26 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Eight children between the ages of 14 to 17 years old were arrested in Beit Ummar during night raids from 6th to 11th of March conducted by the Israeli occupation forces following a nonviolent solidarity demonstration for the hungerstriker Khader Adnan on the 21st of February.
On Tuesday 20th of March the youth went to court at the Israeli military court at Ofer and faced a sentence of being banned from Beit Ummar, where they live with their families, for a period of 6 months. The youth are being accused of throwing stones at Israeli military installations. The detainees are Ayesh Khalid Sabri Awad (17 years), Basil Khalid Hassan Abu Hashim (15 years), Zain Hisham Khalil Abu Maria (15 years) Sami Amer Ahmed Abo Joudeh (16 years), Emad Mohammed Saed Solaiby (16 years), Mohab Jawdat Adi (14 years), Bilal Mahmud Awad Ayyad (16 years), and Ahmed Ali Mahmoud Solaiby (16 years)
The announcement of the sentence aroused opposition on the part of family members of the accused, leading to removal of the family members from the court and adjournment until the 25th of March. Issa Solaiby, father of Ahmed, says his son was also beaten by 4 soldiers in the court.
Hisham Abu Maria, father of Zain , claims that the children are being pressured to agree to false accusations. He said, “They made him (Zain) say he threw rocks at the soldiers even though there were no soldiers” present at the time noted in the charges.
The village of Beit ummar has around 17000 inhabitants and is surrounded by illegal, Zionist settlements. According to Issa Solaiby a member of the local Popular Committee, Beit Ummar used to consist of 33 000 dunams of land. The building of the separation wall by Israel and a road that is closed off to Palestinians took 13 000 dunams of the village land.
Since then an additional 3000 dunams have been stolen by settlers living in illegal Israeli settlements. The inhabitants of Beit Ummar suffer from violence from the settlers living in the surrounding settlements. Issa Solaiby also complains that the settlers prevent the farmers from access to their own land and destroy olive trees and grape vines.
In March the settlers living in illegal Beit Ain settlement destroyed 14 olivetrees, 21 grape vine plants, and 2 citrus trees from the village in an act of incitement.
According to Issa the settlers also enter the village with soldiers and guns to make the villagers aware of their aggressive presence. One year ago 17-year-old Yousef Ikhlayl was shot and killed by Israeli settlers as he was farming with his father. His killers remain unpunished.
Many of the villagers have been arrested and gone to jail. Imprisonment is a problem especially with young people. According to Muhannad Abu Awwad 10,000 villagers have gone to jail and at present 30 inhabitants, most of them under 16, are serving time in Israeli occupation prisoners.
Muhannad himself went to jail for two years from the age 21 until 23 and is now studying law.
Satu is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
26 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Neither the attack dog or the dogs of the Israeli court system could keep Ahmed’s spirits down. He held his head up high as he walked into the court room, even while shackled by his feet and hands. His court hearing was rescheduled for a week from now.
On Sunday, the Israeli courts will determine if Ahmed will be released or given a prison sentence. On March 17th Ahmed was the victim of Israel attack dogs as he peacefully demonstrated against the Israeli occupation and its implications on the village, which is located near Nablus. Kufr Qaddoum’s main road has been blocked off by Israeli military for the sake of a nearby illegal settlement. The Israeli apartheid regime is trying to charge Ahmed with “participating in an illegal protest” and “throwing rocks at soldiers.”‘
Ahmed’s uncle, Murad, also was ordered to appear in court on Sunday. But it seems to be an intimidation tactic as Murad appeared and was told to “go home.” An Israeli activist present in support of Kufr Qaddoum residents does not believe this will be the last time Murad is harassed by the Israeli courts.
Sunday, the public will know if Ahmed will be set “free.” Regardless of the outcome, Ahmed will not gain his freedom until Palestine is no longer occupied. Until Palestinians see the end to illegal military Israeli occupation, Ahmed still will not be able to walk down the main road in his hometown. As a result of the apartheid system, Kufr Qaddoum and many other Palestinian towns will continue to protest for their freedom.
Amal is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
25 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The safe, comfortable, winsome childhood I had growing up in suburban America is a completely theoretical concept for the Palestinian children in the West Bank.
