Resistance in the South Hebron Hills

In early January, ISM activists visited the villages of Um al-Khair and At-Tuwani in the South Hebron hills in order to participate in renovation work on ancient caves and to bear witness to recent settler violence in both villages. The villages are located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, occupied Palestine, an area controlled entirely by the Israeli civil administration. It is an area that makes up 61% of the West Bank, with a settler population of almost 400,000, and a Palestinian population of just 300,000. Settlements are considered illegal by the international community, yet they continue to expand with the support of the Israeli State and their international allies.

Herding sheep below the illegal settlement construction site close to Um al-Kheir.

The people of Um al-Khair were displaced from al-Arad during the Nakba in 1948, and in the early 1960s purchased the lands of Um al-Khair from Palestinians for 100 camels. These rocky hills and green winding valleys have been their home ever since. Living as refugees, the community of Um al-Khair continue to face racism, discrimination and land theft due to the existence of the illegal settlement of Carmel, the development of which began in 1980. True to the standard procedure of settler- colonialism, the first step was the construction of infrastructure- highway 317, a highway that would connect the outposts of Susiya, Ma’on, Beit Yatir, Asael, Shim’a and Carmel. Subsequently, a military base was placed less than 100 meters from Um Al-Khair and the year after, Carmel outpost was constructed and expanded over time. Research by Bimkom, an Israeli human rights group, shows the gradual expansion and the future plans for the settlement, which will see it grow to occupy more than five times the amount of land it currently has. The settled area will virtually almost enclose Um al-Khair. Within few years, the inhabitants of Um al-Khair fear that they won’t be able to graze their sheep on the surrounding mountains, on land expropriated from the Bedouin community.

Carmel is so close to Um al-Khair that if you peer through the barbed wire it is possible to see inside the windows of homes in the settlement. Despite their closeness, the two communities are worlds apart. Carmel looks like an American suburb. Its well paved roads and large detached houses with green irrigated gardens contrast starkly with Um al-Khair. The villagers’ many efforts to connect to the electricity grid, get appropriate sanitation and sewage services, and even have permanent structures have all been blocked by the Israeli state. Currently, every structure in Um al-Khair bar two have demolition orders against them. 13 demolitions have been carried out by the Israeli military in the past, with 8 demolitions occuring in 2008. The village community has repeatedly applied for permission to build on their land. This would officially recognize their existence, and reduce the chance them being expelled according to Israeli law. All attempts have been unsuccessful. This is apartheid in action- one set of policies for Israelis and another for Palestinians.

Buildings of Um al-Khair, under threat of demolition, with settlement homes visible in the background.

As well as regular violence from state forces in the form of housing demolitions, the villagers also deal with harassment from settlers on a constant basis. Settlers resident in Carmel as well as representatives of Regavim- a far right pro-settler NGO- regularly carry out invasive surveillance on Um al-Khair, flying drones over the village, reporting building or refurbishment efforts to the Israeli army, and filming and harassing shepherds as they herd their animals. Harassment from Regavim representatives took place on the morning of January 10, when a person began filming activists and shepherds, accusing them of crossing onto land claimed by the illegal settlement. After a short argument, he acknowledged the fact that the disputed land belongs to Um al-Khair.

The villagers in the south Hebron hills are subject not only to discrimination and harassment in shape of surveillance, control, limitation of movement and access to resources. With the growth of Carmel settlement, locals have experienced an increase in violent attacks on their unarmed peaceful community. In recent years, settlers have repeatedly thrown stones at people and buildings. In 2000, a shepherd, the brother of our host, was spotted by Carmel settlement security walking on Um al-Khair land close to the settlement. Security personnel fired at him but did not hit him. He escaped and hid in Um al-Khair. Shortly after this, soldiers came on the order of the settlers, found and beat him up so severely that they caused brain damage. Eighteen years after, he is afraid of people, wanders the outskirts of the village all day, avoiding contact even with his own family. In the words of our host “We lost him, he’s with us by body, not by soul”. In 2008, our host’s stepmother attempted to fetch a donkey that had wandered off into a settlement area. At the time, no fence was separating the two communities. A settler saw her and without warning shot at the woman, severely wounding her. The woman was arrested as soon as she was discharged from the hospital. The settler never faced any criminal charges or a trial for attempted murder. While these are only the worst stories, the inhabitants of Um al-Khair are often harassed by settlers without any provocation on a regular basis.

