22nd July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
Every Friday, many Palestinian Muslims come to Ibrahimi Mosque for prayers. To get to their place of worship, and home afterwards, they must run a gauntlet of Israeli military checkpoints. The Israeli Border Police invest their time and effort into making this a difficult and challenging experience for people whose only purpose in coming is to worship God.
Palestinian Muslim worshipers coming from the Souq are forced to wait in a cage. How long this will take- or whether they will get in- depends on the soldier who controls the gate.
They are then forced to stand in a metal detector, as they are searched for weapons. Some are patted down and frisked.
Some people are lucky and are ignored or waved through.
Others are forced to show their documents and open their bags before being allowed in.
Others are humiliated and made to wait and stand against the wall as the Border Police hold their IDs. From a very young age, children experience this humiliation as well.
This elderly man tried to go to his home, but permission was denied. He had to take the long way around.
While Palestinians in Hebron are forced to run a series of checkpoints and humiliations, the settlers have no such worries. They can go wherever they want.
Stopping, harassing and humiliating people can be a tedious job. The Israeli Border Police manning the checkpoint relax with smokes and drinks.
What is a humiliating and demeaning ordeal for the Palestinian residents of Khalil is just another day on the job for them.
20th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Quds team | Deir Qaddis, occupied Palestine
On the morning of July 14th, Israeli excavators arrived on Majid Mahmoud’s farmland in Deir Qaddis to begin work on an illegal expansion of a wastewater facility for the nearby illegal settlement of Nili. Construction vehicles and Occupation forces were met by about fifty Palestinians from Deir Qaddis and nearby Nil’in in protest of the theft and destruction of village land, who refused to leave until the construction was halted. Through nonviolent means the villagers managed to temporarily prevent the destruction of their grazing lands, though excavation and land clearing did resume in the days afterwards. Illegal settlements around Deir Qaddis have been expanding for decades, swallowing up thousands of dunams and dispossessing farmers and agricultural workers in the area.
Majid’s land, now on the other side of a settler road, has been rendered mostly inaccessible by both the expansion of illegal settlements and the threat of violence from Israeli forces and private settlement security.
“We have no rights under this Occupation. I cannot ask the soldiers why they are on my land. It is as if I am being beaten, but cannot question it or raise my hands to stop it,” Majid said. “We have all the papers to prove ownership, but it does not matter.”
Majid and members of the local council are planning to bring the case to court and have all the documentation necessary to do so. They are not optimistic, however, about their chances.
Though the people of Deir Qaddis did succeed in halting the illegal construction on Thursday, it has since resumed. Fares Naser, mayor of the village, has little confidence that the settlement expansion and illegal construction will ever end. “It will not stop,” said Fares, “and the next generation will wonder why it is this way.”
Deir Qaddis is surrounded on three sides by the Apartheid Wall and the illegal Israeli settlements of Nili, Modi’in Illit, and Na’aleh, cutting it off from much of the West Bank. According to Fares, only 4,000 of the village’s original 10,000 dunams have not yet been seized by Israeli forces and settlers. Over ninety percent of the Deir Qaddis is classified as “Area C,” territory in which Israel maintains full military and civil control.
In 1999, Israeli authorities assured the people of Deir Qaddis that all land lying west of the town would remain untouched. Israel has since broken that promise, with both state confiscation and private theft of valuable farmland within Deir Qaddis. According to international law, all Israeli settlements are illegal, as is nearly every piece of the Israeli colonial apparatus. Israel will continue to build, and the people of Deir Qaddis will continue to resist the ongoing theft of their land and livelihoods.
The illegal Israeli settlement of Nili overlooking village land.
20th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, East Jerusalem | East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine
ISM encourages everyone to copy and paste the letter below and send it to your Members of Parliament, Congresspeople, and other political representatives.
