International Solidarity Movement - Page 154 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Nabi Saleh Protest Ends With Tear Gas

8th of April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | West Bank, occupied Palestine

As on every Friday a group of Palestinians, supported by Israeli Peace Activists, Internationals and with an international media presence, came together in Nabi Saleh after midday prayers to protest the continued illegal occupation of Palestinian land by Israel.

In Nabi Saleh, Israel have taken and continue to deny Palestinian access to a well that lies between the village and the illegal settlement of Halamish. The weekly demonstration is a family-orientated affair involving many women, men and children whose farms and day-to-day lives have been severely affected by the lack of access to the water from the well. The protestors continue to demand an end to this gross abuse of the most basic of human rights.

There are two routes the protest can take but after excessive force and violence used by the Israeli Occupying Force at the previous demonstration, it was agreed by all present to take a potentially less dangerous route heading towards the top of the hill that faces the settlement and to proceed toward the well below it.

Led by the women and young girls the procession reached the top of the hill where the first sighting of the soldiers caused a brief pause. The protest moved carefully and slowly down the hill towards the road that intersects between the village and the settlement, still led by women and children, chanting, clapping and waving flags.

At this point the army fired three rounds of the deadly and extremely dangerous, long range, large, rubber-tipped bullets that separate in flight to release tear gas. This caused the protestors to pause their descent of the hill, however they did not disperse. As a result the army fired three more of the long range bullets, designed to pierce houses, directly at the protestors, although thankfully not hitting anyone. This did send them back to the top of the hill where they stayed back from the tear gas.

Leah, an Israeli activist attending the demonstration, looking down the hill to the soldiers said “I am ashamed of my country.” Having served in the army as a teenager she had seen the daily human rights abuses up close and now attended protests every week against the occupation and the conduct of the occupying forces.

Mohammed, a villager of Nabi Saleh, looking out over the gas stated “this isn’t about Palestine and Israel. Israel is just the face of the colonial and capitalist powers.” He hugged internationals, thanking them for coming and shook Leah’s hand as the protestors finally walked back to the village.

The Israeli Army continue to use the long range tear gas bullets, impossible to see when fired and potentially deadly if making contact with anyone and they continue to use them from inside the legal distance for firing.

For more information on the deadly long range weapons being deployed by the army at protestors see: http://bit.ly/1YiNt6X

And for a detailed report into previous human rights abuses at Nabi Saleh see: http://bit.ly/23oJxVJ

IOF Military Training Exercises in the Jordan Valley

4th April 2016|International Solidarity Movement | Al-Khalil Team, occupied Palestine

In the north of the Jordan Valley, and adjacent to the town of Tubass, are three agricultural communities: Yarza (with 4 families), Ibzk (13 families) and Samre (11 families). These families have existed on this land for hundreds of years, and some were born in a cave in the hills overlooking their homes. Their homes are regularly demolished; Yarza has been demolished five times with the last demolition occurring in August 2014.

The area is littered with ammunition, including bullets and landmines, as a result of the frequent Israeli Occupation Forces training exercises that occur here. These exercises are illegal under international law since this is an agricultural community, and they take place in close proximity to homes. Many of the residents have been injured or killed, according to activists who work for Jordan Valley Solidarity, including a father of three who was burying landmines in order to secure the safety of the community. One exploded, killing him instantly.

Soldiers training on Palestinian land.

The local community, with the help of different organizations, requested protection from the UN office in Ramallah, to no avail.

On Sunday, April 3rd the residents were notified that military training exercises would be taking place for two days starting Monday, April 4th, and they were to refrain from going out. However, the training started that night. When military training is taking place, the children are prohibited from going to school, since they are usually bussed to Tubass. Where they live has been designated Area C, and there are no schools within close proximity.

Palestinian family living in the village.

On April 4th, two International Solidarity Movement volunteers arrived at Yarza. There they observed the arrival of more than 200 heavily armed soldiers who arrived in buses and jeeps. They crossed the land the communities live on, many on foot, and positioned themselves over a small rise approximately 500 metres away. Throughout the night very loud explosions were heard all the way to the village of Tubass.

