“You have to get your lawyer to go to the court” – IOF continue to deny Palestinians access to Shuhada Street

by ISM Hebron, January 18th


peace activist Issa Amro being read the ‘law’ by a Hebron policeman

Hebron peace activist Issa Amro attempted to walk down Shuhada Street in the centre of Hebron today, armed only with the Israeli High Court order confirming the right of Palestinians to use the street.When Issa reached the IOF military post outside the Beit Hadassah colony he was stopped by soldiers who denied him passage. On showing them the order soldiers informed him that there was a ‘new’ military order in force but refused to present this to him. The commander told Issa he would have to get his lawyer to go to court to view this ‘new’ military order.


Palestinians and peace activists outside the Beit Hadassah colony

Last week when Palestinians attempted to walk down Shuhada Street acccompanied by an Israeli TV crew, they were also told about the existence of a ‘new’ order. An IOF spokesperson later on TV denied the existence of this order and promised to investigate but so far no explanation has been offered. In ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ High Court orders can be ignored at will by the IOF.

In another show of where the real power in Hebron lies, Israeli Peace Now activists were today banned from holding a rally in Hebron against settler violence, and were confined to the outskirts of the city.

Today, at around noon Amira Dotan, a member of the Knesset, came to visit Tel Rumeida. After walking up Tel Rumeida st. she spent some time speaking to Abu Samir about the situation his family faces dealing with the settlers that live across the street from his home. During the discussion Abu Samir conveyed the miserable situation he and his family live in thanks to the settlers’ continued violent aggression against them. After speaking to Abu Samir, Amira Dotan spent some time speaking to other locals, including peace activists, about the situation in Tel Rumeida. Once she reached Shuhada st. the Palestinians speaking with her had to leave as they are still not allowed to walk down this street past the settlement, as reported above. A few international human rights workers were allowed to follow her down Shuhada st., which was a first for them, while she spoke to settlers.


MK Amira Dotan of Kadima being shown the sights in Tel Rumeida


a cage for Palestinians in Tel Rumeida

This report was updated at 11pm.

Ten-year old girl brain dead after border police shooting

by the ISM media team, January 18th


Abir’s sister, Arin, and a schoolfriend who were walking with Abir when she was shot in the head two days ago

Abir Aramin, ten years old, who was wounded by an Israeli border policeman Tuesday the 16th, was announced brain dead this morning at the Haddasa Ein Karem hospital and is being examined by a committee to determine whether or not to unplug her from life support machines.

Bassam Aramin, the girl’s father, is a member of Combatants for Peace, the Israeli-Palestinian peace organisation. Israeli and Internationals supporters have gathered at the girls School in Anata to express their solidarity and protect the traumatised students from the ongoing threat of the Israeli border police.

Hassan, a sixteen-year old student who witnessed Abir’s injury and carried her back to the girls school stated “the students of the girls school and the boys school had both just come out of an examination. A border police jeep approached the gathering of girls. The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police jeep followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stood against one of the shops at the side of the road, I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of the jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground. I picked her up and took her to the girls school. I saw that she was bleeding from the head.”


the two girls outside the shop where Abir was shot

According to Avichai Sharon of Combatants for Peace and a friend of the family “The Israeli border police have been entering Anata frequently when students go and return from school for the last year and eight months. This began with the construction of the Wall near Anata, supposedly in order to protect the construction workers from the students, but construction of the wall was completed over a month and a half ago”. According to Wael Salameh, a close friend of the family and a member of Combatants for Peace, “This week border police would invade the village twice a day when the students were going and returning from school.”

*********************

Click here for PNN coverage

Prayer against Wall in Bethlehem village

by the ISM media team, January 17th


AP photo from Monday 15th

This Friday at 11, villagers in the South Bethlehem region will gather on the land of Umm Salamuna village to pray. After prayers they will tend to their olive trees and grape vines which are threatened with destruction for the Apartheid Wall and a settler-only road. Israeli authorities plan to annex 2800 and raze 270 dunums of agricultural land, which belong to many of the village’s 1,000 residents. Demolition orders have also been issued against neighbouring villages. Residents of 10 villages in the South Bethlehem region will attend this Friday’s activities.These villages have already lost much of their land to Efrat settlement to the west.

