Tag: Hebron

Beit Kahlil: Tear gas flies as Israel demolishes home

6 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Demolitions in Beit Kahlil - Click here for more images
Demolitions in Beit Kahlil - Click here for more images

At 5:00 AM on the morning of the 6th October, approximately 30 armed soldiers came to demolish a house in Beit Kahil. The IOF woke up the family living in the neighbouring house and informed them about the demolition and declared the entire area a closed military zone. When he arrived,  Omar Ahmad Hussan Abdel Din, the owner of the house,  informed the soldiers about his lawyers appeal to the Israeli Court for getting the demolition order postponed until he had an official response to his application for building permission, but with no effect.

A member of the Abdel Din family said, “Why do we need a permission from Israel to build this is Palestine and Palestinian land? Though this is considered area C by the Israeli authorities, I do not recognise their authority, and anyways it is their bureaucratic way of stealing land.”

While a bulldozer was demolishing the Abdel Din house residence, the neighbourhood tried to prevent the demolition by throwing stones. The soldiers prevented them getting any way near by using sound bombs and shooting tear gas grenades. During the protest one of the tear gas canisters broke the window and entered a house resulting in three women and four children being taken to the hospital and treated for tear gas inhalation. An additional 2 people were injured by the tear gas cannisters, requiring 1 person who needed 3 stitches.

The village of Beit Kahil is divided by a valley with the road running to Hebron. In 2009 the houses on the one same side of the valley as an Israeli military base got demolition orders at once. Including the house of Omar Abdel Din, demolition orders were given to around 15 houses which are inhabited by around 100 citizens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r–KuGzPVww

One of the neighbours said, “Obviously when we saw the Occupation Forces and bulldozers we were shocked and feared that they would demolish all our houses.”

In 2011 14 houses were demolished in the Hebron area, leaving 104 Palestinian homeless including 50 minors. Area C and B are the areas where Palestinians need to seek permission from Israeli authorities to build, accounting for 83 % of the West Bank.

According to the Israel Civil Administration, more than 93 % of the applications for a building permission are refused, and many Palestinians do not even bother to ask permission to build knowing they will be refused.

 

Youth arrested in Hebron over cereal

2 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On 2 October in Al Khalil (Hebron), the Israeli army and police arrested 2 Palestinian children based on petty, unfounded accusations whilst allowing settlers to employ violence with complete impunity. 13 year old Khaled Abu Snaeneh and 15 year old Said Abu Aisha were arrested and detained for over 4 hours at Kiryat Arba police station.

At 2:45 soldiers came to the Abu Aisha house in Tel Rumeida to investigate a complaint made by settlers that Palestinians had stolen some boxes of expired cereal from their backyard. A group of around 30 settlers gathered around the house shouting at both the Palestinian residents and the police and army. Under pressure from the gradually increasing number of settlers surrounding the house Israeli police made the decision to arrest the two young boys, solely on the evidence of being accused by the settlers.

Ibrahim Abu Aisha explained that the boys arrested had not taken the cereal as they were working at the time the incident took place.

Several Palestinians reported that Baruch Marzel from the Tel Rumeida settlement kicked 30 year old Fawaz Abu Aisha requiring him to go to hospital. Despite the visible bruising on Fawaz’s leg and attempts to complain to the police they refused to take any action on this assault. Marzel has a history of assaulting Palestinians and was formerly a spokesperson for the Kach party before it was made illegal in Israel as a racist, terrorist organization.

After being driven to Kiryat Arba police station and detained for 4 hours, the boys were not charged but still forced to pay a fine of 200 shekels each.

Hebron in solidarity with prisoners on hunger strike for rights

3 October 2011| International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the sixth day of the hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, major political factions joined in Hebron and united in support for human rights for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, victims of Israeli collective punishment tactics.

On Tuesday the 27th of September, an open-ended hunger strike was initiated until the fulfillment of 9 demands by Palestinian prisoners, which include the right to family visits, end to the use of isolation as a punishment against detainees, and profiteering of Israeli prisons from financial penalties charged against prisoners.

Approximately 3000 prisoners are taking part in the strike including all the different political fractions from eight different prisons.

On Sunday solidarity tents with the prisoners were positioned in the center of all the main cities in the Palestinian occupied territories, and there are plans for actions such as demonstrations and public street theater throughout the entire week in Hebron and the rest of the territories in support of the prisoners strike.

Amjad Najjar the media spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club in Hebron said, “The strike is a reaction towards the collective punishment imposed on the prisoners that have been further increased after the UN bid for Palestinian statehood. The strike is a reaction towards the humiliation that the Palestinian prisoners are exposed to.”

Najjar elaborated that the conditions for prisoners are much worse in present days, and it is one of the negative byproducts of the Oslo agreement, since prisons are placed outside regions Palestinians have access to, complicating the possibility of family visits. He continued to explain that payment for visits by families as well as fines against all prisoners have developed a prison industrial complex from which Israel is profiting.