The communities feel very threatened by these actions, and the children especially are terrified by the presence of the Israeli soldiers and by the exceedingly loud explosions. The residents believe that there are many other areas further away that the IOF could choose instead of being so close by and endangering their safety.

This beleaguered community has suffered in countless ways; their livestock is regularly confiscated, their homes are frequently demolished, and worse yet, there have been lives lost to Israeli military training which could very easily take place elsewhere.

House demolitions in Um Al-Khair leaving children homeless

7th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Wednesday the 6th of April 2016 at 6 o’clock in the morning, Israeli forces demolished 6 homes in the village of Um Al Khair in the south Hebron Hills in the southern part of the occupied West Bank in Palestine. 36 people are now with out shelter. Most of these are children, who are now homeless.

Children standing on the land of their now demolished homes, Um Al-Khair

During the demolition of the 6 houses, the Israeli forces beat up an elderly man from the neighbourhood, who is the grandfather to some of the children, who was protecting the houses and trying to stop the demolition. The demolition order was made, to make an expansion of the near by settlement possible and to confiscate the land belonging to the Palestinian families.

This is not an unknown concept in the South Hebron Hills, which is an area that is very vulnerable and under constant threat of demolitions, because of the amounts of settlements and the lack of building permissions, that are not given. The two Hebron Hills villages of Tuwani and Susiya in particular are being targeted a lot, not just with demolition orders and subsequent demolitions, but also by settlers, who attack them often and by very violent means. The Palestinian children going to school in Tuwani who live out side of the village, need to have a military escort on the way to and from school, to avoid settler attacks while going through a piece of land that has been illegally stolen from the villagers, by the settlers.

Children being escorted to school by soldiers to avoid settler attacks

Just within the last few weeks, both Tuwani and Susiya have experienced demolitions and since the start of this year, more than 700 Palestinians have been left homeless and without shelter due to Israeli Forces demolishing Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank. In just over 3 months this is the same number for the whole of 2015.

Settlers expropriate Palestinian garden as police stand by

4th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Tel Rumeida, al Khalil, occupied Palestine

On Saturday 3^rd of April 2016 settlers entered land belonging to Muhammad Abu Haikal in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron on the occupied West Bank in Palestine. The settler children built a tent and then brought other settlers who prayed and ate there. It took more than four hours from when the police arrived until the settlers actually left, still claiming that it was their land and running around so that the police would not be able to evict them.

The first young settler kids arrived at the land at around 9 o’clock in the morning and started building a tent out of wood and sheets that they had found and playing on the land. They were actually playing in Muhammad Abu Haikal’s garden, but the end of the garden has been declared a closed military area by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who have made a military outpost in the garden and cut off the end of it of with barbed wire. The settler children entered the garden using the staircase that has been built for the soldiers to reach the outpost: they stamped down the barbed wire and covered it with a piece of wood to prevent themselves from getting injured.

Settlers and their children trespassing illegally on Palestinian land.

Later on, while the family was trying to pick almonds from trees in the part of the garden that is not a closed military Area, the settler children returned with a number of adult settlers and more children. Muhammed Abu Haikal and the internationals present asked the settlers to leave the land, but they refused. He then contacted the police.

After the police arrived, the settlers once again claimed to be the owners of the land, with the right to remain there. The Palestinian family was asked to step back and had to stop harvesting their garden. Not until after the settlers had prayed on the land multiple times, brought food and played ball there, did the police finally try to get them to leave. The police asked all Palestinians and internationals to leave as well, as they said, “it is impossible to make Israelis leave, if there are Palestinians on the land”. It then took the police over two hours to evict the settlers. They then removed the materials that the children had left on the part of the land that is not a closed military area, but refused to pull down the tent, because, they said, it was not allowed on Shabbat.

