Category: Reports - Page 458 - International Solidarity Movement

One injured during a Bil’in night invasion

1 February 2010

Starting the month off with a bang!

Four Shabak (Israeli Intelligence) jeeps and one military hummer rolled through Bil’in around 3am this morning. Computer screens with GPS maps were visible in the jeeps. They started throwing sound bombs amongst houses when camera people arrived on the scene.

Soldiers in the last hummer taunted the camera people by making chicken noises. It seemed like they were looking for someone or were lost in Bil’in as they turned down side streets and returned to the main road between the school and the mosque. Earlier in the evening residents of Bil’in reported seeing the military throwing tear gas at young kids who were near the Israeli Apartheid Wall. Invasions like this are not uncommon in Bil’in. One person from Bil’in was injured while running to document the invasion last night. There were no arrests. This happened less than one week since the arrest of Bilin Popular Committee member Mohammad Al Khatib.

Nasser Gawi expelled from Sheikh Jarrah – settler detained, weapon seized

International Solidarity Movement

31 January 2010

Video: Settler attacks Nasser Gawi with M-16

Settler attacks young boy in Sheikh Jarrah.

Nasser Gawi and one settler have been expelled from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah for 15 days after the settler attacked local residents and threatened them with an M-16.

At 7PM on Sunday night a settler occupying the Palestinian Gawi family house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah fought neighborhood residents and threatened them with an M-16 automatic rifle.

The settler first threw rocks at the tent the Gawi family has stayed in since being evicted, provoking angry shouts from the family. When the settler descended to the street, he physically attached a neighborhood boy, shaking and pushing him. Other adults stepped in and the settler began pushing and eventually punched Nasser Gawi. Numerous blows were exchanged before the settler began wildly waving his M-16 rifle, he then cocked the gun and pointed it at neighborhood residents and internationals who were present.

The incident ended when the police arrived and after a few minutes siezed the settler’s gun. Though both Nasser Gawi and the settler were barred from returning to the neighborhood for 15 days, the settler returned to pick up personal belongings.

After his family was expelled in 1948 from what is now the state of Israel, the Gawi family was relocated to a refugee camp in East Jerusalem. The UN and Jordan allowed them to trade their food aid for permanent residence in houses in Sheikh Jarrah. After building a life in East Jerusalem the family was forcefully evicted from their house on 9 August 2009 and took residence in a tent outside their house. Now, after being attacked and threatened by a settler with a gun, Nasser Gawi has been expelled again from his living space yet again.

Read Maan post about the incident.

Background on Sheikh Jarrah

Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.

So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.

The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.

Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

Legal background

The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.

The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.

The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.

Settlers target Palestinian car in arson attack for the second time

International Solidarity Movement

31 January 2010

Settlers torched a car in the northern West Bank village of Asira Al-Qabliya in the early hours of Thursday morning, January 28. The attack was launched from the notorious Shalhevit Yam outpost of Yitzhar settlement, that lies a short distance from the village and has been waging a continuous campaign of intimidation on the village.

Residents of Asira Al-Qabliya reported a car from the outpost approaching the village at approximately 1:30am on Thursday morning. An Israeli military jeep was then sighted pulling up alongside the car, at which point soldiers were witnessed conversing with the settlers, although making no effort to force the settlers to retreat to the outpost. The jeep departed towards the settlement, leaving the settlers to linger on the edge of the village.

The family of Machmoud Darhoud awoke the next morning to find Darhoud’s work vehicle burnt down to its framework, still smouldering, in the driveway. The Darhoud home is located on the eastern edge of the village, halfway up the hill which atop sits the Shalhevit Yam outpost. The car appeared to have been doused in gasoline, inside and out, then set ablaze. Several tools necessary for Darhoud’s work in Asira Al-Qabliya’s stone quarry, left inside the car, were lost in the blaze too.

It is not the first time Darhoud’s property has come under attack, nor is it the first time such an assault has been launched with arson. A car belonging to the family was torched under almost identical circumstances in 2007, both cars costing the family a hefty value of 5000 shekels. Their home itself has been targeted repeatedly by settlers also. 2 weeks prior to the most recent arson attack a gang of 20 settlers surrounded the home, hurling rocks and screaming abuse at the terrified family inside. 9 months ago saw the most vicious attack yet, when approximately 60 settlers surrounded the home, hurling dozens of rocks and destroying almost all of the glass windows in the house. When the Israeli military arrived on the scene they quickly occupied the home, firing live ammunition that punctured the water tanks on the roof.

The attack spurred the family on to construct a large concrete wall around their home. The wall has done little to deter the assailants however, as sporadic attacks continue unabated. Despite the impressive two-storey stature of the Darhoud home, the entire family now sleeps in one room, as the 6 traumatised children manage only to sleep in the safety of one another. Darhoud reports that he will now be parking his other vehicle at his father’s house each night, located within the relative sanctity of the village.

