Settler Violence Against Human Rights Observers and Palestinians in Hebron

Tel Rumeida, Incident Report by Sarah

After the main group of settlers had passed us on the hill, Moran and I followed the rest of them up to the intersection at the top of the hill where many of them were milling around.

We wondered where Eva and Sarah were. We later found out that they had been forced into the shop by the crowd of settlers chanting “death to the arabs” and by the soldiers. The store keepers had bolted the door and showed them the back way out and they had made their way to the stairs of the apartment.

Moran and I observed about 10 small settler boys (of varying ages between 6 and 12) throwing stones up toward our apartment and yelling (although we could not understand what). We thought they knew it was the internationals’ apartment and were just generally showing hostility, but we realised later they had seen Eva and Sarah and that is who they were yelling at.

An apparently senior member of the settler group with a long beard and prayer shawl aged about 50 was shooing the boys away, and three police officers were also scattering the boys.

After less than 5 minutes one of the police approached us and spoke Hebrew to Moran: they told us to get out of here for our safety.

We returned a short way back past the soldier station down the hill and watched until the group dispersed in both directions (towards the tombs and Tel Remeida settlement).

Generally it was a very intimidating day with settlers harranguing us and the boys spitting on us (I got big green ones on 3 different occasions during the day). I also witnessed Galit intervene to stop a settler girl (around 15 years old) from touching a Palestinian child, and the girl slapped her. She was walking with a family group consisting of parents, baby carriage, a small boy and 2 teenage girls. Settler parents of often actively encourage their children to assault Palestinians and stand with them as they stone Palestinian children.

The Land Grab Continues in West Bank

Mohamed, 13, runs with the Palestinian flag on a beach near the former Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim, 12 September 2005. Mohamed said this was the first time he had been to the beach since he was born. Thousands of residents of the Southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis came to the coast which is just some 3 km (2 miles) away. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

From Ya’acov Mano, Gush Shalom

Request for letter campaign
Repression of Human Rights and Land Grab at the Village of Bil’in

The State of Israel is erecting the Separation Wall on Palestinian land out of “security considerations,” while the true objective is to annex land west of the Wall into Israel.

This provocative act is being conducted against the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, as well as the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations which accepted the ruling of the Court. This act is being carried out with all the oppressive and violent means at the disposal of the occupying forces – through shooting and killing, serious injury, beating and threats, closures and curfews, and fear and intimidation tactics.

This aggression is currently faced by a growing non-violent opposition to this land grab and denial of Palestinians’ human rights to exist and live freely on their native land.

Israeli and international activists for peace and human rights are expressing their opposition to this act through joint demonstrations and protest campaigns.

Up until now the State of Israel has built 180 Km of the planned 620 km of the Separation Wall, appropriating tens of thousands of acres of private land, uprooting tens of thousands of olive and fruit trees, and destroying the entire fabric of life of hundreds of thousands of people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The village of Bil’in is a small and peaceful village near Ramallah, whose 1,700 residents gain their livelihood through agriculture and occasional external employment. The Separation Wall is appropriating 50% of the village lands and about 70% of its cultivated area.

The real objective of the Wall’s route in this area, as in others, is the expansion of the massive settlement of Upper Modi’in illit. This settlement has already 35,000 residents, and according to the plans of the Ministry of Housing, will number, in 2020 150,000 people. The expansion of Modi’in Illit is being done at the expense of the seized lands of Bil’in and neighboring villages.

Now, with the world congratulating the Israeli Government on its implementation of the Disengagement Plan and the withdrawal of 7,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip, thousands of housing units continue to be built for new settlers in the West Bank, 3,000 of which are on Bil’in’s lands.

While the army now uses force to prevent the right to demonstrate, we invite everyone to protest against this oppression and against the denial of life and basic human rights of the Palestinian people in general, and of the village of Bil’in in particular.

Please pass on this call for action from the hearts of all freedom-lovers to all your friends, to the Government of Israel,to the Israeli Representatives in your country, to your own governments, to your Members of Congress and Members of Parliament, resound the cry of those who are being silenced. Help us put halt the repression of non-violent popular protest in this struggle to stop the building of the Separation Wall of Hate in Bil’in.

With your help Bil’in will not fall!

