Tag: Hebron

by ISM Hebron, November 11

At 7.45am our neighbours, the Abu Haikels, began to pick olives from one of their trees, by which a Israeli military outpost is placed. At the same tree, we filmed settlers stealing olives two weeks ago. The Palestinians had to wait a week for the military and police to agree to let them pick their own olives. The soldiers had promised that they would protect them as they picked. At 8.15am, settlers surrounded the tree. They kicked over a bucket of picked olives and trampled them into the ground.

The international human rights worker (HRW) on the road watching school children spotted what was happening and alerted the rest of the team who then filmed from the apartment. Another HRW went up the hill to the Palestinian’s house. He was able to film from their garden.

The Palestinians asked the settlers to leave their land and a fight ensued. Border Police and soldiers arrived and separated Palestinians from settlers. One Palestinian man and a settler were arrested for fighting. The soldiers formed a line and moved the Palestinians back from the tree. They continued to allow the settlers to trespass and trample the olives.

The Palestinian family called Rabbis for Human Rights, who spoke to the DCO and alerted the press to what was happening.

Eventually the Border Police asked the Palestinians to move off the land. They threatened to arrest the HRW who was filming with them unless she left too, which she did. Once the field was clear the police and soldiers moved the settlers off the land. At this point they allowed the family back and they continued to pick the olives.

Four press photographers arrived too late — two from AFP and two from Reuters.

Once the first tree was finished the family moved around the corner away from the settlement and picked another large tree and two small ones. They finished picking around 4pm. They have picked most of their olives now and were happy with the harvest at the end of the day. However, the family is suffering a huge amount of stress from the continual harassment by settlers which is seriously affecting their health.

by ISM Hebron

At 11:30am 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 was 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 (HRW’s) 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 sat 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 HRW’s 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 head ache 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 4:30pm 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 HRW’s 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

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 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 20’s. 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 misbehaving.

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.

by Mary

November 3rd

The day was mainly quiet. There was olive picking for the Abu Hekel family. Three Human Rights Workers (HRWs) were able to assist. About one hundred Israeli settlers passed by the Abu Hekel property but caused no trouble. The family said that this was due to the international presence. If HRWs had not been present, the settlers would have attacked by throwing rocks.
One HRW was on the street. At 10.20am, she walked down to checkpoint 56. Border police, with one policeman, were checking Palestinian IDs. Once she arrived, the Palestinians were processed with reasonable speed. The police left at 10.50 am. The HRW returned to the crossing at the top of the hill. The two Israeli soldiers on duty had detained a Palestinian man. He said that he had been there since 10.30am. The soldiers would not allow the HRW to talk to him long enough to find out his ID. The HRW waited about 10 minutes. She then asked the soldiers to release the Palestinian, whose name was Alein. She said that the soldiers had had enough time to check his ID. The soldiers refused. After another 15 minutes, the HRW spoke to the soldiers again. They would not release him. The man was forced to sit in the sun on the opposite side of the street to the soldiers. He had the collar of his jacket up to his face and was obviously not comfortable with the sun on his face for so long. It was a warm day and the HRW and soldiers were in the shade. The HRW asked the soldiers to let the man sit in the shade. They refused. She then called Machsom Watch, who agreed to try to help. Nothing happened. One of the soldiers said that the Palestinians skin was tanned enough to cope with the sun. The HRW tried to call TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) but could not contact them. She them called CPT (Christian Peacemaker Teams), who agreed to try to contact TIPH. The HRW was filming the incident and could not keep calling. TIPH were busy elsewhere so three HRWs from CPT came. The soldiers would not let the man go. At 12 noon, the Palestinian walked across the road and sat in the shade next to the soldiers. The soldiers pushed him back across the road and handcuffed him. They told the HRW that the Palestinian was a criminal. With the handcuffs on he could not protect his face from the sun. Another HRW arrived and called the District Coordination Office (DCO – the civilian administration wing of the Israeli military in the West Bank). The DCO spokeswoman said that it was not her business. The HRW said that soldier behaviour was the business of the DCO. The DCO spokeswoman said that it was not her job to talk to the HRW. At 12.30pm, the handcuffs were removed by one of the soldiers and the Palestinian was released. He had been held in the sun for two hours and handcuffed. Obviously he had done nothing wrong.