Other families living nearby suffer similar problems from the precarious nature of their homes’ locations. The Jamal family home to the east of Darhoud’s has been spraypainted with Jewish Stars of David so many times now that the family has simply given up trying to clean them off. ISM activists maintain a period presence in the area, particularly on Saturdays when the Jewish holiday of Shabbat gives rise to the most violent manifestations of settler harassment.

Since the creation of the Shalhevit Yam outpost in 2001, families living in Asira al-Qabliya’s east have experienced more problems than they ever bargained for. It is a reoccuring theme for those unfortunate to live in the shadow of Yitzhar settlement, that has stolen thousands of dunums of farmland and dozens of water wells from Asira al-Qabliya and the surrounding villages of Buin, Madama, Einabus, Urif and Huwara. The last decade has seen a sharp increase in territorial settler violence.

Background on Yitzhar settlement:

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighbouring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Saturdays, the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat, typically sees Yitzhar settlers roused to fever pitch zeal, wrecking havoc upon Palestinian villages unfortunate enough to live in its shadow. Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area. In one of the most extreme act of terrorism students of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Hai yeshiva fired homemade rockets on Burin in 2008.

Not content with committing their own acts of brutality, Yitzhar rabbis are key players in incitement of targeted violence across the West Bank. Rabbi Elitzur from the same Yitzhar yeshiva published a book this November titled “The Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles”, condoning even the murder of non-Jewish babies, lest they grow to “be dangerous like their parents”. Rabbi Elitzur is vocal in his encouragement of “operations of reciprocal responsibility” such as the arson attack made on Yasuf mosque in December 2009.

Despite West Banks settlements’ status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Yitzhar also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.

Military uses live ammunition on Burin demonstration

29 January 2010

DSCF3938 — Young boy from Burin plants Palestinian flags atop the threatened mosque

A demonstration against the Israeli order to halt construction of a nearly-completed mosque today, on threat of demolition, drew local, regional and international supporters in addition to attendance by the Palestinian Authority Minister of Religion. The demonstration was met with violent resistance by Israeli occupation forces, including the use of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and .22 ammunition. One local protester was removed from the area by ambulance when he was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The demonstration follows yesterday’s incursion, in which Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and a sound grenade at villagers as they attempted to plant olive trees on village land close to the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.

The order was issued three days ago to the village, declaring that the village must halt construction of the mosque, on consequence of demolition. Israeli officials claim that part of the mosque has been constructed on Area C, under full Israeli control in accordance the 1994 Oslo Accords zoning plan for the West Bank. Similar orders have been issued to 5 homes in the nearby village of Salim.

A newly draped poster of Yasser Arafat welcomed the people of the village Burin to their new mosque. The gathering is uncommon for the residents, an era of pacification entering the village in times of hardship and an ongoing campaign of settler and military intimidation. However, after receiving orders from the Israeli government to destroy their place of worship a groundswell of urgency for action fills their minds and attracts support from within the Palestinian Authority. The village’s collective anger reached its tipping point today. Their unified grievances exploded and were heard by their occupiers.

The expectant air hung heavy outside the mosque, which was then shattered at around 11:30 as a series of small explosions were heard coming from behind the school 150 meters away. The 100 villagers who were gathered for the demonstration hurried to investigate. Upon entering the schoolyard housing its soccer field, seven IDF soldiers and two jeeps were seen positioned at a crossroads less than half a kilometer south of the village. To the east, five settlers stalked one of Burin’s olive fields and vacated the area quickly on four-wheel all terrain vehicles. After coordinating with the IDF soldiers, the settlers returned to the Yitzhar settlement.

DSCF3960 — Israeli jeeps prior to the attack on protesters

Upon completion of mid-day prayer and a speech by the Palestinian Authority Minister of Religion, the villagers, waving Palestinian flags, marched to the crossroads seemingly to walk the olive fields where the settlers had been. As they neared the IDF soldiers they were met with low-flying tear gas grenades streaking one or two meters above their heads. Many villagers sought refuge in another olive field which flanked the road just to the west.

When it became apparent that the villagers intended to hold their ground amidst the tear gas the IDF soldiers began shooting rubber-coated steel bullets, and soon .22 caliber, live ammunition could be heard buzzing through the air and bouncing off the gravel on the ground. The villagers were able to maintain their positions on the road and in the field for another 20 minutes until, Sharif Haj, 22 year old resident of Burin, was struck in the right shoulder by a rubber-coated steel bullet and required assistance boarding an ambulance.

