Tag: Asira al-Qibliya

The slow genocide of Palestinians continues in Asira Al Qibliya

13th December 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira Al Qibliya, Nablus, occupied Palestine

“This is the line,” Oussam Khalifa Ahmad illustrates as he takes us on a tour of his threatened land. “We are now passing into (Area) C.” Depending on where you look, some of the land has already been stolen. We can only observe for a limited amount of time. If we stay too long, we’re told that we will be attacked by the settlers, who’s housing we can see not far above us.

Settlements overlooking Asira Al Qibliya

For Palestinian landowners like Oussam, the Oslo Accords which solidified the cantonization of the West Bank, were a disaster. Tacit support or ambivalence for the Oslo peace process may be found in the urban regions, but not one villager looks kindly on the so-called agreement today. There is nothing surprising about his circumstance. His land is under threat by the Israeli courts, despite him having the proper documents. He also experiences frequent trespassing by nearby settlers who act with impunity. Oussam points up at his olive trees, burned from last Summer, to clarify exactly what that means.

Oussam’s documents proving land ownership

This true story is one in thousands in the West Bank. We could talk about the road the villagers attempted to pave down to the main highway, construction now stalled by the Israeli government.

Construction stalled by Israeli gov’t for Palestinian road

We could illustrate the intimidating settlements overlooking the entire village, only a half a kilometer up the hill. Or, the monthly attacks by armed settlers, the hateful graffiti, destruction of property, bodily injuries to the villagers; Israeli soldiers aiding in all of it, firing on those who would dare protect their neighbors from harm, or their property from damage.

Graffiti in Hebrew on a wall in Asira Al Qibliya

We could talk about the direct theft of this village’s water, a common theme across the aqua-heavy West Bank. The spectacle of Israel’s control of the West Bank’s water is exhibited by allotted tanks, sitting on top of each Palestinian household, or business, throughout the occupied land. Let’s talk about the spring of water that was taken in the latest land-grab, candidly aided by the US government. We are taken to a water tank by Hakima, another villager and local landowner. The water tank is guarded by perimeters made of metal and stone, with a manned watchtower a few meters ahead.

Inside one can see the “USAID” sign. “This project is a gift from the American people to the Palestinian people…”

Last year the US government launched a “$10 million dollar project” to “improve access” to water for Palestinians. However, Hakima tells us that USAID projects such as these have a rather different effect when it comes to “improving access” to water. For example, Asira Al Qibliya received their USAID “gift” four years ago. “There was no (water tank) here four years ago,” she says, “then the USAID brought the water project here for us and built all this. Now the Israelis say they need ‘security area’ for the settlement.” She says that in addition to the US taking many more hectares of land- much of which were her own- to build this reservoir, it has enabled the settlements to expand even more. Hakima recalls that they were much better off when they used their own natural spring, which ran down to the village. Now, due to the spring’s redirection of water for settler use, the well has been dry for five years, which gave them no choice but to rely on the USAID water tower.

Palestinians may hear this question from many international journalists and activists from the outside- “what reason did they give for taking your land? Why did the settlers attack? Was it in response to..? Is there any legal reason they..?” Colonial governments tend to have pretexts for stealing land, or killing native populations, so the “why” turns into a triviality by default.

The name of this village is Asira Al Qibliya. The village is home to internationally infamous settler attacks. The names of the surrounding villages are Burin, Madama, Urif, Ana Bus, and Uara. They all have similar stories, and so do each of the 30,000 residents comprising of those villages.

This situation is nothing new, however one may wonder exactly how many more dunhams Israel can take before there is nothing left. Or, considering the well-documented discriminatory practices of water usage between Palestinians and settlers, how long before massive drought sweeps the Palestinian natives? How many more homes can be destroyed until most of the population is rendered homeless? If it’s hard to imagine a tipping point for the West Bank, one need only to look at Gaza, which the UN and NGOs alike say will be unlivable in about a year. One should not make any mistake, the occupation of the Palestinian territories is genocide.

Interview: ISM speaks to Hakima Motlaq about a recent soldier and settler attack on the village of Asira

26th August 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, interview by Mariana | Asira al-Qibliya, occupied Palestine

Asira al-Qibliya is a village near Nablus that has been terrorised by the illegal Ytzhar settlement since 1982. In any moment of the day or night, settlers can arrive in the village and make violent incursions against the people or damage their property, including cars and houses. The people of Asira al-Qibliya live in complete insecurity and fear for their physical safety daily.