November 4th

At 7.45am, Palestinian workmen came to prepare for the resealing of the apartment roof. Old camouflage netting and sandbags had to be cleared away. Water tanks and stands needed to be removed and the roof cleaned. After about half an hour, an Israeli first lieutenant with another soldier arrived on the roof. An International HRW, responsible for the work, approached the officer. She asked what the soldiers were doing there. He told her to go away. He spoke to the Palestinian workmen, probably in Arabic, but would not communicate with the people whose roof it is. The HRW asked a young Israeli HRW to talk to the officer in Hebrew. The officer was extremely rude and abusive to him. The two soldiers went to the top of the stairs. The International HRW told the officer that this was her house and that she wanted to speak to a polite officer, who spoke English. She said that there was a major who was polite. The officer replied, in English, that soldiers were coming to search her house. She said that he would need an order and the police to search her house. He said that the police were coming. This was not true. The officer and soldier went down the stairs and returned in 10 minutes with a patrol of six soldiers. The officer and soldier left.

The six soldiers were no trouble but were no help. A 75-year old HRW, who was moving a sandbag, complained that they were sitting while elderly people were struggling. A soldier asked what she wanted them to do. She said “help us”. They did not. However this may have been because it was Shabbat. When the work was done, the soldiers left.

There were many orthodox Jewish visitors on the street. At 2.25pm, a HRW arrived at checkpoint 56. Three Jewish visitors were sitting in the checkpoint with the soldier. The other soldier was outside. The HRW said that it was against the law for visitors to be in the checkpoint. The soldier said that they were no trouble. The HRW took out her camera to film. The soldier said that filming the checkpoint was against the law and shut the checkpoint door. The HRW said that she was making a note of the time and would report the law breaking. She then went out through the checkpoint to the shops. When she returned, the visitors had left.

November 7th

We’ve been busy with the olive harvest. Many of the families round here have trees which are close to the Israeli settlements and which the settlers, who have very little land, want to claim as theirs. There is an old Ottoman-era law against absentee landowners. If the landowner or leasee does not access the land for three years, the land becomes the property of those who occupy it. The settlers try to use this law to claim Palestinian land. To do this they try to stop the Palestinians working on their land, usually by violent means. The Israeli army seems to support this. They shut Palestinians out of their land “for their protection”. Recently, there have been two Israeli high court rulings. One is that shutting Palestinians out of their property for their protection is not acceptable. The ruling equates this action to shutting the people out of their house while the thief is in there. The other ruling is that the local DCO is obliged to arrange for the protection of Palestinians, while they are harvesting olives. The Israeli army here is useless at doing this. The settlers ignore the young soldiers, who tell them to go away but do nothing when they stay. Instead, the Israeli soldiers tell the Internationals to go away, which makes the Palestinians more vulnerable. However the border police are more effective. The settlers seem to be afraid of them and they allow the Internationals to stay. Everywhere else the border police are considered the worst of the worst but here, at this time, we are grateful for them.

These new laws are a sign of some increased awareness among the Israeli public of what is occurring in the West Bank at least. Several Israeli human rights groups are becoming very interested in this area and in our reports. This means that we have a greater responsibility to report in detail. Using Israeli law is slow but has some effect. As far as the Israeli government is concerned, there seems to be no sign that they want peace. What they want and take is more and more Palestinian land. There are always checks moving from place to place. Palestinian holidays, both Muslim and Christian seem to be particularly targeted. A Christian Palestinian man I know, who works in Jerusalem, left Jerusalem at 10.30am on Christmas day to go to his family in Zebabdeh. The distance is less than 80km. That is Melbourne to Geelong. He arrived at 6pm exhausted by the many extra flying checkpoints with long delays. Israeli soldiers at these checkpoints are generally very rude and often very rough. To try to discuss the holdup or even plead leads to a longer wait and further harassment. It is definitely not about security.

I am mostly on the street because of my experience. The Israeli soldiers are a mixed bunch of 19, 20 & 21 year olds. Some behave well and some behave badly. They are given orders not to talk to us but some still do. The DCO is being difficult and won’t accept telephone calls. Most of the officers are very rude to us if we try to ask them anything or give them any information. How I miss Oren, the nice young officer who left in May! The police are much better than the officers. Thank God! But they don’t all speak English. We now have a number of video cameras and are allowed to film except on Shabbat and at army installations. I have a little Sony DCR-Hc23E. It’s easy to use but I need to concentrate hard. When things are happening, I keep finding my hands waving around. The police and Israeli human rights groups need video material in order to get some action. However, even with it, the police seldom act.

by ISM Hebron

This report is a continuation from the report on the first day of protests .

