Apartheid Israel must be charged for state terrorism for the killing of 2 year old Muhammad Tamimi.
Mvezo Komkhulu (The Great Place), Monday 5th June 2023: The passing of 2 year old Palestinian infant Muhammad Tamimi as a result of being shot in the head four days ago by Israeli soldiers is another act of brutality that has come to represent the daily atrocities perpetrated by Apartheid Israel against innocent Palestinians.
Those responsible must be charged with his murder and Netanyahu, his regime and those who act in consort with them have the blood of this innocent child on their hands.
Muhammad Tamimi was brutally shot outside his home in Nabi Saleh and has become the latest victim of Apartheid Israel’s state terrorism.
We are appalled by this level of inhumanity and the ongoing crimes against humanity and call for immediate charges to be brought by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu.
Apartheid Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands and its continued expansion of illegal settlements in violation of international law is the cause of these acts of brutality, ethnic cleansing and systematic genocide.
We call for justice for 2 year old Muhammad Tamimi and all Palestinian children being butchered by Apartheid Israel. His death brings the number of children brutally killed by Apartheid Israel in 2023 alone to almost 40 children and the number of Palestinians killed by Apartheid Israel to nearly 200 this year.
It is inconceivable that the UN Convention on the Rights of Children carries zero weight for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity.
We will not rest until the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.
We convey our heartfelt condolences to the Tamimi family and the Palestinian people on the occasion of the martyrdom of Muhammad Tamimi. We demand justice for him, for all Palestinian children murdered by Apartheid Israel and condemn in the strongest terms these crimes against humanity.
ENDS
Nkosi Zwelivelile
Royal House of Mandela
Mvezo Komkhulu
P.O. Box 126
Viedgesville 5102
Eastern Cape Province
South Africa
6/5/23 – Update: 2,5 year old Mohammed Tamimi has died of his wounds inflicted by Israeli soldiers who shot him in the head.
6/4/23 Nabi Salah, Occupied Palestine: The Israeli occupation forces have escalated their assaults on the Palestinian village of Nabi Salah targeting civilians including a toddler with live ammunition.
Two and half year old Mohammad Tamimi has a bullet lodged in his brain and is currently in critical condition.
On Thursday, June first, 2023, the occupation forces placed a military checkpoint at the entrance of the village and prevented cars from passing. They forced some young men to get out from their cars and began to attack them physically without any reasons
At approximately 7:30 pm one of the soldiers stationed near the military tower shot Haitham al-Tamimi, 40, in the shoulder and his son two and a half years old, Mohammed Al Tamim in the head as they were about to get onto their car warning. Haitham was operated on in Ramallah Hospital but his son, Mohammed is in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his brain.
Haitham AlTamimi after being operated on after Israeli troups opened fire on him and his son
At around 8:00 pm, a military jeep stormed the village and started firing live bullets directly at the houses, which led to breaking the windows in some houses. As a result, Wissam Al-Tamimi 17 was injured by a sponge bomb in his head while he was standing on the roof of the house, which fractured his skull.
17 year old Wissam AlTamimi was hit in the head with what is called a ponge bomb while on the roof of his house. He suffers form a fractured skull.
After that, three snipers positioned themselves on the roof of one of the shops opposite the citizens homes and fired live bullets and sponge bombs at anyone who moved, whether inside the houses or on the roof tops. The journalist and volunteer at B’Tselem, Bilal Al-Tamimi, who was wearing a press uniform, helmet, and shield, was wounded after a soldier fired a sponge bomb directly and from a close range which broke his wrist and required surgery for a platinum implant. The house of journalist Bilal Al-Tamimi continued to be targeted with live bullets, gas canisters and sponge bombs, as a result of which his mother, who had kidney failure, suffocated.
Journalist and Human rights defender Bilal Al Tamimi after being operated on due to the occupation forces breaking his wrist with a so called sponge bullet
On Friday, June 2, at approximately 4:30 P.M, Noura Al-Tamimi was hit by a sponge canister in her stomach, which caused severe convulsions, which necessitated taking her to the hospital. Kafa Al-Tamimi, who is seven months pregnant, suffocated from the gas after a tear gas canister broke the glass of her bedroom window.
Many of the village residents, including children, women, and the elderly, were detained outside their homes and were not allowed to return until the withdrawal of the occupation forces at dawn.
On Saturday night, June 3, 2023 the occupying military invaded the village, once again entering homes, The occupying soldiers took one young man from his home, beat him up, and then released him. This morning the children of Nabi Salah went to school to sit their final exams after another sleepless night.
