70 cyclists from Hebron and surrounding areas, as well as 15 international cyclists, pedaled through Hebron on Tuesday in an attempt to challenge restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement. The group set off from near the centre of the city and cycled in unison through the streets of Hebron, waving Palestinians flags. Bikes were decorated with signs saying “We have the right to move”, “The wheels of change are in motion”, and “Bikes against borders” in English and Arabic.
The demonstration was guided by the Palestinian National Cycling Team and included both children and adults who demanded the right to move freely, cycle, and play in their city without the threat of violence and intimidation from the Israeli occupation forces. As the bikers moved through the streets, people waved, shouted and honked in support.
As the cyclists tried to cycle towards the Old City they found that the demonstration’s route had been blocked by 30 border police and soldiers, as well as two barbed wire fences stretched across the street. The group peacefully asked the border police to let them pass and continue their journey as soldiers pointed guns at them from the roofs of a nearby house. The police and the soldiers informed the cyclists that the street had been declared “a closed military zone,” but refused to show a document proving it. The cyclists were ordered to turn back and leave the area, without being given any explanation for the street closure other than usual ambiguous “security reasons”. The group stayed at the road blockade for 20 minutes, peacefully negotiating with the soldiers and stating their opposition to violation of their right to freedom of movement. Finally, the cyclists moved away from the barbed wire and the Israeli occupation forces and continued their demonstration on an alternative route for another 30 minutes.
A Bedouin girl plays amongst possessions scattered by the Israeli Occupational Forces
On June 20th at 7am a Bedouin village, south of Hebron in Khirbet Bir al’Idd was struck down with Israeli bulldozers destroying seven tin homes and several other sheds and tents. The Israeli army and border police arrived to demolish the homes claiming the area was classified as a closed military zone because of “illegal” building taking place.
There was no warning of the demolition in advance. Following the destruction of the village, 67 people were left homeless and displaced, including a large number of children. They also confiscated many possessions including mattresses and pillows. The mobile water source was damaged as were electricity wires. The toilet was also completely was destroyed.
Villagers reported that the Israeli army threatened that they would return in three days to take down the remaining animal tents and check no rebuilding had occurred. The army apparently told the villagers they should live in natural caves, awaiting a court order on land ownership and whether they can reconstruct the village.
In recent months, there have been repeated attacks by Israeli settlers against mosques across the West Bank. They were carried out with the complicity of Israel’s occupation army and encouraged by the leaders of settler groups and political blocs, as well as the rabbinic guides of extremist gangs; gangs who own weapons and operate under the full knowledge and gaze of the occupation forces.
A few days ago, settlers from one of the oldest colonies established on the territory belonging to the villagers of al-Mughair and Qaryut in the north-east of the governorate of Ramallah in the West Bank, set fire to the great mosque in al-Mughair. A significant amount of the mosque’s contents was destroyed in the blaze. The perpetrators left their trade mark in Hebrew grafitti scrawled on a nearby wall which read; “this is the beginning of revenge”.
About a year ago, on the morning of 4th May 2010, settler gangs set fire to a mosque in the eastern district of al-Labn in the south of Nablus city which represents one in a series of terrorist operations against Palestinians and their sanctuaries undertaken by settler groups.
The burning of the al-Mughair mosque came after the burning of the al-Labn mosque in the east before which there was the burning of the Grand Hassan al-Khader mosque in the district of Yassouf near the city of Nablus in the West Bank. It was targeted by a group of settler gangs who burnt large parts of it after smashing the mosque’s main door and dousing the interior in petrol. The blaze completely gutted the mosque’s library which was full of Qurans, along with parts of the carpet before the village inhabitants arrived to extinguish the flames.
The latest conduct of these Israeli settler gangs clearly highlights the type of society they have established on Palestinian land. The settlers occupying Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank especially exemplify this. The majority of them are associated with the policies of the ideological Zionist right and the right-wing biblical hard-liners mired in mythological narratives.
