Tag: Hebron

Israeli soldiers occupy home of Palestinian family during Pesach, al-Khalil

15th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil (Hebron), occupied Palestine

 

Israeli soldiers walk down the stairs of the family home, where some of the children wait, after occupying the roof.

A Palestinian family living in the Old City of al-Khalil were subject to nightly home intrusions by Israeli forces throughout the week leading up to Pesach, or Passover. On Wednesday 12th April, ISM activists visited the home on Shalallah Street before staying with the family overnight to monitor the situation.

The father of the family told ISM activists how six soldiers would arrive at the house at roughly 2 am, banging aggressively on the door with their M16 rifles before forcibly making their way up to the roof of the family home. These incursions occurred several times throughout the week as the same soldiers would arrive in the middle of the night to access and occupy the roof where they would sit for just one hour before leaving again through the family home.

The father believes these nightly intrusions come as punishment from Israeli forces in response to him welcoming tour groups and tourists onto his roof to witness the family’s situation. The rooftop overlooks the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah – from which members of the family often experience harassment from neighboring colonial settlers – as well as the nearby Israeli military outpost.

The family has eight small children, all of whom are frequently woken-up scared at the sight and sounds of Israeli soldiers entering the home. The intrusions occurred all week before culminating on Wednesday the 12th of April when Israeli forces – this time consisting of eleven soldiers and two dogs – appeared at the house a total of four times throughout the day.

The entrance to the family home, located between Shuhada Street and Shalallah Street. To the left of the house is the playground for the children of Israeli settlers.

The past week in Khalil has been characterized by an increased military presence, house intrusions, closures, and harassment as Israeli settlers and tourists celebrate the Jewish holiday of Pesach. However, incidents such as these are not unique, as many Palestinian families living close to illegal Israeli settlements or outposts across the occupied West Bank often experience night raids, vandalism, and harassment at the hands of both colonial settlers and Israeli soldiers.

Tel Rumeida faces closure by Israeli forces

6th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On April 20th, Tel Rumeida’s Palestinian residents will face the acceleration of its near total isolation in the H-2, Israeli military controlled section of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Upon military order, Israeli forces announced the fortification of checkpoints and further land seizure, leading to a worsening of the ghettoization of the residential area which has been under incremental incursion by illegal Israeli settlement activity beginning in 1984.

Shuhada checkpoint was the late September, 2015 site of the brutal murder of a young Palestinian woman, Hadeel Hashlamoun, who was shot ten times by Israeli forces while exiting Tel Rumeida.  She was left bleeding to death for 45 minutes before Israeli police dragged her away by her feet.  The observation of this murder helped to spark an uprising against the illegal occupation.  Months later the Shuhada checkpoint was expanded to create a process in which Palestinians who pass through the checkpoint are forced to enter one at a time through a locked turn style, followed by a small fenced path, and then into an enclosure completely guarded from observation.  With the new military order, the additional checkpoints around Tel Rumeida are planned to be similarly inaccessible to public view.

A page of the military order declaring the scheduled closure of Tel Rumeida

On April 5th 2017, ISM volunteers discovered a crowd of settlers and Israeli occupation forces surveying Tel Rumeida and announcing the new plans for the neighborhood which is scheduled to be enacted within 2 weeks. The new plans would make it even more difficult for Palestinian residents of H2 to access basic services like ambulances and would bar their family members and any Palestinians without a special i.d. number from visiting the Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida.

The ramifications that Tel Rumeida’s Palestinian residents will face echo the late 2015 declaration by Israeli forces of Tel Rumeida as a closed military zone during a time of extreme escalation in violence during which dozens of Palestinian youth were murdered across the occupied West Bank.  Shuhada street was closed to Palestinians. A similar fate is now scheduled for the whole neighborhood.

Map of planned military closure of Tel Rumeida

Prominent Palestinian activist, Hashem al Azzeh lived a full life devoted to nonviolent opposition and popular resistance before he was killed by an H2 checkpoint’s denial of medical services. More recently, an infant was harassed while crossing an H2 checkpoint, and in another incident, sleeping soldiers left Palestinians unable to pass through the checkpoint. These and many other human rights abuses may become more common and less able to be documented if the announced changes are not stopped.

An organizer with Hebron Defense Committee, Sami Natsheh, and his colleagues have initiated a legal counter to the military order which was filed by their lawyer today in the Israeli courts, although military orders are notoriously difficult to overturn. “It’s a military order, but it’s also anti-human rights,” Natsheh noted. Highlighting the need for a strategic and ongoing response, Sami further stated that, “We don’t just want reaction. We want something stable because on April 20th they will close Tel Rumeida. You won’t even be able to see through the checkpoints, only wire and fencing.”

Updates on this and other campaigns initiated by the Hebron Defense Committee can be seen here.

