Tag: Denial of Entry - Page 8 - International Solidarity Movement

Total impunity to mess with lives

14th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces, again, or rather still, are using their impunity as occupiers to humiliate, harass and intimidate Palestinians and internationals crossing Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

The Israeli forces at this checkpoint sit behind bullet proof glass in a closed checkpoint-box, that nobody can see into. Anyone attempting to pass rings a bell to alert the soldiers inside, then waits for the soldiers to release the turnstile, which leads into the closed box. There you can see soldiers playing on their phones, gossiping, or even sleeping. When you enter the box, you have to put all your belongings, shopping, handbags, phones, change, and anything from your pockets on the table, before passing through the metal detector.

Then, depending on the soldiers’ mood and whim, you might be allowed simply to leave and go on your way, or you could be asked to unpack all your bags, pass through the metal detector again (even if you didn’t set it off). You might be asked to show your ID or passport, or asked for your resident’s number (all Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida have been registered and assigned numbers since the declaration of the area as a closed military zone since 1st November 2015).

Some soldiers are entirely uninterested in the whole process and allow people to pass without further ado, but many seem to enjoy the almost infinite power bestowed upon them with their Israeli army uniform. This stretches from making Palestinians wait in the rain and ignoring the bell they need to ring to come through, to asking people to go back again and again through the metal detector for no reason, put babys on the ground in freezing temperatures, or denying them passage completely even after finding their resident’s number on the list. Palestinian school students and teachers attempting to reach their school are not exempted from this treatment.

But it goes even beyond that.

Soldiers often act without any clear rationale except disruption. For example, last week a soldier yelled at a woman to take off her shoes, as they set off the metal detector. She goes through every day and the soldiers know that the shoes are what sets off the alarm, which she points out to him. But today he starts yelling and tells her to shut up. She refuses to take off her shoes and the soldier comes into the checkpoint box, uncomfortably close to her, yelling that he thinks she might have something else on her body. This alone can be considered a threat, as Israeli soldiers have shot a number of Palestinians at checkpoints here in the last year on the suspicion of ‘having a knife’, not necessarily attacking with it or even having it in their hand. It is impossible to get new kitchen knives home from the shops for just this reason.

In the end, the soldier, meticulously and with a grin on his face, goes through the woman’s bag, ignoring the plastic-bag of groceries right next to the handbag on the table. The purpose is to harass, humiliate and intimidate, to make life difficult and hateful for the Palestinians who need to pass through several times daily. Meanwhile growing numbers of Palestinians gather outside waiting to get through and home, hoping that it is not their turn to be humiliated by this occupying army.

Being yelled at, insulted, humiliated and harassed is rather the norm than the exception. It’s a calculated norm intended to make Palestinians’ life so unbearable that they will leave the area easing the way for more settlement expansion in the centre of the city. This, under international law is called creating a ‘coercive environment’ for ethnic cleansing, a war crime.

#DismantleTheGhetto: start of campaign in al-Khalil

10th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces and colonial settlers on Thursday, 9th February 2017, disrupted a peaceful protest near Qurtuba school on Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Settlers attacked and injured one female student, and prevented Palestinian teachers and students from leaving the area. The event was organized by the National Campaign to Lift the Closure of Hebron as part of the ‘#DismantleTheGhetto: Take the Settlers out of Hebron’ campaign.

The day started with a celebration at Qurtuba school, which is located just above Shuhada Street, where most of the houses and businesses have been ethnically cleansed of Palestinians by the Israeli forces in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Students performed a play, sang songs, and the best students from each class were honoured, along with teachers.

Afterwards, the group walked towards the Qurtuba school stairs, which used to be blocked for access for Palestinians by the Israeli forces since the area was declared a closed military zone 31st October 2015. Now, depending on the whim of the soldiers, most days teachers and students are again allowed to go up and down the stairs to school.

As the Palestinians were chanting slogans against the occupation and for freedom for Palestinians in al-Khalil and for an end to the closed military zone and the ghettoization of this part of al-Khalil, soldiers at the bottom of the stairs immediately called for reinforcements and settlers started gathering.

Settlers gathering on Shuhada Street, insulting and threatening Palestinians.

The settler Anat Cohen, who is infamous for violently attacking Palestinians and internationals with complete impunity (search YouTube ‘Anat Cohen Hebron’ for several filmed examples, ran up the slope that separated the children from the soldiers on Shuhada Street and began violently to attack the schoolchildren. She was joined by another settler with a violent and aggressive history. This had been an entirely peaceful demonstration where children demanded their own freedom of movement and an end to the occupation of Palestine, according to their human rights. There was no provocation.

