Tag: Digests

1. Solidarity With Rachel Corrie
2. Documentary trailer: The Israeli Siege of Zawata Village
3. Tel Rumeida: Violent Settler Attacks Human Rights Workers
4. Susiya: Routine Palestinian Detention Coincides with Settler’s Continued Attempts to Steal Land
5. Wadi Rahul: Second Settlement Attempt
6. Tel Rumeida: Summer Camp Party
7. Bilin: Soldiers show no restraint towards Peaceful Demonstrators
8. Nablus: Video of IOF Snipers Being Evicted
9. Artas: Call to Action!
10. Susiya: Settlers Land and Water Grab Attempt Foiled
11. Tel Rumeida: Detention and Harassment for Children on Camp Trip
12. Nablus: Cruel Deleuzian Approach Used by the IOF
13. Nablus: IOF Snipers Evicted!
14. Nablus: Activists Block Jeeps
15. Nablus: Direct Targeting of Children
16. Nablus: What Could Happen Next?
17. Nablus News (July 12th, 2007)
18. Nablus: “So you’re doing this without a military order?”…“I am.”
19. Is This Ben Gurion Or Hell?
20. Bil’in: No IOF Love for Bil’in Non-Violent Protesters
21. Tel Rumeida: Another Meaningless Trip to the Police Station
22. Jerusalem: ICAHD Continues to Rebuild!
23. CNN in Bi’lin: Blames the Victim
24. Gaza: Ceaseless Misery at Rafah Border Crossing
25. Jerusalem: ICAHD Rebuilds!
26. Tel Rumeida: A Fire that Never Goes Out
27. Tel Rumeida: Continued Harassment at Issa’s House
28. Palestine, the Source of Love
29. Anata: More Homes Being Rebuilt
30. Bethlehem: Rebuilding Homes in Al Walaja

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Solidarity With Rachel Corrie

By Greta Berlin published in the Washington Post

Saturday, July 28, 2007; Page A17

Jane Horwitz’s article on “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” could have been an example of reporting on the best aspects of the play [” ‘Corrie’ Fears Unrealized; Controversial Play Opens Without Incident in W.Va.,” Style, July 18]. Instead she gave space to the likes of Stanley Marinoff, who spouted off that Corrie was “a human shield for an organization that’s probably a terrorist [front] organization.”

That statement is not only inaccurate, it borders on slandering the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which has twice been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Even the courts in Israel have stated that the ISM is not a terrorist organization.

Corrie was not a “naive young lady” but a passionate advocate for justice for a people who have been forced to live under occupation, brutalized and ignored by the world.

I was honored to work with the ISM twice over two years in the occupied West Bank. The only violence I saw while standing with the Palestinians was perpetuated against us by the Israeli military and the illegal settlers. ISM members have been shot, beaten, tear-gassed and arrested. Corrie and Tom Hurndall were murdered by an occupying force.

We don’t go to Palestine believing we are on some kind of holiday. We go to bear witness to the daily suffering of the Palestinians. If the Israelis allowed United Nations peacekeepers in to monitor their behavior, there would be no need for us.

It’s telling that despite the uproar the play is not only doing well but is also making money. Thank God, the truth cannot be suppressed forever. Horwitz should have stuck to writing about the play, not making political comments.

– Greta Berlin

Le Bar-sur-Loup, France

The writer is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement.

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Documentary trailer: The Israeli Siege of Zawata Village

Direct Video Link

On the morning of July 19, 2007, the Israeli occupation force invaded the village of Zawata just north of the city of Nablus [see previous ISM reports here and here]. The army proceeded to demolish the house of Asad Natoor. Moving deeper into the village, the force besieged another home and proceeded to destroy the external walls while “interrogating” an individual inside.

Human rights activists arrived to the scene alongside medics – attempting to halt the destruction. The Israeli Army blocked the entrance of an ambulance called for a pregnant woman. The army used force to repell human rights observers from the first home demolition.

Upon the arrival of human rights legal observer, the army openly admitted they had no demolition order. Furthermore, the District Command Office (DCO) continually ignored calls. When officials from B’tselem (Israeli Human Rights Organization) inquired as to the presence of a demolition – the civil authorities indicated they weren’t aware of the operation. Soldiers then assaulted the human rights workers requesting documentation and authorization from the soldiers.

Zawata: Witness to Israeli War Crimes is a short documentary covering the events of this day. It includes extensive interviews from the victims of that day and film of the soldiers who committed these crimes.

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3. Tel Rumeida: Violent Settler Attacks Human Rights Workers

July 27th, 2007. Around 5:30pm international Human Rights Workers and member of the Christian Peace-Making Team joined a Palestinian man on the land he owned to help him clean it from debris put there by settler vandals and protect him and his livestock while they feed. Settlers have erected a tent on his land and called it a synagogue seven years ago. This severely handicapped man and his family are normally told to leave the land they own when they try to farm it, or when they let their goats eat from it. The international volunteers showed up to help the family farm their land under the repression they face from soldiers and settlers. We started by removing wood that vandals had nailed to his trees. Settlers with guns saw us do this and called the military. When the military came they told us to stop and the land owner was told he had to prove the land was his. The owner produced Israeli court papers, which proved that the land was indisputably his. The officer reluctantly looked over the papers

However even then we were not allowed to remove the wood because we were told it would look like we were trying to steal it. We began then to cut and collect the grass to take to the goats so they could eat. The police soon showed up, followed later by border police. They kept a heavy presence near us but did nothing to stop the harassment of the settlers. This harassment of course escalated, starting with shouted insults. When international volunteers brought this to the attention of the police, they were told that unless this was caught on film there was nothing they could do. Even with this warning, the police still did nothing to deescalate the harassment from the settlers. The family then let their goats out to eat the grass that grows on the land they own and this proved to be the last straw for the settlers.

An old, well dressed settler exited his settlement using a stick as a walking aid, and giving the impression of frailty asked one of the volunteers where they were from in an aggressive manor and suddenly without provocation attacked two international human rights workers with what proved to be a spiked stick. He first hit one female volunteer across the head, moving on to strike multiple blows to another this time male observer. His arm was left bleeding heavily, leaving blood on both he and the settler.

The police had no choice, in the face of such obvious lawless aggression and knowing that of course this time it would be filmed, but to intervene. They ran up the stairs and prevented the old man from returning to his settlement, and arrested him. The two HRWs and the man who filmed them were taken to the police station, and the old man was arrested. The Palestinians and HRWs were told that the area had to be cleared because the situation was “heated”. The Palestinians and volunteers therefore left the land of the family only to watch Israeli settlers exit the settlement, walk freely through land and socialize with the military and police.

After a few minutes spending at the police station the attacking settler was eventually released by the police with the explanation that they are not going to arrest Israelis during shabbat.

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4. Susiya: Routine Palestinian Detention Coincides with Settler’s Continued Attempts to Steal Land

At approximately 7.30 pm on Wednesday 25th July, three international human rights workers (HRWs) maintaining a presence in Susiya – a Palestinian farming community located in the South Hebron Hills – were called to assist two Palestinians who had been detained on Route 317 at the highway junction next to the illegal settlement of Susiya.

On arriving at the junction, the internationals filmed the situation, noting the number of the army vehicle and spoke to the two Palestinians, who were being kept away from their car at the side of the road. From what the internationals could gather, they had been stopped because they were ‘Arabs driving a car with Israeli license plates.

Coincidentally and at the same time, the internationals and the local Palestinian who had driven them to the scene noticed Israeli settlers working in the field opposite junction. Upon speaking to the local Palestinian it was discovered that this land belongs to several Palestinians living in Yatta, a nearby town, who had all the documents needed to prove their ownership. About a month and a half ago, settlers were found working on the land and were building a pipeline in order to irrigate it. After formally lodging a complaint with the local police, the settlers were told to vacate and discontinue their work there. They have since been caught a further four times working in the same area.

The HWRs recorded approximately ten settlers in the field and called a Christian Peace-Making Team (CPT) worker to the scene, in order to further document this violation of police orders. At approximately 8.10 pm, many of the land owners arrived from Yatta.

The CPT worker talked with the police, lodging yet another complaint, whilst the internationals continued to monitor the settlers and obstruct their view as they attempted to photograph the Palestinian land owners.

Negotiations with the police – a Palestinian-Israeli police officer in particular, continued until around 9.30 pm at which point the police informed the group that ‘everything had been resolved’ and they could all go home. The Palestinian and international party however decided to stay until the settlers had left which was at around 10.00 pm.

This situation highlights once again the violation of international law which Israel continues to uphold. Not only are settlements illegal under article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention – “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” but additionally, in July 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the occupation, the Wall and the Israeli settlements were all in violation of international law and must therefore be ended.

The existence of such law however means nothing if it is not upheld accordingly.

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5. Wadi Rahul: Second Settlement Attempt

July 25th, 2007. Palestinians, International Human Rights Workers and Israelis recently went to the village of Wadi Rahul, which is near Bethlehem, to document a number of Israeli settlers that intended to initiate a new illegal settlement on a hill beyond the Efrata Settlement on Palestinian land.

It is understood that this was their second attempt and on this occasion they have sought to assemble a large number of people through the internet, inviting people throughout Israel and the settlements. We received information of the hour and the place of where they would leave, on foot since the police organized numerous “check-points” to intercept them. However the Settlers had sufficient information to avoid these meaningless preventative measures and were able to access the land.

Towards 16:30 we divided into two groups to be able to observe from two farmers homes which hill the Settlers wished to occupy. It is understood that one of the farmers had been notified by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) not to leave his property after 5pm.

During the previous evening, the army and the police had implemented a gate along the road the Settlers wished to take. During the day this particular road had been filled with police and military vehicles, the number of which increased significantly during the build up to the event.

Towards five in the afternoon, it was possible to see hundreds of Settlers begin marching towards the land they wished to occupy. They obviously hadn’t been dissuaded by the checkpoints or gates and had found suitable alternative routes to enable them to get to their chosen site.

Shortly after, they appeared in a cultivated field, still walking. They formed a row and passed across a field in the direction of the hill they wished to occupy. They appeared to be walking in the middle of the fields to avoid interception by the police or the army.

In the other location where activists were based to help protect Palestinians, it was also reported that Settlers had thrown rocks at the property and there had been an attempt to detain someone, however they were later released without harm.

Originally we maintained our observation of events from the roof of the Palestinian home, however we moved to the outside of the house close to where the Settlers were passing to ensure they didn’t act unnecessarily aggressive.

Whilst the Settlers trespassed onto Palestinian land, a few Settlers attempted to converse with the Palestinians however this was very much limited to stating that the Palestinains should leave as, “it is not their land”. A further Settler claimed that the land had been given to the Jews by God.

The march continued toward the hill, where the police and the army were expecting them. At this point the Settlers scattered in many directions and the security forces were incapable of preventing the Settlers from passing around them to continue their march. It is worth noting that the soldiers made little effort to use the “crowd control” devices they tend to employ at Bil’in, on their own people. ie. sound grenades or tear gas.

Among the participants there were people with backpacks and what appeared to be camping equipment, indicating the Settlers were likely to remain in place. It’s difficult to determine the exact number of Settlers that participated in this event due to the numbers being so dispersed across the hills, however it is estimated there were approximately 600 Settlers.

The police managed to stop the march from passing before it arrived at the second hill which was on slightly higher ground. When an activist approached to see what was happening, it could be seen that many of the Settlers were beginning to return and had begun to leave the area.

A number of buses appeared to remove the demonstrators from the land however many chose to leave on foot.

Later HRWs returned to the house with the Palestinians, and we remained there to be able to cover possible aggressions later that evening by any remaining Settlers.

Until well into the night, until at least 1am, many bus trips were made to remove the remaining Settlers from the area. There was a large military presence maintained and a significant attempt to remove determined Settlers who wished to stay on the Palestinian land.

There were many groups of people patrolling the area through the night, causing great anxiety among the Palestinians (in the house we were in, all the family watched from the balcony, and they only felt comfortable enough to sleep when three more internationals arrived.)

Throughout the night, soldiers, Settlers and Police continued to move throughout the surrounding fields, sometimes using flares to determine positions of each other and settlers.

Even in the morning it was still possible to see Settlers remaining in the fields from the previous day.

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6. Tel Rumeida: Summer Camp Party

The Friendship and Solidarity Summer Camp that has taken place in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron is unfortunately coming to a close. To celebrate what has been an amazing two weeks of fun and laughter, the participants would like to invite friends, activists and internationals to a final party.

The party will be held at Qurdoba School on Shuhada Street, Tel Rumeida at 5pm. We hope that you all can come along and join in the celebrations for what has been a fantastic time for all involved.

For more information or any questions, please contact either Issa: 050 630 2333 or Fawaz: 059 9672529

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7. Bilin: Soldiers show no restraint towards Peaceful Demonstrators

Bilin, 28th July 2007.

Approximately 300 international, Palestinian and Israeli non-violent demonstrators came together for the 129th Bilin demonstration against the illegal Apartheid wall. The demonstrators came from all backgrounds and included children as young as five through to women, men and elderly internationals, Israelis and Palestinians.

The demonstration took a different route than usual and entered the olive groves from the far left hand side through a small road close to the wall. Upon entering the Olive groves, the soldiers almost immediately began firing tear gas canisters and sound grenades at the demonstrators who were peacefully walking towards the Apartheid wall. Despite demonstrators being hundreds of meters away from the Wall and not posing any threat to the soldiers or the Wall itself the soldiers used severe aggression without just cause. Demonstrators made significant attempts to avoid the tear gas however due to the direction of the wind, many of the demonstrators were severely affected by the gas, including one international male who required attention by the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Despite initial attempts by the soldiers to disperse the demonstrators, the non-violent activists persevered in getting their message across that the Apartheid wall must fall and that the people of Bilin and the internationals say No to the Occupation. The peaceful demonstrators faced rubber bullets being fired seemingly without reason and in a completely indiscriminate manner, as well as tear gas canisters directly at demonstrators. It was only through great fortune that there were no reports of serious injury as a consequence.

Due to the heat of the day and the excessive use of tear gas, fires were started within the Olive groves. Unfortunately due to the direction of the wind, a large fire took hold in a section of the groves and approximately ten Olive trees were severely burned and damaged. Demonstrators were keen to preserver the trees however the fire was too strong for them to overcome and they had to retreat.

Due to the recent death within the village of a local Palestinian woman who died whilst giving birth, there was a conscious effort by organizers to reduce the length of the demonstration out of respect to the family and friends of the deceased. As such after approximately an hour, the organizers brought the demonstration to a close.

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8. Nablus: Video of IOF Snipers Being Evicted

Direct Video Link

After a standoff in ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp, Friday morning, July 20, 2007, in which six international human rights activists … all >> confronted the Israeli Occupation Forces, at 11:30am several Israeli snipers were forced out of the home they had occupied since 3:00 am that morning. The internationals entered the house after the withdrawal of the snipers and found 35 civilians inside, 20 of which were children.

Several Palestinian boys approached the activists to point out Israeli snipers in a building on the hill above the camp. The Israeli soldiers had forced four families, 30 people, into a first floor room and held them hostage for over eight hours.

Occupying and using a civilian home as a military position is illegal under international and Israeli law.

Nablus, a city in the North of the West Bank is surrounded by military bases and invaded nightly by heavily armored Israeli Occupation Forces. These incursions kill and injure civilians on a daily basis. Not only are the individual actions of this platoon, these soldiers, and the Israeli Occupation Forces illegal, but the entire occupation of the West Bank since 1967 is in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and in contravention of numerous UN declarations.

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9. Artas: Call to Action!

July 24th, 2007. We have received a call for activists to go this evening to Wadi Rahul, close to Artas in the Bethlehem region. They are expecting hundreds of Israeli Settlers from the nearby settlements of Efrata to go there tomorrow in an attempt to occupy the land. It is expected that Settlers will arrive early tomorrow morning with caravans to take over the land. It appears there is support and collusion with the army and we expect there to be a large number of soldiers tomorrow “protecting” the settlers from the Palestinians. It is also reported, that there were members of the Israeli authorities implementing a gate to restrict access to the land. The gate is designed to prevent Palestinians from accessing their own land in the interests of Settlers being able to take the place over instead.

Obviously, putting down caravans is the first step in establishing a permanent presence so it needs to be prevented. They are looking for as many internationals, Israeli’s and whoever will support them to go down, ideally tonight, to camp out as they believe the one and only road accessing the land will be closed by tomorrow, alternatively to come in the morning. However to make a serious attempt at preventing the settlers accessing the site, people need to go tonight if they are willing.

Anyone who is available, please make an effort to go there this evening so we can try and stop the Illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank and the grotesque thieving of Palestinian land.

For more information please contact: Awad (059 890 7252) or Rose (054 224 9179).

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10. Susiya: Settlers Land and Water Grab Attempt Foiled

July 22nd, 2007. Between 8:30pm and 9:00pm on Sunday, four international human rights workers (HRWs) met with local Palestinian residents of Susiya village and members of the Israeli/Palestinian organization Tayush, to discuss plans for the following day and to determine the exact role internationals would play within Susiya and surrounding villages.

Concluding the meeting, the Israeli activist member of Tayush left, at roughly 9:00pm, with others for his home in Jerusalem.

He returned to the tent half an hour later, at little before 9:30pm, telling the internationals that he had just seen a group of Israeli settlers in the process of building fences and water pipes (for possible irrigation of settler land) on Palestinian land within the area.

The Palestinian land in question is vital agricultural land and the owners, who reside in the area, have not given permission to the settlers to either build or work on it. Yet, the settlers are vying for the land and, in a very likely attempt to steal it, are now laying the framework for future claims to the land and future expansion.

The Israeli member of Tayush related that this was the second time he had caught them working, and building in this field—and given the progress of the piping, these were certainly not the only instances of trespassing and illegal working on the land.

The first time he caught them was one month ago, after which he talked with owners of land and advised them to make a complaint with the police. The Israeli member of Tayush said that in most instances Palestinians owners of land will take no steps to halt these types of settler actions through “legal” means (ie. through Israeli police, court systems) due to fear of Israeli settler, soldier, and police reprisal.

It is understood, however, that these specific Palestinians are willing to take certain steps, to halt settler actions and expropriation of land, and file complaints against the settlers. It is worth noting that any complaint these Palestinian landowners wish to make would force them to journey to the Kiryat Arba police station in Hebron, which is a one to two hour journey on a good day. The Palestinian landowners did, in fact, journey to Kiryat Arba the following day where they were informed the police were too busy that day to handle the complaint. Rebuffs like this, particularly given the distance and time of travel, render it seemingly not worth the effort to formally lodge a complaint.

The Tayush member had immediately informed the Israeli police of the settler activities, on the Palestinian land, and a few minutes later the settlers had stopped working. He strongly felt that this sudden cessation of work without having directly confronted the settlers themselves was evidence of some kind of police/settler collaboration.

Upon arriving at the land being appropriated by settlers, the international HRWs found that although the work had ceased, one settler remained on the land near the very tractor he had used to work the land. Other settlers were in the area however, walking on the road, and driving a four wheeler. The settler who remained on the Palestinian land showed little concern about or recognition of the internationals’ presence and continued talking on his mobile phone. He did however, at points, seem unwilling to have his face recorded on camera.

Returning to the main road, the HRWs and Israeli member of Tayush found that one army jeep with four soldiers had arrived at the scene. Approximately 20 minutes later, 2 Israeli policemen arrived. During the entire time, local settlers continued to arrive, very likely having been called by the first settler in the field. Members of the local Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), based in At-Tuwani, also arrived and began video-documenting the events.

When HRWs initially asked the soldiers why they had come to the scene, they were told it was by chance. Yet minutes later, another soldier admitted they had been called over, which raises further suspicion of Israeli settler/soldier/police collaboration.

Walking alongside the ditch inlaid with piping, one soldier denied any work was being done, despite the presence of the tractor. Another admitted the wooden pegs in the field every 1-2 meters were likely related to the pipes which had been laid in the ditch nearby.

Several cars of settlers had since arrived at the main road. Israeli Police spoke with the Israeli Tayush member, as well as with the Palestinian owners of the land who arrived after about ten more minutes.

Despite the presence of both Israeli police and soldiers, about 20 Israeli settlers proceeded to harass and photograph Palestinians, internationals, and the Israeli activist.

These settler youths, without any restraint imposed on them whatsoever from police or soldiers, continued to try and provoke reaction from any of the HRWs present, verbally abusing them and intrusively shoving cameras into HRWs’ faces. The settlers also focused a lot of their attention and harassment on the Israeli activist, who they obviously hated, blocking his path, and at some points trying to physically assault him.

When it was time for the police to take the statements of the Palestinian land owners (five Palestinian men, who owned the land and were present) the Israeli settlers focused their harassment on them. International HRWs used their bodies to try and keep some distance between the settlers and Palestinians. The police or soldiers did not attempt to control the settlers at all, even while they took the statements of the Palestinians

This circus-like behaviour of the settlers ensued for 30 to 45 minutes, again, with no reprisal from any of the security forces present.

After giving statements to the police, the Israeli Tayush member left with the Palestinian land-owners to drive them home. Alone, and out of visible range of the police and soldiers, HRWs encountered repeated settler youth verbal abuse and harassment before leaving the scene. The entire event lasted for about two hours, ending at around 11:30pm.

The necessity for an international presence in such areas as Susiya is precisely due to such illegal actions and abusive menacing from surrounding settlers. The settlers’ aggressive behavior over the years has been well-documented and includes: the beating of local Palestinian residents; beating and killing of local residents’ animals; destruction of residents’ home, property, and belongings; poisoning of land and animals; illegal appropriation of Palestinian land; and continued menacing and verbal threats and harassment against Palestinian residents.

Their intrusive and violent behavior again comes with the express purpose of acquiring Palestinian land through intimidation and fear tactics. Sadly, their illegal tactics have been largely successful in the region, with many Susiya residents and land-owners leaving their land for nearby cities and towns.

The international HRWs were repeatedly told by Palestinian and Israeli activists and rights workers that their presence causes the level of violence to drop significantly. Villages, such as Susiya, without an international presence are left to the mercy of any actions the Israeli settlers, soldiers, or police may take against them. Which is why it is so vital to have an international presence in the area, one which will advocate for Palestinian rights and stand in solidarity with Palestinians.

