International Solidarity Movement - Page 82 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Outside the school, inside al Khalil

19th December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

Most of us are plenty used to absent minded scrolling our Facebook feeds. After all you can find just about anything you want and not have to read anything in particular. However, you can also come across a post saying that two kids have been arrested the day before in Al-Khalil, the city you’re living in. It’s a big city, but not enough to prevent you from seeking out the school and getting a direct report. If you have just come to Palestine for the first time, you might not believe such an egregious story, so trying to verify it for yourself is a natural reaction. Today, we decided to try. The post on Facebook said that the two kids were arrested in front of the school down by the Ibrahimi Mosque, so we decided to start from Ibrahim school.

We reached the school around 11 AM, while many students were in the hall having their break. Soon after, the headmaster joined us in his office, where an assistant had told us to wait. It was easy to read on his face how difficult it is to have his job at a school in H2 – the Israeli occupied section of the city, where illegal settler homes and those of native Palestinians exist side by side. The headmaster didn’t waste time and after a polite welcome he asked us what we want to know. We didn’t waste time either.: “We know that a student from this school has been arrested yesterday morning. Could you tell us more?”

“First of all, to be provided this information you must have a permission from the Ministry of Education,” he clarified. It was clear he knew that letting the world hear the news of the mistreatment of his students was the right thing to do despite official protocol. “But,” he continued on, “the situation is terrible here and we have big problems.”

In a few minutes, he listed a series of problems. A few days before, a settler had thrown stones at some of the Palestinian students and followed them to the playground. Kids are scared by the checkpoints surrounding the school. One morning, a soldier suddenly blocked the turnstile and a boy was hit in his face. He arrived to school with a wound to his head and instructions not to tell anybody what had happened. The headmaster himself is checked every day.

“They check me every morning and I have worked here for years. They ask me to take off my belt and shoes. Once I asked a soldier why he does that, even though he knows perfectly well who I am. The soldier replied, ‘Just as your job is to be the headmaster, my job is to check you.’” The army disposes the closure of the school for Jewish festivities, preventing the schools’ activities. He also tells us that yesterday some soldiers attacked some students putting them in arrest. Attacks happened this morning too, but they didn’t affect kids from his school.

We thought we were done finding out what happened. The fact had been verified. But he kept going. “By the way, the kids in the video you have seen are not the ones I’m talking about. They’re not from my school. They are from another school I think the UNRWA school or Al-Khalil school.”

So, we hadn’t finished yet. The two kids, that we could see in the video held by two big guys, twice their size and holding weapons, were not the ones we had just heard the story about. So still we had another place to go to.

After a five-minute walk, we passed through the Salaymeh checkpoint. Another than the Qeitun checkpoint just mentioned by the headmaster. We’re out in the H1 area on Tareq Ibn Zeyad Street and after a few meters we reached Al-Khalil school. The office of the Principal was very crowded. We’re welcome, they say. So, we stared once more, “We know that a student from this school have been arrested yesterday morning. Could you tell us more?” We understand that our interlocutor will be an English teacher. He tells us about the surprise attack. While he speaks, I can picture the scene in my mind.

A bunch of young guys in their twenties, armed with a plethora of dangerous and expensive weapons, stationed behind a wall, waiting for some kids to pass in order to trap them. The scene seems to be very funny. The dumb antagonist clumsily trying ambush the smart little protagonist like a scene in a children’s book. It could make you smile – unless you think of what has just happened. Today is one of several episodes of harassment, a continuous form of violence and pressure over the new generations in Palestine. It tries to mould their spirits with the idea that they are inferior people whose rights and dignity won’t be guaranteed, creating a rage no kid should know.

