Category: Reports

Israeli army uses surveillance drone at Nabi Saleh weekly demonstration

By Paddy Clark

September 13, 2012 | International Solidarity Movement

See photos from demonstration here and get up to date information from Nabi Saleh Solidarity here

Weekly Demonstration

On Friday, September 7, Israeli forces sealed off the village early in the morning and at least 4 people were detained hiking over the hill and two cars of Israeli activists were also detained while on route in to Nabi Saleh. All were released in the evening.

Israeli forces broke up the demonstration with tear gas.  Clashes broke out with local youth throwing stones, with Israeli forces firing rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas.

On Friday evening after the weekly demonstration, Israeli forces drove through the village playing loud noises through speakers. Clashes broke out and Israeli military fired tear gas and at least one live round in the air. This week was relatively quiet with no serious injuries sustained.

Locals also reported that soldiers used an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or surveillance drone during the protest. Israel’s practice of testing weapons or security industry products on Palestinians is well documented.

A military grade surveillance scout drone, manufactured by DATRON being tested in Washington D.C. (Photo courtesy of Popsci).

Palestine as a weapons industry laboratory and BDS

Naomi Klein talked about the Israeli war economy in her book The Shock Doctrine (2007) warning:

“The Israeli Export Institute estimates that Israel has 350 corporations dedicated to selling homeland security products, and 30 new ones entered the market in 2007. From a corporate perspective, this development has made Israel a model to be emulated in the post-9/11 market. From a social and political perspective, however, Israel should serve as something else—a stark warning. The fact that Israel continues to enjoy booming prosperity, even as it wages war against its neighbors and escalates the brutality in the occupied territories, demonstrates just how perilous it is to build an economy based on the premise of continual war and deepening disasters.”

Israeli economist Shir Hever wrote an essay in 2011 which made the point that Israeli arms companies such as; Elbit, Magal and Nice increasingly rely on Palestinians to test their weapons, and then advertise their products in arms trade showrooms as ‘battle tested’ in the field.

Private companies operating in ‘conflict’ zones are often not subject to the same laws and treaties governing states making it even more difficult to hold perpetrators of crimes responsible, and move away from impunity.

Ibrihim Shikaki, economics teacher at al-Quds University commented:

“In places of armed conflict where International humanitarian law applies, the obligation to respect and ensure respect is for “high contracting parties” i.e states. Even though there have been several attempts to start regulating the work of Private Military and Security companies (PMSC) such as the Montreux Document, and some efforts on self regulating such as the International code of conduct for private security service providers, things are only in the first steps.”

The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement (see handbook here) is increasing pressure against weapons companies who are profiting from the occupation. In August, 2011, members of Palestinian youth movement, Hirak Shababi, symbolically delivered a Palestinian call for military embargo on Israel to the United Nations office in Ramallah.

Youth activist Aghasan said: “We face Israeli repression and violence on a daily basis. Our generation has grown up under occupation and seeing friends and relatives killed, injured or imprisoned. We demand that the international community stops funding and profiting from the military and security apparatus that sustains the colonial Israeli apartheid regime. All trade and cooperation must stop. Young Palestinians demand a comprehensive military embargo now.”

International solidarity and anti-arms trade BDS

The Smash EDO campaign in Brighton, UK, is a great example of local resistance to illegal arms trade at the point of production in Europe. In an article recently published in Electronic Intifada, Jessica Nero, BDS and anti-arms trade activist and researcher, wrote about some of the groups’ tactics; using direct action at a community level as a means to legally challenge an international weapons manufacturer, exposing corporate complicity in war crimes in the process.  Jessica spoke about one of their biggest successes saying:

“The biggest success so far came in 2010, when nine defendants were found not guilty of criminal damage after breaking into EDO and smashing it up “to the best of their abilities” as a response to Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza during winter 2008-09.  After hearing all of the evidence, a jury acquitted the activists on the basis that they had acted with the intention of preventing war crimes against Palestinians.”

Paddy Clark is an activist and writer living in the West Bank (name has been changed).

Help bring Jalaal home

September 11, 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

What would you do if 30 men armed with sticks and guns stormed into your home beat your little brothers and began beating your mother and ripping her clothes?

On August 28 this happened to sixteen year old Jalaal Daraghmah. He did his best to protect his family. He grabbed a pick used for gardening, and stood at the door of his house and told the settlers he would not let anyone in. When one of them tried to enter by force Jalaal hit him with the pick. The Israeli police arrived on the scene, and they ignored the two little boys that were beaten so badly they needed to be hospitalized, the mothers bruises and torn dress, and the family’s car that had been completely destroyed by the settlers. They instead arrested Jalaal and his father Khalid. No settlers were sought for questioning or detained. The Israeli press treated what happened as a “terror attack” and dubbed It a“Axe Attack”. Jalaal has been in Israeli custody since.

Jalaal’s little brother, Nour al-Deen being treated in an ambulance after the attack. (Photo courtesy of Wafia – International Communities Against Israel).

Starting today until Thursday Jalaal can be released on a five thousand shekel bail ($1300) Jalal’s family can not afford to free him. With your help they can bring him home before the long holidays that will force him to remain in Israeli custody.

Please send what you can through the ISM donate link make sure to send an email to palreports@gmail.com to say how much you have donated for Jalaal’s release.

For the past four years the Daraghmah family have faced regular attacks by Israeli settlers at their home in Khan al-Lubban, simply for attempting to remain on their land. Help Bring Jalaal home to his family.

For more information on the attacks click here.

Update: Thanks to you we  raised all the money necessary for Jalaal’s bail and he was released yesterday!