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11. Tel Rumeida: Detention and Harassment for Children on Camp Trip

Saturday July 22nd, the Tel Rumeida Summer camp was to go on a field trip to the nearby villages of At-Tuwani and Qawawis. The theme of the summer camp is “solidarity and friendship,” and the purpose of this trip was to let the kids meet children from other villages and to learn about the similar problems they face both from the army and from the Israeli settlers. See this article for more info on that subject.

We took 100 kids in two buses to the village of At-Tuwani. The village is about a half kilometer walk from the road and our two buses were parked very much on the SIDE of the road, in no way obstructing traffic as you can see in the following photo:

A short walk took us into the village where we learned that the children from this village need an army escort to go to school every day because of attacks from settlers. Christian Peacemaker Teams and
Operation Dove, two international organizations both work in this village to document cases of harassment from settlers but are not allowed to actually intervene.

There were about 20 bottles of water which we pretty much went through by the time we were ready to leave Tuwani and go to Qawawis, which was just down the road where the plan was to make and fly kites.

After returning to the busses, we saw that an army jeep had parked itself between them and when we spoke to our bus driver we learned that he was being detained by the army because of a problem with his driver’s license. I never really understood what the problem with this was, but the army commander said that he was going to call the police in order to “check” the buses. “Check” them for what I never
figured out. Issa spoke to the commander in the jeep and learned that apparently it is illegal to be parked on the side of the road, despite the fact that the buses were not blocking traffic, were behind the yellow line on the shoulder or the road, and there were no signs saying “No Parking.” The commander said both drivers would be fined 1000 shekels each. This is about $250 which is about half a month’s salary for many people here.

While all this “checking” and arguing was going on, I started to make some phone calls to Israeli and international human rights organizations because we could all see that this had the potential to turn into a disaster: 100 kids, 85 degree F weather (29 C), no water.

An hour passed. The police showed up. We asked the police, for the love of god, bring the kids some water or just let us go. They refused. The kids had a demonstration, they held hands, surrounded the police and army jeeps and chanted “Bidna rouweh, bidna rouweh !” which means “we want to go, we want to go !” Here is a video clip:

I have to hand it to these kids, they were so brave. No one cried, there were no tantrums, they mainly
stayed in the buses or played quietly on the side of the road and chatted to each other. Sometimes they would ask me what was going on or if I had any water which broke my heart. We were all noticing how
well they were dealing with the situation and someone remarked that as Palestinian kids, they probably don’t have very high expectation and that something like this, is, well “normal.”

But it is not “normal” to punish children like this and it is just plain harassment however you look at it. The army and the police could have let us go and just detained the one driver. We could have taken the kids down the road to get some water and finish the field trip. But no, everyone had to be detained.

Many arguments with the police and the army ensued and we were on the phone with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Ta’ayush trying to get someone to help us to be released. Eventually Lina called the Red Cross to ask if they could bring us some water. The Red Cross was closed on Saturday (?!) but they promised to try to call someone else. After two hours of waiting I called the American Embassy in exasperation and explained that there were two American citizens detained in the middle of 85 degree weather with 100 Palestinian kids and some adult chaperons, no water and would they please intervene and help us all. Just as I was about to pass the phone to the police officer so the lady at the embassy could speak to him, we learned that we would be released. It had been two hours.

We drove about 10 minutes down the road to the village of Qawawis where the villagers let the kids drink from their well. Unfortunately it was too late to make kites and fly them but the kids had a good
time running around in the village, remarking in amazement that the people there are poorer than they are and live in caves with no electricity or running water.

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12. Nablus: Cruel Deleuzian Approach Used by the IOF

Explanation of the “Deleuzian” Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Strategy.

The siege on ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp continued until noon on Friday, July 20, 2007 when the Israeli Occupation Force completely vacated the West Bank city of Nablus. International human rights activists who had been in the camp since 9:30am discovered a system of holes the IOF had blown through the walls of the refugee camp homes.

The IOF destroyed walls of numerous homes, labeling the holes in order to allow soldiers to move through the refugee camp without entering the streets. This systematic tactic of collective punishment traumatized many of women and children who woke up to their homes being invaded and destroyed by the IOF. Internationals took still-photos of three homes connected by two partially demolished walls. They documented broken windows linked to holes in the walls of adjacent homes.

When the IOF entered each of the homes, they immediately forced all those present into a single room and compelled them to stay there while their homes were occupied and used to link civilian homes in the military operation. Many homes had significant damage not only to their windows and walls but also to their personal affects.

One woman told the international human rights activists that the IOF soldiers asked where her husband was. She told them that he was not home because he worked in Nablus Municipality. She said she asked them who they were looking for and they replied they were looking for everyone because everyone is Hamas.

Another woman sobbed as she told an international human rights activist that 20 or more soldiers remained in her house for two hours. “They brought sandwiches. They destroyed my home and then they ate their lunch,” said she. “My children were so scared they hid under the bed in the room we were forced into.” The mother was allowed to leave the room in which her children hid only to serve water to the soldiers occupying her living room.

The IOF occupied a total of nine homes all of which were connected by this system of holes in the walls and broken windows. Activist found the residents in a complete state of shock and despair thanks to the
morning’s invasion.

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13. Nablus: IOF Snipers Evicted!

After a standoff in ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp, Friday morning, July 20, 2007, in which six international human rights activists forced three jeeps of the Israeli Occupation Force to retreat, denying them further access to the camp, the international activists achieved a second success. At 11:30am several Israeli snipers were forced out of the home they had occupied since 3:00 am that morning. The internationals entered the house after the withdrawal of the snipers and found 35 civilians inside, 20 of which were children.

International activists combed the main thoroughfare of ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp, Friday morning after the standoff, to ensure the army had vacated the area completely. Several Palestinian boys approached the activists to point out Israeli snipers in a building on the hill above the camp.

The activists proceeded toward the building where they found the door of the gate kicked in. From the outside of the door they negotiated with the soldiers. “Your position is know you need to leave now,” one international activist shouted at the door. Several other activists echoed his sentiment. A soldier opened the door. “We are here to let you know that its time to leave,” said an activist as the soldier raise his gun to the activists’ chest. “There is absolutely no reason to point that gun at us and you know that.” At this time the activists could see several of the people being held prisoner in their own home. The soldier quickly shut the door when he realized everything was being caught on film.

They shouted from the door to the soldiers that their location was known and that it was pointless to continue occupying the building. They implore the soldiers to leave and think of the families inside who they had endangered.

“Your position depends on the fact that you think it’s a secret that you are in there. You and I both know that that is not the case, so its time to pull out,” said an activist. “This is a war crime. You cannot use civilians as human shields, which is what you are doing. You cannot take up place in an occupied residence and use it as a sniper position. It’s time for you to leave.”

The negotiations continued between the international activists and the occupying soldiers who whispered on the other side of the door.

“I know you have orders that make sense to you right now, but what you need to understand if that you are breaking the law. And you still have a decision to make about what is right. Its time to leave and you know that,” said an activist. “You cannot hold a family prisoner while you use their home as a sniper position. And it doesn’t make sense anyway. Everyone knows you are in here, how do you think we found you—other than the door blown off the gate, its not very subtle. We know you are here. So it is time to leave. Call your boys, get your jeeps, and get out…This is not a strategic forward position for you anymore. It’s time to relocate. Call the jeeps and leave.”

After about 20 minutes, the Israeli snipers did call the jeeps to return for them. Seven Israeli snipers exited the building. When the soldiers and jeeps left, the people trapped inside flooded out onto the street.

They entered the house at 3:00 am, about 12-15 soldiers, and occupied the top floor, one man who had been held captive in his own home told the international activists. He continued saying that they made all the families stay downstairs. They separated the children from the adults. Two soldiers guarded the door to the building as well as the door to the room where they had forced the families to stay. The rest of the soldiers, he said, stayed upstairs.

“My children were very afraid—they cried,” said one woman who was alone in her flat with her children because her husband, forced by the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime, sought employment abroad.

“The Israeli occupation controls the whole country, what’s another house to them,” said another man about being held prisoner in his own home for 8 and half hours.

One of the families inside the occupied house was visiting from Jordan for a wedding next week; they just arrived the day before. A woman in this family expressed deep sadness and shock over how quickly and drastically life changes in Palestine.

No one was physically hurt during the house occupation nor were any of the families’ personal affects destroyed. One man told the international activists at the scene that he did not hear any gunfire coming from the third floor.

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14. Nablus: Activists Block Jeeps

The invasion of ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 10:20 am when several jeeps returned to the main street of Nablus and entered the camp. International human rights activists present created a human roadblock on the main thoroughfare of the camp to stop any other jeeps from entering the camp and continuing their siege on the camp’s inhabitants. Three internationals were shot with rubber bullets during the blockade. They were just three of the several victims of the IOF’s aggressive and excessive use of force that morning, on what could have otherwise been a quiet, peaceful and sunny Friday holiday.

For approximately 40 minutes the activists stood and sat in the road denying the IOF access to the camp from that route. During the standoff between the jeeps and the non-violent activists, several sound bombs were thrown out of the jeep’s windows, tear gas was shot up into the air, and rubber bullets and sound bombs were fired at extremely close ranges.

“They are not going through,” the activists echoed to each other making it clear that they were committed to staying in the road despite the IOF’s attempts to scare them away.

The activists shouted to the jeeps, “Who are you shooting at?” The IOF continued to fire rubber bullets in the direction of the activists as well as at the Palestinian boys that lined the right-hand side of the road. “The ammunition in that gun will kill if you shoot it at this range. That is an M16 it will kill at this range. Do you understand, you will murder somebody if you shoot it. You will kill!” an international activist screamed at the jeep as it continued to fire its ammunition at the non-violent activists.

Three jeeps were blocked from entering the camp by the activists, one on the offensive with two stacked behind it the second on the same road, and the third at the bottom on the main road perpendicular to the main thoroughfare of the camp.

As the first jeep retreated and quickly approached, revving its engine each time it came within a half meter from the activists. “Does it look like we are moving? Back off! Back off!” said one of the international activists. They were undeterred, unintimidated, and unwilling to allow this vehicle as arm of the occupation apparatus access to the camp and its innocent inhabitants—the activists sat down together in the road. The jeep quickly sped up, stopping mere centimeters from the activists’ heads, which were then parallel to the bumper of the jeep, to rev its engine creating a dust cloud in their faces.

The IOF soldiers pointed their weapons at the activists from small holes in the steel jeeps they hid behind. “Do you know what will happen if you shoot?” asked one international activists. As the word “shoot” crossed her lips, a rubber bullet came flying out of the jeep. “Do you know what will happen if you shoot? she repeated. “You are shooting at children. You are shooting children. You have brothers their age. This is your younger brother. You are shooting at your younger brother.”

The jeep continued its offensive hoping to scare the activists with its bullets, sound bombs, quick advances and loud engine. Many of the activists seized this opportunity to have a smoke while they sat in the sun showing the soldiers they were unimpressed with how they spent the United States’ Foreign Aid this year.

“Look at me! You can see me. We are not doing this to harm you; we are doing this so you can’t harm them,” said an activist pointing at the streets behind her that made up ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp. “Are you going to murder me because I am standing in your jeep’s way?”

After 40 minutes the IOF was forced to drive away. The international activists successfully warded off the threat of three more jeeps to the refugee camp. Not one soldier exited the jeep during the whole entire exercise. It was machine versus man on the streets of Nablus. Man, the human spirit, won that morning.

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15. Nablus: Direct Targeting of Children

Early in the morning Friday, July 20, 2007, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested three Palestinian men and injured three others during an invasion in ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp located in the north of the West Bank city of Nablus.

According to several men living in ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ the IOF entered the camp, shortly past midnight, raiding more than nine homes, terrorizing the women, children, and families as well as the community at large.

At 9:30 am nine international activists approached the refugee camp. The roads were blocked; the IOF soldiers yelled from their jeeps that they could not enter the area. The activists continued to walk the streets of the camp undeterred by their threats. The nine walked to the main road at the edge of the camp where two IOF jeeps were blocking traffic on either side.

Palestinian boys were victimized by the IOF fanatical anger and lack of control as they were shot at with rubber bullets and live ammunition from inside the IOF’s monstrous steel jeeps.

At this time several international activists positioned themselves in between the gun sticking out of the IOF jeep and the Palestinian boys. The activists shouted questions at the soldiers about the necessity of shooting young teenagers as well as their illegal and unwanted presence in Nablus. Several activists took video footage of the event.

After approximately 20 minutes, the soldiers in their fleet of jeeps left the city, not without first throwing a sound bomb out the door of their vehicle in close proximity to the medics and international activists.

After the Israeli withdrawal, two internationals left the camp for Rafidia Hospital where the three injured teenagers saught emergency medical treatment. Mohammed Salim Askr, 17, was hit in the stomach/abdomen by a rubber bullet and underwent emergency investigative laparotomy. Edres Abdul Agfro Kama, 18, was hit in his right leg by a rubber bullet. He received surgery last year on the same leg for another rubber bullet injury. This time, he received IV antibiotics and discharged himself. Ali Esa Ramadan, 12, took a rubber bullet in his left hand. He did not have a fracture and was discharged.

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16. Nablus: What Could Happen Next?

The Israeli siege on Zawata, a village near Nablus, continued around noon on Thursday, July 19, 2007 as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) demolished the exterior wall of a second home. The home itself was saved due to the extreme pressure placed on the IOF by international human rights activists present on the ground. The house belonged to Asad Natour’s three brothers. Faris Natour, 21, was interrogated inside his family’s half demolished home for almost six hours before he was arrested and taken away by the IOF.

“I had been sleeping. We turned on the television and we heard that they had entered the house of my brother and law. We were worried,” said Om Faris in a video interview with an international activist present at the demolition. “We went out on the street when there was an announcement that the army had pulled back. We wanted to walk up to check on our family members up in the village. And that’s when we realized that the army was standing just outside of our door. This was at 10:00 am.”

The IOF surrounded the house and they called the families out on the street. “They made them take off their clothes, all of their clothes one by one,” said Om Faris. The families were then strip-searched and forced to sit in the sun for two hours.

“They tried to call out Faris and when he did not response they called out for his mother—me,” said Om Faris. “They told him to surrender with ‘his bomb’ or they would blow up the house.”

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ website cites a 2004 B’tselem Summary as reporting that more than 628 Palestinian homes were demolished during the second Intifada. These demolitions were used as specific tactic of collective punishment which affected the families of people known or suspected to be “terrorists.”

Om Faris continued lamenting the events that transpired at her home that day. “I told them 18 people live in this house. We are still paying off the debts of this house. I started crying hysterically. Faris calmed me down and said I should leave. He told me: a house can be demolished and a house can be rebuilt,” she said. “Then they took the women up on the street. I refused to go. I told them if they are going to demolish my house they are going to do it with me in it.

The house behind Om Faris’ home also fell prey to the IOF who had encircled the vicinity. Though the house was empty every window was shot in and shattered glass hemmed its interior.

Osama Zawati, 50, was returning home from work in Nablus at 2:00 pm when he realized his neighbor’s home was under siege. He held two grocery bags of fruits and vegetables and was told by an IOF soldier to walk swiftly with them by his side straight to his home or he would be shot. Later, he tried to look at the damage to the windows of his neighbor’s home, however, the IOF did not permit him to do so.

Around the same time, the IOF shot rubber bullets at an ambulance parked a quarter kilometer from the home still being occupied. The ambulance was parked outside a home where medics and internationals waited, after being denied access to the home, for Faris to be released and the army to leave the village.

At 5:00 pm, less than three hours later, the Israeli army occupied the house of Nowaf Abu Amsha, 35, in which the internationals and medics had been waiting, and the family was dragged out into the street. The army then demolished the family’s nearby garage with their car inside. “They didn’t ask me even to open it,” said Abu Amsha.

At 6:00pm the IOF left the village, two young men from Zawata still in their custody. Their mothers left to wonder when, if ever, they would see their sons again.

“On average 12 innocent people lose their home for every person ‘punished’ for a security offense – and in half of the cases the occupants had nothing whatsoever to do with the acts in question,” reads the ICHAD website. “To add to the Kafkaesque nature of this policy, the Israeli government insists it is pursued to ‘deter’ potential terrorists, although 79% of the suspected offenders were either dead or in detention at the time of the demolition.” (B’tselem Summary 2004:1,3).

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17. Nablus News (July 12th, 2007)

Original Article Link.

By Remi Kanazi

18 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org

Anyone who has traveled through Ben Gurion airport in Israel knows that it is a unique experience. For most Israeli Jews, the experience is comforting, a quick and accommodating entry into a nation created and developed for the Jewish people. For Palestinian-Americans and many activists working in occupied Palestine it is quite a different experience. Most of these travelers are held for hours and questioned repeatedly; some of who are stripped naked and in some cases (especially in the last two years) denied entry.

As I write from Ramallah, I recall my and my brother’s experience in Ben Gurion just one week ago. After a sleepless 15 hour trip from New York, we arrived at the airport and went directly to the check-in booth. After waiting in a short line, a friendly woman asked for our passports, yet immediately turned sour once she viewed them. We were asked to step aside and after about 15 minutes a woman from airport security told us to follow her into one of the detainment rooms. Given the countless stories of harassment I had heard and read about before my trip, I wasn’t so foolish to think that my journey through Ben Gurion would be a walk in the park. I had initially anticipated a four hour wait, interrogation, and a thorough pat down by Israel’s finest.

When we arrived at the first detainment room, several young female security agents asked us where we were going, about our ethnic background and family history, whether we had family in Israel or the occupied territories (and if we would be staying with them), and if “there was anything they should know.” We were then taken to another detainment room, where a few other detainees were being held. Over the next three hours, several female security officers came into the detainment room we were being held in to question us, while at other times we were called into other detainment rooms for questioning. One African detainee, an elderly black woman, was not allowed into the country with her husband despite a seemingly innocent decision to visit her family.
After about four hours, pure exhaustion set in. At this time, we were taken to a large room with metal detectors, an x-ray machine and a coffee machine that looked like it wasn’t in use. Still, in a token attempt at friendliness, the security agent offered us a cup of coffee. But the offer was rescinded once he noted the machine was out of service.

About every ten minutes another member of airport security entered the room. After about 30 minutes we were taken into a back room, patted down, and scanned with a hand held metal detector. After being held for an hour, Sami, who claimed to be a higher up in the IDF and airport security, entered the room. He had apparently been called in by regular airport security because of certain “red flags” we had raised.

Sami didn’t look particularly happy to see us. He started to go through our bags, which had been checked by every member of airport security that previously entered the room. He had a determined look on his face as he sifted through my brother’s book on corporate law and became more agitated when he didn’t find the holy grail of information.

After about 15 minutes Sami looked up at us and told us that “something was missing;” we were “leaving out part of the story,” and he was going to find out just exactly what that “part” was. He was looking for what he called the “truth.” So I repeated what we had told the previous soldiers: we were staying our first two nights in East Jerusalem, we would be traveling to the holy sites (to see where baby Jesus was born), Haifa and Yaffa (the cities our grandparents were dispossessed from in 1948), Nazareth and Bethlehem. We told the truth, but kindly omitted Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Jenin, Dheisheh, and any other intended stops in the occupied territories that didn’t involve conventional tourism. In all honesty, we had only planned out our first two days in East Jerusalem, which made Sami increasingly annoyed.

Sami put it bluntly, as of the moment we were called in we were considered “terrorists” or people intending to “engage in terrorists activities” because we “lied” to airport security about the intention of our travels. Sami defined terrorism and terrorist activities as meeting up with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), working in “terrorist” branches of the Alternative Information Center (AIC), and non-violently protesting against the Apartheid Wall in the village of Bil’in. He was trying to a strike fear in us that went well passed being denied entry. It had become a matter of whether he was going to tell the US government if we were terrorists or not. He claimed that if he told the US government we were terrorists, it would not only affect us the rest of our lives (i.e. anytime we tried to get a job, bought a plane ticket, or applied for a credit card), but it would affect our family, immediate and extended, in a similar fashion. The explanation was clear: nobody would believe two Palestinians males over a respected man in the IDF with 40 years of experience. At this point I started to offer up information that may or may have not been considered “terrorist activity,” essentially the plans for our trip, which my brother and I were still faintly excited about, plans that didn’t seem to bring much joy to Sami.
Sami started to go through our phones, writing down numbers and asking questions about anyone with an Arab, Persian or Jewish name. He was particularly angered when he saw the name of a well known Jewish activist who had done extensive work in the occupied territories in my brother’s phone. Ironically, the number in my brother’s phone was the number of a paralegal in New York City, not the well-known activist, but Sami wouldn’t get off the subject for a solid half hour.
After about 90 minutes of intense bullying, Sami concluded we weren’t terrorists. At this point, good old Sami started to warm up, but not without first telling us what we explicitly weren’t supposed to do: no ISM, stay away from AIC activity, and do not engage in anything that we would categorize as non-violent activism.

By the end of stay at Ben Gurion, Sami informed us that we were lucky to catch him on a good day. He became extremely open and candid in the last 30 minutes. He said that he may not agree with everything that he does and he may not agree with the political situation, but he’s a soldier of the state, and serving its interest is his job. While I appreciated his honesty, this type of rationalization has been used throughout history, justifying war crimes and human rights violations ad infinitum.

As our seven hour journey came to an end, Sami began telling us personal stories. I’m not sure if it was an attempt clear his conscience, but he told us about his diverse group of friends, which included Arabs, and how his life had been saved five times, all by Arabs. It was amazing to see how human and forthcoming some of the “toughest” people in Israel have become, while at the same time keeping up their walls of discrimination and oppression, walls that have ultimately been encompassed by a greater wall of rationalization. For us, it was seven hours of hell in Ben Gurion. For a Palestinian here, occupation is a reality every day of the year.

Remi Kanazi is a Palestinian-American poet and writer based in New York City. He is the co-founder of remroum@gmail.com.

