Tag: Hebron

Israeli Colonists Assault Palestinian, HRW and Steal Camera

by the Tel Rumeida Project and ISM Hebron

At approximately 2pm on September 9th, 2006, six young settler men, between the ages of 16 and 19, moved down Shuhada Street, in Tel Rumeida, from the neighborhood checkpoint towards Beit Hadassah settlement. An elderly Palestinian woman was sweeping her stoop slightly more than halfway down the same street. Two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) saw that the young men were being particularly loud and obstreperous. Fearing for the woman’s safety, one HRW crossed to the woman, pointed out the settlers, and tried to suggest that she go inside her house. The woman either didn’t understand, or chose to continue cleaning, and the first HRW moved to the opposite side of the street, in order to avoid drawing the settlers’ attention to the woman. The second HRW remained several meters further down the street, her video camera still in its bag, and prepared to document any aggression by the settlers.

Moments later, the settlers drew within roughly ten meters of the elderly woman’s stoop, and veered towards her, shouting at her in Hebrew. The woman started slowly to withdraw, clearly not comfortable with the behavior of the settlers. The first HRW moved quickly back across the street, and placed himself between the settlers and the woman, hoping to give her time to get inside and lock the door. The settlers started yelling at the HRW to get out of the way, which he refused to do. All six settlers then attacked the HRW, kicking, punching, and shoving him against the wall of the house.

At this point, the second HRW, about eight meters away, took out a video camera in order to record the attack. The settlers quickly peeled away from the first HRW and rushed the second, shouting at her, trying to grab the camera, pushing her, and eventually tearing the video camera out of her grip. They then hurled the camera to the ground, and proceeded to kick it along the street down towards Beit Hadassah settlement. The HRWs followed them, shouting at them to stop it, to give back the camera. The settlers, however, kept kicking the camera all the way past the Israeli army checkpoint and into the first section of the settlement, where one of them picked it up and ran into a settler building, while the others continued down Shuhada Street, further into the settlement.

This entire sequence of events took place within 25 meters of the manned Isreali army post mentioned above. The soldier at the post took no action at any time, despite the HRWs’ calls for help, and the passage of the camera-kicking settlers less than two meters in front of his post. When the first HRW asked the soldier why he did nothing to help, the soldier replied that he couldn’t do anything. This was patently absurd, given that the soldier was armed with an M-16, while the attacking settlers were unarmed, and clearly in their late teens, rather than small children who may be immune from military detention. The first HRW then demanded the soldier call the police, which he appeared to do.

After describing the attack to a series of soldiers, including a 1st lieutenant with some command authority, the HRWs repeated the procedure with a number of police officers. The first policeman with whom they spoke attempted to blame the HRWs use of a camera on the “peaceful holy day” of Shabbat. Eventually, the police took the HRWs to view two suspects who they had detained. Neither HRW could be absolutely certain that the detainees were among those who attacked them, so the suspects were released, and the HRWs were taken to the Kiryat Arba police headquarters to file complaints for the assault and for the robbery of the camera.

Some time after the HRWs’ return from Kiryat Arba, the second HRW was informed by the second lieutenant mentioned above that the soldiers at the IDF post had identified two of the attackers, who were then arrested by the police. This has not yet been confirmed, but, if true, long-term HRWs in Tel Rumeida believe it is the first arrest of settlers in connection with an attack on either Palestinians or HRWs in the past six months.

Haaretz: “90% of Palestinian complaints to police ‘unsolved’ “

by Avi Issacharoff, from Ha’aretz, 11th September 2006. Followed by a collection of links to ISM reports on complaints to the Israeli police from which nothing has come.

A total of 90 percent of the complaints filed by Palestinians in the West Bank against Israeli citizens for violent attacks have been closed without charges being filed, according to a report prepared by the human rights organization Yesh Din, which will be made public Monday.

The organization is staffed by volunteers, who focus on the way law is enforced vis-a-vis Israelis in the West Bank, describes the police handling of the complaints as negligent, careless, unprofessional and disrespectful.

