On Friday 14 June, the Israeli army arrested a 10-year-old child during the weekly protest in Kafr Qaddum. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at the villagers; many local residents suffered from tear gas inhalation.
At approximately 12:00, when residents and international solidarity activists started gathering for the demonstration before the Friday prayers, nearly 30 foot soldiers stormed the village from the main road leading toward the illegal Israeli settlement Qedumim. As they entered the village, they fired tear gas canisters directly at the group before the demonstration even began. Local youth resisted the incursion, chasing the soldiers back from the bystanders toward a hill overlooking the village.
Tyre barricades at Kafr Qaddum demonstration (Photo by IWPS)
Over the next two and a half hours, soldiers shot tear gas and threw sound bombs at demonstrators in the olive groves next to the main road of the village. At approximately 12:30, soldiers detained a 10-year-old boy. While in their custody, soldiers tied his hands, grabbed him by the neck, beat him and threatened to “drop [him] from this rock.”
Nearly one and a half hours later, the boy was released and residents of Kafr Qaddum celebrated his return. Soldiers continued to fire tear gas at local youth protesting at the edge of the village close to the illegal settler colony of Qedumim. No further arrests were made and the demonstration ended at around 15:00.
Kafr Qaddum is a 3,000-year-old agricultural village that sits on 24,000 dunams of land. The village was occupied by the Israeli army in 1967; in 1978, the illegal settler-colony of Qedumim was established nearby on the remains of a former Jordanian army camp, occupying 4,000 dunams of land stolen from Kafr Qaddum.
The villagers are currently unable to access an additional 11,000 dunams of land due to the closure by the Israeli army of the village’s main and only road leading to Nablus in 2003. The road was closed in three stages, ultimately restricting access for farmers to the 11,000 dunams of land that lie along either side to one or two times a year. Since the road closure, the people of Kafr Qaddum have been forced to rely on an animal trail to access this area; the road is narrow and, according to the locals, intended only for animals. In 2004 and 2006, three villagers died when they were unable to reach the hospital in time. The ambulances carrying them were prohibited from using the main road and were forced to take a 13 km detour. These deaths provoked even greater resentment in Kafr Qaddum and, on 1 July 2011, the villagers decided to unite in protest in order to re-open the road and protect the land in danger of settlement expansion along it.
Israeli soldiers standing on the hilltop during the demonstration (Photo by IWPS)
Kafr Qaddum is home to 4,000 people; some 500 residents attend the weekly demonstrations. The villagers’ resilience, determination and organization have been met with extreme repression. More than 120 village residents have been arrested; most spend 3-8 months in prison; collectively they have paid over NIS 100,000 to the Israeli courts. Around 2,000 residents have suffocated from tear-gas inhalation, many in their own homes. Over 100 residents have been shot directly with tear-gas canisters. On 27 April 2012, one man was shot in the head by a tear-gas canister that fractured his skull in three places; the injury cost him his ability to speak. In another incident, on 16 March 2012 an Israeli soldier released his dog into the crowded demonstration, where it attacked a young man, biting him for nearly 15 minutes whilst the army watched. When other residents tried to assist him, some were pushed away while others were pepper-sprayed directly in the face.
The events of the past week are part of a continuous campaign by the Israeli military to harass and intimidate the people of Kafr Qaddum into passively accepting the human rights violations the Israeli occupation, military and the illegal settlers inflict upon them.
7th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine
SECOND UPDATE: The two boys, Tamim & Mo’men have now been released.
UPDATE: Tamim (19) and Mo’men (16) Tamimi are currently under interrogation and will remain in prison until at least Sunday.
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Today’s weekly protest in Nabi Saleh was met with skunk water and rubber coated steel bullets. In addition, two people, one of them a child, were arrested.
After midday prayer, around sixty Palestinians, together with Israeli and international activists, marched as usual from the centre of the village towards the stolen spring across the main road.
