Eleven year old Palestinian boy run over by Israeli settler in Hebron
Tel Rumeida, HEBRON:
An eleven year old Palestinian boy was run over by an Israeli settler in Hebron last night, and had to be immediately hospitalized.
An eyewitness said that a motorcyclist hit the boy, Abdallah Hasan Al-Muhtaseb, on Al-Sahla street in Tel Rumeida. The witness estimated that the settler was driving at 80 kilometers per hour and said that after hitting the boy he immediately drove away.
Abdallah is now conscious in al-Mizan hospital, Hebron, and will be kept for further scans to check for internal bleeding but is expected to be released soon.
The victim’s father is available for questions.
Israeli settler violence against Palestinian people and property is well documented in Israeli, Palestinian and international media.
On the anniversary of the French Revolution, the theme of the protest in Al Ma’sara on Friday was the destruction of the prison in which Israel holds Palestinians captive, redolent of the French storming of the Bastille in 1789. Around 50 demonstrators, both Palestinians and internationals, marched towards the main entrance of the village to call for an end to the construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and the illegal settlement of Efrat, which surrounds the village and severs the inhabitants from their land. The Israeli army, without any provocation, responded viciously to the non-violent protest.
During the demonstration the local popular committee leaders spoke powerfully about their right to the land of their ancestors and their ongoing non-violent struggle for freedom. They called for an end to the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners
Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration the soldiers responded by throwing sounds bombs and tear gas. A local popular committee leader Marwan was detained and threatened with a beating by soldiers, but later released without charge.
Palestinian and international voices urged the army not to shoot or use violent means, holding up their hands to symbolize non violent resistance. Despite this soldiers began to hurl sound bombes – one of which injured an international journalist – followed by rubber tear gas canisters. The group of protestors, which included women and the elderly, was subjected to several volleys tear gas and sound bombs, and dispersed as a result.
Construction and expansion of the illegal Gush Etzion settlement has already confiscated a large portion of village lands and construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall in the area cleaves roughly 3,500 dunams of land.
Throughout the history of the popular resistance, local leaders here have been arrested, imprisoned and threatened by soldiers; they face harsh fines or imprisonment for attending demonstrations. Night raids are often carried out in attempts to deter the inhabitants of Al Ma’sara from exercising their right to protest against the occupation, which they have been doing since 2005. However, it seems that the tactics of the soldiers in the hope of scaring demonstrators will have the contrary effect; strengthening future protests.
Bil’in (Friday 16 July)
On July the 16th around 200 people participated in the weekly demonstration against the wall in Bil’in – many of them where internationals. Huge amounts of tear gas was fired – unnecessarily – at the demonstrators and two people were injured.
The demonstration started in the center of Bil’in after noon prayers. One hundred Palestinians and almost as many internationals gathered and paid tribute to Fayyes Tanin, a leader of the Palestinian grassroots movement who passed away 6 weeks ago in an accident and was commemorated in numerous posters. The protestors marched as usual through the village and up to the wall, waving flags and chanting in Arabic and English as they went. The demonstration stopped some meters from the gate, where Israeli soldiers were waiting. Without warning and without a single stone being thrown, the soldiers started firing teargas, less than a minute after the demonstrators had reached the wall.
Demonstrators had hoped to quickly lock the gate from the Palestinian side – preventing soldiers from making incursions towards the village and trying to arrest people – but the large Israeli force pushed through and chased people back, all the time firing tear gas and stun grenades at the nonviolent protestors. One boy of 12 years old passed out from teargas inhalation and had to be taken back to the village. Another young boy was hit by a teargas canister in his stomach, and suffered painful but luckily not serious injuries.
About ten soldiers went on the offensive, advancing towards the village firing tear gas from among the olive trees so it was closer to the protestors who had retreated and regrouped. A big group of demonstrators who had gathered on another hill near the village were subjected to repeated teargas attacks which actually prevented them from returning to the village for some time.
The demonstration lasted over an house and no arrests were made, in spite of much effort from the Israeli army.
Bil’in residents have – since March 2005 – organized regular direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands for the construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall and illegal Israeli settlements such as Modi’in Illit. Although both the International Court of Justice (in 2004) and the Israeli Supreme Court (in 2007) have declared the route of the wall illegal – the latter stating that at least 25% of Bil’in’s 1964 dunums of confiscated land should be returned to the village – these rulings have to date been ignored and settlement construction continues.
