Tag: Hebron

The real cost of Al Rumeida roadblock

25 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

For the last three days Ahmed Sau and Khalil have been loading bushell loads of  white building material on  carts pulled by a horse and a donkey as they trek up the steep hill going to Jabel Al Rahmeh.  At the other end is a truck  filled almost to the top.  Several men await Ahmed and unload the wooden cart and the trek begins anew.

As the horses struggle up the last part of the hill, Ahmed and some children help to push the heavy load to its destination. It is in these ways that the Israeli occupation affects the common people. Slowly, it attempts to strangle the economy.  A simple truck ride down the hill is turned into a laborious undertaking by several men, children and beasts of burden.

“It has been this way for at least 10 years,” commented an observer.

When asked why they were doing it this way, Ahmed who spoke no English, motioned to the yellow steel metal preventing the truck to go through.  Hurrying as evening was fast approaching, he got back on the cart and rode down the hill again.

In Pictures: The day of the UN bid

24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

September 23 was a historical day for Palestinians worldwide and within the territories, as the Palestinian Authority submitted a bid to the UN to be recognized as the 194th nation of the world. While diplomats and political discussions ensued, a typical dialogue between Palestinians continued in the face of constant illegal Israeli oppression.

Qalandia:

The demonstration started just after the noon prayer. By 5 there were approximately 200 Palestinians. Most of the soldiers were special forces, dressed in black uniforms. The “Scream” a loud siren used  to deter demonstrators with its screeching noise, made its second appearance at Qalandia this week. A jeep mounted tear gas launcher was used to fire at least ten tear gas canisters at once. Due to the enclosed environment near the Qalandia checkpoint and refugee camp, escaping the clouds of gas was difficult for demonstrators. After launching teargas rounds, special forces charged up the street firing rubber coated steel bullets into the backs of protesters running from the gas. Red Crescent workers estimated at least 30 people were injured, with one person suffering a gunshot wound to the head after being hit with a rubber coated steel bullet. As late as 8:30 PM, the Israeli army was still firing occasional volleys of teargas from the Qalandia watchtower and on the ground until demonstrators finally dispersed.

Nabi Saleh:

Following noon prayers, peaceful demonstrators found themselves being attacked by Israeli military volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets almost immediately upon their presence. With a skunk water truck present, the “Scream” siren sounded to deter the presence of locals, as the Israeli military shot low to the ground and at close range, about 16-20 meters from peaceful demonstrators. 4 were injured by rubber coated steel bullets while a French photographer sustained a wound to his leg from a tear gas canister.

Qusra:

After finishing their Friday prayers, Qusra residents found that illegal settlers from a neighboring  illegal settlement were destroying olive trees just before the national olive harvest season. As locals approached their land to salvage what they could, the Israeli military intervened to defend these illegal settlers, killing Essam Aoudhi and wounding others.

Hebron:

Following an emergency call, international volunteers immediately went to the home of the Sultan family, where the previous settler attacks were documented at Tar Abusie School children.  When they arrived on the closed off road for Palestinians, they encountered a collection of vehicles filled with settlers from a nearby large, illegal Israeli settlement off the road. At the entrance of the compound, a soldier awaited them and opened gate. At the end of the group, a soldier enclosed jeep followed behind.

Volunteers continued toward the Sultan family area to see if more settlers had stayed behind. They had left, but the family expressed that the settlers held a demonstration regularly, every Friday about 12 noon to1 p.m. Internationals will be monitoring this area of Hebron regularly this Friday.

Around 5 p.m ISM received another call that the settlers had returned to harrass the farmers in the Sultan family area.

Later that night in the main center of Hebron, a gigantic screen was placed in the street for the town to hear the speeches of all the PA politicos. The town came out for the occasion.  A large barbed wire had been placed into the opening of the old city past Checkpoint 56. At least 100 PA police, as well as Israeli soldiers were out guarding.  At one point about 300 young men gathered in a street to get into the Old City and possibly the checkpoints, but the PA police held them back.  The IDF was ready for them near the checkpoint with about 40 soldiers.

However, the boys dispersed slowly.

