11th August 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Yesterday, on the 10th of August, the Friday demonstration in the city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) was violently repressed by Israeli forces. Unarmed protestors gathered after Friday prayers, around 13:30, to protest against the occupation and in solidarity with Gaza. During the first hour of the demonstration the soldiers held back, staying around checkpoint 56, but eventually stormed out from the checkpoint and into H1, the Palestinian controlled part of the city.
First, they stormed Baba Zawya, trying to capture and arrest youths protesting against the occupation. The soldiers shot large amounts of tear gas and stun grenades at the demonstrators during their break into H1, with the result of two young children suffering excessive tear gas inhalation. ISM activists followed the soldiers to witness their actions, and while they stood close, watching defiantly, the soldiers shouted at the activists and violently pushed them. Israeli forces arrested three youths and two men. Four of them were eventually but released, but the whereabouts of the fifth is currently unknown. The demonstration ended at 19:30.
The Friday demonstrations in Hebron are an important part of the inhabitants’ resistance against the apartheid and occupation of their city. Checkpoints, restricted access, collective punishment and lack of freedom of movement is a part of daily life for Palestinians in Hebron. As an example, al-Shuhada street used to be the heart of the old city, but was closed to Palestinians in 1994 after a settler from a nearby illegal settlement, named Baruch Goldstein, murdered 29 Palestinians and injured over a 100 inside the Ibrahimi mosque. After that shops were forced to close down and it became known as a ghost town. Palestinians are restricted from walking or driving down al-Shuhada, and Israeli forces have welded the doors shut on Palestinian homes facing the street. Meanwhile, settlers face no such restrictions.
Israeli and international protesters demonstrated at Gaza fence in solidarity with The Great Return March
On Friday August 3rd, “Return”, a group of Israeli and international anti-Zionist activists, including activists from the International Solidarity movement, protested on the east side of the Gaza fence in solidarity with the Great March of Return.
They raised the Palestinian flag so that demonstrators in besieged Gaza could see it. They also carried a banner in Arabic reading “Jews for Return”. The Israeli and international demonstrators were assaulted and arrested by the Israeli military and police. Hours later they were released from the Netivot police station.
At the same time, one Palestinian demonstrator was reported to have been killed by the Israeli military and 220 injured, many from live ammunition. According to health officials in Gaza, this brings the number of slain protestors to at least 153 and injured to more than 16,000 since the weekly protests began on March 30.
“”We were beaten and abused by the Israeli military today but it is nothing compared to the violence Gazans face on a daily basis,” said Omer upon his release from police custody. “We will continue to do whatever we can to subvert this violent and horrific siege, and work for justice.”
26th July 2018 | Steve Dhiman, International Solidarity Movement | Khan al-Ahmar, occupied Palestine
An ISM volunteer describes his experience of being arrested and almost deported by Israeli forces
On Wednesday, the 4th of July, I began training with the International Solidarity Movement, an organization where Palestinians and Israelis, Jewish people and Muslims work together in non-violent and peaceful resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. There are supposed to be two full days of training, but at the end of the first day, there was an urgent situation we had to respond to. Therefore, any new recruits were invited to join, provided they felt up to it, and I volunteered myself.
We travelled to the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar outside of Ramallah late in the evening. The Israeli court had ruled that the village should be destroyed and the children’s school there along with it. They were bringing in a digger to make a path for the bulldozer to come through.
They had started the day before, and online I had seen terrible scenes of violence inflicted by the Israeli soldiers upon defenceless Palestinian women and children that were protesting the destruction of their home. We knew it would be more of the same, so we had to go there. I stayed awake all night and was on look-out, because they had arrived at 5 A.M. the day before. I smoked cigarettes and contemplated how horrific the situation was until the sun came up.
They arrived around 7.30 A.M. Me and ten other activists, one of them Israeli, made a human chain with actual chains. Our arms were linked and our hands were chained together as we saw the soldiers around us approaching, along with a huge digger. A senior soldier came over and smiled while slow clapping at us, and then went away to decide what to do about us.
We went directly in front of the massive tyres on this big machine and sat down in front of it in an attempt to stop it in its tracks — which luckily worked. It’s was a very scary moment.
