International Solidarity Movement

Hundreds of people wait at Huwarra checkpoint when soldiers closed it completely on Thursday

by Michael

At Huwarra checkpoint on August 10th at 2:30, there was a crowd of up to 300 Palestinian people waiting to cross. The soldiers stationed at Huwarra checkpoint would not let anyone through and were aggressive and violent towards the crowd. Instead of standing in orderly lines of one or two people abreast, with their ID-cards ready, the men, women and children were spread out across the entrance of the checkpoint.

About twenty Israeli soldiers were shoving, yelling and poking their guns into the chests of people in the crowd, attempting to make them “get back”, “shut up” and “go into the pen.” The frustration of the Palestinians mounted at the closure of the checkpoint. Old men, mothers with children and shoppers of all ages were determined to push through the line of soldiers and refused to back off. People continued to make problems for the soldiers despite the fact that Israeli soldiers had fired live ammunition into the air only ten minutes before.

A female soldier attempts to remove the hijab of a woman wanting to cross the checkpoint

After some time, the frustrated crowd decided that old people and women with children should be allowed to pass. As two cars filled with Red Cross personnel backed up to wait on the side of the road, elderly Palestinians picked up their bags and simply walked through the car lane. Exasperated, the soldiers started checking their ID’s, pretending that this had been their plan all along. As the crowd started thinning, with several people pushing through at the same time, the military finally gave in and opened up the regular entrance to the checkpoint.

Perhaps as a form of retaliation, one of the female soldiers started checking each person who passed through her lane in a very rough manner. She grabbed several women’s hair, almost pulling their headscarfs off, and patted their breasts for an unnecessarily long time. The same soldier also inspected the men, groping their behinds and waist area in a culturally inappropriate and humiliating way. After some negotiation with a commander, the men were inspected by a male soldier.

The checkpoint at Huwarra will be full of people yet again being refused passage tomorrow, or at any time, but today people were able to use civil disobedience to force their way through.

Over 100 Palestinian men wait at Beit Furik checkpoint after Israeli military closed it completely

by Lina

After an exchange of fire between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli military on one of the apartheid roads connecting Israeli settlements north of Nablus, the Israeli military retaliated by collectively punishing Salim and other surrounding villages. About 15 Israeli jeeps entered the 5 500 person village of Salim, completely closing all entrance and exit to the village and interupting the festive preparation to the evening’s wedding party.

All the roads around Salim, including the dust paths ordinarily used by people to get around sporadically closed checkpoints, were blocked by military at around three o’clock in the afternoon and no one was allowed in or out of the village. Some frustrated people decided to try and cross over the open fields, with varying results. Several vehicles carrying people, all tired and hungry after a hard day at the office, were turned back at gunpoint.

Soldier points his loaded gun at Palestinians waiting in the checkpoint terminal

The major checkpoint at Beit Furik was also completely closed, affecting the inhabitants of not only Salim but of several villages in the area. The soldiers there initially promised to let women, children and sick people through, but were then given stricter orders by their commanders and closed the checkpoint completely. After some negotiation, women with very
young children and the ill were allowed to pass. A large crowd of about
100 men were, however, forced to wait for almost four hours before the
checkpoint was opened to them at about half past seven.

The elderly men of over 50 years of age were initially denied passage unless they backed away from the checkpoint and stood behind the metal barrier used to stop cars from driving through. The soldiers were, however, forced to stop this ridiculous order, seemingly purely designed to humiliate, since everyone decided to ignore it.

The roads around Salim were closed until around nine o’clock in the
evening, when the Israeli military finally left. Undaunted by this kind of
recurring interruption to their daily lives and trains of thought, the people of Salim are expecting the wedding festivities to go on all night.

Israeli soldiers shot the ceiling of a home when they entered to set up snipers inside

by Anna

Early Wednesday morning, August 9, soldiers invaded Balata Refugee Camp. They began the operation by occupying 2 homes. The mother in the first house heard them outside the door preparing to blow it open, but jumped out of bed screaming “No, wait! Just let me open it!” Twenty soldiers and one spy entered the home and woke both of the sons by nudging them and shouting in Hebrew, “wake up!” The sons opened their eyes to see the barrel of an M16 a foot from their face. The entire family was rounded up and stuck in one room where they were held without being able to use the restroom and without water for 3 hours. The Isaeli military was using this house to monitor the target of the operation, the house across the alley. As this was happening the soldiers also occupied another home in order to set up snipers in the flat as it was overlooking the alley.

Meanwhile in the street, there were about 70 soldiers and 4 spies waiting outside the target house. They called for everyone to come out of that house. When no one immediately immerged they began throwing sound bombs and grenades through the windows. The family was forced out. Four of the young men were arrested and taken to Huwara detention center. The rest of the family, including an elderly mother and small grandchildren were forced to wait in the street as the soldiers destroyed many of their possessions. They searched with dogs while continuing to explode grenades. They left about 5am. This is not the first time the army has come and destroyed the home. On May 18, 2003 they came in the middle of the night and blew it up and a nearby home as well, despite the efforts of ISMers who had chained themselves inside. The army arrested them and then proceeded to blow up the house. The mother says, “Every time we rebuild, they destroy.”

Soldiers trashed the house before they left

The family has seven sons. One is dead, two are in jail and now they have taken the remaining four. The army has said that one of the remaining four is “wanted” and for what they did not say. “There are currently 1,000 Palestinians being held without charges or trial, and 8,000 being held after military courts have convicted them, almost always on the basis of confessions which were extracted by torture”, Norman Finkelstein stated in a recent interview on DemocracyNow.

They released 3 of the sons in the early morning. One of the sons, Ahmed, 28, had already served time in prison when he was 14 for being wanted and since then has been shot 5 times by the Israeli army. Once they made him get out of his taxi and then shot him in the head and hand. He was also shot during a nonviolent support ralley for the prisoners on hunger strike and has been shot just being outside in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had just returned yesterday from a hospital in Jordon where he was seeking treatment for his hand. As he explained this to one of the soldiers last night, the soldier looked at his hand and pushed his finger in the hole where the bullet hand been. Then he slapped the cuffs tightly across the portion of his wrist that had been deformed from the injury. After cuffing him, he was beaten with guns, batons and fists.

There is still no word on the son in detention. They have 18 days to return him or renew the order.