A Bedouin girl plays amongst possessions scattered by the Israeli Occupational Forces
On June 20th at 7am a Bedouin village, south of Hebron in Khirbet Bir al’Idd was struck down with Israeli bulldozers destroying seven tin homes and several other sheds and tents. The Israeli army and border police arrived to demolish the homes claiming the area was classified as a closed military zone because of “illegal” building taking place.
There was no warning of the demolition in advance. Following the destruction of the village, 67 people were left homeless and displaced, including a large number of children. They also confiscated many possessions including mattresses and pillows. The mobile water source was damaged as were electricity wires. The toilet was also completely was destroyed.
Villagers reported that the Israeli army threatened that they would return in three days to take down the remaining animal tents and check no rebuilding had occurred. The army apparently told the villagers they should live in natural caves, awaiting a court order on land ownership and whether they can reconstruct the village.
On Sunday June 19th, six International Solidarity Movement activists from the United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, Germany, and Sweden were illegally arrested by the Israeli military after attending a demonstration against the construction on confiscated land belonging to the Palestinian village, Deir Qaddis.
Apart from numerous Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists, many children and elderly villagers participated. The demonstrators marched through the village waving flags and chanting slogans. Some of the demonstrators formed a road blockade with rocks on the confiscated land.
The Israeli military arrived shortly after and responded with volleys of tear gas, aimed directly at demonstrators. The tear gas canisters set alight the grass around them, causing a fire which spread for hundreds of meters throughout the hills.
After the Israeli military had left the area, the demonstrators returned to the village. The military subsequently invaded the village following the demonstrations. The internationals were resting in a Palestinian home drinking tea. Upon noticing army infringement upon the village, the international volunteers walked onto the road to see where the army was, hoping that their presence as internationals would deter the soldiers from attacking the village. Yet the commanding officer ran down the hill, with about 15 soldiers behind him, pointed his gun directly at the volunteers, and said violently, “If you move, I will shoot.”
While under arrest the soldiers proceeded to teargas the village below, and as they did so, the wind carried the teargas across to the international volunteers. As they tried to treat themselves with onions and alcohol wipes, items commonly used to deter the affects of tear gas, the soldiers shouted that tear gas was “part of the Israeli experience.”
Then the soldiers forced them to walk in convoy formation.
“We walked with a soldier in front of us, behind, and one on either side with guns, shouting at us and using intimidation techniques, forcing us to walk like prisoners,” said one volunteer.
She continued to describe her experience as they were taken away from the village. “We walked for approximately 15 minutes in the heat and sun along the road until we were outside the illegal Israeli settlement of Nil’ in. When we repeatedly stated that we did not believe our presence in the village was illegal, or that the arrest was legal, the soldiers responded with the same aggressive responses that we ‘should know the law of the country that we are in, meaning Israel. They then made us get into an armoured jeep, where we were forced to sit in silence before blindfolding us, for the acclaimed reason that we were ‘not allowed to see the settlement’ through which we were passing,” she said.
During the first six hours of detention, the activists were kept in an armored military truck, being blindfolded for approximately one hour. After more than ten hours in detention, the activists were forced to stay awake and were given one piece of bread and water. The arresting officer was the Hebrew/English translator during each activist’s interrogation, having testified against them just hours before. He talked over the activists as they gave their testimony, accused the activists of lying and cut one activist off before she could finish her testimony. They were released 17 hours later, after signing a condition stating they will not participate in demonstrations in Deir Qaddis, Bi’lin and Ni’lin.
The activists were charged with participating in an illegal demonstration despite the fact that the demonstration took place on Palestinian land and therefore can not be declared illegal under both Israeli and international law.
On June 18 2011 the weekly Beit Ommar demonstration proceeded towards a fence which encircles the nearby settlement of Karmei Tzur and separates the village from some of its land. A number of protesters reached the fence and planted a Palestinian flag. Local women walked home across the land “in defiance of instruction” made by the occupational forces. During the ensuing army response an Israeli protester and an international protester were detained and later released, and other protesters were hit.
The aim of the demonstration was to show resistance to the theft of Palestinian land, following the erection of a “security fence” erected nearly five years ago. The fence encircles the Karmei Tzur settlement , but also usurps a significant amount of village land.
On June 14th 2011 a Beit Ommar farmer reported that he was “ordered” to leave his farm land by an armed security guard from the adjacent Karmei Tzur settlement. The guard apparently used a dog to drive the farmer and his family from the land. Settlers had also recently set fire to the wheat harvest on the same farmland. The farmland borders a large separation fence, behind which there is further farmland and the settlement.
On June 18th the farmer, his family, some villagers, Israelis, and internationals returned to the land to farm and harvest grape leaves. The armed guard arrived and called the army who came in three trucks with an additional police truck. Approximately 15 soldiers entered the farmer’s land from the settlement through a gate in the fence. The soldiers told the farmer he could not farm his land, claiming it was a closed military zone. Following interaction with the Israeli protesters, the commander then changed his order so that the farmer and the villagers were permitted to farm, so long as the Israeli and internationals remained 150m away. The villagers completed their farming, while the Isrealis and internationals waited. They all returned to the village after harvesting. The farmer will continue to farm his land.
Beit Ommar is located to the south of Hebron. The “security fence” was built around the settlement about five years ago. The fence encircles the Karmei Tzur settlement , but also encompasses a significant amount of village land. This farm is outside the settlement fence but has experienced problems from the settlers in recent months.
A 14-year old boy was abducted by Israeli undercover forces from Bir Ayyub this morning. Ahmed Siyam was taken by an undercover unit from outside his uncle’s shop in Bir Ayyub and transferred to Salah al-Din police station. Police claimed that the boy “constitutes a danger to society.”
Siyam was targeted for arrest by Israeli forces only yesterday, after attending the weekly prayer in the Al-Bustan protest tent. A relative of Siyam told Silwanic that it is likely he was targeted as part of a campaign against the Siyam family, after his father made statements to the press recently regarding the murder of local resident Milad Ayyash several weeks previously.