Sample letter:

Dear Sir,

Re: The Separation Barrier in the West Bank

More than a year ago, the International Court at The Hague ruled that the construction of the separation barrier on Palestinian lands is in violation of International Law. Later, this ruling was adopted by the UN general assembly. Despite all this, Israel continues to build the separation barrier on Palestinian lands. Reports in the media indicate that under the guise of security, the barrier’s route is annexing about ten percent of the West Bank into Israel, thus frustrating any prospects for a viable Palestinian state and for the end of the conflict in the region.

Undeniably, Israel has the right to defend its citizens against terror. However, this does not allow it to grab Palestinian land and to destroy the basic fabric of life in many villages and towns in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The route of the barrier invades deep into the West Bank in an attempt to encircle almost every settlement possible. Palestinian villages and towns are caught in small enclaves.

Recently, the small village Bil’in has reached the headlines when essentially non-violent demonstrations there were brutally suppressed by Israeli security forces. Palestinians, Israelis and protestors from other countries faced the same reaction from the army: tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and physical violence.

In Bil’in, the barrier confiscates half of the lands of the village, depriving its residents of their livelihood and future. At the same time, the nearby settlement Modi’in Illit continues to expand eastward, on the lands left west of the route.

Ironically, the same barrier devised to bring security is already the cause of clashes, disquiet and violence. If the construction of the barrier continues, the long-term consequences are likely to be more violence and bloodshed.

There are compelling legal, humanitarian and security reasons to challenge the barrier’s current route. There is clear international interest in securing stability and peace in the Middle East. The barrier will clearly achieve the opposite.

I therefore call upon you do whatever you can to stop the construction of the barrier in its present route and to bring about the dismantling of the parts of the barrier already built on Palestinian lands.

Send protest letters to:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Fax: 02-6513955
e.mail: pm_eng@it.gov.il

Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres
fax: 03-6954156
e.mail: s_peres@netvision.net.il

Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom
fax: 02-5303704
e.mail: sar@mofa.gov.il

Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz
fax: 03-6976218
e.mail: sar@mod.gov.il

Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni
fax: 02-6287757
e.mail: sar@justice.gov.il

Minister of Internal Security Gideon Ezra
fax: 02-5811551
e.mail: sar@mops.gov.il

Minister of Construction and Housing, Isaac Herzog
fax: 02-5847688
e.mail: sar@moch.gov.il

Israeli War Criminals Find Tough Crowd Abroad

Israeli war criminals are finding more challenges as they attempt to travel abroad. The International Solidarity Movement encourages all those concerned about human rights to continue pressuring the United Nations against inviting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to to address the U.N. General Assembly’s sixtieth regular session on Thursday.

Meanwhile, folks in Canada are pressing for legal action to be taken against retired Israeli Colonel Zeev Raz when he arrives to speak in Vancouver to speak at Temple Shalom on Saturday, and General Almog, former head of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, was unable to get off his plane at London’s Heathrow airport Monday as a warrent for his arrest over alleged war crimes was issued by an English court the previous day. There’s much that you can do to bring these men to justice for the crimes they’ve committed against Palestinians.

Here’s background on the three cases:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s speech to the U.N. General Assemble on Sept. 15

This comes from Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition:

On Thursday, September 15, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the man responsible for the massacres of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese, will speak before the United Nations General Assembly as part of the “World Summit.” On the twenty-third anniversary of the killing of thousands of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila camps in Lebanon under Sharon’s watch, the war criminal Ariel Sharon will speak as an honored guest at the United Nations in New York City. JOIN US to express our outrage at Sharon’s presence in New York City before the United Nations, a body whose resolutions he has repeatedly flouted and ignored!

UN Resolution 194 guarantees the right to return to all Palestinian refugees. While Sharon speaks before the UN, he refuses to honor and implement UN Resolution 194 or countless additional resolutions denouncing Zionist occupation of Palestine and requiring the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people. On the contrary, he has continued his decades-long campaign of brutality against the Palestinian Arab people, dedicated to eradicating their very existence. From Qibya in 1952 to Sabra and Shatila in 1982 to Jenin in 2002, Ariel Sharon is a butcher and a war criminal who should be on trial at the Hague, not speaking before the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Join Al-Awda New York on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM to declare that SHARON IS NOT WELCOME HERE and to demand the UN immediately act to implement Resolution 194, the RIGHT TO RETURN OF ALL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES TO THEIR ORIGINAL HOMES AND PROPERTIES!

Organizational endorsements and involvement are welcome! Please email protestsharon@al-awdany.org to endorse or for more information!

