Category: Reports

Home Demolitions in Jabal Shamali a “Mistake”

by ISM Nablus

On Saturday the 26th of August, Israeli military invaded the Jabal Shamali area of Nablus and destroyed 22 homes [for a report, pictures and video, see the previous report on the ISM website]. The next day, Israel’s largest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the home demolition was “a mistake,” and that the Israeli military failed to arrest two to three Fatah activists that were the target of the operation.

At the end of the incursion, five individual houses and one three-storey block of flats were destroyed. One of the six buildings demolished was a community meeting hall, the others homes belonging to the Saedi, G’name, Sa’eah and Lubaddeh families. Eight cars were also totally wrecked, five of which were dumped onto a neighboring house, causing structural damage in the form of broken base-beams in the roof and the bending of walls.

Additional houses were also damaged during the demolition. The home adjacent to the structure damaged by the demolished cars was severely burn-damaged, and three homes west of the apartment block were 80% destroyed and are now unlivable. In total, 22 homes and apartments were completely demolished, and an additional five homes were made unlivable.

About 100 people were made homeless by the Israeli military’s actions and are now evacuated to friends’ homes in surrounding neighborhoods, or forced to rent apartments around Nablus. With the help of friends and neighbors, they have removed the remains of their homes that were not completely bullet-ridden or shredded by bulldozers and are now planning on rebuilding the homes as they were.

The families have been given $15,000 collectively from the Palestinian government as aid for rebuilding their homes, and friends and neighbors collected an additional $17,000 for the same purpose. This is, however, far from enough money. The cost of rebuilding the Lubaddeh block of flats alone, as estimated by engineers, will amount to about $550,000.

The issue of home demolitions has been discussed at length by the Israeli High Court of Justice in many cases, including Janimat V. IDF Military Commander 1997. In the discussion of this case, published by the Israeli Supreme Court in “Judgments of the Israeli Supreme Court: Fighting Terrorism within in Law”, the Justices argue, “home demolitions are allowed only in light of especially serious terrorist activities, such as involvement in suicide bombings aimed at civilians… The demolitions are subject to legal principals, such as the principle of proportionality. For example, the measure may only be used if it is possible to limit it to the terrorist’s home, without demolishing adjacent dwellings. (60)” In addition, the President of the Court, A. Barak states, “[Demolitions are] implemented in stages and with care in order to prevent damage to the rest of the building. If damage is caused, it will be repaired. (62)” In the case of this incursion, the homes were demolished while searching for suspects, not “in light of especially serious terrorist activities.” In addition, 22 homes were demolished in their attempt to arrest, clearly violating the “principal of proportionality.” According to President Barak, the homes’ of the residents will be repaired, though follow through on this is unlikely.

Nizar Lubbadeh, who gave himself up to be arrested in a desperate bid to stop the demolition of his and his family’s home, was released shortly after questioning. One other man, Mohammad Ayad, was however arrested after the demolition and is still in jail.

According to the Nablus Municipality, 220 buildings have been destroyed in Nablus since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000. This number excludes the large number of homes destroyed in Israel’s “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002. Following this most recent incursion into Jabal Shamali, the number is now up to 242. This attack marks one of the largest houses to be destroyed. Other big demolitions include a 9-storey building in Rafidya Al-Makhfiyya 3 years ago, belonging to Jafar Maasri who was killed by lethal gas in the Old City, and the Al-Sudder family home in New Askar refugee camp about one and a half years ago.

Amer and Allam Lubbadeh, two brothers made homeless by the demolition, urge anyone who wishes to donate money to the rebuilding of their family home to contact the Palestinian Red Crescent in Nablus, by telephone at 09-2384151, or by fax at 09-2380215.

