3rd December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine
On Friday the 1st of December, occupation forces at the Qeitun checkpoint blocked the way to the mosque for an extra long time, thereby delaying Palestinian families on their way to prayer in the Ibrahimi mosque.
To reach the Ibrahimi mosque, Palestinians who live in the nearby Qeitun neighborhood have to pass through 3 to 4 checkpoints. This is the only possible way for them to reach the mosque.
The occupation forces installed 12 military checkpoints within 250 meters from the mosque.
At 11:35 we observed around 50 men, women, and children waiting at the 1st checkpoint that it is necessary for Palestinians to pass through before continuing on their way to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th checkpoint that separate the Qeitun area from the Ibrahimi mosque.
1st checkpoint where around 50 men, women and children were waiting to pass trough.
At the 1st military checkpoint, the people from the Qeitun area had to pass through a steel turning gate, then through a concrete bunker one by one. In this bunker, they were detained for a long time and forced to follow instructions from the Israeli border police sitting behind the bulletproof glass in the checkpoint. Finally, they had to pass through a second steel turning-gate.
The severe delay at the checkpoint meant that many of the Palestinians living in the Qeitun area missed most of the prayer.
The 2nd checkpoint, in A-Sahla near the Palestinian court, was unmanned that day [archive video, 2016]
From this checkpoint leading into H2 from the Qeitun area, we went on to the checkpoint on Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi street. Here we passed by two of the young men who had previously gone through the Qeitun checkpoint. They were now being detained at the 3rd checkpoint on their way to the mosque for about 10 minutes.
3rd checkpoint located at beginning of Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi street.
When the young men were finally let through by the border police, the prayer had ended and there was no need for them to move on to the 4th checkpoint, which has recently been built in front of the mosque, severely damaging this Palestinian World Heritage site.
4th checkpoint located in front of the Ibrahimi mosque.
Since begin 2016, the Israeli state has been very active in creating new constructions and apartheid regulations in the old city of Hebron. These include the replacement of existing Arabic street signs for ones created exclusively for settlers and tourists, the creation of numerous walls, fences, gates, razor wire fences and new checkpoints, as well as the exclusion of unlisted Palestinians from the Tel Rumeida neighborhood. On top of this comes the creation of the steel and concrete checkpoint in front of the Ibrahimi mosque.
Moving around in H2 has become dehumanizing and deeply frustrating. As a result, the streets are empty much of the time.
It is no longer crowded on Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi street between the two Israeli checkpoints.
11th of November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Jordan Valley Solidarity | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine
On the 7th of November the state of Israel demolished four houses in the Jordan Valley making four families homeless. At 6.30 the Israeli army came photographing the house, and short after three bulldozers guarded by around 30 soldiers from the special forces Yasam entered the Jiftlik village. The main roads were closed off by checkpoints, preventing any movement in the village. The Israeli military encircles the house on the surrounding fields. The family of Abu Khalil Moussa could do nothing but watch their home being wrecked to pieces.
Abu Khalil Moussa’s house being demolished.
The two brothers have been staying in the house that was built in 1986 with their families. Together with their father they worked for six years in order to afford building and maintaining their home. One of the brothers’ named Khalil says: “I worked for this since I was 18. In one hour they destroyed it.” Now the families are living in one room at a relatives’ place. Khalil also tell the activists from ISM and JVS how his son came to get his football before the demolition. He was shoed away, but came back to the rubble later that day to search for it without luck.
Moussa’s brother in front of their demolished house.
The neighbouring family of Merai Abu Ahmad also lost their house. A family of 10 have stayed in the home since it was built three years ago. The lively son of the family shows the ISMers where his room used to be. His father Ahmad is asking for support from anyone to be able to get a new home. “Life here is difficult.” He shows the rolled up tent they got from the Red Cross after the demolition. “We went from this house to this tent.” The family was forced out of their home directly from their beds that morning. This is something they have experienced for generations.
The rubble of Abu Khalil Moussas family home.
In 1967 most families in the area fled their houses. Merai family, who had been forced to Jiftlik after being expelled by Israeli forces from the refugee camp Abu Badjad, decided to stay. The area is therefore now called Da Beit Merai and Merai himself tells the ISM and JVS how he in 1967 asked the military coming “Where should I go now? You kicked me out everywhere.” He stayed put in his house, witnessing how all the neighbouring houses were being demolished. “And now history is being repeated.” He explains how the Israeli armed forces stole around 400 sheep from the village in the seventies and used them for a tourist crocodile zoo. If the shepherds wanted their sheep back they had to pay almost the same price as a new one would cost.