Partial list of endorsers (list in formation): NY Committee to Defend Palestine, NJ Solidarity – Activists for the Liberation of Palestine, NYC Jericho Movement, Troops Out Now Coalition, New York City Labor Against the War, Coalition to Free the Angola 3, ANSWER NY, NYC Free Mumia Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago

Please email your endorsements to: opposesharon@yahoo.com

For information on the NY demo on September 15, please go to Al-Awda New York’s website.

For other mobilizations of public protest against Ariel Sharon’s address to the United Nations, see Stop The Wall.

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Retired Israeli Colonel Zeev Raz’s trip to Canada on Sept. 17

Hanna Kawas, the Chair of the Canada Palestine Association and the host of “Voice of Palestine” writes to Irwin Cotler, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada:

It has came to our attention that Retired Israeli Colonel Zeev Raz, who led the illegal Israeli aggression against Iraq in 1981 and destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor, will be in Vancouver to speak at Temple Shalom on September 17, 2005.

Canada and the UN condemned this terrorist raid that endangered the lives of the Iraqi civilian population and encroached on the sovereignty of a UN member state.

We demand that you immediately ask the Canadian courts to issue an arrest warrant against this war criminal, who is being brought to Vancouver to publicly brag about his illegal exploits.

If Canada truly upholds international law and behaves in an even-handed manner, Colonel Raz should be held accountable for his and his government’s illegal actions.

If Canada does not take action immediately, it will show the world that Canada practices hypocrisy and the worst kind of double standards. It will also clearly demonstrate the total pro-Israel bias of your government and its disregard for the human rights and the sanctity of human life in the Arab world.

Canadians intersted in holding this human rights criminal accountable are encouraged to contact Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler; Prime Minister Paul Martin; and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
284 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
email: webadmin@justice.gc.ca

Paul Martin Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1A 0A2
Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
email: pm@pm.gc.ca

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6, Canada
Telephone: (613) 992-4524
Fax: (613) 943-0044
McLellan.A@parl.gc.ca

Israeli army General Doron Almog escapes arrest in London on Sept. 11

The following statement comes from Amnesty International:

Amnesty International today deplored the failure of the United Kingdom (UK) authorities to arrest Israeli army General Doron Almog when he arrived at London’s Heathrow airport yesterday, describing this as a clear violation of the UK’s obligations under both national and international law. A warrant for the general’s arrest for alleged war crimes had been issued by an English court the previous day.

The organization is now calling on the UK authorities to urge Interpol to circulate the arrest warrant and on other states party to the Geneva Conventions to cooperate with the UK in carrying out the arrest and handing over General Almog to the UK’s court.

General Almog, former head of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, landed at London Heathrow airport on 11 September 2005 on a flight from Tel Aviv. However, he declined to disembark from the aircraft apparently after being informed that he could be arrested. Meanwhile, London’s Metropolitan Police reportedly refused to enter the plane to effect the general’s arrest and then allowed him to depart from the UK for Israel on the same El Al aircraft on which he had arrived.

“The refusal to arrest a person suspected of war crimes is a clear violation both of the UK’s unconditional obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and under national law,” said Amnesty International, calling for the refusal to execute the arrest warrant to be investigated.

It is difficult to believe that the police would have refused to arrest a person who had arrived in the UK on board an airliner if that person was wanted for drug-trafficking or security offences, simply because they had not passed through UK border controls, if that meant they would otherwise evade arrest.

It is not known whether the information which alerted General Almog that he would be arrested was leaked by the UK authorities or by other sources.

“The leak, whether deliberate or accidental, is a matter of serious concern and should be investigated, as it perverted the course of justice and undermined an investigation into war crimes,” said the organization.

The arrest warrant against General Almog was issued by the Chief London Magistrate on 10 September under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, on the basis of suspicion of the suspect’s involvement in the destruction by the Israeli army of 59 Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on 10 January 2002.

General Almog headed the Israeli army’s Southern Command, an area that includes the Gaza Strip, between December 2000 and July 2003.

The “extensive destruction…of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 147) and, as such, a war crime.

The UK is “under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts” (Article 146). If it does not do so, it must hand such persons over for trial to another state party to the convention that is able and willing to do so. The Fourth Geneva Convention expressly forbids the UK from entering into any agreement with another state absolving itself of this obligation (Article 148).