Ni’lin (Friday 16 July)
A Danish student, 24, was arrested and detained for several hours by Israeli authorities yesterday for being in the vicinity the weekly peaceful protest in Ni’lin.
She was surrounded by ten soldiers armed with M-16 rifles while she was resting away from the main protest, suffering from tear gas inhalation.
She was transported away from Ni’lin, where she and other internationals were accompanying villagers on their weekly peaceful protest against Israel’s Apartheid Wall – declared illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice – which cuts through their land.
The nonviolent protest was met with severity by Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas repeatedly at protesters and also arrested one Israeli photographer.
She was interrogated at Shaar Benyaminpolice station in Jerusalem, detained for four hours, and told to sign a form stating that she had illegally been present in a ‘closed military zone’. However, when she refused to sign she was released without charge.
The village of Ni’lin is designated as ‘Area A’ under the Oslo Accords of 1993 signifying that it should be under full Palestinian control. But since May 2008 the Israeli army have killed 5 residents and critically injured American solidarity activist Tristan Anderson in the process of harshly repressing demonstrations against the occupation.
After noon prayers the villagers in An Nabi Saleh accompanied by international and Israeli activists joined together to protest against the lack of water resources accessible to Palestinians. The demonstration was carried off peacefully with chants and heated discussions with the soldiers who were present to stop the demonstration from reaching the nearby settlement.
About one hundred Palestinian villagers and internationals gathered in An Nabi Saleh to protest against the settlement annexing their land. The demonstration walked down towards the settlement chanting, but soldiers intervened and disrupted the demonstrators from walking ahead. The demonstration was peaceful until a shabab accidentally hit a journalist with a stone. A soldier then retaliated by shooting teargas at the shabab. This accident didn’t hinder the protest from continuing, as a large number of children and women started to chant and make noise in front of the soldiers. The children signaled peace signs and sang for the soldiers, making clear that they were not welcome. The children went on and on from soldier to soldier, who struggled to keep their cool.
After about two hours of passionate protesting the soldiers left the village and the demonstration ended. The theme of the demonstration was the lack of water given to the Palestinians compared to the excessive amount of water set aside for use only by the settlers, such as those living in the illegal settlement of Halamish (Neve Zuf). The people from the village, who have been demonstrating weekly since January 2010, this week expressed their anger by putting used tear gas canisters and sound bombs in plastic bags filled with water.
Wadi Rahhal(Friday 16 July)
Between 40 and 50 Palestinians together with 10-15 internationals protested against the illegal settlements near Wadi Rahhal. The demonstration started around one in the afternoon but was blocked by 6 Israeli soldiers and 6 border police. The demo was told to move to the side of the road because it was blocking traffic (even thou it was the military doing this). The local residents of Wadi Rahhal held speeches in Arabic and English, and told the soldiers to leave the area and called for an end to the occupation. The demo lasted for 45 minutes, and there were no serious incidents. Two settlers came by to watch and were chatting to the soldiers, demonstrating the ideological and strategic connection between the army and the settlers’ wishes.
Hebron (Saturday 17 July)
Around one hundred peaceful demonstrators gathered in Hebron on Saturday to protest against the illegal settlements in the city and to demand Shuhada Street be open to Palestinians again. The protesters consisted of approximately 40 internationals and 60 Palestinians and Israeli activists.
Falling on the day before Nelson Mandela’s birthday, the protest against Israeli Apartheid was especially pointed, with demonstrators and children carrying many banners and placards, some drawing a parallel between Israeli and South Africa’s Apartheid regime. The demonstration paraded down to Shuhada Street, where speeches were made by several Palestinians activists and one international. The Israeli army arrested one Israeli activists as he was mistaken for someone else the army claim they have reason to arrest. He was released after a couple of hours.
After the speeches and chanting the demonstration went into the souq. Surprisingly the demonstration went up a side street while which the Israeli occupation forces had not expected – and it allowed the protesters to avoid a confrontation with the soldiers who were waiting for them some one hundred meters away. The Israeli occupation forces have used increasingly violence against demonstrations in recent weeks and continue in attempts to make targeted arrests of activists, hoping to deter further protests. But the enthusiastic protestors made their point and continued through the streets. The demo ended in cheering.
Iraq Burin (Saturday 17 July)
The weekly Iraq Burin protest against the annexation of Palestinian owned land by illegal Israeli settlements was harshly put down by the Israeli army, who fired round upon round of metal and rubber tear gas canisters down the hill at protesters, to prevent them walking on their own land.