I’ve realized this while volunteering as a human rights observer in Hebron. One activity that entails is sitting and watching kids, ages six to thirteen, walk to the all-male Mutanabi school. It sounds like a silly endeavor; but in reality, it’s a deplorable necessity.
This was illustrated when, on a tour introducing the volunteers to the students, a teacher asked his third graders to stand up if they had ever been beaten up by soldiers on their way to school. Eight of the thirty did. He then asked them to stand if they had been bothered by soldiers since we had been there. They all sat down. One boy thanked us, saying “I feel safe now,” as his eyes brimmed with tearful sincerity.
From February 27th to March 2nd of 2012, there were thirty-one cases of the school’s 268 students being verbally and/or physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers. In addition, teachers were detained daily, preventing them from being able to teach their classes. In the weeks since the ISM was asked to come, there have been zero cases of harassment and detainment. The soldiers have also moved from standing at the edge of the school’s driveway to an adjacent house’s rooftop.
We go in pairs of internationals armed only with a camera. Our presence should not change a sophisticated army’s procedure as significantly as it did. To me, this influence clearly shows that they know that what they’re doing is wrong, and would be unable to be justified to an international audience. This is especially true as the checkpoint separates Palestinians from Palestinians, making the excuse of security for the illegal Israeli settlers irrelevant. There is no reason for their presence other than harassment.
It’s effective. Not only do the kids hate school because they associate it with soldiers and their threat of abuse, but their motivation and ability to focus is hindered because they feel constantly unsafe, anxious, and scared. Nervous habits like nail biting and pant wetting (after misinterpreting a noise, for example) is common. Also common is aggressive behavior, which the school’s psychologist says is the biggest problem. He holds the soldiers responsible, saying that their behavior exposes the kids to violence from a young age, teaching them to act in violent ways and normalizing its usage.
People have said that it’s a shame Palestinian children are taught hatred and violence. I agree, I suggest that the Israeli Occupation Forces change their inhumane and unnecessary treatment of minors . Israel’s accountability to international and humanitarian law should not be a temporary change of plans induced by international presence. It’s not optional. It’s not conditional. A permanent change of policy is imperative.
Edna is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)
24 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
On Sunday it was reported that a young boy had been shot on farmland near the Rafah crossing. The details were unclear. Several colleagues and I traveled to Rafah to find out what happened. After making several inquiries, we entered a Bedouin area several hundred meters north of Gaza’s border with Egypt and three kilometers from the Karm Abu Salem area of the Israeli border on the East. We followed a young man on a motorcycle down dusty roads with small plots of crops and olive trees on one side, and dilapidated homes made of corrugated metal, cinder block and plastic on the other.
Standing outside a rickety gate, three boys explain that we need to wait, as there are only women at home. A child runs off to summon a male family member. Someone calls from inside asking us to enter.
We pass through a dusty courtyard and are directed to a small dark room with nothing but mats on the floor. A bare light bulb hangs overhead. A plastic clock hangs on the wall. Despite all the children on the street and in the home, there are no toys. A young boy sits in the corner, playing with the fringe on a woman’s coat, shy and surprised at the strangers in his home. A woman with a child clutching her leg peeks from behind a curtain. Plastic chairs are brought in for the guests.
Faiza, the boy’s forty-four-year-old mother enters and sits on the mat next to the boy. He is six-year-old Sohaib Sultan. He is the victim of the shooting, but he looks uninjured. Faiza pulls down his pants to show the fresh bandage on his left buttock. She explains that on Saturday evening at seven o’clock, they heard gunfire from the border. Sohaib was sitting exactly where we sat, playing on the floor with his brothers, when the bullet pierced the corrugated metal roof and struck him. She points to the hole in the ceiling just above my head.
She produces his x-ray, showing a large caliber bullet lodged inches from his pelvis. If he had been sitting in a slightly altered position he could easily be dead. As it was, the bullet did little damage. His mother explains that the bullet hasn’t been removed yet. They need to schedule surgery with the hospital.
Sohaib’s father, Majd, enters the room and sits beside me. He explains the family’s circumstances. He is unemployed and his wife suffers from kidney disease. There is little income and very little support from the government. He and his wife have nine children. Sohaib is the youngest. It is the first time a family member has been injured, although there is often the sound of gunfire from the border and bullets have struck neighbor’s homes in the past.