The community of Um al-Khair have stood strong against decades of state and settler violence, using a variety of non-violent tactics. These include: protest and direct action against demolitions, pursuing legal challenges against the illegal settlement, and international advocacy with political bodies in Europe and the United States. Youth from the village established the Good Shepherd Collective which organizes and raises awareness of the situation in the south Hebron hills. One villager has even presented his handmade models of Caterpillar vehicles in the European parliament, using them as a tool to raise awareness of the Caterpillar boycott- a part of the larger BDS movement called for by Palestinians.

The refurbishment of caves and rehabilitation of farm and grazing land is another example of the creative methods of resistance used by Um al-Khair in the face of illegal occupation, and what ISM activists visited the village to work on. The work took place over two days as we focused on clearing animal waste out of one of the caves which has been used as a shelter for goats in recent years. If ever there was an example of joy as an act of resistance, this work was it. We worked together with locals on the cave, and we laughed and drank tea as much as we shoveled goat shit! While there is much work to be done, the locals hope that this cave will one day be a museum and cultural activity center that tells the story of the people of Um al-Khair, past and present.

Leaving the village, we walked with shepherds from Um al-Khair to the village of at-Tuwani. While the villages are linked by a large highway, it is not possible for Palestinians to use it as it is for settlers. Palestinians risk attack or arrest if they walk close to the road. Crossing the hills, we passed by the illegal settlement of Ma’on, and the outpost of Havat Ma’on on a forest-covered hilltop. Havat Ma’on is controlled by a small number of religious extremist settlers and is currently not recognized as a settlement by Israel. Despite this, its residents benefit from army and police protection and can use all of the colonial infrastructure that links illegal settlements in the West Bank. The Havat Ma’on settlers are infamous for their violent attacks against schoolchildren walking their route from the village of at-Tuba to the school in at-Tuwani. The shepherds of at-Tuwani report being harassed weekly by the Havat Ma’on settlers who call on IDF soldiers to arrest shepherds grazing on what they regard as too close to their forest.

Olive trees cut down by settlers in at-Tuwani

The olive groves of at-Tuwani were vandalised by settlers on the night of January 7 2018, shortly before our. visit. They cut over 18 olive trees and spray painted Hebrew graffiti on nearby stones, which translated to: “Pay the price” and “death to the Arabs”. This is a common occurrence, and since olive trees are an important source of food and income for many Palestinian communities, damage to even a single olive tree is a catastrophe. Actions like this seriously compromise Palestinians’ ability to earn a livelihood. Additionally, the olive tree is an important symbol of Palestinian culture and cutting them down sends a strong symbolic message of violence and cultural erasure.

Graffiti written by settlers in the olive groves of at-Tuwani after an attack.

Despite all of what has been inflicted on them by the occupation, the residents of at-Tuwani have remained strong and united. We had the pleasure of walking over grazing land that had previously been controlled by the outpost. This land was returned to the community after persistent advocating and resistance by locals, who continued attempting to access the land in the face of settler and state violence. Seeing a shepherd and his children herding their animals, laughing and joking in the winter sunshine made it all clearer that resistance is necessary and effective against the occupation.

Another ISM member attacked by violent Settler, Anat Cohen

February 10, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

Every day, ISM volunteers monitor the Qurtuba checkpoint in Al-Khalil during mornings and afternoons to ensure the safety of Palestinian schoolchildren. Attacks and harassment by Israeli Defense Forces, police and settlers seem to be increasing. This is the fourth ISM volunteer attacked within a week, by the infamously violent settler Anat Cohen.

Another interesting week in sunny Palestine

January 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Al Khalil (Hebron), occupied West Bank, Palestine, late January 2019

It’s the first day of winter term for Palestinian schoolkids. Israeli settlers from the colonies in and around Al Khalil, the Israeli Border Police, and the Israeli Defense Force, are all known for systematically impeding the passage of children to and from school. The settlers verbally harass the schoolchildren as well. These kids are of all ages from kindergarten to twelvth grade: the kindergarteners often walk hand in hand with a parent or older sibling but a few five-year-olds make the trek to school alone or with a couple of friends.

