Category: Reports

Report on Razor Wire closing entrance to the track leading to the Al Azzeh homes

by Mary Baxter, May 11th 2006

When razor wire was placed across the entrance to the track leading to the Al Azzeh homes in December 2005, it was done at the instigation of Israeli settlers from Tel Rumeida settlement.

The children of the Al Azzeh family need to pass it in order to get to school every day. The razor wire has been placed in a way that an adult and some teenagers could open it. An elderly person can not open it nor could the younger children. The wire was coiled, with coils of larger than 1 metre diameter and opened like a very wobbly gate. Younger children were dependent upon an Israeli soldier being helpful.

When the family appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, the court issued an order that they should be allowed to access their home freely. But the soldiers were not briefed as to the court order that the family could pass and the Tel Rumeida settlement women would come out and tell the soldiers that the children were not allowed to pass. This often causes problems when children came home from school.

In February, someone (settler or soldier) placed a heavy sandbag on the wire near the opening. This made the wire too heavy for Janette or even a soldier to open up. So, a soldier helped tread down the wire and the children were helped across it. This was very difficult for the younger children.

On one occasion, a seven year old girl was by herself and had trouble crossing the wire. The soldier on duty would not help so a seventy-five year old ISM volunteer tried to help. The volunteers clothing got caught on the wire and she fell over, luckily not on to the wire. The soldier present did nothing. On some occasions, a helpful soldier held down the wire with his foot while the children passed.

In March, someone (soldier or settler) adjusted the razor wire so that the coils were of full height. This meant that the children had to go round the top of the wire on a narrow steep path which was difficult for the older girls with schoolbags on their backs. The younger children always needed help. Then, towards the end of Passover, a soldier pushed the wire so that the narrow path became extremely narrow. The older girls needed help and the younger children could only pass if an adult met them on the other side of the wire.

Last week, a helpful soldier managed to help fix the wire so that it could be opened at another place. The older girls were able to open it like a gate again. But then someone (settler or soldier) put a sandbag at that place, making the wire too heavy to lift open.

Another soldier tore the sandbag so that the sand fell out and no longer weighed the wire of the opening down.

Today, the older girls were able to open the wire. This was necessary because the soldier outside the settlement told ISM volunteers that he would not help the children. One of the soldiers on duty near the ISM apartment referred to Palestinians as “animals” when he detained them for no reason for 45 minutes.

At times, the soldier on duty refuses to believe that the court order exists. He will point to the wire and say that it would not be there if the children were meant to pass. It is not surprising that he would think this. It is hard to believe that children are expected to pass razor wire.

On one occasion recently, the children were held up by a soldier for an hour until the police came and said that they could pass. The same soldier aged 19 years was standing over a 14 year old girl, very close, trying to force her away.

Harrasing students in Jenin

by Ash

Early in the morning, I left home with my friends going toward my university (the Arab American University). It’s about 40 minutes from my village. On the way, each one of us told our own story about the other day at Israeli checkpoints.

Last week (other students and I) were heading back home from classes when we were stopped at a checkpoint on a conjunction outside Jenin. While we were waiting in a long line of cars, we ran out of gas, and the driver had no choice but to ask some students to go back to Jenin and bring some gasoline.

The cars were moving very slowly, so we spent almost an hour waiting, then the cars completely stopped moving. Three Israeli soldiers on the other street of the conjunction stopped checking IDs, and instead, the soldiers waved for cars to go back. In our direction, one hummer jeep sat by the side the street with four soldiers in it, also preventing cars from moving.

A few drivers got out and walked towards the soldiers to negotiate and ask why we weren’t allowed to move anymore. One hour later, our driver managed to start the bus again and drove back to Jenin to try anther road.

For the past month, at least in Jenin area, the number of checkpoints had amazingly increased. These checkpoints are not just between two villages to prevent farmers to go to their land or workers to go to their jobs, but are also in front of universities to stop students from getting their education.

Yesterday around 2pm, two military jeeps set up a checkpoint near the gate of my university, preventing all vehicles from moving in both directions. We didn’t have any choice but to walk on foot for 35 minutes to the village of Zababdeh. When I reached the checkpoint, the soldiers were not in fact checking IDs or our bags, which is the usual tactic. So we wondered, “What is this checkpoint for?”

In the last week, many students missed their exams and classes, because they were held for hours at checkpoints or prevented from passing. Last Saturday, I had two exams to do, so I decided to stay with friends in the village of Zababdeh for the weekend (Thursday and Friday) in order to avoid the Israeli checkpoints and not miss any exams.

The Israeli army not only harasses students at checkpoints, but also inside their dormitories. Around 1am, Wednesday night, the Israeli army occupied two student dormitories for more than 8 hours. One of the dorm’s gate was broken using a hammer jeep; apparently no students were there for the weekend.

The Israeli soldiers checked the rooms, while all students from the other dorm were taken outside for questioning. A friend of mine was beaten on the face by one of the Israeli soldiers just because of the area he comes from.

While students were held outside and after checking, a volley of shots heard inside the building destroyed some furniture and left holes in the walls. Before the army let the students back to their dorm, the Israeli soldiers fired randomly at the building, then took off.

How else could I buy food and clothes?

