Tag: Al Khalil - Page 6 - International Solidarity Movement

Checkpoints for humiliation: a journal piece

4th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Shuhada checkpoint gate. To the left, the closed-off room through which one must deal with Israeli forces behind a bullet-proof screen before being allowed – or denied – passage.

Earlier this month, an international woman was ordered to ‘take off her clothes’ after setting off the alarm whilst passing the metal detector at Shuhada checkpoint, occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). This is a personal journal of the events.

Humiliation, harassment, intimidation – a daily occurance for anyone required by the Israeli occupying forces to pass through Shuhada checkpoint to reach their home. This is how the Israeli occupation makes it’s presence felt and enforces its inhumanity, and it rarely comes as a surprise anymore. Still, when the metal detector alarm sounds and the soldier nonchalantly tells a woman to ‘take off her clothes’, she’s is taken aback: Who gave them the right to even ask something like that? Do they not have the tiniest bit of decency? Do they think that their automatic weapons – ready to shoot at any time – give them the right to make such a request?

Inside the checkpoint – in a room closed to outside observation – heavily armed, stern-faced young soldiers ask a woman to undress. It is painfully apparent that this is not simply a bad joke. The small room begins to feel as though it’s getting smaller and smaller as more soldiers begin to enter from outside and gather behind the bullet-proof glass. With all their buddies present for this show of power and superiority, one of them claims that it’s just for “security” – to ask a person to remove their clothing in plain view of heavily-armed soldiers. It’s “just about security” when they tell you that, if you’re not willing to take off your clothes, you’re hiding a gun – all the while firmly gripping theirs.

How dare a woman have the audacity not to immediately follow an occupying soldiers’ orders? To even dare to call out their lack of decency? But occupation has never heard of human dignity. To the eyes of the occupation, having a number male soldiers and surveillance cameras watch at arms length whilst a female soldier commands a woman to get undressed in a checkpoint just another part of the routine treatment of the occupied population. Just another case of a heavily-armed Israeli soldier ordering someone to do as he wishes as a show of power: a power bestowed upon him by a machine-gun and the knowledge of the unfaltering support and impunity – both social and military – behind his actions.

When it is finally discovered to be the woman’s boots setting off the alarm (a daily and usually unproblematic occurance) and noone cares to check the boots nor the woman’s bag, it is clear that the objective here is not security but humiliation. But this is how the Israeli occupation operates: by inflicting the most humiliation possible on the occupied population to break its spirit. Humiliation, humiliation, humalition. Day in and day out.

Beatings, theft, and humiliation: Dismantle the Ghetto activist speaks of his ordeal following arrest at Land Day demonstrations

15th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

ISM activists spoke to Badee Dwaik the day following his release from Ofer military court.

Last week, amidst a slew of arrests by Israeli forces and subsequent court hearings, ISM activists had the opportunity to meet with Badee Dwaik; one of the four men arrested during the Land Day demonstrations in occupied al-Khalil. Badee, a seasoned activist of many decades and committee member of the Dismantle the Ghetto campaign, believes his arrest was targeted and spoke of how conditions inside the jails were “worse than they’ve ever been before” during his four nights of detention.

Badee Dwaik being detained by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration for Land Day in al-Khalil.

The peaceful Land Day actions began with the planting of olive trees near Kiryat Arba – an illegal settlement of roughly 8,000 people in occupied al-Khalil. The decision to plant olive trees was made because, as Badee put it, “we fear this land will be confiscated in the near future.” Throughout the action, many settlers attempted to provoke the demonstrators with violence, but nobody gave in: “They try to break us or block us but we ignore it and the army does nothing,” Badee says. He’s only a day out of jail, but seems calm and eager to tell his story. Every so often he takes breaks from talking to put a hand on his ribs, where he says they beat him.

“After we planted the trees, we marched up to the hill where we continued to protest,” where one of the soldiers held a sheet of paper which – as revealed during military court hearing – declared the area a “closed military zone.” Out of nowhere, Israeli forces began pursuing individual demonstrators and Badee found himself on the ground beneath a group of soldiers who beat and arrested him. Those detained by Israeli soldiers were taken down the hill, where Israeli police and Border Police were waiting: “They took us to the police. I was surprised to see Annan there.” It had appeared that the soldiers knew exactly who they wanted to arrest, and picked them from the crowd. They arrested three active members of the Dismantle the Ghetto campaign in what Badee believes to be part of a wider effort by the Israeli occupiers to silence the campaign and put an end to their non-violent demonstrations.

