Tag: freepalestine

About the legitimisation of the Palestinian oppression in Al Khalil (Hebron)

December 1st | International Solidarity Movement | Al Khalil, occupied Palestine

Last Saturday, November 23rd, was ‘Sarah’s day’, a festivity for the Jewish community that gathers Israeli settlers from all around the occupied Palestinian Territories and Jews travelling from abroad, in the Palestinian city of Al Khalil (also known as Hebron). This year in particular, there has been a special effort by the Hebron Fund to bring as many devotees as possible, who converged in the ‘H2’ zone of Al Khalil, including the old city area and all the surrounding illegal Israeli settlements.

 

A sign on Shuhada Street, Hebron,

 

In their daily life, Palestinians’ right of movement in this zone is severely restricted, and at times forbidden. The incoming celebrations worsened, if possible, the situation. In response to the huge influx of settlers and people coming from abroad, military involvement was significantly increased.

The outcome of these three different factors -massive presence of zionists, increased military presence and effective closing down of the area for the Palestinian residents – was a situation in which the incoming crowds were legitimated to do any type of action inside a de-facto ‘amusement-park’, with the complicity of the army, whose effective duty is to control and suppress local people and activists. The situation resembled the conditions under which the first settlement in Hebron was created. In 1968, a group of Israeli zionists reserved hotel rooms in the old city during a Jewish holiday. Their stay evolved into a permanent occupation, protected by Israeli soldiers and endorsed by the Israeli government.

 

Banner put by zionists during Sarah’s day.

What it was possible to witness from the participants in the Sarah’s day celebrations, seemed to be all the frustration and the rage cumulated during the year, crystallized, materialising into the basest actions, and enabled by an unlimited sense of power. These feelings were exemplified by banners such as “Palestine never existed… and never will” [source: Hebron Fund]. They transformed into overt hostility and aggression against the international activists observing the events. They emerged as physically violent attacks with pepper spray against unarmed Palestinian civilians, including children. This culminated with the stoning of a two-years old sleeping child.

 

A 2 years old kid stoned by the settlers in Tel Rumeida.
This gathering of zionists seems to flush out all the frustration due to the incompleteness of the apartheid process: the Palestinians in Al Khalil are guilty of not being fully subjugated by the racist policies of the state of Israel, and such a gathering is a good opportunity to remind them of the hierarchy that is supposed to be in place.

In view of all this, several questions are raised.
First of all, of course, why? Why such a rage and such a violent spirit? Does Israel not have enough? Illegally occupying a vast majority of Palestinian land seems not to be sufficient. The real occupation and the true oppression is carried out through the routine and persistent humiliation of Palestinians, and the feeling of impotence with which local people are left after every attack. However, it does not take much time for the Palestinians to resume their usual spirit of resistance. Their resilience is stronger than the fascist soul of a bunch of extremist settlers.

Secondly, what is the role of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) present there? On
Friday afternoon, a group of almost 150 settlers attacked a barber shop on the way to the Kyriat Arba illegal settlement, assaulting the five people inside with pepper spray, wood and furniture. All around, a huge presence of IOF soldiers; did they stop this fascist aggression?

A couple of hours later, a 12 years old child was attacked by a group of settlers, spraying him with pepper spray and kicking him whilst on the ground. Nearby soldiers were stationed at an observation tower 50 meters away; did the soldiers intervene?

 

 

A 12 years old Palestinian kid gased and then kicked by the settlers.

 

In both cases the soldiers did not stop the violence. They observed, and they waited. They waited and watched while the illegal settlers vented their hatred against the Palestinians. At what expense?

