Category: Reports

“With children visible” Israeli military assaults Kufr Qaddoum

by Rana H.

28 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Israeli military fires with aim – Click here for more images

Soldiers fired teargas directly into crowd at peaceful protesters in Kufr Qaddoum. Internationals and Palestinians, including children, were gathered behind barbed wire that runs across their main road, and were not advancing when soldiers began to fire around ten canisters of tear gas at once from a short distance. Two protesters were injured while escaping tear gas, including one international woman, and many suffered from tear gas inhalation. They continued to shoot tear gas at the approximately 100 protesters for over an hour. Many civilians from the village were affected by the perpetual firing of tear gas.

Protesters were holding signs calling on the International community not to support Illegal Israeli settlements when the tear gas began from a distance of only 25 metres. A Swedish International activist was not expecting such an assault on un-advancing protesters.

“It was my first time at a protest here and I was shocked that they would fire tear gas directly at a peaceful crowd with children visibly among them.” She fell while escaping the surrounding tear gas. “I was blinded by the smoke and I fell on rocks.

Two Palestinian men picked me up and when we escaped from the gas I was covered in blood.”

When she tripped, her hand broke her fall, but was cut on the palm, requiring her to go to the hospital and receive three stitches.

The protest, held by the Popular Committee of Kufr Qaddoum, was protesting the closure of their main road, which up until 2003 had been the mean ways of transportation from Kufr Qaddoum to Nablus. The original journey of 15 minutes now takes 40 minutes by an indirect road. The Expenses to the 3500 Palestinian inhabitants have increased significantly as a result, particularly for the many students of the village who study daily in Nablus. Two Palestinians have died in the past few years, after not reaching the hospital in time for treatment.

This is the 18th protest in a row that Kufr Qaddoum has held on Fridays, after more than six years of no protests  while the village was involved with legal arguments with the Israeli Court. Finally, the court ruled that they could use the road again, but that the road is not “suitable” for transportation. It was closed. The road passes the illegal Israeli settlement of Qadumim. Israel has a thorough history of closing, to Palestinian cars, roads which pass settlements.

Weekly, soldiers have responded to the unarmed protesters by firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and sound bombs on civilians. Often the soldiers have entered the village, firing in between houses with families within them and seriously affecting the lives of civilians.

More than half of the villagers’ land, approximately 11,800 dunams, are situated in area C which means that the Palestinians need permission to work there from the Israeli District Coordinating Office. Last week, following the protest, the Israeli military revoked the permission they had previously given the village for the following weekend.

Rana H is an activist with International Solidarity Movement.

New Israeli military tactic: Headbutting in Al- Ma’asara

by Alistair George

28 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Israeli military violently obstructed a peaceful demonstration against the Israeli separation wall in Al-Ma’sara, near Bethlehem, today.

Around 25 Palestinians and a similar number of international observers marched from the village at 12:20 PM today and attempted to reach olive groves on Palestinian land just outside of Al-Ma’asara in time for this year’s olive harvest.  A line of thirteen soldiers, backed by reinforcements in three armoured vehicles, pushed and shoved protesters, including a small Palestinian boy, in order to prevent them from leaving the village.

As demonstrators attempted to walk around the line of soldiers, one officer snatched a Palestinian flag from a protester and then head-butted him.

Mahmoud Alaaelddin, President of Al-Ma’sara local council and member of the Popular Resistance Committee, said “Every Friday we try to go to our land and the soldiers always prevent us from going.  They don’t care if there are children at the demonstration; they use more and more violence every Friday.”

After being prevented from peacefully marching to Palestinian land, protesters chanted, sang and remonstrated with the Israeli military for around 30 minutes.  The protest dispersed at 1:00 PM, with Mahmoud Zawahra, member of Al-Ma’asara’s Popular Committee of Resistance, alerting the soldiers of their continued persistence.

“Next Friday we will come with more people and we will fly kites with Palestinian flags.  And for the hundredth time we tell you – you are not welcome here. You are killers and occupying forces,” he said.

Around five minutes after today’s protest ended, a small group of Palestinian youths threw stones at the military, who responded by firing a tear gas canister, causing billowing gas to enter a house and garden at the edge of Al-Ma’asara.

Demonstrations take place in the village every Friday in protest against the separation wall – illegal under international law – which has been used by the Israeli military to expropriate much of the village’s land since 2005.  Work had ceased on the wall near Al-Ma’asara in 2008 after an Israeli court ruling, but it is scheduled to re-commence on 1 January 2011.

If completed, the barrier will expropriate more Palestinian land and will result in the closure of the main road that links Al-Ma’asara to nearby cities in the West Bank.  Al-Ma’sara residents will be forced to take alternative routes, tripling the length of time it takes to drive from the village to Bethlehem or Hebron.

Alaaeldin says that over the past few years Israeli soldiers have come into the village late at night before the Friday’s protest; forcing entire families – including children – to stand in the cold, often for 2-3 hours.

According to Alaaeldin, the Israeli military “wants people to be afraid [to protest].  They say ‘we will arrest you, we will kill you ‘but more people come to the demonstrations and refuse to be scared.”

The Israeli military has not carried out such incursions into the village for three months, but Alaaeldin is concerned that they may start again as soldiers have taken advantage of the cold winter nights to harass people in previous years.

Alistair George is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Tel Rumeida: International observers and Palestinians alike targeted by checkpoints

by Alistair George

27 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

 The Israeli military is continuing to harass and intimidate Palestinians and international volunteers at checkpoints throughout Tel Rumeida, Hebron.