Demonstrators marching along the road towards the spring (Photo by ISM)
As protesters were building stone barricades along the road to prevent Israeli forces from invading the village, a skunk water truck and two jeeps appeared at the scene. The truck ran over the barricades and drove along the road spraying demonstrators with foul smelling water. Israeli soldiers and border police officers shot several rounds of rubber coated steel bullets injuring one protesters in the right side of the abdomen. After a while, Israeli forces and the truck retreated and protesters took over the road again. As confrontations between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces continued, three jeeps and the skunk water truck chased the protesters up the road spraying the houses and people.
At around 2:30pm, the bulk of the protesters left the area except for a few Palestinian youths who were still on the hilltop throwing stones. Suddenly, when people were resting at the petrol station, four army and border police jeeps joined by the skunk water truck, invaded the village once again and sprayed everything in their way. One adult and one child from the nearby village of Deir Netham, Tamim (19) and Mo’men (16) Tamimi were arrested and taken into the jeeps. See video of the arrest here.
The village of Nabi Saleh has been demonstrating against the theft of the natural spring and the occupation since December 2009. Israeli forces violently suppress the weekly Friday protests by shooting tear gas canisters, skunk water, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets and even live ammunition at protesters. Two people have been killed, Mustafa and Rushdi Tamimi, and many others severely injured. Bassem Tamimi, from Nabi Saleh, has spent 17 months in Israeli jails, merely for being a prominent activist at the protests. After more than three year and despite the repression, Nabi Saleh continues to fight against the injustices of a brutal military Israeli occupation.
Injured protester being treated on the spot by Red Crescent personnel (Photo by ISM)Israeli border police officer grabbing the arrested boys (Photo by TPTamimi Press)
Thursday, 30th May 2013, roads to the villages of Hares and Kifl Hares (Salfit District) were blocked for three hours by the Israeli military. Za’tara checkpoint was closed in both directions from Ramallah and Nablus; there were also numerous flying checkpoints on the road to Salfit.
At 03:00am on Monday 27th May four boys were arrested from Kifl Hares village, all from one family, including two brothers, their cousin and neighbor. At the same time the Israeli military came to Hares and served two boys a note instructing them to come to Qalqiliya for court that same morning. The boys obeyed, attending their court hearing where their work permits were made invalid. Without these papers they are unable to legally access their place of work.
This nightly terrorizing of the people of Hares and Kifl Hares by the Israeli military is constantly exacerbated by the expanding presence of the neighboring illegal settler colonies of Ariel, Revava, Yaqir, and Immanu’el. The rapid growth of these illegal settlements and their aggressive populace, known as the “Ariel finger”, threatens Hares and Kifl Hares on a daily basis. The events of this morning are a part of a larger effort to defeat the Palestinian people of this region.
On 1st and 2nd of May of this year at 10pm the local municipalities of both villages warned their residents of possible settler attacks; that night, however, as villagers stayed awake, the banging on their doors came not from settlers but from the Israeli military who forcefully entered seven homes, destroyed property and arrested six youths.
From March 15th to the 21st 2013, sixteen teens were arrested in several raids in the village of Hares in relation to a car accident on nearby Road 5. Both the boys who have been released and those who remain in prison report being held under inhumane conditions qualifying as torture. Overall, 12 boys from Hares village remain in various Israeli prisons.
Villages of Hares and Kifl Hares resist insult and injury from the “Ariel Finger” on a daily basis. Though the people understand the massive political strategy that manifests in daily violence in their lives, they continue to demand their basic human rights, and to live with their families in peace on the land on which their livelihoods depend on.
OCHA map of the Salfit region showing the ‘Ariel finger’
7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Khalil | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Regular updates on harassment of Palestinian schoolchildren by Israeli military in Hebron monitored by the International Solidarity Movement.
30th May, Soldiers hiding down a side-alley outside the school
30th May: Today was the last day before the summer holidays for some schools in Hebron. Children received their typical morning welcome from 7am, in the form of four military jeeps waiting at the checkpoint and several heavily armed soldiers hiding up a side street. Soldiers intimidated children as they walked past, wearing riot helmets with weapons at the ready.
