10th of April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
The co-ordinator of Youth Against Settlements Issa Amro was arrested yesterday at the Qiryat Araba settlement in Hebron. He was summoned to the police station at which point he was interrogated and arrested. He is being charged with “Incitement of terrorism” and is being tried today at Ofer prison in Ramallah.Issawi Amro Co-ordinator of Youth Against Settlements
Issa is a prominent activist and organiser of non violent demonstrations in actions in Hebron. He was also arrested several weeks ago along with three internationals and two Palestinians for taking part in a demonstration on Shuhada street where activists walked down the road wearing Martin Luther King and Barack Obama masks to mark the visit of the US president to the West Bank. After his release he was banned from walking in the area of Tel Rumeida for two weeks.
6th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
The ISM team based in Hebron woke up last week to find that their zionist settler neighbours had left a present for them on their doorstop. A tyre , a large piece of cloth and a stone were organised onto a pile just outside the apartment door, which according to our Palestinian neighbours , symbolises that they plan to set fire to the apartment.A present to ISM from out zionist neighbours
Settler intimidation and violence towards ISM activists is not unusual , especially in central Hebron where roughly 500 settlers are “protected” by thousands of ISraeli soldiers. The situation is particularly tense on and around Tel Rumeida where harassment of Palestinians is frequent as settlers , often armed with machine guns, share the same street.
Only two weeks ago an international was attacked by a settler, most likely because she was wearing a head scarf and several years ago an ISM activist had a bottle smashed on her face whilst settlers chanted “We killed Jesus and we will kill you”.
4th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Funeral procession of Abu Hamdiyeh
Tens of thousands of people arrived into Hebron on the 4th April to honour martyr Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, who died of cancer in Israeli custody after being deprived of essential treatments for his disease. According to his lawyer, in his last weeks of life, Abu Hamdiyeh was treated for throat cancer with painkillers and antibiotics.
The funeral began at midday, with Abu Hamdiyeh’s body being carried from the Al-Ahli Hospital, around the city and eventually to the Wadi al Haria area. His body was buried in the Martyrs cemetery there. During the burial, the armed wing of Fateh, the Al Aqsa Brigade shot into the air in a gesture of respect whilst mourners watched. Abu Hamdiyeh’s family were present at the funeral and emotions ran high throughout the funeral march.
Demonstrators have since been expressing their outrage at the death of Abu Hamdiyeh and clashes between the people of Hebron and the Israeli military began before the end of the funeral and have continued for the following days. Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured with rubber coated steel bullets, as well as some who have been hit with live ammunition.
Abu Hamdiyeh’s death highlights the issue of treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, many of whom are on hunger strike protesting prison conditions and detention of political prisoners – including Samer Issawi who has now been on hunger strike for over 250 days.
5th April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine Children’s Days around the world are intended to honour, protect and celebrate childhood. Palestinian Children’s Day, commemorated on the 5th of April each year, is no celebration – rather it is a day highlighting the horrific treatment of Palestinian children by the occupying Israeli authorities. In 2013, Children’s Day falls in a period in which arrests and detention of children by the Israeli military has become increasingly common. Defence for Children International- Palestine put the number of children currently detained under the Israeli occupation at 236. In the West Bank city of Al Khalil (Hebron), the rise in child arrests has been particularly evident – two weeks before Children’s Day, 30 children were attacked and detained by Israeli soldiers on their way to school, eyewitnesses stated that they were seemingly grabbed at random from in front of their school (see video below.)
Children, who are detained regularly in Al Khalil, generally have their hands bound and are confined in dark, closed spaces such as checkpoint boxes, along with soldiers who deny access to human rights observers and in some cases the families of the children. There are regular reports of beatings, threats and torture in attempts to force children to admit to crimes.
Pictures of children in checkpoint
In checkpoints in Al Khalil, there are blurred pictures of children’s faces, allegedly from demonstrations, printed and stuck to the walls for soldiers to attempt to identify children as they walk past on their way to school. A recent UNICEF investigation into children in Israeli military detention describes the whole process that often occurs in arrests and sentencing of children, criticising Israel’s failings in safeguarding children’s rights under such legal policies and principles as the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We call for an end to Occupation, so that Palestinian Children’s Day can be a celebration of childhood the rights of children, rather than a day to fight against the injustices committed by the Israeli system against the youth of Palestine.
Detained child being taken to army jeep in Hebron.
3rd April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine
Demonstrations have been held today in several cities across the West Bank to protest the death of prisoner Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh. A strike has also been held in Nablus, Hebron and East Jerusalem, amongst other cities.
Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh
In Nablus, over three hundred Palestinians, together with international activists, participated today in the demonstration to protest the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh. The demonstration was first held at Shuhada Square, where protesters were holding banners and chanting emotional songs in support of Palestinian prisoners. After an hour, the crowd marched towards Huwwara Checkpoint, passing through Balata refugee camp. As demonstrators arrived at the junction next to the checkpoint, they built several barricades along the road, where Israeli soldiers were already located.
Palestinian youths threw some stones at the jeeps and Israeli soldiers threw tear gas canisters at the crowd. Shortly after that, two jeeps drove by the road parallel to the main one where protesters were and started shooting more tear gas canisters. As demonstrators ran back to get closer to the jeeps clashes continued for several hours more.
In Hebron, clashes were particularly intense, with several demonstrators wounded as Palestinians persisted in their fight against Israeli guns with nothing but stones. The sound of tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets have become a prominent fixture of the last few days in central Hebron.
As the nation mourns, we can only hope that international action is taken to prevent the continuous maltreatment of Palestinians in Israeli cutody. The death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh has brought up many questions about the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails, with the PA minister for prisoners claiming Palestine must join the International Criminal Court to stop the disrespect of prisoners rights. Abu Hamdiyeh is the 207th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody.
Protesters running away from Israeli army jeeps near Huwwara checkpoint (Photo by ISM)
