Tag: Checkpoint

Golani Brigade rampages through the Pharmacy District of Al Khalil

by Rune 

19 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Pharmacy District, once a prosperous part of Al Khalil (Hebron) centered around the now closed pharmacy, is now subjected to the violence and harassment of the Israeli military which continues to abuse residents of this historical area.

Monday night International Solidarity Movement activists in Al Khalil received a call that there was trouble in the area at the checkpoint. Four volunteers went there and witness around 100 soldiers in full combat gear and military vehicles, including 3 police cars.

“We stayed there from 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm, trying to figure out what was going on. We witnessed one arrest of a 25-year old man, who was blindfolded and put into a police car around 11 pm. He was released later that night, around 2 am. Soldiers also detained four people, and feigned shooting their guns at some of the houses,” said on international volunteer.

Thursday at noon the volunteers went to speak with Palestinians from the area about the situation with which they must cope.There international activists met a man who has a small metal workshop, who told us how the occupation makes his work a lot more difficult. Recently roadblock gate with barbed wire on was added to the checkpoint, so now people going through have to pass through a turnpike one by one. The turnpike doesn’t allow large objects to pass through, so the workers will have to wait for the soldiers to come open the gate, which can take quite a while, even in urgent situations.A Palestinian fire truck stopped at the Kaytuun checkpoint. Notice the soldier on the roof doing nothing to let it through.

 

A Palestinian fire truck stopped at the Kaytuun checkpoint. Notice the soldier on the roof doing nothing to let it through.

“While we were there, a fire truck on call for an emergency came to the closed roadblock gate. A soldier on an overlooking roof, just sat there finishing his cigarette, before slowly walking to open the gate. It took four minutes before the fire truck was through, and one of the local residents said that when there were no internationals around, it could take up to half an hour,” said an ISM volunteer.

This week ISM volunteers also met  Ismael Ahmad Osman, 46,  a father of  four sons and two daughters. He told ISM that the soldiers often harass the people in the area. There were soldiers searching the houses multiple time during the weekend, and on Saturday they were especially rough to him and his family.

Ismael went with his 20 year old son to buy groceries, and on their way back, a group of soldiers took the son away for questioning and a body search. There they beat him, and because he defended himself, they beat him even more. His father heard it, and rushed in, and they stopped only because he apologized for his son’s behavior. As he recalls it, it was very undignified having to apologize for his son getting beaten up.

Ismael Ahmad Osman with his son and daughter.

“The simplest human right is to go inside your house with dignity,” he said, before continuing his story.

10 minutes after he got home, the soldiers from the notorious Golani brigade came back, searching his house, handcuffing and beating his four sons, before turning on Ismael himself.

In front of his 2 small daughters he was beaten badly, and when he asked for his medication, they allowed him only some of it, denying his wife to give him his asthma medicine as well.

Following more beatings, including kicks in the ribs and hits on the shoulder with the butt of the soldiers’ guns, he went unconscious and fell to the floor, before the soldiers gave him an injection and allowed his family to send for an ambulance. Three of his sons followed him to the hospital, where the x-rays showed a broken rib.

When ISM volunteers met him five days after the attack, his arms still had large bruises.

When they got back from the hospital to their family house, the soldiers were still there. They had handcuffed the son who stayed behind to try and calm the family. He was beaten some more before they blindfolded him and forced him into a jeep. They drove him to a village on the outskirts of Hebron, took off his handcuffs, and kicked him out, still blindfolded, not knowing where he was. He managed to stumble to a nearby house, where the family there drove him home.

“The next night they came again, searched the house and beat up the sons once more,” Ismael says with a sad smile as he finishes his story. The recent events have been hard for him and his family; the two daughters are very scared and since then, they have been wetting their beds at night.

This is unfortunately only one of many recent examples of excessive soldier violence against Palestinians.

Rune is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

New military gate limits access to Beit Iksa land

12 March 2012 | WAFA News Agency

A new military-controlled road gate the Israeli army had set up on Monday in the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, raised concern of possible takeover of almost 2000 dunums of land as it limits access to agricultural land, according to residents.

The soldiers also took over a house in the area and turned it into a military outpost, said residents.

They said soldiers manning the new gate prevented village residents from reaching their homes for hours under the pretext of security reasons.

Villagers said they expect that the army will not allow them to reach their homes and land behind the new gate without an army-issued permit.

They expressed concern that this Israeli measure aims to eventually seize their land for the benefit of expanding the nearby settlement of Ramot, built illegally on village land.

T.R./M.S.

Protester shot and killed at a demonstration at Qalandya checkpoint today, clashes continue in Jerusalem and the West Bank

25 February 2012 | Palestine News Network

During a violent protest in which the IOF used live bullets, tear gas and rubber bullets, twenty five year old Talat Ramia, was shot in the shoulder and died later from his injuries. According to medics, five other protesters were injured.

An Israeli army spokesman said the incident was under investigation. The official said initial indications showed that one of the protesters had “fired fireworks at IDF soldiers from several meters away, putting the soldiers’ lives in danger”. The soldiers “responded by firing, injuring the Palestinian in his shoulder.”

Funeral procession for Talat Ramia, 25, who died on Friday after he was shot by Israeli forces at a protest near Qalandiya checkpoint. (Maan Images)

The demonstration was held in response to rumours of a possible raid by Israeli settlers of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem today. Consequently there were violent clashes at Al-Aqsa mosque, in which four Palestinian people were arrested and more than fifteen sustained injuries from riot police.

