Breakthrough for Palestinian Human Rights in Tel Rumeida

by Sam, December 29th

This morning at 10 a.m, three Palestinian residents of the Tel Rumeida District in Hebron accompanied by a handful of Israeli activists and media personnel as well as international volunteers successfully crossed an area off limits to Palestinians for the last six years.

Tel Rumeida falls in the Occupation controlled H2 military zone of Hebron City and is illegally barricaded by the IOF even though there are many Palestinian residents within the area. Access is only available via a checkpoint and Palestinians are not allowed to drive their cars in the zone. The illegal Jewish settlers however, enjoy total freedom of movement and are infamous for their constant harassment and attacks on Palestinians.

A recent Israeli High Court ruling stipulates that the restriction of Palestinian movement in Shuhada street has been mistakenly enforced for the last six years and that Palestinians in fact have the right to use this road. Armed with the court ruling the three men peacefully approached the area and were immediately stopped by an Israeli soldier outside the Beit Hadassah settlement who refused to look at the paper and physically attempted to restrain the Palestinians from bypassing. Five more soldiers then came running up from the checkpoint, soon followed by an army jeep with a few more soldiers. They read the court ruling and then telephoned the Border Police who arrived shortly thereafter.

The soldiers then made the 3 men face and put their hands up against a wall and searched them while the police were on the phone. After approximately 30 minutes the soldiers and police allowed and escorted the Palestinian men as well as the activists through the area to the end of Shuhada Street and agreed that Palestinians shall henceforth be allowed to use this route unhindered by the IOF or settlers.

The three men walked through a street in their own neighbourhood for the first time in six years and the happiness was evident on their faces. This represents a significant breakthrough in the human rights of the local Palestinians and a buzz was soon evident amongst residents in the area as the news spread. All that remains to be seen is if the IOF adhere to the High Court Ruling, and allow the Palestinians the freedom of movement which is now legally theirs.

Popular Committee Member shot in Bil’in

by the ISM media team, December 29th

The IOF shot rubber-coated steel bullets at Bil’in Popular Committee Member Abdullah Abu Rahme, wounding him twice in different parts of the leg. The soldier took aim and fired the bullets from less than 50 metres away at Abu Rahme’s leg after today’s peaceful demo against the Apartheid Wall in Bil’in.

A larger than usual number of villagers participated in today’s protest on the eve of the Eid Al Adha feast. After marching to the gate in the wall, marchers passed between the gate and razor wire, which forms the first barrier in the wall. Soldiers clambered over the gate, a task made more difficult by the razor wire across the gate put there by the IOF, and tried to close off the opening.

By this time the many protesters who had passed through, started walking along the ridge between the razor wire and the next obstacle in the wall formed by a three-meter high fence. Some looked for ways of scaling the illegal structure.

Those left on the other side of the razor wire managed to find openings in it, and some reached the group protesting on the ridge despite the multiple rounds of sound bombs fired by the IOF.

As the protesters reached the outskirts of the village they noticed soldiers in two empty houses and urged them to leave. The soldiers vacated one house but remained in the other despite requests from the villagers to leave.

When the villagers entered the house the soldiers started lashing out at them with their batons causing cuts and bruises to arms and legs. Popular Committeee member Mohammed Katib and Farhad Burnat were among those beaten by the soldiers. Snipers occupying a nearby roof fired teargas at those in the vicinity of the house. Instead of leaving, the IOF invaded with several jeeps and soldiers started firing rubber bullets at protesters. Abu Rahme was shot as he was sitting on the ground by the house occupied by soldiers.

Today’s demo was characterized by an escalation in IOF violence compared to recent weeks.

PALESTINIANS ARE INVISIBLE…in the US press

American Hummus – CNNI: Extensive report on injured Israeli teen, no mention of Palestinian deaths

CNN International,

Israel to resume “pinpoint” targeting of militants in Gaza.

With dramatic footage of Israeli teenagers injured by a Palestinian rocket, Mathew Chance reports the current truce as a sham. We see footage of rockets being set up and fired while the Israeli government spokesperson talks about continuing Israeli restraint amid a constant barrage of rockets from the Palestinians.

Click here to view the ABC report

Since the truce began, these are the only Israelis to be injured by rockets or anything else from Palestinians.

However, left out of Mr. Chance’s report are the victims of Israeli restraint:

Below are the Palestinian victims of Israeli restraint obtained from Palestinian Centre for Human Rights , for the month of December:

13 Palestinians including 3 children were killed by the Israeli army
36 Palestinians including 16 children were wounded by the Israeli army
189 Palestinians including 14 Children were arrested by the Israeli army

Almost all of these killings were in the West Bank. They had nothing to do with rockets.

Where was CNN? Contact CNNI

ABC News wipes Palestine off the map as US media portray Bethlehem

“It is unconscionable that Bethlehem should be allowed to die slowly from strangulation.”
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Archbishop captures conditions in Bethlehem today as a result of the wall that Israel has built around it, in addition to continued Israeli settlement expansion, travel restrictions on Palestinians and all of the hardships of living under brutal military occupation. As a result, the Christian population is continuing to leave Bethlehem, not due to problems with Muslims, which many in the US media would have us believe, but due to occupation and as Jimmy Carter so aptly labeled, “apartheid” in his new book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.

According to Open Bethlehem and a Two Nation survey by Zogby International, Americans support Bethlehem – but are not sure where it is.

For full results of the survey visit Open Bethlehem

America vs Bethlehem

Most Americans believe Bethlehem is an Israeli town inhabited by a mixture of Jews and Muslims, a pre-Christmas survey of US perceptions of the town has shown.

