Tag: Hebron

Nakba Day observations span West Bank

International Solidarity Movement

16th May 2010

Al Ma’asara: ‘Culture is Resistance’

Reem Banna performing at Nakba Day observance in Al Ma'asara
Reem Banna performing at Nakba Day observance in Al Ma'asara
The village of Al Ma’asara, near Bethlehem, held a Palestinian cultural festival on Friday to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba. Palestinian music, dance and poetry were all on display, offering a timely reminder of Palestine’s ancient history and vibrant culture. Above all, the event was an assertion of Palestinian identity, and of the right of Palestinians to live as free citizens in their homeland.

The festival was opened with a series of speeches from representatives of Al Ma’asara and other villages in the Bethlehem region, and from Siham Barghouti, the Palestinian Minister of Culture. There was then a performance from the renowned Palestinian singer Reem Banna, who sang several songs to great acclaim from the crowd of perhaps 200 people.

Three tents erected alongside of the festival represented the villages destroyed and the people displaced in 1948, and again in 1967. After 62 years, despite ever increasing oppression and persecution, a huge rise in illegal Israeli settlements, the construction of the apartheid wall, and much more, Palestinians remain steadfast. They have not and will not abandon their homeland, and they will not forget the unique and special culture that they are rightly so proud of. This festival was a timely reminder of this.

Bil’in

The weekly demonstration against the apartheid wall in Bil’in also commemorated the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba, where 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their home and were made refugees. The demonstration was fronted by a huge wooden key, representing the non-negotiable demand for the right of return for refugees. There were also three men dressed as Handala, the popular cartoon character symbolising the children of the subsequent refugee camps. As the demonstration reached the wall it was met with huge amounts of tear gas and before long the army attempted to enter the village and one Palestinian journalist was arrested. However, the demonstration suddenly changed its focus as the hot tear gas canisters created several small fires which spread quickly across the land and amongst the olive trees. The demonstrators spent about half an hour trying to extinguish the fire with olive branches until a Palestinian fire engine turned up and the demo ended.

Hebron (al Khalil)

Demonstrators painted messages onto the miitary watchtower next to Shuhada Street
Demonstrators painted messages onto the miitary watchtower next to Shuhada Street
The city of Hebron held a demonstration today to mark the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba. The fourth of the now weekly demonstrations organized by Youth Against Settlements, protesters marched through Hebron to the heart of the Old City, led by the Scouts’ marching drumming band. Participants carried flags, banners and 62 balloons – one for each year of the Israeli occupation. The demonstration reached one of the military bases which blocks access for Palestinians to Shuhada Street, a key thoroughfare in Hebron which only Israelis or foreigners are now allowed to pass along. During the demonstration, ‘Open Shuhada Street’ and ‘This Is Apartheid’ were painted upon the soldiers’ watchtower, which led to the arrest of one Palestinian man.

After an hour of speeches, chants and songs by the military base, the demonstration moved away, along a road that runs parallel to Shuhada Street. Settlers above, who were surrounded by soldiers and police at the time, threw rocks down onto the march. Fortunately, no-one was hurt. Some Palestinian children threw some of the rocks back, for which the soldiers attempted, unsuccessfully, to arrest them. Settlers then poured dirty water and spat upon the demonstrators as they walked along the road beneath them.

The settlements in Hebron are, like all settlements within the West Bank and East Jerusalem, illegal under international law. Palestinian residents of the Old City and the district of Tel Rumeida suffer severe restriction of movement, frequent harassment and occasional violence at the hands of both soldiers and settlers. Shuhada Street has been closed to Palestinians since 1994, forcing shops to close and residents to leave their homes.

Sheikh Jarrah

Around 50 people gathered Saturday to march from the American Embassy along Nablus Road to Sheikh Jarrah where police and soldiers had blocked off the street into the neighborhood, only letting settlers through. After a long speech the demonstration began to dissipate. A group of settlers held up an Israeli flag and a woman from the neighborhood proudly approached them with her daughter waving a Palestinian flag. The crowd followed with chants.

Weekend demonstrations continue the struggle

International Solidarity Movement

10 May 2010

Demonstration in Bil'in symbolizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees' inability to bury loved ones on native soil.
Demonstration in Bilin symbolizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees inability to bury loved ones on native soil.

