At the first annual Hebron Festival, an event organized by the Hebron Municipality to celebrate the culture and history of Palestinians in Hebron, students from across the West Bank put on a theatrical performance, telling of life and history in Palestine through a play combined with music and dabke.
Dabke is a native Levantine folk dance popular in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Iraq. Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings, festivals, and other joyous occasions, sometimes even at protests like the Great March of Return in Gaza . Dabke in Palestine is thought to date back to ancient Canaan or Phoenicia, and involves a variety of footwork.
On September 22nd, Palestinian youth at the Happiness of Childhood Centre, Hebron, put on a moving dabke performance, depicting various aspects of life in Palestine, such as weddings, coming of age, protests, as well as historical events that shaped their lives, such as Al Nakba and the first Intifada, all woven together through the tale of a young boy and his sister growing up in Palestine in the 20th century.
The play’s protagonists — a young boy and his sister.
The opening dabke performance.
Nakba — the ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians from their homes by Israeli forces in 1948.
Life (and dabke!) in the refugee camps after Nakba.
Seeking fatherly advice.
The first Intifada: a child shot and killed at a protest.
15th May 2015 | Karam (Muhannad) | Ofer military prison, Occupied Palestine
The following post is written by the medic that was present on the scene on May 15th 2014, during the killing of Mohammad Odeh and Nadeem Nuwwarah as protesters commemorated al-Nakba near Ofer Military Prison.
During Nakba day commemoration, Birzeit’s student council were trying to gather students to go to Ofer, but it seemed that no one was interested. I decided to go by myself, so I gathered some friends and went to Ramallah and then to Ofer.
En route to Ofer, I received a call saying “a kid got shot with live [ammunition]..it’s bad.” I then asked the driver to hurry. We arrived to Ofer and there were many people. Three Israeli soldiers were standing up the hill 120 meters away with the rest of them standing 500 meters away in the field across. There was teargas and rubber bullets, which was normal. Nothing I’m not used to.
Two kids were going back and forth throwing stones at the three soldiers, even though they kept missing the soldiers they continued to try because they are kids. I went down to open my bag and I looked back to see if it’s safe and I could see the two kids coming back.
I can still remember the two kids, and two flags. One green and the other black, one was for Hamas and the other was the Nakba flag.
Medic pressing against Mohammad Odeh’s chest after he was shot with live ammunition. May 15th, 2014 – photo by AP
I searched inside my bag to find something that to this day I can’t remember what it was I was looking for. Suddenly I heard a shot. One shot and it was live ammunition. I jumped to the left and went down even though I know it was live and live travels faster than the sound it projects. But it was the natural accustomed reaction. Two seconds is all the time it takes for the sound to disappear. I look to my left and he was falling. Mohammad was falling to the ground. I ran to him as he was two meters away.
I was able to reach him before he hit the ground. I looked at him, checking his body. I saw a hole in his chest and I put my hand on it to apply pressure and stop the bleeding, basic first aid training.
He held my hand and looked at me trying to say something but he didn’t have the time. I screamed for an ambulance and asked for help. Two people came to help me carry him. The ambulance was 10 meters away, the man next to me was saying “Mohammad stay with us.” That’s how I knew his name.
We put him in the ambulance and returned to where we were.
I began to tell myself he is alive and he was shot in the lung and fainted, that’s why there was no blood only a hole. Only one spot of blood was on my hand. I tried to convince myself that he is alive. He is alive.
I knew though. I knew something was wrong. I became a ghost walking in Ofer back and forth towards the soldiers. News started to arrive about two martyrs. Nadeem and Mohammad. I started asking about Mohammad Abu Al Dhaher and the other Mohammad who was shot before I arrived. I started calling my friends at the hospital asking them to confirm the name.
Mohammad Odeh being carried to a nearby ambulance. Ofer military prison, May 15th, 2014 – photo by AP
Twenty minutes later, my friend who worked at the hospital called and said “it was Mohamad Abu al Dhaher. The last one you put in the ambulance.”
I stayed in Ofer. I didn’t know what to do, I wrote their names on the wall and stayed there, but I wasn’t really there. I was a ghost.
