Tag: Closed military zone - Page 8 - International Solidarity Movement

Wasteland in al Walajeh: Israeli military destruction of farmland

7 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Tuesday September 6th local Palestinians from the village of Al Walajeh gathered with international activists to protest the building of the illegal separation barrier as well as the destruction of ancient olive trees. The demonstrators succeeded in halting the razing of Palestinian land for approximately one hour before soldiers violently broke up the protest arresting one Palestinian and one Israeli activist.

On September 5th bulldozers protected by dozens of soldiers arrived at 4 AM and uprooted 50 olive trees that date back at least 100 years. The bulldozers also destroyed 18 almond trees, 27 pine trees, and 8 fruit trees. The destruction took place in an area of over 1 square mile and was declared a closed military zone, prohibiting media coverage of the devastating operation.

Mohammed Al-Atrash (Abu Wajih), the elderly farmer who owned the trees, will receive no compensation for his loss.

In the aftermath residents of Al Walajeh called for a presence of media and activists to highlight this illegal destruction carried out by the Israeli government. At approximately 10am on Tuesday several residents from the village, joined by ISM and other activists, walked down to the site of the olive grove, which is now a wasteland. Upon arriving they stood in front of the construction machines and forced them to halt their work.

Soldiers declared the area a closed military zone and disbanded the protest by force within an hour. Yousif Shakawi, a local resident in his 50’s was arrested along with one Israeli activist. The remaining protesters were held at distance so that the work could resume.

The trees were destroyed in preparation for the building of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall which is planned to run several hundred metres inside the 1967 green line, effectively seizing hundreds of dunnums of land from around Al Walajeh. If the Israeli government succeeds in completing the wall along the planned route the village will be surrounded on three sides with the army controlling entrance and exit to the village.

Sheerin Alaraj, who has lived in Al Walajeh all her life, explained to us that construction of the wall was continuing in spite of an on going appeal process in the Israeli high court with a ruling expected September 27^th . However Sheerin has little confidence in the process as she explained to us “the court is just an extension of the military arm of Israel.”

In 2004 the International Court of Justice declared that the apartheid wall is illegal and Israel should tear it down immediately and compensate the victims. In spite of this ruling Israel has continued construction of the wall which annexes 8.5% of the entire West Bank territory. Since 2000 Israel has destroyed approximately 330,000 olive trees in the West Bank and Gaza. There is currently a campaign to boycott Caterpillar Inc. for its role in supplying the Israeli government with equipment used to enforce the occupation.

As the time for harvesting olives nears and Israeli military and settlers continue to destroy the main agricultural pillar of Palestinian culture and livelihood, International Solidarity Movement will be actively working throughout the harvesting season to safeguard Palestinians and assist in harvesting despite this and other events that have threatened security and access to Palestinian farmland. For more information on ISMs Olive Harvest Campaign, visit our website.

Beit Ommar harvests despite Israeli threats

15 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

On June 14th 2011 a Beit Ommar farmer reported that he was “ordered” to leave his farm land by an armed security guard from the adjacent Karmei Tzur settlement. The guard apparently used a dog to drive the farmer and his family from the land. Settlers had also recently set fire to the wheat harvest on the same farmland. The farmland borders a large separation fence, behind which there is further farmland and the settlement.

On June 18th the farmer, his family, some villagers, Israelis, and internationals returned to the land to farm and harvest grape leaves. The armed guard arrived and called the army who came in three trucks with an additional police truck. Approximately 15 soldiers entered the farmer’s land from the settlement through a gate in the fence. The soldiers told the farmer he could not farm his land, claiming it was a closed military zone. Following interaction with the Israeli protesters, the commander then changed his order so that the farmer and the villagers were permitted to farm, so long as the Israeli and internationals remained 150m away. The villagers completed their farming, while the Isrealis and internationals waited. They all returned to the village after harvesting. The farmer will continue to farm his land.

Beit Ommar is located to the south of Hebron. The “security fence” was built around the settlement about five years ago. The fence encircles the Karmei Tzur settlement , but also encompasses a significant amount of village land. This farm is outside the settlement fence but has experienced problems from the settlers in recent months.

American woman hospitalized with head injury and three international activists arrested in West Bank protest

1 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Injuries suffered by a 60 year old female American activist.

Sandra Quintano, An American 60 year-old women working with the Michigan Peace Team, was evacuated to an Israeli hospital this afternoon, after Israeli soldiers caused her a serious head injury as they demolished a protest tent in the West Bank village of Izbet al-Tabib near Qalqilya. A Swede and two British activists were arrested during the protest. To download a video of the incident, click here.

Israeli soldiers, accompanied by bulldozers and other heavy machinery entered the village of Izbet al-Tabib south of Qalqilya earlier today, to demolish a protest tent set up only yesterday by the villagers and begin the construction of a fence that would cut the villagers off from Highway 55 and of their agricultural land.

During the eviction of the tent, the soldiers violently arrested two British activists and a Swedish activist. They also caused a bleeding head injury to a 60 year-old American woman. She also suffered blows to her wrist, which is suspected to be broken. She was evacuated to an Israeli hospital.

Nonviolent protester after being injured by Israeli soldiers.

The violent arrests were made solely under the pretext of declaring the area a “closed military zone”. However, the soldiers and Border Police officers carried out the arrests without having shown any document declaring the area as such, as the law requires them to do. The three are still in custody and are currently held at the Ariel police station.

During today’s protest, Bayan Tabib, the head of the village council, has received a promise from an Israeli Civil Administration officer, that the fence will only be erected on the far end of Highway 55, thus not cutting off the village’s access to the road or their land. Tabib attributed the promise to today’s protest, saying the “The protest today is the only reason that they agreed to move the fence.”

The village of Izbet al-Tabib, which consists of 45 structures and is home to 247 residents, was built in the 1920’s and is located entirely in area C according to the 1995 Interim Agreement (Oslo II). Israeli authorities do not recognize the village and 32 out of its 45 houses, as well as its school, have been served demolition orders in recent years. Izbet al-Tabib is the fifth poorest village in the West Bank and villagers have already lost 45% of their land due to the construction of Israel’s Separation Barrier.

Activists demonstrate and work land, despite Israeli military harrasment

24 April 2011 | Palestine Solidarity Project

On Saturday, April 23, eight Israeli activists and 24 international volunteers joined residents of Beit Ommar for an action near Karmei Tsur organized by the Beit Ommar National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. The international contingent included volunteers from the Palestine Solidarity Project and International Solidarity Movement, as well as the Belgian group Checkpoint Singers. The demonstrators gathered in the lands near Karmei Tsur, and marched towards the settlement carrying flags and signs and chanting against the occupation.

As the protest neared the settlement, soldiers from the Israeli Defense Forces lined the path. The protest continued beside the military for several hundred feet, before the soldiers stepped out and blocked the road. The IDF refused to let the demonstration pass.

The Checkpoint Singers began to sing as protesters argued with the soldiers, asking to continue their peaceful demonstration on their land. The lieutenant in command showed papers labeling the area a closed military zone and told the assembled protesters that anyone still in the area in three minutes would be arrested. The demonstrators refused to go.

Three minutes passed, and the soldiers prepared to move in. Then, Ahmed Abu Hashem gestured to his land, a field next to the road. “We are here to work my land,” he said.

“Then where is your tractor? Come back with a tractor, and you can work on your land,” the lieutenant replied.

Abu Hashem explained that a tractor was not needed, as stones needed to be cleared from the field by hand first. The lieutenant said that such an action needed to be coordinated through them first.

“Coordination my ass,” shouted a Beit Ommar resident.

Abu Hashem turned away from the soldiers, looping around the military line and walking onto his land. The rest of the protesters followed, and the soldiers formed a perimeter to attempt to contain the movement. As the choir sang anti-opression songs, Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals began to pull stones from the earth and add them to the rock walls bordering the field. Whenever a they approached the soldiers, the military would retreat, and soon a handful of the faster workers had pushed the IDF three-quarters of the way across the field.

While the demonstrators cleared the field, soldiers called out to them and asked them to stop. Despite the closed military zone and threats of arrest, work went on and on one was detained. The action dispersed on its own terms, and only after a substantial number of stones had been removed.

Women and elderly taken in the latest Awarta raids

07 April 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

At approximately 10.00pm last night the army once again entered the village of Awarta, throwing sound-bombs into the streets and declaring it a closed military zone, putting the residents under house arrest. This time the army arrested over 200 people, amongst them women and the elderly. The arrested were marched two kilometres out of the village before being tightly packed into buses and taken to Huwwara military base. Some of the villagers were in their pyjamas and without shoes when they were taken to the base and questioned, before having their fingerprints, DNA and photographs taken. Villagers were held until 4.00 in the morning; during this time those who were ill with conditions such as asthma were denied their medication. The oldest villager taken was 80 year old Nabil Awad who was arrested with his 70 year old wife. The soldiers entered his house by breaking the door, they hit his wife and his son and daughter who asked them not to take Nabil who is sick with heart failure. Nabil’s house had been searched in the previous weeks by the army who had destroyed many of his possessions and poured oil into his sugar supply.

Huda Quwariq in her home after the army raided it.

The Qawariq family whose son and nephew where killed in 2010 by the Israeli army have been especially targeted and last night had their house searched for the 9th time before the father was again taken away to the military base. Although he was later released with the other villagers, he received a phone call from the army later in the morning demanding that he return to the base. Two sons of the Qawariq family are still being held in prison since being arrested early on in the raids. Whilst searching the house, the army again destroyed the families’ belongings, making a hole in the bathroom wall, pulling clothes and blankets out of the cupboards and pulling apart the washing machine. The army also once again brought dogs into the house who contaminated the familes’ food making it inedible.

Today the village enters its 28th day of army incursions following the killing of the Fogal family in the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar. Since the 12th March, villagers have been at the mercy of the Israeli army who have subjected them to military curfews which have left them lacking food, water and gas and have prevented ambulances and press from entering the village. ISM activists have been present in the village during some of these curfew, including the first one lasting five days, and have witnessed the army brutality first-hand. The army has arrested hundreds of villagers in the past 28 days, with 41 still imprisoned in Israel. None of the arrested have yet been charged with any crime. They have conducted numerous house searches in which they have destroyed and stolen property, and evicted families from their homes and occupied them for military purposes. Villagers have been beaten and hospitalised in acts of army brutality from which now even women and the aged are not spared. Huda Qawariq, the mother of one of the young boys killed last year, today described her and her families’ fear at the soldier attacks, telling us: ‘Soldiers have dogs and guns; all we have is God’.