Bil’in
Today’s demonstrators, Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals, marched from the Bil’in mosque towards the illegal apartheid wall. Halfway along the route, the procession picked up several men dressed entirely in black, carrying a coffin with a man inside. The grim scene symbolized the Palestinians’ loss of land during the Nakba and their inability to return to these lands. Most importantly, the coffin symbolized the fact that Palestinian refugees are not allowed to bury their deceased loved ones on their native soil.

The Israeli army fired tear gas and many aluminum canisters into the crowd not long after they gathered at the wall. The army aggressively entered through the wall’s gate and chased protestors up the route, as other soldiers fired tear gas canisters into the retreating crowd. Several were grabbed and arrested: Haitham al-Khatib, cameraman from Bil’in; Stormy, an American activist; Ashraf Abu Rahme from Bil’in; Abdul Fattah Burnat from Bil’in; and two Israeli demonstrators. One Palestinian man was injured with a gas canister to his chest, and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation. The procession finally retreated after these arrests and after being forced back up the hill into the village.

An Nabi Saleh
Fifty Palestinian, Israeli and international activists demonstrated Friday against land confiscation in An Nabi Saleh . The demonstration started at 1:30 pm in the center of the village and lasted roughly 400 meters, where demonstrators were met by the Israeli military which immediately shot tear gas at the crowd. After being dispersed, demonstrators hid among the houses of the village. The Israeli military continued throwing sound bombs and firing tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets for three hours. When the military retreated, demonstrators again tried to reach the lands which have been stolen by settlers but soldiers started again to launch tear gas and live ammunition (three warning rounds).

Near the end of the demonstration, plainclothes police officers who had infiltrated the demonstration grabbed eleven year-old boy, and two Israel activists who attempted to prevent his arrest. A 19-year-old demonstrator was arrested and beaten by plainclothes police officers. Four Israelis and one international were stopped and detained while driving on a road towards An Nabi Saleh. All were later released. The demo finished at 7pm.

Ni’lin
Approximately 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators gathered outside of the town of Ni’lin Friday, attending midday prayers in a quiet olive grove before marching towards the illegal apartheid wall. Chanting and waving flags, the demonstrators fanned out upon reaching the wall, where they were met with volleys of tear gas. Protestors marched east along the wall before returning to the village. Several cases of tear gas inhalation were reported.

Al Ma’asara
The demonstrators of Al Ma’asara achieved a rare victory this week, reaching the farmland which falls on the illegal wall’s route. In more than two years, this is the first time demonstrators have reached the land, though this is the objective each week. Approximately 35 demonstrators, Palestinian, Israeli and international, were surprised when, upon reaching soldiers and razor wire blocking the road, their request to continue the march was considered and then granted. Demonstrators sang and listened to speeches upon reaching the land, and then returned peacefully to the village.

Soldiers watch protest near Shuhada Street
Soldiers watch protest near Shuhada Street

Hebron
Twenty-five Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals attended this newly-begun demonstration, gathering at an entrance to Shuhada Street, the main street in Hebron, now closed to Palestinians. After lively chants which lasted nearly an hour, the protest filed through the narrow streets of Hebron’s old city. Settlers poured water on demonstrators from the occupied second story of market buildings. Demonstrators returned to the Shuhada street gate without incident.

Beit Jala
Marching from the central square towards construction of the illegal wall, 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators were met with Israeli military, who had blocked the road with razor wire. A demonstration was staged at the barbed wire and numerous speeches were delivered, before protestors turned back. The illegal wall cuts through a family’s front yard in Beit Jala, coming within meters of their home. Numerous ancient olive trees have been uprooted in the construction, which veers wildly off a linear path in order to snake around Route 60.

Youth against Settlements organizes another successful demonstration in the heart of Hebron

Youth Against Settlements

4 May 2010

Demonstrators march through the narrow Old City streets, where settlers poured water from windows of the occupied second story
Demonstrators march through the narrow Old City streets, where settlers poured water from windows of the occupied second story
On Saturday 1st May 2010, Youth Against Settlements held the second of their new, weekly, non-violent demonstrations in the heart of the Old City of Hebron. The demonstration calls for the opening to Palestinians of Shuhada Street and freedom of movement for all Palestinians in Hebron.