During the first 11 months of 2005, a total of 299 police investigations into Palestinian complaints of Israeli violence against them were initiated, according to the Yesh Din report. Data for the total number for 2006 are not included in the report.

The report is based on a sample study of 92 cases, filed with police during both 2005 and 2006. A third of these complain of assault – battery, use of firearms and other weapons, stone throwing – however the report concludes that 80 percent of these cases were closed without any charges being filed against the suspects.

In response, the Judea and Samaria Police said that “the data was passed on to the responsible authorities.”

On the basis of the sample study, it turns out that 90 percent of the cases were closed without charges being brought against anyone. In 83 percent of the cases, the reason was that the suspect could not be found or there was insufficient evidence.

In 7 percent of the cases, the cause was that the forms on which the complaints had been filed were lost – which meant that it was impossible to investigate the case.

A total of 96 percent of the cases, having to do with trespassing – including damage to olive groves – were closed without bringing charges against suspects. All cases involving property damage were closed without charges.

Yesh Din says that Palestinians are sometimes prevented from filing complaints against settlers who damage their property by the unwillingness of police officers to take down their testimony or because they are asked to present documents that they do not have.

According to a closer study of a sample of 42 cases, the following problems emerged in the police treatment of the plaintiffs: Their testimonies were not taken in Arabic; in few instances did the investigators agree to visit the site of the alleged crime; evidence from the crime scene was collected unprofessionally; testimonies of key witnesses were not taken; in almost all cases, no line-ups of Israeli suspects were held; in all 42 cases the police failed to check the suspects’ alibis.

The report points to fundamental problems in the way the Judea and Samaria Police is structured. While it is responsible for the largest police district in the country, it only has 6 percent of the police force at its disposal and receives a mere 2.5 percent of the overall police budget.

In addition, the number of patrol cars available is very limited, and the policemen can only leave their stations to collect evidence if they are accompanied by an IDF patrol.

The report also points to failings in the way the IDF has handled Palestinian complaints. Unlike the police, the IDF is neither limited in manpower nor budgets.

However, the soldiers have not received any instructions on their role in protecting Palestinian civilians from Israeli attackers, even though the IDF claims the contrary. In practice, a great deal of confusion exists.

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The “Justice” of Occupation

by ISM Media group

This report published in Ha’aretz merely confirms what Palestinians have known for years about the Occupation ‘justice’ system, namely that the complaints process is a figleaf for the unaccountable brutality of Occupation. Palestinians are well aware that their complaints of attacks by settlers or the Israeli military are unlikely to be taken seriously. In practice most Palestinians won’t even complain to the Israeli police about all but the most serious attacks for fear of reprecussions from Israeli colonists or soldiers. In the few cases where convictions are secured, sentences for even the most serious crimes like murder are derisory.

The following is a list of examples from ISM eye-witness reports.

Muhammed Abu Solayby from Beit Ummar village made 8 complaints to the police about settlers destroying his orchards and vines but none of these were taken seriously. Even when internationals witnessed and videoed this destruction taking place, the police refused to act.

International human rights workers (HRW) have first-hand experience of this culture of impunity. When two internationals were attacked by masked settlers in Susya near Hebron this summer whilst armed settler guards watched, a complaint was filed with the police. The police promised to investigate and quickly confirmed that they knew the identity of some of those participating. To date, however, no action has been taken against the attackers.

HRWs in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron are frequently attacked by settlers and do make complaints to the police. None of these has led, however, to any prosecutions of the settlers involved, even where the attacks are recorded on video. Sometimes settlers who assault HRWs will claim they were attacked and the HRW will be detained:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/06/28/anat-cohen/
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/09/11/hrw-detained/

Israeli Settlers Harrass Palestinians, Soldiers Detain Human Rights Worker

by Tel Rumeida Project and ISM Hebron

September 9th, 2006

Around 2pm today, while sitting on the top of the hill in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, soldiers ordered Palestinian children and Human Rights Workers (HRWs) to stop playing football in the street. The HRW asked the soldier what the problem was, and he replied, “You’re bothering me. Stop playing football here.” The HRW asked the soldier if it was illegal to play football in the street, and the soldier said, “No, it’s not illegal, but you’re bothering me. Stop playing football here. Thank you.” The Palestinian children and HRWs continued to play football for about two more minutes, then sat back down. Approximately ten minutes later, HRWs noticed two Israeli settler children looking over the fence and into the yard of a Palestinian home. Israeli settlers have been tearing down and breaking grape vines from this house over the past week, as well as stealing the grapes. One HRW walked towards the direction of the children, and they left. The HRW then stepped inside the Palestinian shoe shop nearby to say hello and see how things were going.

