26 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
Category: Reports
Israeli forces arrest activists in Nabi Saleh
25 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
This afternoon nine people were arrested at a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh. Among the arrested were two ISM activists along with one Danish, one Palestinian and five Israeli protesters. Both ISM activists report being beaten by the Israeli military whilst non-violently demonstrating. The Swedish activist was pepper-sprayed in the face before having his hands tied behind his back and being dragged around a corner and hit in the face several times causing his glasses to break. The other ISM activist, a woman from the United States was hit in her chest whilst being arrested. The third international from Denmark also had his hands tied before being dragged two metres by his hood and then beaten. Both men were left with their hands tied for over two hours.
The weekly demonstration had been going only a matter of minutes when the army began firing teargas and sound grenades into the crowd, and later entered Palestinian houses to look for activist to arrest. Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Every Friday around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.
The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land. In January 2010, hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened due to the settlers’ attempt to re-annex Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of Nabi Saleh is located on the Hallamish side of Highway 465 and is just one of many expansions of the illegal settlement since its establishment in 1977.
Tell me, who is the terrorist?!
24 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
At approximately 3 pm, Israeli tanks, positioned along the border, hit Al-Nazzaz street, 2 km from the border with four consecutive artillery shells. The first one hit Samer Walid Mushtaha’s house, destroying the upper floor. His wife, who was preparing dinner, had just gone downstairs and missed the attack by chance. The second shell hit vacant land nearby belonging to the Al-Helo family. The third one hit a group of children and older boys who were playing football near their houses, as they do every single day. 10 year old Mohamed Jalal Al-Helo and 19 year old Mohamed Saber Harara were immediately killed and their bodies brutally dismembered. Ten more children and an adult were also injured by shrapnel. Three year old Yasser A’amer Al-Helo and six year old Ahmad Talal Al-Helo are currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital with severe injuries.Yasser Hamed Al-Helo and his 15 year old grandson Yaser Ahed Al-Helo were opening the garage door to take out the car and rescue the wounded when they were hit by the fourth shell. They were killed on the spot.
This was the third attack on Al-Shejaija that day. At 10 am artillery fire injured one person and later in the morning another was reported to have been critically wounded by a drone strike.
Yesterday morning, Israeli military sources were quoted on Israeli radio as stating that one of the shells veered off and caused casualties. However, these four shells targeted a civilian area therefore civilian casualties were to be expected. According to witnesses, not one, but two different shells caused the deaths of these four civilians.
On Tuesday afternoon, the bodies of the four killed were brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City in horrific conditions from the attacks. Ten year old Mohammed had been struck in the head by shrapnel, causing his skull to crack. Yesterday morning, an outraged and grief stricken crowd of people gathered at the morgue to carry the bodies to the mosque. 
Today, the families set up mourning tents to allow friends and relatives to give their condolences. The outside of the houses are tattered with holes from the attack, while emotions boil over on the inside.
“Tell me, who’s the terrorist!? Who is killing innocent children? Who!? My little nephew’s head exploded! And many others are injured! Are you telling the world who the real terrorist is, are you?!” Um Tarreq yells at me, infuriated by grief, anger, fear and sadness. Her cries blow me away and I answer her rage with tears that are rolling down her cheeks also. She was the first one to lay eyes on the horrible scene of dead and injured children and is the mother of one of the nine children that has been injured. Her son is still hospitalized awaiting surgery on his arm. “They play football there every single afternoon, from 3 to 5, after school! What are they who kill children!?”
Next to her sits another family member, she yells and then cries when she starts talking about what is happening. “I have all young girls at home and they are so afraid. They already killed children, in broad daylight! Yesterday during the day and at night drones and Apaches were out. And now there is this big drone hoovering over the neighborhood, you saw it? How can I protect my daughters?”
Since the 2nd Intifada, seven people of the Al-Helo family have been killed by Israeli attacks. During Operation Cast Lead, tanks shelled a house, killing Foa’ad (55), his son Mohammed (25) and Mohammed’s two year old daughter Farrah. The bodies could only be evacuated after three days.
“I just wish you would tell the world we’re not terrorists. We’re just unlucky that we don’t have oil, otherwise the US would support the Palestinian cause for sure”, says Ra’aid Al-Helo, one of the family members.
Child and Father Abducted From Sea
23 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Four days. That is the time lapse between the attack on Yasser Nasser Bakr, who was shot in the abdomen by the Israeli Navy, and yesterday’s abduction at sea of his father and brother. At 6 am on March 20th, Nasser Bakr and his 15 year old son Alaam set out to fish in a small boat of 6.5 meters length, joined by three other hasaka’s. At 9 am a gunboat rapidly approached them and the four boats consequently started making way for Gaza’s harbor.