Two hours later I went to the hospital, I’m not even sure if it was two hours later. I had lost track of time at that pont. I couldn’t feel it anymore. It’s as though the whole world had stopped at that moment. I arrived to the hospital and entered inside. There were tons of people gathering. Friends, journalists..but I couldn’t look at any of them.
Afterwards, a group of protesters had marched to the hospital coming from Ramallah after they closed down the shops in honor of the martyrs. I stood in the middle of the street as they all passed by me. I didn’t know where to go, or what to do. Journalists that were asking for interviews were saying “we heard you were the last one next to the martyr.” I went away. I couldn’t say anything. I tried to find a place where I can’t see anyone, so I went behind a car and stopped for a few minutes trying to understand but I couldn’t. Everything began to flash but I couldn’t remember. I began to breathe fast and wasn’t able to move my face. People gathered around me in attempt to take me inside the hospital but I resisted and began to call out the name of a friend that can take me out. Someone knew her and after a while she arrived and tried to take me inside the hospital. I asked her to take me out of there and she did.
That’s when my trip began.
I still remember his masked face, I never remembered his face because I only saw his face on posters, a week later.
3 minutes. 3 minutes is the time we had. They always told us that our job as medics is to keep the patient alive until the ambulance arrives. But this time, even 3 minutes weren’t enough.
It has been a year now but it still feels like yesterday. Everyone has forgotten and it’s only his family that is living in torment. Today I realize that he is gone and nothing that we could have done would have stopped it. Nothing.
The only thing that we should do is keep fighting for them and for ourselves, until we find justice. Until every soldier is held accountable for their crimes.
15th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine
On Friday 15th May 2015, hundreds of Palestinians from all over the West Bank traveled to Ni’lin for a mass protest commemorating the 1948 Nakba (‘catastrophe’). The local villagers were joined by a large amount of other Palestinian protesters, as well as Israeli and international solidarity activists. There was a high level of media presence. The Israeli occupation forces responded to the peaceful protesters by firing hundreds of tear gas canisters and an excessive number of rubber coated steel bullets. Roughly 12 people were injured, as well as many suffering from tear gas inhalation. Protesters, as well as journalists, were continuously targeted with rubber coated steel bullets.
Protestors in Ni’lin running away from tear gas – photo by Haytham Khatib
After arriving in Ni’lin, ISM activists joined Palestinian, Israeli and other international protesters to mark the 67th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that started in 1948. The group of roughly 500 people was made up of all ages, including three generations of one local family who have all been active in supporting their community against the Israeli annexation of their land.
The march began after the midday prayer, which took place in the olive groves at the edge of the village, overlooking the segregation wall. Protesters marched towards the wall chanting loudly and waving Palestine and Nakba Day flags. The completely peaceful march was soon halted by Israeli forces who fired tens of tear gas canisters over the entire group using the ‘venom’ (a machine that can shoot 30 canisters at once). The group was forced to disperse but continued to chant and attempted to reach the wall. The occupation forces responded by continuously firing tear gas over the olive groves, reaching hundreds of canisters. The heat from the metal canisters set the dry grass a light, which quickly spread around the olive trees.
Midday prayer in Ni’lin
For local Palestinians, marching towards the wall is a symbolic protest against the annexation of their land. Construction of the wall began in 2008 and cut off Ni’lin residents from a large portion of their agricultural land. However, protesters have previously faced extreme violence from the Israeli forces resulting in serious injuries and death. The death of a 9 year old child from Ni’lin being one of the most brutal outcomes of Israeli violence towards the local villagers.
The protest continued for three hours in which time tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets were continuously fired at protesters. One journalist was shot in the shoulder, a young Palestinian was shot in the arm, and many more were carried away and treated for excessive tear gas inhalation by the Red Crescent first aiders.
15th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwarra Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine
Today (15th of May), during the Nakba day demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, four young men were shot with live ammunition in their legs. One of the men got a serious bone fracture. Apart from the live ammunition being shot from all directions, Israeli forces fired several rounds of rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas and stun grenades. Throughout the protest, the Israeli military forces used a skunk truck to force the demonstrators back from reaching the closed road; closed since 2002 due to the building of the settlement Kedumim. ISMers in the demonstration saw houses and gardens being sprayed, and a boy as young as four crying, covered in the noxious chemical skunk ‘water’.
