Tag: Anat Cohen

“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.

Anat Cohen steals international observer’s notebook

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

Anat Cohen (ענת כהן), daughter of the convicted Israeli terrorist Moshe Zar, attacked another international who was observing schoolchildren on their commute to the Qurtuba school this morning.

The International was an elderly woman who was keeping tally in a notebook of the number of schoolchildren that passed through the checkpoint and how many were harassed by illegal settlers or the israeli occupation forces. These numbers are submitted to UNSECO and Save the Children.

Cohen suddenly appeared and, before ISM volunteers could start recording video, she punched the woman in the ribs and began scolding her. ISM caught the rest of the exchange on video, when Cohen stole the observer’s notebook:

The observer complained to the police–who retrieved the notebook from Cohen–and then the police proceeded to evict the observers (including ISM volunteers) out of H2, claiming that the school and its surroundings were a “Closed Military Zone.”

Qurtuba School Closed Military Zone from 2019-02-17


The above document presented by the israeli occupation forces to the international observers shows that the order was created just 30 minutes before they were told to leave.

Creating closed military zones is a common tactic used by Israel to thwart international observers from being able to monitor for the illegal settler’s and soldier’s crimes against the Palestine people. In this case, Palestinian children.

Another ISM member attacked by violent Settler, Anat Cohen

February 10, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

Every day, ISM volunteers monitor the Qurtuba checkpoint in Al-Khalil during mornings and afternoons to ensure the safety of Palestinian schoolchildren. Attacks and harassment by Israeli Defense Forces, police and settlers seem to be increasing. This is the fourth ISM volunteer attacked within a week, by the infamously violent settler Anat Cohen.

Anat Cohen assaults ISM volunteers in Al-Khalil (again)

[three_fifth_last]February 08, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

ISM volunteers were detained by Hebron Police for over 8 hours after Anat Cohen assaulted them outside the Qurtuba school checkpoint on Thursday.

Picture of Anat Cohen when she assaulted ISM volunteers 2019-02

In direct response to the violence waged against Palestinians at the hands of illegal settlers (and the military that protects them), a neutral observer force had been present in Hebron (Al-Khalil) for the past 22-years, in part, to ensure that children walking to/from school would not be harmed, harassed, or murdered by settlers. This observer force was called TIPH.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government expelled TIPH from Hebron last week.

One of the more dangerous checkpoints for Palestinian children in Al-Khalil exists outside the Qurtuba school–which is juxtaposed immediately adjacent to the Beit Hadassah settlement. Another independent observer group, EAPPI, had been peacefully monitoring this checkpoint until last week–when their head offices announced that their team would also withdraw from Hebron following a targeted campaign of harassment by the right-wing fascist group Im Turtsu.

To fill this void, ISM volunteers have been monitoring the Qurtuba checkpoint in mornings and afternoons to provide an international presence to ensure the safety of Palestinian schoolchildren. As a result, ISM has become the target of harassment by these illegal settlers. On Thursday, this ordinary verbal abuse escalated to physical assault when Anat Cohen–a particularly violent settler with a history of attacking peaceful observers–assaulted ISM volunteers at the Qartuba checkpoint.

ISM captured the assault on video:

Minutes after Cohen assaulted the ISM volunteers, she called the police. When the local Hebron Police arrived, they detained the ISM volunteers and informed them that Cohen was pressing charges against the ISM volunteers for assault.

The ISM volunteers vehemently deny these accusations, and they have video evidence clearly showing that the only physical violence that occured was when Cohen assaulted the peaceful ISM volunteers, who were simply observing the checkpoint to ensure the safety of the schoolchildren.

Extremist settlers hurls abuse at injured ISM activist