 

Settlers parade Hebron

24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Today at 4 p.m. the settlers paraded as usual around the Old City of Al Khalil, or Hebron,  from  4 to about 5 p.m. About 5  international observers, as well as members of Christian Peacemakers Team and World Council Church volunteers witnessed the pompous parade.  Over 15 soldiers protected settlers during their weekly walk around the market.

“They came into my shop and started to question me about the Palestinian map I have on the wall,” said Nawal, a local merchant as she pointed to a textile map of Palestine she had on the wall.”This woman said that the map was wrong and that this area was all of Israel,   I told her that it was correct and if she didn’t like it she could go elsewhere.”

The procession turned into a minor riot as Palestinian children ran and screamed through the old city while soldiers pointed guns at them, as well as several foreign journalists  and about 10 observers.

A member of the armed service police videotaped the crowd. Eventually, after stating to no one in particular that Hebron belonged to the Israelis, a rabbi led the procession  into their well-fortified compound and were followed by the soldiers.

Hebron rally: “Like everyone else, we want to be free”

21 Wednesday 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A huge rally for Palestinian statehood surged through the streets of Hebron all day Wednesday, mobilizing thousands and culminating in prolonged and sustained Israeli military attacks on Palestinian civilians in the narrow and crowded markets of the Old City.

The demonstration began at 10:30 AM around the Hebron Municipality area, also called Baladiya Square. After an impassioned speech, a large crowd carried Palestinian flags, pictures of Mahmoud Abbas, and signs saying ‘UN 194’ and ‘No Veto’ through the streets of Hebron. As they neared the Israeli checkpoint at the entrance to Shuhada Street, which blocks off the tiny island of Israeli settlers at the center of town from the rest of Hebron, armed policemen and riot squads from the Palestinian Authority blocked the pathway of the protesters at Beer Al-Saba’ street, imploring them not to continue. The face-off between protesters and PA lasted a few minutes, after which protesters broke through the line of policemen and began to stream down the street towards the checkpoint.

Moments later, Israeli soldiers positioned in front of the checkpoint, fired volleys of tear gas into the crowded downtown Hebron street. Protesters, along with the throngs of civilian bystanders who were simply going about their Wednesday morning, ducked into the shops that lined Beer Al-Saba’ street, or jumped into service taxis to avoid the gas.

Said an international activist, “It was chaotic, nobody knew what to do. There were taxi drivers and businessmen and store employees running around, trying to get away from the tear gas.”

The crowd then dispersed, and made its way back to Baladiya Square and the Hebron municipality, away from the borders of the Israeli-controlled H2 district of Hebron. There, under enormous banners that read ‘UN 194’ and ‘Palestinian state’, thousands of people paraded and danced in the streets, circling the square in huge groups, chanting and cheering. Trucks unloaded free bottles of water throughout the massive crowd, and men and women, boys and girls, young and old rejoiced together sharing a common hope.

“People here are united,” said a senior resident of Hebron at the rally, “because of one common belief, which is shared by all people over the world at all periods of time- that occupation is bad. We are here under the sun because we love freedom, like everyone else in the world, and we want to be a free people. This is a part of the same thing that has happened in Egypt and Tunisia and elsewhere. We want to be ruled by nobody but ourselves.”

As waves of demonstrators began to spill out from Baladiya Square into the surrounding streets, however, the Israeli military was ready with tear gas, riot shields, gas masks and sound bombs, to make sure the crowds stayed far away from the Old City and its marketplace, which the Israeli military determined was too close to the Israeli settlement for comfort.

As the march began to trickle into the crowded Old City market, Israeli soldiers and PA policemen rushed in to block off sections of the market, determined to control and disperse the demonstrators.

From approximately noon to 3 pm, rounds of tear gas cascaded through the streets of the Old City, scattering crowds of frightened Palestinians in a stampede that swept up men, women and children in its frenzy. Shopkeepers scrambled to scoop their merchandise up out of the streets before the onslaught of protesters and policemen; they bolted their doors shut when tear gas threatened to creep into their shop, only to open their doors again and peak outside when the gas had dissipated. By 1 PM, nearly all shops in the Old City were closed, and the streets, which usually bustle with commerce until the evening, were deserted, save for the soldiers and demonstrators, who ran in waves after each other down the corridors of the market.

