Category: Reports

Eyewitness to Night-time Raids in Bil’in

by Jesse

Last night at about 1:40am we were called to the streets by local Palestinians of the village of Bil’in where we were staying the night. A force of three jeeps full of Israeli soldiers armed with M-16s were conducting night raids to arrest villagers in Bili’n. we were witness to two of the arrests, one of which was a young boy of 14. The other was a young man of about 18. There was one further arresst that we did not directly witness. Most of the 19 people arrested in the past 2 weeks have been young men below the age of 19.

After we were notified of the soldier’s presence, our group of 5 internationals arrived at the scene and started filming the raid by walking up to the door of the aparment that was being raided. We witnessed one man being taken to the jeeps, and followed the other soldiers to another apartment building. They went in and brought out a Palestinian man, took him upstairs, and used him as a human shield by making him knock on the door for another apartment. From there, we followed them to another apartment where they arrested the Palestinian boy. When they took the boy out to the jeeps, we followed them so that they were constantly being monitored.

Then, the villagers showed up chanting in unison. There were about 50-70 villagers in the group. The soldiers were obviously intimidated. From there, the arrests stopped and a confrontation between the villagers and the soldiers ensued. One of the Palestinian men was negotiating with the commander of the soldier’s unit, and from there things got tense. At one point, the soldiers formed a skirmish line and forced our group back a few feet. Negotiations continued for a while, and then the soldiers started preparing to leave. The villagers started creating roadblocks with large stones from the side of the road, and then the soldiers made their getaway. The entire group of Palestinians and internationals chased them down the street and out of the village.

The village of Bili’n is suffering from the creation of the wall, which will cut off the village from it’s Olive groves. The wall and the building of settlements will claim about 2400 of the 4000 dunums of land that this village cultivates. There have been protests every friday in Bili’n lately to expose the injustice of the Wall and Occupation.

What kind of security can be provided by arresting children in the middle of the night and terrorising the entire community in this manner? This is the insanity of the occupation in Palestine. I wish I had not had to go out and witness this tonight, but I am grateful that at least someone was here so that it did not happen without witnesses. If we had not been here, things could have been much more violent and brutal. As it was, the soldiers knew they were being observed by several internationals and several cameras. It is critical that we pass along this information to people so that we can change our government’s policies of supporting this kind of cruel treatment of the Palestinians.

More Settler Attacks in Hebron, While Soldiers and Police Watch

by Andrew

At around 1.20pm on Thursday the 27th of October I received a phone call from one of the three internationals who had come to the aid of a Palestinian schoolgirl near Qurtuba School, and who were now under attack from a mob of settlers.

I made my way quickly to the end of Shuhada Street, stopping at the soldiers’ post there. All the buildings immediately beyond this post on the left are the Beit Hadassah settlement buildings. On the right, a narrow stone staircase leads up to a hillside path which leads to Qurtuba School. By this time the three internationals and the Palestinian child had been removed from the area by the police and army.

I stayed on Shuhada Street and began walking with the Palestinians to the end of the street, waiting at the bottom of the stone staircase until they had reached the apparent safety of the hillside path. On one occasion during the next hour four settler children followed me back along Shuhada Street, throwing stones at me. I was also spat at and shoved in the chest by two 18 year old settler males. I was told by the soldiers who were standing on the street that the Israeli Army were unable to ensure my safety.

At 2.30pm I walked with three Palestinian women to the bottom of the staircase, waiting until they had reached the top before I left. Seconds after I turned to leave, I heard several loud crashes and screams from the top of the staircase. I turned to see at least two teenage settler girls who had jumped up from behind a wall next to the path the Palestinian women were now on, throwing bottles and stones at them. The women retreated several metres to the top of the staircase, but were now effectively stranded there as four or five settler men (one of whom was brandishing a power drill) had now approached the bottom of the staircase.

I shouted to the soldiers to do something and went to join the women who were still trapped at the top of the stairs, but out of range of the missiles which continued to fly in their direction. The soldiers remained standing on the street with the settler men.