During the past five years, since the outbreak of the intifada (Palestinian uprising) in September 2000, the Israeli army has destroyed some 4,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories, about half of them in the Gaza Strip, as well as vast areas of cultivated land, commercial properties and public buildings, water and electricity networks, and other public infrastructure. In the vast majority of cases the destruction was not justified by military necessity and was carried out unlawfully and wantonly.

The Israeli authorities have systematically failed to comply with Israel’s obligations under international law to investigate these and other human rights abuses and to bring to justice those responsible.

The UK’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention have been given effect in domestic law via the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, which applies to: “Any person, whatever his nationality, who, whether in or outside the United Kingdom, commits, or aids, abets or procures the commission by any other person of, a grave breach of any of the scheduled conventions or the first protocol…”” [Article 1.-(1)].

Each state party to the Fourth Geneva Convention is obliged under Article 1 to “respect and ensure respect for” the Convention and should call upon Israel to open an immediate, thorough, prompt, independent and impartial investigation of the alleged grave breaches and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, to prosecute. If Israel does not do so, each state party has the power to issue an arrest warrant under Article 146 and, if the suspect enters their territory, has the obligation to execute that arrest warrant.

Background
Since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada (uprising) in September 2000, the Israeli army has killed more than 3,200 Palestinians, most of them unlawfully and including more than 600 children. In the same period, armed Palestinian groups have killed some 1,000 Israeli, most of them were civilians, including some 120 children, and were deliberately and unlawfully targeted. In addition, the Israeli army has carried out extensive destruction of Palestinian homes, land and other properties throughout the Occupied Territories and has continued to build and expand Israeli settlements (illegal under international law) in the West Bank and to construct a 600km fence/wall through the West Bank, cutting off Palestinian farmers from their land and further restricting the movement of Palestinians between villages.

Amnesty International has investigated a wide range of human rights abuses committed by both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides and has continued to call for all those responsible for human rights abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, to be brought to justice and held accountable for their crimes.

One Palestinian Killed an Another Injured as Military ‘Disengages’

By the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Today as Israeli forces completed their redployment to the border areas of the Gaza Strip on Monday the 12th of September, 2005 one Palestinian youth was killed and another was injured while they were standing beside their home in the al Salam quarter of south-east of Rafah town, adjacent to the border with Egypt.

According to initial investigations by PCHR at about 15.00, Nafez Adnan A’tia, 34 years old, a resident of Rafah town, came under fire at al Salam quarter. A’tia was injured while he was crossing the border from Egyptian Rafah to Palestinian Rafah (Rafah was divided in due as a result of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel) he was injured by a bullet in the eye and a bullet in his left hand. He died instantly.

Mohammad Fa’isal Abu Ta’ha, 22 years old, a resident of the same area was injured by a gunshot in the left thigh while he was standing on the Palestinian side of the border.

Both Egyptian and Palestinian sides of Rafah saw attempts by large numbers of civilians today in an attempt to see relatives on the other side of the border – many of them have not been able to see each other since the Intifada broke out and Israel imposed severe collective punishment measures on the civilian population.

At the time of the incident both Egyptian and Palestinian forces had deployed in and around the border areas. No one from these forces prevented Palestinians from reaching the others.

PCHR condemns this killing and calls for an immediate investigation into it and the circumstances surrounding it. PCHR insists that the results of the investigation be made public and the perpetrators of this act be brought to justice.

Closed Military Neighborhood

Internationals challenge Israeli repression in Tel Rumeida

by Joe Carr

Due to the effectiveness of our work in Tel Rumeida, the Israeli military and police have increased their efforts to rid the area of internationals. Volunteers from a variety of international organizations have been doing full-time accompaniment, documentation and physical intervention work to deter constant settler violence in Tel Rumeida, a Hebron neighborhood colonized by around sixty of the most fanatic Israeli settlers.

Volunteers from the Tel Rumeida Project and the International Solidarity Movement have been especially targeted for violence by settlers, and harassment by Israeli military and police.

Israeli Police detained four international volunteers on the evening of Sept. 9 while they were documenting and intervening in Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians. At the Kiryat Arba Settlement police station, officers said that they weren’t arresting the internationals, but wanted to make it clear that they would not allow internationals to live in Tel Rumeida anymore. After two hours, the police agreed that they could spend one more night in their apartment but could not go out. “If I see you in the street again, I’ll arrest you” an officer threatened.