Merai has been resisting colonialism all his life
The refugee camp Abu Badjad where Merai lived before Jiftlik is now the illegal colony Masu’a. Both of these families doesn’t have refugee status and ID’s in spite of their expulsions.
The rubble of Abu Khalil Moussas family home.
In a nearby part of Jiftlik ISM and JVS meets another family, the family of Abu Ahram, who lost their house the same day. The homeless family have not been given a tent, like the other families, and are now staying in one room. Surrounded by the kids the nephew of the man who lost his house, tells about how they were also met by the big group of military, forcing them out of their home and away from their land. The house was one of the few concrete buildings in this beduin community.
Ahmad and his kids on what used to be the sons room.
Khalil’s neighbour in front of the bulldozer.
The fourth house destroyed this Tuesday was an agricultural barn built on a water cistern. The cistern has been severely damaged and the 50 farmers using it are not sure if it is repairable. Inside the house there were farming tools and machines, and the farmers were not aloud to rescue them from being crushed in the demolition. The cistern was built 17 years ago and was providing the fields of beans, tomatoes, chili and cucumber with a storage of 170 m3 of water. The pool and the barn was bulit for 50 000 NIS. “This price would be the double today”, the farmer Bassil Ibrahimi tells JVS and ISM. When the demolition was beeing carried out water leaked out and destroyed a one donum big field of beans. Ibrahimi also tells about how around 400 m2 of shelters for animals and machines have been destroyed between 1988 and 2000.
The damaged water cistern leaked 70 cubic meters of water.
Demolitions are often carried out during the autumn and wintertime when it is colder. Israel prohibits Palestinians from constructing any infrastructure or other development projects in the Jordan Valley, such as reclaiming of agricultural land, opening agricultural roads or extending irrigation networks. Moreover, Israel continues to confiscate land, demolish homes and prevent rehabilitation of existing houses and roads of the Palestinians, but maintains plans for settlement expansion and infrastructure development for Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley.
Abu Khalil Moussa’s house being demolished.The rubble of Abu Khalil Moussas family home.
24st November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
Six residential buildings in the Kufr Aqab neighbourhood in Jerusalem are currently facing demolition orders by Israeli authorities. The neighbourhood is the northernmost part of Jerusalem but is separated from the rest of Jerusalem by the Apartheid Wall. Most of the residents have Jerusalem IDs allowing them to enter the city, which sets them apart from most of the Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Six residental buildings are currently facing demolision orders by the Israeli authorities.
Both the houses and the demolition order are under the Jerusalem Municipality. The houses were built in the last two years and, according to one of the owners, around 200 families have bought or rented apartments in them, spending large sums of their life savings on what they believed would be their future homes. The Jerusalem Municipality claims that the reason for the demolition is its plan to make a street next to the houses that will make the road to Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah easier. However, instead of moving the Apartheid Wall and using the existing road on the other side, Israeli Authorities are planning to demolish six residential buildings and leave many families in debt and without a home.
The entire neighbourhood will be affected by the demolitions.
An ISM report from last July reads:
The decision to demolish the houses is justified by Israeli authorities with the need to both expand the apartheid wall, part of the Qalandia checkpoint and to build a “security road“ alongside the wall. The apartheid wall already separates Palestinians living in Qalandia from several dunks of their land, which were confiscated and turned into a military airbase, no longer in use, or for other military purposes.
Dreams turned to terror
Ghana Ranya and her husband Ayman worked hard and spent their life savings on the dream apartment for their family, which includes their four children, aged 6 to 14 years old. The first year in their new home has been coloured by threats and terror from Israeli soldiers entering their home. The family is determined to stay in their home and is calling out for international solidarity. “We don’t want money, we don’t want anything except solidarity and support. We are staying here in our house and we will not leave,” says Ghana who used to work as an assistant nurse in a nearby hospital. Two months ago, she took the difficult decision to quit her job and stay in her home to protect it from the demolition order it’s facing. Ghana also describes how two of her neighbours, including her brother, have taken the same decision. “We don’t have anywhere to go. We want people to come and stand in support with us in stopping this. This house is our dream and the dream of our children. We just want to be heard.”
Both Ghana and Um Jamil describe how their sons could not go to school for days after soldiers from the Israeli military raided their homes in the middle of the night.