An Israeli soldier films demonstrators whilst holding a piece of paper declaring the area a Closed Military Zone during the Land Day action in al-Khalil. This image was taken an hour after the arrests made that day.

During their time in jail, Badee spoke of how the Israeli guards sometimes would not give the detainees their meals and did not administer Badee’s diabetes medication. When he told the guards that he suffers from diabetes, they told him “it’s not our business to bring your medication to you.” Only after being moved to another prison later that week was he taken the the medical doctor who told him he was at serious risk and he was injected with insulin on the premises. Badee was then moved to a third jail, where he said he was subject to conditions he had never experienced before. “The conditions were bad. When we arrived to this jail they made us throw our belongings away.” Here, Israeli guards made the men remove their clothing and do humilating acts while naked. When Badee refused, he was punished for it later: “We had no mattresses. We slept on the metal. They didn’t feed us a few meals and only gave cigarettes to those who cooperated with him.”

Afte four nights of detention, Badee was sat before Ofer military court, near Ramallah, on spurious charges largely based on a “secret file.” “I’ve never seen this [secret file],” he said, and was alarmed at the allegations they presented. Badee is convinced that there’s an initiative to break their coalition. The judge claimed Badee and the others were “dangerous, holding an illegal demonstration” and that the Israeli state should be “harder on these men,” however his lawyer managed to negotiate their release late that night on the condition that they paid 3,500 shekels per person. When Badee and the others were finally freed, many of their belongings had been stolen.

Whilst Israeli settlers living in the West Bank are subject to Israeli civil law, the Palestinian population lives under Israeli military law. Under this law, Palestinians like Badee can be held indefinitely in ‘administrative detention‘: detained without trail and often based on secret information. There are currently 500 administrative detainees in occupied Palestine.

A night of protective presence needed

3rd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

The two boys met us at the store, shouting the name of our Palestinian contact and waving us along. The cobbled stones in the alley made a nice contrast to the darkness of the night. My feet landed softly on the mud where we started our climb. Glimpses of trash were seen from the flickering flash lights, as if we were threading our way across the city dump. We were going to the house of Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, the man who had managed to catch last week’s execution on film. His name was out in the media and he and his family had received death threats. The local illegal settlers had also put up posters with his name and face on them, saying they wanted him skinned alive. The house had already been firebombed. We were going there as an international presence to act as a deterrent to what seemed a likely further attack.

Emad in his family home — Imad in his family home

This night his backyard looked like your average neighbourhood barbecue, except that nobody was eating. Imad was sitting by the brazier alongside ten other men from the surrounding houses. His children were buzzing about, and his wife Faisa made sure everyone got their coffee and tea. When the soldiers showed up she made sure everything got caught on film.

There were three of them, all dressed in green, with black automatic rifles and some form of knee pads, which went well with the beret of their leader. They reminded me of turtles with their inability to look back over their shoulders. The execution had been condemned by president Netanyahu at first but later on, as the Israeli public opinion cleared in favour of the soldier, the shooting was surrounded with excuses. The situation for the messenger had however deteriorated.

As the soldiers walked in to the backyard a handful of camera LCDs lit up the night, like torches keeping the wolves at bay. Faisa brought her camera close to the officer’s face, where he hopefully saw a reflection of himself, a harasser of ordinary people.

The soldiers stood around for a while as they checked our passports and IDs. The situation was a bit tense but as everyone had the right to be there, they turned on their heels and left. They were the second delegation from the Israeli army that night. A lone soldier had come at first, to see if there was any protection present, and Issa guessed, to go back and tell the settlers. Luckily, there were a lot of people showing Imad and Faisa their support.

As the hours passed people started to leave for their homes. Our delegation from the ISM spent the rest of the night at Imad’s place. There was an Indian soap opera on TV, dubbed to Arabic, and the children surfed the internet. It could have been a quiet night in a home anywhere in the world, if it hadn’t been for the occupation, or the death threats.

