International Solidarity Movement - Page 185 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Last tribute for a martyred in Bethlehem : “Motaz was happy when he was facing to the sea, it gave him a sense of freedom, lightless that he hadn’t before.”

3rd of December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Wednesday 2nd December, in Dheisheh refugee camp, Bethlehem, a mass tribute for 28-year-old Motaz Ibrahim Zawara, took place. Motaz was killed by Israeli forces the previous day when he was shot with live ammunition in his chest during a demonstration at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, near the Rachel’s Tomb checkpoint.

Between eight and nine hundred of Palestinians, wearing the red and white keffiyeh – the symbolic color of Motaz’s political party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – were gathered to pay a last tribute to the young man. Two others families of martyred Palestinians were present – those of Khaled Jawabra killed the 26^th November in Al-Aroub refugee camp and the family of Kifah Obied, Motaz’s childhood friend killed by an Israeli sniper on 2001. ISM activist at the scene described “it was moving to see the other families there as well. It was a clear moment of witnessing the shared mourning of Palestinians families, grieving the pain of losing a child.”

Standing_women — *The three mothers of the martyrs with the pictures of their son*

Only weeks before his murder, Motaz had decided to return from his travel in France out of concern for his brother Ghassan, who had began a hunger strike in Israeli jail to protest against his illegal administrative detention. “My brother is in prison, he made a hunger strike, his life is in danger. I do not want him to die without me being there” he repeated to his friends who asked him why he left France.

Finally, Motaz died before his brother. Ghassan was released after eighteen months of illegal detention by Israeli forces last Monday night. Before going home, he spent his first moments of freedom at his brother’s grave-site, to pray with his family.

During the tribute on Wednesday, in a vibrant and powerful speech which had touched all of his relatives and friends, Ghassan evoked the pain of his brother’s absence, his empty bed and the deep injustice of the death of Motaz who loved life.

*Motaz’s family listening the speech of Ghassan*

Motaz'mother in font of a poster of her son — *Motaz’mother in font of a poster of her son*

According to friends ,”Motaz was happy when he was facing to the sea, it gave him a sense of freedom, lightless that he hadn’t before.” according to his friends.

In Tulkarem, students afraid to go to university after two months of violence

December 2nd, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement with Meta Peace Team, Tulkarem team | Tulkarem, occupied Palestine

Palestine Tech University (PTU) in Tulkarem has now been closed for two days, for unknown reasons. The school has been witnessing many clashes between the students and the Israeli forces since the beginning of October. Dozens of young people are getting injured daily from tear gas inhalations, rubber coated bullets and live ammunitions shot by soldiers in the middle of campus. The students are deeply concerned with the situation as they all have experienced this violence in the past month. “The army came into the university, smashed the windows, broke the doors, and they are doing that for this moment everyday”, explains Ahmad Yaseem, a student who recalls the first incursions of the university Israeli forces. The university administration has asked the Israeli government the reason for this sudden explosion of violence but were not given any answers. According to the administration, the university should open again tomorrow.

Israeli forces come on campus and scare th students — Israeli forces come on campus and scare the students

P1000369 — The campus of the university has become the centre of clashes between Israeli forces and students

Yesterday during clashes two students were arrested, one of them after being shot with live ammunition. He was not allowed to access medical care though, and was taken away directly in the jeep.

On the 29th of november, while the students were attending an art exhibition on campus, the Israeli forces entered the university and started shooting tear gas, rubber coated bullets and live ammunition at the students. Eyewitnesses and human rights activists said that the area was filled with teargas that day, and as a result 58 students suffered from severe gas inhalation. 7 more people were injured from live ammunition, 5 from rubber coated steel bullets and 9 to 10 from rubber coated bullets. In addition to this, one student had to be taken to the intensive care unit in Nablus, and is still there at this moment. All of them were between the age of 15 and 20 years old.

Many students have been injured by live ammunition being shot in the middle of campus

Since october 1st, over 20 students have been arrested during clashes. None of them has yet been released. Nabeha Hasan Ahmad, 21 years old, remembers the first time the army entered the university : “At first they started on the outside. They were shooting in the air. They were shooting live bullets at the students. They started to get inside the university more and more. They threw skunk water on the library. The students who were there were getting hurt by bullets. So many students have had a gun shot. It affects our psychology, we become more afraid when we are doing our exams. We hear the sound of the bullets and we smell the gas. It became normal for our body to smell gas.” This situation obviously affects the students’ ability to attend their classes and to succeed in their studies. “Everyday they were throwing gas, so the students were afraid to come to the university, adds Beisan Ismail, a second year program information student. For the students that were shot, and the others who were arrested, it makes their education hard because they are unable to move on to the next year, they have to repeat the current year. Just like them, if I inhale gas or get arrested it’s going to be bad for my education.”

Home of Raghib Elawi demolished in Nablus, damaging surroundings severely

December 3rd, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Nablus, occupied Palestine

Wednesday night, at 1 am, Israeli forces came to the neighborhood of Dahia, in Nablus, to demolish the house of the family of Raghib Elawi, who was accused of participating in the Itamar killings a month ago. Local witnesses say that around 300 jeeps entered Dahia and its surrounding areas to seal the area. Soldiers came in great number and started evacuating the neighboring houses at 1:30 am. They forced men, women and children out of their homes in the middle of the night with their guns pointed at them. Women complained that soldiers entered the houses without minding them not wearing their hijab, before being rushed out of their houses at gunpoint. All the families had to sit down and wait outside, in the cold, without talking. At around 4 am, the home of Raghib was demolished using explosives.