At this point, six settler boys around the age of 16 came down the hill. The international stood in the doorway, continuing her conversation. One settler boy, who approached this HRW the day before and called her a ‘bitch’ in Hebrew, aggressively approached the door of the shop and tried to enter. The HRW blocked his way with her body and told him, “You are not welcome in this shop. This is a private business.” The settler began yelling at the HRW in Hebrew. The HRW continued to block the door. The remaining settler boys surrounded the other HRW and began yelling at him in Hebrew. They then started to lightly whip the HRW with their tzitzit (the tassles that religious Jews wear). Two soldiers posted nearby approached and told the HRW to leave and quit making problems. The settler boys then proceeded to stand in a circle in the middle of the road and jump up and down, holding hands, singing a song in Hebrew very loudly. The soldier who had told the Palestinians and HRWs not to play football then told the HRWs that it would be better if we weren’t sitting outside causing problems and bothering the settlers on Shabbat. The soldier asked us what we were doing there and asked why we couldn’t go somewhere else. The HRWs ended the conversation at this point.

Approximately ten minutes later, eight soldiers came running down the hill. The last soldier in the contingent stopped at the gate of a house and kicked a small child who appeared to be about eight years old. The HRWs yelled at the soldier, but he ignored the HRWs and continued down the hill. He was wearing a red kippa and holding his helmet in his hand. One HRW approached a commander and told him about the soldier. She was able to point out the soldier; the commander called the soldier over to him. As the commander walked back past the HRWs, he told them, “You should file a report. What he did was bad.”

HRWs then received a phone call from HRWs on Shuhada Street saying they had just been attacked by the settlers. These were the same settlers in the incident on the top of the hill. A separate report will follow with the details of this incident.

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At approximately 3:30pm, three HRWs were sitting on Shuhada Street. Settler children were milling about the soldier’s post next to Beit Hadassa Settlement. The HRWs noticed three settler boys walking down Shuhada Street towards the settlement, seemingly prepared for violence. As the boys walked past the HRWs, they focused their attention on the two women in the group. The settler boys spit on the HRWs and cursed them in Hebrew. The HRWs then stood up and told the settler boys to leave. One boy had a short stick twice as thick as a broom handle. He threatened one HRW with the stick, but did not hit her. The HRWs yelled at the settler boys to leave and called for the soldier. The soldier eventually came out of his post and smiled gently at the boys. They eventually left, but not without threatening one HRW with the stick again and throwing a few rocks.

About ten minutes later, a Palestinian woman coming from the Qurtuba girls school stairs said that settler boys had thrown rocks at her. One HRW went towards the stairs and saw about 15 kids about the age of 8-10 sitting on the path to the school, destroying it. The HRW asked the soldier to help stop the kids, but he said that it wasn’t his job; he then went back into his post. The Palestinian woman who had come from the path ten minutes before came back; HRWs immediately offered to accompany her back on the path. She was extremely relieved that we said we would go with her. HRWs walked her past the settlers without incident and then went back to Shuhada Street. This went on with three more Palestinians, all without major incident. HRWs had called the police in the meantime to report the damage to the path. The police came and began yelling at the children. HRWs continued to accompany Palestinians on the path. Each time, the settler kids were more aggressive towards the Palestinians and HRWs, spitting on them and blocking their path. The last time HRWs walked a Palestinian on the path, settler girls about the age of 12 forcefully blocked the path and stopped the HRWs from passing. HRWs non-violently pushed their way through the group of settler kids. Anat Cohen, a settler woman well-known for being aggressive towards Palestinians and HRWs, blocked the second HRW. Anat Cohen said over and over again, “Go to Aushwitz! Go to Aushwitz you Nazi!” The HRW did not reply.

