International Solidarity Movement - Page 23 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Wadi Tiran: Facing Ethnic Cleansing, Longing For Home

20 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | South Hebron Hills

Wadi Tiran is a good example, and sadly one of many, of Israel’s big plan to make Palestine the land without people. Over the last month, the community of Wadi Tiran has been repeatedly “visited” by either settlers or soldiers, or both (since distinguishing between them is more and more difficult nowadays), ordering everybody in the village to leave or they would kill them. One of these “visits” resulted in all windows on their tractor, pickup and their car being smashed.

The ISM team, together with Israeli activists, has been part of the protective presence in Wadi Tiran for over a week and has witnessed some of the threats this small herding homestead has endured, including settlers on motorbikes and a quad coming nearby, and only yesterday (November 18) a four wheel drive vehicle with settlers appeared inside the homestead. The settlers did not get out of the car but instead drove around provocatively and proceeded to another Tiran homestead located on the nearby hill.

The Israeli activists called the Israeli police only to be asked by them, “Why are you supporting the terrorists?” Having witnessed the terror being inflicted on the residents of Wadi Tiran first hand, we ask the same question of the Israeli government, the United States government, and other national and international bodies that enable, support, and fund the ethnic cleansing of communities like Wadi Tiran.

Wadi Tiran is a small homestead where two brothers and their families, altogether about 30 people, most of them children, live, herding around 300 sheep and goats. The father of the two farmers was expelled in 1948 from the Yattir area and moved to the arid slope of the Wadi Tiran hill where they made life ever since.

The two brothers talked with sadness and longing about their ancestral land where their father grew wheat, corn, chickpeas and lentils and where water was available in abundance. “Only in one part of Yattir there were more than 100 springs,” they recalled.

Keys hang from a communal space in Wadi Tiran. Many Palestinians have kept the keys to the ancestral homes from which they were expelled. It has become a popular symbol of the right to return for refugees.

Now the water they have comes from the rain collected in one well, which they use for animals, but there is not enough of it. Additional water has to be purchased and brought from the outside at the expense they could ill afford nowadays. Both brothers used to work from time to time doing agricultural work in Israel until the start of the current escalation in hostilities, and together with all other Palestinian workers they have now lost their jobs.

Efforts by the occupiers to make their already hard lives impossible have peaked now, but it started long ago. On our way to Wadi Tiran via the dirt road, we could see that in many parts it has been destroyed. That was the work of the Israeli army bulldozers, which three months ago piled boulders and piles of earth and rocks on the road in several locations to make access to the homestead difficult. We had to drive around them and sometimes over them, causing an unpleasant rocky ride, fearing for the damage to our vehicle.

The main threat to the farmers’ livelihood was ‘the law’ introduced verbally by the settlers setting out a boundary of 200 meters from the homestead where grazing is now banned. Since then, the brothers have had to buy practically all the food for their animals, and drive the seven monthly tons of it down the road ravaged by the army.

*A boy in Wadi Tiran gives water to the village’s animals*

Not that the Israel occupation was ever “light”, but since the war on Gaza all the rule books and established practices have been abandoned. Feeding on the rage the Israeli nation is in the grip of following the attacks by the fighters from Gaza, settlers are out of control and all pretences that occupation authorities are attempting to stop them from committing violence, has been dropped. The military knows about settler violence and either chooses to turn a blind eye or joins in on their violence.

What is also different currently is that nobody knows if those doing the harassing, attacking, and threatening are soldiers, settlers or settler security. The regular army has been sent to attack Gaza. The occupation of the West Bank and the “protection” of the illegal settlements was handed over to army reservists, many of whom are illegal settlers and settler security. They have formed “regional defence battalions” and these violent thuggish armies, often masked and fully or partially dressed in army uniforms, block the roads and village entrances and appear any time of day and night to attack the Palestinians, destroy their fields, their livestock and the contents of their homes.