Manal Tamimi of Nabi Saleh stated: “ The incitement for this attack stems from the settlers’ repeated attempts to intimidate the villagers, with the most recent incident occurring just last week. In light of these distressing events, we urgently call upon the international community to ensure the protection of this small village, with a population not exceeding 650 people. It is imperative that international humanitarian law and international treaties are upheld, and immediate action is taken to halt the repeated attacks by both the occupation forces and settlers. Over the past decade alone, these aggressions have tragically resulted in the martyrdom of five young individuals from the village.”
Haitham and Mohammed AlTamimi days before the Israeli occupiying forces shot them.
The International Solidarity Movement is calling all activists and supporters to take urgent action against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Masafer Yatta region in the occupied West Bank.
What is Masafer Yatta?:
Masafer Yatta is a rural region to the south of Hebron along the southern border of the occupied West Bank. It is home to 12 Palestinian villages totalling about 2,800 residents. Since 1981, the Israeli army has used the land as a military training area, ‘Firing Zone 918’ which has been used as a pretext for dispossesing, evicting and demolishing Palestinian homes, making every-day life unbearable for residents.
The current situation:
On May 4 2022, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected appeals by residents against a series of eviction orders, giving the green light to Israeli Occupation Forces to wipe out eight villages located within the firing zone. This puts around 1,200 Palestinian residents, including 500 children, at imminent risk of eviction and arbitrary displacement, according to the UN. This process has already begun. The village of Al Mirkez has already been flattened three times and the residents are living in caves next to the rubble that was formerly their community.
From June 20, Israeli forces will begin training exercises with live ammunition in the Masafer Yatta region. Our partners on the ground view the next 3 months as a critical period, which will determine whether their communities will survive … and we need to act now!
How Masafer Yatta communities are resisting:
ISM’s friends and comrades in the region will never give up and neither should we. Masafer Yatta’s People’s Committee for Protection and Resilience, along with the Youth of Samud (whose headquarters received its own demolition order last week) have come together to use non-violent resistance to stop this ethnic cleansing. Popular resistance groups from all over Palestine and teams of activists from ‘48 [Israel] have been joining them in a united effort to save the villages. They are calling for international support and international activists to come and join the struggle on the ground.
We need volunteers to join them:
ISM is sending volunteers to Masafer Yatta this summer. We are calling on all committed supporters of Palestine to volunteer with ISM in the West Bank, in response to calls for assistance from our partners in Masafer Yatta. ISM activists would be working in solidarity with the Masafer Yatta community to provide a protective presence in villages under threat of demolition. ISM previously supported efforts to halt the demolition of Palestinian village Khan al-Ahmar in 2018. We hope to replicate the same success in Masafer Yatta. For more information about volunteering with ISM (needed this July and August), please contact: ismtraining@riseup.net.
If you can’t volunteer on the ground you can still help the cause!
Donate to ISM to help us sponsor volunteers and keep us running. Alternatively you can contact us for information about grassroots groups from Masafer Yatta, who you can support with donations or in other ways.
Beginning with invasive night raids multiple villages, and ending with 7 structures demolished, 4 families made homeless, 2 Palestinians arrested, 1 beaten and hospitalized, 1 car confiscated, and 1 major access road severely damaged, Israeli Occupation Forces continue their ongoing assault on local communities in Masafer Yatta.
Masafer Yatta is a collection of over 20 villages near Hebron, deep in the south of the West Bank. Most of the Palestinians who live here raise livestock for a living; some are Bedouins, who once traveled with their camels and flocks across the dry and rugged hills, before Israel invaded in 1967 and occupied the area. Despite archeological excavations showing villages have been there since the early Roman and Byzantine era, the Israeli army declared the area a live firing zone in the 1970s and announced plans to demolish most of the villages. While Palestinians in Firing Zone 918 are forbidden from driving cars or possessing any kind of construction material, Israeli settlers in the settlements of Maon, Avigal, and Susya, illegal under international law, continue to build new houses and farms, and are free to travel in and out of the area.
On September 11th 2019, from 0:00 to 4:00 AM, Israeli soldiers raided multiple villages, breaking into homes, forcing sleeping children and parents outside of their houses and searching rooms, cupboards and fridges, as well as cars and wells, damaging villager’s belongings and terrorizing local residents. The soldiers refused to show residents a warrant or give a reason for the indiscriminate searches; residents say their villages are often used as a training ground for new recruits.
Israeli soldiers raided multiple villages from midnight to early morning, awaking residents and searching houses without giving a reason or warrant.