A settler from one of the illegal settlements in Hebron’s old city then spat in the face of an international observer who had been monitoring the soldiers.
28th May: As the morning began and children were arriving at school for the last of their exams, there was a large military presence awaiting them at the checkpoint. At 7:20am there were three jeeps and twelve soldiers. As children yelled at them from a distance for their constant provocation every morning, the soldiers readied themselves with helmets and weaponry. At 7:25am three soldiers went through the checkpoint, one armed and ready to shoot tear gas and another holding a sound bomb. They stood directly outside the first primary school on the road.
Soldiers situated on roofs and in the road outside schools
Within minutes they were joined by three other soldiers, positioning themselves on the garage roof just opposite the primary school. As the three soldiers on the ground advanced to the front of the second school, the jeeps came through the checkpoint. Two of the jeeps blocked a road just before the schools, turning traffic around, while the soldiers around these jeeps kept threatening, pushing and shouting at children who passed them. Six soldiers kept aggressively advancing, ready to shoot gas and sound grenades at the children, who responded to their flagrant intimidation with rocks. After a long stand off and lots of chanting, the soldiers finally got into their jeeps and drove away at 8:20am.
27th May: Today, Israeli soldiers continued their harassment of Palestinian youth on their way to and from school. Due to exams, several classes of young people aged only 10 to 14 years old left the school early. Some gathered at the opposite end of the road, about 500 metres away from the checkpoint, posing no threat to the Israeli border police. Several young people threw stones which never reached anywhere close to the checkpoint. Nevertheless, two jeeps sped through the checkpoint, and armed Israeli soldiers threw a sound grenade and fired a tear gas canister onto a Palestinian roof. Within a minute, they fired another tear gas canister. They waited and watched for several minutes, and eventually a group of Palestinian adults talked to the soldiers and convinced them to leave.
Israeli soldier shooting tear gas canisters (Photo by ISM)
26th May: Two Israeli military jeeps and ten soldiers this morning harassed schoolchildren and teachers preparing for another important school exam day. Soldiers also invaded a Palestinian home near the schools, using the roof as a watchpoint. One stun grenade was thrown by the military. International activists escorted children who had been too terrified to continue their journey to school alone.
21st May: 3 Military vehicles and around 12 Israeli border police / soldiers blocked the road near the entrance to 3 schools as children made their way to class this morning . Soldiers prevented children and teachers from walking to their schools and diverted traffic as others took photo’s of children with their iPhones. At one stage soldiers threw a sound bomb in the direction of a large group of small children. Many of the schools are holding end of year exams today .
Child being detained by military on the way to school, 16th May
19th May: At 7am three international activists arrived at the checkpoint immediately outside three Palestinian schools. They found that three soldiers had already moved past the checkpoint, an act of provocation in itself . The activists followed the soldiers and watched as the soldiers observed the passing . At Around 7:30 the soldiers noticed smoke and marched towards the school where they discovered a fire burning in a dumpster. It was unclear who started the blaze. The soldiers waited by the dumpster for approximately 30 more minutes. During this time the children began to throw stones from at them from a distance, failing to hit the soldiers. At one point, one soldier returned past the checkpoint to the border police station and came back with three tear gas bombs. A school teacher or administrator approached the soldiers to speak with them and admonished the children to enter their classes. Once the children were safely in the school the soldiers returned to the other side of the checkpoint without incident. Back at the police station, border police harassed youths (between 13 and 15 years old) as they passed. Activists witnessed one police officer kick a child as he finished his inspection
16th May: At around 7.30am two army jeeps and six soldiers on foot walked past the checkpoint towards the schools. One child was surrounded by seven soldiers, one of whom grabbed his arm – when asked by international activists why they had detained him, the soldiers released the child. Two soldiers ran towards the school with their helmets on but stopped before they reached it. Three soldiers standing on a roof pointed their guns down at the children. Soldiers in jeeps took pictures of children on their iphones.
