Tag: Ethnic Cleansing - Page 15 - International Solidarity Movement

Life imprisoned in a ‘closed military zone’: “Daily Life”?

26th June 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces at Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) have put up yet another sign ‘instructing’ the Palestinian residents on their behavior at the checkpoint. The bright-red sign clearly with pictures prohibits any kind of supposedly ‘dangerous’ materials like guns, knives and scissors. Just like when you attempt to cross security in any airport. Whereas those objects have long been prohibited and most Palestinians wouldn’t dare bring any of those to any checkpoint, as they’d have to fear for their lives, the signs also illustrate something else: live for the Palestinians living in this area is immensely restricted.

At an airport, most people can at least attempt to grasp why those objects aren’t allowed. But now consider this checkpoint is on your daily way to your house. Your own home. Not an airport, you have to cross this checkpoint all the time. That’s what it is like for Palestinians living in the Israeli forces declared ‘closed military zone’ in Tel Rumeida and on Shuhada Street. Those restrictions, newly illustrated with little images, restrict daily tasks such as cooking and studying, doing arts, and even such mundane things as cutting your nails. No Palestinian is allowed to bring any kind of knife, so unless you have a big stack of sharp knifes – you won’t be cutting neither your fruit, nor meat, nor vegetables. If you break a pair of scissors, your children will not be doing arts anymore, and no matter how often they ask for new one’s, the parents are prohibited to bring scissors, even non-sharp childrens-scissors, into this area.

Newly installed sign illustrating the daily restrictions enforced solely for Palestinians

Doing so against the warning, you’d most likely pay with your life. A sentence on the sign says that a ‘permit’ can be applied for to bring any of the mentioned items. But even if that would be successful – assuming a Palestinian wouldn’t just be arrested for just applying for such a permit – or refused like so many Palestinians applying for building permits, it would cost a lot of bravery to actually show up at the checkpoint with any of those items. Bringing ‘banned items’ to the checkpoint, and then telling the heavily-armed soldier: “I’m bringing a knife”. It’s debatable whether that conversation would ever go beyond that point, or rather be cut short by gunshots from a heavily-armed occupation force.

In stark contrast to airports, where the measures are for security, in this context they are merely and deliberately solely for humiliation. In international law, a praxis like this is called ‘creating a coercive environment’ in order to facilitate ‘forced displacement’. And that’s what it is about: in an area that so conveniently connects all the illegal settlements within the city center of al-Khalil and on its outskirts, Palestinians are merely considered a nuisance. The attempts to drive them out are thus ever more enforced by the occupying army.

Israeli forces shoot at and arrest 14-year old boy in Hebron

26th June 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

A fourteen year old Palestinian boy was shot at by settlers and soldiers before being arrested on the 25^th June at 4:00 pm outside Bab al-Baladiya, the military base overlooking the old city in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Sources are unclear as to why he was arrested however it is known that the Israeli forces have been looking for him for a long period of time.

The settlers that reportedly shot at Mohammad

Eyewitnesses claim that Muhammad was outside of the gate of Bab al-Baladiya when a group of settlers and soldiers shot three rounds of live ammunition as well as reportedly throwing sound bombs. After that, they came out from the gate and took him inside the base.

Muhammad’s brother Mahmoud (18) was arrested in a similar fashion on May 17^th and has yet to be released. After arresting Mahmoud, the Israeli forces called their family to demand that Muhammad be turned over in exchange for Mahmoud. This praxis is clearly against any human rights standards and is intended to exert pressure on the family to basically exchange one son for the other, clearly disregarding any kind of legal standards in the proceeding.

This took place on the first day of Eid al-Fitr “the feast of breaking the fast”, the most important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide, marking the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. This feast, normally, is a family feast, where everyone would go and visit their families, which in occupied al-Khalil is impeded to a large degree by Israeli forces. Both Mohammad and Mahmoud though, will not be able to celebrate this feast with their families.

Israeli forces overlooking the Palestinian market

Palestinians celebrating Eid in a ‘closed military zone’

26th June 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

As anywhere all over the world, Palestinian Muslims are celebrating the end of the fasting-month Ramadan with the 3-day feast of Eid. Eid usually is a joyous occasion, everyone dresses up nicely and the most important activity is visiting family. For Palestinians under Israeli military occupation though, it is a little more difficult. Countless daily movement-restrictions, navigating the maze of permanent and sudden, so-called ‘flying’ checkpoints is just one part of the methods of slow ethnic cleansing enforced on the Palestinian civilian population by the Israeli forces.

In the Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street area in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), receiving visits from family must sound something like a distant dream. A dream that will never come true. Since the area was declared a ‘closed military zone’ by Israeli forces in November 2015, any Palestinian that is not registered at the checkpoint, is not allowed to come into the area. The residents have been assigned numbers that are used to identify by the Israeli forces whether or not they are (theoretically) allowed to pass the checkpoint and reach their homes.

Surprisingly, on the first day of Eid on Sunday, Israeli forces actually allowed family members to cross the checkpoint and visit their family-members imprisoned in this ‘closed military zone’. Whereas the joy about the unexpected visits has been enormous – it is dimmed by knowing that this will be the only visit for at least a year. The unexpected visitors though, had to report of long queues, they had to give the name and the sure-name of the registered residents they are visiting at the checkpoint, and very strict ‘checks’ at the checkpoint. It has not been announced that any non-residents would be allowed to pass, instead of turned back just like it happens so often. Many that didn’t know, didn’t try.