At 9:00 AM, 4 bulldozers and excavators, from JCB, Hyundai, and Volvo, and a Scania loading truck, together with dozens of IDF soldiers, Border Police, and Civil Administration agents arrived in the village of Mufakara, a tiny hamlet of approximately 50 inhabitants from the Hamamda clan. 4 structures were demolished and 2 families displaced, including a widow, her 6 daughters and one son. Residents of Mufakara said it was the 5th demolition in their village alone this year; one family had their home, demolished 3 times in 9 months. Civil administration agents also cut and confiscated a water pipe bringing water from At-Tuwani to Mufakara. This is not the first time Israeli Civil Administration has deprived villagers in Mufakara of access to water, a basic human right; Israeli human rights group B’Tselem reports that after having running water for just 6 months, Israeli forces destroyed and confiscated 6 kilometers of piping in February this year. The IOF also confiscated a car owned by the Massafer Yatta Village Council.
Israeli forces demolish a Palestinian home in Mufakara:
Israeli soldiers at the scene of home demolitions in Mufakara.
The IOF also demolished the bathroom of a family living inside a cave passed down for generations, .
Israeli forces demolish a family’s bathroom.
In the nearby village of Khallet Ad-Dabe’a, Israeli forces and Civil Administration demolished the houses of a family with 6 children and their uncle’s house. A relative of the family that lost their home was violently assaulted by Israeli soldiers after running past them towards the house, and was hospitalized with multiple injuries. Two Palestinians, head of the At-Tuwani Village Council, Mohammad Rib’ey, and Bakr Fadel Rib’ey, were assaulted, then arrested by the IOF. They were released without charge later in the day.
Relative of the family that lost their home, with his son, after being attacked by Israeli soldiers. He was later hospitalized for multiple injuries.
At the same time as the home demolitions, the Israeli army used excavators to dig holes and pile boulders and rubble onto a key road, cutting off 15 villages from the regional hub of Yatta. For some of these villages, alternative routes to Yatta will turn a 30 minutes trip into one that takes 4-5 hours, much of it through unpaved dirt roads.
Many of the houses demolished on Wednesday were, in fact, built with funding from the EU and international NGOs, as well as the road, which locals say was repaired with EU funding after it was previously damaged by Israeli forces. Regavim, an extremist far right settler group which lobbies for demolitions and against EU development projects in Palestine, is highly active in and around the illegal Israeli settlements in Masafer Yatta. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, humanitarian organizations currently providing assistance to communities in Masafer Yatta are impeded by demolition orders “against the items provided”, as well as confiscation of organisations’ vehicles and equipment, and restriction of access to the area.
The Israeli government defends such demolitions by arguing that the houses were built without the legally required permits. A quick look at the numbers, however, show the virtual impossibility of obtaining a housing permit under Israel’s apartheid system. In a 2014 report by the World Bank, only 1.6% of Palestinian housing permit applications were approved; Israeli Civil Administration confirms that from 2008 to 2016, 66 Palestinian applications for construction were approved, while 12,763 Israeli settlement construction applications were approved.
To put that into numbers, an Israeli settler is 193 times more likely to have his application approved than a Palestinian.
Wednesday’s demolitions marked the first demolitions in 1 month and 8 days. The fact that such an extensive round of demolitions occurred just 6 days before Israelis vote in legislative elections did not go unnoticed, as Netanyahu, facing corruption charges and failure to form a government, tries to secure the settler and pro-Occupation vote. With both major Israeli parties declaring their intention to continue illegal settlement growth, and demolition orders pending on 26 of the 28 villages and hamlets in Masafer Yatta, the Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta looks set to continue.
11 year old Ali asks Israeli soldiers why they came to this land, after being forced out his home and having to watch bulldozers destroy his family’s house:
August 25| International Solidarity Movement | Beit Kahel, Occupied Palestine
As part of a targeted collective punishment towards the village of Beit Kahel following the death of an Israeli settler in Gush Etzion, ten individuals from the village have been arrested by Israeli Occupation Forces.
Seven of the detainees are all part of the Asfara family, and include brothers Ikriah and Naseer Asfara (28 and 23 years old), their brother, their cousin Qassam Asfara (30 years old), his two brothers, and his wife Dnas Nabeel Asfara (27 years old). Qassam – who has a permit to work in Israel which requires a background check for security clearance – and Dnas have two very young children, of just 3 and 5 years old. The children have now been without their parents since they were arrested during preparations for Eid Al-Adha, on Saturday 10th August 2019.
The Israeli military have announced that Ikriah, a journalist, is not under suspicion in relation to the death, but they have not released him. Relatives of the detainees have heard nothing since the arrests, except that they have been taken to an Israeli prison north of Gaza. Their lawyers have been unable to have any dialogue with Israeli authorities about the individuals or the case; the only news that family members have had has come from Israeli media about the incident. The Asfara family are very concerned for the arrested individuals, as Israeli prisons are well known to employ torture methods in an attempt to coax ‘admissions’ from accused parties. All of these torture methods are made legal under the title of “Moderate physical pressure,” and include: solitary confinement in high temperatures; being forced to stay awake for days or weeks on end; starvation; and enduring incredibly loud sounds and music 24 hours a day.