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20. Bil’in: No IOF Love for Bil’in Non-Violent Protesters

Friday’s non-violent protest saw over 300 Israeli (~25), Palestinian, and international (over 100) supporters walk, unarmed as usual, from central Bil’in village towards the Israeli Apartheid Wall, which steals nearly 60% of Bil’in villagers’ vital agricultural land. Despite numerous attempts by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) at squashing the marchers demonstration, protesters re-grouped repeatedly to continue to march on Palestinian land towards the Apartheid Wall, also on and dividing Palestinian land. Marching forward, they faced repeated firing of tear gas, sound bombs, rubber and live bullets. At least 7 were injured, including regular Palestinian activist from Bil’in, Ibrahim Bournat, who was hit in the head near his eye with a rubber-coated steel bullet, resulting in a significant loss of blood, and long-time Israeli activist Jonathon Pollack, who was wounded in the arm. Wheelchair-bound, another regular Bil’in activist was hit by a tear gas canister which rebounded, landing in his lap clouding him with dangerous amounts of debilitating tear gas at close range. Paralyzed in one hand, he was able to flick away the hazardous canister but suffered further as a second rolled towards him.

The excessive firing of tear gas at the peaceful protesters inevitably results in numerous fires among the olive trees, as was the case today with at least 3 potentially serious fires and other smaller flames breaking out. Marchers rushed to extinguish the flames, using branches and their feet to beat and smother flames before they spread. Due to winds, lack of water, and the chaos of the situation, it is common for these fires to quickly escalate and burn the many olive trees spread across the arid land belonging to Bil’in villagers.

In spite of having been assaulted repeatedly with seriously debilitating tear gas, sound bombs and bullets, protesters persevered, again and again making efforts to walk on the land being held hostage by the IOF, using such non-violent tactics as singing, sit-ins, walking with arms raised to indicate they held no weapons and attempting dialog with the attacking IOF soldiers.

Although the International Court of Justice 3 years ago ruled Israel’s Apartheid Wall illegal and called for the cessation of its construction, along with reparations and compensation to Palestinians affected by it, Israel continues to build the wall, annexing more and more Palestinian land, demolishing homes, and further oppressing Palestinians in its expansionist, land-grabbing quest for “security.”

In stark contrast to recent CNN reporting on Bil’in weekly protests, it is worth highlighting the number of Palestinian and Israeli participants, as well as dedicated regular international supporters, old and young, who convene out of moral obligation and objection to this Wall and the Occupation.

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21. Tel Rumeida: Another Meaningless Trip to the Police Station

July 19th, 2007. This afternoon, on Shuhada Street, a young Palestinian boy was detained.

Two settler children were coming up the street, drawing on the doors and walls of Palestinian houses with chalk. Two ISM members were posted on the street and one of them informed the police of the settlers actions, to which he was told that it was just a kid’s game. Shortly after, a police car passed in front of the children, stopped, and said something to them. The car then stopped in front of the ISM members and informed them that he had already advised the children to cease drawing.

The settler children passed along the street and some minutes later, returned followed by two Palestinian teenagers, walking about four meters behind them. The ISM members could see one of the Palestinian teenagers saying something to one of the settler children and were later informed by Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) who had spoken to the second Palestinian teenager that his friend was responding to a remark made by the settler children.

Immediately after, the children went to the police and spoke with them. The police then stopped the Palestinian teenager who had spoken to the settler children at 15.35. Five minutes later, one of the ISM members asked the police what the problem was, but was told that it wasn’t her business but an issue for the police. He refused to give any further explanation and asked the ISM member to wait away from the area in which he was detaining the Palestinian teenager.

At approximately 13.50, another two ISM’ers joined the international group observing the situation. At 14.05, the Palestinian teenager was put into the police car and one female ISM’er approached the police man again, asking for a reason as to why he was being taken to the police station. She was told that he didn’t have any identification on him and the police man refused to let her speak to the teenager.

The teenager was then driven to the local police station where he gave a declaration of the facts and was released approximately one hour later.

This shows, once again, the different approaches used by the police in Hebron, especially in Tel Rumeida, depending on each person. The settler children can throw stones, intimidate and terrorize the Palestinians and yet, they are never detained. Meanwhile Palestinian children must go to the police station simply for verbally responding to the provocation, intimidation and harassment they experience on a daily basis.

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22. Jerusalem: ICAHD Continues to Rebuild!

July 17th, 2007. The below report was written by Summer Camp participant: P.R.

The decision was made. We as the summer camp now officially have two houses to reconstruct. We all woke up this morning with a day of brick setting and cement pouring ahead of us. Some of us woke to the sound of mosquitoes in our ears, others to the splash of cold dew dripping down from the tent tarp between their noses. We moved on to the building site after breakfast and did exactly what we were meant to; Setting bricks into walls. But before we could pour the cement Meir received a phone call and asked if we’d like to accompany him to see a demolition in Jerusalem. Many of us went with him and as we watched the green army jeeps leave the Israeli base we realized that they were headed toward Anata. It was quite a scare. I myself was in the van where people feared that the demolition team was coming to destroy our in-progress home.

Back at camp however, the family panicked and some tears were shed in the thought of once again losing their house. The workers had already abandoned the site by the time we had arrived. Meir clarified that our house was not in danger of demolition but the house just down the hill was about to be torn down. He warned us not to approach the demolition site as to avoid attracting attention to our project.

We all climbed to the upper floors of a large apartment building and watched as the bulldozer inched toward the little house. Soldiers surrounded the entire house and even went as far as placing soldiers amongst the crowds of Palestinians and internationals watching on the hillsides. Watching the demolition really made me question my own opinions. I don’t consider myself an optimist, but I know that there is a considerable amount of Israeli’s who do oppose this government and its policies. I believe in the good of men. It is moments and atrocities like the one that I witnessed today that make me doubt my own beliefs. We all stood on the balcony, some of us filming, some of us taking pictures and a lot of us discussing. But all of us had the same feeling of disbelief and hopelessness. For a single moment I thought that many of us in this camp lost our sense of hope.

When I finally went down and closer to the house and the soldiers, I continued to watch. Some of the Palestinian kids were staring at the soldiers. One of the soldiers asked in Hebrew “What are you looking at?” and approached the child. The kid’s older brother took to his defense and the soldier told him to shut up. I guess it never escalated because of our presence as foreigners. But it was appalling for me to see people just a year or two older than me seem so heartless. I never was keen on the draft, and this reminded me why. The soldiers left and we saw the children throw their stones and down came the tear gas canisters. We left to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Jeff Halper had returned from the United States and when we got back to Beit Arabiya he, Salim and Meir debriefed us about the whole event. Why the house was demolished and the events that led up to it. The family was not even home, but they have to come back to a pile of rubble. We decided as a whole to continue both our current project and give hope to the newly distressed by also reconstructing their home. And so the decision was made that this year, we will have two homes to dedicate, two hopes to restore, and two families to rebuild.

To view the photo of the day, please click on the below link:

http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=464

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23. CNN in Bi’lin: Blames the Victim

Direct Article Link

The most important video in the article is not embeddable so instead of just posting the text, we recommend that you follow the link and read the full article. – The ISM Media Team

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24. Gaza: Ceaseless Misery at Rafah Border Crossing

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Date: 18 July 2007

Time: 11:00 GMT

Further Deterioration to Humanitarian Conditions of Palestinians Struck at Rafah International Crossing Point:

Woman’s Death Raise the Number of Deaths at the Crossing Point to 16

On Tuesday, 17 July 2007, Sanaa’ Ahmed ‘Ali Shanan, 29, from the northern Gaza Strip town of Jablaya, married to Jamal Saleem Shalha and a mother of 3 children the youngest of whom is 6-month-old, died at an Egyptian hospital. She had been stuck in Egypt for at least 35 days. According to her brother, she was transferred by the Palestinian Ministry of Health to Nasser Institute Hospital in Cairo nearly 2 months ago to undergo medical checking for her chest. The medical checking concluded that she was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis. She had remained in the hospital from 10 days, before she traveled towards Rafah International Crossing Point to go back to the Gaza Strip. As the crossing point was closed, she was forced to go to al-’Areesh town, waiting for the crossing point to be opened. She went more than once to the crossing point, and she had to spend more than one night near it. She then stayed in the Egyptian town of Rafah, where she stayed with her uncle. During her stay in Rafah, on Monday, 16 July 2007, her health condition deteriorated. She was evacuated to the hospital, but she died at approximately 11:00 on Tuesday. Her body has been kept at the hospital pending the approval of Israeli authorities to be allowed into the Gaza Strip.

Thus, the number of Palestinians stuck in Egypt who died has increased to 16, most of them are patients who had received medical treatment at Egyptian hospitals and their health conditions deteriorated due to long waiting under inhuman conditions at the crossing point. Two other Palestinians also died in a car accident while they were on their way to the crossing point. IOF have refused to allow the entry of the bodies of the deceased through Rafah International Crossing Point, and have allowed their delayed entry through Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

The continued closure of Rafah International Crossing Point, the sole outlet of the Gaza Strip to the outside world, has created a humanitarian crisis for at least 6,000 Palestinians, who have been stuck in Egypt, especially in al-Areesh and Rafah towns, waiting to be allowed in the Gaza Strip. This figure includes at least 1,200 patients who had traveled to Egypt to receive medical treatment at its hospitals, hundreds of families who live abroad and

arrived in Egypt to travel to the Gaza Strip to visit their relatives, and hundreds of university students who wish to spend their summer vacation with their families in the Gaza Strip. Many of these Palestinians have run out of money due to their unexpected long stay in Egypt, and they are threatened by diseases due to the lack of basic sanitation services. Additionally, the Egyptian Authorities have continued to hold hundreds of Palestinians at al-’Areesh Airport, nearly 50 kilometers away from the crossing point, worried of their possible long stay in Egypt due to the closure of the crossing point.

PCHR is deeply concerned over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions of Palestinians stuck at Rafah International Crossing Point and neighboring Egyptian towns. PCHR is shocked by the failure of the international community and United Nations agencies to act to end the suffering of these Palestinians through pressurizing towards the opening of the crossing point. The closure of border crossings of the Gaza Strip, especially Rafah International Crossing Point, and the restrictions imposed by IOF on the freedom of movement of the Palestinian civilian population constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

In light of the above:

1) PCHR calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to immediately intervene and exert pressure to ensure the reopening of Rafah International Crossing Point in order to end the suffering of thousands of Palestinian who have been stuck at the crossing point.

2) PCHR calls upon the international community to take necessary stop to compel Israel to stop the policy of collective punishment practiced against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip, manifested in the closure of all border crossing and the restricted movement of persons and goods.

Public Document

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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893

PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org

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25. Jerusalem: ICAHD Rebuilds!
July 18th, 2007 | Posted in Journals, Jerusalem Region | Edit

ICAHD BUILDING CAMP 2007: Day 1 (15.07.2007)

I am an Israeli citizen and have never been to the West Bank before, but this morning I woke up in the West Bank, along with 25 strangers, with the goal of accomplishing something that I consider moral while my government considers illegal. Personally, I believe that people should abide by their morals, and this is what makes this trip worthwhile for me.

After breakfast, a team from ISM came to explain what we are to do if a situation arises where we come face-to-face with an IDF demolition team.

We later toured Anata and visited the leader of the local Bedouin tribe – Abu Mussa. He explained the hardships of being exiled from place to place and how the lack of health benefits in Anata led to the amputation of both of his legs. He told us about how his family was not allowed to visit him in the hospital after his operation and he also told us about his dreams: how he wants one day to return to his homeland and his tribe will be once again united. He and his family would then have a definite place they call home. Hearing his story and seeing his condition saddened me, but his will to survive inspired me. As an Israeli, it is especially difficult to see just how terrible conditions are just a few miles from home. It’s a disappointing site to see, that really makes me question a government that I already have little faith in.

We made our way to the building site after the tours. The house’s foundation was already in place because ICAHD had started this particular house last year, but the building process was interrupted by the IDF. The now not-so-strangers and I constructed a human chain to transfer bricks from one level of the house to the other. The work was difficult, but it’s not something I will remember because the chemistry between the team and the group of Palestinians helping with building the house was exceptional. Despite the language barrier, we managed to cooperate and I believe we accomplished a considerable amount. I was later surprised because at the time it did not occur to me that the people around me were from Switzerland, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Palestine. To me, they were simply people – one and the same. That is what I will remember at the end of all this. We were a group of people from all over the world, but still – just people helping people.

Written by Summer Camp Participant: P.R.

To view the photo of the day, please click on the below link:

http://icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=462

ICAHD BUILDING CAMP 2007: Day 2 (16.07.2007)

Day two of the summer camp, the first full day of work on the building site. Another great breakfast followed by the short walk to the building site. Today the ICAHD volunteers engaged with a variety of work – mixing cement mortar, helping to lay blocks for the walls, arranging the hollow blocks for the roof structure and tying the reinforcing bars for the concrete roof beams.

Above all, the work day was characterized by the forming of human chains. Chains to remove rubbish, to move concrete blocks, to carry buckets of cement mortar and to move steel reinforcing bars. There is quite a lot involved in forming such a chain. Everything becomes meaningful, from the way people position themselves in relation to each other to the way they pass the buckets or blocks to each other. The chain can often be the first time people meet and talk to each other. Discussions about where people come from and how and why they came to be here. This human chain is a reminder of the long line of events and causes that brought all these people to this particular building site. And it is also a way to express and demonstrate concern for the wider cause.

The camp was joined by volunteers from ISM who helped on the building site for the day. At mid-morning a press conference was arranged with powerful statements given by ICAHD members, and volunteers and also by the family whose house we are building.

In the afternoon the site was visited by a group led by the Consul General of Belgium Mr Leo Peeters. He was taken on a tour of the area and shown the wall around Anata. He expressed solidarity with the work of ICAHD and commended the building work on site.

In the evening, excellent discussions were led by Machsom Watch and the Coalition of Women for peace. The speaker from Machsom Watch talked about the system of checkpoints and the presence of women at checkpoints – ‘opening a window into an ugly back yard’. They showed the way that the Civil Administration acts as the bureaucratic arm of the occupation. Machsom Watch is concerned about what is happening to the country and the society and attempt to set up a challenge to the dominant military discourse of Israeli society.

Written by Summer Camp Participant: T.M.

To view the photo of the day, please click on the below link:

http://icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=463

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26. Tel Rumeida: A Fire that Never Goes Out

July 17th, 2007. At around 8pm an ISM activist in the Hebron area was informed of a fire on Shuhada street, next to the Beit Haddasa settlement. When fellow ISM’ers reached the house it was clear that it was burning inside because a lot of black smoke was coming through the windows.

A few minutes later a police car arrived. The ISM’ers tried to have the police call the firefighters, something which they showed no interest in doing. The Police said that since no flames were seen no fire fighters were needed, they did not enter the house and did not look through the windows which would have clearly indicated that there was a fire. Many Palestinians from the neighborhood did call the fire fighters, but the fire truck was not let through by Israeli Occupation Forces.

A little later another police car arrived. The ISM’ers were asked for their passports and informed that they could be accused of trespassing and arson, the arson accusation would, of course, somehow be for a fire that didn’t exist or, if it did exist, merit calling the fire department for.

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27. Tel Rumeida: Continued Harassment at Issa’s House

July 17th, 2007. At around 1pm at Issa Amro’s house in Tel Rumeida, two people from the ISM got detained by police after a settler incident. While three people from the ISM were monitoring the house, they noticed a settler, around his mid 20’s named David, sneaking around the house, circling the property and eventually trying to enter the property.

Soldiers were observing the situation but did not intervene until the settler entered the barbwire surrounded area at which point the ISM team told him to leave the privately owned Palestinian property. After leaving for a short while he and an older settler returned, along with soldiers and shortly after followed by a police man. The settler accused one of the members of ISM of obstruction of public order and another of assault.

They were both taken to the police office in Kiryat Arba. After a couple hours of “investigation” one activist was released and another was bullied into signing an agreement not to return to Hebron for two weeks.

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28. Palestine, the Source of Love

This is Feras’ first english language Poem

By Feras SSA

Oh Palestine! You are my life
My first and final love
I love you since you are Palestine
A stream of sympathy
A mass of mercy
And a light!
All people were guided by your light
They were guided right

Palestine! you are my day
And My wayِ
And you are my heart
My dream every night
I love you!
I love every thing in you
Every thing
I love you when you smile
And when you cry
I love you since you are from me
And I am from you
We were created together
To live for ever
Oh my dear! you are my love

I know you are crying
You are paining
You are slaughtering
Because of the long night
Because of The dark military
The hateful military
Raping you in front of all
If there is all!
Where is all?
No answer!

I am the all
I am the voice of free
Hey, you are the Black Death!
Stop raping
Stop hating
Stop killing
Do not be stupid
And listen to me!

I am coming back
With my light And With my love
And peace
Try to understand
Do not be blind
Things change
The day comes after night
The strength comes after weakness
And the peace comes after war
Do not a ignore

I am coming Palestine!
To celebrate with you
In our timeless marriage
Since you are me
And I am you

Palestine I love you
I love your irregular body
I love your shiny hair
I love everything in you
Every thing
Even if you’re dirty
How you are beautiful!
I love you since you are
Palestine

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29. Anata: More Homes Being Rebuilt

Monday July 16th, 2007. Four members of the ISM have taken part in a work camp in Anata (Jerusalem area), organized by ICAHD, with the support of other organizations. The goal of this summer work camp is to rebuild a house demolished by the Israeli Occupation Forces in December 2005. 25 internationals from the US, New Zealand, Italy, England, and many other countries, as well as a variable number of Israeli volunteers, who go for one or some days, have taken part in this camp, that started on the 14th of July and will finish on the 28th with the inauguration of the house, hopefully, completely finished. The construction of the house is paid for by the internationals, who pay $1000, apart from their physical contribution with their work to build the house, hand by hand with Palestinian workers.

Rebuilding part 1

Tours are also given during part of the days, all around West Bank. The Palestinian family whose home is being rebuilt are staying in another nearby house, which sits in front of a new interrogation center and which, was itself demolished four different times and rebuilt by the ICAHD four different times. Nowadays this house doesn’t function just as a home, but as a Peace center, because the family lost their residence permit and can only be there when there is an international presence with them, as it happens at the moment. The coordinators of the camp explained to us that the Jerusalem budget for demolishing houses allows only for 100 houses a year, but every year they plan for the demolition of many more families homes and in this way nobody knows when, or even if, their house is going to be demolished. This regularly makes them wonder why their house has been demolished while their neighborer’s, which was scheduled for demolition, wasn’t.

Rebuilding part 2

The demolition orders come because most of the houses in West Bank are “illegally” built and that is because it is almost impossible for Palestinians to build their homes legally. Each time they apply for a permit, they have to pay about $5000, and many times they have to apply three times. Even after three attempts sometimes they are still unable to get a permit. The Israeli authorities generally make up different excuses such as, that the house is on a hill, that a document is missing or some other meaningless bureaucratic nonsense. This process can be 10 years long. In Anata’s case, the situation is even worse. Anata is a village under three different authorities: Jerusalem municipality, Area B (Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control) and Area C (Israeli civil and military control). So people here have to appeal to all these authorities. The Israeli project for Anata is to surround it by the wall, with just two exits, one to East Jerusalem and the other one to the rest of the West Bank.

Rebuilding part 3

Both international and Israeli volunteers were very excited to help rebuild this home. The contact with other people from all over the world, all of whom have the same goal and the same worries about the situation in Palestine, along with the shared sweat, conversation and smiles with the Palestinian people makes everyone feel very hopeful about the future here. For many Israelis, the West Bank is as unknown to them as it is to people coming from other countries. Living and sharing this reality will help to give them a different idea of the situation in the country they share.

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30. Bethlehem: Rebuilding Homes in Al Walaja

Starting on monday July 9th, 2007, ISM volunteers joined skilled Palestinian workers and international volunteers from EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel) and Holy Land Trust, in coordination with ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) in rebuilding a house in Al Walaja vilage that had been demolished by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Building part 1

Al Walaja Village is now located 8 kilometers west of Bethlehem, and has 65 houses and one mosque slated for demolition, though the location of the village has changed over the years according to the whim of Israel. When the Israeli State formed in 1948 the village was moved from the Jerusalem hills (where it had been located for more than a hundred years) to a nearby location reduced from its original size by 90%. By 1967 half of the village had left, half remained. State harassment continued; in the 1970s, Israel limited building permits for Al Walaja villagers. In 1981 Israel issued orders to annex the village into the Jerusalem municipality, to become Israeli public land, but did not provide services or rights to the people living there that were normally accorded to Jerusalem residents; villagers received orange ID cards instead of blue as a tactic to drive them away.

This has taken its toll. Villagers now must be over 40 to obtain a work permit as a laborer in Israel, unemployment is high and many people leave to the UAE to find work. Those that stay are faced with a landscape increasingly surrounded by settlements, of which Har Gilo is the closest. The Israeli government has planned to build the apartheid wall entirely around Al Walaja, so that it is surrounded, with one entrance. A village of 2000 people surrounded by a wall and illegal settlements, with little chance to work, and houses slated for demolition. It is not a pretty picture.

When volunteers from ISM joined the building of the house of Monder and Seham Salem, what struck us was their brave face of resistance in front of all this repression, but what also struck us was their story. Their house, the house they built with their own money, was first demolished in January of 2006, they were told they didn’t have a permit. After having their house demolished without any warning they were forced to live in a tent in the winter for two months. They rebuilt their house after this with money pooled from the local villagers, and tried to get a permit, but after it was built it was demolished again in December 2006 because they were told the apartheid wall was due to cross their property. Again, they were not given any warning.

Building part 2

Their family had owned this property since before 1948. They were fined 100,000 NIS because of ‘illegal building’, which they refused to pay. Because of their inability to pay this fine, the father, Monder, was imprisoned for one month, also their oldest son was arrested and kept in prison but for a night but released due to his young age. To rebuild their house to half the size after the demolitions it has cost in total around $35,000. This time their house, the third to stand on the property, was paid with money from ICAHD and Holy Land Trust.

In a village of similar stories, we spoke to a nearby neighbor who has spent $76,000 dollars on court fees to Israel over 12 years for Israeli surveyors to measure his land, for Israeli workers to fly to Turkey to verify his land claims from the Ottoman empire. While we were there this neighbor happily showed various documents, some from the British mandate, showing that his family had owned this land.

Amazingly it took only two weeks for spirited volunteers and Palestinians to put foot to sand and hand to brick and put this house back together. Some days there were as many as 30 and 40 people from many different countries that only wanted to do their best to work with people that were committed to not doing the easy thing, not leaving to another country without illegal settlements and so much institutional racism, but to stay on the land that their grandfather owned, to stay and struggle for justice.