I was at the end of the human chain, so the soldiers started with me. Three of them jumped on me, one of them stamping on my arm, almost breaking it. Another soldier came at me with a huge pair of bolt cutters and jammed it into a gap in the chain to cut it, almost cutting my thumb off in the process.
In the chaos, while they were focusing on me, a brave fellow young 20-year-old American activist named Liam Wheeler actually jumped up onto the digger and chained himself to it. At this, the Israeli soldiers went crazy and jumped all over him, yanking him away with everything they had while he was chained. Again, they could have broken both his arms but luckily, he only got a sprain on the inside of his elbow while mine is just bruised and tender with the skin still healing.
They dragged us over to their vans and trucks. I’d heard another one of our young activists screaming so I knew they had done something to her. It turned out she had been arrested as well. This was the 21-year-old Canadian Michaela Wheeler.
Up against the truck, one of the soldiers tried to snap my thumb back. Once arrested, we were calm and peaceful, so this was just to put me through pain. My thumb went back as far as it could without snapping and was held like that for about a minute while I just stood there in pain.
An older, senior soldier came over to me and started shouting. I told him were peaceful people and that this was a non-violent and peaceful protest against the demolishing of these people’s and their children’s homes. He looked me dead in the eye and said, “YOU’RE PEACE, I’M WAR”.
They then humiliated us. The soldier who arrested us proceeded to drag us one by one, bruised and shaken, our hands bound with cable ties which my wrists were bleeding from. Meanwhile, all his friends got in a circle around us, took out their smartphones and commenced to photograph us while laughing. It was like an animal trophy hunting shot. I could take it, but seeing it done to these 20 and 21 year olds cut me pretty deeply.
They then forced us into the back of a van. Not in the back seats, but down on the floor with virtually no spare room, so we were basically in the fetus position. They kept us like that for an hour.
At this point my nerves started to go a bit. I looked to the left of me and the saw these brave young people taking it in their stride and remaining dignified. I drew inspiration and strength from them. I then saw the digger go straight through into the village, before they took us to a police station in the nearby illegal settlement.
They then cut the cable ties, which had been fastened as tight as they could so they cut our wrists and had slowly began cutting off my blood circulation. Quite remarkable given the fact that we hadn’t been difficult with them, just calm and still. However, we still got thrown around.
They then sat us in a room with them all around showing each other the videos of everything that had happened, they were just laughing and loving it.
After a few hours of the same of thing they put us in a cell, me and Liam together and Michaela in the next one. The cells, as disgusting as they were, weren’t as bad as the treatment we received. They starved us of water throughout the whole day. Internationals in this heat need around 2-3 litres of water a day, but they would give us one tiny plastic cup, nowhere near enough to quench our thirst, and then we would have to beg for an hour or two before we would get another tiny plastic cup. I probably had just five of those from about 9 A.M. up until 9 P.M.
Throughout this time our interrogators were always trying to make us sign things, sometimes in Hebrew, which we didn’t understand. I later learned they would have used this to expedite the deportation orders of us back to our homes. Israel doesn’t want internationals here who are even sympathetic to what is happening to the Palestinians, let alone people who stand by their side.
As it approached 8 A.M. and getting dark outside our cell window, we got worried about where our lawyer was. We reasoned with ourselves and held firm, trusting that our case was being worked on.
Around an hour later there was a bang on the cell door. This time they said that our lawyer was here and took Liam out of the cell. 10 minutes later, they switched us and there was an amazing Jewish Israeli Human Rights lawyer waiting for me. She explained that she had been on the case for us all day and was planning to meet us in court the next morning, telling us that they were planning to deport us. This was our biggest fear. She said my consulate was putting pressure on Israel to allow them to visit me, using that to complicate things for them and delay them moving us to the Russian compound. In the nick of time, another Israeli supporter of Palestine signed something for us in Tel Aviv and with that we were being released. I couldn’t believe it, relieved that now we could stay and do more work. If they had decided to deport me, it might have taken a day or two and I could have ended up missing England’s World Cup Quarter Final game against Sweden!