They are either joined or are led by the “civilian” illegal settlers who have been handed large quantities of arms by Ben Gvir’s Security Ministry so that they can “defend” their settlements. While in the past the settlement security would mostly operate within the boundaries of the settlements, post October 7th, they are tasked with terrorizing and ethnically cleansing wide areas surrounding the settlements.

There is little doubt that without serious consequences from Israel’s powerful allies, and the United States in particular, the horrendous and criminal lawlessness and violence will leave the Wadi Tiran families without a future in this area.

Fathers of the two families told us that they fear for their future and the future of their children. “We have been farmers all our lives and that is what we do. Where shall we go?” the two farmers asked. That is the most asked question in the South Hebron Hills these days, leading to long sleepless nights, anxiety, fear, and a living nightmare, echoed in the lives of people from dozens of villages facing the same fate.

Al Aqsa and How To Help Oppressors

Muslims were prevented from entering Al Aqsa for Friday prayers on November, 17 2023. According to Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem, this is the sixth week in a row that the majority of people coming to pray have been denied entry.

*Israeli border police denied many worshippers entry into Al Aqsa Mosque and pushed them at multiple gates and checkpoints in the Old City.*

Israeli Border Police repeatedly told worshippers that they could not enter the Al Aqsa Mosque and to go back to their houses. One elderly man said, “Even we elders cannot enter?” And a woman asked, “Not even a woman can enter?” The Israeli Border Police repeatedly said, “Go. Go. Everybody go.” The Border Police supervisor reiterated to his subordinates, “Everybody coming, just tell them to go.”

A Palestinian just denied entry explains the situation, “We try. We do the best to enter. We are not allowed because we are Arab, but we will do our best.”

Worshippers began to do their jum’ah (communal Friday prayers that are considered a religious obligation in Islam) as close to the Muslim Holy Site as they could get, but Israeli police attacked them there too as they kneeled in prayer.

The loudspeaker from inside the Mosque can be heard reciting a Hadith, a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, familiar to many Palestinians experiencing oppression. According to tradition, Muhammad stated, “Help your brother whether he is an oppressor or an oppressed.” A man responded, “I will help him if he is oppressed but if he is an oppressor, how shall I help him?” The Prophet said, “By preventing him from oppressing, for that is how to help him.”

Al Aqsa Mosque is at the heart of the current escalation, termed a war by Israelis and genocide and ethnic cleansing, a continuation of the Nakba begun in 1948 by Palestinians. Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza have regularly been denied entry into Al Aqsa, but now Israeli border police are denying more and more worshippers entry, even those with the “right” documents.

*Israeli Border Police deny access to Al Aqsa Mosque*

Israeli border police pushed worshippers attempting to enter Al Aqsa. Somebody cried out חילול השiם (chillul hashem) to those barring entrance to the Muslim Holy Site. Chillul hashem is Hebrew for desecrating the Name of God. In Judaism, Jews are supposed to be representatives of God and God’s moral code, so when a Jewish person acts in a shameful, oppressive manner, they have represented God poorly, thus desecrating God’s name. The concept of chillul hashem is prevalent in the Torah and Tanakh and is often referenced by Jewish people as a reason to uphold the highest moral standard.

Settlers regularly invade Al Aqsa flanked by heavily armed Israeli soldiers. Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has led settler incursions into the Al Aqsa complex on multiple occasions.

In 1994 a settler from the Kach terrorist group opened fire on worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Kahlil (Hebron) killing 29 people and injuring about 150. Afterwards, the mosque was divided in half, with half staying open to Palestinian worshippers and the other half turned into a synagogue, closed to Palestinians.

Violent extremist Israeli settlers have made no secret of their plans to destroy Al Aqsa Mosque and the Haram-e-Sharif on which it rests, and replace it with a third Jewish Temple.

There has been a decentralized leaderless movement to defend Al Aqsa through sit-ins at the historic Mosque. But many of these Mosque protectors have been blacklisted and are now barred from entry.

As of this date, November 20th, 2023, the Israeli military has bombed at least 59 Mosques and 3 churches in Gaza and a Mosque in the West Bank since October 7th.