A further, even more extreme example, took place on Saturday afternoon. The family of a Palestinian activist living in the Tel Rumeida neighbour (within the ‘H2’ zone) was gathered together in their home, when a group of settlers climbed on the roof and entered their garden. After shouting verbal abuse, the settlers began to throw stones at the house, the family came outside trying, in vain, to convince them to go away. One of the stones passed, not by chance, through a window and hit the two year old nephew of the activist, who was sleeping inside. The soldiers were on the rooftop, “containing” (i.e. observing) the settlers. A Palestinian ambulance could not reach Tel Rumeida: Palestinians are forbidden to drive inside ‘H2’. The only way for the family of the injured child to get him to safety and medical treatment, was to hold him and run, through the throngs of yelling settlers, towards the closest checkpoint. Then they could only hope for the medics to be able to pass the control and take the child. There are at least two past examples this not being possible. In one case, the victim died waiting at the checkpoint. On this occasion, mercifully the child could reach the ambulance, and the medical staff were able to take him to the waiting ambulance.

 

Palestinian medical staff trying to pass the check point 56 in order to enter Shuada street.
Hence it seems clear that the role of the IOF is not to prevent clashes. Not even to defend the Israelis. Their role is to indulge the settlers, whatever the price to pay for the others. In their amusement-park there is no place for disrupters, such as activists, adult and child Palestinians, who are systematically and brutally repressed.

IOF during Sarah’s day.
In the end, what should Palestinians do in order not just to be spectators of their own everlasting humiliation? The answer is more complicated than ever. As time passes by, the imbalance of power shifts further away from them, as the recent US declaration highlights. Active resistance is undermined by both the continued oppression of the Israeli police and the internal conflicts within the Palestinians factions. The presence of international activists helps in documenting the constant violations of basic rights, but is certainly not enough to change the inertia of the dynamics. While hope for change by pure political means weakens, space is created for more radical, and sometimes more appealing, answers based on the juxtaposition of Islamist ideas to the zionist arguments. The international powers, focused on the pure capitalistic interest of maintaining good relationships with Israel as an ally, are responsible for this radicalisation. They, and all those who turn a blind eye to the injustices happening here lose the right to judge the Palestinian means of resistance, in the face of an oppression in which they are accomplices.

 

Young boy beaten, detained and extorted in Al Khalil by IDF – 19/3/19

March 19, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Salaymeh check point, occupied Palestine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtNMN4I99YY&feature=youtu.be

This teenager got arrested today after him and his little brother got attacked by the Israeli police and an illegal settler in the streets of Hebron. His testimony is as follows: ‘”This morning, my sister came to me and told me that the army kidnapped my younger brother. When I went there to see what’s going on, i found them beating him up, I tried to protect him but the army pushed me away to a corner, while I was in that corner, a Settler tried to run me over with his car, I escaped, then he came out of his car and beat me up, then the army came and beat me up and held me from here (chin). He took my ID and my phone and detained me here. Don’t know what to do, every few days I got arrested, I have a suspended sentence for 10 months against me and if he calls the court now, I will probably have to pay 10.000 shekels, where will I get them this money then?! I work the whole day for 50 shekels. Not long ago, i was arrested for two months because I was beaten up by a settler and there a video of that incident where they were attacking me”.

Children denied entry to Mosque – Hebron – 18.03.2019

March 18, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil (Hebron), occupied Palestine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yttNhYJ741k&feature=youtu.be

A group of small school children are stopped by the Israeli Defense forces for over an hour at an illegal checkpoint on their way to a school field trip to their local Mosque, in Al-Khalil. Tourists and other Palestinians alike, also held and denied entry. This is the daily life for the youth in Hebron.

Settlers call the shots in Al-Khalil

February, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Ramallah, occupied Palestine

Last week, a notoriously violent and antagonistic Israeli settler Ofer, who calls for the extermination of Palestinians, had me arrested and detained by the Israeli police, and if I was Palestinian, I could have been killed. Furthermore, this was another incident demonstrating the concerning and increasing trend of collaboration between settlers and the Israeli Occupation, as they attempt to force the remaining witnesses out of Al-Khalil (Hebron).