 On 25 October 2011, around 7.15pm, a Palestinian woman was held at checkpoint56 inTel Rumeida for around an hour after refusing to pass through the metal detector.  The woman claimed that she was unwell and had been instructed by her doctor that it was not safe to pass through metal detectors.  Although she produced papers from the doctor showing that she was ill, the soldiers refused to let her pass.  She was eventually allowed to continue her journey, without passing through the metal detector, after the Israeli police were called and allowed her to return home.

Since 11 October 2011, the Israeli military has stated that pregnant women, people with heart devices and those with medical conditions are required to pass through the metal detector, despite the health risks posed.  Furthermore, teachers at Qordoba school have also been forced to pass through the metal detector and submit their bags for inspection, despite passing through a separate gate for the last seven years.  Six children were sent to hospital on 11 October 2011 after being injured by the Israeli military during protests against the treatment of the school’s teachers.  On October 16 2011, Israeli soldiers shot tear gas at a group of young schoolchildren and female teachers, who were attempting to hold a lesson outside of the checkpoint as an act of protest.

However, the Israeli military has repeatedly attempted to confiscate the passports of international activists as they pass through the checkpoints of Tel Rumeida; a practice which is illegal under Israeli law and appears designed to harass international observers going about their work in the area.  The military has the right to ask to see passports and record details if deemed necessary – provided that the passports remain in the possession of the owner  In several instances where international activists have refused to hand over their passports, the Israeli police have been called to intervene – often resulting in a 30 minute delay at the checkpoint.

On 25 October 2011, at around 12.50pm, an international activist was assaulted by the Israeli military after refusing to comply with an illegal demand to hand over their passport.  The soldier pushed and then kicked the activist with significant force; the activist stated that “It seemed that perhaps my awareness of Israeli law and my refusal to comply to his illegal demands antagonised the solider.”  Again, the police were called and looked at the passport before allowing the activist to continue their journey.

On 27 October 2011, several international activists were held at checkpoint56 inTel Rumeida for over an hour after refusing to hand over their passports to the Israeli military.  The police were called – however, in this instance they colluded in the military’s illegal activity by taking the passports and then handing them to soldiers for inspection.  The Israeli military confiscated three of the passports and kept them at the checkpoint for around 20 minutes.  The senior police officer, who gave his name as ‘Assaf’, threatened to arrest any international visitors to the area who refuse to hand over their passports to the military in the future; effectively threatening to arrest international activists for obeying Israeli law.

Alistair George is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

The Olive and the F-16: Autumn in Gaza

by Radhika S.

27 October 2011 | Notes from Behind the Blockade

Today completes another week of olive picking in Gaza.  Another week of pausing, breaths held, as Israeli tanks the color of sand moved nearby along the buffer zone, another week of children frightened at the sound of roaring F-16s, another week below the watchful eye of the drone.

Gaza harvests despite F-16s - Click here for more images

Together with the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers picked olives with families near the buffer zone in the village of Burej and in two different locations in Beit Hanoun this week.

“We’re here to harvest olives and be with the land because this is our land and we don’t want to abandon it,” said 27-year-old Randa Hilou a local student to came to pick in solidarity with the farmers in Beit Hanoun.

On Wednesday, dozens of local children joined in the picking. I asked the children why they had come. “I’m here to pick olives,” declared 9-year-old Mahmoud, taking a break from dumping olives into a blue plastic crate.  “We love olives,” added other children, who gathered around.

At one point in the day, the sound of Israeli F-16s could be heard overhead. “I went picking with my mother and father,” added Bursa, also 9-years-old. “I am not afraid.”

Later in the week, ISM volunteers picked closer the Erez crossing in an area that used to be full of olive, orange and grapefruit groves.

“Before, people came from all over Gaza to pick fruit in this area,” explained Saber Zaaneen, the 33-year-old coordinator of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative explained to me on Thursday as we sat on a plastic tarp picking plucking purple olives of supple branches.

“Why did Israel destroy the groves?” he asked.  “To destroy the economy of Gaza. Why the resistance? Because of the occupation.”

I had asked Saber on earlier occasion why the olive trees in Gaza were so skinny.  In the West Bank, they’re very big, I explained.  He informed me that these trees were new, and that Israel had bulldozed the beautiful old olive trees of Gaza in 2001 and 2002. “Israel does not have a culture of peace,” explained Saber. “They have all of this advanced technology, why do they kill children like this?”

Nine year old Yara, who wants to be a doctor when she grows up expressed a similar sentiment on Wednesday, “They [the Israelis] are always occupying us. They threaten children.”

 Radhika S. is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Settlers desperately try to fit the role by stealing olives

by Aida Gerard

 25 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Tuesday, illegal settlers from the Susiya settlement harvested the olive trees belonging to the Abu Sabha family from Susiya and Yatta, South Hebron Hills.

Settlers pick olives from Palestinian trees – Click here for more images

Around 12 o’ clock a villager from the area spotted two settlers picking olives from the land of Abu Sabha. He alerted the police, the District Coordination Office (DCO) and international observers who then were the first to arrive at the scene. When the settlers were asked to stop stealing the olives they claimed ownership of the land and warned the observers from setting foot on the land.

Israeli military arrived and they reluctantly called the police and the DCO for the second time, who then arrived and engaged in a lengthy discussion with the settlers. After a couple of hours the picked olives were confiscated and the land declared a closed military area.

The DCO said that the olives would stay in their custody until the Israeli court makes a decision on who is the rightful owner of the land. Except from the few olive trees next to Road 60, all of the Abu Sabha land in Susiya is occupied by the settlers who built a settlement there in 1982 and have continued to expand since then. The fear expressed by the villagers, is of course that when the police and army leave the land, the settlers will immediately return and continue their violation against the Palestinians and their land.

Last year when the Abu Sabha family had picked their olive trees, the settlers stole their harvest. When the family complained to the Israeli police, the police closed the case citing that the settlers had already turned the olives into oil.

 Aida Gerard is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).