Category: Reports

Jewish extremists assault two Palestinians in Silwan

12 November 2010 | Wadi Hilweh Information Center
Photos by Maisa Abu Gazaleh

Silwan resident, 21, assaulted by settler extremists

A resident from Silwan, aged 21, was severely assaulted, beaten, and abused by a group of extremist Jews this Saturday, November 6, 2010, as he was walking late at night near Hillel Street in West Jerusalem. He recalls walking along when a girl stopped him and asked him for a cigarette, and during a brief chat discovered that he was Palestinian. Shortly after they parted ways, he was attacked by a number of Jewish extremists. He tried to scream that he was a Jew of Moroccan descent, until finally his attackers stopped assaulting him long enough to look for his identity card. Upon confirming he was Palestinian, however, the men tortured him, beating him in the face and head with stones and spraying him with gas, as well as stealing his mobile phone. He managed to escape his attackers and was able to reach a main street, where he lost consciousness. From there he was transferred to a hospital, where he was treated for severe injuries to the eyelid, forehead and ear, as well as significant bruising and injuries to the head resulting from the brutal attacks with stones.

The following day, his father filed a complaint with the police and called on the Israeli authorities to put up surveillance cameras on the streets of Hillel, Musrara, and the bell garden, in West Jerusalem where assaults against Palestinians are becoming increasingly common.

Ahmed Sbaih, 41, assaulted by settler extremists

Ahmed Sbaih, 41, suffered a similar attack on the night of October 31, 2010, after an Israeli stopped him to ask for a cigarette near the Ma’man Allah cemetery in West Jerusalem. Shortly afterward, Ahmed came upon a large group of Jewish extremists who demanded cigarettes from him and asked his name. When they determined he was Palestinian, the men began beating him with large stones that they had concealed under their clothes. Sbaih suffered three broken teeth as well as deep injures to the gums and head.

According to Sbaih, “I was bleeding, but I was able to pull away from three of them and escape. They chased me and threw stones at me until I reached the main road and called the police, who hung up the phone twice before telling me that a police car would come in a minute.” Sbaih was left bleeding for more than half an hour before he was transferred to a hospital by an ambulance that had received his number from the police, who didn’t arrive at the hospital until more than an hour after being called.

Ahmed went to the police station to file a complaint, but says that “when they realized the reason for my presence, they treated me as though I were guilty. The policewoman began screaming at me and tried to justify the police’s late presence at time of the incident, claiming that the police were busy.”

Israel steps-up pressure on Issawiya village with blockades

14 November 2010 | Wadi Hilweh Information Center & ISM

Issawiya, Jerusalem – Today large concrete blocks were laid across Issawiya village’s north-eastern entrance by Israeli troops, marking the second time in three days that the entrance has been physically blockaded by the military. The blocks, aside from severely obstructing village traffic, confirm residents’ fears of what appears to be Israeli authorities’ strategic isolation of Issawiya village.

Thursday, November 10th, Issawiya witnessed clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces. Israeli police, accompanied by troops from the Israeli army, surrounded the village and closed off all but the easternmost entrance to the village, the furthest entrance from Jerusalem, following the clashes which erupted between Israeli troops and residents of the village. In doing so, the police carried out a collective punishment over the more than 18,000 Palestinians who live in the village.

Many of Issawiya’s 18,000 inhabitants, all of whom are Palestinian, fear that the road blocks are indicative of the village’s position being earmarked for a more permanent isolation from the rest of Jerusalem: the route of the illegal Apartheid wall. One resident stated that “what is happening here in Issawiya is a form of collective punishment, meted out by the Israeli authorities. Many people here are subjected to harassment and intimidation by the Israeli tax department, who are waging a campaign of fines and financial punishment on Palestinians in Jerusalem. This new development of the physical isolation of our community comes merely as the next level of pressure applied by the authorities.”

Weekly Demonstration Report — High Velocity Tear Gas Canisters used in an Nabi Saleh

14 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Al Nabi Saleh demonstrators assaulted with high velocity tear gas canisters and rubber bullets

High-velocity tear gas canister used in an Nabi Saleh
The weekly demonstration at Al Nabih Saleh took place again this Friday, one day after the six year anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death.

One young boy was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet, and tear gas canisters were shot throughout the whole demonstration to prevent demonstrators from reaching the village spring near the illegal settlement Halamish. Some canisters were shot directly at demonstrators. High velocity tear gas canisters were used despite their illegality for the danger they pose: high velocity tear gas canisters have killed and seriously injured many demonstrators in the past.