Attacks on places of worship is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Convention, and is classified as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The escalation of Israeli crimes in the West Bank

Balata Refugee Camp
By. Diana Khwaelid
Israel is escalating and expanding its crimes in the West Bank, as well as in Gaza.
On the evening of Friday, November 17th, the Israeli occupation forces, in cooperation and partnership
with the Israeli Shin Bet, carried out an aerial bombardment on the Fatah headquarters in the
Balata refugee camp, targeting 4 Palestinian men wanted by the Israeli occupation forces.
The youngest of them was the martyr Mohammed Massimi, age 16.
An Israeli warplane fired an air missile at the Fatah headquarters in the Balata refugee camp
when it received information that the wanted men were inside. Israel has not
fired such kind of missiles through the Airplane since the AlAqsa agreement during the Second Intifada.
According to sources from the Red Crescent Society and eyewitnesses who were in the camp,
the four young men were found in horrible circumstances.
They are the martyr Mohammed Abbas, 20 years old, Mahmoud Zahed zoufi , 39 years old, Mohammed Hashash 18 years old and Mohammed Massimi, 16 years old.

The camp woke up to the sound of an explosion, around 11 o’clock at midnight, to be surprised
by the shelling of the Fatah movement headquarters in the camp, and they found 4 bodies
belonging to the four young men, and dismbeberd body limbs because of the intensity of the explosion.
The Red Crescent crews, with the presence of members of the Palestinian civil defense,
removed the four young men and the remaining body parts, and they were transferred to
Rafidia government hospital in Nablus.

But the Israeli occupation not only killed and targeted the 4 of them; Israeli snipers targeted
the young martyr Ali Faraj shoothing him on the neck. The number of martyrs of the Balata refugee camp increased to 5 martyrs in less than 4 hours.
The bodies of the martyrs were given to their families for a final farewell. A state of fear, horror and sadness prevailed in the Balata camp, until the day after the funeral of the 5 martyrs took place. Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funerals, chanting words of anger and resistance, condemning the crimes of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians in the West Bank, especially in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the percentage of martyrs in the West Bank has
reached more than 120 martyrs since October 7th.

We Are Our Mountains

A replica of the tatik-papik (տատիկ-պապիկ in Armenian) also called the Dedo-Babo (Դեդո-Բաբո in the Karabakh dialect) it translates to “Grandmother and Grandfather”. The original is a monument carved out of volcanic ash and represents Armenian heritage and identity as mountain people.

18 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Al-Quds

“Welcome to Little Little Armenia”, we hear as we walk past the barbed wire and stone barricades in the Christian section of the Old City of Al-Quds (Jerusalem). Armenian flags fly from atop walls and mounds of rubble.

This land, the size of about a quarter of what is known as the Armenian quarter, is home to a seminary, homes, restaurants, shops, gardens, and a parking lot. On November 16 and 17, armed, violent extremist Israeli settlers attempted to storm the area. This follows violent attacks from two weeks ago in which settlers also attempted to seize the area armed with machine guns and dogs trained to attack. Among the settlers attacking the Armenian community was Saadia Hershkop, an associate of Mosque mass shooting terrorist Eden Natan-Zada and Israeli Minister of Security Itamar Ben Gvir. All three have previously been linked with the Israeli terrorist group known as the Kach Movement.

*Damage left by Israeli settlers attacks.*

Each time, the Armenian community has rallied, formed a human shield, and nonviolently repelled the attacks.

The Armenian community in Jerusalem is no stranger to ethnic cleansing. Although dating back to the 4th century, thousands of Armenians relocated to the area after 1915 amid the Armenian genocide which resulted in approximately one million people murdered. This, with the mass murder and expulsion of other Orthodox communities and churches, made way for the creation of the ethnonationalist Turkish state. Now, Armenians in Jerusalem are under attack.

A 24 hour camp has been established to protect their ancestral land and structures from being bulldozed by violent extremists who want to build a luxury hotel.

Israeli police sided with the armed settlers and refused to disarm or arrest them for the incursion. Four Armenian land protectors have been arrested thus far for calling the police on the violent extremist settler mob, telling the mob, “You are trespassing!” and other similar “offenses”.