Approximately 80 Israeli, International and Palestinian demonstrators attended the demonstration which took place in the heart of the old city of Hebron next to a closed entrance to Shuhada street and the Beit Romano settlement.

The demonstrators carried banners and Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in Arabic, English and Hebrew condemning the closure of the Shuhada street and calling for the end of the practices of the occupation and the settlers against the Palestinian residents of Hebron.

A large number of Israeli soldiers and police were positioned on the roof tops of the buildings surrounding the demonstration. A large number of settlers, from the Beit Romano settlement, also watched the demonstration take place. The demonstration ended with a tour through the Old City during which settlers tried to spray dirty water on the demonstrators.

Hisham Sharabati, media spokesman for Youth against Settlements, said that “This weekly demonstration is part of a series of events organized Youth against Settlements to demand the reopening of Shuhada Street which has been closed to Palestinians since 1994 but remains open for use by settlers and the Israeli Military and Police”.

According to Hisham Sharabati the closure of Shuhada street, which is located in the heart of the city, has severed the city in two, paralyzing trade and destroying the commercial centre. More than 500 shops and businesses have been forced to close by military order. The continual repression enforced by the occupation has led to the mass abandonment of more than an additional 1000 shops, businesses and homes in the city centre.

ISM apartment in Hebron broken into – Israeli Intelligence Services suspected

International Solidarity Movement

3rd May 2010

In the early hours of the morning on Saturday 1st May, the International Solidarity Movement’s Hebron apartment was broken into. Laptops, video cameras, photo memory cards and USB flash drives were stolen. Cash and credit cards that had been left in the apartment were not taken.

Similar items were taken by the Israeli military when they twice raided the ISM office in Ramallah in February of this year.

ISM activist Beatrice Smith says, “It seems likely that this was Shin Bet [the Israeli Intelligence Service]. Our neighbours have told us twice in the past week or so that soldiers have been coming up to our apartment when we’re out and they’ve been looking through the windows. If it was a normal robber, why would they have left cash and credit cards, but taken USB sticks and memory cards? This person wanted information, not money”.

Ms Smith’s argument is supported by a recent affidavit from Shin Bet to the Israeli High Court of Justice. In it, they admit that they have been keeping close surveillance on ISM activist Bridget Chappell, seemingly for the past several months.

Smith says, “It is clear from the surveillance and arrest of our activists, from the previous raids on our office in Ramallah, and now from the break-in here in Hebron that the Israeli authorities are determined to do all they can to stop us working here. They know that we’re non-violent, but they are scared because they don’t want the outside world to know what they are doing here. Anybody who comes here to bear witness to the occupation is a threat to them”.

Israeli soldiers ransack Palestinian homes and damage belongings in Tuba village

Christian Peacemaker Teams

31 March 2010

Home in Tuba Village ransacked by Israeli soldiers
Home in Tuba Village ransacked by Israeli soldiers
On March 31, the Israeli Special Police Forces entered the Palestinian village of Tuba, immediately east of Ma’on settlement, and destroyed household belongings in two homes in the village. The police forced Tuba residents from their homes and told them that they were searching for two goats which settlers from the outpost of Havat Ma’on had reported missing. The police also accused the villagers of possessing weapons, and while questioning nearly a dozen villagers, the police upended nearly every belonging in both homes. The police ransacked three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a storage unit. International activists and Tuba residents reported that the police left the scene without confiscating any weapons or sheep and without making any arrests. During the search police personnel refused to let international activists observe the search of the homes or the interrogations of the residents.

The village of Tuba lies near the Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on, and shepherds from the village are frequently forced from their grazing land near the outpost. During March, shepherds, international activists, and members of the Israeli peace organization, Taayush, participated in a series of nonviolent actions in an attempt to prevent the Israeli military from forcing Tuba shepherds and sheep from their grazing land. On multiple occasions in March, Israeli soldiers declared an area of land including the village of Tuba to be a closed military zone forcing all Palestinian shepherds to leave the area. The soldiers also arrested Israeli activists who refused to leave the area.

Children from Tuba who attend school in At-Tuwani must walk with a military escort through through Havat Ma’on to reach their school. They are frequently subjected to threats and assaults from settlers.

[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are illegal. Most settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.]