The hunger strike in Israeli prisons is a political method used through history to gain certain rights and traces back to the first Intifada. In May and June two prisoners, Attif Uridat Said and Yussif Aleskaffi, who both have medical issues conducted a hunger strike for 34 days in protest of Israel’s denial of medical aid for Palestinian prisoners.

Observations from Hebron daily life

26 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A child of about eight years old sneaks past a multitude of soldiers at as they hold back Al Rumeida residents from climbing the hill to their homes. He runs into the corner store, comes out and joyously waves his forbidden purchases at them–a bag of candy—and continues running home.  A settler funeral was going on in a Jewish cemetery half way up the hill.  Although the procession only took about two hours, Checkpoint 56 at the bottom of the hill was closed for five hours.

Palestinian women on the bus chat happily and endure the wait it takes to fill the bus from Bethlehem to Hebron. A young Bedoin woman with a small child does not miss the opportunity to try to make a sale. She shows the lone tourist on the bus some exquisitely woven money bags and pillow shams. Everyone hustles: it is called survival. Whether it is olive soap, scarfs, kafiyas, watches, Kleenex packages, or bread, Hebron Palestinians hauk their wares daily.

A merchant selling fruit juice noisily liquefies carrot juice five meters from where the supposed Settler Hebron Tour passes.  According to the sanctimonious settler, something happened to someone who lived or died some 100 or 2,000, or 3,000 years ago. The merchant grinds on.

A gaggle of children, some as young as four years old,  run and bang on metal doorways yelling in unison as they hurry through the old city alleys together with journalists and international observers, only to be stopped at intervals by many soldiers who protect the Saturday Jewish Settler Hebron Tour.  A small child pushes his metal cart through the cobblestones. The din is deafening.  Local Palestinian merchants sitting in their stalls endure it for the sake of resistance. This has been going on for years. They wait.  The Zionist settlers look terrified even though one of the strongest military in the world protect their parade.

They have been taught from a very young age that the Palestinians want to kill them or push them into the sea. It is a tragic drama where the aggressors play the role of victims although in reality, all are victims, either of deception or of cruelty.

A woman merchant is accosted by a gang of settlers during the tour.  One  tells her that her Palestinian map is wrong: that it should be all Israel. She stands up to them, albeit afraid, and declares it is indeed Palestine and if they don’t like it they can go elsewhere. “We have been here for 64 years, and we will be here another 64 years,” she said, defiantly.   And they will.

Israeli military conceals information about possible nerve agent used by illegal, violent settlers

26 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday, September 25th, Riyadh Abu Armile was assaulted by settlers and the army in Hebron,causing for an open investigation by human rights groups as evidence suggests that settlers may have used an unidentified nerve agent during the assault.

On the night of the attack hundreds of settlers from around  Al Khalil (Hebron) arrived in the H2 area, in the centre of the city for the funeral of Asher Palmer and his son from Kiryat Arba who died in a car crash on Friday. Despite the fact that an investigation into the deaths is yet to reach a conclusion about the cause of the crash, soldiers on the scene echoed the proclamations of Israeli media sources, which labeled the incident as a “terrorist attack” because of speculation that the crash was caused by Palestinians throwing stones. A dangerously volatile situation was then created by the decision to hold the funeral in a Palestinian area of Hebron rather than the Kiryat Arba settlement where the deceased lived.

Armile was walking near the Ibrahimi Mosque with his uncle and 7 year old son at about 8pm on Sunday, when  he was met by around 30 settlers who began throwing rocks at the family. More settlers joined the violent assault, and within a few minutes he estimated there were as many as 200 settlers surrounding him. After the family attempted to take refuge in a nearby house, settlers broke the windows and continued the attack.

Armile told us that the attackers used some kind of chemical weapon that emitted a gas, causing symptoms very similar to those of a nerve agent.

Armile said, “‘I couldn’t see and went into convulsions, saliva was coming out of my mouth and afterwards I couldn’t move my muscles for one hour.”

When soldiers arrived at the scene they beat Armile as he tried to protect himself from the settlers. After the attack they detained him for over an hour and refused access for the ambulance that came to treat him. At 9:30PM he had to be carried to the ambulance, which took him immediately to the hospital in Hebron.

The Israeli army confiscated the gas canister used by the settlers and refused to give the doctors information about the chemical agent used. He had to stay overnight in a hospital and required 13 injections. Doctors were unsure how to treat him due to the unknown nature of the chemical and warned him that he may suffer long-term health problems. During the attack his son sustained head injuries from rocks thrown by the settlers, and Armile’s uncle’s hand was also broken.

Red Cross and other human rights organizations are currently investigating the incident as they suspect that the chemical may be some form of nerve gas, which is illegal under international law. The attack comes just weeks after leaked documents from the Israeli military revealed plans to train and arm settlers against Palestinians.