My ISM teammate, D, and I keep an eye on the army checkpoint that controls Palestinians’ passage at Salaymey, on the southeastern end of the Old City. Most of the children filter easily through the turnstiles, and through the armored inspection building, although some of the older ones are subjected to identity checks, bag searches and an occasional, not very intrusive body search.

The road leading uphill from the checkpoint to the settlement of Qiryat Arba is dusty, steep and winding and often clogged with schoolchildren; settlers in vans and late-model cars take the road too fast and many of them barely bother braking, and lean on the horn instead. Some shout angrily at the kids as they take the slope. It strikes me as inevitable that a child will eventually be hit by one of these cars. Foolishly, I get into an altercation with a speeding settler in a van; he stops, reverses furiously, slides down his window and spits at me.

A fat settler gets out of his car next to where I and D are standing, not far from an SUV in which two observers from the UN group known as TIPH–Temporary International Presence in Hebron–are also observing the checkpoint. He taunts the two TIPH women, saying, “You will be gone soon.” (Sure enough, less than two weeks later, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu revokes TIPH’s observation rights, and TIPH is, indeed, gone.) The settler strolls up to D and myself, smiling and filming us with his cellphone. We know this man: he’s famously violent. He often harasses international observers. Also, he carries a handgun; we have been told he has shot Palestinians, and blocked medical first responders from helping the wounded. He has never been punished for these unprovoked attacks. Our local Palestinian friends refer to him as a murderer.

*

I have not been in Al Khalil long. I was trained, swiftly, in the philosophy and practice of non-violent observation, by ISM personnel in Ramallah, and trained further by my teammates at an ISM base, but I’m still not ready for what I experience here daily. I am an American, from a country where, for all its faults, some form of rule of law applies, even if it’s less available for the poor, the outsider, the disadavantaged. Of course the history of the US is a long tale of theft from, and murder of, Native-Americans but I, personally, am not used to living in a police state that enforces on a daily basis the systematic robbery of land from a native people, and sets up a system of apartheid and military rule to crush ensuing dissent.

“You’re going to stay safe,” my daughter told me, very firmly, before I left for the Occupied Territories, and I assured her I would. But I had not known then what I now live every waking hour of every day: the constant pressure of passing through military checkpoints, waiting while the Palestinians in front of us are held up for five, ten minutes at a time, apparently just to make them remember who’s boss here; arguing with heavily armed soldiers or border police officers who object to our walking down a street in their presence; being held up in the market by military patrols who surround us for twenty minutes, Tavor assault rifles at the ready, when we refuse to let them take our passports. At one point they physically push us out of a checkpoint where an ISM teammate is demanding to know why a Palestinian man is being held up, for no apparent reason, for close to a half hour.

One of the checkpoints smells of tear-gas. A kid threw a rock at what is, in effect, an armored mini-fort, and the troops inside responded by firing a gas canister.

*

Al Khalil has been divided by the Israelis into two sectors: one Palestinian, known as H1, and the other, H2, reserved for settlers. A walled military base flying the Israeli flag glowers from a hill over the town. Four colonies: Tel Rumeida, Beit Hadassah, Beit Romano, and Avraham Avinu; have been encrusted into the heart of the Old City. Palestinians have covered the streets beneath their walls with heavy wire because the settlers routinely toss bottles, trash, even tins full of urine out of their windows onto the people below.

Most Saturdays–the Jewish sabbath–a tour guide takes groups of settlers from the Al Khalil colonies through the H1 areas of the Old City, the parts the Israelis do not live in. The tours are guarded, front back and flanks, by at least twenty infantrymen; the soldiers act as if they’re on patrol, with squaddies on point or defending the rear, guns at the ready. Though the Palestinians generally ignore the tours, I can only imagine what it must feel like, for them, to have colonists gape at the city they have not yet stolen.

Before a 1929 massacre in which 69 Jewish residents died, a small Jewish community existed in Al Khalil, but the property they actually owned constituted a microscopic fraction of what the settlers have taken. The al-Ibrahimi mosque here contains the remains of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. Apparently seeing their presence as religiously ordained, the settlers in Al Khalil are known for adopting a particularly hard-line and vindictive attitude toward the local people.

A Brooklyn-born settler, Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers and wounded over 150 others in the Ibrahimi mosque in 1994, lies buried on a hillside in H2. Some of Al Khalil’s settlers, apparently, revere his grave as a shrine.

