Tag: Hebron

by ISM Hebron, November 26th

November 15

At 12 noon a human rights worker at the crossing on Tel Rumeida St. noticed that there were two settlers on top of the military outpost on Palestinian land next to a huge old olive tree. He photographed them.
He raised the alarm and asked the soldiers who told him that there was no problem and that they had all the relevant permits to run this new green electrical cable.
The Palestinian family who own this olive tree were terrified that these were preparations to cut the tree down but nothing further happened that day.

November 17

Human rights workers noticed that there were settlers in the Abu Haikal orchard next to their house. Two HRWs went to the house to talk to the family and began to film. Two others began to film from our apartment. As another HRW approached the land he noticed that two police officers had already stationed themselves on the Palestinian land and were quietly observing. Then he saw several young settler women approaching from the olive groves. He photographed and filmed them as they entered the Abu Haikal property through a gap in the fence. He called over to the police officers to ask them why they were allowing settlers to trespass on Palestinian land but they refused to answer. He moved next to the house where he could film the whole gathering. Most settlers were arriving from up the military stairs and past the military observation post through a gap in the fence at that end of the orchard. It now became clear why settlers had been running electric cables up to the observation post two days earlier “with all the correct permits”. They had been fixing up a powerful light so that the settlers could see the path through the fence.

About 80 settlers gathered in all, mostly quite young in their 20s. A group of men were dressed in black. They began to pray, to chant and to sing. It was very frightening for the family as they had been given no warning that this was to happen and it was not clear how things would develop. Some of the chanting was very loud and aggressive. This huge gathering was right next to the house where the family was gathered.

Two soldiers were patrolling back and forth around the house and one of them attempted to take photos of all the human rights workers and family members as they entered or left their house. Some of the family got very angry at this provocation. It seems the soldiers were trying to take revenge because HRWs often photograph them when they are harassing Palestinians.

After about an hour the settlers with very young children left and 15 minutes later everyone left. The group of young men in black stayed the longest, singing and dancing. It was very clear that this event had been planned in advance with the authorities and had active participation by the police and army.

November 23rd

At 2pm Abu Haikal family members heard machine noises on their land. They went to look and discovered a male settler clearing weeds with a weed-eater (strimmer) on the land behind the military post and olive tree, at the bottom of the garden wall. They called the police and after 15 minutes one of the daughters went to talk with the man and ask him to leave their land. Her aunt joined her. He ignored the request and attacked her with the weed-eater, hitting her on the ankle. He then phoned for help and five settler women came up the stairs including the deranged woman from Gaza. Two soldiers removed the Palestinians from their own land. They were then joined by 4 more soldiers.

At 3pm the settlers moved into the almond orchard (lot 52) and began to cut the grass and weeds in there. At 4pm the soldiers finally removed all the settlers from the land. By this time they had probably done most of what they wanted to do to prepare for the Sabbath celebration the following night.

November 24th

The Abu Haikals had heard that the settlers were planning to trespass on their land again for a Shabbat celebration. A human rights worker visiting the Abu Haikals called the DCO * to ask what the plans were for this, since last week’s trespass had clearly been co-ordinated with police and soldiers, as well as presumably the DCO. The DCO hung up several times and refused to answer questions. Eventually they said that they knew nothing about this.

Later another HRW at the house noticed 2 soldiers on the garden path behind the house at 4.40pm. Looking closer he realized that there were also 4 adult settlers and a child standing at the top of the stairs next to the military post on Abu Haikal land. Another HRW began filming from below and pointed out that there were more settlers coming up the stairs from Tel Rumeida settlement. Soldiers made no attempt to stop them.

By 4.55 18 settlers had gathered around the military post and they all moved into the Abu Haikal orchard together. By 5pm there were 36 settlers in the orchard, just below the Abu Haikal house. They all faced away from the house, presumably to avoid being photographed. They began to sing and to pray. Later they were dancing.

At 5.10pm two 2 settlers moved up the orchard towards the hole in the fence near the house. When they got there they discovered a squad of 6 soldiers patrolling on foot with a vehicle near the mosque. They turned back and rejoined the other settlers.

At 5.30 the HRW called the DCO again. Again they tried to hang up and initially were refusing to talk to an international. He asked if they wanted to talk to Mrs Abu Haikal. They declined and said they could not discuss rumours of possible activity. The HRW pointed out firmly that this was no rumour. He was standing looking at 40 settlers right next to the house. The DCO said he would check this out and call back in 2 minutes. He never did call back.

The HRW had noticed that there were no police present this week so he tried to call the police to get them to remove the trespassers. The police were not answering the phone and in the meantime the settlers had all moved off the land together, down the stairs and gone back into Tel Rumeida settlement. A few of them headed off towards Beit Hadassa settlement.

* DCO – District Co-ordination Office, the civilian administration wing of the Israeli military in the West Bank.

by ISM Hebron, November 21st

At 11:50am: several HRWs (human rights workers) left the apartment to begin monitoring the return of Palestinian school children. The children left school with no problems. The HRWs stayed on Al Shuhada St. and monitored the area for an extended period of time in case children wanted to
play. At approx. 1pm a group of soldiers stopped in their jeep pretending they had a prisoner in the back that was screaming, the driver attempted to create friendly banter and drove away after a few minutes.

At 1:30pm on Tel Rumeida St. a settler woman came down and began to throw rocks at the children, hit two HRWs with her coat and was restrained by a male settler and soldier while a HRW escorted the remaining children away up the street.