Not possible to make deals
Samen Shhade is the owner of one of the six buildings. Like the other owners, he has faced countless problems in the past months and years building the houses on his own land, which is cut by the apartheid wall. Shhade told ISM activists that they have been battling the Israeli legal system for months. “We went to the Israeli court, but we lost our case. They didn’t even explain it properly. We really tried to make an agreement but they just wouldn’t listen to us.“ He then continued to explain how they tried to make amendments with cutting down balconies on one side of the residential buildings, making space for the road. “We had a meeting with Noam,“ Shaade says, referring to their contact in the Jerusalem municipality. “We even recorded the meeting. He told us that they needed 7 meters for the road so we made space for seven meters.“
The owners went into costly operations, cutting off balconies from one side of the houses in attemt to co-operate with the Israeli municipality
But when the owners took it to court no one wanted to recognise the deal regarding the seven meters. “Then they said they needed 14 meters. We tried to deal with them but it’s not possible. We even proposed moving the wall and offered to pay for it but the city hall refused.“ Shhade, like the other owners, owns the land the houses are built on, but lost parts of it after the construction of the Apartheid Wall, which prevents him from accessing the other side. Shhade’s story is representative of many Palestinians in the West Bank whose land has been annexed by Israel.
“We have tried to cooperate”
All the families that ISM activists spoke to described how Israeli soldiers enter their homes at night, waking children in their beds and scaring the families. Even though the families have pictures proving it, the lawyers from the Jerusalem Municipality argued that no one lives in the apartments. “After midnight the soldiers come and raid many apartments, but then they say that no one lives there. Maybe two weeks ago they were coming every day, they also entered the basement to test out explosives.“
Soldiers from the Israeli occupation forces have repeatedly raided the homes in the past months, counting residents and demanding ID’s
In the building owned by Samen Shhade, there is a mosque with two prayer rooms. “It’s the only one in the neighbourhood and it’s used by many,“ Shhade said proudly. But the lawyers from the Jerusalem Municipality still use the same tactic in court, denying the existence of the mosque. Shhade still hopes to keep his building, since he has made financial promises to the families that have spent their life savings on the houses. “I think and I hope I can win this case. I hope the city hall in Jerusalem will believe us and sit us down face to face. There are other options. If you want to help us by making a road to Qalandya, why take away the homes of 200 families?“
No solutions for Palestinians in the Israeli system
Qusi Shhade, Samen’s son, also spoke to ISM activists about the situation. His brother recently moved into one of the apartments with his wife of only few months. Qusi described the constant problems the families face and how they have tried to cooperate with the Jerusalem municipality in order to keep their homes safe. “They came on the 14th of May and said that six houses will be demolished, since they want to make a street and some parks. Instead of pushing the wall back they want to demolish the houses. All the families from the house we visited went to the city hall in Jerusalem and were willing to cooperate. They told us they needed 7 meters so we gave them 7 meters. We did that,“ Qusi says firmly. Then Qusi continues to describe how the soldiers have been raiding homes for the past weeks and months, waking children in their beds.
A soldier from the Israeli military detaining a Palestinian boy during one of the night raids of the houses.
“We will not leave”
Um Jamil is one of the residents in Kufr Aqab. She and her husband have lived with their four children in their apartment for around 11 months. The youngest one – only three years old – biked around the apartment, unaware of the situation he and his family are in, while his mom described the past months for the ISM activists. “I am always tense about any car that drives by in the evening. One evening three weeks ago, soldiers came at 2:00 in the morning and took information about all the buildings here, except this one. Our neighbour who lives here went down and they told him this is the last time they will come, next time they will demolish our home.“
Um Jamil described to ISM’ers how she is tense about every car that drives by the families home, terrified that the Israeli army is just around the corner.
Um Jamil says her mental health is bad even though the children don’t really know what is happening. The family has already left the house once with only 48 hours notice. After the 48 hours had passed and nothing had happened, the family returned. Now Um Jamil is sure that they will not leave the home again. However, the constant military presence in the area has had an effect on many of the children. Both Ghada and Um Jamil describe how their young sons were scared to go to school in the days after soldiers from the Israeli Military woke them up in the middle of the night.
In the building owned by Samen Shhade, there is a mosque with two prayer rooms. “It’s the only one in the neighbourhood and it’s used by many,“ Shhade said proudly. But the lawyers from the Jerusalem Municipality still use the same tactic in court, denying the existence of the mosque.
According to the ICAHD (The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions), 351 Palestinian structures have been demolished in 2017 alone, displacing 528 Palestinians. Demolishing the six residential buildings in Kufr Aqab would be devastating to many Palestinian families, and would come as a part of Israel’s ongoing, illegal effort to annex East Jerusalem and push Palestinians further into the West Bank.