To support Shadi and his family financially during this very difficult time, please see: https://palsolidarity.org/donate/
Dear Sir/Madame:
I am writing to urge you to act and condemn the violations on children’s rights that are being enforced by the Israeli government against Palestinians. I am extremely concerned about the situation in Palestine, where children are repeatedly arrested, abused and imprisoned by the Israeli forces.
At the moment, the youngest Palestinian child who is being detained in Israel is 12 year old Shadi Farah. He has spent more than six months away from his family already, and the court keeps prolonging his case and the final decision. Evidence against Shadi is very poor. He is accused of attempted manslaughter – allegedly he carried a knife with the intend to stab an Israeli soldier, yet no one was ever hurt by his hand. His interrogation was inhumane and abusive, it lasted for days and neither his parents or lawyer were present.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by the Israeli government in 1991. Thereby the Israeli government committed to providing all children with a safe childhood, with the care, protection and opportunities that are needed to ensure that childhood is a time free from insecurity, violence or abuse.
This commitment is not being fulfilled by the Israeli government. At the moment, more than 400 Palestinian children are being kept in Israeli prisons. Three-quarters of Palestinian children jailed between 2012 and 2015 endured some form of physical violence following arrest.
According to Defence for Children International Palestine, in 179 of 429 cases, the Israeli military arrested children from their homes in the middle of the night. In 378 out of 429 cases, Israeli forces arrested children without notifying parents of the reason for arrest or the location of detention. In 97 percent of the cases, children had no parent present during interrogation or access to legal counsel. Furthermore, Israeli police did not inform children of their rights in 84 percent of the cases. DCI Palestine informs that 66 children were held in solitary confinement, for an average period of 13 days, during the reporting period. More than 90 percent of children held in solitary confinement provided a confession. This confession is often being used as the only form of evidence to convict the child, as is the case with Shadi.
I beg you to express your concern about this in the Parliament/Congress/EU/UN and make sure that the grave issue of violations of Palestinian children’s rights is being brought to the attention of the Israeli government. Please remind Israel that by ratifying the UN Convention they are obliged to protect every child, in the state of Israel as well as in occupied Palestine. No child deserves the treatment that Palestinian children face every day.
Yours sincerely,
Shadi’s mother, holding a photo of her son.
Shadi with his best friend, Muhammad, and with his father, Anwar Farrah.
20th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Quds team | Jerusalem, occupied Palestine
Shadi Farah is just 12 years old, but he’s caught in a trap that few adults ever manage to work their way out of. Last December, Shadi and his Friend Ahmad Zaatari, 13, were arrested at a bus stop in Jerusalem. A group of East Jerusalem illegal settlers called police to investigate the two boys, on suspicion of being Palestinian. In the ensuing process of arrest, interrogation, and abuse, the Israeli police proclaimed that the two boys had gone to Jerusalem with the intent to stab a soldier, and subsequently charged them both with attempted manslaughter. The evidence is slim, the boys confessed after several days of abusive questioning with no lawyer or parent present, and a lone witness was produced to claim the boys had been talking about stabbing soldiers at their school. According to Shadi’s family, he still maintains his innocence. But in the he-said-she-said world of Israeli courts, any evidence is enough to convict a Palestinian, and the boys are stuck.
Unlike most Palestinian Political Prisoners, Shadi and Ahmad’s case differs in a few ways. The boys have East Jerusalem IDs, meaning they are being tried in civilian courts, not military courts. While civilian courts are rarely kinder to accused Palestinians, there is more oversight than in the military system. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, as East Jerusalem residents under the age of 14, they are not imprisoned; they are in al Marsa youth detention centre in Northern Israel. While a youth detention centre may sound preferable, it isn’t.
“It would be better if he was in prison.” Said Shadi’s mother, Farehan Farah.
