Tag: Closed military zone - Page 3 - International Solidarity Movement

Breaking the Fast for Jo Cox in occupied Tel Rumeida, Hebron

22nd June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On June 21st 2016, Youth Against Settlements (YAS) organized an Iftar dinner and Jen Cox memorial in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) with the attendance of several core solidarity organizations with the Palestinian people.

Organizations such as Breaking the Silence, Christian Peacemaker Teams Palestine (CPT), Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), B’Tselem, International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) , Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC), members of the Hebron municipality, consulars of different countries, students from Hebron University, and many other solidarity workers from different backgrounds and countries, as well as residents of the area managed to make their way through checkpoints and around illegal settlements.

Palestinians and internationals gathering for Iftar

As stressed by Issa Amro, Youth Against Settlements coordinator, the Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street neighborhood are extremely vulnerable as Israeli settlers under the protection and with the help of Israeli forces are trying to take them over. After the area has been a closed military zone for more than six months, having that many people gather in this neighborhood due to the event organised by YAS, was an extremely important sign that the Palestinian sumoud, or steadfastness, will not be defeated by the Israeli forces attempts of forced displacement.

During the evening, people were served traditional food for iftar, muslim evening dinner to break the Ramadan fast, with the atmospheric sounds of the oud, and some speeches from the different organizations in memory of British Labour Party politician and human rights advocate Jo Cox, who was killed last Thursday following a constituency meeting. At the same time, the 15th of Ramadan, also commemorates the aniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when in 1994 Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein walked into Ibrahimi mosque and shot and killed 29 and injured more than 120 worshippers.

After a partial lifting of the closed military zone (CMZ), officially disguised as a full lifting,Palestinians as well as internationals were able to access the event. However, access-restriction in the H2 area only apply for Palestinians while settlers are free to move around as they please.

This gathering is of uttermost significance specially because organizations operating within the H2 region of occupied al-Khalil undergo constant harassment both by soldiers and settlers, and such a high-profile event comes with many risks. Two boys from the illegal settlements in Tel Rumeida approached the building and yelled islamophobic and racist slurs as people ate, but this did not stop attendees from continuing expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian people and light candles in the mourning and memory of Jo Cox at the end of the evening.

Continuous implementation of apartheid-policies in Hebron

9th June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine

For already more than seven months, Israeli forces have kept a staircase leading to Qurtuba school and the surrounding neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) under closed military zone (CMZ) orders, blocking the access for Palestinians only.

Despite the lifting of the closed military zone (CMZ) in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and the tiny stretch of Shuhada Street that is still accessible for Palestinians, the access to Qurtuba stairs has been kept blocked by Israeli forces for Palestinians to use. The access-restriction only applies for Palestinians though – who are entirely denied the use of the stairs – while settlers are free to use the stairs however they please.

The stairs, right at Daboya checkpoint mark the line where Palestinians are no longer allowed to proceed on Shuhada Street, as from there on the street is settlers-only. Therefore, the stairs were a major thoroughfare for Palestinians, as it’s the only option to proceed when coming down this tiny strip of Shuhada Street that is accessible for Palestinians. Around 70 families have been depending on the stairs to access their homes through Shuhada Street. All of these families, with their homes further up from the stairs, are now forced to take a longer and more-strenous detour through olive-groves. These families include old people, women, little children and sick people – none of who will be allowed passage regardless of that.

Additionally, the stairs have been the main access to the Muslim cemetry, as well as the second hand market in the Abu Sneineh neighbourhoood, which regularly attracts hundreds of people. With the access through the stairs closed, Israeli forces are effectively forcing all these Palestinians to take much longer detours, that depending on the way, even require a 15-minute taxi-ride

With settlers, and most often internationals, allowed to use the stairs; there’s no reason to keep up the discriminatory blocking of access for Palestinians. On 1st July 2016 Israeli forces started registering some arbitrarily picked Palestinian families on Shuhada Street for the use of the Qurtuba stairs, refusing to register all the families actually depending on the access through their stairs to reach their homes. The arbitrariness of the Israseli forces decision – and at times the ridiculousness – was illustrated when Israeli forces at Daboya checkpoint, denied a Palestinian man with a watermelon to pass up the stairs despite a permission to pass – unless he would leave the watermelon. What kind of threat that watermelon would have posed to the Israeli forces, is a question that will probably never be answered.

This illustrates that the closure of the stairs is deliberately designed to keep Palestinians away – based on the simple fact that they are Palestinians – while everyone else can use the stairs without any problems. Whith an official closed military zone order in place at the moment, it remains to be seen whether the Israeli forces will uphold this racist strategy that seems to be a continuation at the attempts of forced displacement and thus ethnic cleansing first implemented with the CMZ of the whole neighbourhood, now continued on a smaller scale.

Hebron Human Rights Defender testifies in case of execution of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif

8th June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Wednesday, 8th June 2016, human rights defender Imad Abu Shamsiyah testified in Israeli court in the case of the extrajudicial execution of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif on 23th March 2016 in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

Abdel Fattah al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi were both gunned down by Israeli forces at Gilbert checkpoint in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of al-Khalil on 24th March 2016. Imad Abu Shamsiyah took footage of the army medic and soldier Elor Azraya executing al-Sharif with a shot in the head while he was lying motionless on the ground after already being shot at several times. The footage went viral and lead to Imad and his family receiving death-threats from settlers, that ‘promised’ they would find the same fate as the Dawabsheh family that was burned alive in their house in a settler-arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma. Israeli forces have failed to provide any kind of protection for the family, which has repeatedly been attacked. Instead, human rights organisations are providing protective presence.

Recent witness statements claim that not only al-Sharif, but also al-Qasrawi was executed in cold-blood with shots in the neck or head at close range when posing no threat and incapacitated. The fact that the Israeli forces surveillance footage of the event has still not been publicised, can only lead to the conclusion that these claims are most likely true and the refusal to publish the surveillance footage is an attempt at hiding the truth of the actual events.

Imad Abu Shamsiyah when entering the court-house

At the same time, large parts of Israeli society were protesting for the release of Elor Azraya, celebrating him as a hero that did not do anything wrong or even committ a crime. Instead, participants were seen with banners calling to ‘Kill them all’ – openly calling for the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians. For the Jewish festivities of Pessach, he was then released home ‘to celebrate the holiday with his family’ and received in his hometown like a hero.

Today, large groups of settlers were protesting outside the court in Tel Aviv, according to Human Rights Defenders Group some of them from the illegall settlements in al-Khalil.

Demonstrators outside the court-house in Tel Aviv Photo credit: Human Rights Defender Group — Demonstrators outside the court-house in Tel Aviv
Photo credit: Human Rights Defender Group

In a society where the execution of a defenseless, injured and incapacitated person that without any possibility can pose a threat to anyone, is acceptable – as shown in the demonstrations in support for Elor Azraya, and the simple fact that he’s not even charged with murder but merely manslaughter – fails to create a public outcry, it remains to be seen, whether there will be any justice for this cold-blooded killing at all.

Apartheid policies in Hebron upheld

2nd June 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Despite the lifting of the closed military zone in Shuhada Street and Tel Rumeida, many restrictions for Palestinians still remain. This neighbourhood is in H2 under full Israeli control in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

The closed military zone was first declared on 1^st November, banning any Palestinian resident of the area that wasn’t registered as a number with the Israeli forces from reaching their homes. This included doctors, workers, human rights observers and medical personnel. The orders were not extended anymore on the 16^th of May, after more than six months of collective punishment.

As part of these closures, Israeli forces installed a metal gate on the stairs leading to Qurtuba school, preventing access for anyone except – at least most of the time – the schools’ students and teachers during school time. The stairs are located at Daboya checkpoint (checkpoint 55) that marks the invisible point on Shuhada Street where Palestinians are no longer allowed to continue on to go down the once thriving Palestinian market. With the closure of the Qurtuba stairs in both directions, the tiny strip of Shuhada Street still accessible to Palestinians effectively became a dead-end – with the rest of Shuhada Street forbidden for Palestinians and the stairs access blocked.

The families living above Shuhada Street, thus, have their main access to their homes blocked for more than seven months in an act of collective punishment – solely on the basis of them being Palestinians – while Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements and Israeli forces freely go up and down the street without any hassle. Whenever challenged for long enough that soldiers would actually call the Israeli civil police, they would suddenly come up with a ‘closed military zone’ order for the area that is valid for only 24 hours and lacks officiall stamps or signatures.

In the afternoon of Wednesday, 1^st of June, Israeli forces again started registering some Palestinian residents, according to their information for them to be allowed to use Qurtuba stairs. Instead of registering the families living up from the stairs though, they went inside the houses of several Palestinian families on Shuahda Street for taking their names and ID-numbers, that have already been registered for the closed military zone and have been assigned numbers. The families registered were arbitrarily picked, going to some houses, but not all, while Israeli forces refused to register the families depending on the stairs to access their homes.

This is just another example of the Israeli forces attempts at forcible displacement of the Palestinian families in this neighbourhood, in order to connect the illegal settlements in the heart of al-Khalil. The apartheid policies and continued denial of human rights and dehumanization of Palestinians is only a thinly-disguised attempt at ethnic cleansing of the area.

An end to discrimination? Closed Military Zone in Hebron neighbourhood officially stopped

20 May 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

The closed military zone (CMZ) encompassing the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil has officially been lifted.

According to the Israeli army spokesperson, the CMZ-order was not extended, now allowing some non-residents into the area. The International Solidarity Movement and Youth Against Settlements initiated the #OpenTheZone campaign against the CMZ in the beginning of May, with extensive media-outreach through background information, personal accounts of life in the closed military zone, video statements, and on-the ground actions like children’s events, press conferences etc.

The area of Tel Rumeida and the tiny strip of Shuhada Street where Palestinians are still allowed to walk, were first declared a closed military zone on 1^st November 2015, with orders that were continuously renewed. This closure, deliberately only enforced on the Palestinian residents, while Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements within the city kept enjoying their privileges and complete impunity under Israeli military protection, meant for Palestinians, that they were living in a prison: only residents officially registered with the Israeli forces as a number where allowed to access their own homes. Palestinians made into a number and thus not being seen as a human being anymore, were often forced to wait outside Shuhada checkpoint for long-periods of time, be it rain or sun. No friends, family, human rights observers, repair-men or even emergency medical personnel was allowed.

With the last order officially ending on 14^th May, it was first unclear whether yet another extension would be filed. Five days later, on 19^th May, the Israeli army officially announced that the order was not extended. With ‘some’ non-residents now allowed into the area, it appears that this thinly-disguised attempt at forced displacement of the Palestinians in this region continues – in a form only a little more disguised and less media-worth. At the same time, the lists witness to the numbering of people are still lying handy at the checkpoint.

Without an end to the illegal Israeli military occupation of the West Bank an the injustice, humiliation and dehumanization of the Palestinian population can not possibly end.