11 February 2011 | Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI)
Residents in the village of Khirbet Tana will sleep in caves tonight following the demolition of their homes on Wednesday. Israeli bulldozers destroyed six homes and several makeshift shelters for sheep, which villagers had erected after demolitions in January. The army has demolished multiple structures here on four occasions in recent years, including the village school.
Farmers in the community, on the edge of the Jordan Valley, said that when Israeli soldiers arrived at 9.30 in the morning, they did not give the farmers time to remove their sheep from makeshift tents they had used as animal shelters since the previous demolitions, in January. Observers from EAPPI witnessed dead lambs among the rubble.
“I wanted to take my sheep and lambs out. I wanted to take my things out of the tent but they would not let me,” Rafi Mahmoud Hanani told EAPPI. “I said please, I want to take my stuff, I have sheep. (But) they hit the sheep with the bulldozer.”
Residents of the village prepare to move into nearby caves, after their homes were demolished by the Israeli army. (Photo: EAPPI / P Hanseid)
Usra Ahmed Hanani told EAPPI: “We spend all our time with the sheep – how can we live without them? It is not possible.” (Photo: EAPPI / P Hanseid)
A resident of Khirbet Tana after the demolitions. (Photo: EAPPI / P Hanseid)
EFORE… Rafi Mahmoud Hanani’s makeshift sheep shelter, erected following demolitions in January (Photo: EAPPI / A Farr)
… AND AFTER. Rafi Mahmoud Hanani with the wreckage of his animal shelter. (Photo: EAPPI / P Hanseid)
The sheep shelter in ruins. (Photo: EAPPI / A Farr)
The army arrived with bulldozers at around 9.30 on Wednesday morning and razed 17 structures, many of which were provided to the community in the form of emergency assistance as a result of previous demolitions.
Over 50 people lost their homes and personal belongings.
“The deliberate demolitions of Palestinian homes and other structures need for their survival must be brought to an end,” said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in a statement. Khirbet Tana is in Area C, the 60 percent or so of the West Bank the Oslo Accords placed under full Israeli control. The Israeli authorities enforce strict policies against unauthorized Palestinian construction in the area, but almost never give permits for Palestinians to build there “legally”.
This is the fourth major demolition suffered by the community in the span of a few years. Last year, the community suffered extensive demolitions in January and again in December. On both occasions, a number of homes, animal shelters and the village school were destroyed.
EAPPI observers who also visited the village back in December said Rafi Mahmoud Hanani was distraught.
“After the December demolition he showed us what had happened: his stone house was totally destroyed and his belongings buried under the rubble. Despite all this, he laughed with us and told us about his life in the Jordanian army. This time he was broken. Nothing was left of any of his home or sheep shelters that had been supplied by the Red Cross. He was alone and devastated. His concern was for his three sheep and their new lambs, and his sick wife in Beit Furik.”
“I am 66 years old and I was born up there where you see the olive trees,” said Usra Ahmed Hanani, pointing to the nearby hillside. “(My husband) is nearly 80 years old and he was born here. We spend all our time with the sheep – how can we live without them? It is not possible.”
07 February 2011 | International Women’s Peace Service
On Friday, 5 February, approximately 20 international and Israeli activists joined the residents of the village of An Nabi Saleh in the Ramallah district for the village’s regular non-violent demonstration against land confiscation and Israel’s occupation policies. The village had been placed under curfew since 7am, with all roads blocked by the Israeli military.
Prior to the start of the midday demonstration, the Israeli military invaded the village and attempted to prevent Israeli solidarity activists from being present in the village, forcing them to leave. Israeli and international activists, including three International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) volunteers, however, we able to enter the village via the village fields joining internationals activists from the International Solidarity Movement already in the village.
Within minutes of the non-violent demonstration commencing, the Israeli military open fired on the demonstration with tear gas. The Israeli military invasion of the village lasted for approximately 6 hours, with Israeli soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets at unarmed demonstrators, chasing demonstrators into and through the village fields.
Two international activists were detained and assaulted by the Israeli military at approximately 2pm, including a volunteer from the IWPS. The volunteer reported that she was pushed violently to the muddy ground by a soldier, who then shouted at her. A male international with her was also assaulted and hand cuffed. Both international activists were detained for more than three hours in the permanent military tower located at the entrance of the village. They were released after three hours with no charges.
In recent weeks, the Israeli military has stepped up its harassment of the village, conducting regular night raids and arresting village leaders and other village residents, including children. Currently a 14-year-old minor, who was arrested on January 23rd, is still in prison, no charges having been brought. Lawyers for the minor have reported that the child has been beaten. Another two children, including the 11-year-old brother of the 14-year-old were also kidnapped by the Israeli military and beaten. Village leaders have also been kidnapped by the military, held for several hours and beaten without any charges laid against them.
