The Oslo Accords – still dead in Nablus

8th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

Nablus was disturbed by two army jeeps driving in a circuit round the city centre and shooting tear gas at young men, with no clear intent other than to harass them for around three hours.
Shooting and sound bombs were heard beginning at 01:45. Two Israeli military jeeps circled around one block in central Nablus for three hours shooting tear gas and sound bombs at a group of 20 young people. The excessive shooting of tear gas at close range caused public property damage to surrounding buildings and street lights.
There were three arrests Azz Aldan Salha (22) and Raed Saig from Nablus and Ahmad Sorf (24), from New Askar refugee camp. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, Nablus is designated as Area A, which nominally is within full Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.
Nablus sees regular Israeli military incursions, typically to give armed support to night-time settler visits to Joseph’s Tomb or raids on Palestinian homes, often in the city’s refugee camps, but elsewhere too, such as the arrest of 17 students from al-Najjar University last week.

 

Settlers use rocks and sharp tools to attack 50 and 65 year-old farmers in Beit Furik

7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine

by ISM Nablus

beitfurik-may13-fouzi
Fouzi, his bandages freshly changed for the day, holds a memento of the day he nearly was killed (photo: ISM)

Two olive farmers from the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, are recovering from head wounds in a near-lethal attack by colonial-settlers. Although both survived, they are in need of daily check-ups at a clinic in Nablus and are afraid to return to work on their land.

In the early afternoon of Monday 29th April, Fouzi Mousa Nasasra (65) and Abad al-Rahman Khatatba (50) went to put out fires started by settlers, from the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar, on their land just a brief walk away from their neighbouring homes. The fire service from Nablus also came to help put out the fire. Afterwards the pair took a rest on their land, which sits on a mountainside. Suddenly three settlers came at them in a surprise attack, with fifteen more in support. They hit them both in the head, with sharp farming tools and stones, repeatedly, causing them to collapse. Fortunately, other villagers saw what was happening and ran to help them, so settlers backed a retreat up the mountainside.

Both men needed hospital treatment for serious injuries to the head. Fouzi received 12 injuries to his head on 3 sides and Abad, 5 injuries to his head as he was able to put his hands up to protect himself. The fire, although it was put out, caused damage to approximately 300 olive trees.

When asked about the attack Fouzi spoke of how the settlers were laughing and ‘proud’ of what they were doing. He added that if there were no villagers about to see what happened he would be dead. He spoke of his concern of going back to his land, where he hasn’t returned even though it begins part-way along his road, after what happened and of past attacks in the last 12 years which have claimed two lives, 88 year-old Abu Odie and his own brother, 33 year-old Farrid Nasasra. Now Fouzi has to visit a clinic in the city of Nablus every day to change his dressings, as his wounds bleed all the time. Thankfully, he is expected to make a full recovery, scars aside, and should have the bandages and stitches completely removed in a month.

The attacks and killings are accompanied by the Israeli Occupation Forces forbidding Beit Furik’s farmers from harvesting olives on the mountain. This attack has been one of several in a recent upsurge in violence by settlers, particularly from Yitzar (in Burin, Huwwara, Urif and Asira), Esh Kodesh (in Jalud) and Elon Moreh (in Azmut), over the last week in the Nablus governorate district.

Abad and Fouzi's land on the mountainside by their houses (photo: ISM)
Abad and Fouzi’s land on the mountainside by their houses (photo: ISM)
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Fouzi’s bloodstained shirt, with further loss of blood he believes he would have died (photo: ISM)

ISM condemns Ynetnews misinformation, calls on Ynet to correct false allegations

7th May 2013 | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

International Solidarity Movement calls on Ynetnews, a popular Israeli digital newspaper, to correct the false allegations against the recently arrested Swedish human rights activist and a young boy in Al-Khalil (Hebron).

Ynetnews reported that the Swedish activist allegedly attempted to take an Israeli soldier’s gun and resisted arrest. Also reported was that the young boy arrested was throwing stones. Both allegations prove entirely false in the Youth Against Settlements full video of the event. Story here.

Support our demand to report accurately on events in Palestine. Contact the Ynetnews editor-in-chief at editor-in-chief@y-i.co.il or the Ynetnews editorial department at news@ynetnews.com.

Below is the letter sent to Ynetnews editor-in-chief, still awaiting response.