15th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwarra, Occupied Palestine
Israeli settlers of Yitzhar, set fires in two places in Palestinian olive fields around their illegal outposts, and attacked a group of farmers a day later, under the eyes of around 30 border police, present at the site.
On Sunday 5 November, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, ISM activists saw smoke coming from olive fields on both hillsides underneath an outpost of Yitzhar, the illegal settlement south of Nablus, built on the Hill between the Palestinian villages Huwarra and Burin.
It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Since the expropriation of the farmland of Huwarra, Burin and Madama, and the illegal creation and steady expansion of the Israeli settlement Yitzhar, violent settlers do anything they can to harm the Palestinian farmers and families without any risk of being punished for these crimes.
Attacked in 2016. No sign of life a year later.
A farmer from Burin, whose olive field was set on fire, explained to us that the settler group chased him and his two companions and that they managed to escape.
The Palestinian Fire-brigade of Burin waited for permission from the Israeli authority to extinguish the fire, which they apparently did not get.
Israel is authoritative for the security in Area-C, and should instead of blocking the Palestinian Fire brigade, fight any fire in Area-C themselves, which it has not done in the 25 year since this authority was agreed on in the Oslo accords.
Instead of this, we saw border police, settler security and the settlers side-by-side in the illegal Hilltop outpost, looking at the burning fields.
The next day, 6 November 2017 already at 8:30 AM, a group of nine settlers tried to attack farmers and workers who had official permission of the Israeli security authority, to harvest and cultivate the fields of the Owda family, which was partly burned down the previous day.
The large group of border police refused us entrance to the the area, which apparently was declared a closed military zone. The commander showed us the declaration on a paper, which didn’t show many details.
Instead of assisting the farmers, we could only be remotely present and filmed the situation from a distance. We again witnessed a close cooperation between the settlers, the settler-security and the border police. The threat of an instant attack was constantly felt that day.
Around 14:30, a group of around 20 settlers attacked the farmers, and most border-police did little to avoid it and arrested none of the settlers. Instead it commanded the farmers to stop their work and quickly leave their land.
Settlement outpost are illegal, even by Israeli law, although that law may change one day.
In February 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed a new law to legalize all 4000 illegal outposts. But, the High Court had concerns and postponed the implementation in August 2017.
However, if that law ever comes to reality, it would accept these 4000 outposts as new settlements ready to expand, and would give legality to the expropriation of more private Palestinian land, in a clear violation of the Oslo Agreements of 1993.
12th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine
The Feast of Sarah did not pass unnoticed for the Palestinian residents of al-Khalil (Hebron). Jewish worshippers had been arriving from Israel in large numbers for days prior, together with a consequent increase of military presence. Yesterday morning, at 9:00 AM, soldiers started to isolate the road in H1 – the area of the city that is supposed to be Palestinian controlled – from the Shuhada Street checkpoint (Checkpoint 56) up towards the bus station in order to let the feast visitors pass from the H2 area to a prayer site. Two Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) and two Jeeps surrounded by numerous soldiers, border police, and riot police blocked the intersection at the base of Bab Al-Zawiya, and snipers were placed on the roofs of the main buildings.
An Israeli soldier aims her rifle at the chest of an international observer as a tactical unit gathers in Bab al-Zawiya.
Around 1:00 PM, the worshippers started to walk down the road, many of them stopping to yell insults to the Palestinians watching the scene from behind the blockade.
Jewish worshippers, both from Israel and from the illegal settlements in al-Khalil, gather to taunt Palestinians in Bab al-Zawiya.
After the settlers went back into H2, the soldiers and police stayed in the area, and gathered at the cement roadblocks in front of the checkpoint. They continued down towards the market, which led to some stone throwing from protesters up the street. Soldiers replied by throwing sound bombs into crowds of civilians and journalists.
The soldiers ultimately retreated into the checkpoint, only because they had to carry a 25-year-old Palestinian man that they had brutally beaten and placed under arrest. The man was carried to Checkpoint 56, where he was held for almost three hours while the Red Crescent ambulance staff was disallowed from giving him medical treatment.
A protester is finally allowed access to medical treatment from the Red Crescent after being brutally beaten and kept for three hours in Checkpoint 56.
Settler tours into H1 from H2 occur every Saturday under the protection of Israeli forces, fanning Israeli support for migration to and the expansion of the illegal settlements in al-Khalil, both of which necessarily lead to the expulsion of Palestinian civilians from their home. However, during Jewish holidays, the number of Israelis increases dramatically, often forcing Palestinian civil society to come to a grinding halt without warning.
