7 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Today, in the town of Qalandia, north of Ramallah, Palestinian and international solidarity activists tried to stop the illegal construction of the separation wall. The Israeli government issued a map that shows the new tracing of the wall. According to this map the wall would take more Palestinian land.
After several meetings with members of the Qalandia’s community, organizers, and PA members, they decided to organize an action today in order to stop the construction of the wall.
About 25 palestinians and two ISM volunteers went to the construction site to try to stop the bulldozers. They stopped the work of the builders. Less than five minutes later, two border police cars arrived. The policemen asked the demonstrators to leave within five minutes. Two minutes later they started to violently push Palestinians away from the road. At least 5 palestinians who were trying to resist the violent policemen were heavily pepper sprayed. The border policemen also used many sounds bombs which they threw at the demonstrators.
One ISM volunteer, Wahed, who was sitting in front of the bulldozer was sprayed with a significant amount of pepper spray in the face. He was badly injured, his face and eyes were burning. An ambulance took him to the hospital. It was only two hours later that he started feeling better.
The protest lasted 45 minutes. The Palestinians were forced to leave by the border police.
The International Court of Justice stated in 2004 in an important advisory opinion, that “the consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory” and its construction is illegal under the international conventions that Israel ratified. Indeed, by building a wall, the Israeli government is violating some of the basic Human rights to which it signed to.
7 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Before the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Al Hadidiya, near the Jordan Valley villages of Tubas and Jiftlik, was inhabited by over 100 families. Today, only 14 families remain. Since 1967, the village has been demolished four times, and over 3000 dunums of land, necessary for shepherding and grazing of animals, has been stolen by the nearby settlements of Ro’I and Beqa’ot.
Abu Sacher, a local shepherd
On November 10, the community received nine new demolition orders that target 17 structures and will affect 72 people. As lawyers struggle to legally postpone or annul the orders, the people of Al Hadidiya wait in uncertainty and fear.
Abu Sacher is a shepherd whose makeshift tents are slated for demolition. Before 1967, the year of the first demolition of Al-Hadidiye, he, like all other villagers, lived in a sprawling stone house. “Do the Americans, the French or the British,” he protested, “think that the children in Palestine and the children in their countries are equally valuable? Do they want to live under occupation? America was under British occupation and they didn’t like that!”
Most villagers have relocated to nearby villages such as Tubas, Jiftlik, or Nablus. Others, however, like Abu Sacher, whose home has been demolished six times, remain steadfast on their land. “I will not leave my home”, he says. “Even if the entire population of America comes and settles here, I will still be here!”
In June 2011, Israeli military carried out two sets of demolitions in Al-Hadidiya, demolishing, according to the figures of Stop the Wall, 33 structures, leaving 37 residents without homes, and undermining the livelihood of a further 15.
The close proximity to Al Hadidiya and the nearby Ro'l settlement
A week after the November demolition orders inspired the Stop the Wall campaign to spearhead a letter-writing campaign, diplomats from 7 European representative offices visited Al Hadidiya to show solidarity. On November 17, a day before the scheduled demolition, Al Hadidiya’s legal defense team entered court to ask permission for the construction of homes. The Palestinian-owned land of Al-Hadidiya has since 1970 been declared an Israeli Area C military zone, despite the absence of any noticeable military activity.
As a consequence of policies designed to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian Bedouin from Area C of the Jordan Valley, the people of Al Hadidiya lack direct access to education, health care, electricity and water resources. Because villagers are barred from digging water wells or using the Mekorot water pipes that run under their feet, they cannot pursue their traditional agricultural lifestyle and must rear animals, a task made more difficult as more dunums of grazing land are stolen by settlements. “My family were peasants”, living off the land in a stone house, explains Abu Sacher, “but we have been made to live like Bedouin”, dwelling in tents as shepherds. The nearby settlements of Ro’I and Beqa’ot, on the other hand, enjoy an abundance of land and water, government subsidies, high-tech methods, and European markets for their agricultural industry.