TO: Ynet News Editor-in-Chief

RE: Inaccurate Ynet Article

It has come to our attention that ynet recently posted an article about the arrest of a child and an international activist in Hebron last week that contains entirely false information regarding the nature of the arrests. If ynet intends to report accurate information, unattributed allegations such as those that appear in that report are unaccountable as the basis for a posted story, especially as those sources turn out to be entirely false. You may see a full video of the event here. We hope that ynet will attempt to restore its lost credibility on this article and uphold an honest journalistic ethic by both correcting the falsity of that report in addition to posting the entire video of the event to display without a doubt for misinformed readers that the two arrests were made without illegal action by either the child or the international man. False information in reporting on a story such as this is, as ynet must agree, unacceptable.

Please also note that this false reporting has not gone unnoticed, as +972 magazine has already reported that ynet clearly misrepresented the events as evidenced by video of the event. You may see that report by +972 here.

Awaiting your response,

ISM Palestine Media

P.S. ISM will make this letter to the editor public awaiting appropriate remedy of this misinformation by ynet news.

N.B. In actual event, in the afternoon of the 28th April, several children from an illegal Hebron settlement attacked two Palestinian children, aged 11 and 12, who were walking home from school. The soldiers proceeded to arrest the Palestinian victims of the attack despite the fact that according to eyewitnesses, they never struck back.

Having witnessed the arrests of the children, Swedish human rights observer Gustav Karlsson asked Israeli soldiers “why are you arresting these children?” only to be violently grabbed and also arrested. Following this, the children and Gustav were taken to a nearby military base. Gustav said, “I was blindfolded, but I could hear the children crying and screaming next to me. Twice, the soldiers pointed their guns at me, loaded them and pretended to pull the triggers”. As well as these mock-executions, soldiers violently shoved Gustav with their guns as they moved him and the children around.

The children were released later the same day, while Gustav is currently in Givon prison accused of assaulting a soldier, despite clear video evidence to the contrary.

Increased military presence at primary school where 27 children were recently arrested

7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Children walking past soldiers on their way to school - 7th May.
Children walking past soldiers on their way to school – 7th May.

On the 20th March, 27 children aged 7 to 16 were arrested on their way to school in Hebron’s old city. For the past three days the Israeli military have had a large, heavily armed and threatening presence outside the four schools on this street, where the children were grabbed at random by Israeli soldiers just five weeks ago.

Children have to walk through a checkpoint manned by several Israeli border police each morning in order to reach their schools, often receiving hassle from the soldiers as they do so. On the morning of the 5th of May, some children threw stones at the checkpoint – in response the border police radioed for army back up and two jeeps arrived on the scene. One jeep then proceeded through the checkpoint driving down towards the school parking outside whilst children were still arriving. After it left the other jeep drove down outside the schools and four army officers exited the vehicle and patrolled outside the schools for another half an hour.

On the 6th May at around 7.00am as children were walking towards their classes, three military jeeps arrived without provocation and ten soldiers patrolled in front of the school, maintaining a presence for over an hour.

On the 7th May two jeeps arrived at the checkpoint and seven soldiers walked through it, towards the schools. When asked what their purpose in the school area was, the commander answered “we’re protecting our people”. They had no further response when it was suggested that their actions seemed absurd, considering the disparity of power between the heavily armed Israeli military occupiers and a few young children throwing stones in resistance.

This daily military presence must be a continual reminder for the children who were arrested and their classmates of the military brutality of the 20th March. One bystander stated “this could inhibit the right to education – children might be too scared to come to school.”

In a city which has seen at least 66 child detentions and arrests since mid-February (these are just those witnessed by international observers), this continued initimidation and persecution of children is evidence of Israel’s disregard for international law for the protection of children – a finding backed up by Unicef’s recent report criticising Israeli military treatment of Palestinian children.

Swedish activist falsely accused of violence by Israeli media “Ynetnews”

4th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

On the 28th of April the Israeli digital newspaper Ynetnews published a two paragraph article with false allegations about the arrest of a child and Swedish activist in Hebron.

The article, written by Itamar Fleishman, is full of inaccuracies and false information. The “Palestinian youth” mentioned in  Ynet’s report are clearly  young children as seen in the video below.

The accusations of “throwing stones”, “resisting the arrest” and “attempting to grab an IDF officer’s firearm” are completely fictitious as evident in the YAS (Youth Against Settlements) video of the full event. The video, below, clearly shows that none of the violence mentioned in Ynetnews report is based in truth or accurate sources.

This is how Ynetnews tells the story.

 

Screenshot of the article on Ynetnews
Screenshot of the article on Ynetnews

 

And this is what actually happened.

 

Judge for  yourselves!

 

See our original article here.