The military’s use of brute force is the second occasion in as many days in the village of Burin. January 28 saw an olive tree-planting initiative, authorized by the IDF and the Civil Administration and funded by “Green Palestine”, violently disrupted by the IDF. Soldiers approached the group of journalists and villagers, ordered them to disperse and attempted to confiscate all media equipment, claiming they were in a closed military zone. When the journalists refused to stop recording or turn over the cameras, the IDF accosted Rami Swidan, Ma’an News Agency photographer. Over a dozen tear gas rounds were fired into the group causing some of them to pass out. The journalists viewed the IDF’s action as an infringement on their ability to view and accurately document injustice. The villagers were outraged that they were unable to lawfully cultivate their land without the threat of forceful repression.

Several injured by tear gas grenades in Bil’in weekly demonstration

Friends of Freedom and Justice

29 January 2010

During today’s weekly demonstration, Iyad Burnat, the head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was directly hit in his hand by a tear-gas canister, which caused major burns. Palestine TV correspondent, Haroon Amayreh, as well as a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Sultan Aboul-Enein, and dozens of Palestinian, Israeli, and international peace activists, who had joined the demonstration in solidarity, suffered from tear-gas inhalation including fainting as the Israeli occupying forces violently suppressed today’s protest against the apartheid wall and settlements in the village of Bil’in.

The peaceful demonstration was organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and started at the center of the village of Bil’in after midday prayers. A member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Sultan Aboul-Enein and Fatah official in Lebanon, Fatah spokesman, Ahmad Alsaf, as well as Israeli and international peace activists participated in today’s protest in solidarity with a large group of people from the village of Bil’in as well as from neighboring villages.

As the protesters marched towards the western gate of the wall, built on the land of Bil’in, raising Palestinian flags and chanting slogans that called for national unity and for support of the popular resistance against the wall and settlements, they were met with ferocious attacks by the Israeli army. The occupying forces fired volleys of tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstrators before chasing them all the way inside the limits of the village of Bil’in.

The Israeli army recently started to use special forces and border police during these weekly demonstrations. They ambushed the village, and tried to encircle the protesters from behind in an attempt to arrest them. As they stormed into the village and chased after the young demonstrators, violent confrontations between the two sides erupted whereby the Israeli army shot live ammunition in the air to disperse the youths within the village. Furthermore, special forces pursued journalists and peace activists.

Background:

The West Bank village of Bil’in is located 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and 4 km east of the Green Line. It is an agricultural village, around 4,000 dunams (988 acres) in size, and populated by approximately 1,800 residents.

Starting in the early 1980’s, and more significantly in 1991, approximately 56% of Bil’in’s agricultural land was declared ‘State Land’ for the construction of the settlement bloc, Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit holds the largest settler population of any settlement bloc, with over 42,000 residents and plans to achieve a population of 150,000 by 2020 (http://www.btselem.org/Download/200512_Under_the_Guise_of_Security_eng.pdf).

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall in its entirety is illegal under international law, particularly under International Humanitarian Law. The Court went on to rule that Israel’s settlements are illegal under the same laws, noting that the Wall’s route is intimately connected to the settlements adjacent to the Green Line, further annexing 16% of the West Bank to Israel.

· Despite the advisory opinion, early in 2005, Israel began constructing the separation Wall on Bil’in’s land, cutting the village in half in order to place Modi’in Illit and its future growth on the “Israeli side” of the Wall.

· In March 2005, Bil’in residents began to organize almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Gaining the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for popular resistance. Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to have weekly Friday protests.

· Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006, providing a forum for activists, intellectuals, and leaders to discuss strategies for the non-violent struggle against the Occupation (http://www.bilin-village.org/english/conferences/).

· Israeli forces have used sound and shock grenades, water cannons, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas grenades, tear gas canisters and 0.22 caliber live ammunition against protesters.

· On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma was shot with a high-velocity tear gas projectile in the chest by Israeli forces and subsequently died from his wounds at a Ramallah hospital.

· Out of the 75 residents who have been arrested in connection to demonstrations against the Wall, 27 were arrested since the beginning of a night raid campaign on 23 June 2009. Israeli armed forces have been regularly invading homes and forcefully searching for demonstration participants, targeting the leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, as well as teenage boys accused of throwing stones at the Wall. Seventeen currently remain in detention, 10 of which are minors.

· To date, 75 residents have been arrested in connection with demonstrations against the Wall.

· In addition to its grassroots movement, Bil’in turned to the courts in the fall of 2005. In September 2007, 2 years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction in part of Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred meters west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s lands to the village. To date, the high court ruling has not been implemented and settlement construction continues.

· In July 2008, Bil’in commenced legal proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec against Green Park International Inc and Green Mount International Inc for their involvement in constructing, marketing and selling residential units in the Mattityahu East section of Modi’in Illit.