Tag: Apartheid - Page 3 - International Solidarity Movement

Ramadan 2016: Harassment, collective punishment and settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank

7th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | West Bank, occupied Palestine

Monday the 6th of June marked the beginning of the Ramadan; the holiest holiday in Islam. The Ramadan is a sacred month in the Islamic calendar, where Muslims celebrate when the Qu’ran was revealed for the first time to the Prophet Muhammad.

For Muslims all over the world who celebrate the Ramadan, it’s a month of prayers and celebrations, with the intention to improve morality and character as well as strengthening ones relationship with Allah.

However, for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank under illegal Israeli military occupation, the Ramadan is also a month filled with uncertainties and harassment.

Since the beginning of the Ramadan, more than 330 Palestinians have been detained throughout the West Bank; at least 60 of these were children, the youngest being 10-year old Marwan Sharabati from Al-Khalil (Hebron).

Discrimination and aggression in East Jerusalem

Israeli discrimination and aggression has especially been intense in and around occupied East Jerusalem, where thousands of Palestinians from in and outside East Jerusalem go to visit and pray at the Al-Aqsa compound and mosque, the third most religious site in all of Islam.

The Al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem was annexed in 1967 as a part of Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank – this annexation was never recognised by the international community.

On Sunday 26 of June, Israeli soldiers broke in and raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque, harassing and disturbing peaceful Palestinians during prayer. Israeli forces also escorted a group of approximately 200 settlers into the mosque, shouting and harassing Palestinians praying. This action was in contravention of a long running tradition that only Muslims would enter the mosque during the final 10 days of Ramadan.

Watch video of soldiers raiding the mosque here

As a result of the clashes, Israeli authorities enforced the understanding to restrict access to Muslim worshippers although also placed punitive restrictions on Palestinians; refusing access to all males under 45 years old, breaching their right to exercise freedom of religion.

On Friday 30 June, Israeli soldiers shut down the Qalandiya checkpoint, preventing thousands of Palestinians, including males younger than 45 years old, to pass in order to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli forces then proceeded to attack Palestinians at Qalandiya checkpoint with live ammunition, rubber coated steel bullets and teargas, wounding 40 Palestinians as well as killing a 63 year old Palestinian man due to massive teargas inhalation.

Watch video from Qalandiya here

Collective punishment and settlement expansion during the Ramadan

After an attack at a market in Tel Aviv, where four Israeli citizens where killed, Israel has conducted a large collective punishment strategy, suspending entry permits for more than 83,000 Palestinians from the West Bank. The 83,000 people impacted had nothing to do with the crime committed, and thereby preventing them from going to Al-Aqsa in the annexed East Jerusalem is another clear example of Israel enforcing illegal collective punishment.

To further ignite the situation, Benjamin Netanyahu announced a large-scale settlement expansion, consisting of a total of 800 housing units in East Jerusalem. The scheme contains of 560 housing units in the settlement Ma’Ale Adumim, 140 in Ramot and 100 in Har Homar and Pisgat Zeev.

Following a Palestinian attack on a 13-year old American-Israeli settler, Netanyahu has also approved construction of 42 new housing units in the settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron. The settlements are illegal according to international law, and the UN and EU leaders have denounced the expansion, urging Netanyahu to reverse the decision.

Netanyahu’s actions continue to escalate the situation in the West Bank and completely disregard the recently released Quartet report, which has resulted in the U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemning Israel for this continued expansion of illegal settlements.

(Photo credit: Middle East Monitor)

Israeli military demolishes two houses, injures five Palestinians with live ammunition in Qalandia Refugee Camp

7th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Qalandia Refugee Camp, occupied Palestine

The holy month of Ramadan has come to an end. But in Palestine, as in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and too many other places, Muslim families are not able to enjoy this special time of the year in peace and comfort. On Sunday night at 11pm, more than 1000 Israeli soldiers, according to locals’ estimations, entered Qalandia Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank. The huge military incursion sparked clashes in which 15 Palestinians were shot. Occupation Forces used live ammunition and rubber coated steel bullets on civilians while firing tear gas and stun grenades at approaching ambulances, preventing Palestinian Red Crescent medics from reaching the wounded.

13598979_10208235400097380_874105967_n — Red Crescent ambulance damaged by Israeli forces

Among the injured was a 19 year old girl and a 15 year old boy, each shot with live ammunition and brought to the hospital in serious condition. The army entered the camp to demolish the homes of the families of two young men, Anan Habsah and Issa Asaaf, both 21, who carried out knife attacks and killed one soldier in East Jerusalem on December 23rd last year. Both were killed by soldiers while carrying out the attacks, so the demolition of the homes comes only as a form of collective punishment to terrorize the families and the people in Qalandia, who repeatedly suffer from night raids and house demolitions as well as beatings and arrests by the Israeli occupation forces.