Only 15 per cent of Americans realize that it is a Palestinian city with a mixed Christian-Muslim community, lying in the occupied West Bank.

While the Christians of Bethlehem overwhelmingly (78%) blame the exodus of Christians from the town on Israel’s blockade, Americans are more likely (45.9%) to blame it on Islamic politics and are reluctant (7.4%) to blame Israel.

And while four out of ten Americans believe that the wall exists for Israel’s security, more than nine out of ten Bethlehemites believe it is part of a plan by Israel to confiscate Palestinian land.

A sampling of media reports during the Christmas holiday reveal why Americans remain so ignorant of conditions in a town they hold so dear.

ABC News eliminates Palestine from the map:

ABC news provides a good barometer by which to measure the US media’s presentation of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus.

What follows are three clips which reveal why very few Americans know that Israel has constructed a wall around Bethlehem which is strangling the holy city. Only when ABC retraces the steps of the holy family does Wilf Dinnick mention the wall, but at least he does mention the wall and the fact that it cuts off Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Unfortunately, one would get the impression that Palestinians are responsible for this wall being built. There are a few other problems with the presentation, not the least of which is the map.

Click here to view

Imagine if this map was ever presented with the label Palestine instead of Israel.

Contact ABC News

A Festive Bethlehem:

Another ABC report presents a “festive” Bethlehem “where some are wearing santa hats”.

Click here to view

A Subdued Bethlehem

Click here to view

There were no other reports that I saw where the wall was even mentioned. In the interview for the Newshour, it appears that Reverend Jamal Khader is answering a question about the implications of the wall but there is no mention of it. The question and the beginning of the answer were edited out. I’m pretty sure that the “it” to which the priest refers is in fact the wall.

Contact the News Hour at PBS

Click here to view

Finally there is CBS

Click here to view

CBS reported that foreigners stayed away despite Israel’s relaxing of restrictions, though they never address why or what restrictions were supposedly relaxed for that matter.

Contact CBS News

Maybe it’s the ghettoization of Bethlehem as described by Mary Ann Weston in the Chicago Tribune:

The city of Christ’s birth is now partially surrounded by a wall, much of it 25 or more feet high, an unbroken expanse of solid, gray concrete, a medieval city wall updated with 21st Century cameras and razor wire. The wall snakes through Bethlehem and the nearby countryside, separating farmers from their fields, workers from their jobs and families from their neighbors. …

The wall effectively annexes Israeli West Bank settlements, although they are considered illegal under international law. The settlements are fast-growing Israeli enclaves built on Palestinian land, their close-packed dwellings marching up once-forested hillsides like monochromatic Lego blocks. Bethlehem is surrounded by 27 settlements containing 73,000 people, according to Open Bethlehem, a local advocacy group. The settlements are connected by bypass roads that are off limits to Palestinians.

The wall and other Israeli restrictions on movement have made Christian and Muslim areas of the West Bank such as Bethlehem virtual ghettos

Anarchists Against the Wall block Central Tel Aviv

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Israeli activists have blocked central Tel Aviv with razor wire from the Apartheid Wall. The activists stretched the razor wire across Basel Street with a sign from the Wall that reads in Arabic, Hebrew and English: “Mortal Danger-Military Zone. Any person who passes or damages the fence endangers his life”.

The twenty activists from Anarchists Against the Wall, who attend the weekly Friday demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall in Bil’in, set up the blockade at around 2pm and started handing out flyers to passers by explaining the action.

The action was taken to protest the Apartheid Wall being built through the West Bank, as well as severe travel restrictions on Palestinians. The leaflets remind Israelis that they bear responsibility for the suffering of Palestinians as a result of their government’s apartheid
policies.

For details contact Yonaton Pollack: 0546327736
For photos contact Oren: 0523767272

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For YNet coverage click here
For Haaretz coverage click here

IOF illegally detain international volunteers for four hours

by ISM Hebron, December 26th

Two international volunteers were illegally detained for over four hours this morning. They were performing a routine visit to Qurtuba School to accompany Palestinian schoolchildren, who face physical violence and harrassment from settler-colonists.

The two volunteers, from South Africa and Spain, were accused of entering a house that was a Closed Military Zone according to the soldiers, although they failed to produce the necessary documentation. The home, now deserted, was once occupied by a Palestinian family that has since left due to the constant and unbearable harassment and abuse by settlers.

The home had been heavily defaced and marked with graffiti. This home is Palestinian property and the volunteers had no idea that this home was ‘out of bounds’.

The soldier that detained them at first, radioed for his superior who arrived almost an hour later and released the volunteers. He did this after inspecting their camera and advising the volunteers not to wander into the abandoned homes.

A few minutes later, the volunteers were detained individually at two separate checkpoints. The reason given for the subsequent detention was, “we were ordered to hold you until our superiors arrive to interrogate you!” It is highly unusual for IOF soldiers to detain foreign nationals as this is usually the responsibility of the police. In this case the police drove past but showed no interest in the incident.

After three hours, a senior army official arrived on the scene but quickly dismissed what was clearly an illegal detention by soldiers. However, the soldiers at the scene only released them an hour later. The volunteers felt that this was just a tactic by the soldiers to discourage them from coming to assist Palestinians living in the area. The cold today made the ordeal even worse for them. But as they said, “This was a lousy experience, but what the Palestinians go through day after day is really awful and much worse.”

Today’s illegal detention is merely the latest example of harrassment by Israeli forces of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Tel Rumeida, stretching back nearly two years when an international presence was first established in Tel Rumeida. On December 17th an Australian HRD was held for four hours whilst settlers trespassed Palestinian land, and a month ago Amnesty International highlighted the risks HRDs face from attack by settlers and the lack of action by Israeli forces.