Al Marsa centre is a place for Israeli teenage criminals. The other detainees are older than Shadi and Ahmad, and are doing time for crimes such as theft, assault, and drug possession. Shadi’s family reports that the older detainees have threatened the boys on numerous occasions. The centre provides activities for all detainees; however Shadi and Ahmad have been banned from activities and are confined to their rooms, spending most of the day under what amounts to solitary confinement. The centre has not commented on whether this is a precaution to keep the boys safe from the older detainees, or if it is additional punishment. The living conditions in a prison might not be much better, but at least there the boys would be in the company of other Palestinians who are caught in the vicious political system, who could provide some amount of care and support.
In addition to being isolated within the centre, Shadi is also frequently isolated from his family. Al Marsa allows for weekly visits, however the cost and logistics pose a problem. Shadi’s parents don’t make very much money, and the cost of renting a car and paying for gas exceed 800 NIS ($213) per trip. While Shadi has a Jerusalem ID, his mother does not, which means she has to go through the laborious permit application process every time she wants to visit. If Shadi was in a prison, his family would be eligible to participate in the prisoner visitation program sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross. This would mean that all costs and permit application would be processed for them. Since he is not, the family receives no assistance for visitations. Farehan has only seen her young son a handful of times since he was arrested seven months ago.
To support Shadi and his family financially through this time and help bring him home, please click on the following link: https://palsolidarity.org/donate
Shadi’s family has hope that because of the flimsy evidence, and Shadi’s young age, he may yet be released from detention. Even if the family can’t have the charges dropped, they are trying to have him brought home and placed under house arrest for the duration of his trial, which could last for years. However it would take more than the effort of a court appointed lawyer. Supporters can contribute to the legal fees fund for the Farah family, or by writing to your congressional/parliamentary representatives, to insist they build pressure on Israel for their arbitrary detention of Palestinian children, especially 12-year-old Shadi Farah.
Shadi’s mother, holding a photo of her son
Shadi with his best friend, Muhammad, and with his father, Anwar Farrah.
13th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
During one of our walks today, we came across a sight that very unfortunately is all too common in this city. A group of men and women were queuing up to go to the Ibrahimi Mosque – believed by both Jews and Muslims in Hebron to contain the tomb of Abraham – to pray.
Palestinians who come from the Souq need to go through a gate that is controlled electronically. Today, one of the border police officers manning it, for whatever reason, decided to make this a difficult and humiliating ordeal for a Palestinian.
A man, his wife, and his mother were going to the mosque to pray.The border police officer controlling the gate let the man’s wife through.When it was the man’s turn, he closed the gate, and told the guy he will not get through. No reason was provided. The man unbuckled and took off his belt and showed he was unarmed, but the officer didn’t care. The man then got upset and began yelling at the officer, who just ignored him and told him he will not be letting him through. Then he refused to open the gate that would let the man leave, effectively leaving him trapped between two gates. Exasperated, the Palestinian man climbed over the gate and started his way back home. The soldiers threatened to chase him and he ran. His wife went back with him.
What security or moral purpose can be achieved by denying a man the right to go to his place of worship, and humiliating him in front of everyone else? He was not trying to start a fight, he was trying to go and pray, along with his wife and mother.
There was no reason for such behaviour on the part of the soldier, other than a cruel display of power. Sadly, these types of things happen again and again in this city. Another aspect of the reality faced by the Palestinians living under Israeli military rule.
The man takes off his belt to show to the Border Police officer that he is unarmed.
As others watch, the man tries to plead with the Border Police officer manning the gate for the permission to go the mosque to pray.
Others are forced to show their documents and open their bags before being allowed in.
Others are humiliated and made to wait and stand against the wall as the Border Police hold their IDs. From a very young age, children experience this humiliation as well.
This elderly man tried to go to his home, but permission was denied. He had to take the long way around.
While Palestinians in Hebron are forced to run a series of checkpoints and humiliations, the settlers have no such worries. They can go wherever they want.
Stopping, harassing and humiliating people can be a tedious job. The Israeli Border Police manning the checkpoint relax with smokes and drinks.
