Tag: Hebron - Page 101 - International Solidarity Movement

Video – Sent to prison for playing with olives

12th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

On Sunday, 11/08/2013, at approximately 4 o’clock in the afternoon, two activists from Youth Against Settlements (YAS) were arrested. Twenty-one-year-old Abd AlMajeed Bassam Amro, and twenty-year-old Ali Talib Amro were playfully throwing olives at each other when an Israeli soldier came up to them and accused them of throwing stones at his colleague. The colleague in question initially denied having any knowledge of this, but after a brief period, many more soldiers came to the scene and the two youths were arrested and handed over to the police. The police interrogated the youths and rejected to even hear the testimony of eyewitnesses supporting them. The police found enough grounds to charge them based on the accusations of a single soldier, and Ali and Abd AlMajeed were sent to Atsion prison later that night.

Two members of the ISM, as well as many other locals were present as the incident unfolded. Ali and Abd AlMajeed chose to hold their ground and defend themselves against the soldier’s accusations, putting their trust in reasoning with the Israeli forces, hoping that the testimony of many eyewitnesses to the event would be enough to counter the claims of the soldier. Sadly, this was not the case. The soldier accusing the youths called for backup, and within a few minutes, 9 soldiers in total were present. They discussed the incident among themselves for a while and then decided to arrest the youths. The boys were blindfolded as they were led from the scene and handed over to the police.

The two members of the ISM who were present at the scene, immediately approached the police vehicle where Ali and Abd AlMajeed were being kept blindfolded, and demanded that their testimony as eyewitnesses in defense of the accused be heard. The presiding officer asked them to follow in a taxi to Aljabri police station where the youths were being taken for interrogation and ask at the gate to be admitted in to provide evidence.

At the gate of the police station, the eyewitnesses were made to wait for two and a half hours, while the investigating officer initially denied that the youths were being kept in the station. Eventually admitting that the boys were indeed being held there, the witnesses were then told to wait while he considered whether or not he needed to hear their testimony. After a while, the officer told them to go home and that he would contact them if needed, to which the eye witnesses pointed out that the interrogator did not know neither their names nor their phone numbers. Finally, the interrogator came out and told the eyewitnesses to go home, the interrogation was over. “Are you releasing them then?” was the reply of the eyewitnesses, to which the interrogator answered: “no, they’re going to prison.” When questioned as to why the other side of the story was not heard at all, the investigator answered that he required only the word of the soldiers in this case. Later that night the boys were transferred to one of the worst reputed jails in the West Bank, Atsion prison between Hebron and Bethlehem.

Unfortunately this kind of story is by no means a special case in occupied Palestine. Palestinians are tried under military law, granting them little or no rights. In fact the only thing the Israeli occupation court system needs in order to reach a conviction is the testimony of one eyewitness, in many cases the testimony of the very person making the accusation. Twenty-one-year-old Abd AlMajeed father is currently in prison following a conviction of 7 life sentences. He, like his son, was arrested on the testimony of the person accusing him. He had allegedly shot a gun at one of the 400 illegal settlers living in the Tel Rumeida area.

The arrest of the two YAS activists comes less than a week after Israeli soldiers were filmed assaulting a twelve-year-old boy and about 9 days after a seventy-one-year-old woman died because the occupation forces would not let the ambulance through Hebron’s many checkpoints. Neither of these incidents has had any consequences for the soldiers involved.

Anxious Eid for family of prisoner in Hebron

8th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

For one Hebron family, this year’s Eid is more worrisome than festive. They will have to spend it wondering about their father and husband, whom they have not been able to talk to since the 4th of August. Last Sunday at around 2am Mohammed* was arrested – he was woken up by 20-30 soldiers and taken away without being told the charges against him. His family has not yet been able to talk to him or give him the medicine that he needs.

When the Israeli military Sunday morning invaded Mohammed’s house with five jeeps and two armed vehicles, it took him and his family completely by surprise. The entire family – Mohammed, his wife and their six children – were woken up and told to gather in the house of Mohammed’s brother. Mohammed was then told he should kiss his children and say goodbye for he was being arrested. However neither Mohammed nor his family was informed of the charges upon his arrest.

After having placed Mohammed’s family under surveillance the Israeli military took Mohammed to his workplace. Here they told him to close all the security cameras or they would destroy his office. The office was thoroughly searched, however nothing was removed or changed. Mohammed was then taken to Ashkelon Prison at around 4am.

Mohammed’s family has still not been able to contact him, the Israeli military or the prison. They are deeply concerned as Mohammed is in need of medication due to a recent procedure performed on his eyes.

Mohammed was previously detained in 1994 for four months without ever knowing the charges. All Mohammed and his family know about the previous arrest is that Israeli military suspected some association with the Muslim Brotherhood. Since 1994 Mohammed has been a free man and has lived a quiet life without harassment from the Israeli occupation forces until he was suddenly arrested last Sunday.