For nearly 3 hours in the middle of the afternoon, a game of cat-and-mouse ensued between young Palestinian males and Israeli0 soldiers- over and over again, the former threw stones at and ran from the tear gas of the latter, as the Israeli military swept through the Old City, enforcing a complete lockdown of the area and scattering crowds of demonstrators, who repeatedly gathered and marched to show the resilience of the Palestinian people.

“This is crazy,” said a Palestinian bystander after a brutal round of tear gas. “The people here in the market need to buy and sell their things. The Israelis have no right to do this. It is chaos here. This is mad.”

In between the Israeli military and the Palestinian people stood the policemen of the PA, mostly siding with the former as a second arm of oppression against the Palestinian people.

Said a bystander, “the Palestinian Authority should be helping us, not hurting us. I saw one of them hit a man with his stick, and I saw another one throw a stone at a boy. What state will we be if these are our guardians?”

One demonstrator insisted that “our protest is peaceful today. A few shebab [young men] are throwing stones, but we are gathering peacefully to show that we are strong, that we are a strong people and that we deserve a state. Many people do not agree with [Mahmoud Abbas’ proposal at] the UN, but regardless we all gather here to show that we are strong, and that we are together.”

The strength of the people of Hebron, who came out by the thousands in support of Palestinian self-determination, and the brute force of the Israeli military, who, in response to a peaceful demonstration, did not hesitate to bombard a civilian market with tear gas for three hours, clashed today in a volatile eruption that set the scene for what will surely be a tumultuous weekend in the West Bank.

Hebron: “We have been waiting over 60 years for this”

21 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Atta and Rudaina Jeber’s farm is situated upon a hill. The area is called Sheik Sherah, in the Beca’a Valley in the outskirts of Hebron, or Al-Khalil.  Atta’s family has owned the land since the Ottoman Empire was in power, and he explains that he is part of about 19,000 Palestinians who originally settled the hills when they came from the lands now called Jordan, some 800 years ago.

He will also show you the caves where many of his ancestors were born.  It is in this part of Palestine where the Israeli settlers have fought so aggressively in recent years to invade Palestinian lands especially where Atta and his brothers live on two hills now fractured by two large settlements, Gryet Arba and Givat Ha Harsina.   Atta and his brothers and cousins have been petitioning the State of Israel to recognize their deeds to the land since 1986. Instead, in 1982 Israel had already confiscated thousands of dunams to build a highway which links Jerusalem in the north to southern towns like Hebron which bring settlers in.

To date they have confiscated about 7,000 dunams  and bulldozed the  fruit orchards of the families.  The confiscation of the land, however, was kept a secret from the Palestinians, Atta said.

“They wanted to bring strange people from different countries,” he said.

According to Atta, the Israeli judge in Beit Il himself is a settler.  This struggle has cost the Palestinian families thousands of dollars in legal papers, and lawyer fees, only to give people like Atta and his brothers reprieves of three days or one month or a year, but never a clear permit to remain on their property. Sometimes the families don’t get the permits to keep their houses.  When that happens, “You don’t know when they (Israeli Military) are going to come. Sometimes it is about 5 AM, and they come with many soldiers, and they tell us to get out.”

Atta’s two houses were bulldozed twice in the past 10 years.

“My family has been petitioning the Israeli government for a permit since 1983 and we have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees. They do this until you don’t have a cent left. Every time you go to the high court it costs us $1,800 dollars. When they take over our houses, they demolish them and then rebuild for settlers.”

Both Atta and Rudaina were born in 1962, but like the rest of the Palestinian farmers, their weathered faces show the hardship they have endured since the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.  They were both seven years old when the Israelis first bulldozed their fathers’ homes.

Rudaina’s brothers then joined the resistance with the P.L.O. One brother spent 16 years in an Israeli prison; her other brother spent three years, and the other spent one.  At one point, an uncle and his three sons spent five years in jail.