Ben Lorber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
6 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Photo: Rosa Schiano – Click here for more images
Twenty four years ago, on December 9, 2011 a revolution began. The revolution began in Gaza, it was the First Intifada. After twenty years of Israeli occupation Palestinian resistance exploded in full force. Boycotts, demonstrations, tax refusal, all of these were the strategies of the Intifada. Over one thousand Palestinians would be killed by Israel during the Intifada;over one hundred thousand Palestinians would go to prison during the course of the Intifada. For six years the Intifada burned, Palestinians were united in a massive nationwide campaign of popular resistance.
Today, in Beit Hanoun, we marched in remembrance of the beginning of the Intifada. We gathered near the Beit Hanoun Agricultural College, the same place we have gathered every Tuesday for the last three years. We were about forty people in all, activists from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, the International Solidarity Movement, and people from around Gaza. Bella Ciao echoed over the loudspeaker, that was our signal to begin marching. We marched down the road toward the no go zone, the three hundred meter strip of land along Gaza’s border where Israel murders any who dare to enter. Just as we refuse the occupation, we refuse the no go zone, every Tuesday, we march into the no go zone. We began to chant, “No to the Occupation”, “from Beit Hanoun to Bil’in we are all resistance”, and “A steadfast people will never be humiliated”.
As we reached the edge of the no go zone, we paused. Many members of the demonstration wrapped their faces in keffiyehs and empty bottles and sling shots were taken out of bags in honor of the weapons of the First Intifada, the revolution of stones. We march into the buffer zone, our hearts cheered by the Palestine flag that still flies where we planted it several weeks ago, reminding everyone, that this land isn’t naturally dead, that even if the bulldozers come and destroy everything, as they do every couple of weeks, resistance will always rise up anew. We stop by a giant piece of rubble that we have painted with a Palestinian flag. Sabur Zaaneen from the Local Initiative speaks, “this march commemorates the martyrs of the first Intifada, the glorious uprising of stones which began 24 years ago. The revolution continues, the Intifada and the resistance will continue until the Palestinian dream of an independent state with its capital as Jerusalem and the return refugees is achieved.” We march back to Beit Hanoun. Next Tuesday, we will march into the no go zone again if the occupation has not ended by then, but our resistance, will continue every day until the end of occupation and the return of the refugees.
6 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Following the violent demolitions in Qalqiliya yesterday, and in Beit Hannina and Silwan on Sunday, Israel continued its displacement of Palestinians throughout the West Bank today in occupied East Jerusalem.
On the day Israel announced a plan to forcibly remove 2300 Palestinians from their homes, a demolition team arrived in Al Khalaylah, a small village in East Jerusalem. Two homes, an animal barracks, and part of a hardware store were flattened within hours. Palestinians watched as their homes were lost, leaving 6 children and several adults homeless. Armed military and police guarded the area as bulldozers destroyed the structures.
One woman was visibly crying during the demolition of the second home. When asked if the home was hers, she answered “No, my uncle’s.”
The ethnic cleansing of non-Jews from Palestine began in 1948 during the creation of the State of Israel. Sadly it continues its ethnic cleansing today, through house demolitions, apartheid laws, and the refusal of Israel to observe the Palestinian right of return as guaranteed by UN Resolution 194 Article 11.
Wahed Rejol is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
6 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Mohammad Awad is a 16 year old Palestinian boy, he is in an Israeli jail and he is gravely ill – his family believe that he is not receiving the right treatment and that he may be dying.
As they sit in their house in Beit Ummar, a village near Bethlehem, Mohammad’s parents Ali and Amina, grow visibly angry and distressed as they recount their son’s treatment.
Documents showing the fines that the Awad family must pay to secure the release of their sons Mohammad (left, 3000 shekels) and Ahmad (right, 1000 shekels).