Five Palestinian kids had now arrived at the bottom of the stairs, and were being prevented from passing by the soldiers and settlers there. As I made my way back down the stairs to join the kids, the settler with the power drill began waving it in the air, shouting. He then charged at the kids, chasing them away. The soldiers continued to stand on the street.

Two police officers then arrived who despite requests to assist the stranded women continued to do nothing for 10 minutes until the settler girls who were throwing the rocks and bottles had left. They then went up to the women to escort them along the path. The soldiers continued to stand on the street.

Bil’in Prisoner Solidarity Demonstration Report

based on a report by IMEMC

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber coated bullets at a non-violent protest against the Separation Wall in Bil’in village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday.

The protest started midday Friday after dozens of residents, peace activists and representatives of Physicians without Borders, marched towards a construction site of the Separation Wall while wearing mock handcuffs in a creative protest that symbolized the captivity of the Bil’in residents who have been arrested in recent military invasions of the village.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, told the IMEMC that this protest was carried out to express the rejection of residents and international peace activists to the recent attacks and invasions carried out by the army against the village, and to protest against the construction of the Separation Wall.

The Popular Committee in Bil’in reported that the main aim of the demonstration this week was to protest the Israeli invasions of the village. It also aimed to draw attention to the arrests which aim to scare the residents and the activists from taking action against the Wall.

Abu Rahme also said that soldiers carried lists which included names of dozens of residents from the village. Soldiers claim that those residents are wanted by Israeli security for their activities in the protests against the Wall.

The protestors carried banners which read “we are all wanted, from 1 – 2600”, the number of 2600 symbolizes the number of residents living in Bil’in.

The protestors also carried banners in Arabic, Hebrew and English, reading: “Date 20-2-2005, penalty; uprooting thee trees, arrest and injuring the residents, night invasions, curfew and siege”. The date refers to the date when Israel started bulldozing the residents’ orchards in order to construct the Separation Wall.

One Israeli peace activist was detained by the soldiers on Friday; two Israeli protestors and one Palestinian were injured after the army fired rubber-coated bullets. Dozens of residents and activists suffered the effects of inhaling tear-gas fired by the army.

Abu Rahme reported that soldiers and under-cover units of the Israeli army have recently been invading the village on an almost daily basis, and breaking into dozens of homes in an attempt to intimidate the residents.

Dozens of residents were arrested in the village since it started conducting its peaceful protests against the Wall. Last Wednesday, Israeli soldiers invaded the village after midnight and forced dozens of families out of their homes after breaking into them.

“Today’s protest was also in support of the detainees who were arrested in the village during the military raids”, Abu Rahme said.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli soldiers barred reporters and students of Bier Zeit University from entering the village to participate in the protest.

The residents aided several journalists in crossing into the village after the army closed all of its entrances; the journalists were escorted through the orchards and hills.

Also, protestors carried the names of the eleven residents who were arrested last week in the village, and demanded that the army release them.

Soldiers closed the three entrances of the village and installed military roadblocks early in the morning,. The three entrances link the village with Kharbatah Bani Hareth village, Saffa village, and the village if Kafer Ni’ma.

Israeli Soldiers, Police and Settlers Block Olive Harvest In Yanoun, Nablus Region

by two ISM activists in Nablus

Our experience of the harvest started in Yanoun village, Nablus region at 7am on the 26th of October. We accompanied two old Palestinian women in a field just down the hill from the Itamar settlement.

Half an hour after we started, a settler came and tried to get rid of us. He was very aggressive and called the army as well as a settler friend.

When the soldiers came they told us to go away too. During the discussion, a second settler came and shouted at us. He also tried to steal a bag of the Palestinian’s olives.

At this point, a lot more people arrived: more soldiers, policemen, border police, some kind of civil co-ordinators and two more settlers armed with an M16 rifle and a camera.

