Ramadan 2016: Harassment, collective punishment and settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank

7th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | West Bank, occupied Palestine

Monday the 6th of June marked the beginning of the Ramadan; the holiest holiday in Islam. The Ramadan is a sacred month in the Islamic calendar, where Muslims celebrate when the Qu’ran was revealed for the first time to the Prophet Muhammad.

For Muslims all over the world who celebrate the Ramadan, it’s a month of prayers and celebrations, with the intention to improve morality and character as well as strengthening ones relationship with Allah.

However, for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank under illegal Israeli military occupation, the Ramadan is also a month filled with uncertainties and harassment.

Since the beginning of the Ramadan, more than 330 Palestinians have been detained throughout the West Bank; at least 60 of these were children, the youngest being 10-year old Marwan Sharabati from Al-Khalil (Hebron).

Discrimination and aggression in East Jerusalem

Israeli discrimination and aggression has especially been intense in and around occupied East Jerusalem, where thousands of Palestinians from in and outside East Jerusalem go to visit and pray at the Al-Aqsa compound and mosque, the third most religious site in all of Islam.

The Al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem was annexed in 1967 as a part of Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank – this annexation was never recognised by the international community.

On Sunday 26 of June, Israeli soldiers broke in and raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque, harassing and disturbing peaceful Palestinians during prayer. Israeli forces also escorted a group of approximately 200 settlers into the mosque, shouting and harassing Palestinians praying. This action was in contravention of a long running tradition that only Muslims would enter the mosque during the final 10 days of Ramadan.

Watch video of soldiers raiding the mosque here

As a result of the clashes, Israeli authorities enforced the understanding to restrict access to Muslim worshippers although also placed punitive restrictions on Palestinians; refusing access to all males under 45 years old, breaching their right to exercise freedom of religion.

On Friday 30 June, Israeli soldiers shut down the Qalandiya checkpoint, preventing thousands of Palestinians, including males younger than 45 years old, to pass in order to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli forces then proceeded to attack Palestinians at Qalandiya checkpoint with live ammunition, rubber coated steel bullets and teargas, wounding 40 Palestinians as well as killing a 63 year old Palestinian man due to massive teargas inhalation.

Watch video from Qalandiya here

Collective punishment and settlement expansion during the Ramadan

After an attack at a market in Tel Aviv, where four Israeli citizens where killed, Israel has conducted a large collective punishment strategy, suspending entry permits for more than 83,000 Palestinians from the West Bank. The 83,000 people impacted had nothing to do with the crime committed, and thereby preventing them from going to Al-Aqsa in the annexed East Jerusalem is another clear example of Israel enforcing illegal collective punishment.

To further ignite the situation, Benjamin Netanyahu announced a large-scale settlement expansion, consisting of a total of 800 housing units in East Jerusalem. The scheme contains of 560 housing units in the settlement Ma’Ale Adumim, 140 in Ramot and 100 in Har Homar and Pisgat Zeev.

Following a Palestinian attack on a 13-year old American-Israeli settler, Netanyahu has also approved construction of 42 new housing units in the settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron. The settlements are illegal according to international law, and the UN and EU leaders have denounced the expansion, urging Netanyahu to reverse the decision.

Netanyahu’s actions continue to escalate the situation in the West Bank and completely disregard the recently released Quartet report, which has resulted in the U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemning Israel for this continued expansion of illegal settlements.

(Photo credit: Middle East Monitor)

Israeli military demolishes two houses, injures five Palestinians with live ammunition in Qalandia Refugee Camp

7th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Qalandia Refugee Camp, occupied Palestine

The holy month of Ramadan has come to an end. But in Palestine, as in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and too many other places, Muslim families are not able to enjoy this special time of the year in peace and comfort. On Sunday night at 11pm, more than 1000 Israeli soldiers, according to locals’ estimations, entered Qalandia Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank. The huge military incursion sparked clashes in which 15 Palestinians were shot. Occupation Forces used live ammunition and rubber coated steel bullets on civilians while firing tear gas and stun grenades at approaching ambulances, preventing Palestinian Red Crescent medics from reaching the wounded.

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Red Crescent ambulance damaged by Israeli forces

Among the injured was a 19 year old girl and a 15 year old boy, each shot with live ammunition and brought to the hospital in serious condition. The army entered the camp to demolish the homes of the families of two young men, Anan Habsah and Issa Asaaf, both 21, who carried out knife attacks and killed one soldier in East Jerusalem on December 23rd last year. Both were killed by soldiers while carrying out the attacks, so the demolition of the homes comes only as a form of collective punishment to terrorize the families and the people in Qalandia, who repeatedly suffer from night raids and house demolitions as well as beatings and arrests by the Israeli occupation forces.