Long queues outside Shuhada checkpoint on Eid

For Palestinians who had their lives incarcerated in this ‘closed military zone’, even the joy of suddenly and finally having family come for a visit, is still always strictly linked to the knowledge that the Israeli forces restrictions are only meant to drive them out of the area, to make life so hard and unbearable for them, that they would just use. It’s always connected to the simple fact that their fault is simply: being Palestinian.

Iftar on the Rubble

14th June 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Jerusalem, occupied Palestine

Seventy people gathered in the Sur Baher neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem for a communal solidarity Iftar on the rubble of the home of Ashraf and Islam Fawaqa.

The Fawaqa home was one of nine Palestinian homes and 3 stores that were demolished on May 4th, 2017 in occupied East Jerusalem. Home demolition is a strategic policy of Israel that is integral to their Judaization of Jerusalem and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Nurredin Amro, who is blind and the principal of Siraj Al Quds School for Inclusive Education spoke about his family being awakened at four in the morning in March 2015 when their house in Wadi Joz was being demolished while they were inside. “It was the most terrible thing that I have ever experienced. A home demolition is the demolition of a person. It is not just stone that is destroyed it is the demolition of the human spirit.”

Iftar guests listen to the information and personal stories with home demolition

Nora Lester Murad, one of the volunteer organisers of the event stated: “We want to express our solidarity with the tens of thousands of Palestinian families whose homes have been demolished, sealed, or who live every day under the imminent threat of demolition. We feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of need these families have, by the apparent impossibility of stopping future demolitions, and by our own sense of powerlessness. It seemed the least we could do to show these families – families who are on the frontline of the continuing Nakba – that they have allies.”

Islam and Ashraf talked about the uncertain future of their young family who now live in a temporary caravan on the site where their home once stood, even this caravan which is insufficient to keep their children, including their new born baby, warm in the winter, is in danger of being demolished.

Munir Nusseibeh, of the Al Quds Community Action Center, explained the excuses used by the occupation authorities for demolishing Palestinian homes. “Some homes are demolished because the occupation authorities claim they have no building permits, but it is virtually impossible for a Palestinian resident of occupied East Jerusalem to receive a permit. The permit system is setup to benefit the Israeli settlers and not to serve the needs of the Palestinians of the city. Some homes are demolished as collective punishment because one of the members of the family is accused of a crime. But no matter the excuse, home demolitions by the occupying power are illegal under international law.”

At the time of the call for the evening prayer food donated by members of the community as well as local businesses, such as the Jerusalem Hotel, La vie Cafe from Ramallah, The Tanour and Abu Zahra supermarkets was shared. At least for this evening the families were not alone in facing the uncertainty of their future.

Iftar on the Rubble: guests break the fast with Palestinian families that had their house demolished by the Israeli Forces

Tel Rumeida faces closure by Israeli forces

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

On April 20th, Tel Rumeida’s Palestinian residents will face the acceleration of its near total isolation in the H-2, Israeli military controlled section of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Upon military order, Israeli forces announced the fortification of checkpoints and further land seizure, leading to a worsening of the ghettoization of the residential area which has been under incremental incursion by illegal Israeli settlement activity beginning in 1984.

Shuhada checkpoint was the late September, 2015 site of the brutal murder of a young Palestinian woman, Hadeel Hashlamoun, who was shot ten times by Israeli forces while exiting Tel Rumeida. She was left bleeding to death for 45 minutes before Israeli police dragged her away by her feet. The observation of this murder helped to spark an uprising against the illegal occupation. Months later the Shuhada checkpoint was expanded to create a process in which Palestinians who pass through the checkpoint are forced to enter one at a time through a locked turn style, followed by a small fenced path, and then into an enclosure completely guarded from observation. With the new military order, the additional checkpoints around Tel Rumeida are planned to be similarly inaccessible to public view.

*A page of the military order declaring the scheduled closure of Tel Rumeida*

On April 5th 2017, ISM volunteers discovered a crowd of settlers and Israeli occupation forces surveying Tel Rumeida and announcing the new plans for the neighborhood which is scheduled to be enacted within 2 weeks. The new plans would make it even more difficult for Palestinian residents of H2 to access basic services like ambulances and would bar their family members and any Palestinians without a special i.d. number from visiting the Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida.

The ramifications that Tel Rumeida’s Palestinian residents will face echo the late 2015 declaration by Israeli forces of Tel Rumeida as a closed military zone during a time of extreme escalation in violence during which dozens of Palestinian youth were murdered across the occupied West Bank. Shuhada street was closed to Palestinians. A similar fate is now scheduled for the whole neighborhood.

*Map of planned military closure of Tel Rumeida*

Prominent Palestinian activist, Hashem al Azzeh lived a full life devoted to nonviolent opposition and popular resistance before he was killed by an H2 checkpoint’s denial of medical services. More recently, an infant was harassed while crossing an H2 checkpoint, and in another incident, sleeping soldiers left Palestinians unable to pass through the checkpoint. These and many other human rights abuses may become more common and less able to be documented if the announced changes are not stopped.

An organizer with Hebron Defense Committee, Sami Natsheh, and his colleagues have initiated a legal counter to the military order which was filed by their lawyer today in the Israeli courts, although military orders are notoriously difficult to overturn. “It’s a military order, but it’s also anti-human rights,” Natsheh noted. Highlighting the need for a strategic and ongoing response, Sami further stated that, “We don’t just want reaction. We want something stable because on April 20th they will close Tel Rumeida. You won’t even be able to see through the checkpoints, only wire and fencing.”

Updates on this and other campaigns initiated by the Hebron Defense Committee can be seen here.