The people that live in Al Walaja will be completely isolated from other villages like Bethlehem and Bet Jalla by Bypass road 60 and the wall for the fault of Israeli policy of confiscating land and driving out the original inhabitants. One man has to keep his chickens in a van because he is not allowed to build even a chicken coop, the people are not allowed to build anything as a way to falsely prove that Israel is stealing a land without a people.

After working for a week side by side with the family, with Palestinian workers, with international volunteers, on Saturday, June 14th, there was a ceremony, a kind of ribbon cutting for the house. The family spoke of their gratitude for their new house. The volunteers spoke of their gratitude for meeting the family and the opportunity to do something. Two olive trees were planted on the property from Holy Land Trust and the local popular committee as a symbol of Palestinian commitment to their land.

But their commitment was not only symbolic, the brother of Seham Salem, who had helped her rebuild her house every time, and worked tirelessly making sure the house was built right, said he also would commit himself to helping rebuild houses demolished by the Israelis as a volunteer. ICAHD also committed themselves to rebuilding houses demolished by the Israeli occupying army. More than 18,000 homes have been demolished since 1967, more than 18,000 families have been kicked out without warning. ICAHD said they had rebuilt 40 already this summer, with the goal of 300 rebuilt by the end of the year.

Clearly the work is not over. It is easy for people with foreign passports to work some days of manual labor and leave for foreign shores. It is the people who have had their house taken from them, destroyed, that must live with it. But we are not standing idly by. The work we did was important, but far more important was meeting the family, and families of the region, listening to their stories, and repeating them to all who will listen. These families prove there is no irresistible force that can stand up to an immovable object.

1. Nablus: Misery at Checkpoints
2. Wadi-Al-Neiss: More Actions Against the Wall
3. Artas: Non-Violent March in the Proposed Valley of Waste
4. Bil’in: Friday Demonstration (July 13th)
5. Nablus: Nablus News Report
6. Tel Rumeida: Slouching Towards Annexation
7. Tel Rumeida: Soldiers in Jamillas House
8. Tel Rumeida Summer Camp 2007!
9. Tel Rumeida: Freedom to Trespass
10. Tel Rumeida: Harassment over Posters
11. Nablus: IOF Treatens to Make 70 Palestinians Homeless
12. Nablus: Planting Trees in Till
13. It Is Not a Horrible Checkpoint
14. Tel Rumeida: Not All Fun and Games
15. Tel Rumeida: More Harassment

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1. Nablus: Misery at Checkpoints

July 12th, 2007. Nablus in the West Bank is home to approximately 250.000 people, and with its university and central location as a major commercial and educational focal point, it has also been a place which attracts workers and students from other villages and cities in the area. Nablus is surrounded by 35 villages in addition to illegal Israeli settlements such as Itamar, Berakha,and Alon Moreh, and Yitzhar.

The roads in and out of Nablus are controlled by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), and they control the thorough-fares in and out of the city, thus stopping the entry and exit of every one of the West
Bank residents approaching the city. The Checkpoints of Huwwarra leading southward, Beit Iba to the
northeast, and Badan to the east are all used as means of collective punishment. The Badan checkpoint especially, has made itself famous for the arrogance and harsh behavior with which the IOF meet the Palestinian population. Long delays, often for hours on end in excruciatingly hot temperatures, without any possibility of getting away, turning back, or finding shade.

On the 12th of July, two ISM-teams approached the checkpoints of Huwwarra and Badan to monitor the actions of the soldiers, report any violations of human rights, and assist Palestinians approaching the
checkpoints. At 7.30 the Badan checkpoint was in reality completely closed, and 10 minutes later the checkpoint suddenly opened up, thus slowly allowing Palestinian cars to go through the checkpoints manned by the IOF. The ISM-team observed and intervened when the IOF forced 4 of the Palestinian men waiting by the checkpoint to carry large boulders in order to further fortify the checkpoint, and prevent cars from approaching the soldiers from more than one lane.

The soldiers did not allow for anyone to pass the checkpoint by foot which created a lot of trouble for the people that came by foot and for workers and students that had to wait next to cars already filled with people. Women and children had to stay under the hot sun for hours and many had to wait more than 3 hours to pass. One of the Palestinian women, Huda, waited in the sun with her five children, the oldest being 9 years old and the youngest girl, an infant of 7 months. Around 08.00 am approximately 50 cars were waiting on each side of the checkpoint and many more Palestinians were standing beside the cars,
hoping to get the chance to lay out their reasons for passing to the arrogant and dazed soldiers. At around 08.30 am a bus arrived and all the men, around 20 had to get out and line up beside the bus, facing the valley below, with their backs to the road. A while later women and children were forced out as well, and all of their luggage was searched. Two of the men in the line were taken aside and had to sit down in the scorching sun. The detained men were handcuffed and blindfolded, one of them had to put his own T-shirt over his head, while the other young man was blindfolded with a piece of cloth. The plastic handcuffs that the soldiers used were very tight, and the soldiers refused to loosen up, even after complaints and requests. After fifteen minutes one of the two detainees was released and could
return to the bus. After standing outside in the heat for 40 minutes, the remaining men could get back to the bus. However one exhausted man was taken to a metal booth and was made to sit on a boulder in a very uncomfortable position.

The ISM-team managed to approach the man, and had him whisper his name and ID-number so that steps could be taken to secure his identity and prevent him from “dissapearing” into the Occupation Forces administration. We also made sure to get the phone number of his parents, and put Machsom Watch and Hamoked in touch with the DCO. It was now clear that the young man would not be released within the near future. The soldiers claimed his was one of the wanted men on their list containing 167 numbers. Each number is the last four numbers in a Palestinian ID-number and everyone on that list is wanted and to be arrested.

Time passed and the heat and position weakened the man and he was barely conscious at some points. The activists were allowed to give him water, but no food and absolutely not talk to him. After nearly 2 and a half hour in detention his condition was just getting worse, but the soldiers kept repeating that this was a dangerous man and not the 18 year old student that he really is, and refused to do something about the situation. When almost 4 hours had passed and the soldiers started to become disturbed by the international presence and the repeated reminders of what human rights violations they committed, the internationals had to leave in order not to escalate the violence. An hour after that, the man was taken away, still under arrest.

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2. Wadi-Al-Neiss: More Actions Against the Wall

Approximately 50 Palestinians, Israelis and international solidarity workers united for another Friday non-violent march in Wadi-Al-Neiss, a village south of Bethlehem which, along with nearby Um Salamuna, is among the many regions suffering from land confiscation due to the illegal Israeli Apartheid Wall.

Marchers convened and attempted to walk on stolen lands, lands illegally taken by the Israeli expansionist regime. The internationally illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, a long and extended expanse of stolen land, designed to appropriate as much land as possible, snakes through Palestinian property, effectively dividing up the land and stealing precious water.

The march occurred just days after the 3 year anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling denouncing the Apartheid Wall as internationally illegal and calling for the cessation of construction, along with due compensation to Palestinians affected by its construction.

One Palestinian from the Local Popular Committee of Land Defense and one of the organizers of the non-violent march, was arrested as he stood unarmed among peaceful demonstrators. Fines for such unwarranted arrests range from 3,000 to 7,000 NIS.

The attempted march lasted for approximately 1.5 hours, during which time marchers attempted numerous times to cross onto annexed agricultural lands. In between attempts to walk on the stolen land, during which armed soldiers used some force against unarmed protesters, resulting in at least 5 minor injuries, solidarity activists made numerous attempts to engage in dialog with soldiers on human rights issues, Israel’s violations of international law, the illegality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and of the Apartheid Wall, and the need for Palestinians to be able to access their own lands, much of which are income and food-providing agricultural lands.

Marchers left as peacefully as they arrived, with renewed promises to demonstrate against the illegal land-grab and to reach the Israeli-annexed Palestinian lands.

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3. Artas: Non-Violent March in the Proposed Valley of Waste

July 13th, 2007. Approximately 40 Palestinians, Israelis, and international non-violent marchers met for another Friday attempt to access stolen Palestinian land in the village of Artas. As in previous marches, unarmed solidarity activists were met by approximately 15 armed Israeli soldiers who refused passage to the Israeli-annexed Palestinian land. Throughout the demonstration, during which the halted marchers sat to listen to Artas Popular Committee member Awad relate the history of Artas’ annexation, at least one Israeli soldier maintained targeted aim with live ammunition on the clearly un-armed crowd below.

Artas, like Um Salamuna, suffers from the devastating effects of the Israeli Apartheid Wall, annexing land and water sources, and the extended illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat. While Efrat divides Palestinian lands leading up to Artas, the villagers of Artas will lose their agricultural lands to Efrat’s sewage: the settlement has plans to empty settlement waste directly onto the olive and fruit orchards below, and further onto the vegetable gardens which provide sustenance to the 4,000 villagers.

Awad described how the valley normally would flood with water at certain times of the year. “One year from now we won’t see this valley; it will be ruined by sewage,” he predicted.

He spoke of the sentiments of Artas villagers and Palestinians throughout Palestinian areas: “We believe in peace, also. We want real peace. Although the Occupation is internationally illegal, we agreed to have Israelis as neighbors, but Zionism insists on having this land, our land, without the people, us.”

He went on to voice what is internationally felt: “The very same people who suffered so greatly under Nazi persecution are now doing the same terrible things to us Palestinians.”

While the marchers were not able to cross onto the stolen lands, their time was well-spent in showing presence against the illegal land-grab and provided an opportunity for numerous speakers to voice their thoughts. Among the speakers was a long-time American activist, who spoke of the parallels between the treatment of Native Americans by US colonialists and that of Palestinians by Israeli colonialists, directing many of his comments at the armed Israeli soldiers within earshot: “In the US, the army went through Native American communities, destroying and killing. When the Native Americans resisted, they were called ‘savages.’ They were made to seem less-than-human.

Now, over 100 years later, the average American knows this is not true. Israel is doing the same thing to Palestinians. We don’t have 100 years. There is no difference between Palestinians and Israelis; we are all human beings. The problem is the Israeli and US governments. And you end up being the tools. The real solution is: End the Occupation Now.”

The non-violent march and meeting ended with further words from the organizers and a peaceful march back to Artas village.

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4. Bil’in: Friday Demonstration (July 13th)

Direct Video Link

July 13th, 2007. 100’s of internationals, Israelis and Palestinians marched against the apartheid wall which has annexed over 50% of the village of Bil’in’s land on Friday. As usual the demonstration was met with Repression from the Israeli Occupation Forces. Three injuries were reported, an unidentified French activist suffered from severe tear gas inhalation, Iyad burnat suffered a burnt hand, which was burnt by a tear gas cannister hitting his hand and Mustafa Khatib suffered from tear gas inhalation resulting in him passing out and having to be carried to the back of the demonstrations by medical personnel.

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5. Nablus: Nablus News Report

Here is the Nablus News Report: Direct Video Link

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6. Tel Rumeida: Slouching Towards Annexation

July 11th, 2007. At 23.30 two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) and four Israelis were at the house of a Palestinian man whose house is being rebuilt after it was vandalized by settlers. The HRW’s and the Israelis have been sleeping in the house for the last week to prevent further attacks from the settlers in Tel Rumieda. Tonight a female settler entered the Palestinian’s land and stole a sign which read “private property”.

The Israelis tried to talk to the female settler but she ran away, up to the settlement where she was supported by other settlers and soldiers. The Palestinian owner of the house called the police and within ten minutes six policemen were at the scene.

The settlers claimed that part of the land belongs to them, and that the Palestinian man is only allowed to use some parts of the land. The female settler, accompanied by other female settlers, continued shouting: “ He cannot go further than the terrace”.

The Palestinian man asked the police if it was possible to sit down and discuss the situation. They did this outside in front of the house. One of the police officers suggested that the Palestinian man lay a complaint at the police station, right away, and then to “be smart, not right” until the Israeli court passes a judgment on the borders of the land. Things might escalate and to prevent further attacks and potential violence it is better to take a step back. This is a seemingly odd statement considering that it is the settlers, not the Palestinian man, who are carrying guns.

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7. Tel Rumeida: Soldiers in Jamillas House

July 11th, 2007. At approximately 5 pm a group of IDF soldiers pointed their guns at 4 children on Shuhada street. The kids where afraid of the soldiers and hid in their home. The soldiers ran after them and pointed their guns at them while shouting “we will shoot you”.

The children’s family is living in one of the houses right next to the Beit Haddasha settlement and their house has been attacked by settlers as well as threatened by the IDF on several occasions.

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8. Tel Rumeida Summer Camp 2007!

The Tel Rumeida summer camp starts on July 14th and runs until July 28th. It will begin on the first day at 9:00am beside the Qurtuba school within Tel-Rumeida. All the events are still being scheduled and will be posted once that information is available. To have any of your questions answered about the summer camp please call Fawaz (0599672529) or Issa (0599340549). See you there!

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9. Tel Rumeida: Freedom to Trespass

Direct Video Link.

At about 4:30pm two internationals human rights workers (HRW) were at the house of a Palestinian man who is in the process of rebuilding his home that had previously been used as an army post. This house is located directly behind Tel Rumeida settlement. The house being rebuilt is owned by a Palestinian and is under constant threat of attack from Israeli settlers. The HRWs were with the Palestinian owner of the home, his brother, four Palestinian children, and two Israeli human rights workers.

At this time, 4:30pm, an Israeli settler named Atam arrived with 5 small children ages 3-5 years old. The settler also had an Ak-47 on his back. At first the group stood in a field below the house and began to pray together. They then walked to the edge of the hill overlooking the city, and the Ibrahimi Mosque, and again briefly prayed. The group then approached the house. The owner of the home told them that they should not come, and tried to stand in the way of Atam who has caused many problems for this Palestinian man in the past.

The Israeli children immediately began to shriek and cry at exactly the same time. It was obvious that Atam had brought these children, with orders to cry, in order to cause some disturbance. He wanted to pass through the house, or at least through the property, in order to reach the settlement, and was using the children to do this.

Atam immediately called the Israeli police, because the Palestinian owner of the home did not want him to pass. The owner of the home knows that the settlers will use every reason to pass through his property so that later they can attack him and his home at will. In this case they are using children as an excuse to pass through the property.

Atam kept trying to push past the Palestinian man, and even tried to enter the home but it was protected by an international. The two Israeli human rights workers kept arguing with Atam and one was very much disturbed that he would use children to try and achieve his goals of passing through the property. All the while the children were crying.

At about 4:50pm two Israeli soldiers arrived and spoke with Atam and the Israeli human rights workers. The situation was not resolved and they continued to wait for the Israeli police. During this time Atam tried to push past the Palestinian owner many times with his screaming crying children.

When the police arrived both sides explained the incident. The Palestinian man said he would not allow the Israeli settler to pass because it was his property and the Israeli human rights workers said it was abhorrent that the settler would use children to try and pass. At one point the children had stopped crying and then began crying again for no reason making it obvious that Atam was telling them to cry.

Finally the police told Atam that he could pass, though the Palestinian owner of the home was very angry about this. He told the police that it was his property and that he would sue the police for this injustice. Atam passed through the area and afterwards the police continued to question the Palestinian owner and the two Israeli human rights workers. As usual with Israeli justice, the Israeli settlers who caused the incidents are free to leave while the Palestinians are forced to answer to the police as if they are the criminals.

The police continued to question and argue with the Palestinian man, and Israeli human rights workers until well after 6:00pm. Nothing was resolved.

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10. Tel Rumeida: Harassment over Posters

July 10th, 2007. At 11:25am two international human rights workers were hanging up posters around the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida for a children’s summer camp due to begin at the end of the week. The posters are designed to make Palestinian children, within Tel Rumeida, ages 5-14 aware of the event so that they will attend.

The internationals had been hanging up posters for forty-five minutes, down Tel Rumeida hill, and on Shuhada street, when they reached the stone-staircase across from Beit Hadassah settlement. The internationals hung up a poster on a stop sign right before the stone staircase. The Israeli soldier present said nothing to either international although he obviously saw the internationals hang up the sign.

The internationals then proceeded to walk up the stone staircase, to hang up more posters, when an Israeli settler began to yell at the soldier about the poster hung up on the stop sign. This settlers name is Atan, he lives in Tel Rumeida settlement, and the internationals have had many problems with him in the past. The soldier told the internationals to stop, and ordered them to come down the stairs.

The internationals asked why the soldier would listen to the settler, and that the posters were for a children’s summer camp. The soldier did not respond as the Israeli settler, Atan, continued to yell at the soldier. One international offered to take down the sign since it seemed to have caused a disturbance and he wanted to proceed hanging up posters without interruption.

When the international tried to take down the sign, however, Atan pushed the internationals hand out of the way. The settler then dropped his shoulder into the internationals chest and pushed him back. The soldier present did nothing about this, and then told the international to leave the poster hanging up.

It then became obvious that they, the Israeli soldier and settler, wanted to use the poster as evidence that the internationals had broken some kind of law. It was then that a plainclothes Israeli showed up, and briefly flashed an id at the internationals telling them that they were detained until the police would come. He told the internationals that he had pictures of them and that if they left they would be arrested by the police. He refused to speak English to the internationals until they tried to leave, and then would make sure to tell them, in English, that if they left they would be arrested.

The internationals at that point were forced to wait, and they both assumed the man was Shin Bet. The Israeli man spoke freely with the soldier, and when a new group of soldiers arrived, who were in training, the Israeli man had long discussions with the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) commanders. He seemed to be respected by every Israeli or settler immediately, which is why the internationals assumed he was Shin Bet.

After about 15 minutes the police arrived and began filming the stop sign, with the poster, and the two internationals. They also took the internationals passports. The Israeli police also told the internationals that it was illegal to put up signs on public property and that they would be investigated. This claim was completely absurd as one can see settler posters and propaganda all over the Tel Rumeida neighborhood.

The time at this point was about 12:20, and the internationals had called multiple Israeli groups and Palestinian friends about their situation. It was obvious that it was the poster on the stop sign that had caused the whole disturbance, and though the internationals had offered to take down this poster multiple times the police told them to leave it hanging.

The police officer then told the internationals to get into the back of the police jeep because they were going to be investigated. The internationals at first refused to get into the police jeep because they feared they would face an absurd charge and be arrested. The policeman began to say, however, that the internationals were resisting arrest, and the internationals finally complied to go into the police jeep.

By the time the internationals arrived at the Kiryat Arba police station they had called everyone they knew about their situation and what they might be charged with.

They found later, after about an hour waiting at the police station, that they could be arrested on charges of putting posters on public property which is supposedly illegal under military law in the occupied territories.

However after about two and half hours, at 2:30pm, the internationals were released without charges. They had given their statements, and the police investigator told them they would remain under investigation. He also told the internationals that they should not make any more problems in Tel Rumeida.

The police investigator also told them that they could hang up more posters but only on houses on which Palestinian families allowed them to place posters. The internationals then walked home to Tel Rumeida.

When they arrived on Shuhada street they noticed that none of the posters were left on the walls. At this point it was about 3:00pm. They discovered, from the internationals present on Shuhada street, that the Israeli settler, Atam, had taken down all the posters on Shuhada street and up the hill.

One of the internationals, who had gone to the police station, stopped Atam, as he was driving, by standing in front of the van. The international quickly yelled at Atam that he had no business taking down their posters, while another international asked “why do you have so much problems with kids?” Atam just shrugged and drove away to an Israeli police officer, stationed at the end of the street, and complained to him about the international stopping his van.

When the policeman arrived he took the internationals information, and told them that it was illegal to put up anymore posters because the picture was inflammatory to the State of Israel. One side of the picture depicted a young girl with barbed wire across her face. Some of the barbs were in the shape of the Star of David.

The policeman told them that the Israeli settler, Atam, had every right to take down the posters because they would incite the settlers, the army, and all Jewish people. He would not admit that the violent settler graffiti littered all over Tel Rumeida, including “Gas the Arabs”, is much more repulsive and inflammatory than these posters.

The policeman told the internationals that they could hang up posters around the neighborhood but not these posters due to the Stars of David.

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11. Nablus: IOF Treatens to Make 70 Palestinians Homeless

July 10th, 2007. At midnight the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invaded Nablus with 75 vehicles from all different directions. They entered Balata refugee camp and the Old City of Nablus. During the night 7 men were arrested in the old city.

At 5 am, the IOF moved on to the Rafideh neighborhood with the aim of arresting 2 wanted freedom fighters in the area. Half an hour later the soldiers went into a villa, interrogated the 6 people living in the house, showing maps of the neighborhood and pictures of the wanted men, clearly knowing who they were looking for and where they could find them. At the same time they surrounded the civilian apartment complex situated next to the villa. The soldiers started to fire their guns and throw grenades and sound bombs in the street in order to wake up people sleeping in their homes. When the residents did not respond to their demands to open the door the soldiers blew up the front door.

They forced the 70 people in the house out into the street. All the men had to show IDs and then go through the humiliating act of taking off their clothes in front of everyone. After that women and men were separated and the approximately 20 men in the group were taken to the nearby villa for detention and interrogation. Since the wanted men were not among the men in this group the IOF started to place bombs around the apartment complex with the intention to blow up the whole building in case the wanted men would not turn themselves in. At this point the two wanted men and the apartment owner that hosted them exited the house. They were handcuffed, blindfolded and then brought to the villa, where they were tortured.

When the ISM team arrived at Rafidah they tried to approach the occupied buildings with no success. Shortly after that, the IOF left Rafidah with the 3 arrested men. After that the ISM activists were let into the apartment of the now arrested man. The apartment was completely torn to pieces. The soldiers had gone berserk, ripped up all the furniture, emptied drawers and closets, throwing everything on the floor including the children’s toys and school material. Basically, the soldiers wrecked everything in the family’s house.

The wife of the house owner told the ISM activists what had happen during the morning. The freedom fighters had been let in to the house earlier that night since they had asked for help and as she said; “we would never turn someone down that asks for our help. We’re doing his because one day we might be the ones in need of help and also we have to do it for our nation.”

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12. Nablus: Planting Trees in Till

July 9th, 2007. As a part of the summer campaign 12 International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists visited the Till village to help the local farmers reach and cultivate their land.