8 February 2011 | Operation Dove & Christian Peacemaker Team
On the afternoon of 7 February 2011, three Israeli settlers from Havat Ma’on outpost chased a group of 12 Palestinian schoolchildren who were walking home from school. The Israeli military had failed to arrive to escort the schoolchildren, forcing the children to take a longer path without the army’s escort.
Shortly after the schoolchildren and Christian Peacemaker Teams(CPT) volunteers set out on the path towards Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed villages, Israeli settlers, two of whom were masked, emerged from the grouping of trees which encompasses Havat Ma’on and began moving towards the children. Upon seeing the settlers, the children turned and sprinted to distance themselves from the settlers. Several children began crying and screaming in fear as they ran away from the settlers, one young girl began shaking uncontrollably as soon as she stopped running from the settlers.
The Israeli Border Police, who were located on an adjacent hill for the duration of the incident, arrived at the scene after the Palestinian children had safely distanced themselves from the settlers. The Border Police stopped and spoke with the settlers, two of whom remained masked during the entire conversation with the authorities.
The Border Police then approached the edge of At-Tuwani village where the children, CPT volunteers, and Palestinian adults had gathered. Border Police officers spoke with a CPT volunteer and an At-Tuwani resident, seeking to understand what had happened. After hearing their accounts but refusing to hear the role the settlers had played, the officers suggested that the Palestinian children, internationals, and At-Tuwani villagers were the ones causing problems, rather than the settlers.
Before the children had set out on the longer path without the military escort, CPT volunteers had called the Israeli military four times inquiring as to the whereabouts of the escort. During CPT’s final call to the military – more than 30 minutes after their initial call – the military dispatch office said that they hadn’t yet called the soldiers, who were to provide the escort, because they were too busy and had more important duties to perform.
Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.
Despite pounding rain and aggressive repression tactics employed by the army, the village of Nabi Saleh marched Friday in solidarity with the people of Egypt. The demonstration was also in honor of 14 year Nabi Saleh resident Islam Tamimi, who was arrested in a night raid in the village almost three weeks ago and remains in jail.
Nabi Saleh in Tear Gas and Rain Picture Credit: Joseph Dana
Even before the demonstration was slated to begin, the army had taken positions inside the small village of Nabi Saleh, located just west of Ramllah. Soldiers briefly detained three Israeli supporters around 10:30 in the morning inside the village. The activists were taken to the village entrance and told to leave and not return. They were able to enter from a different point and join the demonstration later in the day.
Dozens of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists marched holding posters of 14 year Islam Tamimi, who has been in an Israeli military jail for almost three weeks. The demonstration was also in solidarity with the people of Egypt. Across the West Bank, popular committees held demonstrations in solidarity with Egypt.
The demonstration was attacked with tear gas, the same American made gas used against protesters Egypt and Tunisa, before reaching the main junction of the village. Soldiers then took over the square of the village and forced protesters into the olive grooves surrounding Nabi Saleh. Despite the pounding rain, soldiers maintained positions inside the village until five in the evening.
Two international activists were detained for roughly three hours during the demonstration and no injuries other than tear gas inhalation were reported. The village has been suffering serious repression by the Israeli army over the past month. Weekly night raids, the systemic arrest of children and threaten popular committee leaders has become a mainstay of life in Nabi Saleh. Despite this, the people still resist the Israeli occupation and march in solidarity with the people of Egypt and Tunsia who are fighting for the spirit of freedom.
3 February 2011 | International Solidarity Movement
Ahmed Youssef Al Ahnan was but a child of 17 when he was arrested six years ago in his aunt’s house by the beach of Khan Younis. “I still don’t know why they took my boy. How is it possible that they can arrest a child just like that?”, asked his mother ragingly, clinging firmly onto her son’s picture. To this day, Ahmed is still imprisoned in Israel, while none of his relatives have been allowed to visit him during the six years he has spent in detention. “It even took four years before he was allowed to make his first phone call!”, his mother continued. “In the past years, he has been able to call more, but still I can’t see him.” When asked how her son is holding up in prison, she answers with an ambiguous sense of pride and sadness: “He’s a good boy, he doesn’t want me to worry over him and always says that he is doing fine, but he doesn’t sound like he is.”
Next to her sits five year old Fara Omar Shehda Al Bardawi, playfully hiding behind her father’s picture that she is holding up. He was arrested five years ago, just a month before she was born, orphaning her before birth. “He called us once, but after we haven’t heard of him anymore”, said the young girl. The image of this vivacious little girl is discontinuous with the drama that enfolds from her words. Fara has not only lost her father: her mother remarried and had to leave her with her father’s family. “All I want is my father to be back”, she utters finally with a halfhearted smile.
At the protest, about 100 people, the majority of them women, gathered outside the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City, every one holding pictures of a family member who is detained in an Israeli prison. According to Addameer, a Palestinian human rights NGO, there are currently 5395 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, no less than 209 of them are children.