This is the story of Hakima Motlaq, a human rights activist and a tireless advocate for the empowerment of the women and children in the village. Here, she tells Mariana about a recent attack on the village’s inhabitants by soldiers and settlers.

“On 25^th August at 4pm, soldiers came and put up two flying checkpoints, preventing any access to Asira and the nearby village of Urif that borders Asira. Then, accompanied by a group of settlers, the soldiers assaulted 10 workers in the big Asira quarry.

First, the workers were detained and forced by the soldiers to stand with their arms held up for half an hour. After this, the soldiers searched them and then assaulted them by kicking them in the legs and then hitting their bodies with their guns. Not satisfied, the soldiers forced them to lie down and started to walk on them. This torture lasted an hour and a half.

After this time, they handcuffed the workers with plastic handcuffs and started asking hem where they were hiding their weapons. Not receiving any satisfactory answers, they searched throughout the quarry, but not finding anything, they finally freed the workers and removed the checkpoints.

Me and the mothers, wives and children of the workers lived terrible moments during this time and feared the worst, because for two hours we couldn’t contact them or reach the place. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

Only a week ago, in the same quarry, the settlers came one night and destroyed a new GBC excavator, setting it on fire.”

The excavator fire seen from Asira-village

For background information on the village of Asira al-Qibliya, read this expert from a previous interview with Hakima.

“Asira is a very old village with Roman ruins. So it dates back to the Roman age with a lot of evidence of the Ottomans being here as well. Some of the Roman ruins lie in the west of the village. The village lies 14 Km south of Nablus and is 6,440 dunams in its size. The population is 3,200. But 50% of the population are refugees of the 1948 war, mostly coming from Haifa.

The main problem we face is the occupation and the settlements. In the beginning, the settlement had only 18 dunams of land that had once belonged to Asira. But now they have 1,800 dunams of land taken from 6 villages, including Asira, but also Burin, Madama, Huwwara, Urif and Einabus. But also they come to the villages up to 3 times a week at the moment. They burn cars, burn trees, burn crops. So we’ve had to stop planting crops nearby to the settlement as they always come and destroy whatever we plant.

When they come at night they are also causing a big problem for the children in particular. The children suffer from insomnia, bed wetting and their performance at school is worse all due to the psychological effects of this constant fear. Even when they play you can see it. They are always playing violent games like “settler and Palestinian” where they hurt each other. This is their favourite game and they pretend to shoot each other and all the parents are scared for their children and the psychological damage that is being done to them.

But even worse than this in recent times rather than just coming and throwing stones settlers have come with guns. Last year a man was shot in the head. We have a video of this incident. [Yizhar is considered the most violent settlement in the West Bank due to the number of reported incidents coming from there.]“

Eight shebab [youths] kidnapped in Asira al-Qibliya

2nd June 2014 | International Women’s Peace Service | Asira al-Qibliya, Occupied Palestine

At around 2 am on Sunday night, five Israeli military jeeps, three large military vehicles, and some 30 soldiers on foot arrived in the village of Asira al-Qibliya (south of Nablus). In total silence, they started entering Palestinian houses without knocking on their doors first.

That night the Israeli army raided 10 houses, ransacking them with the excuse of ‘searching for guns’. They didn’t find any.

The soldiers kidnapped (‘arrested’) a young man from every house they visited. While two were released soon after, eight remain detained:

Jihad Hammad Ashier, 21
Mohammed Fouas Saleh, 20
Mohammed Abde Ruhan, 20
Sari Bhassam Asari, 21
Brothers Nehmer Fateh Nijim, 22 and Nahsem Fateh Nijim, 25
Mhoattasem Mohammed Salehm, 26
Khaled Ahmad, 24

Images from Asira al-Qibliya facebook page

These attacks on peaceful villagers followed the same pattern: the soldiers would first break the door to enter the house; lock every family member, including the children, in one room, and take their mobile phones away so they wouldn’t call for help; then they would kidnap one young man from each house and eventually leave.

In the house of Khaled Ahmad, his mother had heard the soldiers breaking the first door, so she asked them to wait a bit so that she could get dressed and open the second door herself, but they didn’t listen. Instead, the occupation soldiers broke the second door too and violently pushed Khaled’s mother away. In almost no time, 25 soldiers were inside the house. Khaled’s mother got scared and sick, and asked them if she could get a glass of water, but they refused.

Khaled’s 10-year-old brother has been waiting fearfully for the return of his elder sibling; the family had told him that Khaled had gone to drink coffee and smoke a cigarette with the soldiers and that he would be back soon. The child has been waiting by the door ever since.