Mohammed has still not been officially accused of a crime, however yesterday evening he and his family were informed that he was suspected of “threatening the security of the area”. His arrest has been extended for nine days at the end of which he will have a military court hearing.

Mohammed’s lawyer seems optimistic that Mohammed will be released after these nine days, since the Israeli occupation forces do not seem to have evidence on which they can hold him. However it is sadly not uncommon that administrative detention can be used, cases in which an arrest of a Palestinian incessantly is extended and military hearings continuously are pushed back. This is especially true of military hearings as it is only the judge and the prosecutor who are presented to the base of the deferment, not even the defense is shown the evidence.

*Name changed by request of the family who wish to remain anonymous

Video – Amena Rabo: A life under occupation

6th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

On the 2nd of August, Amena Abed AlFatah Abed Rabo passed away in Hebron. She was 71 years old and suffered a stroke. However, Amena might still have been with us, had the Israeli military let the ambulance through the many checkpoints. The journey to the hospital that should have taken three minutes was prolonged by more than one and a half hours due to restrictions and harassment by Israeli occupation forces. Amena died in the ambulance before reaching proper care. This incident was merely the last of many injustices that marked Amena’s life from the age of seven.

Amena Abed AlFatah Abed Rabo was originally from the Khema neighbourhood of Ramle in current Israel. She was seven years old when the war broke out in 1948. Her family was forcibly driven from their home following the creation of the state of Israel. In the chaos that followed, Amena was parted from her family. At the time she was blind in one eye, causing her to be easily disoriented. In her distress she fell and also lost sight in her good eye, leaving her completely blind. Amena spent a month on her own, before a friend of the family recognized her on the street and reunited her with her mother, father and three siblings.

Reunited, the family fled to the West Bank city of Hebron in an attempt to start a new life. The family was never offered any compensation for the home they were expelled from, nor the land taken from them and upon reaching Hebron they spent three years living under a tree. Amena was one of many unrecognized refugees within Palestine.

In 1951 Amena’s brother had managed to save enough money to buy the family a house, in which she lived the rest of her life. For a period Amena’s life was relatively calm in Hebron, but this changed following the outbreak of the first intifada in 1987. At this time, the Israeli occupying forces in the West Bank constructed roadblocks throughout the city of Hebron and made it impossible for Palestinians to drive within the city. To Amena this meant she could no longer leave her house. Due to her invalidity she needed a car get around and this was no longer permitted to Palestinians.

These roadblocks are still intact today and are part of the reason Amena did not make it to the hospital in time. During the last years of her life Amena lived with her nephew’s family of ten, in what is now the Israeli controlled H2 area of Hebron. Five days prior to her death, her nephew took her to the hospital where she spent three days. As she got a little better the doctors allowed her to go home. But the following day Amena suffered a stroke. The family immediately called for an ambulance.

As it had not arrived after thirty minutes, the family called once again. They were told that the ambulance had left on time but had been held back at the checkpoint. The soldiers guarding the checkpoint would not let them through without a written permit, even though Red Crescent ambulances should be able to pass freely without question. After another thirty minutes the ambulance personnel did manage to persuade Israeli soldiers to let them through but only until the next roadblock. This meant that the family had to carry Amena from their house to the roadblock. This path is rocky and hilly and it took the family another thirty minutes to get there. Finally in the ambulance they were once again stopped at the very same checkpoint that had withheld the ambulance earlier, this time for fifteen minutes. All in all, the trip to the hospital was delayed by approximately an hour and forty five minutes. This trip, from the family home to the nearby hospital of Al Khalil, would have taken three minutes if protocol had been respected.

Upon arriving to the hospital doctors quickly realised that Amena’s condition was now so critical that she had to be taken to a hospital with more expertise. This hospital, Al Ahlil, is only seven minutes away, but Amena died on the way.

During the last couple of days, Amena’s family has held her funeral, but the grief is still with them. Her nephew, Rami Abed AlFatah Hamdan, is a human rights student and is considering filing a complaint in the hope that this will not happen to another family in the future. As he says, having unrestricted access to ambulances is a human right, a right that needs to be enforced in Hebron. He feels he has nothing left to lose, and this incident has only confirmed his resolution to work with human rights. When asked if the soldiers have expressed any guilt, he simply smiles sadly and says: “If they felt guilt, they would never have stopped the ambulance”.

Unfortunately this is not an incident that stands alone. Ambulances in the Hebron area are often withheld and harassed when trying to reach patients. Hence, in 2008 a woman gave birth at a checkpoint and the same year a man died without receiving medical care. Nor is Amena Abed AlFatah Abed Rabo’s story as a refugee within Palestine unusual. Despite peace talks in Ramallah, Israel continues its plan to demolish 30,000-40,000 Bedouin homes as described in the Prawer Plan and has just approved a 1,000 new settlements in the West Bank.