By Tom

At Al Quds Open University Campus in Tubas we met Raed and Firas, aged 22 and 21 yrs old. They both work in the fields and packing houses of the Jordan Valley settlements to be able to survive and pay for their education. On the days that they work, they get up at 3.00am, to be bussed through the mountains and checkpoints to the Jordan Velley settlements with about 500 settlement workers from the town. They are able to do this as they have a permit to enter the Jordan Valley supplied by the Israeli settler they are working for. They work from 6.00am – 2.00pm, and for this they receive less than 5 pounds ($9.00) per day.

Raed works in Beit Ariva Settlement near Jericho. Even with a Jordan Valley permit he never knows if he will be allowed through the checkpoint at Humra or not. He is frequently searched and two weeks ago was just turned back for no reason. He picks and packs tomatoes, grapes, chilli peppers and other fruit and vegetables for Carmel Agrexco – the largest Israeli exporter to the UK. All the workers there are Palestinian or Thai – they are told not to talk to each other and have no common language that enables them to do so. The settlers are always armed, and they see them only when they are giving them work instructions.

Faed and Firas were happy for us to film them and report the information they gave us. I checked this with them carefully for fear that they could loose their jobs or face other repercussions. Faed’s response was “What else can they do to us?”

Firas is on the Student Council at the Al Quds Open University in Tubas, which was set up in 2001 to enable students to attend university without having to pass through numerous checkpoints. Students work from home, or come to the campus when they are able to. We met with the student council and they told us that 7 students from the University have been killed by the Israeli Army and 35 arrested – one of which was a girl.

Of 1,500 students, 230 come from the Jordan Valley. They are often stopped of delayed at the checkpoints on their way to the University, and this becomes far worse at exam time.

In 2001, the Army came into the University and caused a lot of damage inside the building, and they often block the gate to the University and stop the students from getting in. This last happened 5 days before our visit.

This Univsity is desperately short of money and has no library. They are looking for another acedemic institution to sponsor a subscription to an online library, as this is the only way many of the students could get access to the books they need.

http://brightonpalestine.org/blog/?p=22

Shofat Camp Non violent Demonstration for Right to Worship Successful

Residents of Shofat refugee camp in Jerusalem, along with international and Israeli supporters, today demonstrated non-violently against the Israeli Border Polices’ often violent suppression of the camps residents’ right to cross the checkpoint at the camp entrance to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque on Fridays.


Palestinian men women and children marched peacefully alongside Israeli and international activists to the checkpoint carrying banners declaring their right to worship at Al Aqsa Mosque and protesting against construction of the Apartheid Wall next to the Camp.

Upon reaching the checkpoint Border Police and soldiers, including two mounted officers, attempted to physically block the marchers’ progress. The residents’ leaders asked the Border Police commander why they could not pass and complained about the denial of a basic human right. Unprovoked by any aggression on the part of the demonstrators, the Israeli forces resorted to using sound bombs and tear gas.

Scared but undaunted, the Camp residents continued to press their right to worship and accompanied by Israelis and Internationals over 60 people were able to make their way past the checkpoint, despite continued harassment by the Border Police

Local resident Ibrahim said: “I am grateful for the people who joined with us today. It’s a first step and we will continue to demonstrate as long as they treat us this way. Today, they held back because of the presence of press and internationals, normally they are asking 10 yr old boys for documents or will not let them pass [documentation is not issued by Israeli authorities to Palestinian children until age 13] and they always treat worshippers brutally. They refuse to let buses through so the people have to go by foot whether it is hot or raining. It’s real suffering every day”

For further information contact:

Ibrahim on 0547372185
Lee on 0547385754

Bil’in: Un-cage Palestine!

by an ISM Media office volunteer

The non-violent demonstration against the Apartheid Wall on the land of Bil’in village this week was themed around the economic siege of Palestine by western powers. Israeli and international activists with pictures of western leaders taped to their chests carried a barbed-wire cage in which a Palestinian dressed in Palestinian flags was symbolically trapped. This was to signify the fact that Palestine is being made a prison created by the Israeli state and it’s western financiers.

The demonstration reached the fence gate which was closed to prevent the villagers accessing their own land. As has been the case for the last few weeks, the Israeli military enforced the closure of the gate by lining up jeeps and Border Police behind it. The demonstrators with the cage tried to open the gate and pass, but were prevented by the Border Police who beat those who got close to them with clubs. After a short while of trying this, the demonstrators gave up and instead dumped the cage on a jeep.

As was the case last week, the chanting group of demonstrators was broken up when the Border Police threw sound bombs at us. In response, several shebab from the village started throwing stones at the soldiers, who then opened fire on them with rubber-coated metal bullets. Most of the demonstrators moved out of the way of this unequal crossfire, shouting at the soldiers to stop firing at children, or talking to them in Hebrew to the same effect. Some from the village Popular Committee convinced the shebab to stop throwing stones. The demonstration regrouped and some tried to start a noise demo (banging in rhythm on a metal barrier which is part of the barrier), but the soldiers tried to arrest one of them – an international activist. Israeli international and Palestinian demonstrators prevented the arrest, simply by piling on the international. The soldiers gave up after a short while.

After a while, the demonstration was declared over by the Popular Committee. The demonstration left peacefully, making sure that the military jeeps were prevented from following us. Shebab from the village exchanged stones with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets with the soldiers.

No one was arrested this week. One Israeli demonstrator was mildly bruised (we think by a ricocheting rubber-bullet).