The heated discussions went back and forth – no one was quite sure who was allowed to be in which places. The Israeli group Rabbis For Human Rights arrived and joined in the debate. A small group of Palestinians quietly returned to picking olives while the soldiers and police were distracted.

Permission from the DCO did not arrive and we decided with the two Palestinian women to try again the next day.

The next day, we returned to the same field to make sure that the Palestinians there were not picking alone. Again, we found the police, the army and the Border Police. In the same place, a settler was also stealing olives, picking them for himself. The police stopped him and said to us that we could not be here today and that they would arrest anyone that tried to harvest for the whole day. They left together with the settler, perhaps to drink coffee together in the settlement.

We continued the harvest in other Yanoun fields.

First Hand Account of Palestinian and International Arrests in Hebron

by Johan

At approximately 13.15 I and another international were at Shuhada Street in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. I saw a soldier holding a 15-year old girl on her shoulders, so I walked over and filmed with my video camera while I asked the soldier what was going on. The soldier said “she won’t leave”. After a minute a group of three settlers aged 15-20 aggressively approached the girl. I tried to position myself between the Palestinian girl and the settlers. The settlers tried to grab my video camera and kicked and punched me – they were also trying to hit the girl. One of the settlers kicked the girl’s legs right before my eyes (there is a photo of this settler if he needs to be identified). The soldier did not to protect the girl from this assault.

After a minute or two we managed to get the girl away from the situation and walked with her up to Shuhada Street. An older Palestinian man and an older Palestinian woman accompanied us and were speaking to the girl. We stayed at the scene to try to find out what had happened before the girl was being held by the soldiers, but no one spoke English so we didn’t find out much. A Palestinian boy aged approximately 13 who spoke some English came along and tried to help us. During all this the girl was continuously asking us to call the police. We did not call the police at that point.

Approximately five minutes later a police car came from the Beit Hadassa settlement and drove up to us. They walked up to the girl and started talking to her. I tried to stay close and film it all, but they kept moving her away from me. A mob of approximately 20 settlers (kids and adults, men and women) arrived, and tried to block my way. They grew more and more aggressive and punched the video camera out of my hand. They destroyed it by stamping on it and kicking it away. When I was making phone calls about the incident the settlers tried to grab my telephone. I was also kicked on the foot by a settler man approximately 50 years of age (this man can also be identified).

Two to three minutes later the Palestinian girl was stuffed into the police jeep and was driven away.

Me and two other internationals (one more had joined us) tried to walk away towards the checkpoint but were physically stopped by a big settler guy who was filming us. He said we couldn’t pass, and since we were not sure if this person was a policeman or a soldier I asked a soldier about this – he told us the man was a settler. The mob was getting even more aggressive and I called out to two soldiers to help us to get out of there. They said we should follow them towards Beit Hadassa, and after a while we got away from the crowd. During this whole time, the settlers where constantly intimidating and threatening us, trying to get at us physically.

We walked with the soldiers through Beit Hadassa, and were told to wait there. We were not informed that we had been detained or arrested. The settler guy with the video camera was there filming the three of us. The soldiers told us to tell the other internationals in Hebron to get off Shuhada Street since they could not guarantee their safety. The message was passed on. The time was 13:26 at this point.

After a while, when being questioned, one soldier told me that I was accused of attacking a soldier, which I had not done. I asked him if I was being detained, and he said something like “I don’t know what that means”. So I and the two other internationals decided to start walking away from the scene. When we did so one soldier followed us and said that he would continue to do so until the police arrived. We continued walking but after a while where were stopped by some other soldiers and held a military jeep in wait for the police. At this point the time was approximately 13:45.

The police arrived and asked for our passports. After waiting for a while they let me know that I was accused of attacking a soldier. The other two internationals were free to go. They decided to go to the police station to file a complaint regarding the settler violence we all had experienced. The commanding police officer at the scene was “Zev Zafrani”.