Infamous settler Anat Cohen harassing studnets and teachers

At the same time, students who were trying to go down the stairs to get home were detained by Israeli forces, while colonial settlers gathered on the street and at the illegal Beit Hadassah settlement opposite, ridiculing and threatening the Palestinians as seen in this video. As children were eventually allowed down the stairs they faced aggressive settlers, some armed with assault rifles, and Israeli soldiers chasing them down the street and yelling at them.

Palestinian student support down the stairs while settlers harass them

One female student was injured and unable to walk, and had to be supported by two teachers down the Qurtuba stairs, as Anat Cohen stood by filming them. Once she was down on Shuhada Street, the girl had to be carried in a chair by teachers towards Shuhada checkpoint so that she could get an ambulance on the other side. Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are not allowed on this tiny strip of Shuhada Street. Palestinians are only allowed to walk, not drive, and then only if they are registered as residents (for which they are checked by number not name).

Palestinians carrying the girl on a chair to the checkpoint

Israeli military forces and Israeli police officers were present and did nothing to protect this girl or any of the Palestinians and internationals present.

Humiliation

3rd February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

No one can describe this feeling,
when occupation did what it does best:
humiliate, harass, humiliate.
There is no words to say, today,
I was treated like I’m not a human being.
No words, that can put across the actual meaning.
The daily humiliation, it can not,
it will never become ‘normal’,
it can never be acceptable.
The arrogance of occupation, that
humiliates and harasses you,
yells at you, insists and demonstrates,
that there is no laws regulating it.
That it can do whatever, it can humiliate, harass,
yell, sexually harass, intimidate, kill.
It can kill by shooting, but it can also kill slowly,
killing the spirit, slowly, daily,
through humiliation and harassment.
Slowly by slowly, wearing down the spirit,
showing that this occupation has long lost any sense of humanity.
The subjects are only there to be destroyed,
to be harassed, humiliated.
Humiliation can kill.
It kills the spirit, it demonstrates that in the end
occupation is free, free to humiliate,
free to harass, free to kill.
Daily humiliation,
from when you step out of the door
till you reach your home again.
At the checkpoint, on the street.
Ubiquitous. Everywhere. No escape.
Even in your home, your not safe from humiliation.
Occupation rules by humiliation.
There’s nowhere to feel safe.
No hope if you expect to be seen as what you are:
a human being

“If your students want an education…” – Right to education violable under occupation?

2nd February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Thursday morning Israeli forces detained Palestinian teachers and students from Qurtuba school for over two hours at Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) without reason and despite the fact that students and teachers always have to pass the checkpoint to reach school. Israeli forces have again denied students their right to education by preventing students as well as teachers from reaching their classes.

Palestinian students, teachers, and 3 officials from the NGO, Safe the Children, on their way to the Qurtuba schools, are being denied entry through Shuhada Street Checkpoint. — Israeli forces deny entry to Palestinian students, teachers, and 3 officials from Save the Children through Shuhada check point on their way to Qurtuba school.

Qurtuba school is located in the H2 neighborhood of occupied al-Khalil, under full Israeli military control. All students and teachers coming from the H1-area, supposedly under full Palestinian control, are forced to pass both the Shuhada checkpoint and another checkpoint just a few meters down the street, in order to reach their school. Whereas a major part of the teachers and students were allowed to pass Shuhada checkpoint as they do every morning, a group of 5 teachers, including the director, and 3 students were detained at the checkpoint and not allowed to pass. The group was kept waiting inside the checkpoint box, as Israeli forces tried to force them to pass through the metal detector, even though there’s an official decision that teachers and students on their way to school do not have to pass through the metal detector. After the group pointed out this agreement–insisting that the soldiers respect it–Israeli forces closed the checkpoint to all other civilian Palestinians, telling everyone that no one would be allowed to pass as long as the teachers were ‘making trouble’.

After some time the teachers were allowed to pass and hurried to school. Because of this harassment, they arrived at class more than half an hour late. The director stayed outside the checkpoint, waiting for her students and was told by a soldier, ‘if you’re students want an education, then they have to pass the metal detector’. The soldiers insisted that they can’t depend on a ‘precedent’, even though there’s an official agreement that students and teachers don’t have to pass the checkpoint. They kept pretending that they ‘knew the law’, which they clearly didn’t. A group of 3 Palestinian officials from ‘Save the Children’ were denied to pass the checkpoint by the Israeli forces. In the end, after more than two hours of co-ordination with officials, Israeli forces finally allowed the 3 students, standing outside in the freezing cold, to pass and reach their school – in accordance with the official agreement in which they do not have to pass the metal detector.

