1st February 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Occupied Palestine
On January 21st, 14 year old Malak Khatib was sentenced by the Israeli military courts to two months in Israeli jails. Malak has been in Hasharon prison for over a month now as her family continues to endure the unbearable absence felt in their small apartment home in the West Bank village of Beitin.Malak was arrested by Israeli forces one morning on her way from school. Her imprisonment came based on a testimony from Israeli soldiers. Regardless of her young age, she was interrogated without legal representation or the presence of a legal guardian. Today Malak continues to remain incarcerated in Israeli jails. The court has also sentenced the family to approximately 1,500 US dollars in fines. If they are not paid her release may be prolonged by the court.
Malak Khatib, is one of 700 Palestinian children to be arrested and interrogated by Israeli forces annually. Due to the family’s inability to cover the fine’s expenses, we are attempting to raise the money in order to have Malak return home as soon as possible. Especially as more prisoners are complaining of the escalating harsh conditions in Israeli prisons.
Prior to her arrest, Malak enjoyed to play soccer outside her home and sketching. She used to walk to school every day and her favorite sweets consist of gummy worms. She is the youngest of 8 children and despite her older age continued to enjoy sitting in her mother’s lap. She found refuge in it. Paralleling to that, Malak now sleeps in a jail cell with blue barred doors and grey concrete walls.
If the fine money is not paid, Malak may continue to be held within Israeli prisons. It is essential that we put forth our efforts in order to raise the money required to have Malak return home to the arms of her family, where her main concern once more is not wanting to wake up for school or arguing with her siblings.
To donate money, please go to the ISM donation page and then send an email to palreports@gmail.com. In the subject line of your email, write: ‘Donation for Malak’. In the email itself please say how much money you have contributed.
31st December | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By 10:30 am on Tuesday morning of December 30, Palestinian children attending school near Qeitun checkpoint in al-Khalil (Hebron) had endured over forty tear gas canisters, multiple rounds of rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades, and the arrest of a twelve-year-old boy.
Israeli forces fired down the road leading from the checkpoint to the schools, filling the street adjacent to the schools with a choking cloud of gas and preventing Palestinians walking through the checkpoint from continuing down the street. As it is exam season in al-Khalil’s schools, children were attempting to reach school between seven and eight am and leaving again between nine thirty and eleven. Israeli military forces kept up a sporadic barrage of fire from the time some children were still walking to school until after school finished, forcing anyone traveling in either direction to brave whistling tear gas canisters and the dizzying smoke which still lingered even after the shooting had halted.
Early in the morning, Israeli occupation forces grabbed the twelve-year-old near the checkpoint, accusing him of throwing stones. Eyewitnesses present at the scene denied the accusation. After they took the young boy away to the police station, Israeli army and border police advanced further down the road away from the checkpoint, heavily armed with tear gas, stun grenades, and the long rifles used for firing rubber coated steel bullets. Sometimes they fired systematically, setting off five or more rounds of tear gas at a time; at other times it seemed bizarrely random, as when a single border policeman would suddenly run up the street and fire off a tear gas grenade at the distant crowd of children.
In between assaults, when the Israeli military temporarily halted their fire, young boys kicked stun grenades around and tried to squash tear gas grenades with their shoes. Many of them were stuck, waiting behind and among the soldiers as lingering clouds of tear gas fogged the road in front of their school. Looking down the road from near the military’s position to where the tear gas was landing, one could catch glimpses of the impacts: a small child coughing, a teacher dodging the falling tear gas canisters.
Israeli forces advanced down the main road, standing menacingly across it and also occupying the corners of side-streets, aiming their rifles up towards nearby neighbourhoods. Some stood far down the street, partly hidden by a parked car, in the same location where Israeli border police had arrested a seventeen-year-old boy a couple of weeks earlier. “They look like they’re in a war zone,” one ISM activist commented at the scene, “but what they’re aiming at is five-year-olds.”
As some of the ISM activists walked home, travelling up through the souk (market) in al-Khalil’s Old City, they asked if the tear gas from the area around Qeitun checkpoint had reached all the way up to the shops. “Not too much today,” one shop owner replied. He asked how the activists were. After they gave a brief summery of their morning, he responded matter-of-factly: “there’s always tear gas down there.”