They took me back to the cell and I shouted to Michaela that were out of here. We were all really relieved, but as international activists, we must be prepared to stand alongside the Palestinians when Israel are committing these crimes, and yes, that means we must be prepared to be arrested when necessary. For us internationals, we can be sure that we will appear in front of an Israeli court judge within 24 hours, and the worst thing that can happen is that we get deported. However, when a Palestinian gets arrested for the same thing: protesting against the destruction of his house, his water supply, his land or lack of free movement, whatever it might be, that’s it — he’s gone. It could be a year, or it could be five. We must stand firmly in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinians. We must pressure our governments to stop selling arms to Israel and to recognise Palestine as a full UN member state.
I wish Israel would say “OK, we have enough land now”. But they keep expanding the settlements, it never stops. It’s time to take a stand.
Upon going back to Jerusalem with my fellow activists and then on to Bethlehem not far from the beautiful Church of Nativity, I found out we had won a temporary injunction from the Israeli High Court against the destruction of Khan al-Ahmar village. I was elated, as this will hopefully allow for more international activists and media to gather and bring attention to the case.
The day after my arrest, my Norwegian friend was arrested in a separate location near Hebron. It’s not even occupied yet; some settlers have just decided they live there now and have started ploughing the ground that belongs to the Palestinian community there. I would say it’s unbelievable but it’s not, it’s entirely typical
These are just small examples of what Israel is doing and how they’ve occupied almost the entire country of Palestine with systematic repression and brutal force. It’s important to remember that one side has all the power, all the money and all the guns and artillery, and that the other side is near defenceless.
I appeal to international activists to join the Palestinian cause now, to come over and get involved. If activism isn’t for you, then take a non-activist and perfectly safe trip to Palestine, both to learn, and because it’s a beautiful place with some of the most kind, helpful and caring people I have ever met — and I’ve been to many places.
18th March 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Occupied Palestine
Two years ago Dima al-Wawi woke up for school feeling sick. Her throat hurt and her lymph nodes were swollen. Her parents were already out of the house, on their land that is split in two by the illegal settlement Karmi Zur in Halhul outside of al Khalil / Hebron.
Dima al-Wawi, present day, in her room in Halhul
Dima’s parents have faced many problems with settlers from this illegal settlement who tried ceaselessly to prevent them from entering their land through the main checkpoint. They took their case to Israeli court and miraculously won access through the checkpoint to both sides of their land sandwiched between the illegal settlement on the East and West side of the Al Wawi’s land. The family remained cautious due to settler harassment and thought that only the adults of the family should enter through the checkpoint as violence is always inevitable.
Dima, 12-years-old at the time, didn’t think so cautiously that morning innocently wanting her mother to take her to the doctor. This day would be the first time she attempted going through the checkpoint onto her own family’s land.
Immediately Israeli soldiers and border police accosted her, blindfolding and handcuffing her behind the back (an action deemed illegal under international law). At 8 a.m., the soldiers shoved her to the ground and commenced beating her and kicked her in the back. Dima was then taken to the police station in Kiryat Arba, another illegal settlement in al Khalil/Hebron.
12-year-old Dima on the day of her arrest
Scared, confused and traumatized, Dima remained calm thinking she would be released that evening since she had done nothing criminal. Through several hours of questioning, her interrogators never asked her if she would like to phone a lawyer. Since the subject of a lawyer never came up, she didn’t know to ask for one unaware of her rights. In the end, she was given a four-month sentence and carted off to notorious Hasharone Prison in between Haifa & Tel Aviv on the charges of carrying a knife. It is worth noting that this act is also illegal under international law to transfer an occupied person from the West Bank into Israel.
Dima with her sisters and mother in their home in Halhul
The al-Wawi family is cheerful and welcoming beyond belief. Meeting the whole clan two years later, one would not think such intense trauma existed within their home. Dima’s disappearance and arrest caused the family many sleepless nights. All of them applied for permits to visit her in prison and only her mother was granted access and only twice.