He said, “We are often afraid, we never know when a bullet could come down.” He continued to state, “To the Israelis we say, ‘Please don’t shoot us, we are civilians here, we have no weapons, we live a civilian life. We just want to live like humans. We want to live in peace.’”
Baraka al-Morabi was not as lucky as Sohab Sultan. He lived in Zeitoun camp with his mother, father and two sisters as well as his grandmother and three aunts with their families.
I attended his funeral. I watched as a father stumbled, carrying his seven-year-old child to his grave. Baraka was wrapped in a white shroud and lowered into the ground. A short ceremony was held. A Palestinian flag was draped over the fresh mound of dirt, and a cardboard placard identifies the grave. His is the last in a line of fourteen new graves of fighters and civilians.
Several days after the funeral we visited with Baraka’s father, Mohammed Osman al-Mograbi. He led us down rutted dirty streets, past the gaggles of bare foot children, to his home in Zeitoun camp. We sat in a small, concrete enclosed courtyard adjacent to a small stable that contained a horse and a small pony. The pony was born just weeks ago, a gift for Baraka.
As the family joins us under martyr posters of the young boy and his neighbors, we learn the story of Baraka’s death.
On Saturday March 17th there was a funeral in Zeitoun for three fighters who had been killed the day before in an Israeli bombing. Baraka was walking in the funeral procession. Many people were firing pistols and Kalashnikovs into the air, as they will during both funerals and celebrations. Suddenly Baraka stumbled to the ground. He was struck in the back of the head by a bullet falling from the sky. He was hospitalized for four days before he died.
Mohammed tells us, “Baraka was a happy child. He did well in school and was always smiling.”
Now, he is gone, but not forgotten.
In Gaza, reminders of war and violence are everywhere. It is normal to hear the sound of drones and F-16’s crossing the sky. The sound of machine gun fire from Israeli gunboats often punctuates a day at the beach or disrupts one’s sleep. Building facades made of plaster and cinder block are scored with large caliber bullet holes, or even larger holes from mortars. Weeds grow around twisted metal and chunks of concrete in lots where buildings were reduced to rubble in Cast Lead, and there are the newly flattened buildings from last week’s attacks.
And often, the bullets find much softer targets. Posters of the newly dead replace martyr posters faded and torn. Then there is the one legged man in the market, the burned woman I pass on the street, the pock marked arms and faces of shrapnel victims, and the men forever bound by wheelchairs.
Now there is a new poster, of a young boy who was killed in an act of senseless violence where violence and destruction seem the norm. His death is just a footnote in the context of the larger systemic violence waged on the people here, but just last week he was not a footnote, he was a smiling vibrant seven-year-old boy who did well in school and had a new horse. He was living.
Baraka’s grandmother appears heartbroken. Baraka’s mother is less than reassured. She is pale and drawn. She is also carrying her fourth child, and on the day Baraka died, she thought she was ready to deliver and was rushed to the hospital, but the doctors sent her home to wait and grieve.
Mohammed smiled.
“Do not be sad,” he said to me, “Baraka is in paradise, it is a better place than here.” Mohammed seemed at peace. “We don’t worry,” he said, “We are a happy family.”
Johnny Bravo is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
15 year-old Ez Tamimi minutes after being shot in the face. Picture credit: ActiveStills
The bullet shot from a short distance hit the boy in the face penetrating his right cheek and piercing it.
Israeli Border Police officers shot a rubber-coated bullet at 15 year-old Ezz Tamimi’s face from a distance of about 20 meters, during the weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh today. The bullet, which hit the boy’s cheek, went through it, gouging a large hole in it. The Israeli army’s own open-fire regulations forbid the use of rubber-coated bullets against minors.
The incident took place at the center of the village ,hundreds of meters away from where a demonstration was taking place, when Border Police officers invaded the village.
For the first time in months, protesters managed to reach the vicinity of the contested water spring, which sparked village demonstrations over two years ago when taken over by settlers. The protesters, mainly women from the village, managed to confound the soldiers by advancing towards the spring from an unexpected direction. The protesters who were held back by the soldiers meters away from the fountain proceeded to block the road leading to the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Halamish for some 20 minutes.
The previous night, the Israeli army staged another nighttime raid on the village, an what has become an almost nightly practice in the past three weeks.