“He has fever, he sweats very much, he can’t sleep on the bed – he has to sleep on the ground to get some cold – he overheats and he cant move at all” says Ali. Despite the fact that he is barely eating, Mohammad’s weight has ballooned from 58kg to 92kg since he has been in prison.
Mohammad suffers from Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), an inherited condition characterized by recurrent episodes of painful inflammation in the abdomen, chest, or joints. These episodes are often accompanied by fever and sometimes a rash. Without treatment to help prevent attacks and complications, a buildup of protein deposits (amyloidosis) in the body’s organs and tissues may occur, which can lead to kidney failure or congestive heart failure.
Amina and Ali Awad – parents of Mohammad – at their home in Beit Ummar.
Ali says that Mohammad was first arrested in February 2011 after he attended a peaceful protest in Beit Ummar. He was severely beaten by Israeli soldiers during his detention and was subjected to extreme cold. Amina says, “They beat him so badly, and he was shouting and screaming and crying ‘Please stop you’re hurting me’ but they said ‘no’. I believe that is the cause of his current condition – he had the fever [FMF] in the past but it was not serious as the thing he has now.”
Ali added that, ” When he told the solider that he had hurt him in the waist they beat him again and again on purpose in his liver and they caused internal bleeding.” The bleeding in his liver was so severe that Mohammad required a blood transfusion. He was released from prison in June, only to be arrested 14 days later and sentenced to six months imprisonment for attending a demonstration in the village and throwing one stone.
Mohammad is currently being held in Ofer Prison but the family has learned that he has been repeatedly sent to hospital at Ramle or Hadassah during the past two months and then returned to prison.
In the immediate family, only Mohammad’s sister Rahaf, 7, has been allowed to visit him. She first alerted the family that Mohammad’s condition had deteriorated when she visited him in prison with a cousin – she returned saying that her brother was swollen and dreadfully ill.
On 2 November 2011, Mohammad had a court hearing which his mother attended – but Mohammad was not in the court. “We didn’t get information why he wasn’t there,” said Ali, “but the manager of the prison himself came to the judge – we knew this from the lawyer – and told the judge that [the prison] can’t be responsible if anything happens to Mohammad, [since] he’s now in hospital, in very bad condition, and we recommend that we release him.” The judge also recommended that he be released, but he needed approval from the Israeli intelligence – and they refused.”
According to Ali, “The manager of the prison himself called [him].”
“He told me, ‘your son is in a very bad condition and we can’t do anything for him so I will try to release him to be treated on the Palestinian side.’ So I’m afraid that my son is dying.”
Amina last saw her son in court on 28 November 2011. “He was very bloated and swollen all over his face and body, and it was not normal at all.”
Mohammad’s parents believe that the prison authorities have been giving Mohammad the wrong treatment that may be harming him even further. “When he was released for the first time, he smuggled some drugs out that he was being given [in prison]” says Ali, showing ISM the Allopurinol tablets given to Mohammad. “We asked a doctor what these was for, and he said these pills were for another disease, not for Muhammad’s condition. The doctor told him that it is vey dangerous to take this drug, and we’re sure now that they are giving him the same drug.”
The family has asked the prison authorities for Mohammad’s medical reports but they have refused to produce them. There is no cure for his condition but when he was out of prison Mohammad was taking Colchicine and antibiotics to manage his symptoms. Yet his rapidly deteriorating health and the statements from the prison manager suggest he is not receiving the correct medical attention.
The Israeli team of Physicians for Human Rights has attempted to visit Mohammad in prison but has so far been denied access by prison authorities. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem picked up some medicine for Mohammad but was also denied access to the prison by the Israeli authorities. The family claims that they have not been able to give him any supplies at all whilst in prison.