The teachers mention all the videos they can show in order to prove all the abuse the kids and they themselves frequently undergo. Videos upon videos, images upon images. It’s not the first time I heard it. And each time the tension rises, smartphones and video cameras rise out of the crowd and everywhere you can see arms lifted, holding them like magic wands. In Palestine, like everywhere people are oppressed, filming is a way to prove that what you claim is true and that the self-indulgent alibis and counter-versions of the oppressor are lies. One of the teachers we met during the morning said that one day he’ll make a film with all the material collected through the years.

What they have just told in this office is not that different from the story we heard in the previous school. We know about some more kids arrested, but still the initial question remains unsolved: where are the kids of the video? They tell us that they might be from another school: UNWRA school or Khadija school.

So, we say goodbye and go out to keep on with our research.

We took right through a little alley. Behind a blue and rusty gate, we found Al-Khalil School. The Headmaster was very polite and welcoming (I start thinking it must be a quite common quality here in Palestine). He invites us to sit on the sofa, so we sit and start again. “We know that a student from this school has been arrested yesterday morning. Could you tell us more?”

We soon find ourselves in a classroom. The English lesson stops for a second, just the time to call two kids to come out with us. We’ve already been informed by the headmaster about the dynamics of the arrest. Some soldiers suddenly entered the school gate and arrested one kid. Then they detained him and they assaulted him. They only released him after three hours and the father had to sign some papers. The headmaster doesn’t really know what they were about. One of the kids is the one arrested, the other the one who managed to escape from the soldier. We joke a little bit with them. They smile. We wonder if he was scared or not during the detention. It doesn’t seem like it. They giggle like the game was fun. Actually, the headmaster revealed to me that he was actually really scared.

Before we leave the headmaster leads us behind the building. He wants to show us something. There is a little space of a few square meters with dust and stones. “I’d like to find the money to make a garden here”. That’s our goodbye. While we step out of the gate where the soldiers had entered to catch the kid, we take some pictures of the area. As soon as the students leaving the school notice us, they start gathering around us and posing. They keep on laughing and asking us to take pictures.

We walk toward the UNRWA school. We have just found out about another kid arrested but we still haven’t met anybody who could provide us any information about the video that Facebook generically showed that morning on our wall. Eventually, in front of the UNRWA school, we will find what we want. A person working nearby (who asks us not to mention his name or any possible hints to identify him) will tell us that yesterday two kids from that school have been arrested and detained from the soldiers. This time nothing had happened in front of the school but at the checkpoint. Nevertheless, like the other kids, the pattern was the same: soldiers accusing 10-12 year old kids to throw a stone and arresting them. No matter what really happened in this specific situation, this is neither the first nor the last time that something like this will occur.

So here we are. We left our apartment today looking for two kids and we found almost ten stories. But what was most impressive? We came across the chronicles of a population of young Palestinians who tried to go to school each morning and had to go through a war scenario. What for the most of the kids all around the world is a natural and simple step of the day, is a struggle here.

We discuss it while we pass through the checkpoint back to H2 and head to Prayer Road. We yet haven’t finished with visiting schools today. We are going to Mutanabi school for the school run. We will stand in front of the gate while the students go out to check no abuses or assaults by soldiers or settlers take place. During the last days, we were considering to stop monitoring here, as recently nothing bad has happened. Unfortunately, some days ago, some soldiers decided that the morning could not start peacefully. So, they blocked the road and forbid the headmaster and his assistant to enter it. Once more a kid (an unidentified and unnamed kid) was accused of stone-throwing. While the headmaster was talking with them, another two teachers reached the place. The soldier accused him of interfering with their work and put them under arrest. One of them has been detained in the police station for two hours. There, the police put a razor in his pocket and threatened him that they would say that he tried to attack them. That next time they will shoot him.

Israeli soldiers arrest 16-year old girl and her mother in Nabi Saleh

December 19th 2017 International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | International Womens Peace Struggle | Occupied Palestine

UPDATE: Bassem Tamimi, Ahed’s father, has also been arrested by Israeli occupation forces as he went to the court where his daughter and wife are held.