All in all, these attacks highlight the nature of the policies being implemented by the right-wing coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu along with a broad spectrum of hard-line Zionist extremists, and the exponents of theories of ‘transfer’ and ethnic cleansing headed by the Moldovan immigrant, Avigdor Lieberman, who leads the Yisrael Beiteinu party. As the facts confirm, settler terrorism is always dependent on the patronage and support of the highest levels of decision making in Israel. It is seldom far from the cover of the occupation army, especially as there are more than half a million members of the army colonising the land occupied in 1967 and who possess more than half a million pieces of weaponry.
There is abundant evidence which point to the occupation army’s support for, and protection of the settler gangs against the Palestinian people and their sanctuaries across Palestine. One vivid example of this is witnessed in the heart of Hebron city where 400 Jewish settlers have taken up residence in one of the city’s districts tormenting the lives of more than 200,000 Palestinian inhabitants of the city. All of this occurs under auspices, protection and commission of the occupation army. The barbaric conduct of the settlers are derived from official Israeli policies which proclaim settlement expansions, projects and bids to expel Palestinians on a daily basis; which considers Jerusalem the indivisible and eternal capital of Zionist Israel and which demand that more than half of the land in the West Bank should be annexed to Israel under any future settlement.
These current attacks on mosques must be seen in the context of a wider program aimed at fuelling the conflict; it demonstrates the extent of disdain for the religious and human value of others. This, therefore, requires a concerted Arab, Islamic and global effort to put a final end to these practices and to the cover provided by Israel and its occupation army.
At the end of the day, the occupation bears the consequences of such brutal practices and provocations which affect the values and sacred places of Muslims, and similarly of their Christian peers in certain parts of Jerusalem. The daily dangers which afflict the people, the land and the sanctities in Palestine must be combated through coordinated Arab and Islamic policies that differ from the current Arab policy, which is based only on statements of condemnation and rejection. A new policy is required; which enacts effective measures against Israeli settler terrorism in order to protect the sacred houses that are being profaned and burned under the gaze and knowledge of the world.
The timid condemnations emanating from some Arab capitals or those issued by the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference are no longer sufficient; they amount to nothing more than throwing dust into the eyes of people to absorb their anger. Likewise, US and European verbal condemnation of the settlers’ attacks on mosques, mean absolutely nothing so long as the United States provides political cover for the practices of the occupying power and supports its continuation and survival in the lands occupied in 1967.
Hence, a practical stance has now become an urgent priority on the agenda of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the Arab League and all other Arab and international organisations and institutions in solidarity and support for the Palestinian people; in the defence of their national sanctities; and to push the international community to intervene to provide international protection for the people and their Islamic and Christian sanctities leading to national independence.
This article first appeared in Arabic in Al Bayan Al Emirati on 17/6/2011. The author is a Palestinian writer.
According to the most recent reports 22 civilians were killed and 360 injured yesterday when Israeli soldiers opened fire at protesters marking Naksa day across the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Syrian border. The 5th June this year marked the 44th anniversary of the Naksa, or “setback” – Israel’s 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and its accompanying expulsion of 300,000 refugees from their homeland.
In the West Bank the International Solidarity Movement joined with hundreds of Palestinians as well as other internationals and Israelis in demonstrating at Qalandia checkpoint in Ramallah. The protest lasted for approximately seven hours and was met with a violent and disproportionate response by the Israeli military who shot teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the protesters throughout. The military who were positioned in front of the checkpoint as well as down the street and on occupied rooftops, began shooting at protesters as soon as they neared the checkpoint forcing them back down the road. No consideration was given to safety as tear gas was fired directly at protesters and at moving traffic resulting in approximately 90 injuries. Elsewhere in the West Bank demonstrations were also held in Hebron and Al Wallaje, however no injuries have been reported from these events. In Gaza hundreds of Palestinian refugees demonstrated outside the Erez Crossing in Beit Hanoun.
