Today’s United Nations Security Council resolution reaffirms international consensus that Israel’s settlements are illegal and harm Palestinian human rights. The resolution seeks the wellbeing of all people in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. It is not an “anti-Israeli” resolution, but a balanced one, which rejects the occupation – not Israel. Hopefully, further international measures will follow – for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians, and against the occupation.
25th December 2016 | International Solidarity Movement |Huwarra team | occupied Palestine
Yusef Sheukhy is one out of many Palestinians in Silwan who has already suffered much from the Israeli presence in occupied East Jerusalem. Five of his children have spent time in Israeli jails; the most recent released on 27 May this year. And on Tuesday 29 November, he and his wife and children got brutality woken up at 3am by Israeli soldiers and workers who had arrived to demolish half of the family’s home. According to Yusef Sheukhy, between 150 and 200 soldiers were surrounding the home and neighboring houses, blocking off the roads, as the workers began destroying his family home.
The Palestinians living in Silwan area of occupied East Jerusalem, Palestine, have faced much suffering from the Israeli military occupation. Daily encounters with violent illegal settlers, several killings and arrests by the Israeli forces, as well as an unnumbered amount of home demolitions.
More than 150 families in the East Jerusalem area of Silwan have recently been given demolition warnings by the Israeli authorities. The exact dates of the demolitions have yet to be revealed, and are very likely not to reach the Palestinians until (at the very best) a couple of days before. The families do not know where to go when their homes are destroyed, and many people are expecting to be homeless in the middle of winter.
Yusef Sheukhy was born and raised in the Old City in East Jerusalem, but when Israel began their illegal occupation of Palestine in 1967, the family was forced to leave the home that had belonged to them for generations. As many other families, they left the city and moved to the poor nearby village of Silwan. Several houses were empty and ready to move into, as many families that were originally living in Silwan had fled to Jordan, fearing for the future under Israeli military occupation. Today, Silwan families are once again being forced to leave their homes without any kind of justifications or proper alternatives provided.
Yusef Sheukhy and his sons built the second house as an extension to the original two years ago, in order to house the big family. Yusef Sheukhy and his wife have six boys and two girls and the three small rooms in the first house are not nearly enough to house a family of ten. His three youngest boys are already sharing a small room, and it is almost impossible to imagine how they will manage to fit in another six adult children in this small space.
Before building the house, Yusef Sheukhy made sure to obtain the necessary building permission from the Israeli authorities that are in control of the occupied city. But a couple of days before Tuesday, the Chief of Police in Jerusalem told the family that there were definite plans to demolish the house, as it was an “illegal construction”. Unfortunately, at this point Yusef Sheukhy was not able to find the permission papers that prove his right to having built the house, and the Israeli authorities did not give him the opportunity to get the papers reissued.
As the Chief of Police, on Monday 28, informed one of Yusef Sheukhy’s sons that the demolition would happen within the next 48 hours, Yusef Sheukhy contacted the Chief of Police in order to gain more time to, through his lawyer, receive a new copy of the original permit. So Yusef Sheukhy had a meeting with his lawyer Monday afternoon, and they would meet Tuesday morning at 8.30 to go through the process of regaining the papers. When Yusef Sheukhy told the Chief of Police that he was in the process of getting a new copy of the permit, he was relieved as the Chief of Police seemed to be willing to wait for this. “He said, “okay, if you can do it we will not do it”, Yusef Sheukhy told us.
But in the end, the Chief of Police gave the family no opportunity to prove their rights or object to the order, as the soldiers arrived without warning in the middle of the night only five hours before Yusef Sheukhy was meant to meet the lawyer and hopefully get his papers again.
But Yusef Sheukhy will not let the illegal occupiers succeed once more in dispossessing his family. He is determined to stand his ground: “We will rebuilt, don’t worry. We will not give up. We are suffering but we will never give up.
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
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.
14th December 2016|Press Release|Beirzeit University|occupied palestine
In continuation of its barbaric aggression on our people and national institutions, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Birzeit University’s campus in the early morning hoursof Wednesday 13 December 2016. These blatant attacks and subsequent measures of harassment constitute outrageous interferences to our right to education.
Birzeit University expresses its deepest concern regarding this belligerent military attack on the university, its sanctity, and violation to all the international and fundamental principles involved in the freedom of education.
A large number of heavily armed Israeli forces stormed in Birzeit’s campus at dawn through the western gate, forcing the campus security guards to stand against the walls, and raiding several buildings including the university’s administration building, the Headquarters of the student council, Kamal Nasir Hall and the Faculty of Science. They forcibly deterred our university security personnel as they invaded these buildings, leaving a great deal of havoc behind.
The Israeli military confiscated the students’ flags and banners, and sabotaged properties inside campus and the administration building.
Birzeit University views this attack as very dangerous and a barbaric intrusion. We deplore the conversion of its academic facilities to military barracks, as well as the confiscation of its student property, searching parts of the administrative offices.
As an academic institution that aspires to live by the values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, the Israeli occupation needs urgently to stop its aggressive behavior against all Palestinians.
The academic freedom of Palestinian academics and students is severely hindered, due to the occupation, its policies and continuous defiance of the fundamental rights of our people and the sanctity of our universities, and that must be defended.
Birzeit University confirms that these attacks will not deter its commitment to higher education, and the pivotal role it has played since its establishment.
The Israeli occupation had waged an extensive campaign against Palestinian universities in the last two years. In June 2014 and January 2016, Israeli Occupationraided Birzeit Universityand confiscated the contents of student blocs’ offices. They also attackedPalestine Technical University- Kadoori, and the building of the Arab American University of Jenin, as well as Al-Quds University in Abu Dis.
The university calls on the international community and human rights organizations to immediately put a stop to these raids and violations, and actively engage in supporting our struggle for liberation.
