16th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
On the 15th of July in the afternoon, the people of Kafr Kaddum took part in a demonstration against the Israeli Army’s continuing theft of their road. The soldiers checked cars going in and out of the village, and stationed snipers in the bushes and on top of the hill. The Israeli Army also brought men in dark uniforms, a special unit that is used to quell prison disturbances. They had a jeep that was loaded with teargas. Clearly, their main goal was to intimidate the demonstrators and stop the protest from happening.
Palestinian demonstrators march towards the road
Palestinians, Israelis and internationals alike were in the crowd. After some chanting, the people tried to do a march but as soon as they got close to the hill where soldiers were stationed, stun grenades were thrown at them. The Israeli soldiers also fired rubber coated steel bullets at the Palestinian youth, as well as several volleys of teargas towards both them and the rest of the crowd. Although no one was hit by their ammunition, many people suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation.
Before leaving the Israeli Army made sure to destroy the main water pipe of the village, which will cost some 3000 NIS to repair. An overwhelming use of force was employed against a people who are simply fighting for the return of their road, which was illegally stolen from them in 2003.
29th June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
In occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), possibilities for Palestinian children to play are scarce. With the help of the Playgrounds for Palestine project, a brand-new playground was installed at Qurtuba school in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of al-Khalil.
Right to play – can you imagine that as a child, when playing, you’d need to be scared of being attacked, your parents worried whenever you’re out playing, and playing with your friends and enjoying something that is denied to you by a foreign occupying army?
The Tel Rumeida neighborhood is in the H2 area of al-Khalil, under full Israeli military control. After more than six months of collective punishment by the means of a ‘closed military zone’, deliberately designed to affect only the Palestinian population, this measure was officially lifted on 14th May 2016. Despite the lifting of some of the measures intended to forcibly displace the Palestinian population – and thus only a slightly disguised attempt at forced displacement, many of the restrictions applying on Palestinians have remained in place.
A staircase leading to Qurtuba school at the end of the tiny strip of Shuhada Street where Palestinian pedestrians are still allowed to be, is still under a complete closure – for Palestinians, whereas settlers, Israeli forces and anyone resembling a tourist is allowed to pass freely. This apartheid measure severs all the families accessing their homes through these stairs, as well as visitors to the Muslim cemetery and a weekly second-hand market of their main access, forcing them to take long detours. The many restrictions have also forced the project to carry large amounts of the materials through the neighborhood, as Palestinian cars are not allowed in the area. On one day, the workers were prevented from continuing their work on the playground and forced to leave by Israeli forces.
Palestinians carrying materials to the playground
For the children growing up in this area, childhood is short. Child-arrests, even of children less than 12 years and thus illegal even under Israeli military law that is universally applied on the Palestinian population in the Israeli occupied West Bank, are not uncommon, as are humiliations and intimidations by the Israeli forces and settlers under the full protection of the Israeli forces.
The right to play, for Palestinian children, is only a theoretical concept, that often lacks any practical meaning, when growing up next to illegal settlements under a foreign military occupation. Playing on the streets of their neighborhood for most children is dangerous, as settlers do not even restrain from attacking children. In a nearby Palestinian kindergarten, Israeli settlers overnight stole a large role of artificial grass intended to be part of the play-area for the children attending the kindergarten. With no institution to address this, the artificial grass is merely lost and missing in the play-area.
The installation of the playground at Qurtuba school, thus, is a sign of hope for the Palestinian children. An opportunity for the children to be exactly that: children. To play with their friends and enjoy their childhood, have fun and laugh.
12th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Quds team | Kufr Malik, occupied Palestine
On July 9th at 4:00 in the morning, the Be’rat family awoke to find Israeli soldiers pounding on the door of their home in Kufr Malik, demanding that Jihad, the son of Mohammed Tawfik and Nadia Mustafa, report for interrogation. Jihad, however, passed away twenty two years ago, before reaching the age of fifteen days.
Israeli forces demanded that everyone in the house show some form of identification, including the children, and continued to ask for Jihad. After explaining the situation to the soldiers, Jihad’s mother was asked to present her son’s death certificate as proof. “They pulled open my heart and made me remember my son,” Nadia said of the experience. The soldiers did not return the death certificate. The children, though quite used to Israeli incursions into the village, were also traumatized by the event.
This particular event serves as an example of the Israeli military’s arbitrary and indiscriminate methods in their selection and targeting of “suspects.” The case also highlights the absolute lack of legal rights those living under Occupation have, as Palestinians are always considered guilty until proven innocent, and accusations are filed regardless of whether or not one is already dead or imprisoned.
