Soldiers tried to force demonstrators back from a blocked entrance to Shuhada StreetPalestinian residents of Hebron gathered on Saturday, supported by a large group of Israeli activists, to protest against the continued restrictions on their freedom of movement within Hebron. This includes the total closure to Palestinians of Shuhada Street, a key thoroughfare on which all Palestinian shops and homes have been sealed shut.
Approximately 100 people joined the demonstration which gathered at a military barrier which blocks one of the entrances to Shuhada Street from the Old City. After an hour or so of speeches, chants and songs, and the distribution of numerous boycott ‘contracts’, which ask people to commit themselves to boycotting settlement products, the demonstrators marched through the Old City to a second blocked entrance, from which soldiers tried to force them back. The march continued, stopping at the Palestinian Authority Municipal Inspectors office, which the Israelis closed last week, in a direct contravention of the Oslo Accords (1994). As protesters moved through the Old City, settlers in the floors above poured water and threw eggs at them.
The settlements in Hebron are, like all settlements within the West Bank and East Jerusalem, illegal under international law. Palestinian residents of the Old City and the district of Tel Rumeida suffer severe restriction of movement, frequent harassment and occasional violence at the hands of both soldiers and settlers. Shuhada Street has been closed to Palestinians since 1994, forcing shops to close and residents to leave their homes.
ISM Journal: A visit to Hebron
Wadiya and FadehHebron, Al Khalil, is the largest city in the southern West Bank. While walking through the the Old City we were invited to pay a visit to the house of Fadeh, who lives with his young wife and baby in one of the ancient stone buildings overlooking the market. Although the few rooms are small and, to our eyes, cramped, they have a picturesque charm.
Fadeh’s problem is that his house is situated in an area of the city which Jewish settlers have, since 1967, progressively infiltrated. Called by them “Beit Hadassah”, the neighbourhood is now home to some of the most rabidly racist settlers in the West Bank. They occupy upper floor apartments from which they have forcibly expelled the Palestinian owners. From here they have been known to throw rubbish, rocks, urine and faeces down onto passers by.
Constant aggression and physical attacks are tactics employed by the settlers to force more Palestinians to leave the neighbourhood. Fadeh himself was shot four times during an invasion of his house. His nephew Wadiya (6) still bears the scar on his face of a recent rock attack. As a four-year-old he was abducted by settlers and was later found unconscious, with traces of a chlorine-like substance around his eyes.
Sometimes the settlers adopt less violent methods of persuasion. Fadeh has been offered in excess of AUD$1,000,000 for his modest house. This ties in with reports of other Palestinians being offered similar sums for their strategically-placed properties, together with the offer of resettlement in the United States. While this may seem far-fetched it is worthwhile remembering that a proportion of the settlement activity on the West Bank, and in particular in Hebron, is financed by American Jewish billionaires sympathetic to the Zionist enterprise.
Complaining to the Israeli police, who have jurisdiction in this part of the city, is useless. When he complained about the storefronts which had been welded shut, Fadeh was told by a captain of police, “This area will remain closed until the death of the Palestinian state”. Such is life in Occupied Hebron.
The northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin demonstrated against the Israeli annexation of their farmlands today, resulting in the injury of one local protester by a tear gas projectile. Tear gas canisters landing on dry grass sparked bushfires in the hot climate, causing further damage to the contested farmland that villagers struggle to reach.
Local and international activists marched through the valley to the mountain adjacent to Iraq Burin village where, facing a force of 20 Israeli soldiers they sung chants of protest in assertion of their right to access their land. Soldiers waited almost no time before firing tear gas at demonstrators, hitting 17-year old Fahed Qaddous in the arm and causing considerable loss of blood. Qaddous was helped back to the village by protesters, where he was transported to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus by ambulance.
Demonstrators stood their ground on the rocky terrain as soldiers continued to fire volleys of gas, the canisters’ heat setting the grass alight. As strong winds carried the fire across the field, activists were forced to halt the demonstration in order to prevent the blaze from spreading to the olive groves. Without access to water on the mountain, demonstrators’ only option was to tear thick branches from the very olive trees they sought to protect in order to beat the fires out.