Elawi house: 1st floor belonging Raghib and his brother and buttom floor belonging to their parents. — Elawi house: 1st floor belonging to Raghib and his brother and buttom floor belonging to their parents.

The apartment of Raghib Elawi’s family is located on a four floor building, the two top ones still being under construction and not inhabited. Raghib’s apartment had been emptied when they received the warning for the demolition two days ago. Next to Raghib’s apartment was the home of his brother, living with his wife and three daughters. They had moved the furniture to the side to avoid it from being damaged from the explosion but the wall between the two brother’s apartments collapsed during the demolition, making both places inhabitable. Two families including 6 children now find themselves homeless. All of them are currently staying at a brother’s house, a very precarious situation for all the them especially at this time of the year.

Children forced to witness the evacuation, the waiting and the demolition, — Children forced to witness house demolitions.

The demolition has not only affected the Elawi brothers, it also affected their parents, whose apartment is on the bottom floor of the same building. Windows shattered, doors broke, walls have been damaged, most of the furniture is ruined and the whole place is now filled with rubble. It will be a long time before anyone can live there again.

The local mosque, located 100 meters from the house, was damaged in the explosion, deeply affecting locals. On one side, all windows were shattered and broken glass covered the floor.

This morning at sunrise, many people were in the street attempting to clean up their houses before starting the day. They all will have to bare the consequences of this collective punishment, especially families with children who will now have to go through the beginning of winter without windows or doors to keep them warm. Furthermore, the usage of dynamite (TNT) in the house demolitions causes severe collateral damage on neighboring houses and thereby extends the collective punishment, which is already illegal and declared a war crime by international law.

Window frame in neighboring house severely damaged from the explosion

Raghib Elawi was accused of being involved on the 1st of October in the killing of two illegal Israeli settlers driving a car near Beit Furik. He was brutally arrested by Israeli forces in the night of the 4th of October while he was recovering from a surgery. The trial in his case still hasn’t taken place as the hearing was postponed, yet without being found guilty, his home has already been destroyed. This violates international law stating the right of being presumed innocent until proved guilty according to the law.

Three homes of Palestinians, believed to be involved in the same killing, were demolished on November 14th, leaving several families homeless.

Locals watching and showing their support to the Elawi family.

Watch the demolition of the house:

Increasing collective punishment in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

3rd of December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces closed the al-Hareka neighbourhood putting up new roadblocks and completely closing off a whole neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

The neighbourhood’s access to the main street has been blocked off with an iron gate for a long time already. Recently, a group of about twenty soldiers arrived to the neighbourhood to further limit the freedom of movement of the Palestinian residents.

Military gate blocking entrance for cars

One resident, a journalist documenting the soldiers putting the new roadblocks that completely barr any access to about 200-300 people living there, was detained by the soldiers for over an hour. Soldiers attempted to stop him from filming this measure of collective punishment, a clear infringement on the freedom of press. In order to reach the main road or leave their houses, people living behind the wall are now forced to walk all the way around and will thus need at least ten minutes more to reach the military gate that is already blocking their entrance.

Children playing on the newly erected wall blocking off the neighbourhood

Watch a video of soldiers installing this new wall:

Or watch video here.

Additionally, soldiers have commanded the roof of a private family home for military purposes and have erected a small military base there. A group of six soldiers is permanently stationed on the family home and “they slept on the roof”, as a school-boy explained.

Israeli forces stationed on a family home

The al-Hareka neighbourhood is bordering the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, and thus is often the target of harassment and violence both from the Israeli forces as well as the settlers – often under the protection of the soldiers.

This is yet another measure to intensify the efforts to restrict – or completely stop – Palestinian freedom of movement. Such collective punishment measures have sky-rocketed in the recent weeks and months in occupied al-Khalil, and add to the increasing efforts to further exacerbate everyday life for Palestinians and eventually make them disappear completely.

The long journey, for a Palestinian, to get a permit for medical appointments in Israel

December 2nd, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team |

It can be complicated to be a medical patient in Palestine. It is especially complicated when Palestinians need to have treatment in Israeli hospitals without having permission to travel freely to Israel. The army/DCO can basically give a death penalty when they deny patients travel permits to go for necessary treatment.

Maher has been fighting cancer for 5 years

Maher Falih, a 48 years-old Palestinian from Zawata, near Nablus had an appointment yesterday to go to a hospital in Israel. He has been struggling with cancer for 5 years. Part of that time he went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment in an Israeli hospital, because hospitals in Palestine didn’t have enough expertise to help his situation. It is not out of kindness though, that Israelis have the responsibility of providing health services to those who are occupied, it is a way of controlling. Now Maher has finished his cancer treatment, but he still needs to see his doctor to follow the recovery process. For the last 5 months Maher has been having a lot of trouble getting permission to cross the checkpoints, so he often can’t attend his doctors’ appointments in Israel.

The process to obtain a permission is long and complicated. First, the Israeli hospital to which he has to go must give him, each time, an appointment for the next time. He then has to contact the DCO (District Coordination Offices) to ask for permission on that date. At the moment the DCO refuses to give him the needed paperwork, arguing that since he is no longer suffering from a life-threatening disease, there is no reason for him to go to the hospital.

Yesterday, unfortunately during his last appointment, the doctors found a problem and decided to operate right away, which proves how much he still needs these follow up appointments in the hospital. The Israelis have so much power over life and death for the Palestinian people. For Maher, this was a threat to his life, and could have been a death sentence in the end. Palestinian people are dependent of what the DCO and the army wants, not what specialists want, and the power is in the hands of people who don’t know what they are doing.