Category: Reports

Yanoun: Settlers and soldiers attack village, injuring five

By Marshall Pinkerton

8th July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Saturday 7 July, 2012, the village of Yanoun, located 12km southeast of Nablus, was attacked by illegal settlers from the illegal Itamar settlement. Five Palestinians were injured in the attack and large sections of agricultural land were set ablaze.

The attack began at roughly 2pm. The illegal settlers descended on the village and began setting fire to sections of land and firing on sheep while they were grazing. In the course of the attack on Yanoun, 5 resident of Aqraba, (the neighbouring village) were injured to varying degrees. Two men, Ibrahim Hamid Ibrahim, and Adwan Rajih bini Naber were beaten by settlers, and another, Joudat Hamid Ibrahim was stabbed in the shoulder after being beaten as well. When the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrived, they joined in the attacks, injuring two more. Hakimun Ahmed Yusuf Bini Jaber, 42, was shot in the arm with live ammunition by an IOF soldier and Ashraf Adel Hamid Ibrahim, 29, was shot in the back with a tear gas canister when the soldiers attempted to scatter villagers who were to aid the injured.

The villagers who were aiding the injured attempted to carry the injured men to ambulances, but IOF soldiers blocked the roads and refused to let them through. The IOF and illegal settlers also stopped residents from putting out the fires. The first ambulance to leave was reportedly stopped at Huwwara checkpoint en route to a hospital in Nablus. Two of the injured men were taken from the ambulance and held in Israeli custody for an undetermined period of time. The second and third ambulance were not allowed to depart with those wounded for two hours.

After the attacks had stopped, IOF soldiers still held Adwan Rajih Bini Jaber captive, refusing to allow the ambulance carrying him to depart. Illegal settlers stood by heavily armed, protecting the fires that they had set to Palestinian land.

IOF soldiers blocking the main road out of Yanoun.

Nearing 6pm, illegal settlers and IOF soldiers once again advanced on the Palestinians, as internationals gathered to show solidarity, which ending in the firing of tear gas canisters and live ammunition into the air.

Yanoun and its residents have been subject to terrorism by illegal settlers from Itamar for many years. On October 19, 2002, there was a temporary mass exodus due to the harassment, drawing parallels with the refugees created in 1948. The villagers returned little by little in the weeks following, with the help of peace activists from Ta’ayush & other groups but the village still suffers from violent attacks regardless.

Marshall Pinkerton is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Palestinian demonstrator arrested at weekly Kufr Qaddum protest

By Marshall Pinkerton

7th July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

 

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) violently suppressed the weekly demonstration at Kafr Qaddum on Friday the 6th of July, injuring one man, and arresting another. Majid Joomaa, 40 years old, was arrested as the IOF stormed the village. Joomaa, who is a father of ten, was unable to flee from the advancing soldiers due to a prior injury in his leg. Another man suffered from overexposure to tear gas, and was carried to an ambulance after he collapsed.

 

The injured Palestinian man being carried to safety by another peaceful protestor.

Next week marks the one year anniversary of the popular demonstrations against the Israeli Occupation in Kafr Qaddum. In 2003 the IOF closed the main road that connected the small village with Nablus, which lies only 13km away.  Palestinians are forced to drive around the illegal settlement of Kedumim, which was erected in 1975, extending their journey by 22 kilometers instead of the usual 10 to reach Nablus.

Marshall Pinkerton is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

The spirit of Ni’lin in the face of apartheid

By Steve Plaank

2 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday, June 29th, dozens of residents of the Palestinian village, Ni’lin demonstrated in opposition to the ongoing apartheid carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). The village of Ni’lin is located near the 1967 Green Line and has been a center of popular resistance throughout the history of the Israel occupation of Palestine.

Following the Friday prayers, Palestinians, along with approximately a dozen internationals, marched to the recently completed apartheid wall. There they were met with a heavy dousing of a foul-smelling liquid fired out of a truck mounted water canon commonly referred to as the ‘skunk truck’.

In true Ni’lin spirit, the protestors were not deterred and continued expressing their steadfast opposition. Following the skunk truck, the IOF shot close to 100 tear gas canisters into the hills and fired upon protestors with rubber-coated steel bullets from the safety of their perch on a ridge and from the security of their armored jeeps.

Despite the use of such weapons, no protestors needed to be taken to the hospital although many were treated, sometimes multiple times, for tear gas inhalation.

After the demonstration had come to an end, the international visitors were treated to an educational presentation in the newly reopened Center for the Ni’lin Popular Resistance.

Ni’lin resident Saeed Amireh explained the history of both the apartheid and the popular resistance in Ni’lin. More information can be found here.

Saeed himself has grown up with the aggressions of an apartheid state on a daily basis. Life has been difficult during the 22 years of his existence. In the last 10 years alone, the village has experienced a reign of terror and oppression. As the nearby illegal settlements grew in size, they began occupying the agricultural lands upon which the residents of Ni’lin depend for their livelihood. Since 1967, the village’s lands have decreased from the 58,000 dunums to only 7,000 remaining dunums. Five Israeli colonies have been built around Ni’lin. With the settlers came increased oppression and violence from the IOF.

When the order came to build the apartheid wall in between the illegal Israeli settlements and the long standing village of Ni’lin, the resistance from the Palestinians took on a new life. Through unending protests and refusals to cooperate, they were able to force the Israelis to change the location of the wall, saving 1500 dunums from confiscation.

Despite the adjustment, the route of the wall still annexes a great deal of Ni’lin’s agricultural land. The residents continue to demonstrate against this apartheid structure. Saeed captured the sentiment of

the village saying that, “everybody deserves freedom and peace.”

