Tag: Denial of Entry - Page 27 - International Solidarity Movement

UN delegation visits H2-area of Hebron

December 12th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | al Khalil, occupied Palestine

On Tuesday, 8^th December 2015, a delegation from the United Nations visited the H2 area of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), ahead of the international Human Rights Day on 10th December.

The UN-delegation visited the H2 area, under full Israeli control, to understand the situation and get first-hand accounts of the life under Israeli occupation and the daily fight of Palestinian residents and human rights defenders. During their visit, they talked to various local and international human rights defenders and visited flashpoint areas in al-Khalil, such as the ‘closed military zone‘ in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. The delegation also went to two areas where school-children have to struggle each day to get to school past checkpoints, the Israeli army shooting tear gas, illegal settlers attacking them; trying to take their right to education.

International Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on the 10^th of December, commemorating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was passed on this day in 1948. The Declaration declared fundamental human rights that enjoy universal protection. But still, to this day, these fundamental human rights need to be fought for.

After the visit, the UN-delegation came up with a statement stressing the importance and praising the work of human rights defenders that are non-violently struggling to achieve the universal human rights for Palestinians, particularly in the environment of Israeli occupation. They are voicing their great concern about the Israeli forces crackdown on human rights defenders work and their attempts to silence them completely.

Read the full UN-statement.

UN delegation in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron

More humiliating body-searches in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

9th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 8^th and 9^th December 2015, Israeli forces bag- and body-searched virtually every male and female adult walking through or past a checkpoint in the Jaber mountain neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

In the afternoon on Tuesday, Israeli forces stopped every teacher on their way home from school, forcing them to lift up their shirts and trouser-pants before being allowed to slowly approach the checkpoint where they had to endure a body-search by the soldiers. The school-children from the elementary boys school nearby were watching this humiliating process, as no-one was allowed to pass the checkpoint until all the teachers’ were patted down by the soldiers.

Not only the teachers and the director of the school, but also any other male adult going past the military gate or even past anywhere on the road in the view of the soldiers, were body-searched. As this systematic humiliation of any male adult, and some male youth, kept going on for hours, several people decided to not go past the gate in order to spare themselves this humiliation. Several people, simply going to a shop in order to buy something, passed the soldiers twice within ten minutes and were thus forced to be body-searched twice. Israeli forces forced various adults to even take off their shoes before being allowed to approach them to be body-searched.

Israeli forces body-searching Palestinian man

Female adults were stopped and had to throw their IDs on the street, put their bags down, and step back a few meters, before soldiers would check their IDs and go through the bags.

Israeli forces bag-searching a Palestinian woman

Closure of major checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

8th December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces on Monday, 7^th December 2015, have closed Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) for an indefinite period of time.

This checkpoint marks the border between the H2 area of al-Khalil, under full Israeli control, and the H1 area, supposedly under full Palestinian control. Checkpoint 56 is the major checkpoint leading from the Palestinian market area at Bab al-Zawwiya into the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and the small stretch of Shuhada Street that is still accessible for Palestinians.

With the closure of this checkpoint, Palestinian residents are facing another crackdown on their most basic rights. Palestinian freedom of movement is already severely restricted by numerous checkpoints and harsh checking procedures at the checkpoints. On November 1^st, Israeli forces also declared the area a ‘closed military zone’, further impinging on their freedom of movement.

Recently closed and blocked off Shuhada checkpoint

The closure of this particular checkpoint leaves the residents, families, children and elderly, but also school-children and teachers from Qurtuba school – forced to pass through this checkpoint on their way to and from school every day – stranded on the wrong side of the now inaccessible checkpoint. Anyone trying to go into this area is thus forced to take a very long detour, in order to navigate both the closed checkpoint and the ‘closed military zone’.

According to Israeli forces, the checkpoint has been closed for ‘renovations’. Information about the duration of the closure differs and ranges between one and two weeks. Still, it is not clear for how long this closure will be restricting Palestinians everyday life.

Increasing collective punishment in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

3rd of December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces closed the al-Hareka neighbourhood putting up new roadblocks and completely closing off a whole neighbourhood in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

The neighbourhood’s access to the main street has been blocked off with an iron gate for a long time already. Recently, a group of about twenty soldiers arrived to the neighbourhood to further limit the freedom of movement of the Palestinian residents.

Military gate blocking entrance for cars

One resident, a journalist documenting the soldiers putting the new roadblocks that completely barr any access to about 200-300 people living there, was detained by the soldiers for over an hour. Soldiers attempted to stop him from filming this measure of collective punishment, a clear infringement on the freedom of press. In order to reach the main road or leave their houses, people living behind the wall are now forced to walk all the way around and will thus need at least ten minutes more to reach the military gate that is already blocking their entrance.

Children playing on the newly erected wall blocking off the neighbourhood

Watch a video of soldiers installing this new wall:

Or watch video here.

Additionally, soldiers have commanded the roof of a private family home for military purposes and have erected a small military base there. A group of six soldiers is permanently stationed on the family home and “they slept on the roof”, as a school-boy explained.

Israeli forces stationed on a family home

The al-Hareka neighbourhood is bordering the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, and thus is often the target of harassment and violence both from the Israeli forces as well as the settlers – often under the protection of the soldiers.

This is yet another measure to intensify the efforts to restrict – or completely stop – Palestinian freedom of movement. Such collective punishment measures have sky-rocketed in the recent weeks and months in occupied al-Khalil, and add to the increasing efforts to further exacerbate everyday life for Palestinians and eventually make them disappear completely.

Arbitrary use of closed military zone orders in Hebron

22nd November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

After being allowed back to their legally owned apartment in Tel Rumeida in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) on Thursday, international human rights defenders were kicked out from their home for the third time by Israeli forces the following day.

Internationals kicked out from their home Photo credit: Human Rights Defenders — Internationals kicked out from their home
Photo credit: Human Rights Defenders

The draconian restrictions of the ‘closed military zone’ orders had been slightly lifted on Thursday with no new order issued.

Israeli forces preparing the paper to kick out internationals from their home

The lifting of the closed military zone orders gave the impression that Palestinian residents could, for the first time since weeks, be able to pass the street without being detained while Israeli forces would check their IDs and names on a list of ‘residents’. The international solidarity activists returned to their legally rented house on Thursday afternoon. After only one day, police and soldiers came into the house on Friday afternoon ordering them to leave immediately. The order Israeli forces showed to the internationals was clearly only a photocopy without an official stamp or signature. When the internationals showed their rental contract, the police officer started yelling at them and threatened them saying if they ‘don’t leave within ten minutes, [he] will use force’. Due to the threat of physical violence – that was used on internationals before when they were illegally evicted from this apartment – they decided to leave.

Photocopy of a military order with handwritten dates

Two days later, on Sunday, when attempting to go back to their house, Israeli forces showed the internationals an order dated to the end of the week. When internationals then requested to be allowed to go to their apartment, as this order was not in place at that particular time, they were ordered to wait for no reason. A few minutes later, a jeep with more soldiers drove up and one of them was clearly seen holding a pile of papers, writing something on one of them. He then handed the paper to a soldier that presented it to the internationals as a new closed military zone ‘order’ for that day. It was obvious that soldiers are now having blank copies of ‘closed military zone’ orders that they can fill in arbitrarily with any dates.

Closed military zone order for the end of the week

Since 1^st November, the Israeli forces have been bringing new ‘closed military zone’ orders, renewing them every day. Virtually every Palestinian passing in any direction has to undergo humiliating, degrading and violent bag- and body-searches at gunpoint as well as ID-checks. The area covered by that order was deliberately designed to encompass only Palestinian residents and international human rights defenders while excluding the neighbouring illegal Israeli settlement, thus entirely exempting Israeli settlers from these tactics.