In recent weeks IOF bulldozers have met with resistance from villagers as they intensify their destruction of village land. Two weeks ago villagers from Umm Salamuna threw themselves in front of bulldozers and suffered beatings from the IOF but managed to stop work. When the bulldozers and IOF returned to Umm Salamuna this Monday, villagers again resisted this military might with their bodies and two suffered broken bones from rifle butt beatings.

Village Council President Mahmoud Rashid says this military violence won’t deter the villagers from their resistance: “The people will defend their lands with all the strength they have. It constitutes their only source of livelihood, and no one will accept that the Wall is on their land isolating hundreds of dunams from each farmer and outright destroying at least 200 meters.”


AP photo from Monday 15th

For more information contact:
Mahmoud Zawahira, Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, Umm Salamuna – 0599586004
ISM media office – 02 2971824, 0599943157

Ma’an: “Israeli army freezes order to ban Israelis and foreigners from transporting Palestinians in the West Bank”

by Ma’an, January 17th

The Israeli army decided on Wednesday to postpone the implementation of the order prohibiting Israelis and foreign nationals from transporting Palestinians in the West Bank in their vehicles without special permission.

On November 19th, the Israeli Commanding General for the Central Region, Yair Naveh, issued an unprecedented decree forbidding Israelis and foreign nationals from driving Palestinians in the West Bank in Israeli-plated cars. The order was due to come into effect on Friday, 19 January.

The planned order provoked strong opposition from various quarters. Eight Israeli human rights organizations petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to abolish the order, which they described as “a basis for a legal process of systematic, institutional discrimination. It is published from a context of deepening control of one nationality over the other and meets the criteria of the definition of apartheid.”

According to the Israeli daily ‘Haaretz’, the Israeli officer responsible for the order, Yair Naveh, said that the decision to freeze its application reflected “both operational and unsettled legal issues”.

The Israeli army said that the implementation of the order “will be postponed until further evaluation… by the official authorities.”

Haaretz also claimed that the reason behind the ban was that the Israeli (Shin Bet) security service and military investigations into suicide bombings in Israel have shown that, “in a not-insignificant number of the bombings, terrorists received transport help from Israeli Arabs who had the right license plates to pass through West Bank checkpoints without thorough inspection.”

Haaretz: “Israel grants W. Bank access to foreign citizens of Palestinian origin”

by Amira Hass, January 17th

Israel on Tuesday sent a letter to the Palestinian Authority granting Palestinians with foreign citizenship permission to enter the West Bank, yet activists say the new rule is not being implemented.

The letter from Major General Yosef Mishlav, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, to Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat was released Tuesday at a press conference in Ramallah.

“I am informing you that policy regarding the entrance of foreign citizens of countries who have diplomatic ties with Israel has changed, and their entrance to the West Bank is now possible,” Mishlav wrote in his letter.

Erekat delivered the letter, which was dated December 28, to activists of “The Campaign for the Right to Re-Entrance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

The activists are mostly citizens of Western nations of Palestinian origin, or are married to Palestinians who reside in the territories.

The letter details new procedures that the Defense Ministry will take in order to allow Palestinians of Western citizenship (mostly Americans) to enter the territories and stay for a period of time.

The activists said that the new rules do not solve the crisis, which they say started in 2006 when Israel preventing thousands of American or European citizens of Palestinian origin from entering the West Bank. Most of these citizens were born in the West Bank and their residency status was terminated by Israel.

The activists maintain that they know of at least 14 foreign citizens who only last week were denied entrance to the territories. Some of them were even held in custody at Ben Gurion Airport for 4-5 days. Others received entrance for only a month, as opposed to the three month stay that Mishlav wrote to Erekat.