Tag: ברוך מרזל

Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian delivering legal documents at Rajabi House

March 13, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil (Hebron), occupied Palestine

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian in Al-Khalil (Hebron) on Tuesday while attempting to distribute legal court documents. The Palestinian man was identified as 36-year-old Yasser Fawzi Shweiki.

After the shooting, Shweiki’s body was dragged into the Rajabi House. The army further prevented Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s medics from entering the scene to treat Shweiki.

Human rights workers were attacked by Israeli Police and arrested immediately after arriving on the scene.

The shooting occurred outside the Rajabi House (also called Beit HaMeriva or House of Contention by Israeli press; the Peace House, Beit HaShalom, or בית השלום‎ by Israeli settlers)–which was first occupied by illegal settlers in 2007.

In December 2008, the illegal settlers were forcibly removed from the Rajabi house following a Supreme Court order finding that the settlers submitted “large-scale forgeries of many documents” to the courts. In response to the ruling, Baruch Marzel (ברוך מרזל) (former spokesman for the terrorist organization Jewish Defense League and resident of Hebron) told Ynet “We must go to war.”

Settler violence followed, setting fire to Palestinian fields, olive groves, homes, shops, and cars. At least 2 Palestinians were shot by settlers, including Hosni Abu Saither–shot in the chest at point-blank range on December 4th, 2008. B’Tselem published a video of the shooting:

Israel claims that Shweiki had a knife when he was shot on Tuesday.

Ofer Yohana (עופר אוחנה)–the infamously violent settler that was caught on video in 2016 kicking a knife towards the body of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif after he was shot by Israeli soldier Elor Azaria (אלאור אזריה)–was on the scene of Shweiki’s shooting on Tuesday; he can be seen attempting to stop the filming of the human rights workers’s camera in the first video above.

Child arrested after settlers’ death threats

February 18, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

The day after a group of illegal settlers and soldiers invaded a Palestinians’ home and threatened to slaughter their children in front of them, one of their children was arrested by the Israeli police.

On Saturday, a group of settlers climbed down onto the rooftop of Emad Eqneibi’s home. Among them was Noam Arnon (נעם ארנון)–a right-wing settler who referred to Baruch Goldstein (the mass murderer of 29 worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque) as an “extraordinary” and “lovely” person.

Under the protection of heavily-armed Israeli soldiers, Arnon told the Palestinian homeowner “If you don’t leave this house, I will slaughter your children one-after-the-other in front of you.”.

Responding to settler complaints, a group of soldiers descended on Eqneibi’s house the following day and arrested his 14-year-old son, Amer Eqneibi. Video was captured as the soldiers were taking the child away:

Amer is currently being held in an adult prison Ofer outside Ramallah. Locals expect that it may be more than 40 days before the child is released.

“If you don’t leave this house, I will slaughter your children”

17th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

UPDATE: Child arrested after settler death threats. Link here.

On the night of February 16, ISM activists joined a number of local Protection Unit activists to go on a night patrol of the old city in Al Khalil. During the night patrol, we were brought into the home of of a family who have recently experienced intimidation and aggressive harassment from illegal settlers and the military.

Our hosts described to us how settlers, including prominent Hebron settlement spokesperson Noam Arnon invaded the family home by climbing down the stairs from their rooftop, accompanied by the Israeli army. Our host described how, in the presence of the army, Noam Arnon threatened that he would murder the entire family who lived in the house if they did not submit to the demands of the settlers and give up their home. This disgusting threat was allegedly made by the man who is often portrayed as a man of peace, and a reasonable voice in the settler community. Our host went on to describe how Anat Cohen, another prominent settler in Al Khalil, was watching this interaction from a nearby home, encouraging the soldiers and settlers to kill the homeowners. Also among the mob was Baruch Marzel (ברוך מרזל), the extreme right-wing politician and previous spokesperson of the Kach organisation – a party outlawed in Israel and the US as a terrorist organization. In 2000 Marzel organized a party at the shrine of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli terrorist who murdered 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahim mosque, to celebrate the massacre.

Nighttime invasions of homes by the military are common throughout occupied Palestine. However, instances like this shine a light on the inner workings of the occupation. The event described above is the occupation in a microcosm: one of the world’s most technologically advanced armies, acting on behalf of a group of extremists with an agenda of ethnic cleansing. There is no justice in an occupation.