Fifteen minutes later, the border police and regular police approached the HRWs sitting on Shuhada Street. They filmed one female HRW, then surrounded her and demanded that she hand over her passport. The HRW had been travelling earlier in the day and had left her passport in the house. The police officer ordered another HRW to get the passport from the house. The police arrested the first HRW in the meantime. The HRW was held at Kiryat Arba Police Station for four hours then released without charges.

RMIT University press: “Mary’s Middle East mission”

Interview from community radio of RMIT university, Melbourne, Australia

A former RMIT University lecturer has become a volunteer peacekeeper on a Middle East frontline – at 75.

Mary Baxter, who lectured in statistics and mathematics from 1968 to 1996, is based in Tel Rumeida, a suburb of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank.

“My chief task is to get Palestinian children to and from school safely. Israeli settlers train their children to throw rocks and stones and often watch them doing this,” Ms Baxter said.

“The young Israeli soldiers stationed in the area are supposed to protect the Israeli settlers but it is the Palestinians who need protection.”

Ms Baxter pays her own way, working with International Solidarity, a Palestinian-led non-violent organisation. Her work involves collaboration, too, with Machsom Watch (Israeli mothers and grandmothers), Christian Peace Teams and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel.

“I work at getting the soldiers to see the Palestinians as people. It helps that I automatically like the soldiers and am able to separate who they are from what they do. They are very like the engineering students that I taught for 30 years at RMIT.”

Ms Baxter was the first permanent woman lecturer in a technological area at RMIT.

She told Openline: “In the early days, Brigadier Jackson (Principal of RMIT) would visit each department for morning tea. When he met me, he asked, ‘How do you manage classes who are all young men?’ My boss replied for me, ‘She has five sons’. The Brigadier then said to me, ‘I take the question back’.”

What made her take up her new and challenging role?

“A mixture of things. I know the area. I was in Jerusalem for an International Ecology Congress (Statistics section) in 1978. Then, again, with my husband Alan (who was an Anglican priest) in 1987 on a Melbourne Jewry-sponsored tour for Christian clergy. Alan did a locum in Damascus in 1988 and I joined him for two months.

“I was definitely bored in retirement. And I think it is a call from God. I am certainly healthier in Palestine, in spite of the danger, than in Melbourne.”

Are there signs of hope?

“Not much from governments. Israel says they will remove settlers but keep taking more land. Positive signs are that young Israelis come to help, as do overseas Jews.

“Also a lot of the soldiers are nice kids. Sometimes a soldier will say, ‘I’ll look after the children, Mary’. Then I don’t have to antagonise settlers by going so close to where they live.”

What are the signs that things are getting worse?

“There are more and more roadblocks. Just south of Hebron, the Israeli army is building a wall one metre high. As usual, they say it is for security. But people can get over it. Tractors and donkeys can’t. And, of course, it is right in the middle of Palestinian land.”

Are you fearful for your personal safety?

“Not really. I do get hurt at times but if the settlers really wanted me dead, I would be by now.

“I have five sons and 12 grandchildren who all agree that being in the West Bank suits me.”

Olive Harvest 2006

Your presence is needed for the Olive Harvest 2006 in Palestine!

Palestinian communities are calling for the presence of international activists to support them in the 2006 Olive Harvest. Throughout the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian land continues to be stolen for illegal Israeli colonies and the Apartheid Wall as well as settler roads, checkpoints, and closed military zones.

Since October 2000, hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted, or burned by the Israeli military and Israeli settler colonists. The olive tree has been a native symbol for Palestinians for hundreds of years. As well as a source of livelihood and a symbol of the people’s bond to their land, the olive tree is also a powerful symbol of cooperation between peoples.

Cooperative actions between internationals and Palestinians have concentrated around the olive tree. Palestinian communities remain steadfast and are strengthened in refusing to give up their olive harvest. The solidarity offered by international activists enables many families to pick their olives and stay in their communities.