It is not coincidental that this weekly sit-in is held at ICRC’s headquarters; every Palestinian wishing to visit a family member imprisoned in Israel must receive an entry permit, which is submitted via the ICRC to the Israeli side. The visiting population is restricted by outrageous visiting criteria: 16 to 45 year old boys and men, for example, are automatically excluded. Hundreds of others are barred on so called “security grounds”, which results in hundreds of prisoners not receiving visits for extended periods that may reach a number of years.
Since June 2007, Israel has banned all Gazans from visiting their relatives incarcerated in Israel. The 684 Gazans that are currently imprisoned in Israel have therefore not received a single visitor for more than three-and-a-half years now. Addalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel states that the Gaza detainees, many of whom are held indefinitely without trial, have since been in virtual isolation, as they are generally not allowed to communicate through phone or over the internet, and are only occasionally allowed to send out a letter to their families.
The 55 year old Aysha Abu Yazen comes all the way from Rafah, in the south of the Strip, to Gaza City to attend the prisoners’ sit-in: “Eight years ago, Israelis raided our house, demolished it and took my 18 year old son, Ahmad Jimah Abu Yazen. He allegedly has another nine years of imprisonment ahead of him and so far, for eight years, we have not received a single phone call from him.”
Two six year old twin girls, Ala'a and Wala'a, each holding a picture of their brother, Abed Foul, who has been in prison since two years, without a single visit
Every demonstrator has a devastating story to tell that bears witness to the isolation and alienation of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. The family members of the imprisoned Ibrahim Majdoub for example say that Ibrahim was only allowed to call once throughout the year 2010.
And so these children, men and women come here every week – most of them for many years – to protest against and draw attention to Israel’s illegal conditions of imprisonment which are isolating their relatives and breaking up their families.
The ICRC is mandated, under the Geneva Conventions, to verify whether prisoners’ rights, under international law, are respected. Nonetheless, Gazans prisoners’ rights to receive visits are blatantly violated and people feel the ICRC is not putting the appropriate pressure on the Israeli authorities to respect the rights of the detainees.
Palestinian prisoners are defrauded of family visits, and also have restricted access to basic necessities in prison – such as clothing and money – as visits are often the prisoners’ sole means of contact for these items. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights notes that lawyers are prohibited by the Israeli Prison Service from transferring money to a prisoner. The IPS insists that only relatives may transfer money, which is obviously impossible as this would require a Gazan to be present in Israel.
Jameela Ahmed Salman holds up a poster of her bearded husband, Mahmoud Salman, who has been in prison for 17 years. “They took him when I was pregnant with my youngest son. For six years we haven’t been allowed to visit him. He’s sick and suffers from heart problems, he’s in and out of Ramla hospital, but I’m still not allowed to visit him and take care of him. I’m worried about him, I wish someone could help me and go to prison to check up on him and give him some money”, says Jameela softly. “My youngest was 11 when he saw his father last – in prison, that was – by now he has difficulties remembering his father’s face. What did my children ever do wrong to lose their father like this? The holidays during Eid al-Fitr [Islamic Festival of Fast-Breaking] and Eid al-Addha [Islamic Festival of Sacrifice] are bleak without him, we miss out on all of the joy. My eldest son and daughter got married recently and both were sad at the day of their marriage because they couldn’t share it with their father.”
Women holding their dear ones
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on December 9th 2009 that Israel has no obligation to allow “foreigners” entry into the country and that visits to prisoners are not a basic humanitarian need. The legal center Adalah states that this is not only a misapplication of international law, but also a sign of Israel’s continued and systematic persecution of Palestinians. As an occupying power, Israel cannot refer to Gazans as “foreigners”, but has to consider them as “protected persons” to whom Israel owes a particular duty of care. Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 stipulates that protection of the occupied population includes protection of family rights.
Furthermore, article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that prisoners taken from occupied territories should be detained within the occupied territory. Most of the Palestinian prisoners and all of the Gazan detainees are however held within Israel, which is thus illegal under international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.
NGO Addameer notes that the decision to ban Gazan family visits, coincided with the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza. It appears to be a form of collective punishment, which is not related to the official reasons of imprisonment, but aims to coerce Palestinian factions to respond to Israel’s demands, turning Palestinian prisoners into pawns of political gain.
Fahmi Kanaan is one of the 26 people who have been exiled to Gaza after the 5 week long siege on the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in May 2002. “Before that, in 1987, I spent five months in an Israeli prison, so I know how the hardships of Israeli imprisonment. Forced to live in exile and being cut off from my own family for more than eight-and-a-half years now, I know something about social isolation as well. I come here in solidarity with these families and to call upon the international world and the United Nations to
interfere in Israel’s illegal conduct and to stop their violations of international law! How can it be that the whole world calls for Gilad Shalit, the only Israeli prisoner in Palestine, to be released while it keeps silent about thousands of Palestinians that are detained in Israeli prisons!?”
