International Solidarity Movement - Page 182 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

UN delegation visits H2-area of Hebron

December 12th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | al Khalil, occupied Palestine

On Tuesday, 8^th December 2015, a delegation from the United Nations visited the H2 area of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), ahead of the international Human Rights Day on 10th December.

The UN-delegation visited the H2 area, under full Israeli control, to understand the situation and get first-hand accounts of the life under Israeli occupation and the daily fight of Palestinian residents and human rights defenders. During their visit, they talked to various local and international human rights defenders and visited flashpoint areas in al-Khalil, such as the ‘closed military zone‘ in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. The delegation also went to two areas where school-children have to struggle each day to get to school past checkpoints, the Israeli army shooting tear gas, illegal settlers attacking them; trying to take their right to education.

International Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on the 10^th of December, commemorating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was passed on this day in 1948. The Declaration declared fundamental human rights that enjoy universal protection. But still, to this day, these fundamental human rights need to be fought for.

After the visit, the UN-delegation came up with a statement stressing the importance and praising the work of human rights defenders that are non-violently struggling to achieve the universal human rights for Palestinians, particularly in the environment of Israeli occupation. They are voicing their great concern about the Israeli forces crackdown on human rights defenders work and their attempts to silence them completely.

Read the full UN-statement.

UN delegation in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron

Demonstrator injured last week in Gaza undergoing two surgeries

December 11th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Karni border crossing, Gaza, occupied Palestine

Ahmad has to undergo a second surgery soon

Last week, during the demonstration at Karni Border Crossing, Ahmad Nabil El-Akhsham (28 years old) was shot in the leg. He was there, as he had been every Friday since the beginning of October. At some point he and the other protestors saw a female IOF soldier pointing her gun at them and immediately he felt a very intense pain in his leg, “it was as if I was receiving a 1000V electric shock”.

The next thing he remembers is that the other demonstrators where carrying him towards the road where the ambulances were waiting. The ambulance couldn’t reach them because the soldiers were shooting towards the medics if they approached the demonstrators.

He arrived unconscious to the hospital, due to the heavy loss of blood. After a first surgery, the doctors explained that the way ha was carried to the ambulance highly aggravated the injury, as he was carried by a group of unexperienced youth who were mostly trying not to get shot.

The shot blew away all of his calf and broke his bone in many small pieces. During the first surgery, they put 5 metal bars in order to try to save his leg. Next time the doctors will try to perform a graft in order to reconstruct the calf.

We asked Ahmad why he kept on going to the demonstrations, and this what he said: “We must show that the people in Gaza, West Bank and the 48 lands are all the same, we are all Palestinians and we are united. We fight together for our land. I’m not afraid of dying for my land”.

School children denied their right to education in Hebron

December 10th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | al Khalil, occupied Palestine

Soldiers blocked the way to the Cordoba school in al Khalil

Today, on International Human Rights Day, school children as well as teachers were denied access to the Cordoba school in Al-Khalil (Hebron). The mixed primary school is located in the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida at the end of the small strip of Shuhada Street that Palestinians are still able to access.

Students and teachers waited for two hours

Since the declaration of the ‘closed military zone’, effective since the 1^st of November in Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street, the children and teachers have been registered as numbers in order to pass checkpoint 56 and checkpoint 55 on their way to school. On Monday the 7^th of December 2015, the checkpoint 56 has been closed for an indefinite period of time. The children and teachers that need to cross checkpoint 56 – which marks the border between the H2 area of Al-Khalil, under full Israeli control, and the H1 area, supposedly under full Palestinian control – have had to argue with the Israeli forces every morning since then, in order to pass the checkpoint and reach the school.

Settler came to harass children and teachers while they were waiting

After a Palestinian was killed on Wednesday, 9^th of December at checkpoint 55 on Shuhada Street, the children and teachers found the access to the school blocked by barbed wire and countless Israeli soldiers. The Israeli forces have completely locked the way to the school for the majority of children and teachers. The only other way to the school is through a cemetery on the other side of Al-Khalil. The Israeli forces simply ignore the pleas from both school children and teachers to let them pass and get to the school, and don’t give any indication as to when the barbed wire will be removed.