The fear of being shot or having their tractors confiscated has made it impossible for the farmers to reach parts of their land. In addition, thanks to an Israeli law, Palestinian land that has not been cultivated for 3 years may be confiscated by the state of Israel. At 9am in the morning the ISM activists arrived to Till where they met the local farmer Forsam and his family. Forsam has not been able to reach his land in 4 years, out of fear of being shot by the military from their outpost which is located only 200m from his land. The aim of the action was to plant 20 olive trees in 2 hours. The ISM activists task was to make sure the Palestinians could move safely to, on and from their land, which is located inside a closed military zone.

The action was a big success, 20 olive trees were planted in less then an hour and the military did not intervene. This successful action will hopefully lead to more Palestinians being able to access their land during the actions occurring on future days.

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13. It Is Not a Horrible Checkpoint

by: Ash

This morning the streets of the town of Kofor Ra’ai in the district of Jenin were almost empty except for people and families waiting on both sides of the street for transportation. It was a weird situation with no vehicles driving at 11 in the morning but it was obvious that there was a nearby checkpoint blocking cars from passing.

I was traveling for my first day at university in Jenin after a break of three weeks for the summer course, but my trip lasted for three hours which is four times more than a normal day. After thirty minutes waiting side the street, a mini bus arrived and I was lucky to get the last seat at the back. Just few minutes outside the town, an Israeli mobile checkpoint of two jeeps were stopping and checking vehicles in both directions of the road.
Finally it was our turn after one hour of waiting! One Israeli soldier motioned to our driver to get closer and told only males to get out of the bus and get our ID cards out. Two soldiers were already occupying a roof of a house by the street; I could only see the barrel of the gun of the soldier from where I was standing.

After five minutes, anther soldier asked us to walk forward and form a line. In an aiming motion, he was pointing his gun at each one of us slowly and one by one. It felt like he was looking for someone to shoot at. The soldier aims at each old man and tells them to go back to the bus. One of the Palestinians who was with us said that, this checkpoint was for students who are traveling to their universities from home after the break.

The same soldier was keeping our IDs on the top of the jeep; he looked at one ID while keeping his gun pointing at us and asked the first Palestinian who was about 19 years old to walk towards him. Immediately, the soldier told the young Palestinian in Arabic to turn around and lift his shirt up. The young Palestinian was detained!

While we were standing there mumbling from the heat, a small yellow taxi jumped over a queue of approximately thirty Palestinian vehicles in order to bring an old sick man through the checkpoint. The two soldiers on the roof of the house yelled loudly at the driver to go back and wait in line. The driver was waving and trying to address to the soldier that he has a sick person. The soldier cursed him in Arabic and told him to move back.

A big soldier approached to see what was happening and said in Hebrew to the soldiers on the roof “maybe he has a patient” then he motioned to the driver to go to the checkpoint. Meanwhile, an old woman who was apparently a relative to the sick person was trying to speak to the first soldier. The soldier on the ground behaved like if he was a doctor, checking the old person and asking him questions, it was obvious that the old sick man was unable to move and leaning his head against the person next to him.

The detained Palestinian was released after twenty minutes and interrogated by the same big soldier who checked the patient. The soldier confiscated the boy’s wallet and cigarettes, we all thought that the army was going to arrest him and leave which is an ironic tactic that the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) uses at checkpoints to round up random young Palestinians. The soldier gave only 10 shekels and two cigarettes back to the boy and stole the rest. When the boy asked him about the rest of his stuff, the soldier replied that what he gave him is enough for a boy!! Was that soldier asking for more money and cigarettes from the old sick man too?!

After anther twenty minutes, the soldiers asked the driver to get the bus closer to check it with everyone out, including women and children. We were all asked to walk to the checkpoint one by one and get in the bus. As I approached the soldier who was holding our IDs and was apparently the officer in charge I asked in English, “Do you know what you are doing? you should know that this is a horrible checkpoint.”

The soldier looked confused and didn’t hear so I replied “This is a horrible checkpoint!” then got on the bus immediately. After we all were in the bus, the officer came to my window and said “You are not in a position to tell us what we should do at the checkpoint, ok!” the officer didn’t wait and walked away!

In the bus, I was told by the boy that he recognized the soldier who stole his stuff and that most people of Tulkarem city know this soldier as a thief stealing money and gold from homes that the IOF occupies during invasions. The last case that was reported on for robbery done by the IOF was by an old mother of five children in Tulkarem, she last all her gold and money which she has inherited from her dead husband. As the boy was telling me about the horrible things that happened in Tulkarem, how he travels and the crimes of the IOF, he replied to my long silence while listening to him “What do you think of these people?”, “What do you think of this life?!”

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14. Tel Rumeida: Not All Fun and Games

July 8th, 2007. At about 4:30 pm an international human rights worker (HRW) was sitting at the top of Tel Rumeida hill with three Palestinian children. The HRW noticed that the Israeli soldiers were playing with their guns. The soldiers were pointing them at children, playing air guitar with the guns, and taking photos of each other while doing this.

The Palestinian children went inside because they were obviously uncomfortable. Two policeman were present at this time, around the corner, but did not say anything to the soldiers. A six year old Palestinian boy then came up the hill, and the soldiers pointed their guns at him. The Palestinian boy immediately stopped because he was obviously afraid.

The soldiers then took down their guns and the Palestinian boy passed. The HRW then spoke with the young boy, and asked him how he was. The boy explained that he was fine. The HRW then spoke with the soldiers and asked them to stop playing with their guns and pointing them at children because they were obviously being reckless and scaring children. One soldier replied that he would stop, while the other was sarcastic and made fun of the HRW.

The soldiers did not point their guns at any more Palestinian children after the HRW intervened.

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15. Tel Rumeida: More Harassment

July 7th, 2007. At approximately 6:00 pm, two Palestinian boys were being detained at the checkpoint dividing Shuhada street in Tel Rumeida, H2, and the market in H1. Inside the checkpoint two Israeli soldiers were accompanied by a civilian settler who clearly took their attention away from their task.

After 15 minutes two human rights workers (HRWs) tried to intervene but were rudely told by the soldier that they, the soldiers, were not allowed to speak to any internationals. The civilian settler took it upon himself to explain to the HRWs that soldiers have to follow their orders and that every order has
a reason.

The HRWs approached the Palestinian boys to find out why they were being detained, but no reason had been given to them by the soldiers. At approximately 6:25 pm, as the HRWs were speaking to the Palestinian boys outside the checkpoint, one of the soldiers shouted at them, demanding their passports. The HRWs continued speaking to the Palestinian boys as the soldier announced that he would call the police.

At approximately 6:30pm a third HRW arrived and two observers from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH). The Third HRW approached the soldiers to ask about the two Palestinian boys, but the soldier, now seemingly willing to speak to internationals, answered by explaining why the two Palestinian boys were being detained to the HRWs.

A jeep with two officers from the Israeli police arrived at 6:40pm. They asked the HRWs very briefly about the situation and took their passports. The soldiers and the civilian settler were given plenty of time to explain what had happened.

At approximately 6:55pm the detention of the two Palestinian boys was addressed and they were let go. The two HRWs were taken to the police station in Qiryat Arba for having refused to show their passport when ordered to do so. At the police station the soldier who had shouted for the passport, who was now carrying the passports, was being heard from 7:15pm to 7:45pm. After this the HRWs were heard, one at the time, for 30 minutes each. At 9:20pm they were taken back to Tel Rumeida.

1. Um Salamuna: Defending the Land
2. Bil’in: Continued Repression
3. Nablus: 75 Olive Trees Planted Successfully in Iraq Burim
4. Israeli Soldiers Shoot Dead Palestinian Child in Hebron; Body Mauled by Military Dog
5. Tel Rumeida: Walking Down Shuhada Street
6. Back to Jail for Anti-Nuclear Activist
7. Tel Rumeida: Detention at the Ibrahimi Mosque
8. Tel Rumeida: A Water Delivery
9. Tel Rumeida: A Palestinian Boy and His Dog
10. Israeli Invasion Aftermath: Sifting Through the Latest Wreckage in Nablus
11. Artas: Solidarity With a Local Farmer
12. Sign the Susya Petition!
13. Struggles in Susiya
14. Hebron: Resistance to More Land Theft
15. Tel Rumeida: 15-year-old Boy Hit By a Soldier in a Police Car
16. Three Houses Demolished in Nablus
17. Bil’in: 2 Israeli Demonstrators Arrested
18. Tel Rumeida: Another Day, Another Stoning
19. What is Behind Allenby Bridge

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1. Um Salamuna: Defending the Land

July 6th, 2007. At around 11:00, 60 Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists gathered in the trees in Um Salamuna above the place where the apartheid wall is to be built. There were Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the hill across from us, watching while we happily wasted their weekend time. Palestinians and internationals gathered to pray, and afterwards we walked down chanting to where they were building the wall.

We arrived to where the soldiers and border police were waiting and they tried to stop us from moving. We pushed forward and they pushed us back with their shields. We then sat down and chanted and clapped. The soldiers surrounded us and the mayor of the settlement on the hill watched us, smiling. One speaker said that the land they were on was his, and that his face was like stone, whereas the face of the mayor, from Russia, was like snow.

We stood up and the police again formed a line, preparing to use their shields against us, but we walked the other way. As they stood in the dust we created, we walked across the road and began picking the grape leaves and almonds that belong to the Palestinians. After some time soldiers were making their way towards us, we heard sirens, saw dogs and the rest of the group on the road told us to come back as jeeps were approaching.

We came off the Palestinian land on to the road and the site of the apartheid walls construction as a jeep was being blocked by our group in the road. We surrounded the jeep much to the dismay of the soldiers inside who at times tried to go through us but could not. Then we began to decorate the jeep with the grape leaves we collected by means of the netting on top. This unfortunately did not cover the jeep in beauty, but in shame.

The other soldiers then approached, surrounded the jeep and pushed us away. We marched back to the top of the hill. No one was hurt, no one arrested, and we showed that people from Palestine, Israel, and all over the world will not stand by as Israel, illegally steals more and more land.

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2. Bil’in: Continued Repression

Direct Video Link

July 6th, 2007. This afternoon, in the West Bank town of Bi’lin outside of Ramallah, approximately 70 demonstrators attempted to approach the annexation barrier which snakes through Palestinian land. The peaceful protesters included Palestinian members of the community, Israelis, and international observers from the International Solidarity Movement and the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. Though the annexation wall has been completed in the area, the weekly protests against the wall have shown that resistance to the wall will not fade.

As the protest began, with chants and flags waving, the marchers were not able to approach the wall itself; rather, the IOF had blocked the road with barbed wire, and as marchers tried to cross, the soldiers unleashed a volley of tear gas and rubber bullets. A young Palestinian was shot in the foot and an elderly man was rendered unconscious by the fumes. The IOF continued harassing the peaceful demonstration until the crowd dispersed.

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3. Nablus: 75 Olive Trees Planted Successfully in Iraq Burim

July 5th, 2007. Iraq Burin, a village in the Nablus region, has been suffering from increasing harassment by the neighboring illegal colony of Brakha. Villagers, many of whom are farmers, have owned the land for generations and are being frequently threatened by armed colonists. Beatings and shootings of farmers who attempt to tend to their fields have terrorized the village, preventing them from utilizing their land and making a living. Colonists have often burned fields and cut down the farmers’ trees.

During harvest time, as the villagers labor to collect the olives for harvest, colonists descend upon the fields and steal the harvested crops under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). These illegal colonies are in violation of international laws prohibiting the occupation of land and the obstruction of the economy of an occupied people. Furthermore, the criminal behavior of the colonists are provocations of these peaceful people. The IOF consistently protects the colonists by the use of armed force against these unarmed villagers.

In response to these illegal acts, yesterday, the International Solidarity Movement planted 75 trees on land in Iraq Burin which had been subject to attacks by colonists and the IOF. Having obtained trees with the assistance of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees and the Tanweer Organization in Nablus, international activists worked in conjunction with local farmers to plant the trees. The planting finished without any disturbance by the colonists or IOF who were within view of the operation.

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4. Israeli Soldiers Shoot Dead Palestinian Child in Hebron; Body Mauled by Military Dog

Palestinian National Initiative

Ramallah, 04-07-07: Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian child carrying a toy gun in Hebron yesterday. 15-year-old Ahmad Abed Al-Muhsin Skafi was shot 4 times in the upper body by Israeli soldiers who then allowed a military dog to maul the body, tearing the boy’s intestines from his stomach and mutilating his right hand.

Palestinian National Initiative head Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP said that the killing was yet one more gruesome aspect of Israel’s ongoing occupation, in which children have been the all-too-frequent victims of Israeli military violence.

He underlined that for every 6 Palestinians killed as a direct result of the occupation 1 was a child, adding that 798 children aged under 18 years old have been killed in Israeli military attacks since the Second Intifada began in September 2000, of whom 198 were under the age of 12. The majority were killed by shots to the head and/or chest using live ammunition, generally indicative of a deliberate ’shoot to kill’ policy.

Israel is bound by international law to protect the Palestinian people whom it occupies, particularly children, who are afforded special protection under the Convention on the Rights of the Child , an obligation that Israel has repeatedly violated with impunity.

Yet recurring violations against Palestinian children are well reflected in the fact that Ahmad’s killing is not an isolated incident, but 1 more in a series of similar killings. At least 5 other Palestinian children killed in such circumstances:

17 December 2001

Muhammad Juman Mahmoud Hunaydek, 15, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by Israeli military helicopter fire to his chest while playing with a toy gun. [1]

20 January 2005

Salah Ikhab , 13, of Tubas, killed by Israeli military gunfire to the chest whilst carrying a toy gun. [2]

5 November 2005

Ahmad Ismael Muhammad al-Khatib, 12, of Jenin refugee camp, died in an Israeli hospital of head and abdominal wounds sustained November 3 from Israeli military gunfire while carrying a toy gun. Ahmed’s organs, donated by his father, saved the lives of three Israeli children and a 54-year-old Israeli woman.

15 February 2006

Mujahid al-Samadi, 15, of Qabatya, near Jenin, mentally disabled, killed by Israeli military gunfire to his chest while carrying a toy gun during an incursion.

20 November 2006

Rakan Abed Kayed Nuseirat, 16, of al-Auja, near Jericho, killed by the Israeli military at the al-Dyouk checkpoint while holding a toy gun on his way home.

Dr. Barghouthi expressed little optimism towards Israeli military claims that an inquiry will be launched into Ahmad’s killing, saying that past investigations by Israel into its military’s conduct had been whitewashes.

References

[1] All details taken from the Remember These Children website (except [2]): http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/

[2] BBC. 20 January 2005. Boy with toy gun shot by Israelis. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4191513.stm

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5. Tel Rumeida: Walking Down Shuhada Street

From B’Tselem

Original Article Link.

Direct Video Link.

“The main street in Hebron ‘s commercial area has been closed to Palestinians since 2000. The army closed all the shops and sealed the doors at the entrances to the houses . Six years later, three Palestinians try to cross the street.”

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6. Back to Jail for Anti-Nuclear Activist

From: Haaretz

Last update – 16:18 02/07/2007
Vanunu to return to prison for violating the terms of his parole
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court has sentenced nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu to six months in jail for violating the terms of his parole.

Vanunu, a former technician at Israel’s nuclear plant near the southern town of Dimona, spent 18 years in prison for giving details of the country’s atomic program to British newspaper “Sunday Times” in 1986.

Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was banned from leaving the country and talking to foreigners without approval, because Israeli authorities claimed he could still divulge classified information.

Some two months ago, Vanunu was convicted of 14 parole violations including contacts with journalists and attempts to leave Israel proper to go to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank.

The court’s sentence was unexpected, and even the prosecution expected the court to hand down a suspended sentence, meant solely as a deterrent.

Vanunu’s attorneys, Michael Sfard and Avigdor Feldman, said before the conviction was handed down that the terms of their client’s parole order were unreasonable.

According to the verdict, “The order stemmed from the fact that the accused had hoarded in his memory classified information that has not been released, and the release of which could harm the security interests of Israel.”

After the verdict was announced, Vanunu said that his conviction proves that Israel is still ruled, in effect, by the British mandate, because the law under which he was convicted is from that era.

“Maybe I need to turn to the queen or to Tony Blair in order to grant me justice,” he said.

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7. Tel Rumeida: Detention at the Ibrahimi Mosque

July 2nd, 2007. At the checkpoint by the Ibrahimi mosque, two human rights workers (HRWs) were monitoring the border police who were detaining every adult male Palestinian going to the afternoon prayer.

At approximately 3 pm, right after the HRWs entered the area one female border police asked for their passports and detained them for 10 minutes. A policeman wrote down their passport info and asked about the purpose of their presence and to which organization they belonged.

During the next two hours attempts to negotiate with border police and police were made, without any success. When the HRWs tried to communicate with several detained Palestinians, the border policemen ordered the Palestinians, as well as the HRWs to stop.

At 5:25 pm a Palestinian boy, aged around 18 was detained. After another 5 minutes a border policeman asked him to follow him behind the checkpoint and started to body search him. One HRW asked the border police about the reason for their proceedings, while the other HRW kept filming the situation. The border policeman told the HRW that the arrested Palestinian was wanted by Israeli Police, but that he isn’t willing to give anymore detailed information to the HRW. When another Israeli police car arrived, one HRW made a new attempt to talk to the policeman, but the policeman ignored him.

At the same time another border policemen repeatedly ordered the HRW who was filming, to turn off his camera and threatened to break his camera if he did not do so. At 5:33 pm the Palestinian boy was handcuffed, taken into the police car and brought to the police station of Kiryat Arba, which according to international law is an illegal settlement.

Then the border police started to draw more attention to the presence of the HRWs. They ordered them leave the area immediately and when they refused they were threatened with arrest. Since the HRWs didn’t consider their presence as illegal, they refused to leave. A group of about five police man gathered around the HRWs and at the same time a border police jeep arrived.

The border police asked the HRWs to hand over their passports, forced them to turn their faces to the wall and body searched them. Once more a border policeman gave the HRWs the ultimatum of leaving the area immediately or being arrested. After further discussion the HRWs left the place and went to a checkpoint down the road and continued doing their job there.

At 6 pm as the HRWs wanted to leave the area, the border police denied them the right to pass the mosque and made them walk through, Shuhada Stret, which is closed by the Israeli military and is a commonly used street by violent Israeli settlers.

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8. Tel Rumeida: A Water Delivery

July 2nd, 2007. At approximately 2 pm a water tanker was on its way to refill the water tanks of the Palestinian Abu Heikel family, living in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Since their house is on the opposite side of the illegal Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida, the truck had to take the road passing this settlement.

When the truck tried to reach its destination, a group of approximately fifteen settlers went out of their homes, blocked the street and prevented the driver of going further. The truck spent about one hour in this miserable situation. During this time settlers were shouting at the truck driver and using a CD to reflect the sun into his eyes. A couple of children made several attempts to enter the truck by stepping on the trucks stairs, while other settlers were throwing eggs at the trucks windshield.

Several soldiers joined the scene and surrounded the drivers cab. Whether their purpose was to protect the driver or to join the settler’s harassments couldn’t be surely known. They did not do anything to prevent the settlers from blocking the road, therefore the truck had to go back down the hill and stopped at the nearby crossroads.

When the house owner arrived he started negotiating with the police, which had already been there, because of another incident happening at the same time. After another hour the house owner went up the hill, with the police following him. At approximately 4.30 pm the truck was finally allowed to make another attempt to deliver his load. Without any further incidents he was able to reach the Abu Heikel family house and refill their water tanks.

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9. Tel Rumeida: A Palestinian Boy and His Dog

At approximately 2.30 pm two human rights workers (HRW) were sitting at the crossroad near the illegal, according to international law, Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida, inside the Palestinian neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida, Hebron. A Palestinian boy, Samir Abu Rmeleh, approximate age 17, arrived carrying a little puppy and took a seat next to the human rights workers (HRWs) and several other Palestinian children.

After a few minutes he continued walking down the hill, pulling his dog in an obviously harmful way. Two soldiers standing nearby immediately started shouting at him in Hebrew, probably asking him to stop mistreating his dog. Samir ignored the soldiers and tried to provoke them by pulling the dogs leash and lifting the dog into the air. One of the two soldiers took the dog away from the Palestinian boy and brought him into his outpost. The boy immediately started discussing the situation with the soldiers, asking them to give him his dog back. The soldiers, who were not able to understand Arabic, ignored Samir’s attempts and refused giving the dog back.

When the two HRWs joined the scene and asked the soldiers to inform them about the proceedings, they explained that their only purpose was to protect the dog and to prevent the boy from continuous mistreatment of the dog. The HRWs repeatedly replied that they agree with the aim of protecting animals, but that this situation isn’t any of the soldiers business. Meanwhile Samir made several attempts to get his dog back by trying to negotiate with the soldiers, as well as by calling his dog or luring him with chicken pieces. Eventually the soldiers interrupted Samir’s attempts by ordering him to stand on the other site of the street, enforcing their orders by grabbing the boy’s shirt.

After some minutes a group of off-duty female soldiers arrived and showed a huge interest in the dog’s well being. The female soldiers informed the HRWs about their intention to take the dog with them. Since this was neither in the best interest of the HRWs, nor of the Palestinian boy, the HRWs suggested that they take the dog to their house. One of the HRWs informed Samir about their suggesting and he agreed to do so. The soldiers were discussing the HRWs suggestion as well, but finally decided not to give them the dog, since, how they said, they can’t be sure, that they won’t give him the dog back. Several times the female soldiers tried to carry the dog to the nearby settlement, but stopped proceeding after continuous interventions of the HRW.

Because of the long duration of the incident the proceedings started to draw more attention. So a couple of Palestinian children, three more soldiers, the TIPH and three more HRW joined the scene. The soldiers called the police, proposing to charge Samir of animal abuse. During the next hour another two Palestinian boys, Ahmad Rmeleh and Abed Fakhoury joined the discussions with the soldiers, trying to help their friend. After several attempts of negotiating with the soldiers as well as with Samir, one of the boys was handcuffed. The soldiers refused to justify their behaviour. For everyone’s enjoyment he was able to get rid of his plastic handcuffs twice.

The police arrived at 3.30 pm and entered into negotiations with Samir’s mother, several other Palestinians and the HRW, unfortunately without any success. Ahmad and Abed were handcuffed again for “interrupting the soldiers work” and were forced to sit on the ground behind the soldiers outpost.