I was transported in a military jeep to Kiriat Arba Police Station (the car left at 14:11), where I was told to sit and wait. The Palestinian girl sat in a chair a few meters away from me, in company of three soldiers. At one point a policeman was showing her what looked like an album of photographs, seemingly in order to identify someone. At another point a policeman (the same that later interrogated me) was asking her questions without a legal representative, despite the fact that the girl was only 15 years old. The policeman was being aggressive and raised his voice, which the three soldiers sitting next to her seem to think was ok, judging from their content and merry facial expressions.

There was one soldier who was watching the girl so she could not get away. This was the same soldier who had been holding the girl on her shoulders at the military post at the beginning of all this. He told me that the girl had attacked him with a knife. The girl was visibly trembling as she sat down waiting.

The girl disappeared from the scene on one or two occasions, presumably to be questioned, but came back to the waiting area. During this time her father was waiting at the gate to the police station, but was not let in. I pointed out this fact to various police officers, and asked them to let him in since the girl was obviously scared, but they did not take much notice.

After a while the two other internationals arrived at the police station, and were told to wait along with me.

At approximately 16:15 I was taken in for questioning and the police officer told me I was a suspected of having attacked a soldier and interfered in his work. The soldier who I had supposedly attacked was at the desk next to me. When he overheard the accusations against me I looked at him and he laughed, not in an antagonistic way, but due to the absurd accusation. Later he told me that he did not say that I had pushed him, maybe just touched him, so it seemed as if the policeman was trying to intimidate me by making it sound worse than it actually was. I was told that what I said in this questioning could be used as proof against me in a trial. I stated very clearly at a few times that I had not in any way attacked the soldier. He was lecturing me saying I should not come to his country and interfere with his business, if he came to another country he would let the military and police do their job. I thought, but did not say, that this was his country as little as mine.

At some point he said that I might be deported or arrested, he didn’t know yet, and so on.

Apart from denying that I had used any violence I did not answer any of his questions. He was asking about what I was doing in Hebron, was I here with an organisation etc. He was asking me to give a detailed account of what had happened, but I did not and told him I thought he was being abusive towards me (he was raising his voice a lot and generally tried to intimidate me), and that he was just trying to get me to say something that was not true. At the end of the interrogation he asked me if I wanted to make a complaint against the settlers, but as I was a suspect and this was still a hearing, I turned down the offer, and told him I would prefer to do the complaint at a later date. I was told to wait outside. The time was 16:30, and the police still had my passport. I asked the soldier I was accused of attacking why he was there, and he told me that he had to wait because he was going to take the girl some where in a while. He didn’t say where or why (I don’t think he knew).

I waited until 16:45, when I had been held for 3 hours without being arrested, and asked the policeman if I could have my passport so I could leave, but he wouldn’t give it to me. I pointed out the fact that they were illegally detaining me on several occasions to the policeman who interrogated me and to another one called Aviv. I said I wanted to make a complaint that I was being illegally detained but they said I could do this when the interrogation was over.

At approximately 18:10 I was given my passport back and he said I was released, and that they would escort me and the two other internationals out of the police station. However this did not happen. Instead the policeman threatened with deportation once again and told us to wait while they cleared something up. He said something like “just like in the movies… they release you and then they take you back in”.

On two or three occasions after the interrogation I spoke over the phone with an Israeli lawyer, for advice, and at this point I got the policeman to speak to her on the phone, which I think had some effect. After speaking to the policeman she was saying to me that there was no reason whatsoever to deport me and that I should refuse to get on a plane if it came to that. She also said that I should have made a complaint about the settler violence, which I had declined to do while I was put on the defensive. I told the interrogator that I would be happy to file a complaint about the abuse of the settlers whenever they wanted, but then he said that I had my chance, that I should come back tomorrow.

Finally, at approximately 18:30, me and the two other internationals where taken to the gate and let out of the police station. We asked the policeman what was going to happen to the girl, and he said she would be arrested and held overnight.