Atta laughs at the pain. This is life for the families.  Their four children go to school. When they are not fighting in court to keep their property, they till the soil, separating the mineral rich dirt from the rocks. They built terrace farming where they grow abundant eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables which they sell in the marketplace. Their white grapes are abundant and their fig trees bend with fullness.  Over the years the families have built an extensive irrigation network for their crops and they have a well that has also gotten them in trouble with the State.  The well was also bulldozed once.  Within the last 10 years, 13 cisterns of all the families have been destroyed.  Atta’s irrigation system was also destroyed.  But again, the family rebuilds and fixes what the settlers and the Israeli Military destroy.  And now, the family must buy their drinking water from the Israeli district authority which sells them their  own water.

“They try to steal our humanity,” Atta said, when asked by a visitor to explain what the Palestinians want.  He waves his hands, “I’m asking the world to support us in our struggle for humanity.  This is all we want. We don’t want help from the world. We have minds and muscles. We have a rich mind. We don’t want a million or a billion dollars. We are not beggars.  We have been waiting for over 60 years for this. I can support myself and my family,” he looks down at his wife who is busily making stuffed grape leaves for supper, and he gazes with pride at his daughters nearby working on a computer.

When asked where he learned his English, he proudly states that he worked in an Israeli hotel  for 12 years and pointed to a hotel management certificate on the wall. He added that he also speaks some Spanish and German.

Atta and Rudaina have three daughters and one son all of which go to school in Hebron.  One of them comes to us with a huge sunflower and breaks it in several parts. Together we pick the seeds and crunch them in silence occasionally looking down the next hill at a gas station across the road in what was also once family land, where the settlers are amassing.

Rumor around the town all week has been that there would be trouble with the settlers. They are incensed that the United Nations this week is considering a petition by Palestinians to declare them a legitimate state.  Whenever there has been trouble in any part of the Occupied or Israeli territories, the settlers from the two illegal settlements descend upon the Palestinian families.  They have entered Atta’s house and set fires then afterwards prayed.  “They are a very religious, you know,” Atta said as he crushes a cigarette butt in an ashtray.  The irony is not lost on the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) observers.  In Hebron in August the Israeli military arrested 200 men when the attacks in Eilat occurred.

Today especially there is talk of problems in Hebron particularly in the old city. Everyone is on high alert. Abuses by the Israeli military happen daily especially at night and around the checkpoints.  Atta looks out in the distance and sees a white car approaching.

It is Rabbis for Human Rights activist, Rabbi Arik Acherman. The family is elated. Rudaina and her daughters serve dinner. Both the Rabbi and Atta are on the phone connecting with other Palestinian leaders as they eat.  By now about 50 people have amassed at the gas station. In the distance we can see several armored cars and dark figures that turn out to be soldiers.  Some people carrying Israeli flags begin walking toward the lands of Atta an his brothers.  A regiment of about six soldiers begin to ascend up the road, but stop at a large boulder below the house.

Lara, Atta’s youngest, clutches her father waist. He strokes her head tenderly, looks over and says she is afraid.  Meanwhile, Rudaina retreats to a corner of the terrace and begins to pray.  Rabbi Acherman sooths the family and observers by explaining that he has spoken to the Israeli military, and they have told him that the settlers would be allowed to go onto state land but not unto private property.

Evening has descended upon this human drama.  Rudaina comes out of the house, nervously looking towards the valley.  She takes out an automizer inhaler and breaths in.  After about two hours, the settlers begin to disperse. Only an SUV with a very,very loud speaker and a glowing menorah defiantly blasts music to the wind.  The observers wondered if the driver’s hearing will be permanently damaged by the blasts.  Only the soldiers behind the boulders can be seen. Eventually, even they disappear down the road and into the night.  Rabbi Acherman takes his leave saying he has to get back to his family in Jerusalem.  The children gleefully guide the ISM observers down the hills around to a waiting taxi.  They kiss and bid the ISM observers goodby. The last words they hear are al hamdulilah, Praise be to God, and ma’ al salama,[go] with Peace.

For now, at least.