Soldiers positioned themselves on the brow of the hill, in between land that has been stolen for illegal Israeli settlements such as Bracha, and what the villagers can still call their own. As demonstrators approached the soldiers, around 30-40 in total, some villagers- who were accompanied by about 10 internationals, including journalists from American television service PBS – started throwing stones. This was concomitant with the initiation of tear gas volleys from the Israeli soldiers. The soldiers did not discriminate between the international observers and the locals in their aggression.
The internationals and villagers were forced to run down the steep, rocky hill face to escape the tear gas, which included potentially lethal metal canisters which were fired at ground level. The aggression continued for 45 minutes to an hour, until the soldiers disbanded, and left the villagers in peace.
Regular Saturday demonstrations in Iraq Burin began in response to the fatal shootings of Mohammad and Ussayed Qaddous, aged 16 and 19, on March 20th, 2010. The boys were shot while protesting the violent invasion of their village, a frequent Saturday occurrence.
Beit Ommar (Saturday 17 July)
Around thirty Palestinians and fifteen internationals met in Beit Ommar to march towards the settlement of Karmei Tsur which has already confiscated six hundred dunams of Palestinian land. Soldiers forcefully pushed back peaceful demonstrators including children, declaring the area a closed military zone. Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration soldiers used sound bombs and tear gas; injuring two journalists and arresting one. Soldiers also made two attempts to arrest an international activist but were prevented by other activists.
Leaders of the popular and national committees called for the right to freely access and cultivate their land which has been under military and settler control since 2006. Demonstrators and children from the village of Beit Ommar proclaimed their non-violent protest and placed Palestinian flags on the razor fence which separates them from their farms. A group of five Israeli soldiers denied that it was Palestinian land, symbolically removing the flags and then proceeding to violently push back the protesters causing a Palestinian journalist to faint.
The soldiers, who seemed unsure about how to manage the situation, resorted as usual to unnecessary use of extreme force and deployed sound bombes and tear gas despite the presence of young children. Two Palestinian photographers from Reuters and Associated Press were injured as a result of the soldiers’ severe actions. The first was pushed from a wall, injuring his leg and was later carried away to a Red Crescent ambulance which took him for treatment at Beit Ommar medical centre. The second photographer received an injury to the head caused by a flying sound bomb also ripping his gas mask in half with the force of the explosion. The seriousness of his injuries shocked those present, including the soldiers, who had evidently misjudged their actions. He was later carried on a stretcher to the ambulance and we are still awaiting news of his treatment.
Soldiers also made repeated attempts to arrest an activist from the International Solidarity Movement. She said: “He asked me to leave the area and I said that this was a peaceful demonstration. He said he would arrest me if I didn’t leave, so I repeated that it was a peaceful demonstration, which resulted in him grabbing my arm and trying to drag me away”. The arrest was prevented by other activists on two separate occasions. Soldiers did however manage to arrest one Palestinian reporter, whose whereabouts is still unknown
Demonstrations have been taking place every Saturday at ten in the morning since 2006 and will continue until the locals receive the right to cultivate their land. Farmers refuse to participate in the arbitrary application process which only grants them very infrequent access to land which needs to be constantly cared for. In addition, farmers face attacks from extremist settlers whilst tending to their crops and so are calling for an end to the illegal settlements which have already confiscated a significant 600 dunams of their land. The villagers will continue to protest against the growing settlements which surround their village and threaten to consume grab even more land.
Israeli border police demolished a rainwater cistern and removed irrigation pipes from several Palestinian fields in Al Beqa’a Valley just east of Hebron on July 14, 2010, the second day of incidents in the area this month.
When international peace activists from Christian Peacemaker Teams arrived in the area at 9:30am, the large bagger that had been used to break up the concrete of the cistern was just leaving the site. The driver of a large tractor lifted scoops full of rocks and dumped them into the demolished cistern. Also, workers cut and disposed of irrigation pipes laid in two fields. The fields each measured 10 dunams (approximately 40 acres). One was a field of grape vines and the other field had tomatoes planted under grape vines. In addition to dismantling the irrigation pipes, the workers also cut the twines that were holding up tomato plants. At least seven families will be affected by this destruction, in total about 50 people.