It is a fact of life in al-Khalil – one which perfectly illustrates the senseless, violent injustice so characteristic of the zionist occupation. This morning is only one of countless violent mornings and afternoons these children will face along their everyday route to school. Military assaults and checkpoints are as familiar to them as their daily assignments and schoolbooks. These repeated attacks expose the absurd lengths to which the Israeli occupation has invaded the lives of Palestinians, when even the road to school becomes a battlefield.
23rd November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Bil’in, Occupied Palestine
The Bil’in Popular Committee would like to thank everyone who supported Ibrahim Abu-Rahma, the 15-year-old boy who was arrested on September 14th while walking to school.
A military judge ruled that he could be released on a 5000 NIS bail, and Ibrahim is now at home with his family.
ISM placed a call for donations to pay the bail, and thankfully 2100 NIS was raised. The remaining money, 2900 NIS, was lent to the family and we would like to support them in paying it back.
Bil’in village has been diligently protesting Israel’s theft of their land and the construction of settlements and the apartheid wall, for the past 10 years. All families in the village have paid a high price of resistance to a brutal military occupation. The Abu-Rahma family has lost two family members, Bassem and Jawaher, as a direct result of soldier violence. The young men and boys of the village are constantly targeted for arrests.
6th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On October 30th, a 14-year-old boy was violently arrested by Israeli forces in al-Khalil (Hebron).
Due to a teachers strike in solidarity with underpaid public workers, school in Hebron finished at 10:00 in the morning. Several young boys threw stones towards the military, armed at Salaymeh checkpoint, and the soldiers then fired three canisters of tear gas.
The children threw more stones, and the soldiers fired approximately ten more tear gas grenades in several rounds. This continued until 11:00 when an army vehicle drove up from a side street at a high speed. Three soldiers jumped outside one of the school buildings, before running into a school yard and arrested the 14-year-old boy.
9th October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday at approximately 10 PM in the Qeitun region of Al-Khalil (Hebron), a group of 6 Israeli soldiers accused 14-year-old Amjad Taha of throwing fire crackers at them outside of his home. Amjad’s cousin, Muhammad Taha (17 years-old), was standing close by with his 2-year-old cousin when the Israeli soldiers began to aggressively grab Amjad. A few of the soldiers then grabbed Muhammad, who was still holding his baby cousin. The soldiers began to take Amjad, Muhammad, and their baby cousin away from the front of their house.
Jamil’s 2-year-old son
The 2-year-old’s father and the boys’ uncle, Jamil, hearing the soldiers outside his home, came outside to where the boys were to find the Israeli soldiers attempting to take his nephews and son away. Jamil took his baby son from Muhammad and then the soldiers became increasingly aggressive to both boys. The Israeli soldiers proceeded to hit Muhammad in his leg and then push him against the wall causing him more pain. While this was happening, the boy’s uncle, Osama Taha (27 years-old), ran towards Muhammad and attempted to stop the Israeli soldiers from beating him by pushing a soldier away from his nephew. Then the soldier grabbed Osama and told him that he would kill him. The Israeli soldier then shot a live bullet into the air as a warning. Seven more Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene and they proceeded to blindfold Amjad, Muhammad, and Osama. Then the Israeli soldiers violently forced them into an Israeli army jeep. As Muhammad was being forced into the jeep, the soldiers pushed his head onto the vehicle causing him pain. Amjad was also pushed against the jeep very forcefully resulting in a broken finger.
The three blindfolded Palestinians were then taken to Shuhada checkpoint in Tel Rumeida and transferred into Israeli police custody. The Israeli police took all of them to the police station by Ibrahimi Mosque in H2 for questioning. Amjad and Muhammad were held there until 1 in the morning. Osama Taha was kept in the police station and then transferred to a prison near Bethlehem where he is currently being held without charge. Osama’s brother told ISM activists: “I can’t believe they still have him. He didn’t do anything. He was just trying to protect his nephew. Osama has learning disabilities. I really fear for how this will affect him and how they will treat him.”
As a result of the Jewish holidays, the amount of soldiers in Al-Khalil (Hebron) has increased immensely. The Israeli army enters Palestinian neighborhoods almost weekly, detaining and arresting Palestinians without cause or reason. This method of harassment is one of many tools that the Israeli army uses in an effort to force Palestinians out of their homes.