15th May: Strong military presence outside of the checkpoint intimidated children, who then threw stones at the checkpoint. Two jeeps and six soldiers on foot continued waiting outside of the checkpoint.
13th May: Five soldiers stationed themselves on roofs overlooking the school whilst four walked down towards the school, waiting on the road. All wore riot gear, including helmets.
Soldiers pictured shortly after having charged at schoolchildren, yelling and throwing a soundbomb
UPDATE 12th May 2013: On the 12th May, once again, 2 Israeli military jeeps were stationed at the checkpoint at 7am as children passed through to get to their respective schools. At first, 3 heavily armed soldiers proceeded to walk through the checkpoint, they stopped in an alley opposite the elementary school, intimidating school children as they walked past. When questioned on their purpose for this action, they had no response. As the school children (some as young as 5) began to gather outside their school gates, the 3 soldiers with their helmets on, weapons in hand and completely unprovoked, charged at the children, dropping a sound bomb and yelling aggressively in Hebrew. After this intimidation tactic occured, 3 more soldiers came through the checkpoint and watched all the children from a distance with binoculars. Many children stayed at the bottom of the street, resisting the soldier’s scare tactics with chants.
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Children walking past soldiers on their way to school – 7th May.
Children have to walk through a checkpoint manned by several Israeli border police each morning in order to reach their schools, often receiving hassle from the soldiers as they do so. On the morning of the 5th of May, some children threw stones at the checkpoint – in response the border police radioed for army back up and two jeeps arrived on the scene. One jeep then proceeded through the checkpoint driving down towards the school parking outside whilst children were still arriving. After it left the other jeep drove down outside the schools and four army officers exited the vehicle and patrolled outside the schools for another half an hour.
On the 6th May at around 7.00am as children were walking towards their classes, three military jeeps arrived without provocation and ten soldiers patrolled in front of the school, maintaining a presence for over an hour.
On the 7th May two jeeps arrived at the checkpoint and seven soldiers walked through it, towards the schools. When asked what their purpose in the school area was, the commander answered “we’re protecting our people”. They had no further response when it was suggested that their actions seemed absurd, considering the disparity of power between the heavily armed Israeli military occupiers and a few young children throwing stones in resistance.
This daily military presence must be a continual reminder for the children who were arrested and their classmates of the military brutality of the 20th March. One bystander stated “this could inhibit the right to education – children might be too scared to come to school.”
In a city which has seen at least 66 child detentions and arrests since mid-February (these are just those witnessed by international observers), this continued initimidation and persecution of children is evidence of Israel’s disregard for international law for the protection of children – a finding backed up by Unicef’s recent report criticising Israeli military treatment of Palestinian children.
27th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Al Khalil | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Following the events of the settler tour during yesterday afternoon Fuad Asem al Batsh, a sixteen-year-old minor, was arrested in Hebron without any evidence or court decision. He was released after about an hour.
It was at 10 pm in the old city that a group of around 15 heavily-armed Israeli soldiers invaded a family house stating they were looking for a boy who earlier the same day had thrown an object at a settler. In the presence of four international activists the soldiers forced themselves into three family houses before arresting Fuad Asem al Batsh in the fourth home, without any evidence against him.
Israeli army night raid (Photo by ISM)
After fifteen minutes discussion between the boy and the soldiers, they removed him from the house. Despite objections from the internationals present, as well as the family, he was put in a military van and driven away. The activists were threatened with arrest if they took any pictures and the family’s cries and logical arguments didn’t change the situation. Fuad’s younger sisters were witnesses to the event and were clearly afraid and shocked.
During the hour of detention the sixteen-year-old boy was blindfolded, brought to a police station and questioned over and over again about the events during the day, when he in reality was visiting his uncle in a village nearby Jerusalem. The photos and videos that the military claimed existed were never shown and no further suspicion is claimed by Israeli forces.