*

Al Khalil may not be dying, but the Israeli occupation and its system of apartheid is taking a toll on the Old City. A good third of the storefronts on the main drag, Al Shuhaba Street, are shuttered. Every local I meet has so many stories of being detained, harassed, impeded in the conduct of day-to-day life that no one even bothers to recount them anymore, they are just how one lives in this place. The younger people, of Intifada age, know they can be jailed at the first sign of protest, and kept in an Israeli prison without trial for years under a system known as “administrative detention,” at the whim of the occupying power. And yet the Palestinians I meet in Al Khalil do not seem cowed or broken. They nurture a healthy sense of humor and, most often, a philosophical take on the situation.

The same is true of the ISM team I am living with: D, Katie, Roberto, Penny, Ed. While constantly aware of the risk–ISM members have been killed in Palestine while observing what the Israeli forces are doing–they are diligent in respecting the tenets by which they live here. These include, as well as strict adherence to principles of non-violence, a blanket refusal to guide or advise the Palestinians in any aspect of their lives, including how to survive under or resist apartheid. We are in Palestine to observe; to make known to the occupying power that its actions cannot be swept under a rug; and hopefully, to restrict through this process some of the more serious abuses of power an occupying army inevitably will commit.

*

On a roadside leading from Checkpoint 56 to Qeitun, in the Old City, a female settler screams at a pair of international observers from EAPPI, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, who shelter in a doorway from her torrent of invective. A few days later EAPPI’s observers, citing a targeted campaign of harassment, will be withdrawn from Al Khalil. The almost simultaneous eviction of TIPH leaves only one other church group, the CPT (Christian Peacemaker Teams), as well as the ISM’s group of international observers, to keep an eye on the occupation here. This week the CPT team has not been present in Al Khalil. Ed, too, is leaving. When I quit the city in a few days time, our team will have dwindled perilously close to a size that’s too small to do its job.

*

Ras Karkar, Palestine, late January, 2019

This country, for all its lengthy history of massacre, religious bigotry, and exile; of water theft also, of over-exploitation and deforestation; remains beautiful. The rough limestone hills that range up and down Palestine seem to flow like a cat’s spine, khaki earth and white rock studded with olive trees under a clear blue winter sky.

One of the heights to the north of Jerusalem, a pair of hilltops separated by a shallow saddle, known as Ras Karkar, has traditionally served as common ground for the three Palestinian villages surrounding it. Recently a neighboring Israeli settlement invaded the hilltop. Even in the context of the UN-mandated territory of Palestine, where roughly three-quarters of a million settlers now live on stolen land, in illegal colonies; where a long, brutally massive wall built of cement, guard towers and razor wire cuts up the rest of the country; this was an egregious act. Now, every Friday, Palestinians from the surrounding villages and activists from farther afield meet in a valley underneath and, at least symbolically, strive to take back Ras Karkar.

Up on the hilltop, Israeli soldiers dressed in black riot gear await the Palestinians. Their rifles stick out from the cover of thorn brush, of olive trees. A handful of settlers shelter behind the military.

In the valley, an imam prays through a loudspeaker to a group of fifty or so men. Then the men start up the hill, toward the waiting soldiers. The younger among them wield slings, just as David did against Goliath in the Valley of Elah, to the west of here. Their rocks fall short of the soldiers’ defensive line. The IDF responds by firing tear-gas canisters that emit acrid, choking clouds of white smoke which the Palestinians and a couple of international observers run from, or around, as best they can. Then the soldiers fire small hard plastic bullets that whiffle shrilly past our ears. We turn away and cover our necks–these rounds are not supposed to be lethal but they can blind or wound if we are hit in head or neck.

An army drone buzzes overhead. The younger men, known here as “shabab,” try to outflank the Israelis. More teargas is fired into the valley. If the confrontation grew more dire the soldiers could fire live .22 rounds at the legs of their attackers, a practice common enough that people warn of it by shouting the English words, “two-two!”, but it doesn’t look as if this level of intensity will be reached today.

