Category: Reports

Swedish peace activist beaten up by Israeli Occupation Forces

by Jonas Weber and Jeff

1 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Linking Elbows at Qalandia - Click here for more images

A Swedish peace activist at the Land Day demonstration in Qalandia, outside of Ramallah, was arrested. During the arrest he was kicked and beaten by the Israeli soldiers.

“It happened so fast, I never understood what was going on before I was sitting with my hands tied behind my back in a military jeep,” said Philip after his release on Friday evening.

On Friday, demonstrations were held throughout Palestine and neighboring countries to mark Land Day, a day of remembrance of the fight against land theft in the Palestinian territories, an issue that is constantly present in the area.

This year Land Day was commemorated through the Global March to Jerusalem, engaging thousands of people in the West Bank, in Gaza, inside Israel and in surrounding countries. The idea was to simultaneously walk towards Jerusalem and on the West Bank the march was arranged in Bethlehem as well as in in Qalandia right outside of Ramallah. Qalandia is also the name of the enormous checkpoint denying Palestinians access to Eastern Jerusalem from Ramallah. Because of the wall the Israelis are building, Qalandia functions as a bottleneck which can at any time be closed down by the Israeli Army.

Thousands of Palestinians, Israelis and international activists marched on Qalandia checkpoint near Ramallah to commemorate Land Day and protest Israeli policies of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem as part of the GlobalMarch to Jerusalem. There were also protests in Bethlehem, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Israeli occupation forces attacked the unarmed demonstrators with rubber-coated steelbullets, baton rounds, tear gas, skunk water, and the Long Range Acoustic Device. Palestinian medics reported treating over one hundred wounded, with dozens transferred to hospitals with serious injuries. At least eight ambulances were damaged by Israeli fire, and several medics suffered injuries while providing care.

The demonstration at Qalandia went off at half past twelve and soon turned into a turmoil when Israeli troops when the demonstratorrs were met with rubber-coated bullets, teargas and so called “skunk-water”, a chemical mixture with a terrible smell that sticks to your clothes. The Red Crescent treated 249 persons during the day of which 20 were hospitalized.

Present at the Qalandia demonstration was Philip Schulz, 20, and some twenty other activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Around half past three the activists gathered for a joint action. With hands in the air the activist moved towards the ranks of soldiers still shooting bullets into the crowd when the group, consisting of activists from Sweden, Denmark, USA, France, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands, reached the troops and queried their behavior, the soldiers intended to arrest one of the American activists.

“We held linked elbows to avoid being parted by the soldiers,” says Phillip, “but suddenly I saw one of the borderpolice nod at me and I was violently parted from the group.”

During the arrest Philip received several kicks and punches. The day after he is still sore.

“They took me to a cell where I was left to sit untill evening together with a 16 year old Palestinian kid. We were not allowed to visit the bathroom for the entire time.”

In the evening Philip was released but he must present himself for further interrogation in Jerusalem on Sunday. He is suspected of having attacked and pushed one of the soldiers.

“It’s preposterous, we have it all on film and Philip makes no resistance at all,”  said Gabbi Tynell, who also was present at the time of the arrest.

During similar demonstrations at the Eretz crossing in Gaza on Friday, the Palestinian activist Mahmoud Zakot, 20, was killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces. In Jerusalem, 34 demonstrators were arrested and several were taken to hospital.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently published information on the Israeli ​​plans for future expansion of settlements. At present only 8% of the West Bank is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, while the rest is partially or fully under Israeli control. Settlements are the key to continued expansion of Israeli rule in the occupied territories.

The treatment of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem is in many ways a microcosm ofthe settlement, apartheid, and occupation of all of Palestine. Israeli practices there are geared towardseliminating any hope of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinianstate. The demonstration represented only one stage in the ongoing struggle against the occupation. It will continue until Palestine is free.

Jeff and Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed). You can check out his blog here.

Settlers occupy Palestinian house in Al Khalil

by Paige and Mira

31 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Early Thursday morning approximately fifteen to twenty settlers occupied the house of the  Abu Rajab family on Shuhada street near the Qeitun checkopint in Al Khalil (Hebron).