A Palestinian friend of CPT who lives in Al Beqa’a Valley explained the difficulties residents have in accessing water. A water line has been install by the Palestinian Authority from a nearby village; however, there is no water in the line. There is a large aquiver of water in the Hebron region, and Mekorot, the Israeli water company, has a well along the Israeli bypass road Route 60 in Al Beqa’a Valley which draws from this aquiver (in Area C, which is under full Israeli military control). Palestinian residents in Al Beqa’a Valley had made arrangements to purchase water from Mekorot. However, they never received as much water as they paid for. With the demolition of several rainwater cisterns in the valley in the past year, the Palestinian residents felt that they had no other option but to tap into the Mekorot water line at the well site.
Palestinians alleged that some of the Israelis that were with the border police and DCO on July 14th were from the Mekorot Company. Rather than preventing Palestinians from taping into the well at the source, the Israeli authorities destroyed the irrigation pipes in the fields of several families. Each 200m roll of irrigation drip pipe costs about 370NIS (~100$US), and the connection piping costs about 2.5NIS for each inch. For each dunam of vegetables it takes about 2-3 days to put the irrigation drip piping in place. The cost of the materials and time that goes into growing produce is high. Rather than prevent the ‘theft’ of water (which is ironically from an aquiver under Palestine) earlier in the season, the Israeli authorities instead waited until crops were almost ready for market. Therefore this destruction is not meant to stop the ‘theft’ of water but to cause the highest impact on farmers in the region.
On July 13, 2pm about 20 Israeli police and soldiers invaded the Awewi family home in Hebron’s Old City. They forced the mother and the eight children into the kitchen and arrested the father, who is a Palestinian Authority (PA) police officer. The mother attempted to force the door of the kitchen open to give her husband his shoes and trousers, but a soldier pushed her against the counter in spite of her obvious pregnant status. She threw the shoes down the stairwell, hoping her husband could retrieve them.
Meantime, about 20 Israeli soldiers guarding the street below had ordered a closure of the surrounding shops and prevented Palestinians from walking past for about 15 minutes. One of the soldiers shouted to the people, “Nobody come close or we will shoot.”
By the time CPTers reached the area, the Israeli police and soldiers had taken the Palestinian to Bab il Baledeyya (Beit Romano settlement) checkpoint and ordered him behind the checkpoint gate.
CPTers then visited the mother and her shaken-up family. The mother shared all the above information with CPT and was obviously very distressed. The police had given her no reason for the arrest, and it can take up to 14 days before the Red Cross can find out information for family members from Israeli authorities about arrested or detained Palestinians.
Since Israeli settlers established the settlement of Avraham Avinu right next to their home the Awewi family has experienced a lot of distress. The settlers have harassed the family many times, including invasions, and a fire set to one of their bedrooms. Israeli authorities have also arrested family members at least twice. The family has received many large financial offers from the settlers to purchase their home, but the family refuses to sell.
The Israeli police released the PA police officer three hours later, reprimanded him for arresting a Palestinian in the Old City (in H2 area of Hebron under full Israeli control) and not informing the Israeli police of this, and told him not to work in the Old City.
Over 100 Palestinians together with international solidarity activists gathered in Hebron this Saturday to protest against the closure of Shuhada street. As a response to the infamous YouTube video of soldiers dancing near the illegal settlement of Tel-Rumeida, some protesters staged a dance protest: three dancers took the role of soldiers and searched and “arrested” three Palestinians.
They performed in front of the gate that closes off Shuhada street and prohibits all Palestinians from using it. The demonstrators called for justice and the opening of Shuhada street, and for the inhabitants of illegal Israeli settlements to leave the city and take the soldiers with them.
A message to the Israeli army
The demonstration, held weekly on a Saturday afternoon, then turned and paraded through the town. As they approached the market the peaceful protesters’ path was blocked by a line of soldiers armed with M-16 rifles – some of whom were seen kicking and hitting protesters. After a short sit-in the protest continued by turning around and heading towards the Old City.
Israeli activists gave speeches in Hebrew aimed at soldiers and settlers, calling for an end to the Apartheid situation in Hebron. One settler living in a house from which Palestinians were evicted threw water down on protesters but this did not dampen their spirits. Palestinians and international activists chanted together: “One two three four, occupation no more, five six seven eight, stop the killing, stop the hate.”
There are 18 check points that severely limit the movement of Palestinians in the Israeli military controlled area of Hebron (known as ‘H2’). Palestinian residents face daily attacks and harassment from soldiers and extremist, fanatical settlers who are often armed and violate the rights of Palestinians with impunity.