Golan Heights – Aljazeera
Golan Heights – Aljazeera
Golan Heights – Aljazeera
On the Syrian border the Israeli army used live ammunition on protesters as they advanced towards the occupied Golan Heights. 22 unarmed protesters were killed and 270 have been reported injured. This follows the widely condemned excessive use of force displayed by Israeli troops last month at the 15th May Nakba demonstrations which left five protesters dead on the Syrian border.
Military experts say unidentified devices found in West Bank may have contained outlawed white phosphorus.
The Israeli army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes.
A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion
The army does not deny leaving the devices, but would not identify them and suggested they were left over after training exercises. But the area where they were found does not feature on an army map of designated training areas and the canisters appeared new and unweathered.
Eid Da’ajani, 15, found the canister on 20 February, around 100 metres from his home in the village of Buweib, south of Hebron. The device, around 20cm (7.9 ins) long and 5cm in diameter, was lying in a scrubland where the boys were watching the family’s goats.
Eid showed it to his cousin, Mohammed, also 15, who said that it might be a bomb, but Eid picked at the tube’s foil-like covering, causing it to emit dense white fumes. The boys ran away but the gas clung to them and burnt their clothes, melting their shoes and burning their skin.
“The moment the smoke came. I dropped it, but the smoke followed us. When we escaped that’s when the pain started, ” said Eid.
Military experts consulted by the Guardian said the effect of the smoke was similar to that caused by white phosphorous but could not speculate on the nature of the devices from photographs alone.
One suggested that it could be chaff – projectiles fired from an aircraft to decoy enemy missiles – which had not ignited.
The use of white phosphorous in civilian areas is banned by the Geneva conventions yet it is often used by armies for marking and creating smoke screens. Israel used white phosphorous in civilian areas during the Gaza war in 2008-2009 but stopped after international criticism.
Khalid Da’ajani, the boys’ grandfather said that 10 people in the area had been killed by discarded army bombs. “We knew it was the army [which left the cannister] but we had never seen anything like this. The burns seemed to spread along their bodies and all we could do was pour water on them which didn’t seem to help,” he said.
Both boys were taken to the local hospital in Yatta, but when contacted by Eid’s father the Israeli army showed little interest until told that there had been an explosion. Soldiers then questioned the boys and doctors eventually gave them an intravenous transfusion which eased their pain. The family’s request to receive treatment in an Israeli hospital was denied, but two days later, the boys were taken to hospital in Hebron where a team of visiting Italian doctors spent three hours cleaning their wounds.
The hospital report states that boys suffered first to second degree burns to their faces, hands, ankles and legs due to “the explosion of a foreign body”. They were then referred to a burns unit in Nablus, around 60 miles from their home, rather than to an Israeli hospital less than half the distance away.
But last week, Lo’ai, Mohammed’s younger brother discovered an identical canister not far from where the first was found.
He ran away and his family contacted the army. After inspecting the device, troops piled rocks and explosives around it before blowing it up.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Israeli army said: “The area under discussion served in the past as a training field and is no longer in use. The young men were treated on site by a military medical team. Because their injuries were light, they did not require evacuation to an Israeli hospital, and they were evacuated by the Red Crescent.”
Almost two weeks after the event the boys have stopped vomiting and suffering from headaches. Large parts of their skin remain bleached white and blistered. Both seem to be recovering but still find it hard to walk.
A spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights and Israeli non-governmental organisation said that the incident represented a violation of the Palestinians’ right to the health by the Israeli army.
“Leaving bombs unattended on the lands of Palestinians where children and others spend most of their time is a violation of human rights. Worse, is the fact that the army denied these children a better treatment in Israeli hospitals despite the fact that they admitted it was a bomb they had left in the field,” the spokesman said.
Physicians for Human Rights have said that they have written to ask the army for answers about the incident and will take legal action with the family if the army does not explain how two of these dangerous devices appeared in village lands that are regularly frequented by children, adults and animals.