The settlers entered the house under the protection of the Israeli army and border police who blocked off access to the house and prevented Palestinians from passing by the streets while settlers moved freely.

Throughout the morning settlers continued to enter the house carrying food, pots and pans, cases of alcohol and other household supplies while internationals and Palestinians attempting to come to the aid of the Palestinians still inside the house were violently kept at a distance by the army and border police.

All non-settlers, including children from a nearby boys and girls school were prevented from walking on the street in front of the house, and were forced to take a long route home through Qeitun checkpoint.

In the past months the  Abu Rajab family already has dealt with a lot. Among the many house raids that took place, where the 25+ people living there were evacuated for several hours, were two severe cases. Three months ago the left side of the house was taken over by soldiers, access forbidden ever since, forcing all the residents to live in the right part. About two weeks ago the soldiers also took the roof, damaging the water supply, which caused a leak that the family was not allowed to fix.

The illegal colonists claim that they have bought the house, a claim often made by settlers illegally occupying a Palestinian house. The location, on Shuhada street, is very much wanted by the Israeli settlers. MK Michael Ben Ari, from the National Union, showed the intent of the invasion when he stated, “It’s time to reclaim all of the homes taken by the enemies in the City of the Fathers.”

There are 8 Palestinians standing there ground. They have been in their house together with settlers for 3 days now.

Paige and Mira are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

On the eve of Land Day: Al Quds anticipates the Global March

by Johnny

29 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

March 30 is Land Day in Palestine. The events of the day annually commemorate the events of 1976, when Israeli authorities seized massive quantities of land from Palestinian owners, and then killed several and injured dozens to crack down on the general strike called to protest the theft.

This year on Land Day, March 30, people from around Palestine and the world will march towards Al Quds  (Jerusalem) to protest the theft in progress today: the isolation and ethnic cleansing taking place in Al Quds, as well as throughout occupied Palestine through illegal settlement activity. Marches are planned towards Al Quds from multiple points in the West Bank, Gaza, inside the Green Line, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria, as well as in Asia, North America, and Europe. The global march aims to highlight the colonization of Al Quds by Zionists and the refusal of access for Palestinians to the holy city.

According to multiple treaties and UN resolutions, Al Quds is recognized as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel seized control of the city in 1967. Al Quds has long been the center of religious, cultural, health, and commercial life for Palestinians, and an estimated 270,000 Palestinians reside in the eastern parts of the city (OCHA 2011).

The Palestinian population and presence in Al Quds is currently under extreme pressure from Israeli authorities and illegal settlers as the Zionist state seeks to take complete control of the city, drive out the Palestinian inhabitants, and eliminate any hope of its future as a Palestinian capital. This pressure is manifested in various ways:

Isolation

Fadwa Khader, an Al Quds resident and organizer of the Global March on Jerusalem remembers a time when Al Quds was “the most important place in Palestine.” Now, the apartheid wall and associated military closures prevent the majority of Palestinians from traveling to Al Quds for any reason. The city’s status as a center of Palestinian life is fading, due to its isolation from the rest of the West Bank. But material realities will not erase Al Quds’s place in the hearts of the Palestinian people. One needs only to view the multitude of images of Al Aqsa mosque in Palestinian homes, businesses, and streets to understand this.

Removal and Denial of Residency

In a systematic effort aimed at reducing the number of Palestinian residents of Al Quds, Israeli authorities seize any opportunity to rescind the residency permits of individuals, even those who are born and have lived their entire lives in the city. If Palestinian residents are known to have lived in the West Bank or abroad, even temporarily, they risk the withdrawal of their residency rights and may never be allowed into Al Quds again, even to visit family.

Fadi, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is a Palestinian who resided in Jordan for example, has retained his Jerusalem IDs. Yet his children who were born in Jordan and whose mother is a Palestinian refugee, have been unable to attain their Jerusalem IDs. “My family’s history is in this city,” said Faid. “The lack of jobs, and the bleak future of Palestinians here forced me to seek these elsewhere. Now that I have returned and have brought my children with me, my children are unable to maneuver throughout the city as they are undocumented in their own father’s hometown. Israel refuses to recognize them as the children of a Jerusalemite, but we will remain here, even if that means that my children and wife live without an ID or any rights.” Fadi continued after a long silence and the evident hurt in his eyes. “This is our resistance to Zionism.”