ISM will be providing training, media and legal support to international activists in response to the demand from local communities. Activists will use their creativity, determination and courage to support these communities at this important time of year. There is an especially big need for the campaign this year, as a big harvest is expected. Ground work has been done by ISM activists in the Nablus region on making contacts with at least 18 villages in the region who would like to have international accompaniment because of dangers they will face from Israeli colonists, and obstruction and harassment from the Israeli army. Many of these villages have worked with internationals before.

An international presence makes it less likely that Palestinian farmers and landowners will be met with brutal and sometimes lethal violence as they care for their land and harvest their olives.

The Olive Harvest Campaign, part of the people’s non-violent resistance to the occupation, will begin 15th October and last until the middle of December. Some villages have expressed a desire for internationals from mid-October although most villages we have contacted will start picking after the three day religious holiday of Eid il Fitr, which is expected to be from October 25-27. The majority of villages will be picking during November. The first Olive Harvest orientation and training will be held on October 15th and 16th and will continue every Sunday and Monday until the end of the Olive Harvest. During Eid il Fitr there will be no olive picking. Olive harvesting is expected to be finished by the middle of December. Please contact Hisham at hishamjamjoum@yahoo.com for questions about training.

Please register to join us at: palsolidarity.org
For more information, please contact info@palsolidarity.org
or see: palsolidarity.org

Important Notes

  • It is recommended that you stay for at least two weeks, though if this is not possible, your presence anytime throughout the duration of the campaign is appreciated.
  • As a guide, it will cost you approximately $100 per week for food, accommodation and travel in Palestine.
  • The two-day training and orientation is mandatory for activists participating in the non-violent resistance including the Olive Harvest.

Updated 14th September: the paragraph in this call about dates has been updated and clarified.

Ongoing Campaigns

In the meantime, we also invite internationals to join our on-going efforts to support Palestinian non-violent resistance all over the West Bank. In recent months Israeli aggression has increased in the West Bank whilst more international attention has been focused on Israeli atrocities in Lebanon and Gaza.

Palestinians in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron suffer some of the worst settler violence in the West Bank. There has been an international presence in Tel Rumeida for 1 1/2 years. Activists who have attended ISM training have a permanent presence in the international apartment in Tel Rumeida. The work there involves accompanying Palestinian schoolchildren to school and protecting them from and documenting attacks by settlers. Internationals also maintain a presence on the streets in the settlement to document and intervene in the regular settler attacks on local Palestinian residents.

Israeli settler colonists in other areas in the Hebron region also frequently attack and intimidate Palestinian farmers. This involves physical assaults or the destruction of farmland. As with the Olive Harvest the presence of internationals enables farmers to work their land. This summer, internationals supported farmers in this way around Beit Omar village. Although the Wall has been largely built in the northern West Bank and around Jerusalem, land is currently being destroyed for the route of the Wall in the south of the West Bank, in the Bethlehem and Hebron regions. Internationals have supported weekly demonstrations against the Wall this summer in Al Khadr village west of Bethlehem as well as participating in actions around Karme Zur settlement between Halhoul and Beit Omar. There will be continuous non-violent resistance to land theft and the destruction of olive trees, vines and other agricultural land in the Hebron region.

In Bil’in village west of Ramallah, the illegal Apartheid Wall has stolen over half of the village’s agricultural land. Internationals have supported their 1 1/2 year struggle against the Wall which has focused around weekly Friday demonstrations. Internationals aim to maintain a permanent presence in the village which has been targeted by Israeli forces for its non-violent resistance.

Training Dates

We hold trainings every Sunday and Monday if there are at least 5 people. Please contact Hisham at hishamjamjoum@yahoo.com for questions about training.

Update, 7th October

See this post on our site for a more detailed plan for the Olive Harvest 2006.

Update, 16th October

Read about the recent ruling in the Israeli Sureme Court that orders the Israeli military and police to protect Palestinian farmers from settlers. See coverage of the ruling in the Israeli media: in Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post. See also this investigative article in Ha’aretz which brings up evidence that suggests the Israeli army will not live up to their promises. Compare also with reports from the early Olive Harvest (i.e. before Eid, which is likely to be either the 22nd or 23rd of October).