Anan’s family first evacuated their home in January when the Israeli high court announced their decision to demolish the houses. The displaced family members lived spread across the area, staying at friends’ and family’s homes in Ramallah and elsewhere in Qalandia for two months until the lawyer suggested they could move back in in March. The father, Abu Saleh, refused to leave his home during the two month period however, staying in a tent outside the building. Three weeks ago the two families were yet again told to evacuate their homes and were informed that the demolition would take place within five days. However, the exact date of the demolition was not disclosed. Sunday night it finally happened without advance notice, and only two days before the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid celebrations.

13576761_1008462312537077_8096730517731939773_o (1) — In the ruins of his family home

Issa and his family have experienced severe trauma at the hands of occupation forces before, when he and his two younger sisters were brutally assaulted by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near East Jerusalem. The incident left one of Issa’s sisters unable to speak for three months, and caused the Assaf family significant distress and anguish.

Both Issa and Anan were imprisoned for significant periods of time; Anan at age fifteen for a period of eight months, and Issa for seven months in the year before his death.The families’ suffering did not end there, however. In the week following Issa’s release from prison, he was again assaulted at his home in Qalandia when soldiers dragged him from his home in the middle of the night and beat him in the street without justification.

The Habsah family also bears the long lasting scars of pain and trauma. Anan’s imprisonment as a child devastated the family, and they say their boy was never the same afterwards. “I know he did not want to die … but when a boy is put in jail, deprived of sleep, and deprived of his childhood, something in him changes,” said Anan’s uncle.

13600192_1008462409203734_4393730134126912464_n — Inside the Asaaf family home

When we arrived on Monday morning, neighbors and relatives had already begun to gather in support of the families. Anan’s aunt explained to us that this is the third time her family had been forcibly displaced; first in 1948, when the family was expelled from their home in West Jerusalem, and later again in 1975 when their modest home in the refugee camp was destroyed for the first time.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness condemned the demolitions on Monday, stating that punitive home demolitions “inflict distress and suffering on those who have not committed the action which led to the demolition, and they often endanger people and property in the vicinity.” A 2005 study by the Israeli army itself concluded that home demolitions are not effective as a deterrent or punitive measure, but the practice still continues. According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, about fifty thousand residential structures have been destroyed by Israel since 1967.

“This is psychological warfare. In the whole camp of more than ten thousand people, no one slept [last night], and they did not go to work today,” Adnan Habsah, the uncle of Anan said. Qalandia Refugee Camp has long been subjected to various forms of collective punishment by Israeli forces, and is severely affected by all aspects of the Illegal Occupation. The camp is located within area “C” and greater (East) Jerusalem, near the main checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem and beside the apartheid wall. According to the UNRWA, the construction and expansion of the Wall in the early 2000s has drastically affected the economic situation in the camp by isolating it from the Israeli job market and Jerusalem. According to the most recent data, Qalandia’s unemployment rate is as high as 40 percent, compared to Occupied Palestine’s overall rate of 26.6 percent.

The Camp was originally established to house some 5,000 Palestinians who were displaced by the 1948 Nakba. Today, according to Afaq Environmental Magazine, the population of Qalandia Refugee Camp has reached about 14,000. Under the 1993 Oslo Agreement, the whole territory of Qalandia Refugee Camp is classified as area “C,” where Israel retains full control over security and administration related to the territory; however, Qalandia camp, like other Palestinian refugee camps, is under the administrative control of UNRWA.

As the uncle of Anan said when we spoke to him on Monday, “This is a UN refugee camp. The whole world owns this place. You cannot destroy it.”

13606950_1008462755870366_2186377381835131627_n — Abu Saleh, father of Anan Habsah

Qarawah water apartheid

21st June 2016 | IWPS | Deir Istiya, occupied Palestine

When Aziz ‘Aasee, the mayor of Qarawah Bani Hassan village drives through the streets, we’re stopped every few meters by one of his constituents, all of whom are asking the same question: When will we have water again? For some, the question is a joke; they are used to going without water for days, weeks, or even months each summer. Others are more aggressive, and the question comes off as a threat. People are looking for someone to blame for their thirst. The mayor, who is responsible for paying the town’s water bills, seems like an easy target.