The struggle for peace, however, has been faced with a violent response from the IOF. As Saeed stated, “there is no freedom without a price.”

Since beginning the popular protests in 2007, Ni’lin has suffered over 350 arrests, 5 deaths, multiple injuries from the use of live ammunition, and at least 15 people with bones broken from the firing of tear gas.

Saeed embodies the resistance spirit of Ni’lin. He has no memories of life without occupation. He dreams of being able to visit the sea, which he can glimpse from his rooftop on a clear day, but like other Palestinians in the West Bank, is unable to access without a difficult to receive permission.

“Daily life is a resistance,” Saeed says. The fact that Ni’lin continues to exist despite the efforts to make life unbearable, is a resistance to the ongoing apartheid. Israel has not only cut the village from much of its agricultural lands but also from their water resources. Thus, Ni’lin has been cut from its main sources of income.

“The occupation is not only shooting the people…the occupation in our lives is like a cancer in the body. [It affects] everything in our life,” says Saeed.

Saeed wants visibility and international attention for his village. “I want people to see our existence… people have no work, no jobs, no land. By coming here people can stand [by us] and see [what is happening].”

As for the the Palestinians of Ni’lin, their struggle is far from over. They are fighting for survival. As Saeed puts it, “we will not stop the fight, even though we are tired, we will not stop the fight.”

Steve Plaank is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Aqaba: Family of 12 receives home demolition order

By Sunny

28 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday, June 24 in Aqaba, Muhammed and Nassa Al-Jabba received a demolition order by Israeli authorities demanding that they evacuate the premises of their home within the next 3 days. The Al-Jabba family have not evacuated the home as it is the sole residence for their family of 10 children. The Israeli military may arrive at any time to demolish the building in the Area C (Israeli civil and security control) village.

Muhammed Al-Jabbar holds a demolition order for his family’s home

Upon arriving in the village of Aqaba, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers spoke with the mayor, Haj Sami, an older man left wheelchair bound after suffering 3 gunshots from Israeli soldiers while working on his farm in 1971. He was only 16 years old at the time and fortunate to survive.

Haj Sami introduced ISM volunteers to Nassa Al-Jabbar, the mother of 10 who has been faced with a demolition order, giving her only 3 days to abandon the premises before the Israeli army is able to arrive with bulldozers and raze her home.

Nassa and her husband Muhammed have spent 10 years building their home. When asked why it took them so long, Nassa replied that because a permit to build on their own land is impossible to attain from Israel, the house was built in 7 different stages in order to avoid the soldiers attention.

Nassa says that if Israeli forces demolish her home, she, her husband, and her 10 young sons and daughters will have no other place to go. They do not have the funds to build another home.

Muhammed states that regardless of the outcome, he will not leave his home. If demolished, their house will join the over 24,000 Palestinian homes that have been demolished since 1967.

Nassa and Muhammed’s home is not the only building that faces demolition. Four other shelters and a concrete factory have received orders as well.

The village of Aqaba has suffered extensively from the Israeli occupation. Of a population of 1000, 700 residents are internal refugees. The villagers live in constant threat of home demolition.

On September 15, 2011, two animal shelters and a home were demolished. There was no advance warning, not even a demolition order. The roads that provide easy access into the village was also destroyed by Israeli forces. On a weekly basis, Israeli forces hold military training near the village, subjecting Aqaba to the sound of gun shots. On Tuesday morning however, the Israeli military began also training with tanks. The explosions are resulting in stress and trauma for the villagers.

If allowed to happen, Nassa and Muhammed’s home will join the list of thousands of demolitions inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli military occupation.

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

Jordan Valley: Palestinian family’s water confiscated, internationals arrested

By Rosa Andersson and Amina Simonsson

25 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Thursday, June 21, Israeli forces confiscated a water tank from a Bedouin Palestinian family in the Jordan Valley, leaving them with no access to water. Three Swedish women were arrested for standing in solidarity with Palestinian women and children who peacefully protested by standing in between the Israeli military and the water tank at risk of theft.

Israeli soldiers deal violently with a Palestinian woman peacefully protesting the theft of her water tank – click to see more photos

The Jordan valley is a fertile are ideal for agricultural production. When Israel took control of the West Bank, it immediately took hold of water resources and began to target Palestinian communities and empty them from the Jordan Valley. The villages left are isolated from each other not only by distance but by Israeli checkpoints, closed military zones, and other restrictions on movement. The Israeli military performs military training in proximity to many communities, putting them at constant risk.

The illegal occupation of water resources has made water access an urgent problem. The United Nations declares water a basic human right. The World Health Organization has declared that each individual need access to 100 litres of water per day,  but Palestinians use on average between 50 to 70 litres per day. Many Palestinians in the Jordan Valley however, receive as little as 10-20 litres per day. This is a figure lower than both the recommended daily intake and the absolute minimum daily consumption required to avoid ‘mass health epidemics.’ Families in the Jordan Valley are forced to buy water at incredibly inflated prices. Some households spend 40-50% of their income to buy water from Israeli companies.

“When we came to the Bedouin camp, children were crying and there were a lot of soldiers trying to drag them away from the tractor that they tried to block. There were no men, only women and children, and around 60 soldiers and policemen. The Bedouin men were scared to show any resistance because of the risk of administrative detention,” says Rosa Andersson, one of the women who was later arrested.

The Swedish women were released after 30 hours of arrest and they are now prohibited from being in the West Bank. No one, Palestinian or International, showed any violence. The Palestinian family dependent on the confiscated water tank now has no access to water as the driest season of the year has just begun.

Rosa Andersson and Amina Simonsson are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).