At about 4.15 Samir was taken into the police car. Several soldiers, policemen and HRW surrounded the car while one soldier stepped into the car. The soldier was obviously trying to cover up his abuse of Samir while he hit Samir in the face. Meanwhile the soldiers tried to prevent the HRWs outside from watching the proceedings by pushing and shoving two of them. After another two minutes Ahmad and Abed were taken to another military outpost inside the illegal settlement of Tel Rumeida.

At approximately 4:20 in the afternoon, the soldiers took Samir to a police vehicle that had just arrived. They dragged the boy to the police car that was surrounded by approximately 5 soldiers and one border police. A female HRW was filming during this time and the soldiers attempted to block her view of the boy. During this time they turned the Palestinian to face the police vehicle, pulled his hands behind his back and bound them with a plastic wrist tie. They forcibly pulled the wrist tie exceptionally tight and the boy’s face showed his obvious pain and discomfort at the wrist ties being so tight. He was then pushed into the back of the police van with a soldier trying to get in behind him. The soldier was half in the police vehicle and appeared to be talking with the boy when he was seen by the HRW hitting the boy in the face. The HRW continued to attempt to film the soldier hitting the boy however there were at least another five soldiers and border police around her. In doing this, both soldiers and a policeman forcibly pushed her and grabbed her, trying to drag her away from the area. Following this, the police vehicle drove away.

The soldiers turned their attention on the two remaining Palestinian teenagers who had been detained, placed wrist ties on both of them and started to pull them towards the soldiers base by the illegal settlement of Tel Rumeida. The soldiers would not give any reason or justification for why they needed to do this despite repeated attempts by the HRWs to find out. Eventually they were informed that they would be held at the base until the police would come to bring them to the police station.

The HRWs maintained their presence in the area and at approximately 4:50 in the afternoon, the same police vehicle that had taken away the teenage boy returned. The police stopped by the female HRW and asked what she had seen. When she expressed concern over the soldier hitting the Palestinian, they recommended that she came down to the station to give a statement. They repeated that it was necessary to go to the police station to complete the investigation and that if she had seen the soldier hit the boy it was necessary for a formal complaint to be made. The police advised they would go to the army barracks for a moment and on their way back collect the HRW to take her to make a statement. The HRW complied and when stepped into the van, there was one of the soldiers present from when the incident took place already in there.

Once at the police station, she was made to wait with three soldiers; two male and one female, and the Palestinian who had been detained. She found the wrist ties still on the boy and him in obvious pain with his hands swelling from restricted blood flow as a consequence. She requested his hands be released, and despite protests from the soldiers, the police complied and the ties were undone. The boys wrists were examined by the HRW and there were severe marks on his wrist where they had been tied.

After a further ten minutes the police informed her that in reality she was actually being arrested by the police for obstructing the police and army work. She was really surprised at this, as there had been no suggestion that this would happen and the police had reassured her that she was being taken to the station to give a statement regarding the soldiers behavior. The police had openly lied to her regarding their intentions and had essentially tricked her into coming to the station with the intention of detaining her. The police eventually rephrased what they said and admitted that she hadn’t been arrested however she had been detained. She was advised that she would have to wait for the investigator to speak with her after speaking with the other soldiers and the boy. During this time the Palestinian boy was silent and waited patiently for his turn with the investigator. When his opportunity did arise, the investigator questioned him aggressively and there were many places where he shouted at the boy.

After nearly three hours of waiting the police finally allowed the HRW to offer her version of events. She relayed what happened to the investigator and explained how there were a number of soldiers between her and the police vehicle and that the claims that she had been obstructing the police were false accusations. She was advised by the investigator that she needed to write, in English, that she wouldn’t intefere with police or army work and that if she did then she would be deported. The HRW refused to do this as she hadnّt done anything wrong and essentially, as the police had already falsely accused her of interfering on this occasion, it was more than possible that they would repeat this and get her deported without just cause. The police threatened her with being arrested and when the HRW refused to state in writing that she would no longer intefere with the army or otherwise be deported the police advised her that she was being arrested. Eventually after a period of time the HRW was taken to the exit gate of the police station and released without charge. The HRW understood that the Palestinian boy was still in the station and was not able to find out what would then happen to him.

This initial incident lasted for about two hours. The HRW was detained for a total of four hours at the police station before being released. About ten Israeli soldiers and two policemen engaged in this case, repeatedly using physical violence against Palestinians and an international HRW and eventually arresting and detaining three Palestinians because they were mistreating a little dog. It’s doubtful that if a settler lifted a Palestinian into the air that this would draw the same attention as this case of a Palestinian boy and his dog.

After the dog spent a few hours with the soldiers he was finally given to another Palestinian boy.

It is not known the eventual fate of the Palestinian boys.

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10. Israeli Invasion Aftermath: Sifting Through the Latest Wreckage in Nablus

Starting on June 27th, 2007. Following the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) invasion of Nablus, from late Wednesday evening until early Friday morning, in which hundreds of Israeli troops in dozens of armored vehicles and bulldozers invaded the city and the Balata refugee camp, taking over numerous buildings and homes, blocking entrances to hospitals and schools, taking over radio stations, and eventually demolishing three homes in the old city, Human Rights Workers (HRWs) inspected the old city, visiting sites of IOF-demolished homes.

Several houses in the old city were demolished using explosives. The residents of the homes were not given warning of the impending demolition, and in some cases were prevented from leaving the home. One resident, a Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) medic described climbing out the 2nd story window and hanging onto the ledge in order to escape the collapse of the floor resulting from the demolition of the adjoining house.

The father of a family whose home was demolished by explosives described how the IOF invaded the home around 5:30 pm on Thursday, collecting family members in one room and interrogating the sons on two occasions. The 2nd interrogation session took place in a bathroom, where the sons were badly beaten. Two young men of the family, ages 20 and 24, were arrested. The house was demolished shortly before midnight.

The neighboring house, sharing a wall with the demolished home, also lost a 1st story ceiling-2nd story-floor due to Israeli explosives. Additionally, the weight-bearing wall was badly damaged, further endangering inhabitants sharing this wall. The mother of the family explained they had only just finished re-building after the last invasion. She further explained that had her sons been standing a few meters further away, they would have been killed in the collapse of the floor.

In the Safadi home, 3 sons were arrested. The house was thoroughly trashed: Israeli soldiers burrowed into the kitchen floors in search of tunnels and weapons, and additionally ransacked the rooms of the home. While occupying the house, snipers were installed in windows strategically overlooking the alleys outside. The family was used as human shields while the IOF occupied the house.

The Asali household suffered similar injustices. IOF soldiers also dug into the floor, opening a well and exploding a shared-family storage room on the ground level. Soldiers occupied the home from 8 am Thursday until the IOF left Friday morning, again placing snipers in the windows. Upstairs rooms were completely ransacked. Six Palestinians were kept captive in the house, as human shields, during the entire time of occupying the home.

At 3 of Nablus’ hospitals —Al Watani, Rafidia, and Nablus Specialty Hospital—at least 2 Israeli military vehicles blocked entrances from Wednesday night until Friday morning, with soldiers preventing doctors, hospital staff and patients alike from entering, despite the urgency of doing so.

According to Al Watani hospital staff, the army shot at the hospital with machine guns on 5 different occasions. IOF additionally delayed delivery of critical supply trucks like those bringing oxygen, as well as those with supplies for dialysis machines—most patients cannot survive long periods without dialysis, and further prevented delivery of food.

The day after the army pulled out, HRWs visited the home of one Nablus old city resident who was held captive in one room of her home, along with approximately 40 other family members and neighbors, from Wednesday evening until Friday morning. In another room upstairs, approximately 50 neighbors were held, and a further 15 were kept in yet another room of the house. All were held under similar conditions. During their captivity, residents were neither given food or water, nor were they permitted to use the toilet, instead having to hold themselves or urinate in the room in which they were kept captive. Numerous elderly, children, and one pregnant woman suffered greatly under these circumstances. One elderly man was unable to take his vital medicine for nearly two days as it needed to be taken with food. Both the elderly woman and man developed severely swollen legs from remaining seated for nearly two days, needing to be carried out of the room when finally released from captivity.

While occupying the home, soldiers urinated in the rooms as well as ransacked the house. Upon eventually leaving the home, one soldier tossed a hand grenade into the 2nd story window of the house still occupied by about 100 unarmed civilians, fortunately not resulting in any deaths but nonetheless adding to the damage done by the soldiers.

This house-occupation was not an isolated instance. Numerous homes in the old city were appropriated and occupied, residents crammed into small rooms together and held without food, water, or visits to the toilet.

The army was allegedly looking for “wanted men” (resistance fighters). The action of occupying homes and holding residents captive equates to using the civilians as human shields during the military invasion, a practice which is internationally recognized as illegal.

In one instance on Thursday evening, soldiers took captive a Palestinian Medical Relief (PRM) volunteer who had been part of a group escorting civilians to their old city homes. Initially detaining the medic by asking for his ID, the soldiers further detained him by keeping the ID. Soldiers took the medic into the home they were occupying, holding him inside for over 30 minutes before he reappeared blindfolded and handcuffed at the door of the building. He was then made to squat in front of the building for approximately another 20 to 30 minutes while soldiers changed shifts. During this time, international HRW attempted to secure the medics release, citing the soldiers’ violations of international law in arresting and using the volunteer medic as a human shield. The HRWs inquiries and requests were met with refusals to release the medic and by the soldiers’ statements that they were not obligated to disclose the reasons for the medic’s detention. After numerous attempts to negotiate the medic’s release, HRWs had to leave the scene. It is unknown whether the PRM volunteer was harmed during his initial or later detention, though there is a high probability he was interrogated and beaten, as in other instances.

The targeted arrest and detention of medics is common and is a form of collective punishment for these volunteers providing essential emergency services to wounded Palestinians. Volunteer medics typically are young Palestinian men, who the IOF routinely accuse of having involvement with militant groups. When not arrested, medics and ambulances are still routinely denied access to emergency areas, denying the wounded emergency attention, a tactic which can result in the deaths of the injured. On Friday morning, one paramedic, age 23, was shot in the shoulder while on duty.

During this latest invasion of Nablus, at least 60 reported cases occurred as a direct result of the IOF army presence and actions. A further 15 routine but serious medical cases required the attention of the PRC whose movement was greatly restricted by the presence of the IOF. Injuries resulting from rubber bullet wounds numbered 48 in the span of 16 hours—these were only the injuries which were reported to and attended by the PRC. Among these cases, one 23 year old man was shot 4 times in the back and once in the chest with rubber bullets. There were also two reported cases of injury by live bullets. It is worth mentioning that these were all cases which the PRC was alerted to and do not include the injuries unreported to the PRC.

Following a brief absence during the day on Friday, the occupying army re-entered the old city Friday evening and again Saturday evening, as happens on a regular basis in the Israeli military-surrounded city of Nablus.

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11. Artas: Solidarity With a Local Farmer

June 29th, 2007. At approximately 11.00 am a group of about 40 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals gathered in the fields of the Palestinian village of Artas to protest against the construction of the, according to international law, illegal Israeli Apartheid-Wall and to support a local farmer in entering his land.

His fields are going to be ruined by the construction of a sewage-system for the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, as well by the construction of the Apartheid-Wall. Approximately one month ago, Israeli military and bulldozers, uprooted about 40 apricot trees and forbid the owner to enter his area.

When the demonstrators were about to proceed to the uprooted area, where a part of the sewage-system has already been constructed, the way was immediately blocked by about 15 soldiers, preventing the demonstration of going further. After a couple of minutes and several attempts to negotiate with the soldiers, the Israeli military surprisingly allowed the Palestinian farmer and his supporters to enter his land.

The next 30 minutes were spent, by an impassioned and moving speech. The land owner and some other Palestinians explained their miserable situation to the present media, as well as to the international activists, and asked them not to stay silent in the face of the injustice and oppression they have seen, but to spread their messages all over the world.

Despite one incident of unprovoked violence against a Palestinian, the demonstration in Artas was a successful and enjoyable time for all of the demonstrators present. Since it was the first time in 40 days, that the farmer has been allowed to enter his field, the demonstrators reached their aim in a peaceful way, without any people being arrested or injured. The demonstration concluded by the farmers offering to all the activists, to get fruit from his trees, which everybody was happy to do.

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12. Sign the Susya Petition!

Sign this petition!

Help save the Palestinian inhabitants of Susya from eviction!
On June 6, 2007, a final Israeli Supreme Court hearing was held on the appeal of the Palestinian residents of Susya, in the southern edge of the West Bank. The deliberations – carried out since 2001 (appeal # 7530/01) – was against the destruction of the Palestinians’ homes.

The Court has basically accepted the state’s argument, that the residents are squatters, even though they are the legal owners of the land. This is because they have built their homes (after being evicted once before) without permit, and therefore the homes must be destroyed. Since Palestinian Susya is in “area C”, the authority to issue permits rests with the settler-run Civil Administration bureau, situated in a settlement in the northern part of the West Bank.

There is no end to the cynicism of the settlers, the IDF, the Civil Administration, and even the Court towards Susya Palestinians. It is well known, that the above-mentioned bureau does not give permits to Palestinians. Some residents have submitted permits in the past – only to be turned down repeatedly.
At bottom line, even though the State admits the land is private Palestinian land, it prevents Palestinians from living on it. At the same time, settlement outposts in the same region are expanding, many of them also built on private Palestinian land.

Will the Minister of Security and the Israeli government now approve the eviction of 13 Palestinian families attempting to continue to live on their land and tilling their fields – or will it cater to the settlers’ expansionism and explicit wishes to “clear” the area of its original residents?
It is also up to you. Please act.

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13. Struggles in Susiya

The morning of June 30th, 2007. 12 human rights workers (HRWs), members of the ISM, CPT, EAPPI, and residents of surrounding villages went to visit a family in the village of Susiya in the Southern Hebron region. The Susiya Village, located 20 km outside of the Hebron area, is a poverty-stricken zone which Palestinian families have called home since the 1830’s. The land was once a place of many caves and homes. The homes and caves have been demolished, rebuilt, and demolished again by Israeli settlers, with the full support of the Israeli government.

Susiya Village is located between Susya settlement and the ruins of an old synagogue. The settlers therefore want to connect the settlement with the synagogue. Some of the Palestinian land owners have deeds for their lands, some do not. This makes no difference however, as the Palestinians are not allowed to use their lands as the area is officially declared a closed military zone.

The Palestinian residents have suffered from the sabotage of their land and property by settlers and soldiers. The have had their houses and wells demolished, their goats killed and their roads blocked. The case of Susiya is especially important since it may become a precedent for other villages in A3. The people living in Susiya earlier made their living from agriculture and without their lands they have no income. Uniting the nearby villages in the struggle for their lands is critically important.

Soldiers, police and settlers are working together to permanently annex Susiya’s land. Palestinian complaints are, regularly taken by the police, filed, but not followed through on. Israeli propaganda has flipped the truth and that is why it is important for Susiya to get attention from the outside.

The HRWs were taken on a tour around the lands, were shown demolished houses and caves, and for the first time in several years the presence of internationals made it possible for Palestinians to walk on the road to Yatta. This was the beginning of a continued international presence in Susiya, aiming to support them in their struggle.

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14. Hebron: Resistance to More Land Theft

June 29th, 2007. On Friday evening about 20 human rights workers including members of ISM, EAPPI and CPT went to the Jabari family home which is situated on land between the Kiryat Arba and Givat Havot settlements. Settlers have constructed a footpath crossing the Jabari’s land in order to connect Kiryat Arba to Givat Havot. In 2002, settlers erected a tent on the Jabari’s land which they call a synagogue. The tent was dismantled twice by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) but the settlers rebuilt it. Currently there are no plans to dismantle the tent, instead the settlers are not supposed to enter it. If this is not making any sense to you, then you are not the only one. I can’t make any sense of it either.

The Jabari family asked members of the human rights groups to accompany them to their land so they could clear the dried grass and prepare the land to be used agriculturally again. The family has not used the land in the last six years, because of settler harassment, especially from settlement guards who are stationed across the street. This is despite a court order allowing them to do so. In the past, the family grazed their sheep and goats and cultivated fig trees and grapes on the land.

We arrived on the land and began pulling up the grass and packing it into bags for the animals to eat. The family eventually plans to plant olive trees on the land. We called the Israeli police before we got there to alert them to what we would be doing so they would be present to prevent any mischief and interference from settlers. Last time the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) came here, settlers prepared breakfast in the form of eggs and tomatoes to the head. The army and police eventually showed up and stood around but did not try to interfere. Settlers came and went; one placed a chair on the footpath, produced a Torah, and began praying.

The greatest thing about the action was that the family was able to bring their goats onto the land to help finish the work. Fear of settlers harassing the family and hurting the goats had prevented them from doing this for a long time.

We left as it began to grow dark, but not before we had tea and snacks and some of use got to ride the Jabari’s Arabian horse!

The walk back to Tel Rumeida was chock-full of the usual settler and soldier shenanigans which Hebron is known for. Palestinians are prevented from driving cars on the road that splits Kiryat Arba and Givat Havot. So they walk, or ride bikes, or ride horses. Oops, wait, I take that back, they can walk their horses, but they can’t ride them. A couple of Palestinians on horseback rode down the street and were ordered off the horses by soldiers. It was like they were in the 6th grade and the hall monitor was telling them not to ride their bike in the hall. Except it was some teenaged soldiers telling 30 year old men they had to walk their horses.

Walking down worshipper’s way we were greeted by settler saliva and rocks as they passed us on the way back from the Ibrahimi mosque/synagogue back to Kiryat Arba. We informed the army of this and as usual they did nothing.

At the mosque, Issa, our fearless Palestinian ISM coordinator was detained by soldiers who asked for his ID and searched his bag. In the meantime, another soldier had spirited away a teenaged member of the Jabari family who had been accompanying us.

The soldier took him over to a dark corner and it was a minute or so before we realized that the soldier was violently searching the boy and punching him in the stomach. As soon as we noticed and started screaming at the soldier, he stopped and released the boy.

The is something I have seen quite frequently, soldiers in Hebron will not beat a Palestinian if they know human rights workers are watching, so they try to sneak them away to someplace where we can’t see and as soon as they are discovered, they stop because they know what they are doing is wrong.

In the future, the local human rights groups plan to continue to accompany the Jabari’s to their land so they can begin cultivating it once more.

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15. Tel Rumeida: 15-year-old Boy Hit By a Soldier in a Police Car

June 29th, 2007 – At approximately 10 o’clock two 15-year-old boys where detained by The Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) for shaking the fence surrounding the Jewish cemetery. The cemetery is placed opposite one of the boys home and the boys where playing on the road. When the boys passed the check point at the top of Tel Rumeida street the soldiers detained them. An international human right worker (HRW) asked why they were detained and one of the soldiers replied “Because they need to suffer for touching the fence into the cemetery.”

After approximately an hour and 10 minutes the police arrived but they drove off without even questioning why the boys where detained. After another 35 minutes the police came back and took the two boys away in a police car with two police officers in the front seats and two soldiers in the back with the boys. The father of one of the boys tried to get into the car with his son but he was blocked by the soldiers.

The boys returned after 15 minutes. The police had taken them around in the car while the soldiers asked them different questions. One of the boys told an international HRW about the tour in the police car afterwards. He said that his friend answered a question from one of the soldiers and that the soldier replied by hitting him on his cheek.

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16. Three Houses Demolished in Nablus

June 29th, 2007. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) is currently invading the city of Nablus again after they retreated early this morning from the old city.

IOF invaded the northern West Bank city of Nablus Wednesday night after midnight, calling a curfew, demolishing road blocks, and performing house-to-house searches for resistance fighters.

Announcements over loudspeakers and local radio stations instructed Palestinians to go inside their homes and declared much of the city a closed military zone, including areas where resistance fighters are suspected to be, such as schools, banks, taxi stations, and markets.

Two military helicopters patrolled the skies over the old city and the Balata refugee camp from morning to afternoon. The old city and Balata further suffered loss of electricity as the power supply to both areas was cut.

Palestinian sources reported over 80 army vehicles, including hummers, jeeps, and heavily-armored jeeps, within the old city, not including those vehicles outside the old city. Bulldozers removed road blocks at the many road entrances to the old city, facilitating later entry of army jeeps.

Numerous houses and several buildings were occupied by the IOF and turned into military bases and lookout points, including the Soosa, Ahmed al Bizray, and Fatyr buildings. Two Nablus hospitals, Rafidia and al Watani, were surrounded and occupied by military forces, and the oxygen supply to al Watani hospital was cut.

Palestinian and international Human Rights Workers patrolled areas of the old city last night, accompanying Palestinians to their homes and engaging with soldiers to allow safe passage of the civilians.

After the day’s invasion yesterday, at least 8 Palestinian civilians were wounded by rubber bullets, with over 8 arrested. An additional 8 Israeli soldiers were injured by Palestinian explosions inside the occupied city.

While the reason given for the invasion was the search for wanted resistance fighters, the Israeli Occupation army left in its wake 3 demolished houses, destroyed by explosions, which both international humanitarian volunteers and Palestinian Medical Relief workers were prevented access to. It is yet unknown how many have been wounded or killed in these late night demolitions. The neighborhood around the demolished houses was declared a “closed military zone” and ambulances were prevented from approaching to offer aid.

In the course of accompanying Palestinian civilians back to their homes in the old city, 3 medical relief workers were arrested without cause, despite the efforts of other aid workers and international human rights workers to have them released. All three are believed to have been later released, one badly beaten by soldiers.

The day’s activities left a toll of at least 8 known wounded, 3 demolished homes, at least 3 arrested civilians, and substantial destroyed infrastructure.

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17. Bil’in: 2 Israeli Demonstrators Arrested

June 29th 2007. Many internationals and Israelis joined today the Palestinian residents of the village of Bil’in in their weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall and the occupation – and of course in solidarity with Iyad Bornat, who has been arrested since the previous demonstration. As usual, the peaceful demonstrators, among them many children, chanting and holding Palestinian flags, tried to reach the Wall/Fence.

Direct Video Link. Credit: Emad Bornat

As soon as the first demonstrators arrived at the point of the road where the soldiers had put barbed wire, the soldiers started to shoot tear gas canisters at them. Because of the amount of tear gas, the direction of the wind and the high temperature, the majority of the demonstrators were forced to step back. Two Palestinians, an Israeli and three Internationals managed to stay at the area despite the soldiers bombardment of teargas. A teargas canister nearly hit one of the internationals in the leg.