In a press release, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem stated that this attempted land seizure and the associated settlers attacks is “the greatest existential threat in our 16-century history” and a “clear step taken towards the endangerment of the Christian presence in Jerusalem and in the Holy Land.”

Other Patriarchates of the Christian Quarter have expressed their solidarity with the Armenian community under attack.

For more information and to get involved in protecting the Armenian presence in Jerusalem visit Save the ArQ on Facebook.

A statement from the Patriarch and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem.

*Armed settlers at Armenian Quarter’s Goverou Bardez (Cow’s Garden).*

*No to ethnic cleansing is spelled out in rocks in Armenian.*

42 Days Transgressed: Legal Restraints on Life Support from Jenin to Gaza City

Medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital. Credit: Al Jazeera.

17 November 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin, Gaza

Through the war riddled lens of Palestinian journalists’ reports and social media posts, we have watched the crossing of an invisible line.

As an American nurse doing human rights monitoring work in the occupied West Bank, I woke today to see the lens focused on a team of outfitted medical workers being marched out of Jenin Hospital in the night, arms in the air, as occupation bulldozers, drones and operatives draped the community in a spark-lit flash of raining bullets and blasts. Those who died bled in the streets where they have lived, likely discussing ‘the war’ on a daily basis.

The question of where and what good is International Humanitarian Law has been posed by people and organizational bodies stretching back over decades. But it has been screamed into a void for 42 days of brutal bombardment in Gaza and through soaring instances of settler rampages and incursions against Palestinians in the occupied territory.

For a foreign medical worker, it is hard to intimate this occurrence unfolding in the West. The same law limping through the fog of bomb blasts in Gaza would forbid it.

The law is plain. Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, not only demands that the wounded and sick be cared for but it is made wholly clear that medical units must be respected and protected at all times, and must not be the object of attack as announced in Additional Protocol II.

From Shifa to Al Ahli to Indonesian to Al Quds Hospitals, the occupation army has stomped roughshod over what has been enshrined in these charters, an entitlement they have been granted through the arms and funding pipeline flowing from the United States.

The law goes on to state that “under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places where the sick and the wounded are collected… in conformity with international law constitutes a war crime.”

An investigation into violations of these laws of armed conflict by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza was birthed amid the aftermath of ‘Operation Protective Edge’ during which countless instances of proportionality and discernment violations were committed. Israeli authorities refused participation and forbade an official Gazan body to take part, blunting the teeth of the query.

But to date through the courageous reporting of Palestinians on the ground, the grinding documentation of daily atrocities must continue to be spotlit in both humanitarian and legal contexts and given the breath that millions worldwide have thus far provided through ceaseless acts of resistance and blockade actions.

An outcry to adopt universal jurisdiction through domestic courts may be another avenue to introduce justice into an area justice-deprived.

According to the International Rescue Committee, “Prosecutions can also take place in some domestic courts that have adopted “universal jurisdiction.” That refers to courts deciding to prosecute a crime committed outside its country by people who are not its nationals–but where the crime is serious enough to warrant prosecution anywhere.”

If we are committed to action, not only to halt the atrocities animated for the world through a stop-motion flood of images, videos and audio from on the ground in Gaza City to Jenin and Masafer Yatta to Khan Younis, let us also relentlessly pursue the avenues where barriers can be torn down to allow the long delayed, long deprived justice that Palestinians running from occupation bombs and bullets at this moment deserve.

The U.S. is a refuser of International Criminal Court participation but many other nations are members who can seek legal action against those recorded committing atrocities against the bodies of murdered Palestinians, likewise those seen marching medical workers at gunpoint out of Jenin Hospital last night. Those air striking hospitals. Those bombing schools and refugee camps.

The Hague awaits the ‘moral army’ flying flags over Shifa Hospital in their brave defeat of an illegally targeted medical facility where injured children and civilians were robbed of the last bastion of security in the warzone that has been made of their home.