Also this afternoon, a group of four schoolchildren encountered settler hostility while attempting to walk home by way of a path close to the Tel Rumeida settlement; the use of this path has been disputed by Tel Rumeida settlers, who often impose their will by violence against children
attempting to use this pathway. The Israeli High Court has issued an order affirming the right of the Palestinian children to use this pathway, and some do in order to avoid long walks up and down steep hills.

Around 1pm, right before the children entered the pathway, a Tel Rumeida settler, a transfer from Gaza, pulled her car between the children and the pathway, then got out of her car, stood between her white hatchback and the pathway entrance, and began yelling at the children. As the settler woman got out of her car to block the path entrance, another settler woman approached. The soldiers prohibited the children from entering and also spoke with the woman. A captain arrived and would not discuss the matter. HRWs on the scene called Machsom Watch to further assist the children getting home the quickest way. However, the children were encouraged to take the alternative, much longer route home.

At 2pm the same woman was seen in a car accelerating towards the children as they walked uphill on Tel Rumeida street. As she swerved dangerously close to them, HRWs expressed their alarm which resulted in her steering the vehicle away.

by ISM Hebron, November 23rd

At 11.30 three of us went to the olive groves to protect the Palestinian families living in isolated homes among the olive trees.

Two settlers came towards us from the Seyaj House yelling abuse at us “Fuck Jesus. We killed Jesus and we’ll kill you too!” We began filming and kept ourselves between them and the Palestinian homes. They tried to enter Hani’s house where we knew there were a number of small children and two women. We refused to let them up the path and they headed off up into the Abu Haikal olive orchard. We contacted other human rights workers (HRWs) to make sure that there were people at the Abu Haikal house in case they made their way there.

We did not see them again but as we were checking the olive orchard to see where they had gone we noticed another settler, dressed all in white, sitting in the far corner of the orchard and either reading or praying. We kept an eye on him. At around 4pm we saw him move towards the Abu Haikal house so another HRW and I climbed up into the orchard to follow him. We began to film him since he was already trespassing on Palestinian land. He began to climb the wall towards the Abu Haikal house but was not able to get over the fence at the top of the wall. He started shouting and waving to the settlers who were on top of the military observation post close by.

After a while he came down and began to move back towards H’s house. The other HRW had moved out of the orchard back to the Hedad House. I was worried about the children there so I moved through the orchard quickly to try to get to Hani’s garden first. Suddenly he started to run and charged straight at me. This was the first aggressive move he had made so I was taken by surprise. I ran towards Hani’s house. To get into Hani’s garden I had to climb down a rough stone wall about a metre high. He reached me as I got there and gave me a savage push over the wall. I hit my head on a stone and fell into the garden. He laughed at me. As I lay there I turned the camera on him and he began to run away. I got up to follow him and shouted to warn the other HRWs whom he was running towards. There was a group of about 20 settler tourists standing next to the Hedad House listening to a tour guide and he ran through them and down the hill towards Shuhada St.

I could see that my thumb was gashed but not too badly. I could not see the wound on my head but it did not seem to be too bad. My ankle was not too painful. I had a bit of a headache but I decided to keep working as we had another hour before sunset and there was a large number of tourists hanging around the houses. At one point there were over 80 settlers gathered around a tour guide and stopping at various points in the olive groves. One or two of them attempted to enter Palestinian land but went away when we told them they could not enter.

At around 4.30 I heard some loud chanting from somewhere near the mosque. I assumed it was the settlers but when I went to investigate I discovered that a large group of Palestinian children were demonstrating against the large settler presence outside their houses. The settlers left and there was no trouble.

At around 9pm one of the other HRWs in our apartment offered to clean up my head wound for me. She discovered that it was quite deep and long and thought it might need stitches so I went to Al Ahli hospital where I was given 2 stitches. They x-rayed my left ankle and decided it was not broken but probably sprained. They bandaged it up for me and cleaned and dressed the wound on my right thumb.

By ISM Hebron

The Abu Haikals had heard that the settlers were planning to trespass on their land again for a Shabbat celebration. A Human Rights Worker (HRW) visiting in the Abu Haikal house called the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) to ask what the plans were for this, since last weeks trespass had clearly been co-ordinated with police and soldiers and presumably the DCO. The DCO hung up several times and refused to answer questions. Eventually they said that they knew nothing about this.

Later at the house I noticed 2 soldiers on the garden path behind the house at 4:40pm. Looking closer I realized that there were also 4 adult settlers and a child standing at the top of the stairs next to the military post on Abu Haikal land. Another HRW began filming from below and pointed out that there were more settlers coming up the stairs from Tel Rumeida settlement. Soldiers made no attempt to stop them.

By 4:55pm 18 settlers had gathered around the military post and they all moved into the Abu Haikal orchard together. By 5pm there were 36 settlers in the orchard, just below the Abu Haikal house. They all faced away from the house, presumably to avoid being photographed. They began to sing and to pray. Later they were dancing.

At 5:10pm two settlers moved up the orchard towards the hole in the fence near the house. When they got there they discovered a squad of 6 soldiers patrolling on foot with a vehicle near the mosque. They turned back and rejoined the other settlers.

At 5:30pm I called the DCO again. Again they tried to hang up and initially were refusing to talk to an international. Iasked if they wanted to talk to Mrs Abu Haikal. They declined and said they could not discuss rumours of possible activity. The HRW pointed out firmly that this was no rumour. He was standing looking at 40 settlers right next to the house. The DCO said he would check this out and call back in 2 minutes. He never did call back.

I had noticed that there were no police present this week so he tried to call the police to get them to remove the trespassers. The police were not answering the phone and in the meantime the settlers all moved off the land together, down the stairs and went back into Tel Rumeida settlement. A few of them headed off towards Beit Hadassah settlement.