According to the Palestinian prisoners rights group Adameer, there are currently at least seven thousand political prisoners in Israeli jails. Over 400 of these prisoners are children. Of those arrested, few are immediately notified of the crime they are being accused of committing, and many are never informed of the specific allegations. Israel’s policy of administrative detention allows Occupation forces to arrest Palestinians without charge and hold them for an infinitely renewable period of six months. Over seven hundred Palestinians are currently being held without charge in administrative detention.
Delivered at 4:00 in the morning, the Israeli document demands that the deceased member of the Be’rat family report for interrogation
12th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
The current al-Khalil team were privileged to visit the Women in Hebron centre located in Idna, just outside of al-Khalil city.
Two women making a rug that takes approximately two weeks to completeNursery at the centre to facilitate the women bringing their children while they workDifferent designs of kafiasEmbroidery workThe centre was full of laughing and smilesDetailed embrodiery workA beautiful, social atmosphere is fostered at the centreAfter your pillow cases are handmade, they’re hand ironed as wellThe workstationMake Apartheid HistoryIt took a few takes to get a photo of the women, but we love all of the photos
Make sure you visit Women in Hebron and support them and other local organisations in al-Khalil who suffer greatly from the ongoing occupation which reduces the number of tourists and locals alike who visit the beautiful old city of al-Khalil.
12th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Kufr Kaddoum, occupied Palestine
During a Friday demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, Israeli forces fired teargas and live ammunition directly at demonstrators, bystanders, children, and a parked ambulance. Soldiers arrested two Palestinian journalists and a Red Crescent medic, and injured an 18 year old British national with live fire. Despite attempts by community leaders, including the mayor of Kafr Qaddum and the Qalqilya DCL, to negotiate with the Israeli commander and his officers, Occupation forces continued to suppress the demonstration with extraordinary recklessness and brutality.
A young Palestinian boy looks on as community leaders attempt to reason with the occupying forces
Following midday prayers, around a hundred villagers gathered together, along with a number of Israeli and international activists and observers, and peacefully began the weekly march down the main (now inaccessible) road to Nablus. At least two-dozen Israeli soldiers had already positioned themselves inside the village, and began firing tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets as soon as the crowd was within view. Despite this, the crowd pushed forward. During a moment of calm, a number of community leaders including the mayor of Kafr Qaddum and the Qalqilya DCL attempted to negotiate with the Israeli commander. The Palestinian representatives presented their original demands, which include the unconditional reopening of the main road to Nablus. After thirty minutes of dialogue which left the people of the town optimistic but unsatisfied, the demonstration resumed and teargas began to rain down once again. Israeli forces began firing large amounts of rubber coated steel bullets, stun grenades as well as live ammunition. After shooting more teargas, Occupation forces arrested two Palestinian journalists and a Red Crescent medic. The three individuals were released later that day, but many of those arrested in Kafr Qaddum are not so lucky. Israeli forces regularly make use of drone technology to capture images of and identify demonstrators for the purposes of eventually arresting them during night raids on the village.
Red Crescent medics tends to the injured after excessive Israeli force
In Kafr Qaddum and all over the West Bank, police and military forces have been increasing their use of high-velocity teargas canisters, known to Palestinian demonstrators as “rockets” and to Israeli forces as “interior barricade penetrators.” These weapons have been responsible for numerous deaths and critical injuries over the years, as the canisters, though meant to be shot into the air and arc downwards, are almost exclusively fired directly at individuals. The frequent use of these high-velocity canisters in Kafr Qaddum follows a disturbing yet familiar trend: use of deadly force as a first resort. New regulations introduced in December of 2015, but kept classified until recently, authorize use of deadly force on anyone who is throwing, or appears to be preparing to throw a stone or firecracker. Mohammad Bassam, lead attorney for the minority rights group Adalah has stated that, “the new regulations relate to such actions (throwing stones or firecrackers) as if they were acts of war and grant legitimacy to light-trigger fingers [among officers], thus posing a fatal danger to the lives of young Palestinians.” Empty canisters litter the ground in Kafr Qaddum, and nearly all the windows that are not barred have been shattered by them.
For five years the people of Kafr Qaddum have been holding weekly demonstrations, protesting the closure of their main road to Nablus and the expansion of the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim, which surrounds the village. In 2003, the road was sealed permanently by an Israeli roadblock, extending the ten minute commute to Nablus to about forty minutes. The roadblock has had severe economic consequences for the people of Kafr Qaddum, as many who once worked in nearby Nablus have had to seek alternatives. The United Nations estimates that movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli Occupation, such as the situation in Kafr Qaddum, cost Palestine about 185 million USD each year.
After five years of regular demonstrations, Kafr Qaddum continues to resist.