Palestinian Child Attacked by Israeli Colonist in Hebron

Click here to view video of the interview with the boy’s father mentioned below. Click here to download it.

by ISM Hebron and Tel Rumeida Project

At 1:15pm on September 1, 2006, in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) were approached by a young boy of approximately six or seven years, and an older man, later identified as his father, Idris Zahadi. The boy lifted his shirt, displaying a contusion on his chest, and said something in Arabic that the HRWs were unable to understand. The young boy communicated that he had been injured, but did not speak either of the HRWs’ languages with sufficient fluency to describe the details to them since they did not speak much Arabic. With permission from Mr. Zahadi, one HRW photographed the victim’s injuries: a small contusion with broken skin on the left temple, and a larger contusion without skin breakage on the lower left chest. The victim then described the incident to his father, who related the events to the HRWs in a videotaped interview.

About one hour earlier, Mr. Zahadi’s son was walking to his home, which requires that he pass in front of the Beit Hadassah settlement on Shuhadah Street. An adult settler with a beard and glasses, possibly in his late twenties, began throwing stones at the boy, who was very afraid. He was struck by two of the stones, in his head and his chest. Mr. Zahadi was not at home at the time, and only found out about the attack upon his return.

Mr. Zahadi was obviously upset by the attack on his son. After finishing his description, he added, “Every day is like this; the soldier can’t do anything! Even if he has bullets it’s no good. You need a policeman here, not the soldiers.”

Husband shot dead in Ramallah by undercover Israeli agents

by Arno

On Monday, September 28th, at about 10PM, two ISM activists were walking back to the ISM apartment in Ramallah after having bought falafels.

They were on one of the main roads leading to Al-Manara square, which was behind them. They left this road to walk on a smaller street. Suddenly, they witnessed a man running, crouched over as far as possible, in our direction but on the opposite sidewalk.

After a few seconds, armed men dressed as civilians appeared down the street. They were simultaneously running towards the man and shooting at him.

The two ISM activists flattened theirselves against the wall of a house, with their hands raised in caution, to avoid being caught in the line of fire.

The man being chased disappeared at the top of the street. The armed men, numbered five or six, went on running after him. There was a minivan parked at the corner of the street from which the men came.

I saw a soldier next to the minivan and realized that the armed men were undercover units.

Behind the van, a man was lying on the pavement and a soldier had put his foot on the man’s head.

Some of the armed men arrived at the top of the street and went on shooting on both sides, left and right.

A second group of armed men stayed behind them, to protect those in front, and they used hand signs to signal us to get down.

The activists had not moved since the first second, in order to stay out of the line of fire.

The men then returned to the van from the top of the street. The van started and some young Palestinians started throwing bottles at it.

Several minutes after the undercover units had left, we went up the street to see what was happening on the main road. There was a great deal of confusion; an ambulance had arrived, and a large crowd of people had gathered.

We then returned to the apartment.

I learned the next morning that a man had been killed as he was shopping with his wife.

Real World Radio: Hernan Zin live from Gaza

Real World Radio interviewed Hernan Zin, an independent journalist who lives in Spain. Zin has been traveling around the world for 13 years —as he explains in his own blog — in order to “give voice to the excluded, the marginalized, those who are in the final step of the social ladder”.

He is currently reporting on armed conflicts, that’s what took him to Palestine. From there, he spoke about what is happening in Gaza, about the terrible situations that the civil population have to face everyday, where the heat coexists with the lack of food, the lack of medicines, the lack of power… the lack of nights without bombings, the lack of streets without dust, which keeps falling from the structures of the buildings.

Zin explained very clearly what we are talking about when we speak of Gaza.

“Literally, it is a 45-km long strip, surrounded by Israel, by walls and electric fences. Then, they control what goes in and out and they have imposed a brutal blockade that is destroying the civil population, and especially and as usually, the poorest people”.

Since his arrival in Gaza, Zin has watched the destruction caused by the Israeli blockade, which has ruined the Palestinian people; fishefolks that have been prevented from going to the sea by the Israeli Army for over 50 days; farmers submerged in a deep crisis, because half of Gaza’s cultivable soil has disappeared. And everything is surrounded by non-stop death, something reminded every second by the sound of the airplanes.