Stories like Amena’s are a symptom of the Israeli occupation forces systematic attempt to drive Palestinians from their homes and make their lives as difficult as possible. This is part of a policy of ethnic cleansing aiming to expel all remaining Palestinians and Arab Bedouins from Palestine. The internationally recognised researcher and author Ilan Pappe describes this in his book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” and in interview with the ISM:

But then I checked the American State Department website about ethnic cleansing and the description of what ethnic cleansing is and it fitted so well with what was and is going on in Palestine. This description does not only describe an act of expulsion but also its’ legal implications, which is in this specific case, is a crime against humanity. It also says very clearly that the only way to compensate an ethnic cleansing is to ask the people who were expelled whether they want to return or not.

Read the full interview here.

Video- Soldiers assault a twelve-year-old Palestinian while settlers invade family rooftop in Hebron

3rd August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Saturday August 3rd was not a peaceful Saturday for the Palestinians in Hebron. At approximately 16.30 two settlers invaded the roof of the Abu Shamsiya family in Tel Rumeida, whilst three soldiers attacked a twelve year old boy in the street nearby.

When the settlers on the roof were approached by internationals and told that they were on private property and therefore had to leave, they refused and said they came there every week. The fact that they had entered a private home without consent of the family did not concern them, on the contrary they expressed that they felt it was their right. When asked to leave the settlers behaved aggressively by yelling and continuously refusing to do so. After having argued with internationals one of the settlers threatened to lie to the soldiers and say that they had been hit by the internationals. He argued that even though it was not true, the soldiers would believe him over the international activists.

As seen in the video below, in the meantime three Israeli soldiers assaulted three young boys just down the street. The soldiers started by harshly pushing one boy, afterwards they grabbed a second boy, Islam by the hair and kicked him. Thereafter a third boy ran to his house chased by the soldiers. When internationals asked why the military was chasing the boy, they lied and said the boys had been throwing stones. The boy said that he had simply ran because he was scared after having seen his twelve-year-old friend, Islam being brutally attacked by soldiers for no apparent reason.

These are not unusual events. The Abu Shamsiya family is often victim of settler and military harassment, the family’s roof is on street level and settlers often go there to throw stones, harass the family and break their property. Saturdays are particularly violent in Hebron, only last week both Abu Shamsiya and his son Muhammed were attacked by settlers whilst the military was watching, with Abu Shamsiya then being arrested on false charges while the settlers were freed without charges.

Hebron has large settlements in the middle of the city housing approximately 500 settlers some of whom are extremely aggressive and violent. Additionally there are 2500 Israeli occupation soldiers stationed in the city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZrlKo_PGMI

Video – Israeli settlers torch Hebron family’s property for eighth time

29th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

On Sunday, July 28, Israeli settlers severely burned land belonging to Hani Abu Haikel and his family in Hebron. Occupation soldiers, though at first trying to help stop the fire, ended up blocking the road so that Palestinian firefighters were delayed in reaching the scene. Several very old olive trees were destroyed in the fire which swept over immense swathes of land very quickly. In the video below, Hani Abu Haikel speaks about the incident and how Israeli settlers, soldiers and police work together to pressure Palestinian families to leave the Israeli-controlled H2 district of occupied Hebron.

Flames tear through one of Abu Haikel’s oldest olive trees (Photo by Christian Peacemaker Teams)

The previous evening, July 27th, Israeli police came to Hani Abu Haikel’s house and questioned him about a variety of subjects including whether he has any plans of leaving the area, to whicb he answered in the negative. Apparently this questioning is a regular occurrence. Israeli soldiers have also arrested Abu Haikel and his children on spurious charges, later releasing them without charge. The soldiers continue to regularly detain and interrogate members of the family.

Yesterday afternoon Abu Haikel saw settlers present in the area of the Israeli military base. As this is a common thing for them to do, he thought nothing of it at first. However, after this Abu Haikel saw the settlers spray water all over the small plot they have illegally cultivated on his land, right beneath the military base. He then saw them spray another, apparently flammable chemical over his land – soon after this, his land was on fire. Observers noted that Israeli soldiers were obstructing people from reaching the scene to help. Palestinian fire engines were prevented from reaching the scene for at least half an hour, allowing the fire to spread rapidly and scorch the land, despite volunteers passing buckets of water between them to try to quell the flames.

Israeli settler children stand laughing on the partially scorched wall just above their untouched plot of illegally cultivated land (Photo by Christian Peacemaker Teams)

The only part of the Abu Haikel land that wasn’t completely scorched was the small plot cultivated by Israeli settlers. Hani Abu Haikel explained that this is the eighth time settlers have burned his property, including an incident ten years ago when they burned all of his trees, meaning that many of the trees that were burnt this time were very young. It has taken him these ten years to effectively replant his land again and now, again it will be years before his land is as it was before this crime.