3rd July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Occupied Hebron
In the last three days Israeli military forces have implemented several blockades isolating the cities of Yatta and Bani Na’im south of Hebron. It is reported that cement roadblocks, earth mounds, gates and checkpoints have been installed across the region, with no timeline for when they may be removed.
The blockades are only implemented to restrict the movement of Palestinians as illegal Israeli settlers can still pass the checkpoints. This discrimination is a clear apartheid strategy and limits Palestinians to not only being unable to attend work but also reaching basic human services such as hospitals. This strategy clearly violates Palestinian’s right to freedom of movement (Art.13 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
By enforcing these illegal blockades Israel is also restricting Palestinian movement during the final days of the holy month of Ramadan where thousands of Muslims wish to travel to the most significant religious sites for prayer and visit their families.
Operation Dove have compiled the following interactive map to illustrate the extent of the blockade.
The innocent people who are living under siege in Yatta and Bani Na’im are significantly impacted by the Israeli forces implementing such blockades, which have been condemned internationally by human rights organisations and NGOs.
2nd July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Occupied Palestine
Today marks the two year anniversary of the brutal kidnap, torture and eventual murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The teenager was kidnapped in the Shufat neighbourhood of occupied Jerusalem by Ben David of the illegal settlement Geva Binyamin and two assailants on 2 July 2014, Abu Khdeir was then beaten, forced to drink gasoline and burnt alive.
The autopsy found that gasoline was poured down Abu Khdeir’s throat and that there was soot in his lungs which shows that he was still breathing as this attackers burnt him alive. The autopsy also found that he was repeatedly beaten over the head with a sharp object, most likely a tire iron or a wrench.
Two days prior to Abu Khdeir’s abduction the group attempted to kidnap a 7-year-old boy Moussa Zaloum although he was able to escape with the help of his mother. The family reported the attempted kidnapping to Israeli police although they did not investigate the incident.
Three days after the attack, Mohammed’s cousin, 15-year-old American citizen Tariq Abu Khdeir was detained and brutally beaten by Israeli border police, an event caught on camera, before being released.
Earlier this year, a relative of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 63 year old Coheir Abu Khdeir was also badly assaulted in an attack carried out in Shufat. When his family went to Israeli police they refused to take their complaint insisting that the 63-year-old would have to come to the police station himself.
On 2 July 2015 there was a peaceful demonstration held in commemoration for Mohammed Abu Khdeir which was violently dispersed by Israeli Forces. The Israeli Forces used pepper spray and tear gas on the non-violent demonstrators which included Palestinians, international activists and journalists.
Earlier this year, the ringleader of the attack Ben David was sentenced to life in prison and an additional 20 years while his two assailants, both minors at the time, were sentenced to life in prison and 21 years respectively.
Two years on we wish to remember Mohammed Abu Khdeir to ensure we don’t forget the tragedy of this brutal act of torture and murder.
2nd July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
The southern West Bank city of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) has been put under siege by Israeli forces – exclusively for Palestinians.
Israeli forces declared a complete closure of the city as a ‘security measure’, closing all entries and exits into the city itself and the surrounding villages belonging to the Hebron governorate indefinitely. An exception to the rule is military and humanitarian cases.
Closures enforced on Palestinian villages by Israeli forces Photo credit: PNN English
The official Israeli statement, though, does feature already, that this siege is only implemented on the Palestinian residents – deliberately excluding any settler living in one of the illegal Israeli settlements from these draconian measures. Punishing the entire Palestinian population with a siege like this, additionally, is a form of collective punishment prohibited by Art. 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention,which states that a person can not be “[…] punished for an offense he or she has not personallycommitted. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited”.
Enforcing a siege on the entire Palestinian population in this area, furthermore illustrates the racism and apartheid-measures of the Israeli government, openly admitting to impose a siege specifically and exclusively on a certain group, the Palestinians, while deliberately excluding the illegal settler population from the same measure.
Closure on exit of Hebron used by Palestinians Photo credit: PNN English
Whereas measures like these are not new, they definitely illustrate how bluntly the Israeli authorities publicly state their racism, breaches of international law and human rights, and how they don’t even fear illustrating their apartheid-measures. The question that remains is, is the international community going to take notice – and especially action?