Twenty-five years ago on this day, Baruch Goldstein, a New York-born Israeli settler – who Ofer worships and refers to as “the Holy Saint” – walked into Ibrahim Mosque in Al-Khalil and opened fire, killing 29 Palestinians and seriously wounding more than 150. The “official” response to this attack was an injection of international observers throughout the city – UN group Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) – with the belief that this presence would dissuade the settlers from unleashing further terror on the native Palestinian community. In effect, what transpired was little more than a speed bump as the settlers continued their crusade, albeit gradually, as they attempted to colonise Al-Khalil and erase the Palestinian soul from the city. Today Goldstein is memorialized in his settlement of Kiryat Arba, home to Ofer, where his revolting shrine is well tended and revered.

At the start of February, the Israeli Occupation expelled the UN observers, and, while I acknowledge the multitude of valid criticisms concerning the work of TIPH, what the Occupation and their fanatical foot-soldiers are scheming is gravely concerning. The Palestinians fear that the international expulsion is yet another stage in the planned ethnic cleansing of Al-Khalil. I joined up with a team of local and international activists who mobilised to maintain a presence throughout the city and fill the observational void. The settlers though – galvanised by their recent victory – have shifted gear, intensifying intimidation tactics from daily harassment and aggravation to sticking up “wanted” posters of activists around the city and death threats, hoping to force the remaining witnesses out of Al-Khalil.

A few days ago, while monitoring a checkpoint on Shuhada Street as Palestinian children passed through on their way to school, Ofer – who harasses us on a daily basis – tried a new tactic to get us expelled from the city. This settler – a man who has called for the extermination of Palestinians, who locals know as a murderer, who yelled “the dog is still alive, somebody do something” right before the extrajudicial execution of Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, who unnervingly shoves his handgun into his belt as he gets out of his car – told the police that I had attacked him, resulting in my subsequent arrest and detainment. For a privileged foreigner, this meant a strange (no typical blindfolding) sort-of kidnapping, where I was awkwardly bundled into the back of an Armoured Personnel Carrier and taken to the military compound for investigation. Had I been Palestinian though, this accusation could have had me killed – as has been the case many times before. It’s what locals describe as the Israeli policy of: “Shoot first and throw a knife beside the lifeless body later”. The Israeli army, the so-called “Most Moral Army in the World”, in typical doublespeak dialogue legally permits soldiers to respond with lethal force against children (“terrorists”) throwing stones. That bestows honorifics, as was the “Terminator,” a member of a military unit who shot dead three alleged Palestinian assailants in the space of nine days.

When I was arrested – although demonstrating early in the proceedings that I wasn’t actually in Khalil on the day of the alleged attack – I was subject to hours of interrogation of which little had to do with the accusations. Nevertheless – as I’m sure is the case for most foreigners who know they didn’t “do it” – I sat there confidently, assured of my entitlement to justice, with a lawyer and embassy at my beckoning. As I indignantly said “no comment”, I thought of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy I’d met a few weeks previously who had just been released from prison, after serving three years for allegedly “planning” an attack on the way home from school, while I was accused of actually attacking a settler. The “evidence” for that boy was an extracted confession after 14 hours of interrogation and a dubious photo of a knife.


Currently, there are almost 500 Palestinians being held in administrative detention without trial or charge – a period that can last up to six months and be renewed by the military. The Israeli Occupation routinely uses administrative detention and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind bars for periods ranging from several months to several years without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers.

For me, eventually after my DNA samples were taken, I was informed of my exclusion order that prevents me from entering the southern half of the West Bank – effectively deported from Al-Khalil. My royal treatment culminated in being  allowed to “remove” myself from the city to collect my things. Less can be said for more than 1500 Palestinians deported between ‘67 and ‘92, many simply kidnapped, escorted and thrown over the border into Jordan, in total disregard of proper administration and due process. Scornfully, the officer wished me luck trying to ever get back into “Israel”. Had I thought of it in the moment I would have replied that, like the five million Palestinian refugees who are illegally denied the right of return, I’ll be back when Palestine is liberated.