“If the Israeli States has a conflict with Palestine, it has to solve it by means of dialogue and not by punishing the civil population”, Zin argued. He added that “the elderly people, women, children whose death I have witnessed in these two months, who are starving, who do not have medicines to go to the hospital, who cannot leave the country to have surgery, who do not have to pay for all of this”.

The military operation led by Israel the day after the kidnap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (known as “Summer Rain”), the vision of the Palestinians of ruling party Hamas and the arrest of Lebanese lawmakers by Israel, the marginalized role of the international community in the conflict—which shows a “double standard”, according to which an Israeli and a Palestinian life are not of equal worth—were some of the issues discussed by Zin at the interview, during which he tried to make this war, that has been forgotten by the West, visible.

Hernan Zin an Argentine born journalist has written and directed documentaries for El Mundo TV and TVE, published stories and reports all over the world and written books that have been published by several editorial houses.

Update on Lymor Goldstein the Israeli Lawyer and Activist Shot in Bil’in on the 11th of August


We all heard about the heartbreaking event of Lymor Goldstein’s near fatal injury in Bil’in on August 11th. We saw photos, we shed tears, and we vowed never again.

Lymor was shot with two rubber bullets to the head and one in the neck, causing a fractured skull and internal haemorrhage. One bullet lodged itself on the opposite side of the entrance wound, damaging brain tissue. Lymor underwent a successful operation on August 12th to remove the bullet that entered his brain as well as shards of bone and dead brain tissue; they also stopped the internal bleeding. He awoke from his medically induced coma complaining about loss of short term memory, and blurred vision. Doctors warned that the next four days would be critical in assessing whether he would contract an infection in his brain.

Lymor moved to Israel two and half years ago from Germany. He dedicated his life as a lawyer to the non-violent resistance in villages across the West Bank. He represented Matan Cohen who was shot in the eye in Beit Seera by Israeli Occupation Forces as he peacefully and non-violently protested against the brutality of the IOF and its illegal construction of the Apartheid Wall. Lymor attended the Bil’in demonstration on August 11th with 300 other activists peacefully protesting against the unlawful construction of the Apartheid Wall. The IOF fired arbitrarily at the unarmed activists who were practicing their non-violent principles. Lymor was shot with a “less lethal” weapon at the illegal range of 5 meters – Israeli army regulations require a minimum range of 50 meters. The Israeli Occupation soldier shot him with a cylindrical device that is attached to an M16, this cylindrical can fire dozens of rubber or plastic bullets at a time, at the legal 50 meter range deemed appropriate to disperse before reaching the target. In this case, the soldier ran to Lymor’s side as he was walking back to the village and shot at the 5 meter range, the result did not allow the bullets to separate therefore he was shot with 3 of those plastic bullets. Plastic bullets are also a high velocity weapon compared to rubber bullets. They consist of a hard metal center and are capable of penetrating the skin whereas rubber bullets usually do not.

Lymor was sent back to intensive care on August 16th for suffering what doctors feared would happen – he developed an infection. He underwent a surgery once again to address the serious and possibly fatal repercussions of his infection – thankfully it was successful.

For the last two weeks Lymor has been in rehab to overcome the complications of his injuries. He has unsystematic short term memory loss, fatigue, and blurred vision in one eye. Doctors have said that his eyesight might return to normal but it will take a while. On September 1st, Lymor was admitted back into the hospital suffering from a fever. Due to the critical condition of Lymor any slight change in his comfort and health is addressed in a serious manner.

Lymor, a lawyer, and activists that witnessed the brutal assault by the Israeli Occupation Forces has filed a complaint against the Army. He has been contacted and visited by the Army to collect a statement. The Israeli Army has in return filed a case against Lymor for “Rioting”. His case is currently frozen due the objection Limor has at the Army’s repeated requests for statements. Army personnel are constantly harassing Lymor for statements although he has fulfilled that request.