Villagers say that the military vehicles came from the Asira-Burin road, while foot soldiers walked down from the nearby illegal Israeli colony of Yitzhar.

The soldiers left at around 5 am. Two hours later, they phoned the families to tell them that the kidnapped shebab [youth] were being detained at Huwwara checkpoint (south of Nablus). They then hung up.

All the shebab have been arrested without any reason given. The families are waiting for their safe release.

This latest attack on Asira al-Qibliya follows numerous previous ones, when the Israeli occupation army terrorized the village with a full arsenal of arms, from steel bullets to sound grenades; threatened children with attack dogs; kidnapped shebab; ransacked people’s homes; and otherwise provoked them.

Asira Attacked 4 Nights in a Row

7th May 2014 | International Women’s Peace Service | Asira al-Qibliya, Occupied Palestine

Israeli army raided the village of Asira al-Qibliya (south of Nablus) at 1 am on 5 May, arresting a 21-year-old, brutally assaulting his uncle, and terrorising the family’s children with attack dogs.

Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded Asira by foot, sneaking in from the backside of the village. Asira al-Qibliya has now been raided for four nights in a row, with Israeli soldiers breaking into villagers’ houses and blocking off roads to prevent anyone entering or leaving the area.

The attack of 5 May was implemented according to a slightly different tactic from the previous ones: soldiers arrived quietly on foot from the backsides of the houses, using ladder to get through olive trees without being heard. They also took away mobile phones from the family members in the houses they raided, so that they could not tell their neighbours that an attack was in place and call for help. Some residents of Asira only found out about the attack the following morning.

Three Israeli soldiers attacked 48-year-old Abu Suleiman, resident of Asira who was on his way back to his house. They beat him, kicked him, and hit him on the head with the back of their rifles. The assault lasted for an hour; soldiers then handcuffed the beaten man, blindfolded him, and sealed his mouth with duck tape. They then brought him under a fig tree in the back of his garden and tried to strangle him. Shortly after, they finally checked his ID and discovered that he was not the one they were looking for. At this point they also stole NIS 500 (£85, US $145) that was hidden in the man’s ID holder.

When Abu Suleiman’s family found him, the Israeli army prevented them from calling an ambulance; the man was bleeding heavily from his head. Even after one of his relatives managed to reach an ambulance by phone, soldiers did not allow it to pass through for half an hour so that Abu Suleiman could get the treatment he was in desperate need of. Only later, having kept the man in pain for several hours, did the army finally stop obstructing the ambulance.

Today Abu Suleiman is painfully recovering in his home.

At around the same time of the attack on Abu Suleiman, some 25 Israeli soldiers surrounded the house of his brother’s family, demanding the whereabouts of one of his sons; eight soldiers entered the house accompanied by two attack dogs which threatened the family’s young children. Soldiers refused to open the window to let some fresh air inside the locked room even after the mother’s appeals to do it for her son who was suffering from an asthma attack. When the 21-year-old they were looking for was not to be found, the soldiers instead brought his father and brother to their jeep parked near the village mosque. The army demanded the 21-year-old son in return of the two. When he arrived, soldiers arrested him. The young man has been arrested once before, two months ago, and severely beaten.

As these last few days Israelis are celebrating their Independence day and have days off, the family has not yet heard anything about what happened to their son.

The remains of martyr Ahmad Saleh finally returned to family

20th March 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira al-Qibliya, Occupied Palestine

In June 2002, Israeli soldiers assassinated 18-year-old Ahmad Saleh from the village of Asira al-Qibliya after he entered the illegal settlement of Yizhar.

Ahmad’s body was then convicted post mortem to be held for 20 years by the Israeli authorities. Today, twelve years later, the body was given back to the family and was finally able to be buried with dignity.

Two other martyrs’ bodies were also returned to their families yesterday and their funerals began in the morning from a local hospital in Nablus, and continued on to the centre of the city. The funeral procession for Ahmad Saleh continued to his home village of Asira al-Qibliya, with approximately 700 Palestinians in attendance.

For the past 12 years the martyrs’ bodies have been held inside one of the ‘cemeteries of numbers’, which are secret cemeteries in closed military areas with bare graves surrounded by stones. Each ‘grave’ has only an identification number on a metal plate; family members are not allowed to visit.

There are at least 300 known Palestinian martyrs from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip whose bodies are withheld within one of these ‘cemeteries of numbers’, with more remaining in Israeli morgues.