Tag: Hebron

On the 19th March, around 30 settlers from Kiryat Arba in Hebron occupied a house strategically placed along the road between the large settlement and the Tomb of Abraham.

The Israeli High Court acknowledged that the documentation that the settlers claimed was proof of ownership was indeed forged and made a final decision on Sunday 15th November that the settlers had 72 hours to vacate the Palestinian owned house. The settlers had made it clear that they will not leave the house voluntarily and threatened to confront any attempt to forcibly evict them.

As the 72 hour deadline came to an end yesterday (19th November), settlers had grouped around the house, protected by Israeli army soldiers stationed around and on the roof of the house they were supposed to be evicting the settlers from. The military had previously announced that they were ordered to complete the eviction within 30 days.

A group of around fifty, mostly younger, settlers kept vigilant watch all day. The army was present at all times inside and outside the house. There seemed to be no confrontations between army and settlers.

During the afternoon, settlers twice attacked Palestinian youth who had gathered in the area to see if the eviction would actually take place. On both occasions the soldiers ignored the settlers throwing of stones at the Palestinians, yet immediately attacked the Palestinians with tear-gas when they responded by throwing stones back at the settlers. One Palestinian was then detained by the Israeli army.

There was no attempt made by the Israeli army to prevent settlers from attacking Palestinians residents of the area. Several times the settlers threw stones, also using a slingshot, at international human rights activists who were observing the situation. Israeli soldiers were also present on the roof, but did nothing to prevent the settler violence.

From around 11pm, settlers used slings to hurl stones randomly at Palestinian homes around the occupied house. This was occurring from the roof of the house and from around the house. After about an hour of stone throwing, a group of 15 settlers approached a Palestinian house from which the international activists were observing. The settler group escalated their attacks against the Palestinian residents and the internationals staying with them. This lasted for around half an hour before the settlers returned to the occupied house.

At 1.20am, a large group of settlers came down the street close to the occupied house, surrounding and heavily bombarding neighbouring Palestinian houses with rocks. After five minutes of heavy stone throwing, settlers walked in the direction of Ibrahimi Mosque. All night a police or army jeep would patrol the street every 5 minutes without intervening to stop the settlers.

Settlers attacked several Palestinian houses on the way to the mosque, seriously injuring a Palestinian man who was hit in the head by a rock. At 2am they returned to the occupied house they have dubbed the ‘Peace-House’. More Israeli police forces arrived at this point initially and began to intervene, with the stone throwing slowly dying out. The settler youth then surrounded police and army cars and prevented them from moving, by dancing around them and sitting on top of them, while other settlers painted insulting slogans and stars of David on the Mosque.

During the evening Israeli army and police were routinely ignoring settler violence and did not react to the situation until several hours into the violence against Palestinian homes. Appeals to the police and DCO were systematically ignored. Israeli authorities seriously violated their obligation of protecting all civilians as the occupying force.

A neighbour to the so-called “Peace-House”, Atif Jaber, a 40 year old shopkeeper, who has lived in his home opposite the occupied house all his life, says that attacks from the settlers occupying the house are very common and that the police are uninterested in these crimes. The settlers do not only throw stones, they have also vandalised the cars in the neighbourhood, desecrated the local Muslim graveyard and physically assaulted people in the vicinity.

The last assault was on a man called Motee’a, who was hit and kicked by several of the settlers. Atif also says that his father has been offered 9million dollars for his lands, which consists of an olive and grape grove and the land of three houses including the ‘Peace-house’, but that he immediately refused this offer.

Atif maintains that he will never leave the area where he was born.

On November 3rd, 25 Palestinian homes and five farms in Idhna were issued demolition orders of their homes for the 23rd of November. The order claims that the homes were “built without permission” of the Israeli authorities.

Fifteen homes were previously issued demolition orders in the area and are currently attempting appeals of the orders. The homes in question are approximately two kilometers from the apartheid wall outside of Idhna. Many of the families have already had homes demolished on the land and now face a second demolition of their rebuilt homes.

The permission required by the Israeli authorities is impossible to obtain for most Palestinians and many times is a ridiculous demand used to legitimize the demolition of homes across the West Bank. Since the beginning of the second intifada until May 2007, 5,000 Palestinian homes within the West Bank have been destroyed by military operations while 1,900 others have been demolished by civil administration for lack of proper permits, many more have been demolished since. On average 12 Palestinians lose their home in each of these demolitions.

All of the 40 families in Idhna own the land on which their homes are built and therefore should not need the permission of any authority to build on it. The people of Idhna are known for their resistant spirit, especially during the first intifada and many suspect that the Israeli authorities would like to displace the entire village over time.

One of the families, Fatima and Emat Farajallah and their four small children were one of the thirty families which received demolition orders on November 3rd. They began construction on a home for their growing family four years ago and will loose it to the demolition on November 23rd before its completion. Fatima commented on the situation her family and the others in the village have been placed in saying; “there is no money, the situation is very bad”. When asked where she would go with her family if their home is demolished she responded that she had no idea.

An urgent action is required from all organizations and committees concerned by such an illegitimate and racist decision. These demolitions are clearly a continuation of 60 years of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israeli government and something must be done.

On the 4th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, a march commemorating his life in Hebron was confronted by the Israel army in Bab Azzawaya near the Gilbert checkpoint. The area is in H1 and considered to be under Palestinian Authority control.

According to local people interviewed by ISM volunteers, a group of 20 young people started a spontaneous memorial celebration near the entrance to the Old City. As the demonstrators approached the checkpoint, eight soldiers started to shoot tear gas towards them. This shooting of tear gas provoked clashes between young locals and the Israeli army.

There was a similar spontaneous demonstration in an other part of the city, with 200 participants. Many of these demonstrators joined the twenty in Bab Azzawya where the Israeli army was clashing with local youth.

At least eight people were taken to the closest hospital for medical care. Five were injured from rubber coated steel bullets and three from tear gas. At least five people were detained by Israeli army. It was reported that those detained were being identified based solely on having dust from rocks on their hands.

When clashes began the Palestinin Authority’s security forces left the area, which is supposed to be under their supervision.

After two hours of clashes Israeli returned to area officially under their supervision. PA troops soon came to prevent Palestinians from getting close to the Israeli checkpoint in the border of their jurisdictions.

On the 8th November, around 50 residents of Hebron, joined by international solidarity activists, gathered in the Old City to protest against Israeli closures in the area.

The demonstration, initiated by the Popular Committee of Hebron and the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, took the form of a candle-lit procession through the Old City. Residents marched behind a banner declaring ‘This Is Apartheid’ and carried signs with such statements as ‘ Zionism is Racism’.

The event was deemed a success as Israeli soldiers watched from a distance. The Committees declared that this demonstration marked the first of what will become weekly protests through the Old City as they demand that the forced closures of Palestinian shops by Israeli forces is reversed.