While school children and teachers were waiting in hopes of passing, infamous illegal settler Anat Cohen arrived at the scene and openly, without any apprehension, verbally and physically harassed them. The Israeli forces failed to prevent her from doing so, yet again turning a blind eye on increasing settler violence. Two hours after school was supposed to begin, the children and teachers gave up and the school was forced to remain closed for the day, the childrens’ right to education being simply denied to them.

Watch these two videos of Anat Cohen attacking and intimidating the school-children.

Israeli soldiers occupy Palestinian house to set up military base

December 10th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | al Khalil, occupied Palestine

For the last 15 days the family of Abu Shykri Al-Atrarshi have had no access to the top two floors of their house, which was illegally taken over by the Israeli occupation forces and where they set up a military base.

Ten Israeli soldiers suddenly showed up at the house in the neighbourhood of Abu Sheineh, Al Khalil; they broke in by smashing a window in the door, took the key and demanded that the family vacate the third floor. The soldiers did not have any documentation to explain or justify the incursion nor did they give an explanation to the family why their house was being taken over. Any questions are ignored and the third floor as well as the roof top are now off limits.

Since the soldiers arrived they have broken the windows, and shot holes in the water tank which supplies clean water to the household. They then took all the blankets on the premises and used them to dry the water leaking from the tanks. The family also reported that once the water supply was fixed the soldiers contaminated the water and used the apartment and roof as a toilet.

The soldiers never leave the apartment empty, but a few times per day there is a shift change. This happens at different times every day so there is no knowing when, and the soldiers move in and out as they please anyway. This means there can be soldiers moving throughout the building at any time, terrifying the family- especially the young children who no longer dare to leave the house on their own. The soldiers use the roof as a lookout and also frequently fire weapons such as teargas, from there into the surrounding neighbourhood.

The three story house is home to 13 people, now crowded into two small floors- including a young disabled child. They have no idea how long the soldiers will stay, or if the family will get their house back at all. They contacted the local DCO (District coordination office) who advised them to get a lawyer, which they did. The lawyer has now started the process to take the case to an Israeli court in Haifa, Israel. However Abu Shykri Al-Atrarsh has had no information on when the case will be heard or when a judgement can be expected. This, as in many cases, can take months if not years and in the meanwhile the family is trapped. Abu Shakri believes the army is trying to make the family leave the building altogether, but they are resolutely staying put.

This family now has to try to live their life underneath the very people who have broken into, stolen and disrespected their home. The daily struggle of living under the occupation is hardship enough but having your own home taken from under your eyes, and not being able to do anything about it is absolutely heartbreaking.

ISM today took pictures of the soldiers in the building to help the family evidence their presence there, which is needed for the court case. Every time the family has tried to take pictures themselves the soldiers have taken their phones and deleted the pictures.

More humiliating body-searches in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

9th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 8^th and 9^th December 2015, Israeli forces bag- and body-searched virtually every male and female adult walking through or past a checkpoint in the Jaber mountain neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

In the afternoon on Tuesday, Israeli forces stopped every teacher on their way home from school, forcing them to lift up their shirts and trouser-pants before being allowed to slowly approach the checkpoint where they had to endure a body-search by the soldiers. The school-children from the elementary boys school nearby were watching this humiliating process, as no-one was allowed to pass the checkpoint until all the teachers’ were patted down by the soldiers.

Not only the teachers and the director of the school, but also any other male adult going past the military gate or even past anywhere on the road in the view of the soldiers, were body-searched. As this systematic humiliation of any male adult, and some male youth, kept going on for hours, several people decided to not go past the gate in order to spare themselves this humiliation. Several people, simply going to a shop in order to buy something, passed the soldiers twice within ten minutes and were thus forced to be body-searched twice. Israeli forces forced various adults to even take off their shoes before being allowed to approach them to be body-searched.

Israeli forces body-searching Palestinian man

Female adults were stopped and had to throw their IDs on the street, put their bags down, and step back a few meters, before soldiers would check their IDs and go through the bags.