Hebron Settlers Vandalise Palestinian School

by Joe

June 22nd: Shortly after 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, a Palestinian youth informed two human rights workers sitting on Shuhada St. that settler youth were attacking the retaining wall just built alongside the new brick path to the Qurtuba School. When we reached the staircase up to the path, we saw three settler boys, aged approximately 10-12, on the path. When they saw us and our video camera, they immediately ran from the scene and crossed back to the Beit Hadassah settlement.

The settler boys had apparently used one large boulder and several bricks to smash some of the breeze-blocks the new wall is made of. In all, they damaged 26 of the 95 blocks that make up the top row of the retaining wall, which is part of an improvement program funded by the international monitoring group TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). They almost totally destroyed some of the blocks, but did not get to the second layer of blocks. If human rights workers had not been stationed nearby, the damage would undoubtedly have been much worse.

The human rights workers video-taped the damage and called the police, the army office, and TIPH to report the incident. A police jeep arrived 5-10 minutes later, but the police officers refused to get out of their vehicle to survey the damage or to talk to the settlers. TIPH promised to send one of its monitoring teams to inspect the damage to the project it is financing, but as of 6:40 p.m. the team had not arrived.

At around 6 p.m. one of three Palestinian youth talking with a human rights worker on the path was hit in the arm and cut by a sharp stone thrown by a settler boy hiding behind a car parked in front of the settlement.

More photos of the destruction can be seen at:
Settlers Attack

Assassinated in Ramallah

by Noah

22nd June: At about 8.30pm tonight, the Israeli army carried out another incursion here in Ramallah, assassinating Ayman Khateb, a member of the Palestinian intelligence. Initial reports in the Israeli media are claiming that he was also a member of the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades, which is possible, but unconfirmed right now. He assassinated by undercover Israeli forces. The Israeli army was then brought in so that the assassins could make good their escape. They injured at least two other people in the process. The soldiers reportedly shot the body again for good measure before they left.

This all happened here in the Old City of Ramallah or “Lower Ramallah”, the same neighbourhood that I live and work in. Only one block away from us in the ISM Media office, we heard loud gunfire close by and could tell that it was not from a celebration or protest. All the shops in the street below quickly closed up. Very soon after this, several Israeli army jeeps sped past our street towards the direction that the gunfire was coming from.

People came out onto the street in clusters, sharing news and wondering what to do. A group of us from the ISM office went onto the street to talk to people and see if we could be useful in any way. We got into a position from which we could film the jeeps from a distance. We heard they had shot someone, and no one was being allowed close to him. By the time we got there he was dead and the jeeps had left. We witnessed the dead and injured being taken away in ambulances, as well as the scene of destruction left behind. A falafel shop had been trashed so that the soldiers could use it as cover. It was on a street I regularly walk down. I had stood near that very spot only a few days previously as a friend bought falafel from one of the street vendors.

This comes on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would continue its policy of targeted assassinations of Palestinian fighters, because “the lives and the welfare of the residents of the Sderot [an Israeli town bordering Gaza] are more important than those of the residents of Gaza”. At exactly the same time, Israel is regularly carrying out so many massacres of civilians in Gaza that it’s hard to keep up. They even try to deny that it was them behind it, when it’s obvious that they were. The idea that there is a “ceasefire” and “restraint” from Israel is frightening.

Separation Wall Divides Neighborhood in Bethlehem

From Bethlehem Bloggers

The comments that will be posted by Zionists after this blog entry will possibly try and argue that “the wall is to stop the terrorists” and “if the terrorists stopped bombing Israel, there would be no need for this” and “the Palestinians bomb us because they hate us.” or sometimes even “we won the war fair and square – therefore we won the land.” All of these comments have been posted in responce to previous blog articles before.

Non of these comments have anything whatsoever to do with the above pictures. This ‘tunnel’ was driven through a previously prosperous area of Bethlehem in order to create a ‘safe passage’ so that Jewish Orthodox settlers could visit Rachel’s Tomb.

To clarify this further, this entire area has been economically and infastructurally devastated – distrupting and destroying the day to day lives of thousands of Christian and Muslim Palestinians – so that a small number of Israeli citizens can continue to visit a holy site in a city which they have no entitlement to under international law.

This sort of action does not demonstrate that the Israeli state feels hatred towards the Palestinians. Nor does it demonstrate that they are intimidated by the Palestinians and wish to secure themselves against attack. It proves that the Israeli state is willing to entirely ignore the very existence of the Palestinians. It proves that they are willing to place the religous ‘right to worship’ of their own people above the very infastructural viability of a Palestinian city.

It is for this reason that the Palestinians are angry. It is for this reason that some in Palestine choose to respond with violence. For every street that is calved in half, for every civilian that is ‘accidentally’ killed in a raid, for every field that is destroyed to make way for a new settler road, for every house that is demolished to build a new settlement; hundreds more Palestinians are over come with anger. If you want peace, the first move must be yours Israel, and you know what it is; LEAVE US ALONE, WITDRAW FROM THE ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND STOP DESTROYING OUR INFASTRUCTURE. TREAT US AS EQUALS AND WE WILL TREAT YOU AS NEIGHBORS.

Video: Israeli soldier refuses to intervene as settlers stone human rights workers


To download the video click here

June 14th: At approximately 12:30 PM, two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) on Shuhada Street noticed a group of between 8 and 10 settlers boys between the ages of 9 and 12 carrying plastic bags filled with water. The boys were coming out of the Beit Hadassah settlement and were headed up the stone stairs towards Qurtoba, a Palestinian school building. The HRWs followed the boys to the stairs and were attacked with the bags of water. The soldier on duty at the Israeli military post spoke to the HRWs in Hebrew and made gestures for them to leave. The HRWs told the soldiers they only spoke English and asked him to get the kids to stop attacking them. The soldier did nothing and the children began throwing rocks at the HRW.

To read the full report please click here.

While the World Watches, Palestinians Die

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This Friday, the 23rd of June, the villagers of Bil’in will be joined by Israeli and international supporters in their weekly demonstration against the apartheid barrier built in their land. They will carry a large football and wear t-shirts bearing the flags of the nations participating in the Football World Cup The demonstration will call on the world not to forget the killing and oppression of Palestinian people that continues under the occupation, even as everyone is engrossed in watching the World Cup on TV.

For more information call:
Abdullah Abu Rahme: 054 725 8210
ISM Media Office: 02 297 1824