Anan’s family first evacuated their home in January when the Israeli high court announced their decision to demolish the houses. The displaced family members lived spread across the area, staying at friends’ and family’s homes in Ramallah and elsewhere in Qalandia for two months until the lawyer suggested they could move back in in March. The father, Abu Saleh, refused to leave his home during the two month period however, staying in a tent outside the building. Three weeks ago the two families were yet again told to evacuate their homes and were informed that the demolition would take place within five days. However, the exact date of the demolition was not disclosed. Sunday night it finally happened without advance notice, and only two days before the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid celebrations.

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In the ruins of his family home

Issa and his family have experienced severe trauma at the hands of occupation forces before, when he and his two younger sisters were brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near East Jerusalem. The incident left one of Issa’s sisters unable to speak for three months, and caused the Assaf family significant distress and anguish.

Both Issa and Anan were imprisoned for significant periods of time; Anan at age fifteen for a period of eight months, and Issa for seven months in the year before his death.The families’ suffering did not end there, however. In the week following Issa’s release from prison, he was again assaulted at his home in Qalandia when soldiers dragged him from his home in the middle of the night and beat him in the street without justification.

The Habsah family also bears the long lasting scars of pain and trauma. Anan’s imprisonment as a child devastated the family, and they say their boy was never the same afterwards. “I know he did not want to die … but when a boy is put in jail, deprived of sleep, and deprived of his childhood, something in him changes,” said Anan’s uncle.

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Inside the Asaaf family home

When we arrived on Monday morning, neighbors and relatives had already begun to gather in support of the families. Anan’s aunt explained to us that this is the third time her family had been forcibly displaced; first in 1948, when the family was expelled from their home in West Jerusalem, and later again in 1975 when their modest home in the refugee camp was destroyed for the first time.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness condemned the demolitions on Monday, stating that punitive home demolitions “inflict distress and suffering on those who have not committed the action which led to the demolition, and they often endanger people and property in the vicinity.” A 2005 study by the Israeli army itself concluded that home demolitions are not effective as a deterrent or punitive measure, but the practice still continues. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, about fifty thousand residential structures have been destroyed by Israel since 1967.

“This is psychological warfare. In the whole camp of more than ten thousand people, no one slept [last night], and they did not go to work today,” Adnan Habsah, the uncle of Anan said. Qalandia Refugee Camp has long been subjected to various forms of collective punishment by Israeli forces, and is severely affected by all aspects of the Illegal Occupation. The camp is located within area “C” and greater (East) Jerusalem, near the main checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem and beside the apartheid wall. According to the UNRWA, the construction and expansion of the Wall in the early 2000s has drastically affected the economic situation in the camp by isolating it from the Israeli job market and Jerusalem. According to the most recent data, Qalandia’s unemployment rate is as high as 40 percent, compared to Occupied Palestine’s overall rate of 26.6 percent.

The Camp was originally established to house some 5,000 Palestinians who were displaced by the 1948 Nakba. Today, according to Afaq Environmental Magazine, the population of Qalandia Refugee Camp has reached about 14,000. Under the 1993 Oslo Agreement, the whole territory of Qalandia Refugee Camp is classified as area “C,” where Israel retains full control over security and administration related to the territory; however, Qalandia camp, like other Palestinian refugee camps, is under the administrative control of UNRWA.

As the uncle of Anan said when we spoke to him on Monday, “This is a UN refugee camp. The whole world owns this place. You cannot destroy it.”

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Abu Saleh, father of Anan Habsah

Apartheid and racist restrictions around Ibrahimi mosque

5th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

During the last days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli froces have implemented further restrictions in the area of the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron.) These restrictions deliberately and exclusively target Palestinians in attempts to further cleanse this area of any Palestinian presence.

After 27-year old Sarah Tarayra was gunned down and killed with her unborn baby by Israeli forces at the checkpoint at Ibrahimi Mosque on Friday, 1 July 2016, the checkpoint leading to Ibrahimi Mosque was blocked by Israeli forces for more than two hours. Due to this closure, large numbers of Palestinians on their way to the noon prayer of the last Friday of Ramadan, were stuck at the checkpoint, forced to wait till Israeli forces decided to open and allow the Palestinians to reach the mosque for prayer.

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Palestinian man detained and search before being denied entry while children play in the street

In the days following, Israeli forces at the three checkpoints leading to the area immediately around Ibrahimi Mosque implemented age-restrictions, barring access for any Palestinian between 15 and 30 years old. As these restrictive measures on Palestinians was enforced at all three checkpoints leading to the mosque, it effectively prohibited from anyone in this age group from reaching Ibrahimi Mosque, thus denying them their freedom of religion. In the last few days, a 10-year old Palestinian girl was arrested on settler childrens’ accusations and a Palestinian man beaten up by Israeli forces.