Mohammad is due to be released on 22 January 2012 – however, the family must pay 3000 shekels as a fine to secure his release. If they are unable to do so, he will serve a further three months in jail. His parents believe that his life is in danger and if he spends much more time in jail, without receiving correct treatment, the likelihood is that he will die. Mohammad’s brother Ahmad is due to be released from prison in three months but the family must find a 1000 shekel fine to secure his release, otherwise he will serve an extra month in jail. Ahmad also suffers from Familial Mediterranean Fever but his health is much better than Mohammad’s. If they do manage to pay the fines, the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners usually pay it back – but Ali says this only happens around three years later.
As Ali shows us the documents from the military detailing the fines, he says that he doesn’t have the money and has no way to raise it as he is currently unemployed. “We are suffering from a very bad economic situation” he said. “I cant work inside settlements or inside the green line and most of the work is there. Also I am ill – I have asthma and I have heart problems now and can’t work.”
The targeting of the family
Mohammad’s parents have not been allowed to visit him in prison and they have difficulty getting information. Two of Mohammad’s brothers, Saddam, 21, and Ahmad, 19, are also in prison. Mohammad’s younger brother Hamza, 15, is not allowed to visit. When he was 14, he visited Mohammad during his first sentence, yet Israeli authorities detained and interrogated him for three days and then banned him from visiting in the future.
Now that all of his brothers are in jail, Hamza is terrified that he will soon be arrested. At night he paces around the house, looking out the windows for the Israeli military. “I am very depressed,” said Hamza, “I don’t have any hope that I will stay here at home, the Israeli army can come here at any time and detain me and take me to jail.”
The military has arrived in the night to arrest members of the family before – Ali has been detained eighteen times, although he claims that he has only resisted the occupation nonviolently by attending peaceful protests. “The detention of our children caused a medical condition for my wife,” said Ali – “She takes drugs for her nerves as she’s always worried and the doctor told her this is very serious. She’s on medication for anxiety and depression.”
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a “child” as “every human being below the age of eighteen years.” According to Israeli military order 132, Palestinian children aged 16 and older are tried and sentenced by Israeli military courts as adults. By comparison, juvenile legislation defines Israeli children as age 18 or younger. A Palestinian child’s sentence is decided on the basis of the child’s age at the time of sentencing, not when the alleged offence was committed.
According to Addameer, a prisoner support and human rights organisation, there were approximately 176 Palestinian children (under the age of 18) detained in Israeli prisons, as of September 2011 and around 700 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts. Since 2000, more than 6,500 Palestinian children have been detained. The most common charge brought against children is for throwing stones – an offence which can incur a 20 year prison sentence.
Addameer reports that “the majority of children report being subjected to ill-treatment and having forced confessions extracted from them during interrogations. Forms of ill-treatment used by the Israeli soldiers during a child’s arrest and interrogation usually include slapping, beating, kicking and violent pushing. Palestinian children are also routinely verbally abused.”
With three of their four sons in prison, it seems that the family has been singled out and targeted by the Israeli authorities.
“All Palestinians are targeted, not just my family” said Ali. “But from the first Intifada I have been a member of a legal movement – I’m not doing anything illegal, I’m just demanding my people’s rights. I don’t do anything to hurt anyone, I just demonstrate.”
Amina says that she believes that the Israelis are doing this as “revenge.” “My sons are innocent and they don’t do anything bad.” Ali added that he believes it to be “revenge against all Palestinians, but we are a special case as I was detained [so often] in the past. Also I have land near Karmei Tzur [an illegal Israeli settlement] and they are trying to take this land. They have made me many offers to buy the land and I refused so they hate me. I told them go to hell this is my land I will stay here, and I will die here.” Ali also shows us the protruding bone in his hand which was broken by the Israeli military a few months ago after he was detained during a peaceful protest in Beit Ummar.
Ali is trying to stay hopeful but he admits that it is difficult. “My son is only 16 years old, he is very ill, he needs medical treatment but they don’t care. My son is ill, I have a problem with my heart, my wife has a problem with her nerves, but I thank God that we are still alive.”
Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