No break for the kid-targeted repressive operation of the Israeli forces. Tonight soldiers raided Nabi Saleh and arrested Ahed Tamimi. Since years, the village has been the scene for many protests against Halamish illegal settlement, whichs’ construction led to land confiscation and theft of water from the local spring belonging to the Palestinians. During the years this little village echoed the Palestinian struggle all over the world.

16-year old Ahed has often appeared in videos where she is seen facing Israeli military during protests. On the 18th of december, when soldiers shot 14-year old Mohammed Tamimi, in the face with a rubber coated steel bullet (still treated in a medically-induced coma in the hospital), she stood in front of the entrance pushing the Israeli soldiers back trying to keep them out. The video has been used by the Zionist press as a mean of propaganda to show the kindness and the courtesy of the soldiers as a contrary to the ‘violence’ of Ahed. Of course, the blocking action costed her the arrest. This morning at 4 the Israeli armed forces stole the families cameras and telephone, beat the son up, and arrested Ahed. No explanation has been provided about the case.

Furthermore, later in the morning, when her
mother Nariman went to Benjamin police station to ask for the daughter and the charges, the Israeli army reponse was to arrest her. The family still do not know anything about the evolution of the situation.

Meanwhile, this afternoon, Israeli soldiers kept on shooting tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets at people protesting at the checkpoint at the entrance of the village.

Nabi Saleh, is a village in the occupied West Bank of only 530 residents, the villagers have protested since 2009 against the occupation and the illegal settlements on their land. 2 protesters were killed during these protests. One of them is Neriman’s brother Rushdi whi was lethally shot by Israeli soldiers on the 17th November 2012, he died from his wounds. The other Mustafa Tamimi was Neriman’s cousin was murdered on December 201114 year old Mohammed Tamimi was shot from close range in the face on the December 2017 and , remains in critical condition. Aljazeera.com

On the 21 November 2014 Nariman Tamimi was shot with live ammunition her femor was shattered and reconstructed in surgery. palsolidarity.org

Nariman Tamimi is a mother of four studied international law. Her daughter Ahed Tamimi has become a known face because of her courage standing up against soldiers. On Friday 28/08/2015 during another one of the protest marches in the village, a soldiers got hold of 12 year old Mohamed Tamimi who was treated for an injury to his wrist just 2 days before. Nariman Tamimi and Ahed managed to get him out of the hold of the soldier. Miri Regev said that the unarmed protesters should have been shot. mondowiess.net

Arrests of children as young of 12 by the occupation are no exception. More than 700 Palestinian children are imprisoned in Israeli jails each year, this number does not include children who are arrested for a few hours. Stone throwing charges often lead to jail sentences between 2 and 6 months with lawyers advising children to plead guilty since release on bail is hardly ever allowed and the time for the appeal often exceeds 6 months. Arrest is always a frightening experience for children of any age and even more so because during arrest and interrogation they are not accompanied by their parents or even a lawyer and even while serving prison sentences their parents are not allowed to visit.

The high cost of freedom – Israeli army targets kids

Mohyildeen misses being with his big brother Abdul-Khaliq.

18th December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Occupied Palestine

During the past weeks an increasing number of children have been arrested and injured all around the West Bank. ISM met with Iyad Burnat from Bil’in who is witnessing how the second generation of activist, including his own children, are being targeted through made up charges and torture-like interrogation techniques. Right now five youth from Bil’in are being held in Ofar prison. But Ofar is filling up, and more kids are being moved to Meggido outside occupied territory.

Abdul-Khaliq, Iyad’s second son, was in the car with two friends, Hamzah Al-Khatib and Malik Radhi, driving in Bil’in to have pizza, when the soldiers stopped the car. Now they are under arrest, charged for cutting the apartheid fence. No videos, nor witnesses can prove it. But this is not a problem for the Israeli army as soldiers have been proven lying in court when called as a witness.