This followed a week of unrest in Jerusalem, as the extreme Israeli group Likud threatened to break into the mosque last Sunday.

Al Aqsa Mosque is considered to be one of the most sensitive places in the Middle East and is considered the third holiest place in Islam, while it is considered by the Jewish as Temple Mount and is revered as one of the most sacred sights.

Witnesses stated that the police fired tear gas, forcing people to run inside for cover.

“We were praying when they started shooting tear gas towards us,” 58-year-old Umm Mohammad told AFP by telephone from inside the Dome of the Rock.

“At first, they were shooting at the Al-Aqsa mosque but we hid in the Dome of the Rock, and now they have started firing tear gas and sound bombs towards the gates,” she said.

Clashes continue this evening in Al-Rum, a town near Jerusalem city. Medical sources state that there are many injuries as the IOF are currently shooting live rounds.

Meitar Checkpoint: Women demand an end to strip-searching by Israeli military and prison administration

12 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A demonstration was held Sunday, February 12th at the Meitar checkpoint north of Beer Sheba in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in the Naqab (Negev) region as well as their family members who must pass through this checkpoint to visit them. The demonstration was organised by the Al-Khalil (Hebron) chapter of the Palestinian Prisoners Society and was attended by affected families, along with Palestinian and International supporters.

Solidarity for prisoners at Meitar Checkpoint - Click here for more images

This morning at 9:30 AM a group of about 100 demonstrators arrived at Meitar carrying banners, flags and pictures of loved ones held in Israeli prisons. The protesters made speeches and chanted slogans calling for freedom for political prisoners and for Prisoner of War and political recognition from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is charged with upholding International Human Rights Law in times of peace and war. From the beginning Israeli border police surrounded the peaceful demonstration, and as the group approach the border terminal, they began shoving. Despite this aggression, after one and a half hours the demonstration ended peacefully.

A young Palestinian woman named Fadwa told ISM that to visit her brother Jihad, who has been held in Israeli prison for a decade, she must make a 12-hour journey involving strip searches and extensive interrogation at Meitar only to be repeated again at the prison. She recalls that several times she has been forced to leave her shoes and jacket in the interrogation room and pass through the checkpoint barefoot, even in cold weather.

Ranna, whose husband Yasser has been held in Rimon prison in the Naqab for nine years, recounts a similar story of humiliation by Israeli border authorities. When arresting her husband, Israeli soldiers beat him so severely that he lost his right eye, and they refused to tell Ranna where he was to be held or what his charges were. Now she, along with her three children, must endure an ordeal like that of Fadwa, when visiting her husband in Rimon. Ranna says it is not only she that has been strip searched, but “women of all ages, even old women.”

Approximately 5,000 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli prisons, the vast majority in contravention of international law which prohibits the transfer of a people from occupied territory to the territory of the occupier (within Israel’s 1948 boundaries). Many of these were never formally charged or given access to legal defence. Palestinian prisoners and solidarity groups have been organising to protest Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners, which has been thoroughly documented by human rights organisations like B´Tselem, Adameer, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Soldiers at the Meitar checkpoint, along with forcing hundreds of families to endure extensive delays, interrogations and intrusive searches, have recently begun strip searching female relatives also, which the women fear is being videotaped. That this humiliation follows mass hunger strikes and other prisoner organising, has led activists such as Amjad Najjar (media spokesperson for the Prisoner Society) to decry this harassment as “collective punishment,” not only of prisoners but also of their support network. The Prisoners Society plans to continue staging protests at Palestinian ICRC branches (including Khalil) until their demands for compliance with international law are met.

Shu’fat: Forced to pay taxes from behind a checkpoint and wall

by Jenna Bereld and Samar

19 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On December 18, 2011 residents of Shu’fat and activists protested against the separation wall in front of the new checkpoint. A certain loss of demonstrators was noted, since thirty-five organizers were arrested yesterday by Israeli policemen in their homes in the Shu’fat refugee camp in the middle of the night.

Forced to pay taxes from behind a wall – Click here for more images

The residents of Shu’fat are Israeli citizens. However, they cannot enjoy the privileges a citizenship normally includes. While the streets in the illegal settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev on the other side of the wall are clean and the municipal services are working, the Shu’fat streets are dirty and waste collection does not exist. Houses taller than two stories are illegal in East Jerusalem, so most houses here have demolition orders.

“All people in Shu’fat must pay taxes to Israel, and still the streets look like a third world country,” one of the demonstrators says.

“They are taking from the poor and give it to the wealthy,” another demonstrator says.

Shu’fat is a neighborhood in the north-east of Jerusalem, though separated from the rest of the city by the eight meters high concrete separation wall. The Palestinian population of 50,000 live more or less imprisoned in the neighborhood, forced to pass through a military checkpoint to reach the rest of Jerusalem. The checkpoint, comprising an observation tower, five stations for armed soldiers to search the cars, and the most recent surveillance technology, was inaugurated last week.

Starting on December 23, there will be weekly demonstrations in Shu’fat after the Friday prayer.

“We will come here to protest every week until this wall has fallen,” promises Jeff Halper from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

Jenna Bereld and Samar are volunteers with International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).