This policy has the effect over time of reducing the Palestinian population in Al Quds and preventing residents from traveling or living elsewhere for fear of losing residency.

Pressure on existing residents

Fadwa Khader noted another component of Israel’s campaign for the complete colonization and ethnic cleansing of Al Quds: the application of pressure to Palestinian residents in order to drive them out of the city. One way this is manifested is in the denial of municipal services in the eastern parts of the city inhabited by Palestinians.

The residents here pay the same taxes as the Jewish residents of West Al Quds.  Despite this, the municipality of Jerusalem does not provide adequate services to the Palestinian neighborhoods of the city. Ninety percent of the municipality’s sewer lines and paved roads and sidewalks are in West Al Quds (B’tselem). In some neighborhoods, cleaning services come only once every three days as opposed to three times a day in West Al Quds. n February the Wadi Hilweh Information Center  reported the Jerusalem Municipality created a dump at the door of Palestinian neighborhoods.

Khader notes the dual nature of this denial of services: First, to make life in Al Quds miserable and untenable in an effort to convince existing residents to leave. Second, to demonstrate to the internationals that visit Al Quds that the Palestinian residents “don’t care about their neighborhoods” and live in filth.

Pressure is also applied to Palestinian resident through settlement of East Al Quds neighborhoods by extremist Israelis, evictions of Palestinian families, and demolitions of Palestinian homes. The neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan have been particularly affected by this strategy. The goal of the Israeli authorities and Zionist activists is to forcibly settle Jews in East Al Quds through the seizure of land and homes and settlement of Israelis in these areas. In addition, home demolitions make life increasingly untenable for affected residents.

The Global March this Land Day will seek to highlight these issues and call for an end to Israeli Zionist settlement policy, access restrictions, occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Al Quds and throughout occupied Palestine.

Khader has a message for the international Palestine solidarity movement:

“We want to live in peace and liberty  and to feel free. Can you imagine how we suffer and sacrifice for this dream?”

She noted that there can never be a real Palestinian state as long as the Israelis continue to steal land and water, to control borders, and to separate cities and villages of Palestine from each other.

Still, she is hopeful.

“We won’t give up hope. We believe in you (international solidarity activists). You are our voice outside of Palestine, calling for dignity, liberation, and an end to the occupation.”

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

Settlers attack internationals accompanying school children on Shuhada Street

by Paige

28 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Today at around 1 PM  extremist settler Anat Cohen attacked a Canadian woman accompanying school children, and a few minutes later sent two teenage settlers to throw rocks at the Canadian woman and a Finnish man.  The attack occurred at the bottom of the stairs connecting the Qordaba Girls School with the section of Shuhada street where Palestinians are allowed to walk.

Cohen passed the internationals in her car and stopped to talk to soldiers at the nearby checkpoint.  She then reversed her car, parked next to the internationals and proceeded to shove, kick and scream at the Canadian women while soldiers looked on.  Eventually a soldier came to force the internationals up the stairs, but did nothing to stop Cohen from harassing them.

In a transcript of the video provided by Uri Horesh, an ISM activist asks the soldier why he refuses to act despite Cohen’s intrusion and attack on the activist. As the soldier mumbles a response as to whether soldiers take orders from Cohen, Cohen declares vigorously, “I live here! Don’t say I should be taken away! I live here!!”

A few minutes later two settler children who Cohen had just spoken with ran up a parallel staircase and threw rocks at the  internationals from less than a foot away, hitting the Finnish man in the ear.  Two soldiers watched the second attack, then turned in the opposite direction and refused to intervene.  Cohen then called the police, who demanded the passports of all the internationals present, who detained them for several minutes, and then told them they were not allowed to stand at the bottom or top of the stairs.  When asked why the police were doing nothing about the attacks, a soldier responded that Anat Cohen is “well known to the police” and there was “nothing to be done.”

The staircase that connects Palestinian schools and houses with Shuhada street has been a site of frequent settler attacks, particularly on girls from the nearby Qordaba school who have been stoned by settlers many times on the stairs and the area leading to it.