This is not Abduls’ first direct experience with the Israeli military repression, as he has been already injured in the head by a rubber coated steel bullet. Now the Israeli army focus on him since they have targeted him as a leader inducing other young people to join protests. Iyad Burnat tells the ISM that the Israeli intelligence has been interrogating his son for the last days. The Ofar judge ordered the boys to be released on a bail of thousands of shekel, but despite that the persecution is not over. During the interrogation, the soldiers claimed that they had many secret files have not yet been used by the court.

These last events reflect the general ongoing situation in Bil’in since the settlers’ colonization started in 2005. The construction of the Modi’in Illit settlement brought up the well-known military abuses that Palestinians always suffer from in situations like this. The daily confrontation with the massive Israeli military presence have forced the people from the small village of Billin to elaborate a strategy to respond.

Over the last decade, the non-violent protest, including fence-cutting and the blocking of the road to the settlements, has become a pivotal aspect of the anti-settlement resistance. The Israeli court charges people who cut and damage the fences of settlements as criminals, but the state of Israel never mention that all the settlements are illegal according to international law and some of them according to Israel law itself.

The non-violent method of resistance thus haven’t changed the Israeli violent methods of repression. Since many years, Iyad and his family represent a special target. Already known outside of Palestine from the Cannes-awarded film ‘Five Broken Cameras’, in 2015 he received the James Lawson Award for Achievement in the Practice, Study or Reporting of Nonviolent Conflict presented annually by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Iyad is constantly involved in the reporting and spreading of the activities of the Palestinian struggle around the world.

This year he met with the English Labour Party and invited them to visit Palestine. He also tries to focus on talking to and meeting Jewish associations outside of Israel, and together they are stressing how the anti-zionism and the fight against the occupation are not a religious matters. This year Iyad was also invited to talk at the UN conference ’50 years of Occupation’. He tells ISM that the first piece of news he read when he landed in the US was that soldiers went to his house to arrest his third son Mohammed.

Also the first son, Majd, has been targeted. In 2014, he was shot during a protest. In that occasion he was standing beside his father when an Israeli soldier approached them, gunned him and moved back. A scenario which reminds of a punitive action, more than a security one which is what the Israeli army usually claims. Majs was hospitalised for 10 days in the Ramallah hospital, where doctors indicated the necessity to travel to Jordan for a neurosurgical operation. The Israeli border police stopped and interrogated him for three hours at the border. In Jordan, he was directed back to the Quds Hospital. As the Israel authority did not give him the permission to travel outside the green line, he managed to get there just when two Israeli activists hid him in the trunk of their car.

What could be a simple report of isolated events underlines an ongoing strategy adopted by Israel. The choice of targeting kids reveals two goals. On one side, it’s easy to notice how the kids in question are usually the children of activists. It’s a way to hit the most human and vulnerable nerve.“Israeli authorities have said that we teach our kids hate,”Iyad says,“But who teaches hate to whom? At my return from the US it was my 3-year old son who explained to me what happened when the soldier came in the night to arrest his brother. A 3-year old kid forced to witness handcuffing and beating in his own home.” On the other side, targeting the young generation is an attempt to eradicate the ‘problem’ of the Palestinian resistance from the root, to scare and warn the people who will lead the struggle in the future.

Most of the 430 Palestinians arrested after Trump’s declaration the 6^th of December are under 18 years old. ”They want the youth to hate living in this land”Iyad says. When ISM asks him if he believes his son Abdul, the one now under arrest, is scared he answered that Abdul got used to it since he grew up in this environment:“He reminds me of myself at his age.”And he adds: “I resist and started this struggle to give my kids a better future. But now the story is repeating. Freedom has a high cost.”

Witness Report, Video: Israeli War Crimes Against Palestinian Youth in Hebron

December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine

Witness accounts and video footage confirm that the Israeli army has been and is committing war crimes in dealing with the current wave of protests against the occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.