2nd July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli forces, on 30th June 2016 enforced a complete curfew on several neighborhoods in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Deliberately, this curfew was designed to be imposed only on the Palestinian population, with the expressive goal of allowing settlers to move around these neighborhoods without even so much as seeing Palestinians on the street.
After a 13-year old girl was stabbed, allegedly by a Palestinian youth, in the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of al-Khalil, her funeral was scheduled to take place in the evening. With the procession scheduled to leave at 6pm from the illegal settlement, many neighborhoods along the way towards the Jewish cemetery in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood were closed down long before this time. Palestinians attempting to return home were aggressively denied access by the occupying Israeli forces.
In the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, the curfew was imposed long before 6pm and only lifted after about 4 hours. Residents of this neighborhood were thus trapped either inside their houses with doors well bolted in fear of common settler-attacks – or left without any possibility to reach their homes, as the curfew was not announced. This also left people trying to reach home for Iftar, the meal after fasting from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan, stuck at a checkpoint where they were ‘not allowed’.
This curfew clearly constitutes a collective punishment imposed on the entire Palestinian population in these neighborhoods – which are deliberately punished merely on the basis for them being Palestinian. Furthermore, Israeli forces are enacting acts of collective punishment by sealing the home-town of the alleged Palestinian attacker, slating his families’ home for demolition and revoking their work-permits.
1st July 2016 | IWPS | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
The 1st July 2016, the last Friday in Ramadan, marked the fifth anniversary of Kafr Qaddum’s demonstrations. The Israeli military were present in the village and firing rubber coated steel bullets prior to the start of the demonstration. The soldiers continued to use full force against protestors, using high velocity barricade penetrating tear gas grenades, and live ammunition. Two young men were injured with live ammunition. One 15-year-old boy took a .22 caliber bullet to the stomach. He entered surgery in Nablus at approximately 3 PM to remove the bullet. In addition, a 19-year-old was hit in the lower leg. The injury is not serious, but still a cause for concern: the young man in question had been released from jail less than a month ago, after he was arrested for his participation in the weekly protests.
15-year old shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces loaded into ambulance
Every week the villagers, accompanied by international and Israeli activists, have marched down the road that once connected the village to Nablus. The road was shut down due to expansions in the nearby illegal settlement of Kedumim, and is now accessible only to settlers. The road closure has been an economic burden for Kafr Qaddum, and well as a public health and safety issue, as ambulances and fire trucks face restricted access to the village. Murad Shtawi, the head of the Popular Resistance Committee in Kafr Qaddum, says that the village does its best to keep the demonstrations nonviolent – shebab will throw stones at the soldiers, but only if they are attacked first, or the soldiers enter the town limits.
Israeli forces enter Kafr Qaddum village
Today’s protest followed a familiar pattern, soldiers entered the village prior to the protest, armed with tear gas, stun grenades, rubber coated steel bullets, and live ammunition. While most of the village took part in the midday Dhuhr prayer, a few shebab monitored the soldiers, risking injury from rubber coated steel bullets. After the prayer, approximately one hundred protestors marched up the road, but were repelled before even reaching the end of the village by more rubber coated metal bullets, and interior barricade penetrating tear gas. When the protest regrouped, undeterred, the military opened fire with .22 calibre ammunition. The military also employed a bulldozer during the protests, in an attempt to block off the road at the entrance to the village. The bulldozer struck the main water pipe to Kafr Qaddum, flooding the street, and ensuring it would be a dry day for many families.
Kafr Qaddum has paid a high price for its protests. According to Murad Shtawi, there have been up to 84 injuries from live ammunition. In 2014, a 75-year-old man in the village died from tear gas suffocation, and countless others have passed out from inhalation. There have been over 200 injuries from rubber coated metal bullets, including one young man who lost an eye, and another who can no longer speak due to brain damage. 120 villagers have been arrested, and their families have paid a collective 250,000 NIS in fines. Today was the 7th time the water pipe has been damaged.
Protestor throws back tear gas canister
Still, the villagers remain optimistic that their protest will be effective someday, in opening the road, and pushing out the settlers of Kedumim. They’ve held 330 marches and actions against the settlement and road closure in the past five years, and will keep going, as long as it takes.
“We see the victory in our children’s eyes” Shtawi proclaimed at the end of the day, “the strangers [settlers] who came later must be the ones who will leave earlier.”
