Category: Reports

In Photos: The devastation of the Price Tag campaign in Bruqin

by Amal

8 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The smell of fire and sorrow was evident in Bruqin today, which is located to the west of Salfit in the northern area of the West Bank.  Even eight hours later  the feeling of loss populated the air. At approximately 2:30 AM a group of settlers entered the village and set fire to a mosque, a bulldozer, and a car.

The toll on Bruqin – Click here for more images

Israeli police and soldiers documented the attack, but claimed that they did not know who committed it. Many people are skeptical due to the fact that the roads coming into Bruqin are secured and monitored by soldiers and cameras. This was another attack to make life miserable for the Bruqin people. It has been targeted by settlers and Israeli soldiers many times, so the people are certain that this attack will not be the last.

The mosque was saved by the villagers. They came out in time to stop the fire as it reached the front door. The settlers did not leave the mosque in flames, but also marked it with words in Hebrew showing their loyalty to the illegal Ariel settlement. Unfortunately, Bruqin is surrounded by four major illegal settlements.

The criminals managed to completely destroy a brand new bulldozer. The owner, Ali Sabar, purchased the bulldozer last week with a down payment of 19,000 NIS.  Ali will spend the next 12 months trying to pay the remaining balance of 60,000 NIS. This violent act not only violated the Sabar family’s human rights, but has devastated any hope of prosperity for them. Ali stated that insurance will not cover the damages because “this is an attack and not an accident.”

The state of the Samara family’s car is immobile just like Ali’s bulldozer. The car is totally useless, just another casualty of the Israeli Occupation. The only thing that was not ruined in the car was a copy of the Quran.

Bruqin is in Israeli controlled Area C. Israeli Apartheid laws allow for any construction in Area C to be demolished if the Israeli Army orders it. The odds are against the people of Bruqin, yet hope was still present today.  The Mosque still continued the call for prayer, and although they could not pray inside they still gathered together with hope.

Many commented that the Quran was only spared due to the binding of it, while others will credit their faith. Nonetheless, the Bruqin people are using this to increase their hope and strengthen their resilience.

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

Locals protest as Israeli barrier rips through Qalandia

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.

Jordan Valley: threat of imminent demolition hangs over the village of Al Hadidiya

by Ben Lorber

 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.

Commemorating the anniversary of the First Intifada in the no go zone

by Nathan Stuckey

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.

Israel continues wave of West Bank housing demolitions in East Jerusalem

by Wahed Rejol

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).