Tag: Denial of Entry - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

Continued military presence in demolition-threatened Umm Al-Kheir

22nd August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Um Al-Kheir, occupied Palestine

Three young Palestinian men were detained by Israeli occupation forces on Friday the 19th of August. The men, residents of the Bedouin community Um Al-Kheir, were held by soldiers for two hours and forced to sit against the fence bordering up to the neighbouring illegal settlement. Four armed soldiers pushed back the surrounding crowd, including the members from the ISM team in Al-Khalil.

Soldiers detaining three Palestinian men

On Sunday evening, members from the Al-Khalil team travelled to the small village of Um Al-Kheir, located right next to the illegal settlement Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. On arrival, a military vehicle was stationed by the road leading to the village, with three men being detained by the military forces. The detained men were Akram Hathaleen (21 years old), Aala Hathaleen (20 years old) and Mahmoud (33 years old).

According to the four soldiers, one of the young men had climbed the fence to Carmel, which is an unlikely scenario due to the razor wire surrounding the Israeli illegal settlement. The locals stressed that the man simply tried to access the agricultural land belonging to their community.

Israeli soldier controlling the villagers

After approximately two hours the men were set free, with one of the men being ordered to report to the police station in Kiryat Arba the following day.

Military presence has been prevalent lately in and around Um Al-Kheir due to a strict demolition order. Out of the 70 structures belonging to the village, only two of them will remain after the military carries out the order and destroys the houses. Naturally, this means the end of a village belonging to a Bedouin community which has lived in the area for generations.

What remains of a demolished home in Umm Al-Kheir

The village has faced demolitions almost every year since 2008, with water networks and up to 17 structures being destroyed annually. Settlers of Carmel frequently survey the community with drones to spot construction and send the footage to the Israeli civil administration.

Because of the small distance to Carmel Settlement, Um Al-Kheir lost more and more access to their land over time. Despite being founded as a military outpost in 1980, the first settlers moved in around 2008. In 2012 they occupied a nearby mountain, where the shepherds now need a permission to cross with their herds. Because of the rapid expansion of the settlement, the time to access the grassing lands has increased from five minutes to close to an hour.

Israeli forces raid Palestinian home without warrant in occupied Hebron

21st August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On August 9th Israeli occupation forces invaded a home in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). The soldiers came in the early hours at 01 am and stayed inside the house for three and a half hours until they left at around 04:30 am.

The soldiers could not produce a warrant for the invasion, however the police did not react when the incident was reported. Nor did the civil administration of the area. This procedure is nothing unfamiliar for the family: earlier this year the families house was raided, all phones were confiscated and the family was not allowed to film the incident or to get any information about the reason for the invasion afterwards.

Israeli forces in the family home
Photo credit: Ayatt Jabari

This time, resident Ayatt Jabari filmed the incident as it took place, and it appears that 35-40 soldiers took part in the operation, ravaging the family’s home. K9´s were also deployed.

The Israeli forces forbid Ayatt to film what happened, but she refused to acknowledge this command in her own home. She has a permission to film and showed it to the soldiers but they still tried to prevent her filming the scene.

Apart from this, the soldiers confiscated all phones in the household, as well as breaking personal belongings, and amongst others the wifi-router, thus prohibiting them from contacting either police, lawyers, friends or international presence, effectively holding them hostages. This is standard procedure for house invasions according to the Israeli human rights NGO, B’Tselem.

During the raid, exit and entrance was denied to anyone but the soldiers carrying out the invasion. The residents, including small children, were forced into a single room in the house and guarded, as the rest of the building was being raided. TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) was however contacted by Ayatts brother who saw the invasion from his home, before he was also detained for doing so.

Israeli soldier checking ID of one of the family members
Photo credit: Ayatt Jabari

The household that is home to 25 residents is located in Wadi Al-Hussein, in the H2-area, the part of al-Khalil that is under Israeli authority. Surrounded by various illegal Israeli settlements including Kiryat Arba, the biggest settlement in al-Khalil, the families are regularly subjected to systematic as well as arbitrary violence and harassment both by settlers and Israeli occupation troops. During Ramadan new checkpoints were built in this area to further limit the residents from already restricted freedom of movement.

As a journalist visited the family the day following the raid, he was stopped and detained at a checkpoint leaving Wadi Al-Hussein.

According to Ayatt Jabari, the motive behind the invasion seemed to be a matter of intimidation or revenge following a recently made court decision in favour of the family regarding their legally owned land. This sort of action is and has long been part of the occupation forces intimidation tactics.

Israeli forces when entering the family home
Photo credit: Ayatt Jabari

Ayatt Jabari is part of B’Tselems project, giving video cameras to residents and families often attacked and harassed by the Israeli forces and/or illegal Israeli settlers, giving Palestinian communities a chance to document the regular suppression and violence of the occupation.

Settlers from illegal Halamish settlement block Route 450 for Palestinians in revenge

20th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara-team | Nabi Saleh, occupied Palestine

On 23rd July, two days after the killing of three settlers from the illegal settlement of Halamish, settlers blocked Route 450 with self-made barricades preventing Palestinians from using the main road, which connects Nabi Saleh village with the south Baytillu .

The road blockade was built at the roundabout in the south of Nabi Saleh, where Route 465 goes into Route 450 and was accompanied by the building of an new illegal settler outpost on the land of Nabi Saleh. According to eyewitnesses settlers were since then seen dancing and sitting behind the self made blockades to overlook their illegal roadblock. Exclusively settler-cars and army vehicles have been allowed to cross the blockade, thus enforcing a racist roadblock only on Palestinians. Route 450 is one of the main connecting roads from the Salfit area to Ramallah and is used as an everyday passage for students at the Birzeit university and farmers to reach their land. The normally twelve minutes ride from Baytillu to Nabi Saleh now, given the roadblock, takes one and a half hour as Palestinians are forced to make a detour through Ramallah to reach their destination. And not just Baytillu is affected by this: the people from the surrounding villages Jamala, Deir ´Ammar, Deir ´Ammar Camp and Deir Nidham next to Nabi Saleh are heavily restricted in their movement, because of the closed street segment, which is now just accessible for settlers from the illegal settlements Halamish, Nahiel, Talmon and Dolev.

The settlers are supported by the Israeli occupation forces wh just recently installed metal gates on Route 450 at the entrance of Baytillu and close to the illegal Halamish settlement. Therefore, the inhabitants of Baytillu fear that this will be a permanent roadblock and their land will be confiscated by settlers.

Around 10.000 dunums of Baytillu land is cut off from their owners, as well as a spring, which is essential for the farmers in the area. Moreover nine houses are located behind the road gates, which means the inhabitants can only reach their houses by foot and are forced to leave their cars at the gate in Baytillu.

With the olive harvest coming up in a month, accessing the crops is crucial for the farmers. The DCO, which is responsible for coordination between Palestinians and the occupying power Israel, postponed a scheduled meeting to discuss the road blockades without setting up a new date.

The case of Route 450 however is far from the only one of its kind: the blocking of roads is a common means of control by the occupation forces to limit the movement of inhabitants in Area C. Likewise the connecting road between Baytillu and Korba, also a path used by farmers for agricultural purposes was closed off recently.

Both blockades limit the freedom of movement and the access to farmland in the area, often also enforced as a measure of collective punishment. In this particular case the Israeli forces blocked off the whole village of Korba with several street blockades at every entrance of the village after the killing of three settlers in Halamish. Furthermore the COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) decided on the punitive house demolition of the family house [comment: house demolition was carried out in the night from Wednesday the 16th August to Thursday at 01:30 am accompanied by soldiers using rubber coated steel bullets against protesters and causing casualties] from the 19 year old Omar al-Abed, who is accused of stabbing the three setters, as well as arrested several members of his family, accusing them of not preventing the young man from carrying out the act.

Punitive demolition measurements are against Article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention, which was ratified 1951 by Israel: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”

These cases illustrate again how the illegal settlers in the West Bank enjoy complete impunity for their actions under the protection of the Israeli occupying forces, who act brutally against the civilian population in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli army restrict international access to Kafr Qaddum during confrontation

17th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus-team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine

Israeli occupation forces blocked international access to Kafr Qaddum on Saturday, before apparently attacking Palestinian demonstrators for the second time in two days.

Israeli force searching Palestinian cars

The Israeli military set up a road block at the entrance to the village, which has seen weekly demonstrations for several years, searching cars and checking IDs. Internationals who attempted to enter were detained for three hours with their passports confiscated. No reason was given for their detention, other than that the village was ‘dangerous’.

Israeli forces inspecting Palestinian cars

Kafr Qaddum, a small town in the Nablus area, has seen biweekly demonstrations for 6 years, since Israel blocked off their main access to Nablus in order to facilitate settler travel. The roadblock has doubled the length of journeys into Nablus, including for ambulances which are forced to take a 13km detour.

Settlers illegally occupy a Palestinian house in Hebron

6th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Tuesday 25th of July some 50 Israeli settlers illegally occupied a Palestinian house in illegal occupied Al-Khalil (Hebron) in H2 in an attempt to take control of the house. The settlers have stayed in the Palestinian building for six days, protected by the Israeli police, who should have instead evicted the settlers due to the unclear legal status of the building. Due to the settler presence, the Palestinian families living in the building complex are limited in their movement both by the settlers and Israeli forces and are disturbed by the settlers chanting and dancing on the courtyard.

Settlers illegally occupy parts of a Palestinian house in occupied Al-Khalil.

The settlers and their children raided the house around 4:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon and opened the door by force. The Israeli army claims that they arrived at the scene after the settlers raided the house, but one Palestinian family living in the building confirmed that the Israeli army was already present when the settlers raided the house. The family opened the door in the hope that the Israeli forces would protect them, but instead they allowed the settlers passage. After breaking in the settlers were celebrating loudly in front of the building until midnight.

Israeli settlers gathering and chanting loudly in front of the house they illegally occupied.

The following morning the situation was still going on and there were more Israeli police and army present. Also different media came to the site, but were not allowed to enter the house. A journalist tried to enter the house after getting invited by the family of Abu Rajab, to document the situation and interview the family but the police prohibited him violently from entering, intimidating the host and his family. On the same Wednesday morning, a Palestinian man living in the house was assaulted by the settlers as he was trying to enter his house. In the evening the scene was dominated by a huge group of young settlers chanting, dancing and shouting at passers-by guarded by heavily armed border police. Also a settler, known for his violence, was seen talking familiarly to the army forces and harassing Palestinian media representatives.

Israeli settlers showing aggression towards residents of the house as well as journalists.

Palestinian man living in the house was assaulted by the Israeli settlers as he was trying to enter his house.

This was not the first time that something like this has happened in the same building. In 2012 the settlers tried to take over the same house, but the civil administration decided that the settlers did not have enough evidence for their claim of ownership over the property. The families were removed from the house then and have been trying to dispute the case in court ever since. The Palestinian owners deny ever selling the property and accuse the settlers of forging documents to steal the house from them.

Israeli police present at site, but not evicting the settlers illegally occupying the house.

It may be no coincidence that the illegal occupation of the house comes during the tensions surrounding the restrictive Israeli measures at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. It seems the settlers are using the momentum now to disregard the law and take the house when everyone is looking at Jerusalem. It has already been 12 days that the Israeli police has allowed the continuation of the illegal occupation.