 

Kufr Qaddoum: Five arrested in early morning raid

By Leila

10 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Palestinian children from the village Kufr Qadoum, whose fathers were detained by Israeli soldiers, carry on the protest: “You Arrested Our Fathers, So We Lead the Demonstration Today”


Five men were arrested in an early morning raid on the town of Kufr Qaddoum Tuesday by Israeli occupation forces.

At 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 100 soldiers stormed the village, apprehending 5 men: Moyyad, 57, Aws, 24, Mohammad, 24, Wassin, 23, and Ahmad, 23. The men were arrested for taking part in demonstrations.

According to an eyewitness named Morad, soldiers fired tear-gas bombs as the left the village with the men.

“I saw from my balcony on the third floor,” said Morad on Saturday! “I was with my three year old child. The gas came in my house where my wife and children were.”

Morad said that soldiers have arrested at least 100 people and have damaged at least 5 homes in the last year. It was at that time that residents began a weekly demonstration to protest the 12-year closure by Israeli occupation forces of the most direct road from the town to nearby Nablus city.

The road was closed during the Second Intifada and has remained closed to Palestinians. It runs by 3 illegal Israeli settlements, Mitspe Kedumim, Eshkubiyot, and Kdumim South and is open for settlers to use.

Because of the road closure, the 5,000 residents of Kufr Qaddoum must travel 15 kilometers south and east to reach Nablus, a journey that once took one and a half kilometers to complete.

The Palestinians for Kufr Qaddoum have faced on-going harassment by occupation forces. They have also lost 4,000 dunams or about 1,000 acres of land to the illegal settlements near the village. They face restricted access to their agricultural lands by Israeli soldiers and cameras.

Leila is a volunteer at the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

Settlers destroy 18 olive trees Burin

 By Alex Marley

11 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Eighteen Palestinian-owned olive trees were destroyed by Israeli settlers in the village of Burin, near Nablus, when the illegal settlers attacked the Palestinian land on Tuesday 4 September 2012. Burin, located in the northern West Bank, comes under frequent attack from the illegal settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha that encircle the village.

One of Nasser Qadous’ olive trees lays destroyed after settlers from Yitzhar attacked

Under the cover of dark,  settlers from Yitzhar entered the olive grove of the Nasser Qadous family and began cutting the branches from his trees. This is not the first attack on his land. Two years ago, the settlers burned his land, which consists of 5 dunums. The following morning Nasser Qadous arrived in the olive grove and found all his olive trees destroyed. After one hour the Israeli army, police, and The District Coordination Office (DCO) arrived at his land. They spoke with Nasser but he says that they have taken no action to find those responsible.g

Olive Tree sits destroyed on Nasser Qadous’ list

Background:

Located  7 kilometers southwest of Nablus, Burin is home to 3000 residents. From every position within the village you can see evidence of the Zionist occupation. Three of the most volatile Israeli settlements within the West Bank, Yitzhar, Bracha and Givat Arous reside on the hilltops of Burin. Yitzhar is the largest of the three settlements and was founded in 1984. Yitzhar consists of 1233 dunams and according to Peace Now, 35 per cent of the land is privately owned Palestinian land. The villagers in Burin are predominantly farmers and the fields that surround the village full of olives trees are testament to this. However, the land has been under threat since the start if the occupation in 1967.

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighboring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area. In one of the most extreme act of terrorism students of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Hai yeshiva fired homemade rockets on Burin in 2008.

Despite West Banks settlements’  status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Construction has continued unabated in both Yitzhar and Bracha. Yitzhar and Bracha also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.

 

Alex Marley is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Hebron man walks down street for first time in years

By Ben

10 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Hashem Azzeh in front of the graffiti on his door. Photos: EA Phelie Maguire.

On Sunday 9th September, Hashem Azzeh walked down the street outside his house for the first time in years.

Hashem lives with his artist wife Nasreen and their four children (14, 9, 4 and 2 years old) on a hillside in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron. The street outside Hashem’s house is barred to Palestinians and overseas visitors, with an army checkpoint at the end of the street to enforce the ban. To reach their house, the family have to go via a treacherous back route, clambering over walls and around other properties on the way.

Despite all the harassment and violence, Hashem remains determined to stay in his house, and today said he wanted ‘an adventure’. Hashem and five ISM volunteers from the UK, Italy and the USA clambered up from the house to the street, then walked the 200 or so metres to the checkpoint at the end of the street. The Israeli soldier at the checkpoint appeared astonished to see Hashem and international volunteers come along the street from the ‘wrong’ direction and immediately started radioing for back-up. When the soldier asked Hashem why he was walking on the street, Hashem replied, ‘I am walking to my house’.

Hashem’s family have faced years of harassment from residents of the illegal Israeli settlement on the hillside just above their house. The settlement happens to be home to some of the most fanatical settlers in Hebron, including American-born extremist Baruch Marzel.

Over the years, Hashem’s family have faced attacks on their property by settlers, with Israeli soldiers standing alongside doing nothing to intervene. Settlers have also poisoned his water supply, and killed his olive trees, fruit trees and vines. When Hashem installed his own water tank, the settlers shot it full of holes in yet another attack.

As well as attacks on their property, the family have faced regular physical violence. Hashem’s nephew had his teeth knocked out by rocks, and his brother was also smashed in the face with rock and suffered damage to his teeth and nose. Nasreen has had two miscarriages. An ISM activist, 77 year old Australian academic Mary Baxter, also faced violence in the past, when accompanying Hashem’s children to school in 2005. She and the children were attacked, and Mary had four bones in her back broken and is now disabled as a result.

Ben is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)