 

Israeli forces obstruct transport and installation of protective fence

6th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces on Tuesday evening, 4th April 2017, obstructed the transport of large materials by Palestinians on Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

Large metal pieces Palestinians need as protection from settlers

Palestinians were carrying the large metal pieces first to Shuhada checkpoint, where just a few days before, Israeli forces extended their perimeter of control further into the H1 neighborhood supposedly under full Palestinian control. With no Palestinian vehicles whatsoever allowed, Palestinians then had to carry the large pieces through the checkpoint, navigating the narrow doors and metal-cage like structure of the checkpoint. Afterwards, the fence-parts had to be carried down the street, and were first set aside on the sidewalk outside a building at the end of the tiny strip of Shuhada Street. Palestinians are still allowed to be on the end of this strip, whereas the rest of the street has been ethnically cleansed of any Palestinian presence.

As Palestinians attempted to pull up the large metal pieces onto the roof on the outside of the building, as they would not fit through the doorways, Israeli forces from the nearby checkpoint arrived to prevent them from doing so. The reasoning of the occupying soldiers was that the large pieces could fall on and thus injure or damage settlers walking on the streets or settler cars – not Palestinians on the same part of the street though. Israeli forces then refused to stop traffic, even for a short while, to allow the materials to be transported, instead forcing the Palestinians to put them back down. In the meantime, settlers gathered on the streets, watching the soldiers prevent Palestinians from lifting the materials up, and later on bringing pizza for the dozen soldiers that had arrived on the scene. After some negotiating, Israeli forces finally conceded to allow Palestinians to carry the materials up the stairs adjacent to the house – which are usually forbidden for Palestinians, not for settlers though.

Palestinians lower the pieces down as Israeli forces prevent them from pulling them up to the roof

While the materials were carried up the stairs, settler children started playing with full bottles of carbonated drinks in the middle of the street, throwing them up in the air and running away before they would return and hit them. One boy jumped in front of a settler mini-bus, attempting to put the full bottle underneath the wheel of the bus in order to see it explode. The soldiers still present at the spot clearly did not consider any of these activities dangerous to the settlers, and did not even intervene when a settler boy deliberately sprayed the drink on the stairs in order to make it slippery for the Palestinians transporting the materials.

Settler children and soldiers sharing pizza sponsored by settlers

The large fencing was meant to reinforce a fence at Shuhada Street kindergarten which settlers had previously cut, damaging property inside the kindergarten and on a Palestinian family’s roof. When the last piece was carried up, soldiers entered the kindergarten to prohibit the installation of the fence, claiming that the Palestinians would need a permit to do so, further delaying this protective measure.

The same kind of fencing is installed around many windows and open courtyards of Palestinian family homes, as well as other entrances vulnerable to settler attacks.  This fencing is one of the only possible means of protection in a hostile environment that allows total impunity for settler abuses, under the full protection of the Israeli occupation forces.

Israeli forces increase restrictions in Hebron neighborhood

2nd April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Saturday night, Israeli forces expanded a road-closure near Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), moving it further into the H1 area – that which is officially under full Palestinian control.

Cement blocks closing the access towards the checkpoint

After midnight on Saturday, 1st April 2017, Israeli forces began moving the large cement roadblocks further away from the checkpoint, thus creating an even larger space between the first roadblocks and the actual checkpoint. The large concrete blocks now stretch the width of the street leaving pedestrians only two narrow entrances along each side.

Shuhada checkpoint leads onto Shuhada Street, where Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are entirely forbidden, and Palestinians are only allowed if they are registered and numbered residents of the area. This new closure especially affects any Palestinian with difficulties walking or carrying heavy items, as they are now further impeded from reaching the checkpoint, a crossing that is already incredibly difficult to gain entrance through, even if you’re a registered Palestinian who lives on the other side.

URGENT ACTION: Four Palestinian Human Rights Defenders arrested facing military trial

1st April 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team  |  Hebron, occupied Palestine 

The four human rights activists arrested three days ago on Thursday 30th March on a peaceful Land Day protest action now face the Israeli military court at Ofer tomorrow, 2nd April.  They are charged with participating in an illegal demonstration and being in a closed military zone.  They were in fact exercising their human rights of freedom of expression and assembly.

All four belong to the Dismantle the Ghetto Coalition and the ISM team here in al-Khalil has been working with and supporting their actions.

Please act immediately in Hebrew, English or your own language:

• Call the Israeli embassy consulate and demand the immediate release of the four activists.
• Call the Israeli embassy consulate and demand the Israeli authorities immediately drop all charges against the four activists.
• Demand an immediate end to the continued harassment of the four activists and other human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

For more information:

https://sjungsta.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/urgent-action-four-palestinian-human-rights-defenders-arrested-facing-military-trial/