On Friday, December 8, 2017 around 4:30 PM, ISM activists clearly witnessed and filmed a unit of of around 40 Israeli soldiers and commanders in the H1 area of Hebron – which, according to the 1997 Hebron agreement, should be fully controlled by the Palestinian Authority – intentionally injuring the backs, shoulders, and heads of two randomly arrested teens. Much of this occurred after they had been handcuffed, blindfolded, and were held in custody.

The incidents took place shortly after the Israeli forces invaded Bab al-Zawiya from the military Checkpoint 56 (Shuhada Street in H2) and stormed more than 300 meters up Adel Street, as well as two other main civilian thoroughfares.

The teens were captured near the Hasona Petrol station. If previous child arrests in that area are any indication, they were likely grabbed at random from the street without having been involved in any form of protest beforehand.

The video evidence below, a combination of 3 different camera positions, shows how cruelly the teens are treated by different soldiers, while and after they were handcuffed, blindfolded, and cooperating with the soldiers in walking to Israeli controlled H2.

The almost-raw video footage of all three cameras is included and viewable with the following hyper-links:

Camera 1: from 4:23:10 PM

Camera 2: from 4:23:30 PM

Camera 3: from 4:23:35 PM and from 4:24:05 PM

War Crimes

Human Rights Watch (HRW), an NGO that is widely acknowledged for its monitoring and determination of human rights abuses, compiled a readable publication based on the 685 page ‘ICRC Customary International Humanitarian Law’ study manual.

In the HRW publication, war crimes are defined as:

“Serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the mistreatment of persons in custody and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian property, when committed with criminal intent amount to war crimes. Criminal intent requires purposeful or reckless action. Individuals may also be held criminally liable for attempting to commit a war crime, as well as assisting in, facilitating, aiding or abetting a war crime. Responsibility may also fall on persons ordering, planning, or instigating the commission of a war crime. Commanders and civilian leaders may be prosecuted for war crimes as a matter of command responsibility when they knew or should have known about the commission of war crimes and took insufficient measures to prevent them or punish those responsible.” [emphasis added]

Based on this definition, the video depicts a war crime committed by the Israeli army, for which it’s soldiers and commanders bear responsibility.

This isn’t the 1st documented war crime committed by the Israeli state or its armed forces against the Palestinian people. Other examples include:

Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully;
Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
Enforced disappearance of persons;
Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender;
The crime of apartheid;
The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupying power of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

It is the obligation of all states that have signed the multiple international treaties violated here to stop these Israeli war crimes, and a duty of the people to put pressure on their governments to do so.

Israeli Violence Against Civilians, Press Continues Through Weekend in Hebron

9 December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Occupied Palestine

Clashes continued throughout the weekend in Hebron, after Palestinian civil society groups called for “three days of rage” in response to Donald Trump’s widely unrecognized declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Across the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians organized general strikes, as well as non-violent marches and demonstrations, all of which were met with military violence by Israel.

In Hebron, the violence from the Israeli army included the use of numerous rounds of tear gas, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets, and live ammunition against the press and civilians, including passing families and the elderly. Soldiers also entered shops and forced businesses to close, causing further disruption to daily civilian life. Some young Palestinians resisted the Israeli army’s invasion using stones, and also by throwing the Israeli army’s own tear gas canisters back towards the soldiers.

On Friday alone, between 15 and 20 Palestinian minors were arrested, including at least five that weren’t involved in the clashes, one of which was taken straight from his home. Of the five boys that ISM activists witnessed being arrested, four of them were brutally beaten by large groups of soldiers after they were subdued and handcuffed and posed no threat to the soldiers. As of 5:00 PM on Saturday, two of the boys remained hospitalized due to their injuries.

In declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, Donald Trump formalized the United States’ position as one in contravention of international law and the opinion of the international community. The international community has expressly stated – through UN Resolution 181 and others – that it doesn’t recognize any claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem by Israel, which is why most states maintain their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem.