Some impressions of last friday demonstration (Dec 29) at Beit’El where an illegal settlement has been set up:
The settlement of Beit’El has been built illegally in the year 1977. Growing in its population it counts more than 5600 settlers. By taking their land Palestinians do not have full access to water supplies, farming land housing and mobility.
For more information on illegal settlements on the bases of International Law we recommend this report by Al-Haq, a Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation.
28th December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Hebron, occupied Palestine
International Solidarity Movement visited the family home of Fawzi Al Junaidi who was released after his family paid a 10,000 shekel bail on Wednesday Fawzi returned back to his family home after a checkup at hospital. The iconic photo of a badly beaten Fawzi escorted by 30 Israeli Soldiers after his arrest went viral. Drawing attention to the excessive force often used by the Israeli army.
Picture Via [Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images]
The Palestinian youth was so badly beaten one of his upper ribs moved 3cm out of place after repeatedly being struck with a rifle at least four times. Despite his obvious suffering he was left bound, sitting on the concrete floor for four hours and was only taken to a hospital 4 days after his arrest at the order of a judge. Fawzi also reported having freezing water poured over his legs then they stamped on his legs whilst he was in custody after his arrest. During the military court proceedings four soldiers initially claimed to have seen Fawzi throwing stones but three soldiers withdrew their claims later leaving one soldier who claimed he saw him throw one rock. Fawzi who claims to have been outside getting the family grocery shopping maintains that he is innocent but was held in custody on the testimony of one soldier.
Fawzi gave many interviews sitting on a couch with his grandmother that day surrounded by family. Unfortunately, the Military court process will continue to disrupt the lives of the Fawzi and the Al Junaidi family as they will face more court hearings in the near future. Fawzi al-Junaidi is suffering from a dislocated shoulder following his time in Israeli detention.
There are 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli occupation prisons including 250 minors under the age of sixteen they have all been sentenced in a military court system where prosecutors are not required to prove the charges against them.
28th December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, Hebron, occupied Palestine
The South Hebron Hills is one of the battle zones against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. This area stretches along the southern border of the West Bank. The villages of At-Tuwani, At-Tuba, Mufaqarah, and Sarura are located in the South Hebron Hills. These villages lie between a line of Israeli settlements along highway 317 and an Israeli military firing zone to the east. Effectively the local villagers are caught in-between the Israeli army and Zionist settlers.
We met with Fawaz, a local community leader from At-Tuwani, at the Sumud Peace Camp site. Here local villagers have been re-establishing the village with the help of international activists.
#We are Sumud – Illegal outpost of Havat Maon in the background.
“Just living life in this area is ‘big resistance’”, Fawaz told us, “but the villagers decided they had to take further action”.
Sarura is another village in the South Hebron hills. In November 1999 all the villagers of Sarura were evicted and the village was destroyed. Since then Israeli Peace groups have assisted local villagers in the project of rebuilding Sarura. Peace Now, Rabbis for Human Rights and other organisations assisted the villagers to take their case to the Israeli courts. Their success put pressure on the Israeli government.
After this success, meetings in the villages were organised to find effective ways of resisting the occupation without the use of violence and thereby giving the Israeli military an excuse to react with excessive force. Through these meetings the villages in the area organised new initiatives, actions and activities. One of these initiatives was to make stone throwing forbidden. The meetings have been a big success and they are still held today.
These villagers were amongst the first Palestinians that did weekly demonstrations against the wall. The military administration started to cut off the area from the urban centre of Yatta. In response the villagers of the area arranged weekly demonstrations and after 18 months of protest the wall that would have cut off the south was declared illegal.The villagers paid a high price in arrests but they succeeded in preventing the extension of the wall.
In spite of the victory of having the wall along highway 317 declared illegal, a month went by without it being dismantled. Again the villagers demonstrated and blocked off the road and again the court ordered the government to remove the wall. This was a great victory to all the men, women and children that were involved. They had forced the occupation to recognise them as a village with a master plan!
A Battle for Education
In 1998 a school was built in At-Tuwani. As could be expected, a demolition order was issued soon after. The villagers ignored the order and took the fight to court. There was an attempted demolition. To prevent the demolition women stayed in the school during the day and the men at night. More demolition orders came. The school in At-Tuwani is the only one in the area. So now, the children from the surrounding villages now have to come to At-Tuwani to receive their education.
The children who live in the villages surrounding At-Tuwani have often been subjected to settler attacks on their way to school. Due to the violence against the children the route has had to be changed. Ali Awad from the village of Tuba used to be able to walk to school in twenty minutes. At one stage, the journey he had to take to avoid the threat of attack took him two hours. To avoid settler attacks Israeli soldiers have been assigned to walk with the children by a committee for Human Rights in the Knesset. However there have been many incidents where the soldiers have shown up late or left early. The inconsistency of the military presence meant that the escort was not effective in preventing the settler violence. Therefore, organisations working in the area arranged in 2004 to have international activist supervise the military’s escort of the children.
The second day the internationals started walking the children to school, the settlers attacked the children and the activists that were walking with them. One of the internationals was stabbed in their lung from the back and the other had their leg broken.
Sarura
In 1997, armed settlers attacked Sarura and the village was abandoned.
Twenty years later on May 19th 2017 a project was launched and the Sumud Peace Camp began to rehabilitate the cave dwellings of Surura to begin to breathe life into the abandoned village again.
Activities and resistance initiatives were brought into action in order to encourage the local farmers to come back. The villagers needed Palestinian encouragement to overcome their fears or they would be afraid to return. The initiatives in Sarura led to the beginning of reconstruction in one section of Sarura. Among the tasks that have so far been accomplished in Sarura are the planting of trees, the building of a community centre, weekly workshops, a gathering place for the people of the village and the enlargement of the caves.
The villagers of Sarura face many problems from the Israeli soldiers and the settlers in the area. ”For two months they beat people, arrested people and destroyed things mainly at night. But we are bringing back life. Now we have a puppy and geese!” Fawaz says.
Among the activities that are planned in the Sumud Peace Camp in the near future is a New Years event. This was planned to celebrate the progress in Sarura. The celebration will include a daytime meeting with invited speakers, an evening concert and fireworks!
Fawaz tells us, ”This event is needed – it’s so important – 7 months holding this place in this condition has been difficult. Children have been arrested. The young people have become tired. We need to bring more and more people. This event should breathe new life into the sumud (stedfastness) against the occupation.”
“Non-violence is not an easy choice. They are pushing you every day. Just as a human being it is so hard.” Fawaz
photo by kbnews.eu (kbnews.eu/images/Yabad-vs-IOF.jpg)
December 25th 2017 International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Occupied Palestine | Yabad | North Palestine.
Around Yabad there are two big Israeli settlements. In the last few weeks the repressive action by the Israeli army on Yabbad’s Palestinian people has escalated. Several Teenagers have been arrested, they were taken out from their homes on night raides. Raiding his house, the Israeli army arrested 18-year-old Ahaned Abubakar at night on 13 December at 1 am. The father of Ahaned told us that fifteen Israeli soldiers were crowding around the house and
occupied the roofs of neighbouring houses. After breaking through the door with a crowbar, they got into
their house and sarched all the rooms in the first floor, waking up the wife and the five kids traumatically. They took away Ahaned without giving any explanations. Until today, the Ahaned family haven’t received any information about the reason for his arrest and the length of detention in Jalami prison. Ahaned’s father told us that in the last night
he woke up startled at 1 am, exactly a week later the Israili army’s raid. The whole family
is still in shock, the mother and Ahaned’s four younger siblings are living in pain with their brother’s absence. Abdele, the 4-year-old brother didn’t understand what was going on during the house raid. So his father told him that his brother Ahaned
went to visit relatives in Jordan, but since the night of the brother’s arrest Abdele wants to sleep in his parents bedroom.
Another two fathers of Yabad told us about the recent arrest of their 15-year-old kids, by
similar night raids of the Israeli army. Just like Ahaned’s family they don’t know about the reason for their kids arrest and the length of administrative detention in the jail, that could take up to six months.
The arrests of kids and teenagers are the latest strategy of the Israeli occupation force, focused to prevent whatever protest action and targeted to get information and control over life and houses of Palestinian people. Especially in Yabad where two settlements have been set up.
The kids and teenagers arrested without an official explanation or any opportunity to collect their personal belongings. They are normally being held incommunicado, in cramped and poorly lit cells. They are subject to continous interrogations by the Israeli Army which aims at getting as much informations about their families and the people of the villageas possible. Since it’s an administrative detention, subject to military law, they cannot have legal assistance and visits by their relatives. The innocent kids and teenagers arrested are subjected to traumatic experiences, carrying out a strong and preventive repressive action.
Picture Via [Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images]