Thursday 9th November

Everyone in Hebron is deeply distressed by the Israeli massacre of 18 Palestinian civilians in Gaza. All shops and schools are closed for three days of official mourning. Palestinian youths gathered in the souk (market) again at 10.30am for a second protest against the killings. They began to throw stones at the Israeli checkpoint on the end of Shuhada St. leading into Tel Rumeida (checkpoint 56 in military parlance). At 11.16am Israeli soldiers began to fire tear gas over the checkpoint causing the youths to run away.

At 11.25am Palestinian youths set a tyre alight in front of the checkpoint and threw two Molotov cocktails, one of which landed on the checkpoint but caused little damage. At 11.30am a boy of between 12-14 years of age was shot by soldiers with a tear-gas canister and hit in the face. This broke several of his teeth. He was bleeding profusely. According to Israeli military rules, soldiers are supposed to fire gas canisters into the air. In practice they routinely aim them directly at Palestinian children.

At 11:37am the checkpoint was closed and several Palestinian residents who were not involved in the demonstration were denied access to their homes in Tel Rumeida. Israeli soldiers continually denied access to all residents of Tel Rumeida on the grounds that a possible “world war” could erupt due to the demonstration in Hebron, along with other such ludicrous claims. A group of residents, including many women and young children were denied entrance to the neighborhood, and forced to stand next to the soldiers as they fired at children in the distance. This group of residents was affected by tear gas that continued to waft over. One of the woman continually pleaded with army captains to allow them to go to their homes. Finally, one captain agreed to do so.

Next, it took two international human rights workers (HRWs) 30 minutes of arguing with soldiers before they agreed to open the checkpoint for a sick elderly man. Later, it took about an hour of negotiating and arguing with Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint before they reluctantly agreed to let the Palestinians pass the checkpoint so they could go home. Soldiers had been telling these residents that they would have to sleep outside during the night and might not be allowed in “for months.” The checkpoint finally reopened around 6pm.

At 1:22pm tear gas was fired by the Israeli army at the demonstrating children. HRWs broke open onions and distributed pieces to the bystanders.

At 1:26pm a Molotov cocktail landed on the roof of the large vegetable market stand in the middle of the market square. The owner and bystanders rushed to put out the fire.

Early afternoon after the Molotov cocktail was thrown, soldiers took up positions in front of the checkpoint behind a large crowd of children who were bystanders to the whole situation. The soldiers pointed rifles loaded with live ammunition at the children. A HRW with a video camera went up to the soldiers and asked that they point their guns away from the children. They ignored the request but one soldier told the HRW to move back. He moved back a few paces and circled around the soldier in order to record on video the vantage point of the soldiers so as to prove that any rounds fired would have seriously injured or killed any child hit.

A soldier in front of the same crowd of children was seen to be pointing a primed gas canister at them. A HRW repeatedly asked him to point his rifle away from the children and was ignored again. The close proximity of the round would have seriously injured or possibly killed anyone it hit.

At 4 or 5pm the border police arrived and proceeded to clear most of Baab Zawiyye (the Hebron downtown area).

They fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian children and several passersby who were hundreds of meters in the distance. At this point the demonstration was already coming to an end.

Friday 10th of November

The protest started after Friday prayers at noon. Israeli border police had set themselves up with two APCs on the H1 side of checkpoint 56 (H1 is nominally controlled by the Palestinian Authority). Children were protesting in the market area. This time the soldiers alongside the Border Police were better organized, riding in three border police vehicles and one army APC. They arrested one protester, a Palestinian youth of about 12-14 years of age. His arrest was photographed and videotaped by HRWs.

The Israeli vehicles and foot patrols forced the protesters further away by shooting at them with rubber-coated steel bullets. Further down the street protesters set up a barricade to slow down the soldiers and police. The police and army were less aggressive than previous days and seemed to be creating a barrier for the checkpoint. Several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets were fired intermittently during the afternoon alongside two tear gas canisters.

A squad of Israeli soldiers came out of the checkpoint carrying rifles loaded with live ammunition. HRWs pointed out that it is a war crime to fire live rounds at civilians. Before this the officer in charge of the border police was asked why they were carrying live rounds when the children posed no real threat to them or the checkpoint. All afternoon, the police and army were less aggressive than the previous day.

By 5pm when the HRWs left, the protest was winding down. The market square was forcibly kept empty of Palestinians all day, and cars and taxis were not allowed through or into the market.