Human rights abuses in the Jordan Valley

29 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jordan Valley

The following article is a snapshot of how life is under occupation and brutal settler colonialism for the Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley. These incidents are just some that took place on one day (Friday 29th December).

Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) soldiers, along with officials from the Mekorot Water Control Company (Israel’s national water company), stormed the village of Bardala and closed the water holes used by the farmers of the village to irrigate crops, as part of a policy of water deprivation. The policy of racial discrimination and apartheid in the right to water constitutes an existential threat to the Jordan Valley communities.

An empty road with a green field to the right and a house to the left, cars can be seen in the distance.
The IOF and Mekorot arrive at village of Bardala to sever water connection.
Photo taken from uphill, showing a green landscape with houses and cars in the distance. In the middle, a powerful gush of water.
Water gushing in to the air from the pipe severed by the IOF and Mekorot.

The IOF and the Jordan Valley Regional Settlements Council closed the only entrance to the pastures to the east of Ain al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley. The iron gate placed across the entrance and guarded by IOF soldiers prevents shepherds and their livestock from entering any of their lands and pastures east of Route 60. With this gate, gangs of illegal settlers now have full control over a vast area of more than 55,000 dunums of land (approximately 14,000 acres) located between Road 60 and Road 90. The loss of grazing land and the confinement of livestock in population centres constitute a disaster for farming communities in these areas and are driving factors in their forced displacement.

A dirt road is blocked by two blocks of concrete and a metal bar between them, alongside two soldiers standing in front. On the other side, a car is parked.
Photo of gate installed by the IOF at village of Ain al-Hilweh.

Citizen Abu Mahdi Daraghmeh from Ain al-Hilweh reported that he is using legal channels to launch an appeal in order to protect him from the herding activities of illegal settlers, as settlers stole 80 cows from his children the day prior. Denial from the settlers along with the complete inability of the Occupation Authority’s Civil Administration to address the problem have left him with no other option. Herding is a strategy increasingly used by illegal settlers to steal land across the West Bank.

House demolitions, a powerful tool for forced displacement and ethnic cleansing used by Israel, are continuing apace in the Jordan Valley. On 26th December at around 9am, Civil Administration personnel came with IOF soldiers and two bulldozers to the village of Furush Beit Dajan. The forces demolished five homes of five families numbering twenty five people, eight of them children. Three of the homes demolished were built before 1967. The forces also demolished three seasonal homes of three families, numbering twenty people, including seven children. A concrete wall around one of the houses as well as a pool used to irrigate crops were also demolished.

A large heap of rubble and metal. Two men are standing on it, one looking to the camera and doing a peace sign.
House demolitions at the village of Furush Beit Dajan.
Photo taken from uphill shows cars driving around a village where a digger is demolishing houses.
House demolitions at village of Furush Beit Dajan.

The Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign is one of the main solidarity organisations active in the Jordan Valley, with which ISM has worked in partnership over the years. It is a network of Palestinian grassroots community groups from throughout the Jordan Valley and stands side by side with Jordan Valley residents in resisting the ethnic cleansing of their communities through direct solidarity.

 

Photos credit: Jordan Valley Solidarity

A Dozen Weeks of Restriction: Muslim Worshipers Blocked from Al-Aqsa Mosque

29 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | East Jerusalem

     On Friday, December 29th, streets surrounding the Al Aqsa Mosque compound were filled with the sight of Muslim worshipers prostrate in prayer. Arbitrary access restrictions by occupation forces were amplified through the erecting of barricades to the Old City, allowing only some elders to trickle through the makeshift checkpoint to access their holy site. Enduring violence and Israeli army blockades to the Mosque, Palestinians knelt in the streets for prayer, surrounded by heavily armed occupation soldiers and Israeli police.  

Occupation forces block Muslim worshipers from accessing Al Aqsa Mosque. Photo Credit: Ahram online photos

     In the nearby Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, faithful Muslims were attacked through the use of putrid pressurized “skunk truck” water by occupation forces who regularly brutally beat Palestinians as they make their way to the holy site for Friday prayers. Projectile rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas were also fired indiscriminately at unarmed Palestinians with dozens of injuries reported including many in respiratory distress from tear gas exposure.  

Photo Credit: Ahram online photos

     Brutal crackdowns on Palestinian Muslims attempting to access the Holy site to pray has resulted in the Mosque only having a fraction of the worshippers it usually has for going on three months. Impromptu, ever-widening checkpoints around the Mosque have exposed the faithful, week after week, to interrogation, ID checks, verbal abuse and physical violence.  

Photo Credit: Ahram online photos

     Despite knowing they will in all likelihood experience physical assault, tear-gas, being charged by police on horses, sewage water sprayed at them, or some combination of the above, the Al Aqsa’s faithful have not been deterred from returning as close to the original qibla (holy site Muslims pray towards) week after week. Their bodies folded in prayerful defiance, surrounded by armed guards, are a living testament to the Palestinian’s perseverance, determination, and conviction that (in the words of a Palestinian artist on the apartheid wall) “the rockets may be above us, but they have forgotten that Allah is above them.”

Photo credit: ISM

 

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Who are we?

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles. Founded in August 2001, ISM aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by working immediately alongside Palestinians in olive groves, on school runs, at demonstrations, within villages being attacked, by houses being demolished or where Palestinians are subject to consistent harassment or attacks from soldiers and settlers as well as numerous other situations.

