Category: Reports - Page 84 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli Military Exercise on Palestinian farmers fields

19th December 2016 | International Solidarity Movement & Jordan Valley Solidarity| occupied Palestine

At around 12:30pm December 19th, 2016, the Israeli Occupation Forces blocked the road leading to Tubas and the north of the Jordan Valley for around two hours. Dozens of Palestinians farmers and civilians had to wait for an Israeli military exercise to conclude before being able to continue their way.

An Israeli soldier blocks and guards the road while Palestinians are waiting for it to open.

From the roadblock, the location of the military training could not be seen, but Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS) received a call from a resident of the community of Khirbet Yarza saying that the exercise was actually happening in the fields of their community, 20 meters in front of their houses. The military were also on the land of two other communities, Hamamat Al-maleh and Ras Al-Akhmar , only a few kilometers away.

Israeli Military exercise occurring in front of the residents’ houses of the community of Yarza

Around 20 tanks, 2 bulldozers, 5 military trucks, and 10 jeeps carrying soldiers took part in this illegal military exercise. The tanks and bulldozers seriously damaged the farmers land including breaking the irrigation pipes that were put in the ground.

A calf stranded between Israeli Military tanks and farmers houses of the community of Ras Al-Akhmar

Palestinian land damaged by Israeli tanks and bulldozers

The residents also told us that the Israeli Military didn’t give them any advance notice regarding the time and the location for their operation. Therefore the Palestinians were stranded inside their houses for the whole military exercise period, as they never had the time to evacuate. No one has been injured but the residents were extremely scared of what could have happen to them and their livestock. At the same time, Palestinians stopped at the roadblock could only see tanks being carried away by huge lorry to an unclear area. While waiting, they could hear large explosions coming from the other side of the hills, making them jumpy, nervous and anxious.
A lorry carries two Israeli tanks to the illegal military training exercise area

This part of the Jordan Valley is in Area C (under Israeli control) and was declared by Israeli Forces a “closed military zone”, meaning that it is forbidden for Palestinian to walk around those lands. Cars riding on the adjacent road cannot stop and if they do, the drivers risk being arrested and their car confiscated. There are military observation tours all around the Jordan Valley, consequently the arrest and confiscation are a real threat. The only reason for Palestinians to stop their cars is a military roadblock.

On that day, not only farmers and drivers had their daily activity seriously affected but also the children attending school. The children from villages in this part of Area C must go to Tubas to attend school as there are none in their village due to restrictions imposed by Israel. The students are therefore bussed everyday to Tubas. But today, at the end of their class, they had to walk their way back home as the bus was stopped at the roadblock and could not get through to pick them up. Most of the children had to walk in that frightening environment for seven to eight kilometers in order to reach their home.

Palestinians children walking back home from Tubas.

The Israeli Occupation Forces have conducted illegal military exercises around the Jordan Valley for many years. Not only blocking roads at any other moment but also forcing villagers to evacuate their homes for days while proceeding with their military exercises around and inside the villages. A few months ago, in Yirza, Israeli bulldozers arrived in the village, destroying the connection of the irrigation pipes. The residents repaired the damaged connection but, once again, Israeli military tanks drove around their fields, passing on top of the pipes and destroying them, again.

Over the last few years, citizens all around the Jordan Valley have seen an increase in the confiscation of their land by Israeli Forces. These large patches of land are now used by the Israeli Forces as bases and for training exercises. All along the road at the edge of these lands, we can now see concrete blocks indicating the closed-military-zone, which forbids anyone to trespass on these areas. Therefore, shepherds and farmers have been deprived of their only means to provide for their families. Other lots were given to Israeli settlers for agricultural development, which only benefit Israeli economy.

Israeli Military base in the Jordan Valley

Despite the continuous demonstration of control and power by Israel over Palestine, the resilience of the population from the Jordan Valley remains intact.

Palestinian kids playing football on an open land near Fasayel

7 year old boy targeted in Kafr Qaddum

23th December 2016 | Popular Resistance Committee of Kafr Qaddum | occupied Palestine

Today, Friday December 23rd, 2016, the village started its march as usual toward the blocked road. Suddenly 12 soldiers from a special unit of the Israeli occupation force surprised them in an ambush, and attacked and arrested a 7 year old Palestinian child. Twelve heavily armed soldier’s surrounded the boy, attacking him. One of them forcefully grabbed the boy from his neck, questioning him about his father. Three Palestinians were also injured with rubber bullets.

Masked members of the Israeli security forces briefly detain a Palestinian boy during clashes following a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank on December 23, 2016. / AFP / JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

Kafr Qaddum’s weekly protests have been occurring since July 2011 to take back the road that connects their village to the city of Nablus, elongating Palestinians commute by 14 kilometers. These demonstrations are always met by the Israeli occupation forces and/or border police, who throw sound grenades, tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets, and at times live ammunition to prevent the nonviolent protesters from executing their democratic rights.

The young boy was released after one hour, and he told his father, “I was very afraid. I didn’t know what to do. I just began shouting between 12 huge soldiers, and one of them hanged me from my neck and asked me about my father”. The boy continues to experience post traumatic stress, shaking continuously, and sharing more and more of the experience to his family.

After a good day comes a bad day

8th December 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On 7th December 2016, Israeli forces at Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) detained a group of teachers from nearby Qurtuba school, and then in collective punishment closed the checkpoint to everyone. Just after the teachers were finally allowed to reach their school, the Israeli occupying forces detained a father with his young son who were trying to reach a hospital for medical treatment, and in the end denied them to pass.

Teachers from the Qurtuba school are forced to go through the Shuhada checkpoint every day in order to reach their job. On this particular day, the soldiers who are permanently stationed there, refused eight teachers to get to their students, holding them for more than 1.5 hours. Qurtuba school, thus, had to start their day with the majority of the teachers absent. Not only are teachers and students at the whim of the occupying army as to when and how they commute, they also have restricted access to the staircase connecting Shuhada Street with the school during school hours. The actual staircase leading to the school has been closed by Israeli forces as part of their attempts to ethnically cleanse Shuhada Street.

The teachers refused to leave and give up. Instead, they waited outside the checkpoint demanding to be allowed to reach their school. Israeli forces in an act of collective punishment closed the checkpoint, denying anyone else to pass. Thus, residents were stuck outside the checkpoint as well, adding to the number of people attempting to reach their homes or school. A man asking the soldiers to allow him to pass was told by the soldiers, that he could only pass if the teachers leave. Finally, after more than 1.5 hours, the teachers were allowed to pass, except for one female teacher, whom they kept inside the checkpoint box, claiming that she was not a teacher. The director of the school countered that she was recently updated to the list, and that the soldiers clearly missed adding her, and in the end, all the teachers were allowed to pass. This kind of arbitrary detainment of teachers, and at times also school-students, is not new to the Qurtuba school.

Israeli forces discussing with teachers, seen from the other side of the checkpoint

One man trying to pass during that time kept telling the soldiers that he just needed to bring several kilos of rice home. Soldiers told him that he’ll have to wait till the situation with the teachers is resolved, and that “you have a good day, you have a bad day”. When he was finally allowed to pass once the teachers were gone, one of the soldiers, (first making sure that the Palestinian would not understand), insulted him in Hebrew calling him a ‘son of a bitch’. When the man complained to another soldier, he was told to leave.

After that, Israeli forces detained a father with his son, as they were trying to reach a nearby hospital. The man lives in this area, and passes this checkpoint daily without any problems. On this day though, Israeli forces decided that his name is not on their list of ‘registered Palestinian residents’ – meaning that he was not given a number, which would allow him to pass. Therefore Israeli forces kept him waiting with his son, locked up in the exit of the checkpoint, with the turnstile locked, even after the man explained to them that he was taking his son to see a doctor. In the beginning, soldiers said that ‘there’s no hospital’ in this area and they don’t know a hospital there. Even when the man showed them a paper of the hospital, they would still not allow him to pass. When approached by internationals, the occupying forces insisted that they were ‘doing everything they can to let him pass’, while keeping the turnstile, that would allow him to pass, firmly locked. Israeli forces furthermore were adamant that they were not denying the boy medical treatment, as he would get it – eventually. Instead of asking whether his treatment was urgent or not, the soldiers deemed themselves qualified to decide this. They firmly insisted, that they can’t let him pass ‘yet’.

In the end, the boy and his father were denied from reaching the hospital, as one of the soldiers blamed the father, stating that it’s the father’s fault for even bringing his son to the checkpoint, rather than going another way. This other route, that he was speaking of, was the longer and more expensive way around adding about 20 minutes to his trip. This is a ridiculous attempt to move the attention from their lack of consideration for even allowing children to reach a hospital. This is a place where an occupying army can put the fault on the civilian (who thus far had no problems ever passing this checkpoint) bringing his sick son on the quickest way possible to treatment. This then leaves the occupied population in the hands of a force that can determine their needs and lives. In a city where every Palestinian is at the pure mercy of the occupying forces, expecting even the tiniest bit of humanity to be extended to them – futile.

Umm al-Hiran, a village off the maps

2nd December 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron/al-Khalil team | occupied Palestine

Umm al-Hiran is a Bedouin village in the Negev desert in southern Israel. The village is surrounded by open landscape, the only structures in sight line. About a fifteen minute drive away is a small city called Hura, where the children from the village attend school. In 1956, Israel moved the people in the village from their original home in Wadi Zubala near Rahat to Umm al-Hiran. Approximately 1,000 people inhabit the village now, and it is one of the many unrecognized Bedouin villages throughout 48. The State of Israel is now planning to uproot this entire family once again so they can replace their homes with an illegal Jewish Israeli settlement that they want to call “Hiran”. And, this time, they are offering to send them to Hura, without any real plan for where they can live. The village does not intend to move there, and are now working on negotiations with Israel.

The infrastructure of the village is divided in two, split by a road. On the far side, one house was already demolished one to two weeks ago. They were given two days notice. That family is currently living in the houses of their neighbors. On November 22^nd, many activists joined the village to be present for the threat of demolition, which did not occur, and to this day has not yet happened.

construction begins right outside the buildings

Currently, there are bulldozers and trucks already at work building roadways and a water system surrounding the outside of the village.

Building waterways for the new Jewish Israeli settlement — Building waterways for the new illegal Jewish Israeli settlement

Any new structures that are put up are immediately knocked down. A couple of months ago, a new wall that the village built was demolished. A mother said that she has all the parts for a play area for her children to put up, but she is afraid to set it up because she knows that it will be quickly destroyed.

Members of the Bedouin village have been going to court and are speaking with the members of the Knesset in Jerusalem daily to form some sort of negotiation plan. At the moment, they still do not know what the end results of these talks will be. They are not requesting presence right now in the village, but those in solidarity are watching closely to be available when the need arises again. Miriam, a mother in the village said, “they tell us that it is not ours, that we came and took the land. But we did not come out of the air- we have been here always”.

For more on this story:

https://www.palestinecampaign.org/umm-al-hiran-demolition/

https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771498

http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php/headlines/265-israeli-forces-a-no-show-umm-al-hiran-s-demolition-delayed

We want our children back!

29th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Monday, 28th November 2016, Palestinians gathered to demand the bodies of their loved (brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons) – killed by the Israeli occupation forces – back for burial. Many of these family members who attended were holding signs and posters of their loved ones and appeared very distraught.

Women holding signs of their killed family members

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered outside the Palestinian municipality, holding banners and pictures of their family members, who have been gunned down by Israeli forces, left to bleed to death. Afterward, the Israeli occupation forces would kidnap the dead body, denying the right of a funeral to the family. Palestinians, since October last year, have been gunned down by Israeli forces, often on the claim of having a knife. The policy of withholding the bodies from the families, is enacted as a form of collective punishment illegal under military law, punishing the family for an alleged act of the killed Palestinian. In this form, the family is denied to bury their family members, despite in Islam a body is supposed to be buried latest the day after death.

Instead, the Israeli occupation forces keep the bodies in “the freezers of the zionist occupation”. Many bodies of Palestinians are still held by the Israeli forces, with no-one knowing whether they will ever be given to the mourning families that have lost a loved member.