Internationals have been accompanying children in this area to try and prevent attacks by settlers and harassment from soldiers.

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

Demolitions: Israel’s path of destruction through the Jordan Valley

by Andreas

27 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Families and their livestock are left without shelter as Israeli Occupation Forces soldiers and bulldozers leave a path of destruction El Hemmi, al-Farisiya and Khirbet Homse in the Jordan Valley

On the 26th of March several houses and animal barricades were demolished in the small communities of El Hemmi, Al Farisiya and Khirbet Homse in the Jordan Valley.  The convoy of military vehicles started out in El Hemmi in the morning and  continued to Al Farisiya and ended in Homse close to Hamra Checkpoint by the afternoon.    

El Hemmi

Early in the morning Mahmoud Awad from the small community of Khirbet Tel El Hemmi, north of the Jordan Valley, went to graze his sheep in the mountains surrounding his home.  He did not make it far before hearing his wife screaming as four military jeeps, two civil administration cars, 15 soldiers, and two bulldozers arrived and surrounded their house.

The IOF had come to destroy Mahmoud Awards’ property for the second time.  Within a few minutes the house that was home for six members of Mahmoud’s family was destroyed.  The family was given no time to pack up their possessions, which now are spread all over the ground, beneath and inbetween the demolished bricks.  When asked where the family will go and how life can continue, Hani Mahmoud, the father of Mahmoud Awad, replied that they “must ask for mercy from Allah and hope for better times.”

So far the family has been offered shelter in the neighboring house.  If the family chooses to rebuild their home – they will have to live with the constant threat of yet another demolition.

Around 9’clock the military jeeps and bulldozers continued up the small road of el Hemmi to reach the houses of Abed Rabu and his family. Two houses and four animal shelters were demolished – leaving no shelter for the eleven members of his family including a baby aged two months. Under the bricks that used to make up their home shoes and clothes were seen, as the family was given no time to collect valuable possessions before the bulldozers started their destruction.

Abed Rabu received a demolition order in November demanding him to destroy his own house and the shelters for his animals. He hired a lawyer, and he was at the moment trying to take his case through the court system. When we left Abed Rabu’s neighbors and friends had arrived and were building a new tent for the family to seek rest for the night.

El Hammi is located very close the settlement Rotem.

Al  Farisiya

At around 11’clock the military cheeps and bulldozer reached Al Farisiya close to El Hammi. For Ali Zhurida Abdallah and his family this was the third time this year that Israeli military has entered his land and demolished his animal shelters.  Ali is a shepherd and he has been living on the land for more than 50 years. Several times the Israeli soldiers have told him to pack up his things and move to Tubas. When refusing to leave his land, soldiers have threatened him that they will come back in the night to kill him.

Ali’s brother Hussein lives 50 meters away and also had animal shelters destroyed this morning, leaving 175 sheep without shelter and protection for the night. Hussein will have to stay up all night and look after the animals making sure that no wild animals will attack the sheep. Looking at the destruction carried out today Hussein’s wife says, “They want to be the masters of everything. Look, they destroy even animal shelters. The Ottomans, the British and the Jordanian have all occupied this land- but not one of them treated us in this way.”

A path of Zionist destruction – Click here for more images

Khirbet Homse

At around 12:30 PM the convoy of destruction arrived in Khirbet Homse close to Hamra Checkpoint.  Suleiman Abdallah Mahmoud Bsharat watched as the bulldozers destroyed his two animal barracks that until  a few days ago gave shelter for his 300 sheep.  According to Suleiman the military was trying to demolish the barracks whilst the animals were still inside.

Suleiman and his family had to move fast in order to rescue the sheep from the moving bulldozers.  Three months ago on the 14th of January Suleiman had his animal shelters demolished for the first time. He chose to rebuild.  He had not received any demolition order on his newly built barracks before the demolition.

—

Monday’s events are the latest in a series of home demolitions in the Jordan Valley.  The Valley is 94 % area C which makes almost every community and village very vulnerable to the process of ethnic cleansing. The house demolitions are well documented by the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group and  the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

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