Some of the older men sit in the shelter of rocky outcrops and watch. A youth caught in a cloud of teargas doubles up, retching, blinded, gasping for breath. Another, hit in the head by a plastic bullet, is taken away by a Red Crescent ambulance. Later a car drives into the valley with food and water. Falling back from Ras Karkar the Palestinians, and a couple of ISM observers, sit on the ground to eat and drink in the sun.

-Journal by Nick

A Report-back from Dismantle the Ghetto’s Torch March

10th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Demonstrators marched through Al-Khalil today holding torches, flags and signs that called for the re-opening of the stolen Shuhada street, the return of TIPH and other international support, the end of the occupation, as well as a statements of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and solidarity with Venezuela.

We stand in solidarity with the Dismantle The Ghetto Campaign. They issued this statement during their Torch March demonstration, on the 10th of February 2019, in Al-Khalil.

“Dismantle the Ghetto, take the settlers out of Hebron

The recent announcement of the Israeli government shutting down the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine-Israel’s recent decision to withdraw their team from Hebron, coupled with seven Christian Peacemaker Team workers denied entry, has put the Palestinian community in Hebron in a vulnerable position. We need your solidarity more than ever.

Since the beginning of the 1967 occupation, the Israeli settler movement has concentrated on the colonization of Hebron. 1994 was a turning point in their movement. On February 25, American-Israeli Baruch Goldstein of the Jewish extremist organization, Kach, opened fire on worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque killing 29 Palestinians and wounding another 125.

Despite an Israeli settler committing the massacre, it was the Palestinians who were forced to pay the consequences, setting a clear message that those who commit violence against Palestinians will not face the consequences. A policy of indiscriminate restrictions on Palestinians emerged as a means to perpetuate indigenous displacement and the establishment of illegal Israeli colonies. The Israeli military imposed curfews on the Palestinian community in the early 2000s. Entire streets were shut off from Palestinian access. The Israeli army closed over 520 Palestinian in the center of Hebron, and nearly another 1000 Palestinians were forced to close their shops due to the economic impact of Israeli’s checkpoints, road closures, and settler violence.

This campaign is about the memorial of the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre of 1994, the thousands of lives lost, the millions of lives permanently impacted by Israel’s illegal military occupation.

We are focusing on Hebron as a microcosm of the occupation, a symbol of the colonial settlement issue, the policy of separation in Hebron/al Khaleel and the entire West Bank, the lack of freedom of movement, and the occupation at large.

We urgently call all the friends of Palestine in the world to organize and be part of this campaign.”

–Dismantle the Ghetto, in Al-Khalil

Occupation forces shoot 9 demonstrators near Ramallah

9th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Despite being condemned by all authoritative bodies, the occupation continues to expand it’s settlements throughout the ‘West Bank’, with total disregard for international law. All the settlements are built on Palestinian land and these illegal settlers often raid local villages, lacerating olive groves and destroying crops. In addition, violent, unprovoked attacks by settlers against Palestinians have increased alarmingly over the past year, with 200 race-related incidences recorded in 2018. The village of Al-Mughayyir north-east of Ramallah has experienced constant harassment, including settlers setting fire to the local mosque.

Last week, a group settlers invaded and attacked Al-Mughayyir, shooting indiscriminately toward houses. As residents gathered to resist the invasion with stones, the settlers immediately and randomly fired a barrage of bullets at the crowd, killing 38-year-old Hamdi Nassan who was shot in the back. Many others were hit with live ammunition, leaving three wounded in serious conditions.

After performing Friday prayers in the field of the village, the residents gathered to commemorate Hamdi and to protest the continued annexation of their land. Despite being on village land and posing no threat to the surrounding settlements, dozens of occupation soldiers were positioned across the hills surrounding the field. Within moments of shebab throwing stones toward fully-armored soldiers standing more than 100 metres away, the occupation began firing tear gas canisters from a machine known as ‘venom’- capable of shooting 64 canisters per launch. While protesters scattered in order to dodge hailing canisters, soldiers descended from the hills, firing rubber-coated steel bullets indiscriminately into the crowd. Yet as a cloud of tear gas smothered the field, the youth surged forward, using the toxic gas as cover to lob rocks at the armoured vehicles. At no point did anyone get within 50 meters of a soldier but in a reality that is all too familiar for the Palestinians – yet no less deplorable – snipers started ‘picking off’ protestors. Nine youths were wounded by live ammunition and many others injured.