In reality, there is little Aziz can do to ensure that his town has enough water. The village shares a water access network with two other municipalities, Sarta and Biddya. The three villages, with a combined population of approximately 30,000 people, depend on one 8 inch pipe, designed to deliver 145 cubic meters of water per hour. During the winter months when water tables are higher, the water flows at full capacity, ensuring coverage to the entire network. However for the past two months, the amount has been restricted to between 50 and 70 cubic meters per hour. With such a small amount in the pipes, the pressure is too low for the water to reach many of the houses at the end of the system. Qarawah, which sits at the highest elevation out of the three villages, suffers the most from the low water pressure: no house in the village has received water in over a week. The most remote properties have gone dry for over a month.

Qarawah's only potable water source — Qarawah’s only potable water source

Mekorot, the Israeli national water company which ostensibly owns the water infrastructure in question, and controls 87% of the aquifer located inside the West Bank, lies at the root of the problem. Since 1982, when the Israeli military sold their control of the West Bank’s water resources to Mekorot for a mere Shekel, the company has become the main enforcer of water apartheid between the Palestinians, and Israelis living in illegal settlements. While settlements enjoy a 24/7 supply of water year round, Mekorot caps its supply to Palestinians at the levels stipulated in the Oslo agreements over 20 years ago. Since then, the population of the West Bank has grown exponentially, and almost no improvements to Palestinian water infrastructure have been made. The Israeli military administration in the West Bank only makes matters worse. They routinely deny permits for new wells and pipes that would benefit villages like Qarawah by providing alternative sources of water or improving water pressure. In addition, the Israeli military has demolished 50 water and sanitation structures owned by Palestinians in 2016 alone. The result is that Palestinians have essentially no control over any of the water within their borders, or the infrastructure to deliver it.

Negotiations with Mekorot are almost impossible for small municipalities like Qarawah. Officials in the district capital of Salfit have spent the past two months trying to persuade the Israelis to increase the water supply without result. Even on the national level, appointees from the Palestinian Authority have refused to negotiate with Mekorot and the Israeli military administration. Aziz, for his part, chiefly contacts Mekorot through one of their Palestinian employees, and the communication is confusing at best. The representative will promise to show up on a certain day, and then never arrives. Or he’ll leave an update to say the water supply will be increased for one night to 100 cubic meters per hour, enough to ensure that at least some homes in Qarawah will receive water, yet the taps remain empty. Meanwhile, the illegal settlement of Kiryat Netafim, easily visible on a neighbouring hillside, boasts green lawns. It’s clear from a glance that the settlements are receiving more than adequate service from the same company.

A few times over the past weeks, the municipalities of Qarawah, Satra and Biddya have called for popular protests, gathering at the meter access point for their shared pipe. Small groups of children and young men beat empty water bottles with sticks and shouted “Bidna may, bidna may” – “we want water” – at passing cars. Regardless, many in the three towns are afraid of a backlash from the protests. Shortly after the protests, armed Israeli soldiers arrived at the meter, demanding that the organizers cancel, or face repercussions. While it’s unclear what sort of consequences might be imposed, some worry that the water might be cut off completely as an act of collective punishment.

"Bidna may" - we want water protest — “Bidna may” – we want water protest

With no solution in sight, the villagers of Qarawah are finding ways to mitigate the effects of living under water apartheid. Villagers are using bottled water for drinking and showers, and hauling water up from local springs, located 4-6 kilometres outside the village limits, to use in toilets and irrigation. The springs also provide a small amount of potable water. However, this is not nearly enough to meet the village’s needs. Some houses in the village also have private wells; but with the summer stretching ahead, these limited resources are sure to be depleted far too soon. So until Mekorot is disbanded, or agrees to give equal service to Palestinians, the people of Qarawah will continue to suffer.

Celebrating Israeli Independence day from the other side of apartheid fence

13th May 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Verena, Al Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Leaving the meeting I was searching for a safe way to go through the old City of Hebron alone, where there was a celebration of ”Israeli Independence day” going on. I wanted to reach my ISM team members who were already patrolling there. I took off my Kufiya, the Palestinian scarf, because I would probably not be safe wearing it amongst crowds of settlers. I went by taxi to the nearest checkpoint; I got out, passed the checkpoint and descended the hill on the palestinian side.