All ISM volunteers must agree to work within the four founding principles :
Palestinian-led
Nonviolence
Consensus
Anti-oppression

What do we do?

ISM’s main objectives in offering support to the Palestinian resistance to the apartheid and their demand for freedom are twofold:

1. DIRECT ACTION: participating in Palestinian-led demonstrations, creatively disrupting activity by the Israeli occupation forces, accompanying children to school and farmers to their fields, residing with or near families whose homes are threatened with eviction, demolition or harassment by settlers and answering Palestinian calls to action.

2. DOCUMENTATION: documenting and reporting to local and international media about the daily life under apartheid and countless human rights and international law violations by the Israeli military and settlers. Activists take photos, write reports and journals, which are shared on our website and social media. The need for documentation is not just to show that there are illegal and unjust actions going on, but also to provide a real means of evidence for accountability to the police and courts, case by case. ISMers are also committed to sharing their experiences when they return to their home countries, through interviews and talks.

Why now?

Since Israel began its current onslaught on Gaza in October 2023, occupation forces have been taking advantage of the state of emergency to escalate their violence and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. Soldiers and settlers have systematically bulldozed homes, carried out night raids, attacked and killed Palestinians across the region.

There is almost no international media coverage on the ground in the West Bank because of the situation in Gaza, and many human rights organisations have had to leave the area. ISM activists on the ground continue their vital work in solidarity with Palestinians, reporting their eyewitness accounts of the daily atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, amplifying the voices of Palestinians and answering local Palestinian-led calls to action.

As a resident of Masafer Yatta told an ISM volunteer, “What is happening is unlike anything before; nobody can predict what tomorrow may bring. There seem to be no openings for hope or a clear vision of tomorrow at this time… The people endure immense suffering, despite limited media coverage of these distressing events. It begs the question: How much longer must Palestinians endure before the world takes notice and acts?”

We are committed now, as ever, to standing in solidarity with Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine and listening to their requests, whether this is being a protective presence, bearing witness to the crimes of the occupation and recording breaches of human rights, or participating in direct action.

What will the money be used for?
Renting an apartment for use by ISM volunteers
Contributing towards travel, phone and other expenses for Palestinian ISM organisers
Creating a solidarity pot to enable international ISMers to remain in Palestine for longer periods of time and have a constant presence in the West Bank

Settler Mob Ambushes Armenian Quarter

30 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Jerusalem

They came covered in black and wearing ski masks. On December 28, thirty extremists, armed with clubs and tear gas, invaded the Armenian Quarter’s ‘Cow’s Garden’ (Goveroun Bardez) in the Old City of Jerusalem and attacked members of the Armenian community. The coordinated ambush, caught on film, left several seriously injured, including seminary students, as well as two Armenian youth abducted by occupation forces. The vigilantes vandalized the grounds as part of the assault. Several of the injured were transported to a hospital for medical treatment.  

The Armenian community of the Old City is resisting a controversial land grab coordinated by investors with ominous links to extremist settler factions. 

The pressure campaign by extremist settlers utilizes violent tactics mirroring settler attacks on Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. But Armenians have also learned from their Palestinian counterparts the importance of steadfastness and unity. Every settler attack thus far has been repelled by the close-knit Armenian community.

Armenians celebrate Christmas later than Christians in the West, and have begun installing a cross and a manger in the rubble (photo credit: ISM)

Unprecedented Coordinated IOF Attacks in West Bank

28 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank

Early this morning, between 1:00 am and 6:00 am, Israeli Occupation Forces invaded several cities across the West Bank. Seven of the eleven Palestinian governorates in the West Bank were invaded in a coordinated attack, the largest since October 7. Clashes were documented in Jenin, Hebron, Qalqilya, and Ramallah, with reports of invasions in Tulkarem, Nablus, and Jericho. Invasion forces stormed the cities, targeting money transfer stations, stating that funds were being funneled from these major cities to Hamas. Many eyewitness reports observed soldiers breaking open safes and, according to The New Arab, stealing at least $2.8 million from these targeted locations after classifying them as having involvement with “terrorism”. 

IOF Soldiers in Ramallah steal millions (source: FajerTV)
IOF in Qadura Refugee Camp

On the ground ISM members in Ramallah report dozens of army tanks storming and patrolling the streets before direct clashes with Palestinian youth resistance in Al Manara square and in the Qadura refugee camp. Youth were preparing to resist by smashing large rocks to break them up while tanks loaded steel bullets into their assault rifles (steel bullets, as opposed to copper, are intended to be able to penetrate helmets, concrete, and other industrial materials). 

Israeli military shell casings vs Palestinian defense weapon

Palestinians fiercely resisted the military invasion for hours, throwing rocks, metal pieces and molotov cocktails at the indestructible tanks. Invasion forces responded with live fire, rubber tipped steel bullets, tear gas, sound grenades, and other explosive devices. This bombardment withstood for several hours, mostly concentrated between 2 and 5 am, resulting in one IOF soldier shot, 14 Palestinians injured, at least 4 of which were with live ammunition, and one Palestinian, named Hazim Al-Qatawi (23), shot and killed.

 

 

Along with bodily harm, this extension of the ongoing occupation has resulted in storefront destruction, shattered car windows, and the street littered with remnants of destruction.

Community cleans up after shop destroyed near Al Manara square
Cab in Al Manara