Earlier that day, when internationals attempted to pass the same checkpoint in the morning, Israeli forces were already adjusting the law according to their whim. First, they let the internationals pass. Just a few minutes later, they ran after the internationals up a hill, demanding their passports. Israeli soldiers are not allowed to physically take and photograph international passports. The soldiers, though, insisted. When reminded of the law he just replied ‘It’s my checkpoint, I do whatever I want”. In the end, they let the internationals go, but not without promising them that the next time they will not allow them to pass.

Israeli Soldier checking ID and searching the bag of a Palestinian woman, who was bringing her children to school. — Israeli soldier checking ID and searching the bag of a Palestinian woman, who was forced to wait a few meters away from the checkpoint in the freezing cold with her three children

A few meters up the hill, another group of soldiers stopped the internationals, as they were ordered by the other soldiers to not allow them to pass the checkpoint. Israeli forces when denying them passage, argued that they’re responsible for the ‘security’ of the internationals and it would be ‘dangerous’ for them to pass the checkpoint. The irony of the situation though, is that the internationals, who have been harassed, stopped and yelled at by the soldiers (all heavily-armed with machine-guns) are assured by the same soldiers that it was actually their duty to protect them. They are the ones Palestinian civilians and internationals need to be protected from.

Israeli Forces harassing international activists, taking pictures of them with his private phone.

Collective punishment on the way to school – the Israeli forces’ ‘job’

1st February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Wednesday, 1st February 2017, Israeli forces intimidated school-children on their way to school. In the process, they closed one of the main checkpoints delaying teachers and school-children as they were on their way to school.

As groups of children were passing the checkpoint in both directions to reach their schools, a few children ran up to the checkpoint throwing pebbles at the big metal structure. These children were immediately stopped by Palestinian adults and shortly after ran off. Despite the fact that the checkpoint is fenced off with metal and it is therefore impossible to actually hit anyone, the Israeli forces immediately came out of the checkpoint-box, as the children ran away.

The soldiers immediately locked the turnstiles, the one leading into the checkpoint box and the one allowing people that have passed the checkpoint to go out onto the street. Three boys, after having passed the metal detector, were locked inside the checkpoint, as soldiers prohibited them from passing the turnstile, keeping it locked. When asked by ISMers to allow the boys to leave, a female soldier told them that she’s ‘doing her job’, and they will have to wait till everything is over. This was after the boys throwing the stones had already left the area. She refused to let the boys go even though they clearly were not involved–insisting that it was ‘her job’. This constitutes a form of collective punishment illegal under Art. 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is considered a war crime.

A group of Palestinian school children exiting the checkpoint, were locked inside and kept waiting. When the soldier who was suppose to operate the checkpoint was confronted by international activists, her response was: "I don't care. It's my job." — School-children locked inside the checkpoint as Israeli forces deny them to pass and leave – collective punishment of school-children discounted by the soldiers as ‘their job’

Shortly after, people were gathering at the turnstile at the entrance to the checkpoint. A total of two men, two school-boys and one school-girl were trapped on this side of the checkpoint. When they asked the soldiers to open, they were yelled at and told to ‘shut up’. Several left, but others patiently waited for the Israeli forces to allow them in – one by one only, a process that goes very slowly.

Several Palestinian are standing in line at the entry of the checkpoint, as israeli forces stand by and do nothing. — Several Palestinian are standing in line at the entry of the checkpoint, as Israeli forces stand by and deny them the right to pass.

Shortly after, a group of Israeli forces went through the gate at the checkpoint, walking towards the cluster of schools located behind the checkpoint.

A group of frightened palestinian school children are standing by, as Israeli forces invaded the palestinian neighborhood of Salaymeh. — A group of Palestinian school children waiting for their school-bus, as the heavily-armed Israeli forces stand by watching a group of children outside their schools.

As the Israeli forces approached the schools, teachers made sure that their students would get to school, safely past the Israeli forces.

Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian neighborhood of Salaymeh, looking for school children involved in throwing rocks at Israeli military checkpoint. — Israeli forces watching school-children as they go to school.

The soldiers pointed their live-ammunition assault-rifles several times at school-children: a form of intimidation used on school children regardless of their age.