An Israeli demonstrator, former soldier of Golani battalion, was in the front talking for a long time to the soldiers, through a huge cloud of gas. A Palestinian member of the Popular Committee of Bil’in and an international tried to extinguish a small fire caused by the gas canisters. A few more internationals and Palestinians managed to reach the area. But finally the soldiers attacked the peaceful demonstrators with gas and sound bombs, and they arrested the Israeli demonstrator. Later we were informed that there was also an Israeli woman arrested.

The demonstrators tried several times to step forward again, but they were dispersed with teargas and rubber bullets. Palestinian residents of Bil’in, some of them children, also faced the same treatment while there were trying to collect the gas canisters.

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18. Tel Rumeida: Another Day, Another Stoning

At approximately 6:30 pm on Monday, June 25, two Human Rights workers were alerted to a stoning incident at the home of Hashem, directly below the Israeli Tel Rumeida settlement in the H2 area of Hebron, which is under Israeli military control. Upon their arrival, the settlers living in the house of Baruch Marzel above the Palestinian home temporarily ceased their aggression against their neighbors. Approximately 15 minutes later, the settlers began throwing stones and bottles down once more, ceasing again after a few minutes.

Hashem informed the HR workers that the throwing of stones, bottles, fruit and vegetables Monday had begun earlier, around 16:30 that afternoon, lasting for half an hour. The settlers, including an adult woman and two children, resumed throwing stones and other objects around 20:00, again for approximately half an hour, and later again at around 23:00 for half an hour. In the two latter incidences, Hashem was able to videotape the settlers’ throwing of objects at his home.

Hashem further related that this sort of aggressive behavior has been occurring on a nightly basis for an extended time, attacking the homes of Hashem and his neighbors on either side. Over the past months, the settlers in the home above have thrown a variety of rocks, bottles, fruit, vegetables, and even a dish washer into the back garden. The washing machine was aimed at Hashem as he attempted to clear out some of the rubbish from previous attacks. The machine was followed by a small boulder, also aimed at Hashem.

Settlers have also trespassed on Hashem’s land on different occasions, vandalizing his property by cutting all but one of the grape trees around his home and spraying graffiti on the walls.

As with earlier incidents, Hashem followed up the stoning by formally lodging a complaint with the police.

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19. What is Behind Allenby Bridge

By: Feras SSA

Allenby Bridge a strange and unknown name for a lot of people around the world but for Palestinians it is a well known name.

It is the name of the bridge which connects the West Bank with the outside world. It is located between Palestine and Jordan on the Jordan River. The important thing is that it is the only road that we know to travel outside Palestine from the West Bank side.

But what are the Violations behind This Bridge?
Only few kilometers between Palestine and Jordan need 10 hours at least to be crossed. The story starts when you reach Jericho and suddenly you are faced with hundreds or maybe thousands of Palestinians standing there and waiting their turn to ride the bus which they will share the trip along the bridge.

First, the Palestinian Authority checks you. Fortunately this check does not take a lot of time. Then same bus carries you to face an Israeli check point, and the driver of the bus says “Please all of you go out to be checked any metal you have to put it on table.” An Israeli soldier sitting in a small room will check you and check if you have ID or passport. Then you ride another bus which leads you to the main station of Israeli military where they inspect your body more closely. When you go down from the bus you face an electronic inspection machine where you must put all metal on the table, then you enter the main building. Same as before you have to put every thing and enter.

All these procedures take a lot of time. Maybe all these procedures seem normal but when you go and give the Israeli border police your passport the situation will be different. What you feel that this person who is sitting in this small and modern room controls your life and your future. It is not a fear only it is the truth because if he says to you “Ok you have to sit on the chair and wait until we call you”. This means that maybe you will not be allowed to go outside Palestine because of security reasons so your hopes for work or study or even tourism outside will disappear in a moment.

The story does not end here, sometimes the Israeli intelligent request you stay on the bride for hours, in this case you stay there until they close the bridge then you must go back later to try again to pass the bridge to Jordan.

In last time I traveled with my friend from Hebron, it took from us 12 hours to reach Amman. It was a very hard day all people are racing to finish and reach first to the other end of the bridge. I waited with my friend whose name is Tareq in Jericho from 8:00 to 12:00 to have a seat in one of the buses which transfers us over the bridge. I tried to enjoy my time, but it is not easy to wait for four hours because you are very tense because you do not know if you will cross the bridge or not before the day is finished.

I told Tareq that we must go and sit away from this crowded and hard situation so I took him with me to sit under a big tree and listened to Fayrooz songs from my laptop. We slept after a while and the time ran faster than before. We hoped to stay all our day under that tree but in the same time we have to continue our trip before bridge closing. We rode the bus after our turn came and the trip over the bridge started. It seems that the bus walking 1 km/hour. All the people were looking ahead to see how many buses are in front of them. The Israelis check all people in the buses at three different points so the trip takes a lot of time.

We waited until we reached the main point where Israelis take passports to check them on the computer. Tareq was a problem because they stopped him and I had to wait for him at the same time. So we were delayed more and more. Fortunately they did not make an interview with him because they did it just month ago when he entered from Jordan to Palestine so we were happy to a cross the Israeli check points safely.

This long travel requires a lot of patience from any one who tries to travel outside Palestine. But all these harassments will not prevent us from hoping and continuing our life. Everything that is going on at these borders is just a stupid waste of time and procedures that aim to degrade Palestinians and make their life in their country like a prison.

1. Nablus Under Siege… Again
2. Tel Rumeida: Another Home Invasion
3. Haaretz: ILA destroys Bedouin homes to make way for Jewish town
4. Video: Arrest of Head of Bilin popular committee
5. Tel Rumeida: Breaking and Entering Palestinian Homes
6. Tel Rumeida: Fear of Settlers Prompts Palestinians to ask for Escorts
7. Tel Rumeida: Naked Soldiers
8. Tel Rumeida: Children Detained for Possession of a Butter Knife
9. Tel Rumeida: Prolonged Detention by Soldiers
10. Tel Rumeida: Prolonged Detention by Soldiers
11. Tel Rumeida: harrasment by Settlers Directed at Children
12. Tel Rumeida: Palestinian and HRWs Home Attacked With Rocks
13. Tel Rumeida: Attempt to Destroy the Olive Trees
14. HRWs Attacked with Rocks by Settlers
15. Bil’in: Excessive Aggression by IOF against demonstrators continues
16. Um Salamona: Tree Planting met with violence by IOF
17. El-Farra: Palestinians must have hope to move forward
18. Soldier to human rights worker: “In case you haven’t noticed, Israel is not a democracy”
19. 70 Palestinians detained at Tel Rumeida checkpoint

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1. Nablus Under Siege… Again

On Wednesday the 27th of June 2007, at around 10pm, Palestinian fighters exploded three bombs in defense of their city, Nablus, injuring six Israeli soldiers. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), as a response to this act of self-defense, have sieged the city. Around 100 IOF jeeps are currently in and around the Nablus area, at least eighty of them within the old city. The old city has been completely sealed off by the IOF, power has been partially cut and house to house searches have began for fighters, weapons and ammunition. Barriers to vehicle movement are being bulldozed and two helicopters have been seen over the area.

One home, owned by the Tabuk family, has already been demolished and another home, the Safadi house, was attacked by the IOF resulting in extensive property damage and the arrest of Annan Tabuk (23), Raheb Shaab and Mamoun Safadi. Five boys in all have been injured in the old city, Machmoud Rajab and Achmed Damooni sustained unknown injuries, while the three others, Walid Omar (14), Hamed Mustafar (18) and Rami Abu-Shab (14) were shot in the leg with rubber bullets.

The IOF is restricting access to the Rafidia hospital, the Watani hospital and is currently occupying the Al-Kindi school, which like many homes in the old city is being used as a military base. Areas in Nablus which are currently heavily occupied are the, Neytsmeen neighborhood, Hosalartroud neighborhood, Al-Qurrion neighborhood, Habeleh neighborhood , Balata Refugee camp and the city center. Earlier in the day the IOF prevented oxygen tanks from reaching patients at the Rafidia hospital for several hours and harassed every patient in the hospital for their identification including those suffering from kidney failure and those recovering from heart attacks.

When called and asked why the IOF was sieging the city, a representative from the District Command Office for Nablus elaborated on the situation saying, “I can’t explain you”.

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2. Tel Rumeida: Another Home Invasion

Wednesday , June 27th, 2007: Shortly after 3pm this afternoon, two internationals working with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood were walking through the olive groves between Palestinian homes, when they observed two armed men in civilian clothes enter an unoccupied Palestinian home which had been broken into and vandalized last week. Keeping a distance, and calling several other internationals (two from ISM and one member of the Israeli group, Children of Abraham) for assistance, they approached the home, and became aware of the sound of breaking glass. When two other internationals and an Israeli peace activist arrived, they entered the courtyard of the home and observed six to eight Israeli soldiers inside the Palestinian home. When the soldiers became aware of the internationals’ presence, one from their group quickly blocked the doorway of the home and demanded that the human rights workers (HRWs) leave the premises.

The HRWs refused to leave and demanded an explanation for the soldiers presence. The soldiers insisted that the home was necessary for their training exercises, and claimed to have no responsibility for the earlier break-in. When asked to leave, the soldiers became hostile, saying the internationals “had no right to be in Israel”, and that they were “trespassing in the Palestinian home”. One soldier in particular made multiple racist statements about Arabs, and also disparaging remarks about American Jewry. After speaking to an Israeli human rights group about the legality of the situation, and being under the impression that their presence was perhaps extending the duration of the soldiers presence in the home, the HRWs decided to leave.

An hour after the International Solidarity Movement workers left, a Tel Rumeida Project (TRP) member noticed the soldiers still within the home, and called for two ISM workers monitoring the checkpoints on Shuhada St. They arrived and entered the broken home. The soldiers had by then called the police, and the two ISM workers from earlier were notified and soon arrived at the occupied home. The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) members came to observe the home invasion. The police arrived, as did the home owner, who had moved to another area of Palestine due to constant settler violence. After the police demanded the passports of the internationals and recorded their information, the TIPH members advised the ISM and TRP workers to leave the area and that the soldiers would leave within an hour. Later, the soldiers were observed vacating the home.

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3. Haaretz: ILA destroys Bedouin homes to make way for Jewish town

By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent

The Israel Land Administration (ILA), with the assistance of an unusually large police force and IDF soldiers, demolished dozens of tin shack homes Monday in unrecognized Bedouin villages Um Al-Hiran and A-Tir in the northern Negev.

The ILA is destroying the village and evacuating the inhabitants so that a Jewish Community named “Hiran” can be established in the area. Fourteen shacks, which housed some 100 people, have been destroyed by bulldozers so far.

Bedouin women tried to get their children out of the house but police wanted to speed up the process so they grabbed the play pens with the children inside and did not let the mothers come near.

“Tonight we will sleep on the ground”, Fajua Ab Abu Al-Cian said.

Young men, roughly 18-years of age, wearing orange shirts are taking part in the evacuation, removed the Bedouin’s property from their homes and put it in piles on the ground outside.

Haaretz has discovered that these teenagers are outsourced workers who are employed by a contractor hired by the ILA. According to the evacuators, they are being paid in cash without any labor rights.

According to Adallah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the residents of the village have been living there for 51 years. They were transferred to the site in 1956 while under martial law. The land they originally owned was transferred to Kibbutz Shoval, while the Bedouin were leased 3000 dunam of land for agriculture and grazing.

In August 2001 the ILA submitted a report on the establishment of new communities, which included Hiran. The Bedouin residents living in the area appeared under the title of “special problems” that may affect the establishment of the community.

The government approved the establishment of Hiran in 2002, and in 2004 the state submitted a court order claiming that residents of Al Hiran should be evacuated as they are using state lands without permission.

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4. Video: Arrest of Head of Bilin popular committee

June 25th, 2007

Video Here.

A Video of the arrest of Iyad Burnat,head of the popular committee in Bil’in, During the demonstration against the annexation barrier on the 22 of June. Iyad was injured by teargas, when a couple of soldiers ran to him and arrested him for no apparent reason. He was taken for questioning in Shaar Binyamin police station, and from there to Ofer prison. An officer remanded his arrest by 4 days, which are very likely to become 8, after which they will have to bring him in front of a judge if they want to keep him. Attorney Gaby Laski will filed an urgent request for his release.

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5. Tel Rumeida: Breaking and Entering Palestinian Homes

On June 22nd, 2007 at about 6:30 pm two international human rights workers were walking up the stone staircase past the graffittied house on which is written “Watch out Fatima will rape all Arab Woman,” signed by JDL (Jewish Defense League).

The HRWs noticed that the gate door had been crowbarred open and they entered the area to see if any settlers or soldiers were inside. They found that the house had been slept in, and that there were mats on the floor. In the same room there was some feces on the floor. No one was present in the home.

When the HRWs left they tried to close the door but it was too bent, by a crowbar, to close so they left it open. The HRWs later informed a Palestinian human rights worker about this incident, and he said he would inform the owner of the home.

The next day at about 3:00pm, June 23rd (Saturday), three HRWs were walking by the same house and again entered the area. The house was the same as the day before though on this day there were a group of Palestinian children playing next door.
The HRWs innitially assumed that the house had been entered by soldiers as had happened on many previous occasions about a year earlier. They asked the children about the entry into the home and if it was solders that had entered.

The children responded, however, that it was Israeli settlers that had entered the home two days before. It was difficult to determine exactly when the settlers entered the home, or for how long, since the HRWs could not speak good Arabic.

The house will be monitored closely until the owner of the home can make sure to secure his home.

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6. Tel Rumeida: Fear of Settlers Prompts Palestinians to ask for Escorts

Saturday 23rd June: At about 12:30 pm three Human Rights Workers (HRWs) were patrolling through the Olive Groves when they discovered a group of soldiers bathing at Abrahams Well located next to a Palestinian home. They watched the soldiers briefly until a Palestinian woman and her young son appeared in the doorway of their home. The Palestinian woman requested that the HRWs escort them to the checkpoint on Shuhada Street. She told the HRWs that because it was Shabbat she usually would not leave her home, because she is afraid of the settlers, but on this day she had some business or an errand that she had to do.
The HRWs escorted her to the checkpoint without incident and the Palestinian woman and young boy left to continue with their business.

The HRWs then walked down Shuhada Street towards the Beit Hadassah settlement where a Palestinian woman then called from her window and invited the HRWs for a drink of water. This woman, who was about 50-60 years old, told the HRWs that that morning at 4:00am Israeli Settlers had attacked her home and tried to break in. She said that for about ten minutes they had stoned her house and then tried to break the door down but did not succeed. She told the HRWs that she was alone in the home, at this time, with only her young five-year old granddaughter. The woman then invited the HRWs to see the view of Beit Hadassah and said that often the Settlers throw rocks at her home, and her neighbours home, during the night from the roof of the settlement.

When they arrived back in the Olive groves they encountered another young woman who requested that she be escorted to the checkpoint. The HRWs complied and asked her if she had seen any Settlers in the olive groves that day, and she said yes, and that because it was Shabbat she was afraid she might be attacked. She thanked the HRWs when they reached the street, and said she could walk the remainder of the distance to the checkpoint.

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7. Tel Rumeida: Naked Soldiers

As Human Rights Workers undertake patrols through the Olive Groves of Tel Rumeida, it is common to see Settlers bathing at the Ibrahimi Well, which the Settlers consider a religious location. The well is located within the Olive Groves next door to a Palestinian home and is also beside a frequently used path that Palestinians, both men and women, pass through. On June the 23rd however, a hot Shabbat day, a group of three HRWs passed by the Ibrahimi Well to find a number of on and off duty soldiers bathing at the well. This wouldn’t be an issue, however some of the soldiers were completely naked in full view of Palestinian homes whilst changing into their swimming shorts. There was absolute disregard by the Soldiers for Muslim culture or to have any sense of modesty in a culturally sensitive location and environment.

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8. Tel Rumeida: Children Detained for Possession of a Butter Knife

Monday June 18th, 2007

At 2:45pm two international human rights workers were walking down the hill from the olive groves, toward the top of Tel Rumeida hill, when some local Palestinian children told the HRWs that some Palestinian boys were in trouble with police down the street.

The HRWs went down the street where a group of about 10 Palestinians men, and young men, were standing around a police jeep. TIPH was also present. An Israeli policeman was speaking with two Palestinian boys, 16 years of age, one of whose father was present. The Palestinian boys father was very angry with his son, and was yelling at him while, at the same time, trying to convince the policeman to release his son. However the policeman then told the two boys to get into the jeep, and closed the doors.

When an HRW spoke with the policeman and asked him what happened the policeman responded “I am not required to speak with you,” and “I do not have to tell you anything.” At this point the other HRW called one of the Palestinian boy’s brother, who is a human rights worker himself.

The boys brother came directly and told the police he would go with his younger brother, and the other resident boy, to the police station. The police then took the boys, and the Palestinian human rights worker, to Kiryat Arba Police station.

During this time, TIPH was able to take the statements of one of the Palestinian boys.

Apparently what happened, as the HRWs and TIPH learned from a local Palestinian boy who was present during the incident, is that the boys had been walking and spotted a large electrical cable in a pile of trash. They cut the cable, with a small knife, and began dragging it to the Palestinian controlled section of Hebron, where they could sell the cable. A Settler had been watching the boys, as they did this, from the Jewish cemetery and called the police, on his phone, and a nearby soldier to intervene. Apparently the Settler had said that the boys had made threatening gestures with the small knife they used to cut the cable, though it was nothing more than a butter knife.

The soldier detained the boys, and the police, who arrived quickly, immediately began to question the two oldest boys and said they would be taken to Kiryat Arba. The Palestinian boys brother told the HRWs that, at Kiryat Arba, the boys had told the police that the cable belonged to no one, and that they had never threatened the settler with the knife. The Settler had yelled at them, and they had ignored him because they wanted the cable. The police released the boys because it was obvious that the cable was trash, and belonged to no one and the knife could obviously not hurt anyone.

The Palestinian boys had been questioned at the Kiryat Arba police station for about half an hour before they were driven back to Tel Rumeida. They were gone from Tel Rumeida for about 45 minutes.

One of the other boys who was present during the incident was told, by the Palestinians who had gone to Kiryat Arba, that the police were looking for him so he left the area and went home.

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9. Tel Rumeida: Prolonged Detention by Soldiers

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:30—9 pm

A 21-year old Palestinian male was detained at the Tel Rumeida Hill at 6:30 p.m. for not having his Palestinian id (hawiya). He told the soldiers that he forgot it at home.

The detainee’s brother was told to go home by the soldiers to retrieve the id so they could check it. When the group of soldiers told him to go home and bring them back his brother’s id, he told the soldier he wanted to stay with his brother. There was innitialy a discussion over whether the boy should go home to get the ID or not however this discussion escalated and the soldier became aggressive and grabbed the boy. At this point the soldier dragged the Palestinian boy to one side to continue speaking with him. When the soldier became aware that the HRWs present were filming and watching the situation, the soldier attempted to move the boy round the side of a nearby house, out of the line of vision of the HRWs. There was serious concern for the safety of the boy especially due to the aggressive nature of the soldier and the attempts by the soldier to remove him from view of the cameras. When the HRWs attempted to move to a position where they were able to view what was going on, other soldiers began to block them. It could be seen however that the boy had been pushed up against the wall whilst the soldier was still speaking to him in a threatening manner. Eventually the soldier let go of the boy and allowed him to leave to get his brothers ID.

When an international HRW, who spoke fluent Arabic, asked the detainee about his ID, he said was currently waiting to receive a new ID. His previous one was ruined in the washing machine and he had taken it to the Palestinian police for a new one. The Palestinian police told him to return for a new ID in two to three days.
An Israeli soldier told the HRWs that because the detainee had his id taken by the Palestinian Police that it usually means there is some sort of problem. He did not believe that it was a problem of the young man needing to get a new id.

The brother of the detainee returned with an old photo ID, of his brother, stating his full name and ID number in Arabic. The soldier could not speak Arabic and needed the HRW to translate his questions for the detained Palestinian.
First the soldier asked if this was the current number of the detainee’s ID and then had the young man read him the numbers. The soldier then phoned in the Palestinian’s ID number and was told that this number was in error. The soldier asked the detainee to re-read the numbers and realized that the first time he had read them backwards.
The soldier then asked the Palestinian for the name of his father and grandfather. The soldier told the international that they were not finding a match between the number and the name and that was a problem. While waiting, the soldier told the HRW that the id card was not enough and could be a fake. The soldiers told the detainee that if he was cold, he could sit in the soldiers post but the young Palestinian man refused.

At this point the young man had been detained for 2 hours. The soldiers said that they had to wait for conformation, or “orders” to release the young man. Every time they called the station, however, they did not receive conformation. Internationals had been calling the Red Cross and ACRI throughout the incident, as well as the police (although they hung up multiple times). After two hours the Red Cross called the police, and they finally arrived.

When the police came they took the id of the detainee’s brother and the identification card of the detainee. The police asked of both young men the name of their father, grandfather, and mother. After the young men had answered the police then separated the brothers to ask them the same questions separately to see if they were really brothers.
They told the detainees brother to walk a short way away and then asked the young man the names of their siblings, where they lived and with who, and the occupation of their father. The police then called the detainees brother back and asked him the same questions.

After this, the officer told the detainee that not having an ID is a big problem and to save himself and others trouble, and take his ID with him wherever he goes. The officer told him that if he is going to go anywhere, where he knows there are soldiers, bring his ID, because they will never know when their IDs will be checked.
The officer also told the young Palestinian man that it took a long time for the soldiers to do background checks because they do not have a computer and it only takes the police a few minutes.

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10. Tel Rumeida: Prolonged Detention by Soldiers

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 6:30—9 pm

A 21-year old Palestinian male was detained at the Tel Rumeida Hill at 6:30 p.m. for not having his Palestinian id (hawiya). He told the soldiers that he forgot it at home.