The demonstration was supposed to be preceded by a large celebration commemorating the legacy of Yasser Arafat. However, the military closed off all entrances to the village two hours before the demonstration, making it very hard for outside guests to make it to the event. Some people, including ISM volunteers, had to take a 30 minute detour through the olive groves, around the soldiers in order to enter the village. Other visitors were tear gassed when they attempted to enter the village through this alternative route.

Even with all these complications the celebration had about 200 people in attendance, and it was attended by all including internationals and Israelis. Children also marched, and chanted pro-Arafat chants. Right after the celebration, the demonstration started, at around 1 pm and continued until after sundown.

Bil’in marks the 6th anniversary of Arafat’s death
Photos by Hamde Abu Rahma

Bil'in on 6th anniversary of Arafat's death
Today’s demonstration in Bil’in was joined by a large number of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. Members of the Fatah party were also present. The demonstration followed a week of constant night-raids by Israeli soldiers searching for the anti-wall village activist, Ashraf Khatib.

The protesters walked together towards the Apartheid Wall, carrying posters of Yasser Arafat, in commemoration of the Fatah leader who passed away six years ago. Speeches were held by members of the Fatah movement, while Israeli soldiers in the background prepared to attack the peaceful demonstrators.
The speakers were Sultan Abu Al Enanan from the Fatah movement, Kays Abu Leyla from the Executive Committee of PLO and the political office of the Democratic Front and Basel Monsur from the Popular Committee in Bil’in. They all promised to stay strong as Arafat would have wanted them to be, and to fight the occupation together.

Bil'in flooded with teargas
Even before the majority of the protesters moved forward, soldiers began firing tear gas from their position on the road leading to the village. Immediately the area was covered with tear gas, with canisters flying into the crowd from different directions. In response a few youngsters threw stones to the Israeli soldiers, in symbolic resistance to their violence. The soldiers moved into the field and continued to fire rounds of gas, chasing people back into the village. At one point live ammunition was fired, causing fear and the retreat of any protesters remaining in the area.

Tear gas canisters set fires on the ground in several places, which were put out by some protesters before they spread. The demonstration lasted for about two hours.

The Popular Committee and the people of Bil’in thanks their international and Israeli supporters for standing side by side with them in their struggle against Israel’s occupation.

New anti-wall demonstration in Al Walaja

Demonstrators march to the wall in Al-Walaja
For Friday, 11 November 2010, the local committee in Al-Walaja (a little village half an hour from Bethlehem) organized a peaceful protest to draw attention to the illegal building of a new Israeli settlement. The village is surrounded by settlements, so the Israeli government has decided to build a wall around the village with only one entrance.

The villagers won´t accept this without resistance. Last week this issue was in the supreme court but nothing was decided. The government has continued to build, so on Friday the inhabitants of Al Wlaja held a demonstration.

Friday’s demonstration passed along the wall and the people demanded the freedom to live without the wall or occupation. On the place where the wall would stand in the future, a villager held a speech about the circumstances of living in Qualqilya. Soon the Israeli Army came with 4 jeeps and soldiers walked with the people but there were no clashes. The people only stood in front of the soldiers and shouted their contentions to them. The demonstration ended after one hour.

The new settlement affects Al-Walaja in several ways: Not only does it encroach directly on existing Palestinian homes, but it towers over the village, and when the wall is completed it will isolate the village from agricultural areas and other parts of the community. A final tragic outcome of the wall and the new settlement is that if they’re completed Al-Walaja will be reduced in size from the 20,000 durhams of 1967 to a mere 2,000 durhams. Developers building the new settlement have not obtained permission to build, whereas the Palestinians have been denied for more than a year permission to complete homes nearby.

Beit Hanoun commemorates 2006 massacre, Israeli forces shoot Gazan rubble collector

13 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement -Gaza

The demonstration in the Beit Hanoun Buffer-zone tuesday remembered the brutal Israeli shelling in the area 4 years earlier that killed 20 civilians and injured 60. Palestinians of the Local Initiative group and 4 International Solidarity Movement activists approached the wall at Erez crossing and passed rock collectors in the buffer zone some 100 metres from the border. The next day, Israeli soldiers positioned on observation towers near the crossing fired at the workers, shot 28 year old Ibrahim Yousef Ghaben, 28, in his right leg, breaking his bone and bringing the total number of rock collectors shot by Israeli snipers to 10 in 3 weeks, 7 injured in the Beit Hanoun border area alone.

Once the demonstrators reached the border, chanting and waving flags, they planted a Palestinian flag on the outer wall of the Erez crossing tunnel. Saber Al Za’anin, the General Coordinator of the Local Initiative group spoke of the tragedy that devastated families in the Beit Hanoun area on the 9th of November. “We are here today to ensure that the families, the men, women and children killed, injured and left behind from the massacre on November 2006 are never forgotten, and we will carry on with our struggle to bring justice for these crimes and all of the others that have befallen our people.”

He was referring to one of the most horrific massacres that took place in Gaza’s recent history before Israel’s assault in operation ‘Cast Lead’ during the winter of 2009.

The Israeli operation was called ‘Autumn Clouds’. One day after the Israeli army declared that it had finished the operation in Beit Hanoun after international pressue, 20 people were killed and at least 45 were injured as a large number of shells were fired at the town. Many of the victims were women and children and 11 were from the same Al-A’athamein family.

The massacre took place after a siege and street occupation by Israeli ground troops between the 2nd and 8th of November 2006. The soldiers searched house-to-house, arresting, imprisoning and interrogating males over the age of 16 years. Families were forced to stay together in a single room while Israeli soldiers took over floors and rooftops of the buildings, electricity and gas were cut and people often had not access to toilets.

A group of 1500 unarmed women demonstrated during the 7 day siege of the town in an effort to free men gathered in a mosque, only for Israeli troops to open fire on them too. 2 of the women were killed and a further 20 injured, highlighting that however the peaceful the resistance is, the same brutality applies.

Casualties arrived at Al Awda hospital in Jabalya from the beginning of the siege, but delays by soldiers to evacuate them meant some died needlessly, and those that made it to the hospital had no family members to accompany them.

It was the early morning of 9th November, when the 20 civilians were killed as Israeli forces shelled an apartment building which housed around 120 people. Majdi El Athamina lost three brothers and one of his sons, 9 year old Sa’ad – his wife and another son were seriously injured.

Dr Mona El Farra who was receiving the casualties at the Al Awda hospital remembers the horrors that emerged during the week:

“Dina El-Athamina 2 year old toddler, she had bad fractures in the pelvis – there was no father and mother with her because she lost both. The killed and the injured arrived day by day, it was horrific, the hospital was chaos. It was only civilians killed – 7 children and later the army admitted ‘it was a mistake’ Even a rescue worker and a neighbor who went to rescue the family were shot and killed. Ambulances were not allowed into the villages.

I remember one mother was in full labour – noone was allowed in or out of village. After 4 hours waiting to be allowed to leave the village, she left and came to hospital and gave birth. The army was in the village shelling and storming houses, so noone could visit. She returned home with baby in her arms to find her house was demolished. “

People couldn’t imagine the violence increasing but according to Dr Mona after the 2006 bombing, the violence has actually intensified, epitomized by the huge civilian casualties in Cast Lead. “They have no limits, no boundaries for their brutality, no ideas of safety for civilians and health workers. It is a racist, colonial regime that has no respect for international law. We believe that we have our rights and we know that justice is on our side and will one day arrive with the help of the huge solidarity around the world and the growing international boycott, divestment and sanction movement that more and more people of conscience are joining.”

Tuesday’s demonstration ended without incident despite shootings there being a regular occurrence in the previous weeks. For the rock collectors working near to where the protest took place, the perils of occupation continue. An industry only created by the blockade of concrete and the fact 17000 home were so badly damaged, they now turn to this work to help feed their families

Israeli Army raids Bil’in for the fourth time in three days

10 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Night-raiders confront village boy in Bil'in

Today, the 10th of November, Israeli forces again raided the village of Bi’lin. The Army entered at around 8 pm for the second time that day.

This morning around 3.00 am, they entered the village with five jeeps and searched Ashraf al-Khatibs home. Soldiers broke down the door of the neighbor’s house and went in. They were not able to find who they were looking for in either house. Later that morning when people from the village arrived, the 20 soldiers pointed their guns directly in their faces, while acting very aggressively. They also broke the door from al-Khatib’s house when they entered.

Tonight at 9pm, the army returned to the village. Soldiers entered al-Khatib’s house again, again without finding him there. Soldiers then took off and left the village, for the second time that evening.

These two raids are the last of until now four raids over the last three days. Ashraf al-Khatib is apparently a new target. Earlier today al-Khatib received a phone call from Israeli intelligence (Shebak/Shin Bet), in which a captain demanded to see him in Ofer Military Prison. It was made clear that until he shows up for interrogation the army will come to his house frequently. This is a well known tactic used by Israel: to terrorize the village and the families involved, making life unbearable for them.