Prior to the arrest, members of the Asfara family, and other residents of the village of Beit Kahel had been subject to daily harassment by the Israeli military, and when they came on the Saturday 10th before Eid Al-Adha at 2am, 30 soldiers broke into and terrorised two buildings they raided as they carried out the arrests.
Forced window in Naseer and Ikriah’s home.
Mr. Asafra, the uncle of those arrested, described:
“We were sleeping peacefully in our homes, they (IOF) broke in and started beating everybody up. It was the Saturday before Eid at 2am while everyone was asleep. They stayed until 8am. 6 continuous hours of beating people up in the house. They horrified everyone and beat two men and arrested 4 people. They horrified everyone. They took every family member into one room and then searched the house.”
The brothers, Naseer and Ikriah, were sleeping on the roof of the other home raided, and they were woken up by security dogs. Israeli military broke in and raided both houses.
The rooftop of Naseer and Ikriah’s home.
“It was terrifying for the children sleeping inside,” said Mr. Asfara, “They and the women were screaming.”
The three men arrested, along with other family members, were beaten badly in front of the rest of the family. Dnas was not beaten, but roughly handcuffed and taken by the soldiers, who did not let her get dressed or put her head scarf on. She quickly grabbed her praying overcoat to protect her modesty as she was dragged out of her home.
Mr. Asfara states: “I never expected a country with an organised “democratic” structure would behave this way towards civilians.”
Mr. Asfara, the uncle of the detainees.
The IOF returned the next day on Sunday 11th, during Eid Al-Adha celebrations, at around the same time of 2am. Again, they entered the village with incredible violence, raided both homes, confiscated Qassam’s car, and horrified the residents. They searched both buildings for 2.5 hours before taking photographs and sketches of the properties, measuring them up for demolition, despite having no demolition order from the court.
When the IOF came to the Beit Kahel for a third time, on Thursday 15th August, residents of Beit Kahel had organised a sit in of Naseer and Ikriah’s home. As 200 people were gathered inside and on the roof of the property, the Israeli military barricaded the village and fired tear gas into the building and then surrounded it, blocking any Palestinian from leaving as the house filled with the gas. Many were affected very badly by the tear gas; considered a chemical weapon when used in War, but somehow legal in civilian cases despite the high mortality rate of Palestinians due to tear gas related casualties.
The family has not received any demolition order at all, so the village hope to resist the actions of the Israeli military until they get confirmation from the high court that the houses will be demolished for certain.
Naseer and Ikriah’s home home after the raid.Qassam and Dnas’ home after the raid.
Naseer and Ikriah Asfara reside in only 2 of the 4 apartments in the building, yet the Israeli military took measurements, sketches and photographs of all 4 apartments, as well as a separate building where Qassam lives with his wife Dnas. The residents of Beit Kahel are appealing the demolition in court, hopefully to freeze it, but even if they win the appeal not to demolish all 4 apartments in the building, the military could block the 2 houses of the accused, or fill them with cement.
Housing demolitions, most often without a court ruling, are a common collective punitive measure by Israel, under the 1945 British Mandate emergency law. This policy has its origins after end of the First World War and the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, when Great Britain seized much of the Middle East, and gave wide authority for local military commanders to confiscate and destroy “any house, structure or land… the inhabitants of which he is satisfied have committed… any offence against these Regulations involving violence.” Despite the outdated and irrelevant nature of this policy, it was renewed by Israel in 2014, granting the occupying forces legality to demolish the homes of Palestinians under any accusation, founded or not.
Naseer and Ikriah’s home home after the raid.Qassam and Dnas’ home after the raid.
As a further punitive measure, 9 members of the family have had their Israeli work permits blocked, so in addition to their being unable to earn a living, they are also unable to pass through checkpoints. Qassam’s 57 year old father Aref has also been returned from checkpoints, unable to pass through the country. This renders the entire Asfara family without their livelihood, trapped in Beit Kahel, soon to be made homeless.
Since these initial arrests, the IOF have returned to Beit Kahel and arrested 6 more residents of the small village. Two of Qassam’s brothers, a brother of Ikriah and Naseer, and three others were arrested in a night raid on Monday August 19th.
Following these events, Israeli Occupation Forces have had an almost constant presence in the village, threatening: “We will come at any time we want, don’t think this is over.”
“Welcome Everyone” in Arabic on the connected apartment to the residence of the accused brothers.
6/5/23