Dima with her parents on the day of her release 24 April, 2016
Two and a half months passed and Dima was released early with an 8000 NIS bail. Her memories of prison are brief, recalling her many mother figures, the cold iron cells and falling out of the top bunk bed once. She still wakes from nightmares of prison guards counting her endlessly. The media attention surrounding her case was vast, as the Israeli occupation forces falsely claimed Dima carried a knife to the checkpoint with violent intentions. The family resents this cover-up story as well as the amount of media attention, claiming it makes their family vulnerable to settler harassment in the future.
Dima’s personality is fiery, friendly and cunning. It seems she has room for one emotion at a time; she catches everyone’s attention in any given room. Now Dima is 14-years-old, a grounded young woman despite the knowledge that she could be sentenced to five years in prison if she has another incident with occupation forces.
The Karmei Tzur checkpoint is a constant source of violence against Palestinians, not only to 12-year-old girls but also to many teenage boys. Just last month, a 19-year-old was martyred there leaving his family in complete disarray. After leaving Dima’s, we visited the Zamara family just three weeks after their son entered the illegal settlement with a knife and was fatally shot and beaten as a result.
Hamza Yousef Zamara served two sentences in Israeli prisons before his fateful and early end. First in 2014, 16-years-old he spent one week in prison, released on a 3000 NIS bail. Second time, also 2014, this time for 14 months. 45 days of this sentence was spent in intensive torture, Hamza came out a different person, a changed man.
His weeping mother, dressed in black, described his personality after incarceration as withdrawn and psychologically damaged. Hamza’s health was in steady decline and he was severely underweight. His experience and trauma brought him to seek revenge against the Israeli occupation by way of bringing a knife to the checkpoint. According to Israeli sources, Hamza “very lightly wounded the guard in a stabbing attack in Karmie Tzur.” His attempt at violence was met with severe beating, stabbing and four shots fired fatally killing him.
It is custom in the Islamic religion to bury a body within 24 hours of death. However, Hamza’s body was held by Israel out of spite for 10 days in the freezer. When finally released, Israeli soldiers invaded the family’s home interrogating his family, detaining his father, Yousef Zamara, and deeming Hamza a terrorist directly to his family. Israeli forces also threatened the family “that they would pay for [Hamza’s] actions.”
Sadness cannot begin to describe the collective emotion of his family and friends. All dressed in mourning, Hamza’s photograph was quietly passed around and tightly clutched by his loved ones. His mother, Arwa Zamara, remembers identifying Hamza’s frozen body as “the most difficult moment.” Arwa and Yousef have two other sons imprisoned by Israel.
When asked how she has the strength to go on after losing her child, Arwa mentions the overwhelming support from her neighbors and community. Her daughter chimes in, “we are one body;” no one is alone in the brutality of the Israeli occupation.
Dima, a child, and Hamza, a young man, did not deserve the brutality and injustice they experienced by the Israeli legal system and occupation forces. The worst part is they are not alone, and their stories are not uncommon. All Palestinian civilians are tried in military court, even children, with a conviction rate of 99.7% while Israeli civilians are tried in civil court.
Palestine is home to countless administrative detainees, political prisoners and martyrs. Internationals and Palestinians wonder when this will stop. When will the international community take responsibility and halt their support of Israel’s unjust legal system and illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
We wish the al-Wawi and Zamara families well in recovering from their trauma and hope their families have peace within their homes.
15th March 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Occupied Palestine
Yesterday, Ayman al Fakhori, age 25, was detained for an hour outside the Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint before being arrested for no reason and escorted down Shuhada Street into a military base. He was shortly after released and escorted by Israeli forces out of checkpoint 56.
Internationals interviewed him after his release about his time in the military base. He relayed to us that the commander said, “This is the last chance you’ll get,” and threatened his life if he gets arrested again. Fakhori, however, doesn’t know what caused his arrest in the first place.
The only logical explanation, according to Fakhori, is that he is active in informing the public about the Israeli occupation via giving tours throughout al Khalil / Hebron to pro-Palestinian NGO’s and individuals.
The normalcy of his case showed as Fakhori nonchalantly explained the events of the day, affirming that he will not leave his home to make room for the settlers as the soldiers recommended he do. He was happy, though, to see Shuhada Street for the first time; as it is now an apartheid road closed to all Palestinians for the majority of 24 years.