Youth Against Apartheid

29th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Sunday, the new team of Youth Against Apartheid was honored to meet with each other for the first time. The wonderful youth of al-Khalil city (Hebron) who have dedicated their time during the past few years doing voluntary work and activities to help their community, mainly in Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and Shuhada Street of al-Khalil City (Hebron).

The members have never before been part of any group, but have happily volunteered with all groups and entities that have asked for their activism. Just a few days ago they decided to form and establish an organized group (popular committee) and officially named themselves, Hebron Youth against Apartheid.

The group is filled with a mixture of very intelligent, energetic and enthusiastic youth while all of them are strongly attached to their people and land, all of who are hopeful for a better tomorrow. The group wishes show to the world what daily life is like under the zionist regimes occupation, the daily attacks and violations of human rights towards the Palestinian people, along with organising voluntary activities in their areas, nonviolent protests against zionist occupation, working for justice and human rights for their people at all levels and providing legal aid to the community. They are based in the old town of al-Khalil city (Hebron), mainly Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street areas.

This new team would appreciate your support and solidarity at all levels. Please share the word of the great work these young youth are doing and let the world know who they are.

A frightening walk to school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

2nd January, 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Al Khalil, occupied Palestine

On 30^th December 2015, an aggressive Israeli settler and Israeli forces yet again intimidated and harassed Palestinian schoolboys in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

As Palestinian schoolchildren were walking to school for their end of the year exam, infamous settler Ofer drove past the Ziad Jaber elementary boys school on the route to the illegal Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba. Even though he is not a trained medical professional, but instead works as ‘settlement security’, he is often seen driving around occupied al-Khalil in an ambulance. He stopped the ambulance right at the military gate that children and teachers have to pass on their way to school.

Israeli forces and settler right opposite the school gate — Israeli forces and settler directly opposite the school gate

Ofer stepped out of the ambulance, ordered the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint to go with him and walked towards the school. He immediately started threatening international human rights defenders and teachers, walking all the way to the school gate. He accused children of throwing stones and aggressively filmed, holding by his phone directly in the faces of teachers and human rights defenders and spitting at them. When Ofer tried entering the schoolyard, Israeli forces refused to intervene even though human rights defenders were asking them to stop this armed man from entering the school property. The teachers from the school were able to stop him from entering the yard.

Watch a video:

As more and more soldiers and eventually the police arrived, school children were too scared to cross the military gate that was half-blocked by several military and police jeeps as well as the ambulance. With this large group of heavily armed soldiers, police and well-known, infamous settler Ofer immediately outside the school gate, the children were effectively prevented from accessing their school – a clear infringement on their basic human right to education.

Students forced to pass Israeli army and settlers on their way to school

While Israeli forces and Ofer stayed outside the school-gate for over half an hour, another group of soldiers aggressively body-searched every person walking up the hill towards the school from the other direction. Around the corner from there, groups of school-children were gathering, too scared to pass the soldiers on their way to school. The children had to be picked up by a group of teachers and walked to the school, some of them in tears.

Teacher walking crying student to school

The soldiers, as well as the Israeli police, were acting purely on the settler’s every wish and order. This illustrates the power settlers in occupied al-Khalil hold over the occupying army. In the end, the teachers had to ‘negotiate’ and reason with Ofer himself, as soldiers were standing idly by refusing to stop the armed settler from entering the school. Teachers and students alike instead had to fear that, on Ofer’s orders, the soldiers and police themselves were going to enter the school and raid it, as they have done in the past. When the settler, and then gradually the police and soldiers, left, Ofer threatened to come back at the end of the school day. As school finished early after the exam, children quickly left the school in big groups without any incidents.

Student body-searched by Israeli forces outside the school

The school children at Ziad Jaber elementary school on their everyday walk to and from school must pass Israeli forces at the checkpoint right outside the military gate and are often witness to humiliating and aggressive body-searches of their teachers and anyone else passing by. At times, the students themselves have to wait for their school bags to be searched by heavily armed soldiers or are even body-searched on their way home from school. This atmosphere of fear and intimidation – an infringement on so many of these children’s most basic human rights – impacts their everyday life. The impact on their academic achievement can’t be estimated, especially when asked to concentrate on the year end exam after safely navigating soldiers and settlers on their way to school. This is but a small glimpse into how growing up under military occupation in occupied Palestine looks like.