Despite the damage caused to village lands by IOF aggression protesters returned to the village in high spirits, the weekly demonstration marking the all too rare occasion that villagers can maintain some contact with their land.
It was last year that the people of Iraq Burin began gathering to defend their village each Saturday due to the violent attacks instigated by settlers of Bracha each week, during the Jewish holiday of Shabbat. Now, with the village’s pro-active – and non-violent – resistance to the aggression, no settlers have been sighted on the land of Iraq Burin for over five Saturdays now. The result is clear evidence of popular resistance in action, and what successes it can achieve in Palestinian communities living under occupation.
Demonstrators were met with a large number of Israeli militaryOn Friday 21st May, the village of Al Ma’asara, south of Bethlehem, held its weekly demonstration against the theft of village lands by the nearby Israeli colony/settlement of Efrat. Chanting “We want to go to our lands” in Arabic and English and bearing a banner proclaiming “Boycott Settlement Products” the villagers, numbering in excess of 200, marched towards the nearby access road. They were accompanied by a sizeable contingent of Israeli and international supporters, including a party of French visitors from Grenoble, who maintain an aid program to villagers in the Bethlehem region.
Upon reaching the road junction, the protest march was met by a heavily armed contingent of Israeli soldiers and border police who immediately, and for no apparent reason, arrested two 16 year-old youths from the village. A day later they remain in detention. The marchers were then urged by the organisers to sit down in the road and maintain a non-violent and peaceful protest.
The commander of the Israeli troops then produced an order declaring the area a closed military zone. Almost immediately, and without warning, troops commenced to throw sound grenades amongst the assembled people, followed by successive volleys of tear gas canisters which blanketed the area with dense clouds of choking, painful fumes. Two people were injured when hit by the canisters. The most serious injury was sustained by Hassan Birjiyeh, a march organiser and member of the Al Ma’asara National Committee. He was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem with head and shoulder injuries which were later diagnosed as not life threatening.
Participants in the march were shocked by the level of violence and unprovoked aggression employed by the Israeli military. The French contingent (comprised mostly of middle-aged and elderly men and women) were particularly distressed to see and to experience such a disproportionate use of force. Even seasoned observers were surprised that tear gas had been used at Al Ma’asara, where protests are always peaceful and non-violent. They wonder whether this presages an increased level of repression by Israeli forces.
The beginning of An Nabi Saleh's weekly marchThe West Bank village of An Nabi Saleh held their weekly demonstration on Friday, attempting to reach the village land that has been annexed by the illegal settlement of Halamish. Demonstrators marched down from the village mosque till they were blocked by a line of Israeli soldiers and jeeps. Participants chanted, danced and sang for approximately half an hour before the military decided to violently disperse the group by throwing tear gas and sound grenades directly at the participants.
Soldiers continued to fire gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers for several hours, injuring several people, including a local teenage boy who was hit directly in the face by a canister. It opened up a hole in his face and shattered his cheek bone. As the ambulance tried to drive him away to hospital, soldiers fired volleys of tear gas at it, forcing it to turn around and take a much longer route round.
Military inside the villageTowards the end of the demonstration, two internationals were arrested.The two, Swedish and Canadian citizens, were not taken to military base, but were held for four hours in a small shack. They were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs for the whole four hours, before being released without charge. A similar ordeal was endured by three Israeli activists arrested earlier in the day in Bili’in.
The hilltop village of An Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Today and every Friday since January 2010, 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 An Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite An 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 An Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to An Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of An 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.
The arrest of Akram Sharawneh, 15Akram Sharawneh, a 15 year old boy from Hebron, was released on Sunday the 25th of April this year after being randomly arrested by Israeli soldiers and spending more than two months in an Israeli juvenile prison (not all the period in juvenal prison). He is one of the many minors from Hebron who has been arrested and held captive in Israeli detention since the beginning of this year.
Akram was arrested the 23rd of February near his home in the old city of Hebron when he went out to buy bread. The day before his arrest, the Israeli Cabinet had declared several holy places in the West Bank as National Jewish heritage sites, including the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. This declaration resulted in widespread protests in the occupied territories, especially in Jerusalem and in the old city of Hebron.
In the market Akram was stopped by two soldiers who then body searched him and demanded to see his birth certificate. This is not uncommon in the old city of Hebron, if you are Palestinian it is essential to always carry your identification card, and if you are a minor you must always have your birth certificate. Akram was wearing a red T-shirt underneath his shirt, once the soldiers saw this shirt, they claimed that they had seen him throwing stones and they arrested him at the spot. He was blindfolded and handcuffed and thrown into a military jeep. In the military vehicle one of the border policemen hit Akram several times on his neck. Akram and three other Palestinian boys, two 13 year olds, and one 19 year old, were taken to Kriat Arba’a settlement for investigation.
In Kriat Arba’a the boys were made to stand handcuffed and blindfolded for six hours. They were individually interrogated several times. During these interrogations the border police tried to threaten the boys into confessing to throwing stones. The police threatened Akram with physical violence and used insulting terms about his family. They told him if he admits to throwing stones he will be released, if he doesn’t, they will beat him more. However, Akram did not confess, he refused to lie about his actions despite their threats. When he continued to deny their accusations they brought out a form, which was an official confession, they tried to make him sign it and he refused. It is important to recognize that this reaction is an exception to what normally happens during this initial interrogation. According to the DCI (Defense for Children International) usually young boys confess to whatever they are accused of right away, or they are often tricked into signing a confession. These forms are always written in Hebrew, and the boys are sometimes told that it is a form for their release. Later in court when the form appears again it is actually a confession statement, which they have already signed, and the judge will not accept their claims that they did not know it was a confession statement.
At 8pm on the night of their arrest, Akram and the two other Palestinian boys were taken to an unknown military camp where they spend the night handcuffed in a military jeep. The fourth boy, who is 13 years old, confessed after significant police pressure and was released the same day.
On the second day Akram and the other boys were taken to Gush Etzion, a detention center in a settlement where detainees from the south are taken for interrogation. Akram and the other 13-year-old boy were kept in an outside prison cell and exposed to the same form of interrogation as the previous day. On the third day the boys were taken to their first hearing in Ofer Military Prison. At this point the boys had not slept, nor had they been offered any food. Akram drank two glasses of water only because he asked for them. It was the first hearing of the six trials he would have to endure in the two-month period he was kept in prison. After the court he was taken to Remonim prison, a special prison in Israel for Palestinian minors. In Remonim, Akram spent his first three weeks alone in a cell. He was let out everyday for three hours. During this time the Red Cross would give the boys lessons and they could talk together in a common room. Finally they put another boy in his cell. This boy is 16 years old and had been sentenced to five years for “planning to kill a soldier”. He had been in Sharon prison for 21 months already, and he told Akram that in this detention center the guards beat the boys regularly.
Throughout his imprisonment the military behaved completely inappropriately, among other occurrences, Akram had his new shoes stolen after one guard told him to take off his shoes before his third court. Before the last court a prison police officer threatened Akram that if he said one word in his court about what happened to him, he would be beaten. At one point Akram said that one high ranking officer told him that he could kill any three prisoners he wanted to, and nothing would happen.
Akram's mother, LeilaAkram finally confessed during his sixth trial. In the end, the judge said that if he did not confess she would bring in each of the four soldiers who claimed they saw him throwing stones into testify. He could be in prison for another five months and she would take the soldier’s word. His lawyer from the DCI had advised that he should confess from the beginning because he knows the system; boys who confess are released. This is always the goal with child prisoners, he explained later in an interview: “As a lawyer and as a father – I cannot stand to let a child stay in prison – because I know the system – they will keep postponing the courts until they get a confession.” He went on to say “our first obligation is to be with the child and act in their best interest. But as a lawyer feelings are different…” The Israeli military court system uses lawyers as a “legal signature” (as a validation for their unjust system) and as a lawyer it is difficult to do your job knowing that your participation is a part of their continuing oppression. One of the ways to combat this system is to boycott it. By refusing to partake in it you refuse to recognize it as a valid system. As a method of resistance this can be very powerful, because it means that instead of giving confessions and instead of lawyers playing into their legal charade, everyone remains in prison. This has happened in the past, but it was limited. Boycotting the Israeli military judiciary system needs to happen on every level, from the lawyers, prisoners, families, human rights groups and NGOs, and from the Palestinian government. In the end you ask this of a child. Akram was clearly traumatized from his experience in prison. During the court hearings he would cry, he was under a lot of pressure to confess, but still he did not want to lie. But in the end he told his mother, I am tired, I want to leave this place, so he confessed. He was released and fined 1,000 shekels. When asked about why a child is fined for a confession and then released, the DCI lawyer made it clear that this money is just a punishment; it has nothing to do with the crime. They know a child cannot pay 2,000 shekels, they know the family needs to pay this money, and that they will pay this money instead of feeding their children. So now you make more enemies. He was released with the condition that if the Israeli military arrest him in the next four years he can be imprisoned for up to eight months without trial, and these sentences are often extended as court dates are continually postponed. This is the reality facing all Palestinians who are arrested and detained.
So why do the so-called “guilty” go free and the “innocent” stay in prison? Why the obsession with confessions? As the DCI lawyer explained, a confession justifies the arrest in the first place; a guilty arrest is seen as “justifiable” and “necessary”. Also, the Israeli military judicial system wants “to let you be in prison on your own account” stripping the system of responsibility and directing the blame elsewhere, it is seemingly your choice about whether or not you are released. It creates a very warped set of options, you can either be guilty or in prison, and for a young mind this is incredibly destructive. It creates anger. The young boys are much more likely to behave violently after being mistreated in jail for something they didn’t do. The lawyer gave an example of a boy from Hebron who was arrested so much in one year, getting steadily more angry at the system, that his family sent him to Jericho to give him a break from prison. He was reacting more and more violently as his arrests and experiences in prison continually traumatized him.
Of the eleven cases of under-14-year old child arrests in the first two months of this year, all have confessed. This number represents an increase in the rate of arrests of juveniles since last year. There are of course many factors contributing to why this is happening, it comes down to ideology. Sometimes it is just about maintaining a certain number of arrests, keeping up appearances in order to perpetuate the myth that the Palestinian territories are somehow “dangerous areas”, seemingly justifying Israel’s continuing occupation.
In Akram’s case several international laws were breached, including being interrogated without a lawyer and being moved out of the occupied territory and imprisoned inside Israel . When asked about how DCI lawyers use International law in these cases in the Israeli military court, the lawyer from DCI said, “When you talk in the military court about international standards it is like you are joking, the system does not care about international law.” Israel is a signatory to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.” Clearly Akram’s imprisonment was not a measure of last resort; it was random, unjustified, and illegal. Beyond this fact, even if the arrest was somehow justifiable, in no part of his detention did Israelis act with any consideration of Akram’s Juvenile status. During the court hearings the judge purposely prolonged his case in order to obtain a confession. And this is not special to Akram’s case; this is the standard procedure of a system that is designed around oppression, not justice.
According to the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty;
(a) Juveniles should have the right of legal counsel and be enabled to
apply for free legal aid, where such aid is available, and to communicate
regularly with their legal advisers. Privacy and confidentiality shall be
ensured for such communications; http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/45/a45r113.htm
Under Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the transfer of detainees out of occupied territory is prohibited. Apart from being illegal, the detention of Palestinian children inside Israel makes family visits more difficult due to freedom of movement restrictions. DCI, http://www.dci-pal.org/English/Doc/dbulletin/Issue_03.pdf
