.

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Palestinian facing charges after settler violence in Madama

28 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Urif and Madama, Occupied Palestine

This week the settlers and soldiers based at the Yizhar settlement have 1been attacking the village of Urif on a daily basis, firing tear gas on school children, attacking farmers working their land, and imposing unannounced curfews on the village. The villagers of Urif said that a security guard named Jacob from Yizhar was one of those who provoked these events. Jacob is the tall thin security guard pictured here on the right. Jacob has also shot and killed an Urif villager some years ago and was involved in another violent assault in May this year, when he tied and shot  a person in the back.  Last week in the village of Madama, a farmer by the name of Ma’mun was tending to his sheep when he was attacked; witnesses again blame a Yizhar security guard they know by the name of Jacob.

Ma’mun was severely beaten and strangled by this security guard. Ma’mun’s face was swollen and full of blood and he was last seen in Madama foaming from the mouth. The harrowing account of the attack, which included injuries to Ma’mun’s family when they tried to assist him, can be read here:

https://palsolidarity.org/2012/12/madama-attack-harrowing-account-from-the-nassar-family/

During the attack two other people were injured when soldiers and settlers attacked the villagers that arrived at the scene of the aggression. One was hospitalized with gunshot wounds in his leg, while the other was hit on the side of the head with a tear gas canister. Ma’mun was taken by the settlers then handed over to the Israeli Police who arrested him.

Ma’mun has now been indicted with three “offences”: assaulting a soldier, assaulting a settler, and an indictment from two months ago which was the same assault of both a soldier and a settler. All together, the prosecution has 13 witnesses against Ma’mun. Ma’mun’s lawyer has therefore asked for some time to study the case. The next hearing is scheduled for January 17, but this is still subject to change.

Ma’mun’s physical state is much better. Doctors have been preparing a medical record as he was assaulted so seriously.

Ma’mun has also recently been allowed to take medication that he needed for an existing condition. The defence is relying on police complaints made my Ma’mun for assaults against him in the past, and they also have some hope in discrediting the witnesses who are all from the settlement, or Israeli Military.

Now that Ma’mun is recovering physically from the attack, concerns have now shifted to the heavy indictments he faces and the clearly biased witnesses who will give evidence against him.

The video below shows settlers burning trees in the village of Urif.