“Our boat is ridiculously slow though, it has a motor of only 8 horsepower. So, while the others managed to escape, we ended up on our own. They got to us and ordered us to stop. I answered that I was going home and continued heading back. Once again they ordered us to stop, but I continued to set sail towards the beach. It was only four days after they shot my son Yasser and I just didn’t want to obey them. That’s when they opened fire on us, leaving me with no choice but to stop.”
The story continues and is almost an exact copy of the stories of the Al-Laham, Al-Hissi and other members of the Bakr family. All of them are fishermen who have been abducted in the past months and whose boats remain confiscated.
Nasser and his son were forced to undress and jump into the water to swim towards the gunboat. Once in Ashdod, policemen asked them why they crossed the border.
“We have a GPS on board and we were only 2.7 nautical mile out!”
By 6 pm, Alaam and his father were brought to Erez, where the Israeli intelligence questioned them again. An aerial photo showed the details of Gaza’s port in which they showed a keen interest. “They wanted to know where the entrance is and where the authorities are located. After our evasive answers, they told us they would return our boat in the coming days.”
The last statement sounds like an evil joke: of all the hasaka’s that the Israeli Navy has confiscated, not a single one has returned to Gaza. The loss does not only affect the Bakr family, but also Mahmoud Abu Awedi, the owner of the boat. He lends his boat to the Bakr family when he is playing the drum at parties.
“When the blockade was at 12 nautical miles, our monthly income was at average 30,000 shekels a month. Now, we earn 300 shekels a month. It doesn’t bring in any money, but without fishing, I’d go crazy, the sea and the boats are my life.”
Alaam has been silently listening to his father’s account of yesterday’s events, and like any boy in puberty he claims not to have been afraid of the Israeli Navy. He has good reason to fear them though; on July 5th 2010, when he was just 14 years old, Alaam was shot twice in the abdomen by the Israeli Navy. He shows us the bullet wounds, with a shy boyish smile. “It’s healed reasonably well, but I’m less fit. I’m easily exhausted when walking for example and feel pain when I’ve been too active.”
Awarta faces second wave of curfew and military harassment
According to Awarta residents, the Israeli army entered the village again at 3 am on Thuesday 22nd of March laying down a curfew for the second time this month. The previous week Awarta, south of Nablus, had been put under curfew for five days by the Israeli military.
Once again houses were searched, leaving a trail of homes suffering from property damage and reactivating traumas from the previous military attacks on 12-16th of March. ISM activists present in Awarta on Monday during the curfew reported that computers and mobile phones had been confiscated and money stolen by Israeli soldiers. The activists witnessed how soliders entered families’ homes, arrested young men and left the homes completely wrecked from the inside.
At least nine men were arrested yesterday, one of them a 22 year old man who was removed from his family’s home, handcuffed, blindfolded and taken away to an unknown location in front of watching activists.
A youth center lost their computer access when soldiers stole the hard drives of seven computers. A computer shop was also completely wrecked when soldiers broke the door taking several hard drives and breaking laptops.
Familes were also left without enough drinking water when it ws tipped out by soldiers, and they were not allowed to leave their homes to fetch water from neighbours. When ISM activists demanded a reply from soldiers at Odala checkpoint they were told to encourage the familys to contact soldiers in the village although the curfew was still in effect. According to the same soldiers in charge of Odala checkpoint the curfew would be over at 6 pm the same day, 5 hours after the need for drinkingwater was critical. 
At around 8 pm the soldiers left the village and the curfew was lifted, although the villagers are concerned that they will come back again.
Proof that any Awarta resident is involved in the murder of the Fogel family in the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar on 11th March has yet to be made public. ISM activists present in Awarta during the first five days of curfew claim that the last weeks military operations are a clear case of collective punishment on Palestinian civil society and are not connected to investigating the Fogel murders.
Director of programming at The Voice of Palestine Radio was arrested by Israeli military together with his sons aged 17 and 16. The arrest has been condemed by the Palestinian journalist syndicate according to Ma´an news agency.
According to the village council, eleven of the men that were arrested last week have been released, while nine were arrested yesterday. About 40 men from Awarta are in Israeli custody at the moment, some of them at the military base in Huwara, while some have been taken to an interegation prison in Israel. Their families have not been told where their fathers, sons or brothers have been taken, about their condition or when, or if they will be released.
On the 15th of march, during the five day curfew of Awarta, settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar started building a new outpost on private land own by the villagers of Awarta. At the scene, on a hill in the valley between Itamar and Awarta, one can see settlers operating bulldozers under the protection of the Israeli military.