The restrictions though, were implemented not consequently at all times – leaving Palestinians without any possibility to know whether they’d be allowed to pass the checkpoint. Thus, any Palestinian in this age-group is at the mercy of the Israeli forces and the only way to find out whether they’d be allowed to reach the mosque for prayers would be to go to the checkpoint and try to pass. Palestinians have reported, that often certain soldiers at the checkpoints would strictly enforce the restrictions, while others would allow some people in this age group to pass. This uncertainty of whether one would be allowed to pass, leaves Palestinians without any possibility to plan or know whether they’d be allowed to pass, leaving them entirely in the dark about whether they’d be able to reach prayer. At times, even residents in this age-group were denied passage through the checkpoint, denying them to reach their own homes.

As these age-restrictions, as any other restrictions, are only enforced on Palestinians, they clearly illustrate further the apartheid-measures implemented by the Israeli forces, during the last few days especially around the Ibrahimi Mosque. But this is not just yet another illustration of the apartheid system in occupied al-Khalil, but also the continous denial of freedom of religion and movement for the Palestinians in attempts to ethnically cleanse the area of any Palestinian presence.

Israeli forces stole 21 boats and sank two more just in the last 3 months

5th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Gaza, occupied Palestine

Just in the last 3 months Gaza’s fishermen had 21 boats stolen and 2 sunken by the Israeli occupation forces.

Each small boat sustains at least 20 people on average and each one of the big ones at least 100 people. That means that just in the last 3 months around 550 people lost their source of income and were left in a situation of severe food insecurity.

Palestinian fishing boat
Palestinian fishing boat

All of these attacks took place within the fishing limit imposed by the occupation, as one of the fishermen interviewed by ISM pointed out: “they always know who they are taking, it’s not by chance or because we cross any of the limits they impose on us. They come for us. They kidnapped me and my cousin while we were less than a mile from the coast, and on that day the limit they gave us was for 6 miles”.

It is known that one of the main reasons to kidnap the fishermen is in order to try to buy them or blackmail them into becoming collaborators.

Fishermen kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces
Fishermen kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces

One fisherman that insisted on remaining anonymous, given the sensitivity of this matter, explained to ISM what happened to him while he and his cousins were in Ashdod port: “they sat us in a room and we had in front of us a table with two trays, one with money and another one with gold. They told us that if we work with them all of it would be for us. Then they started asking us about our neighbours, relatives and anyone they thought we could know something about”.

Most of the fishermen kidnapped are tortured during the interrogation in Ashdod port and suffer from several kinds of physical and verbal abuse. They are beaten, their heads get rubbed on the floor or with a dirty mop and the soldiers step on their faces with their military boots. Those are just some common examples from most testimonies.

But humiliations already start in the sea, where most of the fishermen are told to strip off their clothes and swim naked towards the warship of the occupation forces. In many cases by that moment they have been already injured by rubber coated steel bullets, buckshot-filled sacks or even live ammunition.

Israeli warship
Israeli warship

Palestinian man beaten up by Israeli forces near Ibrahimi Mosque

5th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces on 3rd July beat up a Palestinian man at Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), leaving him with a bleeding nose.

A border police-men grabbed the man by the neck, after he was trying to leave the area. He then, with his hand firmly gripped on the man’s neck, walked him towards the mosque entrance, deliberately pushing him into a police-barrier, that immediately fell, almost causing the man to stumble and trip over the barrier, which was only stopped by the firm grip of the border police men on his neck. He was deliberately taken out of sight into a room where just two days before, 27-year old Sarah Tarayra was gunned down by Israeli forces while, according to eye-witness statements, she kept affirming that the only thing she has is her mobile.

These kind of rooms, where any observer is prevented from seeing and documenting the events exist at each checkpoint in al-Khalil, and with recent ‘upgrades’ and ‘renovations’ of checkpoints, most checkpoints are now constructed in a way, where anyone being ‘checked’ is inside a box with only the soldiers and no observers. This way, Israeli forces try to further hide and stop any documentation of their crimes.

The Palestinian man was then hit hard in the face by the soldier, immediately causing his nose to start bleeding. Despite trying to hide this unprovoked violence, the man went into the room fine, and clearly came out shaken up and with a bleeding nose. When trying to leave after this vicious attack, he was called back by another border police men that then detained him for an ID-check and photographed his ID. The man had to go to hospital the same night, but luckily his nose was not broken. Still, even the next day, it was swollen, bruised and showed signs of the attack.

Border police with firm grip on Palestinian man's neck
Border police with firm grip on Palestinian man’s neck

As Palestinians in occupied Palestine are subjected to the Israeli military law, they lack any way of addressing attacks on them by the Israeli forces. With the attack being carried out by a border police commander, the highly militarized police of the Israeli forces, any complaint to the civil police would most likely be futile – and instead put any Palestinian at risk of instead being arrested for an accusation by the attacker. A Palestinian’s word or statement, in an Israeli police station, against any member of the Israeli army or police counts for nothing. In the past, the Israeli police at times has even refused to take any complaints by Palestinians against settlers. Israeli forces, as well as settlers, thus have complete impunity in their actions, and as this vicious attack illustrates, even enjoy the support or at least tacit consent of their colleagues.