Israeli forces knock down four year old with skunk ‘water” – photo by Ahmed Nazzal
Before the prayer had started, which end usually marks the beginning of the demonstration, soldiers attacked the gathered crowd with the chemical-laced water from the skunk truck. About 200 protesters marched up towards the closed road and were chanting words of freedom. 67 years later, the Nakba is still going on. They were soon met with rubber coated steel bullets and more skunk water.
Demonstrators assemble at Kfar Qaddum on Nakba Day
The Israeli military fired tear gas and several protesters suffered from its inhalation and its blinding effect. The military then fired sound bombs and also started firing live .22 calibre ammunition. Anas, 25 years old, was hit with one of these live bullets in his leg, fracturing it. Within a few minutes, Odaye, 21 years old, had both legs pierced from the side with one of them too – the bullet first went through one leg and then into the other. Joseph, 23 years old, was hit by two bullets in the leg. He was brought in to the hospital with a regular car as both of the ambulances had already left with casualties. Bilal, 22 years old, was also hit by a .22 bullet in his leg. He was also ferried to hospital in a private car. When the soldiers retreated, the youth continued the protest with burning tires – the smoke from the demo drifted up towards the illegal settlement of Kedumim.
Protestor shot in his leg with live ammunition
The villagers of Kafr Qaddum demonstrate weekly against the closure of the road between their village and Nablus, since 2002. The Palestinians are not allowed to travel the most direct route to Nablus, 13 km away, due to the positioning of nearby illegal Israeli settlement Kedumim. The commute to Nablus from Kafr Qaddum has now doubled.
Wounded protester rushed to hospital from Kfar Qaddum
Today’s demonstration at Kafr Qaddum was just one of many large scale demonstrations held in commemoration of Nakba Day. The Nakba is the Palestinian name for the ethnic cleansing of the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs from Historic Palestine in 1948. The systematic massacres and expulsion of some 700,000 Palestinians and the destruction of 500 villages by Zionist paramilitary groups paved the way for the creation of Israel as an ethnically and ideologically ‘Jewish State’.
Mirrors used as a distraction to Israeli’s violent forces – photo by المسيرة__كفرقدوم
The ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by Israeli zionists did not stop in 1948. Both within the recognised boundaries of the Israeli state and within the illegally Occupied Palestinian Territories, Palestinians are struggling daily against expulsion and land theft. In Kafr Qaddum, as in the rest of Palestine, Israel’s attempts at ethnic cleansing are being resisted.
On Nakba Day more than 10 000 South African School Learners March Against Woolworths over Israel Trade.
More than 10 000 South African school learners protested earlier today against Woolworths Stores over its Israeli trade. The #BoycottWoolworths protest was led by the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) in the Free State. COSAS represents school children in all 9 SA provinces and is arguably the largest school learner organization in the country. Click here for photos from today’s COSAS protest against Woolworths.
Thousand protest against Woolworth in South Africa
The 15th of May was chosen for the protest to also mark the 67th year of the Palestinian Nakba “Catastrophe” (the 1948 establishment of the modern State of Israel that was the start of the displacement and oppression of the indigenous Palestinian people).
According to COSAS Free State, the protest march by COSAS against Woolworths is “in solidarity with the people of Palestine who continue to experience the harshest form of apartheid by the Israeli regime”. Sipho Tsunke of COSAS Free State said: “We are therefore mobilizing all young people and parents to boycott Woolworths which continues to have relations with Apartheid Israel. We will not be misled by Woolworths and their silly PR campaigns for example their MySchool programme or that of bringing USA musician Pharrell Williams to South Africa. We are telling Pharrell Williams, as school learners of South Africa, to cancel his shows in South Africa until Woolworths ends its relations with Israel.”
left: COSAS protest in 1985; right: COSAS protest today
Today’s protest march started at Thabong Community Center at 09h00 and ended at Goldfields Mall (where Woolworths store is located) in Welkom in the Free State. The protest, according to police estimates, drew between 10 000 and 13 000 young learners from various areas in and around the Free State province of South Africa. Further COSAS protests against Woolworths are due to take place in coming weeks in other provinces.