Finally the soldiers closed off the closed military area with more barbed wire and allowed the family back into their garden. If Palestinians had been trespassing on settlers land, which is illegally occupied, they would probably have been arrested immediately, but when it is the other way around, which it usually is, the police do not use any kind of force.

Ali Jiddah – an alternative tour guide

6th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine

Ali greets us international activists with a certain kind of warmth that those who are foreign to the middle east (or Palestine in this case) may have never experienced or have been accustomed to in our home countries. We have all learned very quickly to appreciate the culture that is being bestowed upon us and the welcoming nature of the Palestinian people; a nature which remained steadfast for more than a half century despite the ongoing, brutal occupation and despite what much of the media and certain governments from abroad would like you to think of the Palestinian people and the current situation they are facing.

He prepares seating arrangements for us to the best of his ability in his tiny family home, asking everyone to take a seat whilst he sits himself on a single bed that has been prepared in the living room. The bed has been placed there to accommodate the extra people in his family, due to the evident lack of space they endure whilst living in the highly dense African quarter of Jerusalem.

You know from the moment he begins to speak that Ali has natural charisma, charm and a quick way of thinking that has been acquired through a lifetime of hardship and struggle. Turning his past situation into positive ideas and proposed solutions for the future of Palestine. He sheds real food for thought for those who care to know the real situation the Palestinian people of Jerusalem, and Palestine as a whole, continue to face.

Ali was only eighteen years old in 1967 when he and some friends tired of the situation, along with the racial oppression that he ~~also~~ faced ~~from~~ being an afro-Palestinian ~~from the Israeli’s,~~ decided in an act of defiance to place a bomb at the entrance to Jaffa gate in Jerusalem. Nobody was killed, however nine Israeli soldiers were seriously wounded. Ali was soon found, arrested and tried for the crime that he had committed. His next seventeen years were to be spent in an Israeli jail, shaping and changing the way in which Ali would now live out the remainder of his life.

When released Ali started to run alternative tours throughout Jerusalem, bringing awareness to the situation that the people of Palestine and occupied Jerusalem face daily. However it’s a tour far different from the standardised religious journeys that the majority of internationals and passers by would participate in. In fact anyone fortunate enough to strike up conversation with Ali, who can be found near the entrance of Damascus gate, may just find themselves on one of the most worthwhile, informative and alternative tours in the old city.

Ali chain-smoked his cigarettes, pausing between inhalations, leaving long but comfortable silences as he pondered on what to tell us next, leaving us internationals on the edge of our seats. As he exhaled, the smoke danced in front of his face through the thin ray of sunlight that cut through the dimly lit room and onto his face.

Ali spoke to us about the current situation the Palestinians in the Islamic quarter face and the “tightening of the noose” on Palestinian shopkeepers by the occupying forces. He sees the Islamic quarter being reduced to nothing in the near future due to strategic economic strangulation by the Zionist government, heightening taxes and limiting the flow of tourisms and locals within the area. He explained to us the continued harassment and occupation of homes by the illegal Israeli settlers in the area.

Ali looks at the ideas put forth from the political parties regarding the situation facing the Israel/Palestine conflict, the one state or two state proposals that he deems have passed their used by dates, “the new Palestine, if there is to be one must come from the roots up.” This was a perspective that, in no small part due to my experiences on the ground as well as the conversations about the dead-end nature of past attempts at top-down political reorganisation I have had with Palestinians, I found myself in absolute agreement with.

Ali has toured internationally throughout Europe, giving speeches in varying countries and has received recognition and admiration wherever he has spoken.

My take on the day: Ali is a unique character, he is in no way what you would expect of a tour guide, he speaks from the heart (perhaps a little crudely at times!) and tells it how it is. He is extremely informative and brings about questions and points that no formal tour would dare speak of. All of which makes him and his talk captivating and extremely interesting in their own way. I would highly recommend him to anyone wanting to get to know the real Jerusalem. If you’re interested you can find him near the entrance to Damascus gate drinking coffee on most days. Just look out for the ‘Denzel Washington’ character as he likes to call himself.