8th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine
Palestinian protester initiates the weekly protest in Ni’lin
On April 7th Israeli forces repressed a demonstration in Ni’lin, during which soldiers fired tear gas and a rubber-coated steel bullet into the crowd of Palestinian protesters as well as Israeli and international activists.
The demonstration began Friday afternoon after the prayer, where Palestinian protesters, joined by Israeli and international activists, went to the Apartheid wall outside of the town of Ni’lin. Around 20 minutes after the protest erupted, Israeli forces began firing several tear gas canisters across the wall from an army vehicle. Two more army vehicles eventually came to join the first, all of them firing teargas canisters simultaneously.
IOF started shooting tear gas at protesters
Protesters backed away from the wall when an Israeli soldier fired rubber-coated steel bullets directly into the crowd.
The firing of teargas went on for approximately half an hour, with protesters responding by throwing rocks towards the wall.
The demonstration was then repressed and protesters forced to flee when the IOF opened a gate in the wall, allowing an army vehicle to chase the protesters away from the scene.
None were reported injured during the protest.
7th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | al-Bireh, occupied Palestine
The map presented by Israeli forces showing the Qar’an home (top left) running along the boundary of Area B, but within Area C
On 5th April, 2017, Israeli forces told Abbas Qar’an and his family that their home in al-Bireh was going to be demolished. The homes of two other anti-occupation activists in the area recieved similar threats. ISM activists met with Abbas, the son of the homeowner, to hear his story.
Israeli forces arrived at the family home, located west of the illegal Israeli settlement of Psagot, whilst Abbas was at work and presented the demolition notice to his wife. After his wife refused to take the order, the soldiers left it outside the house, weighed-down with a rock. The notice comes from the district coordination office in the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El, charging the Qar’an family of building a house without the right permit.
On the local municipality map, Abbas’ home lies well within the boundaries of Area A – under full Palestinian control. However, Israeli authorities claim the boundary line runs straight through the family’s home, with a majority of the rooms lying within Area C – under full Israeli control. Whilst no specific date has been given for the demolition, the order states that he must go to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El within three days of the notice to challenge the demolition. The family home was built in 1960 – decades before the Oslo Accords that created the so-called “Areas” (A,B,C) – and the family insists that all of their paperwork is in order. It is also unclear if the demolition order is against a single house or the whole building, meaning that a form collective punishment is looming over all of the residents in the building.
The local municipality map, showing the home (red) within the boundaries of Area A.
Abbas lives in Jabal al-Taweel with his wife and four children: fifteen year old Hamza; twelve year old Murad; five year old Jenna; and his eighteen month old daughter, Judy. Abbas tells us that he and his family have been targeted by Israeli authorities due to his past involvement in activism against the occupation for which he spent seven years in Israeli military prison. Despite both he and his father being American citizens, Abbas was denied all travel beyond the occupied West Bank for twenty years.
Abbas and his family are not alone, as the homes of other activists have been targeted for demolition in the al-Bireh area: Abbas’ cousin, Rami Ishtawi, has also been threatened with demolition orders by Israeli authorities; while the home of Bajes Nahkleh – currently in an Israeli prison – in nearby al-Jalazone refugee camp (Area B – Palestinian civil control, Israeli security control) has also been threatened with the demolition of his home.
The Qar’an family does not know what they will do should the demolitions go ahead and the family home lost, but they claim that the Palestinian community has already offered them places to stay if Israeli forces carry out their threats. At the end of the interview, Abbas wished to thank all the internationals who travel to Palestine to hear the stories of families like his and to support all Palestinian people, who suffer daily under the occupation. The family are currently pursuing a legal case against the demolition.
6th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On April 20th, Tel Rumeida’s Palestinian residents will face the acceleration of its near total isolation in the H-2, Israeli military controlled section of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Upon military order, Israeli forces announced the fortification of checkpoints and further land seizure, leading to a worsening of the ghettoization of the residential area which has been under incremental incursion by illegal Israeli settlement activity beginning in 1984.
Shuhada checkpoint was the late September, 2015 site of the brutal murder of a young Palestinian woman, Hadeel Hashlamoun, who was shot ten times by Israeli forces while exiting Tel Rumeida. She was left bleeding to death for 45 minutes before Israeli police dragged her away by her feet. The observation of this murder helped to spark an uprising against the illegal occupation. Months later the Shuhada checkpoint was expanded to create a process in which Palestinians who pass through the checkpoint are forced to enter one at a time through a locked turn style, followed by a small fenced path, and then into an enclosure completely guarded from observation. With the new military order, the additional checkpoints around Tel Rumeida are planned to be similarly inaccessible to public view.
A page of the military order declaring the scheduled closure of Tel Rumeida
On April 5th 2017, ISM volunteers discovered a crowd of settlers and Israeli occupation forces surveying Tel Rumeida and announcing the new plans for the neighborhood which is scheduled to be enacted within 2 weeks. The new plans would make it even more difficult for Palestinian residents of H2 to access basic services like ambulances and would bar their family members and any Palestinians without a special i.d. number from visiting the Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida.
The ramifications that Tel Rumeida’s Palestinian residents will face echo the late 2015 declaration by Israeli forces of Tel Rumeida as a closed military zone during a time of extreme escalation in violence during which dozens of Palestinian youth were murdered across the occupied West Bank. Shuhada street was closed to Palestinians. A similar fate is now scheduled for the whole neighborhood.