When they arrived back at the house, they found two Israeli soldiers blocking the entrance. The soldiers took their passports and demanded that they unlock the house and let them search it. The internationals refused, and then four soldiers began banging on the doors and windows trying to break in, so they began yelling at them to stop. The soldiers stopped abruptly and left.

This morning, we went out at 6:45AM as we do every day to help protect Palestinian girls on their way to Cordova School, located right across from an Israeli Settlement. Afterwards, we began our usual patrols around Tel Rumeida, being especially vigilant because it is Saturday, the settlers’ most violent day. By 11AM, every group of internationals had been stopped by Israeli police and military and threatened with arrest if they didn’t leave immediately. They explained that nearly all of Tel Rumeida had been declared a “Closed Military Zone”, which only residents are permitted to enter. Our house falls within the closed zone, and we tried to argue that we are residents, to no avail.

Around noon, Tel Rumeida Project volunteer Luna and I went to buy food from a store located next to a military post. The Israeli police were there waiting for us, suddenly excited that they’d finally get to arrest us. However, when the commander came and we explained that we were only trying to buy food, he let us go assuring us that we’d be arrested if we went out again.

We must continue to document and protect Palestinians from Israeli violence and we refuse to be banned from Tel Rumeida. Three volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement (two Swedes and one Brit) decided that they were willing to challenge the ban by getting arrested and taking it to court. We decided I would videotape from a nearby hill, and the three would do a patrol in an area near soldiers and refuse to leave when threatened with arrest.

I positioned myself on the hill with the camera as the three set-off. “May the force be with you” I hollered, right as a passing Israeli military patrol came strolling down the hill. They noticed me of course, so I waved and showed them my video-camera so they wouldn’t think I was a sniper. The six soldiers all came up and detained me of course, while I noticed the other three disappear around a corner down the hill out of sight. “What a great plan” I thought.

Turns out, the other three had gone to intervene in a situation of settler violence down the street when they got a call informing them that tomorrow is the change-over of power in Gaza and the media will be very distracted. They aborted their mission and headed back up the hill to find me surrounded by soldiers. Eventually, the police came and again explained that this area is closed and I’m not allowed to be in it. I maintained that I misunderstood and thought that I just couldn’t be in the street, so they let me go after 15 minutes.

We stayed the rest of the night under house arrest, planning to go out again the next day as the Closed Military Zone order expired at midnight.

On the morning of Sept. 11, four internationals set off to Cordova School to protect the children, while Luna and I went up the hill to patrol another area of constant settler violence. The police arrived after about 10 minutes. An officer I recognized from the day before pointed at Luna and said “I’m arresting her now, she knows she can’t be here.” We protested that the Closed Military Zone order had expired and that we could legally be there, but the officer threatened to arrest us anyway. Luna warned him that if he arrested her illegally she would call her lawyer and file a complaint against him personally, and the police then got significantly less aggressive. We tried to walk away, and the officer yelled and ordered us to stay. We waited while he talked on his radio, and then he said we could go but warned that he would arrest us if he saw us again.

The four internationals at the school had also been hassled, but the police admitted that there was no current closure order but they were going to get one. By 9AM, they had the new closure order which they said was good until 6PM tomorrow (normally they’re only for 24 hours but this was a special one).

Meanwhile, teachers and students from Cordova School refused to pass through the recently fortified Tel Rumeida checkpoint. Palestinians entering Tel Rumeida have been forced to pass through an armored trailer with electric sliding doors and metal detectors for about two weeks now. Fed up with the inconvenience and humiliation, around 25 Palestinians demanded that they be allowed to go around the checkpoint. Israeli soldiers said they’d allow the children and four pregnant women to go around, but not the others. The group decided they would not be divided and all sat down and refused to leave until school ended. School let out early because three armed Israeli settlers parked outside the school in a pickup truck, which terrified the young girls.

Three internationals decided to violate the new closure order and join the teachers protest from the Tel Rumeida side of the checkpoint, and to accompany them to school if they got through. After around a half hour of threats, the police finally arrested the three. They are currently being held in the police station at Kiryat Arba Settlement in Hebron.

The arrested internationals will likely be held for several days and be pressured to sign conditions that they will never enter the area again (or possibly Palestine at all). ISM lawyers are working on it, and I will keep you updated. Meanwhile, we will remain under house-arrest and have to sneak in and out to get food and internet access. But we will not be intimidated into leaving, but only double our efforts to support Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonization.