Tag: Demonstration - Page 16 - International Solidarity Movement

Beit Ummar’s children targeted by the Israeli army

30^th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Beit Ummar, occupied Palestine

Beit Ummar, a small town outside of Hebron, has a population of just 18000 people, around 200 of which are imprisoned, with 6o of those being below 18 years old. These children are often in administrative detention for over a year without charge and repeatedly the police seem to be arresting all the males of one family at a time, creating both an economic and traumatic disaster for the family. Many of these young adults have been forced to take their exams in the prison, and these long-term incancerations have been effecting the mental health of many children in the area, whilst also seriously detrimenting their chances of a good education.

The Awad family have been especially targeted by the police due to their houses location close to the checkpoint. For many months both of their 2 young sons and the father were in prison, leaving the mother to run the shop and house alone. One night in October 2015 they were all arrested for ‘throwing stones’ and taken to a military centre where the father was blindfolded and hit with an army vechile, subsequently spending 2 days in hospital before being moved to his prison cell. For their youngest son Muhanned it was his third time in prison after being arrested when he was 13,15 and this time 17 years old. Having experienced extensive physical violence by the military when he was 13, which led to a court case against the militairy in the Israeli supreme court, his family only wish to see him safely away from army harrasment. Having payed huge amounts of money (5000 shekels) for the father and elder son’s release this month, they still wait for their youngest son to be released from prison. Despite being released, the military has visited the house 3 times this month, forcing the father to accompany them to the investigation centre, each time leaving the family fearing for a subsequent arrest.

Whilst Doctors Without Borders and the local authority are trying to help the young men leaving prison through therapy and education programmes, the reprecussions of these arrests are haunting this small town. The weekly protests in Beit Ummar, which is surrounded by a large cluster of illegal Israeli settlements, seems to have spurred the army into arresting local families living near the demonstration point, despite these families absence from any demonstration. The influence of the militairy and settlers on so many aspects of village life from water shortages, to attacks by settlers accompanied by the high imprisonment rate has increased tension and despair within the village.

The arrests of these young men have serious consequences on their lives and their family’s and their treatment in prison often violates international law, it is clearly time for the Israeli authorities to be accountable for their illegal treatment of these young Palestinians.

Hunger strikes and family visits in occupation jails

30th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

A demonstration in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners and against the cut of family visits by the International Commmittee of the Red Cross was organised by the Hebron Defense Committee in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) on 28th July 2016.

solidarity sit-in for hunger strikers & in protest to family-visit cut at the ICRC in Hebron

The sit-in took place at the Red Cross headquarter in al-Khalil, and was attended by locals, the press, family members of prisoners, former prisoners, and international solidarity activists. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently announced that they would cut one of the twice-monthly family visits for Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli occupation jails. The ICRC has been running a family visit program since 1968. With the majority of the Israeli prisons located outside of the West Bank, many families depend on the program by the ICRC to be able to cover the distance, costs and bureaucratic process of being granted a permit for the visit. Additionally to these hurdles and obstacles, the ‘normal’ occupation prevents families from reaching their loved ones through road-blocks, closures of whole cities or villages, revocation of permits and the arbitrary denial of passage at checkpoints.

Furthermore, the protest was in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners hunger striking against the practice of ‘administrative detention‘ – detention without charge or trial. Administrative detention allows the Israeli forces to imprison anyone without even charging them with a crime, making it the perfect tool for an occupying power to lock-up anyone who is considered a dissident or a ‘threat’ – without having to even justify why. This, for the imprisoned and their families, in turn, means that they never know for how long they’ll be imprisoned, as administrative detention can be extended. Administrative detention, as a tool to illegally and without cause imprison Palestinians – and only Palestinians, not settlers – clearly violates international law.

Israeli Border Police shoot Palestinian man in Ni’lin

29 July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Ni’lin village, occupied Palestine

On Friday afternoon, a group of Palestinian residents of Ni’lin village along with internationals and Israelis, tried to walk to the apartheid wall that cuts off many of the villagers from their farmland. The Israeli settlers on the other side of the wall are living on illegally confiscated land. The purpose of the demonstration was to protest against the wall, but also the march was in memory of Ahmed Musa, a ten year old Palestinian boy who was murdered eight years ago in this village by Israeli military forces. The march was also in memory of Saad, Reham and Ali Dawabsheh, who were burned alive by Israeli settler extremists last summer.

The demonstration started off peacefully as the people tried walking down the road to get to the wall. They were blocked by six Israeli Border Police officers and two jeeps, including one armed with long range teargas cannister missiles. The Border Police pointed their guns and teargas cannisters at the demonstrators, and refused to let them pass.

Soon afterwards, clashes started with the shebab- young Palestinian men and teenage boys who challenged their blockage of the path and disruption of a peaceful demonstration, by throwing rocks. The Israeli Border Police fired teargas and rubber coated as well as well as “foam tipped” bullets. They shot a 22 year old man in the hand, breaking it. In addition, they also shot teargas at people who were not throwing rocks.

The demonstration and resulting clashes lasted approximately two hours. The villagers continue their fight against the ongoing theft of their land.

The Israeli Border Police threatened peaceful demonstrators, and did not allow the march to the wall to continue

Israeli Border Police prepare to attack Palestinian teenagers and young men.

With rocks and slingshots, Palestinian teenage boys confront the Israeli Border Police

Israeli Border Police shot teargas also towards those demonstrators who were not involved in the clashes

Deir Qaddis resists ongoing theft of village land

20th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Quds team | Deir Qaddis, occupied Palestine

On the morning of July 14th, Israeli excavators arrived on Majid Mahmoud’s farmland in Deir Qaddis to begin work on an illegal expansion of a wastewater facility for the nearby illegal settlement of Nili. Construction vehicles and Occupation forces were met by about fifty Palestinians from Deir Qaddis and nearby Nil’in in protest of the theft and destruction of village land, who refused to leave until the construction was halted. Through nonviolent means the villagers managed to temporarily prevent the destruction of their grazing lands, though excavation and land clearing did resume in the days afterwards. Illegal settlements around Deir Qaddis have been expanding for decades, swallowing up thousands of dunams and dispossessing farmers and agricultural workers in the area.
Majid’s land, now on the other side of a settler road, has been rendered mostly inaccessible by both the expansion of illegal settlements and the threat of violence from Israeli forces and private settlement security.
“We have no rights under this Occupation. I cannot ask the soldiers why they are on my land. It is as if I am being beaten, but cannot question it or raise my hands to stop it,” Majid said. “We have all the papers to prove ownership, but it does not matter.”
Majid and members of the local council are planning to bring the case to court and have all the documentation necessary to do so. They are not optimistic, however, about their chances.
Though the people of Deir Qaddis did succeed in halting the illegal construction on Thursday, it has since resumed. Fares Naser, mayor of the village, has little confidence that the settlement expansion and illegal construction will ever end. “It will not stop,” said Fares, “and the next generation will wonder why it is this way.”
Deir Qaddis is surrounded on three sides by the Apartheid Wall and the illegal Israeli settlements of Nili, Modi’in Illit, and Na’aleh, cutting it off from much of the West Bank. According to Fares, only 4,000 of the village’s original 10,000 dunams have not yet been seized by Israeli forces and settlers. Over ninety percent of the Deir Qaddis is classified as “Area C,” territory in which Israel maintains full military and civil control.
In 1999, Israeli authorities assured the people of Deir Qaddis that all land lying west of the town would remain untouched. Israel has since broken that promise, with both state confiscation and private theft of valuable farmland within Deir Qaddis. According to international law, all Israeli settlements are illegal, as is nearly every piece of the Israeli colonial apparatus. Israel will continue to build, and the people of Deir Qaddis will continue to resist the ongoing theft of their land and livelihoods.

The illegal Israeli settlement of Nili overlooking village land.

Kafr Qaddum demonstration met with tear gas

16th July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine

On the 15th of July in the afternoon, the people of Kafr Kaddum took part in a demonstration against the Israeli Army’s continuing theft of their road. The soldiers checked cars going in and out of the village, and stationed snipers in the bushes and on top of the hill. The Israeli Army also brought men in dark uniforms, a special unit that is used to quell prison disturbances. They had a jeep that was loaded with teargas. Clearly, their main goal was to intimidate the demonstrators and stop the protest from happening.

Palestinian demonstrators march towards the road

Palestinians, Israelis and internationals alike were in the crowd. After some chanting, the people tried to do a march but as soon as they got close to the hill where soldiers were stationed, stun grenades were thrown at them. The Israeli soldiers also fired rubber coated steel bullets at the Palestinian youth, as well as several volleys of teargas towards both them and the rest of the crowd. Although no one was hit by their ammunition, many people suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation.

Before leaving the Israeli Army made sure to destroy the main water pipe of the village, which will cost some 3000 NIS to repair. An overwhelming use of force was employed against a people who are simply fighting for the return of their road, which was illegally stolen from them in 2003.