Map of planned military closure of Tel Rumeida
Prominent Palestinian activist, Hashem al Azzeh lived a full life devoted to nonviolent opposition and popular resistance before he was killed by an H2 checkpoint’s denial of medical services. More recently, an infant was harassed while crossing an H2 checkpoint, and in another incident, sleeping soldiers left Palestinians unable to pass through the checkpoint. These and many other human rights abuses may become more common and less able to be documented if the announced changes are not stopped.
An organizer with Hebron Defense Committee, Sami Natsheh, and his colleagues have initiated a legal counter to the military order which was filed by their lawyer today in the Israeli courts, although military orders are notoriously difficult to overturn. “It’s a military order, but it’s also anti-human rights,” Natsheh noted. Highlighting the need for a strategic and ongoing response, Sami further stated that, “We don’t just want reaction. We want something stable because on April 20th they will close Tel Rumeida. You won’t even be able to see through the checkpoints, only wire and fencing.”
Updates on this and other campaigns initiated by the Hebron Defense Committee can be seen here.
6th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Israeli forces on Tuesday evening, 4th April 2017, obstructed the transport of large materials by Palestinians on Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
Large metal pieces Palestinians need as protection from settlers
Palestinians were carrying the large metal pieces first to Shuhada checkpoint, where just a few days before, Israeli forces extended their perimeter of control further into the H1 neighborhood supposedly under full Palestinian control. With no Palestinian vehicles whatsoever allowed, Palestinians then had to carry the large pieces through the checkpoint, navigating the narrow doors and metal-cage like structure of the checkpoint. Afterwards, the fence-parts had to be carried down the street, and were first set aside on the sidewalk outside a building at the end of the tiny strip of Shuhada Street. Palestinians are still allowed to be on the end of this strip, whereas the rest of the street has been ethnically cleansed of any Palestinian presence.
As Palestinians attempted to pull up the large metal pieces onto the roof on the outside of the building, as they would not fit through the doorways, Israeli forces from the nearby checkpoint arrived to prevent them from doing so. The reasoning of the occupying soldiers was that the large pieces could fall on and thus injure or damage settlers walking on the streets or settler cars – not Palestinians on the same part of the street though. Israeli forces then refused to stop traffic, even for a short while, to allow the materials to be transported, instead forcing the Palestinians to put them back down. In the meantime, settlers gathered on the streets, watching the soldiers prevent Palestinians from lifting the materials up, and later on bringing pizza for the dozen soldiers that had arrived on the scene. After some negotiating, Israeli forces finally conceded to allow Palestinians to carry the materials up the stairs adjacent to the house – which are usually forbidden for Palestinians, not for settlers though.
Palestinians lower the pieces down as Israeli forces prevent them from pulling them up to the roof
While the materials were carried up the stairs, settler children started playing with full bottles of carbonated drinks in the middle of the street, throwing them up in the air and running away before they would return and hit them. One boy jumped in front of a settler mini-bus, attempting to put the full bottle underneath the wheel of the bus in order to see it explode. The soldiers still present at the spot clearly did not consider any of these activities dangerous to the settlers, and did not even intervene when a settler boy deliberately sprayed the drink on the stairs in order to make it slippery for the Palestinians transporting the materials.
Settler children and soldiers sharing pizza sponsored by settlers
The large fencing was meant to reinforce a fence at Shuhada Street kindergarten which settlers had previously cut, damaging property inside the kindergarten and on a Palestinian family’s roof. When the last piece was carried up, soldiers entered the kindergarten to prohibit the installation of the fence, claiming that the Palestinians would need a permit to do so, further delaying this protective measure.
The same kind of fencing is installed around many windows and open courtyards of Palestinian family homes, as well as other entrances vulnerable to settler attacks. This fencing is one of the only possible means of protection in a hostile environment that allows total impunity for settler abuses, under the full protection of the Israeli occupation forces.
5th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Residents from the West Bank village of Jayyous, east of Qalqilya, endured nightly raids by Israeli forces for a week straight in early April. Israeli occupation forces fired tear gas at resident’s homes, causing some villagers to be taken for treatment to Darwish Nazzal hospital for tear gas inhalation.
Frustration has been rising among Palestinian farmers in the area as the Israeli military has arbitrarily denied farmers work permits during the loquat season. For over a decade, Palestinian farmers have been given agricultural permits to cross the apartheid wall to access their farm land.
Abu Azzam making his way to agricultural gate military check in Jayyous. (Photo Credit: www.rightsni.org)
Years ago, Jayyous villagers won this concession as well as a re-routing of the wall through popular resistance. These victories are threatened, however, as just last month a military order came to further attempt annexation of Palestinian lands both in Jayyous as well as the village Falamya.
During the past week, numerous Palestinian family homes, including that of Jayyous’ mayor, have been raided in the night following the provocation by Israeli forces of firing tear gas into the village. Village youth responded with impromptu demonstrations.
One week ahead of a meeting of the villagers, the Mayor, and the Minister of Agriculture with the Israeli occupation’s District Coordination Office, Jayyous villagers, joined by Palestinian police, held a large planting of lemon and other fruit trees. The fruit trees are being planted on reclaimed lands. Israeli forces, years ago, bulldozed the area to prepare for new construction on the apartheid wall. Palestinians successfully reclaimed the land on Wednesday, April 5th without incident.
Prominent Palestinian activist and Jayyous resident Abu Azem
Jayyous villagers are cautiously optimistic about next week’s meeting. Prominent Palestinian activist Abu Azem, in a statement to the ISM, noted that the meeting was to seek solutions to the permit denials so Palestinian farmers can be granted permits to cross the apartheid wall in order to access their ancestral lands. “We are optimistic that next week, we will have good answers,” Abu Azem says, “I expect if there are no solutions, there will be small battles.”