Palestinian boy watching the celebration of Israeli Independence day. Photo credit: ISM

Loud, happy music had been playing for days and at the main square, there was a stage surrounded by Jewish families cheerfully dancing, clapping hands watching the event going on. Reaching the entrance of the event, even soldiers at the checkpoint were dancing happily.
Only one old palestinian man with a cane was observing the scene melancholically. I felt his grief. Once that had been a palestinian place, with Palestinians celebrating on it. But those days were gone.

I found my friends and we started to walk through the old city, to check on the situation. The streets were empty, houses locked up and you could see Palestinian children behind lattice windows, trying to catch up on some of the events going on outside. Their parents had them made stay at home, being scared of clashes and attacks by settler groups, as they had been in past celebrations of independence day.

Reaching back to the top of the hill, we met some young Palestinian men, watching the festivities from above. Between them and the square was a checkpoint and soldiers. The boys were making jokes to hide their true feelings. One young man told us, that there had been
times when Israelis and Palestinian had celebrated together on this square. After some time we walked down the hill, again on the Palestinian side of the fence. Palestinian boys and men were standing and watching the joyous triumphal dancing and cheering, through the fence.

Palestinian boys excluded from celebration on their land. Photo credit: ISM

Soldiers and jeeps on the other side of the fence protected the square. We stood with Palestinians for quite some time. Young men behind a fence, children and women behind the lattice windows, excluded from happiness in their own country, watching THEM celebrating the day when 68 years ago they violently took over the country.

When the festival ended, settlers flooded the streets so we walked back into the city. Most of them went in cars but walking an empty street we could suddenly hear the triumphal procession coming towards us. Singing, shouting, waving flags the crowd was coming towards us and we sought protection near Israeli soldiers. They would most of the time protect Internationals for not getting media attention for violent behaviour of the settlers. But they would never protect Palestinians from their violence. The next day we heard that the procession had aggressively crossed the Arab quarter.

Palestinian youth intentionally run over in Hebron

22^st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On the afternoon of 21^st April 2016, an Israeli settler ran down a Palestinian youth with his car, causing critical injuries, near the Ibrahimi mosque in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

Two settlers were driving down the road connecting Shuhada Street and Kiryat Arba in occupied al-Khalil around 2 pm, and, seeing a group of Palestinian children playing on a parking lot bordering the street, turned around and deliberately hit Ala’a al-Rajabi with their car. The children that have been playing with Ala’a before the incident said that they were attacked by these two settlers several times before, and the last time were pepper-sprayed by the settlers that threatened them. According to eye-witnesses, the soldiers at a nearby checkpoint were merely watching and even allowed the two young settlers to attempt to drive off, before a group of Palestinians went up to the checkpoint to ‘inform’ the soldiers of what happened. The injured 17-year old boy, having been hit whilst on his bicycle, was lying on the ground bleeding from his legs and head for about 15 minutes, before any medical help was given to him.

The settler that was in the car when Ala'a was hit — The settler that was in the car when Ala’a was run down

A Palestinian ambulance was allowed to evacuate the youth, now in a critical condition, to a hospital. Big groups of settlers gathered, while more and more soldiers as well as civil police arrived. According to several eye-witnesses, a settler youth wearing an orange T-Shirt was driving the car, whilst another settler youth wearing a blue T-Shirt was in the passenger seat. After the police arrived and a discussion with the two settlers was had, however, it was claimed that it had been the settler with the blue T-shirt that was driving the car. Observers believe the reason for this to be that the settler driving the car did not in fact have a driving licence, whereas the passenger did. Regardless, the settler said by the police to have been driving, was seen walking free from the police station at Ibrahimi mosque, only an hour after the initial incident.

Police man next to the bicycle Ala'a was hit on — Police man next to the bicycle Ala’a was hit on

The street where the settlers ran down Ala’a connects the illegal downtown settlements on Shuhada Street and in Tel Rumeida directly with the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of al-Khalil. Palestinians are prohibited from driving anywhere on this road, an apartheid rule that covers all traffic, including ambulances. Ala’a therefore was lucky that the Israeli forces did coordinate to allow a Palestinian ambulance to drive in to the area as quickly as they did.

The stretch of street where Palestinian traffic is completely barred includes Shuhada Street – the major part of which is entirely off limits for Palestinians. A small part of Shuhada Street is still accessible for Palestinians on foot, but has been under a ‘closed military zone’ order since 1^st November 2015. Only Palestinian residents registered as a number are allowed to pass and international visitors are completely barred. Settlers, however, can freely roam the streets. This a part of the Israeli forces’ policy of slowly but steadily driving Palestinians out of these areas, with a view to connecting all the illegal settlements as well as disappearing the last remaining Palestinians from these areas.