The detainee’s brother was told to go home by the soldiers to retrieve the id so they could check it. When the group of soldiers told him to go home and bring them back his brother’s id, he told the soldier he wanted to stay with his brother. There was innitialy a discussion over whether the boy should go home to get the ID or not however this discussion escalated and the soldier became aggressive and grabbed the boy. At this point the soldier dragged the Palestinian boy to one side to continue speaking with him. When the soldier became aware that the HRWs present were filming and watching the situation, the soldier attempted to move the boy round the side of a nearby house, out of the line of vision of the HRWs. There was serious concern for the safety of the boy especially due to the aggressive nature of the soldier and the attempts by the soldier to remove him from view of the cameras. When the HRWs attempted to move to a position where they were able to view what was going on, other soldiers began to block them. It could be seen however that the boy had been pushed up against the wall whilst the soldier was still speaking to him in a threatening manner. Eventually the soldier let go of the boy and allowed him to leave to get his brothers ID.

When an international HRW, who spoke fluent Arabic, asked the detainee about his ID, he said was currently waiting to receive a new ID. His previous one was ruined in the washing machine and he had taken it to the Palestinian police for a new one. The Palestinian police told him to return for a new ID in two to three days.
An Israeli soldier told the HRWs that because the detainee had his id taken by the Palestinian Police that it usually means there is some sort of problem. He did not believe that it was a problem of the young man needing to get a new id.

The brother of the detainee returned with an old photo ID, of his brother, stating his full name and ID number in Arabic. The soldier could not speak Arabic and needed the HRW to translate his questions for the detained Palestinian.
First the soldier asked if this was the current number of the detainee’s ID and then had the young man read him the numbers. The soldier then phoned in the Palestinian’s ID number and was told that this number was in error. The soldier asked the detainee to re-read the numbers and realized that the first time he had read them backwards.
The soldier then asked the Palestinian for the name of his father and grandfather. The soldier told the international that they were not finding a match between the number and the name and that was a problem. While waiting, the soldier told the HRW that the id card was not enough and could be a fake. The soldiers told the detainee that if he was cold, he could sit in the soldiers post but the young Palestinian man refused.

At this point the young man had been detained for 2 hours. The soldiers said that they had to wait for conformation, or “orders” to release the young man. Every time they called the station, however, they did not receive conformation. Internationals had been calling the Red Cross and ACRI throughout the incident, as well as the police (although they hung up multiple times). After two hours the Red Cross called the police, and they finally arrived.

When the police came they took the id of the detainee’s brother and the identification card of the detainee. The police asked of both young men the name of their father, grandfather, and mother. After the young men had answered the police then separated the brothers to ask them the same questions separately to see if they were really brothers.
They told the detainees brother to walk a short way away and then asked the young man the names of their siblings, where they lived and with who, and the occupation of their father. The police then called the detainees brother back and asked him the same questions.

After this, the officer told the detainee that not having an ID is a big problem and to save himself and others trouble, and take his ID with him wherever he goes. The officer told him that if he is going to go anywhere, where he knows there are soldiers, bring his ID, because they will never know when their IDs will be checked.
The officer also told the young Palestinian man that it took a long time for the soldiers to do background checks because they do not have a computer and it only takes the police a few minutes.

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11. Tel Rumeida: harrasment by Settlers Directed at Children

June 18th, 2007- Sunday

Two Palestinian brothers had been playing football in a small field located next door to their house in Tel Rumeida, when two adult male Settlers approached them aggresively. In fear, the two brothers ran and hid for their safety fearing that they would be attacked by the Settlers. In running away the boys had left behind their football, which the Settlers took. From where the boys were hiding, they could see the Settlers take a knife out and stab it into the football destroying the football and wrecking the children’s game. This display of aggression and harrassment against children demonstrates the constant battle the Palestinians have to face in wishing to live in peace. Harrassment and intimidation is directed at all members of community and there is little regard for the fact that they are directing their intimidation at defenseless children who should be protected from the conflict and are not party to it.

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12. Tel Rumeida: Palestinian and HRWs Home Attacked With Rocks

At 10:50pm on Wednesday June 21st, A group of Human Rights Workers were sitting in their apartment when suddenly they found themselves under attack with rocks being hurled at force at their home. The attack was brief, lasting between 6 -10 seconds however they found four rocks left on their roof from the incident.

About one week before stones had been hitting the house at about a similar time, apparently flung by Israeli settlers from Tel Rumeida settlement.

Two HRWs went down into the street to see if there were any settlers were about, but no one was able to be seen. They proceeded to go to a Palestinian home, located next to Tel Rumeida settlement, that had been attacked in the past with stones at around the same time. When the internationals arrived they found the family awake. The head of the house, Hasshem Al-Azzah, told the HRWs that his home was attacked by settlers at almost the exactly same time the internationals home had been hit with stones.
Hasshem told the HRWs that his home had been hit with stones for about five minutes before he came out and saw a settler man run away right below the balcony of Baruch Marzel. He further informed the HRWs that he had seen settlers on the roof of Tel Rumeida settlement recently with a large slingshot.

After about half an hour, after the internationals left the Al-Azzah home, at about 11:40pm three more rocks hit the roof of the HRWs home.

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13. Tel Rumeida: Attempt to Destroy the Olive Trees

On Friday the 22nd June, Two human rights workers (HRWs) were alerted to a fire in part of the olive groves near Tel Rumeida. The size of the affected area is approximately one hectare and belongs to a local Palestinian man. According to one TIPH worker, the owner is one Ferial Abu Haikal and her husband (not sure of his name).

A local Palestinian fire crew dealt with the blaze, and perhaps half-a-dozen Israeli soldiers plus some locals were at the scene assisting.

When the HRWs arrived at approximately 12:15, the blaze was almost entirely extinguished, but flames continued to flicker in places and there was still a substantial amount of smoke. In general, the trees in the grove did not appear to be too badly affected, but the entirety of the surrounding area was turned to a black carpet of scorched grass. At least three trees were seriously damaged.

At 12:30, the Israeli soldiers asked the human rights workers to leave the immediate area; the HRWs agreed to the request, but stayed in the area to monitor the situation.

Having left the scene, the HRWs spoke with a relative of the owner the land. The relative explained that four years ago the Tel Rumeida settlers had set the same piece of land alight. Tel Rumeida settlers have also previously set alight ancient olive trees, which are of particular value to local Palestinians.

At the present time, the nature of the blaze is unknown, though there is footage, filmed by the Abu-Heckel family, of Israeli settlers standing in front of the fire when it first started. Israeli soldiers said that the fire started with the sun.

Later, at 3:00, a group of internationals were doing a tour through the olive groves when the discovered an olive tree still on fire. They called Israeli soldiers to put out the fire, but when the soldiers arrived they told the internationals to go away because it was too dangerous. Two internatioanls then ran to their home to get bottles of water, but when they returned the Palestinian firefighters were present with a fire hose. The internationals assisted the firefighters and helped put out the fire on the tree. This tree, and one other was seriously damaged by the fire and not have a chance to survive. One other tree was moderatly damaged.

In speaking with Jamil Abu Hekel, he confirmed that he was able to film his family’s land on fire. He advised that the land is shared between 6 family members, and that the piece of land which was burned has been burned down now every year for the last 5-6 years. in previous years, there used to be grapes on the field but they were burned down some 10 years ago.
One of the trees that were burned was over a hundred years old, it has been burned a lot of times, but somehow it has always managed to survive.

In real terms the cost of Palestinian land is set by how many Olive trees there are on it, however this doesn’t take into consideration the sentimental and emotional attachment many Palestinians feel towards the Olive trees as part of their cultural heritage and history. The burning of these trees attacks not just the financial capacity of Palestinians in the area but also attacks their culture and history.

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14. HRWs Attacked with Rocks by Settlers

Video Here

At approximately 5:00 pm on June 23rd 2007, two international HRWs (Human Rights Workers) walked through the olive groves of Tel Rumeida and noticed that a young settler boy (probably between the age of 10-12) was following closely behind them. After a couple minutes passed, the HRWs stopped walking to allow the settler to pass, as they were uncomfortable with him following at such a close proximity. When the boy reached the HRWs, he shouted at them to “Go!” among other various things in Hebrew. The boy was then joined by about five other young male settlers, and they began to hurl dirt and large, heavy stones directly at the HRWs. The stones hit one of the HRWs’ camcorder, as well as various places on their bodies. The HRWs called over a nearby Israeli soldier, who proceeded to come over but do nothing to prevent the settlers’ violence despite the continuing aggression by the children and the rock throwing. The first boy then physically attacked one of the HRWs. The soldier then told the HRWs to leave the area. They followed the soldier’s instructions and began walking away. About two minutes later, the settler children reappeared (there were now about ten of them) and began throwing huge stones from all angles at the HRWs. The children invaded an abandoned Palestinian home and continued their stone throwing. They managed to strike the HRWs multiple times again. After about five minutes, the children evacuated the house and returned to their settlement.

A third HRW on her way to support those being attacked asked a policeman to come, but he refused. The HRWs and others who had then joined them attempted to call the police, but they did not answer. The two attacked HRWs returned to Tel Rumeida Street and asked the two soldiers at the top of the hill to call the police. The soldiers initially refused, but finally conceded after numerous requests. After approximately thirty minutes, the police arrived and took the attacked HRWs to the police station in the Kiryat Arba settlement to make a complaint. An additional HRW complained to the policemen that they did not immediately attempt to catch the violent settler children. Eventually two of them proceeded to walk towards the Tel Rumeida settlement, but after a few minutes one of them left to remain inside his vehicle.

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15. Bil’in: Excessive Aggression by IOF against demonstrators continues

At 1:30 on the 22nd June 2007, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered together for the 124th demonstration against the Apartheid Wall being built and the expansion and occupation of the nearby illegal Settlement of Mode’in Illit. The demonstration began with chanting in both Arabic and English by the demonstrators as they marched to where the wall has been built. Both peaceful and civil, the demonstrators were initially met with quiet from the approximately 20 soldiers who were stood around twenty meters from a section of barbed wire lying in the road to restrict access. The demonstrators initially held their position at the barbed wire, chanting and shouting, however after a period of relative calm from the Israeli soldiers, they suddenly started firing sound grenades and tear gas at demonstrators who had been peacefully protesting against the wall and settlement. Some demonstrators were only ten meters away from the army with hands raised to show peace and non-violence, when they began to fire the sound grenades and the tear gas. It was clear from these gestures that the demonstrators had come without violence; however the Israeli army chose to deliberately ignore this. The demonstrators made efforts to retreat back to a safe distance however the Israeli military continued to fire sound grenades and tear gas canisters at the protestors. Many demonstrators were still holding their hands in the air and walking away from the soldiers however the soldiers continued to fire at them. A Canadian lady, known as Beth was walking away from soldiers at this time when she was shot in the back of her leg with a tear gas canister. The Israeli army showed complete disregard for demonstrators who were retreating or people not directly involved in the demonstration.

The IDF continued to move forward along the road despite the retreat by the demonstrators and they continued to fire rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound grenades. When a group of six female Palestinian and international activists attempted to confront the IDF over the use of violence against children, they were met with aggression and physical violence at one point attempting to arrest a Palestinian lady whose only crime was to voice her opinion. Children as young as ten were being targeted by the IDF with rubber coated steel bullets for throwing stones at heavily armored military jeeps. Attempts were made by activists to defend the children, yet soldiers continued to fire and forcibly hit, pushed and dragged female activists for their attempts to prevent the violence. The Soldiers had complete disregard for the activists who were acting without violence and continued to fire despite a HRW being directly infront of the soldier. It was with only good fortune that the HRW was not hit.
During the protest two further Palestinians were arrested, one of whom, Iyad Burnat of the popular committee is still being held. He was detained initially by two soldiers without apparent reason. He has since been shown photo’s of a man throwing stones, which the soldiers have claimed was him, despite this not being the case. He is currently in Offer prison awaiting a trial.

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16. Um Salamona: Tree Planting met with violence by IOF

At approximately 10.30 am a group of about 60 Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals gathered near the Palestinian village of Um Salamona to support Palestinian farmers in their protest against Israeli Apartheid Policy and to help them plant olive trees inside the nearby olive groves. Although these olive groves are part of Palestinian farm land, the farmers are not allowed to enter them since this area is supposed to be separated by the illegal Israeli Apartheid Wall.

As the group of peace activists and Palestinians approached the area of the upcoming Apartheid Wall, about 40 soldiers and border policemen came down the hill to prevent them from going further. The Palestinian land owners asked the soldiers to let them go on to their land. The soldiers either ignored or refused their requests and kept blocking the way. Some Palestinians then started to plant about 20 olive trees on the side of the road, while the rest of the group unsuccessfully negotiated with the border police and soldiers and chanted against the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

On several occasions, the soldiers and border policemen used unprovoked violence against the peaceful demonstrators. Numerous people were pushed to the ground, kicked and beaten. A group of three settlers, standing behind the soldiers, were watching the proceedings and seemed to enjoy the humiliating actions directed at the demonstrators. One border policeman stole the pick of a Palestinian farmer and refused to hand out his property until the end of the demonstration.

Close to the end of the peaceful protest against the robbing of Palestinian farmland and the building of the Apartheid Wall, the Israeli soldiers arrested two Israeli activists and used physical violence to take them to the police car.

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17. El-Farra: Palestinians must have hope to move forward

by: Mona El-Farra, SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR

As a physician from Gaza, I have treated far too many Palestinians wounded by Israeli troops. Now a day has come that I thought I would never see.

Throughout our 59-year struggle to obtain our freedom, we Palestinians debated strategy and tactics. Political factions competed for popular support. But never would I have believed that we would turn guns against each other. What brought us to this point?

In 2006, Hamas won free and fair elections on a platform that promised clean and efficient government. But Israel and the West meddled with our democratically elected choice by imposing devastating economic sanctions. How would Americans feel if a foreign power expressed its dissatisfaction with your elected government in this way? Our economy and our livelihoods have been destroyed, reducing many of us to poverty.

At last, we exploded with a desperation born of decades of oppression, lack of opportunity and loss of hope. We brutalized each other over the crumbs of power. The shame is ours — but the responsibility is shared between reckless Palestinians and external powers that turned the screws on our people.

Israel might have removed its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in September 2005, but it still controls Gaza from the sea, air and land. The borders are mostly closed according to the whim of Israel, transforming Gaza into an enormous open-air prison for its 1.4 million people, half of whom are children. Too many of these youngsters suffer from the stifling effects of violence and hunger. Their future is dangerously circumscribed by the chaos and uncertainty that envelops us.

To thrive, Palestinians need access to the sea and to commerce. Most importantly, our people must be imbued with a sense of hope.

Sanctions imposed after the election of Hamas made hard lives harder, but we must not forget that even under the “moderate” leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas we did not control trade in and out of Gaza.

“There is a seeming reflex,” United Nations peace envoy Alvaro de Soto said in a report, “in any given situation where the UN is to take a position, to ask first how Israel or Washington will react rather than what is the right position to take.”

Washington’s bias toward Israel is significantly responsible for the appalling situation in which we find ourselves.

Yes, we Palestinians must accept blame for our perilous situation. However, Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr has correctly declared, “If you have two brothers, put them in a cage and deprive them of basic and essential needs for life, they will fight.” The fact that we would sink to this level is perhaps the surest sign of the terrible damage meted out to us over the years by dispossession and occupation.

When one is in a hole, it is imperative to stop digging. If we are to win our freedom, surely it will not be done with one brother digging the grave of another. The violence, therefore, must stop. That is our first responsibility as Palestinians and we must meet it immediately. And the United States and the international community must end the sanctions that deprive us of our basic needs and our hope for a better future.

The Israeli leadership brandishes our plight as evidence that we cannot govern ourselves nor be trusted as “peace partners.” White South Africans similarly claimed that black South Africans were incapable of self-governance. In the last years of apartheid, more than 250 blacks were killed in black-on-black violence each month. Yet decency and equality eventually prevailed in South Africa. Apartheid was vanquished and the world learned that black-on-black violence was an outgrowth of apartheid — not an indication that black South Africans were incapable of self-rule and undeserving of rights.

We, too, have the right to be free. But we must first free ourselves from fighting over the scraps of power.

Like oppressed people everywhere, we yearn for our rights. Out of this ugly period, we must promote a new vision of equality for all peoples living on this land, regardless of race or religion.

El-Farra is a physician in the Gaza Strip. She is slate to speak tonight at 7 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3208 Exposition Blvd.

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18. Soldier to human rights worker: “In case you haven’t noticed, Israel is not a democracy”

On Saturday June 16, at 8.15 am, two human rights workers (HRWs) were taking a tour through the olive groves near the illegal Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida when they heard dialogue in Hebrew coming from the second floor of a Palestinian home. The owner of this house is a Palestinian man who recently purchased it. Because of the daily harassment by Israeli soldiers and settlers, the house was abandoned by its original Palestinian owners, trashed by the settlers, then turned into a military outpost. The owner of the house plans to renovate it so the Palestinian family move in.

The internationals called for two other human rights workers to come to the Palestinian home. When the HRWs arrived, they yelled into the house, “Whose there?” They waited for a short time before Israeli soldiers appeared in the windows. Internationals discovered that the 6 Israeli soldiers had been trespassing in the home for quite some time.

When the internationals asked if the soldiers had permission to be in the house, the soldiers said the house was a closed military zone and therefore they had permission to be there, and that the internationals must leave. When the HRWs asked for papers proving that the area around the house was a closed military zone, however, the soldiers failed to produce any. The HRWs told the soldiers that the house was private property, and owned by a Palestinian man. When the HRWs suggested that the soldiers vacate the house in which they were illegally trespassing, one solider took two cups of coffee and poured it out the window so that it ran down the front of the house.

HRWs then went up to the second floor of the house and confronted the soldiers. They told them repeatedly that they were not allowed to be in the house owned by the Palestinian, and when they looked in the windows they noticed mats on the floor and that the soldiers had been sleeping there.

The soldiers then exited to the back of the house where they proceeded to take photographs of the human rights workers. When one HRW told them that it is against international and Israeli law to occupy people’s houses, one of the soldiers answered: “But in case you have not noticed, Israel is not a democracy.”

After about 45 minutes members of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) came to the house.When the TIPH workers asked the soldiers if they had proper documentation that insured that they had the right to be in the house, they suddenly would not answer and pretended to not understand English.

At 9.15 the soldiers apparently grew tired of the situation and went from the back of the house around to outside the front where they sat down.

Two soldiers were hanging onto the windows downstairs taking photos of the internationals that stayed at the bottom of the house to make sure the soldiers wouldn’t try to get in to the house again.

At 9.40 the soldiers left from outside the front of the house and exited the area.

When the human rights workers took a tour of the house after the soldiers had left, they found Russian text written on the inside of the house. Russian graffiti was also noted on the walls of the house in the past. Two of the soldiers were Russian.

The following day, Sunday June 17, at 3:30pm, three settler boys- 10 to 13 years of age- came from the illegal Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida and used a mirror to reflect the sun in the eyes of Palestinian residents and international humans rights workers. The mirror was about 10 inches in diameter. A Palestinian man tried to shoo the boys away but they continued to shine light in people’s faces. The settler boys called the Israeli soldier who was stationed nearby, to intervene. The settlers claimed that the Palestinian man was threatening them. The Israeli soldier came over and told the Palestinian man to go inside his home. The Palestinian man then went inside.

The Israeli settler children continued to disturb the internationals until the mirror was broken. However the children then each picked up shards of the glass and continued to harass the HRWs. One of the internationals then approached the soldier and asked him to intervene and stop the kids because it was especially dangerous with sharp shards of glass. The soldier at first tried to say he did not understand but finally he asked the kids to come over to him, and after talking to them for some time they began to walk toward the settlement. Along the way, however, the settlers stopped between two Palestinian homes and began to taunt the Palestinian residents verbally. The internationals again intervened and asked that the soldier make the children go home. When the settlers noticed the soldier approaching, the proceeded to leave the area.

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19. 70 Palestinians detained at Tel Rumeida checkpoint

On the morning of June 18, four Israeli border police and two Israeli soldiers were present at the checkpoint leading into the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron.

The policemen turned up at 7:20am and began conducting their own ‘security checks.’ Palestinians and human rights groups see these checks as a continual daily harassment against the Palestinians by the occupying forces. The harassment involved checking the ID of virtually all Palestinian males aged ten-years and older (including elderly men) who wished to pass through the checkpoint in either direction. Most of the Palestinian males were detained for more than fifteen minutes, six for more than half-an-hour, and two for more than an hour. At least three Palestinian males had their details recorded on paper.

The majority of detained Palestinians were not carrying anything, and none were behaving suspiciously or provoking the policemen or soldiers.

Initially, the human rights workers (HRWs) began trying to talk with the policemen. When the HRWs talked to the policemen, they could not get a serious response. After three interventions, the policemen began to ignore the HRWs, and even became aggressive.

The human rights workers were repeatedly instructed not to speak to the detained Palestinians. The HRWs asked that the Palestinians be allowed to contact their employers or families to let them know what was happening. The policeman refused to allow the Palestinians to make phone calls. One example is a boy of approximately fourteen-years. One HRW approached the boy after he had been detained for at least fifteen minutes, and offered him her phone so he could call his family to let them know what was happening. The policemen was not happy with this, saying “Next time you ask me before you talk to them!”

The policemen directed provocations at the human rights workers throughout their time at the checkpoint. The provocations were essentially limited to mocking laughter, pointing and jeering. At one point, two of the policemen ran off toward a Palestinian property, pretending to be serious. They briefly disappeared from view, and when one of the HRWs followed them, the two policemen reappeared. All of the policemen then proceeded to mock and jeer at the human rights worker who had followed.

One policeman tried to show an HRW a video on his mobile phone of a beheading in Iraq. When the HRW realized what he was being shown and waved the phone away, the policeman began to laugh loudly in a mocking way. Another policeman showed the video to another HRW and explained that “They are all the same,” and that they “are killing Americans” in Iraq.

Overall, upwards of 70 Palestinian males were detained for up to one hour, and for an average time of ten to twenty-five minutes.

At approximately 11:45am, the policemen decided to halt their ‘security checks’ and left along Shuhada Street. They then proceeded to their base next to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah.

In the evening, two different Israeli soldiers were manning the Shuhada Street checkpoint. They repeatedly closed the gates which significantly increased the amount of time required for Palestinians to pass through the checkpoint. Periodically, the two soldiers additionally refused to open the side gate to let Palestinians pass with bulky goods, making their passage through the checkpoint much more difficult. One elderly male had to have a human rights worker help him unload his trolley and carry his goods through the checkpoint so that he could manage to get the empty trolley through the checkpoint.

The soldiers also refused to let a group of four female Palestinians pass because they did not have their ID.