Tag: Hebron

Eyewitness reports from two days in Hebron by Missy

Soldiers violently attack Palestinian man in his home: August 25th, 2006

To watch video of this event, click here. To download it, click here.

There were two cameras filming most, if not all, of the following incident. A few soldiers are easily recognizable by Human Rights Workers (HRW) given the number of times they have been present while soldiers have been invading numerous Palestinian homes.

At approximately 5:15 PM, an HRW posted at the Tel Rumeida checkpoint heard yelling and screaming coming from up the hill. The HRW moved up the hill, and a Palestinian woman was able to point out the house and medical facility from which the screams were issuing. The HRW asked Israeli soldiers immediately inside the building’s door what was going on. They refused to answer, and the soldiers physically prevented the HRW from entering the house. At this point, Dr. Taysir, the building’s owner, broke free from the soldier who was holding him, and pulled on the HRW’s arm while begging him to enter. The HRW managed to enter the door, and saw two, elongated contusions high on Dr. Taysir’s left arm. While being pushed out once again, the HRW negotiated with the soldiers to leave the door open on the condition that he remain outside.

Shortly thereafter three more HRWs arrived. The HRWs managed to enter the building. Three HRWs demanded access to Dr. Taysir, who was now out of sight, while a fourth video taped the encounter. Dr. Taysir could be heard yelling and crying out in pain from a room further in the house. The HRWs attempted to move past the soldiers in order to prevent further injury to Dr. Taysir, but were repeatedly forced back. The soldiers refused to explain why the doctor’s home had been entered, why he had been struck, or why the HRWs could not see him. Throughout this time, the soldiers were physically and verbally aggressive towards the HRWs, repeatedly shoving them towards the door, and yelling at them to get out, shut up, etc.

At this point, an Israeli major arrived with approximately six more soldiers. The major entered the building and began speaking with Dr. Taysir’s brother, who had observed some, but not all, of the incident; this conversation is filmed almost entirely. The major spoke briefly to the soldiers already on site, who quickly became considerably less aggressive toward the HRWs. After approximately ten minutes, the major and all soldiers departed the house without speaking to anyone else. The HRWs then videotaped interviews with both Dr. Taysir and his brother regarding the incident.

Dr. Taysir told the HRWs that he gone to open the door for the soldiers when almost immediately they began shoving him around and pinned him against a wall by pressing on his chest. The doctor told the soldier not to push him, and the soldier responded by punching him in the temple. Other soldiers joined in, and Dr. Taysir received blows to his arms, legs, and torso. At least two blows, those to his left arm, were strikes with the butt of a rifle; these injuries are documented with video.

Dr. Tayseer’s injury from the soldiers as it looked the next day.

Seeing that Dr. Taysir was being attacked, a female patient who was present attempted to intervene, putting herself between the doctor and the soldiers. She was struck by a soldier, and fell unconscious. The patient was later placed on a medical exam table with an oxygen feed to help her recover, where she was videotaped (with permission) by the HRWs. Dr. Taysir’s adult
daughter was also beaten at some point during the encounter, though the events are not clear to us what happened. Dr. Taysir and his brother both stated repeatedly that soldiers used and regularly use foul language towards him and his family, including his wife and small children.

Later that evening, before sunset, soldiers could be seen on the roof of Dr. Taysir’s house. HRWs were standing on their own roof, and when they looked in the direction of the soldiers, the soldiers used their arms in a gesture to say ‘fuck you’ to the HRWs. The soldiers were laughing the entire time. The HRWs did not respond.

* * *

Soldiers invade yet another home in Tel Rumeida, Hebron : August 20th, 2006

At approximately 12 PM HRWs arrived at a house being invaded by IDF soldiers. HRWs found the the door blocked by two soldiers, who refused to let them in the house; these soldiers did not tell the HRWs to not film them. After a few minutes of attempting to negotiate our way into the house, HRWs walked around the soldiers, and were met with little resistance. One HRW went to the family and asked if they were OK; the family appeared to be nervous but unharmed. Other HRWs proceeded to come into the house and look around, seeing if anything was disrupted or broken. None of us could see evidence that the soldiers had done this, unlike the previous week, in which the neighbor’s house was destroyed from the inside.

An HRW approached the commander of the unit with her camera on and asked him what they were doing; his face is clearly seen on film. The commander told the HRW that if she and her friends wanted to stay in the house, she should turn the camera off. The HRW told the commander that she could film and that if the soldiers weren’t doing anything wrong, it shouldn’t bother them. The commander then stepped closer to the HRW and said, “Look, i’m in control of this house now. If you want to stay and watch us search, then turn the camera off. If you don’t do that, then I will make all of you go outside, lock the doors, and you can wait for us to finish outside.” The HRW put her camera down and proceeded to follow the soldiers through the house. They did not break or take anything that was obvious. The soldiers left about ten minutes after HRWs had arrived. As the soldiers were leaving, one HRW said to the commander, “Hey, see you later, Yosi.” The soldier then replied, “You have a lot of guts saying that to me.”

The family told the HRWs afterwards that the soldiers come frequently to their house. The soldiers always tell them they’re looking for weapons, but have never found any. An HRW asked the family if the soldiers ever break or steal things, and one of the women replied, “Sometimes yes, sometimes no; we are always at their mercy. Today they behaved very well, and I think it was because all of you came.” The family thanked the HRWs repeatedly as we sat and drank tea with them.

The following is a more detailed account of the events first publicised in yesterday’s press release.

by ISM Hebron and the Tel Rumeida Project

Today, August 23, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) forcibly entered and searched many Palestinian homes in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The checkpoints in the area were closed, and Palestinians were denied passage to and from the area late into the evening. The military operation may have been related to two separate situations. First, the settlers of Hebron had planned a “tour of Hebron” today, and there were many tour busses present as well as far more settlers and religious Israelis than usual walking about the streets. There was very likely an increased number of soldiers present to escort the settlers and Israeli tour groups and make them feel “secure.” The second, unrelated occurrence is a shooting that happened outside of Tel Rumeida in area H1 (the Palestinian controlled part of Hebron) prior to the military operation. What follows is an account of the events as the Human Rights Workers (HRWs) present observed them.

At around 2:45pm two HRWs were stationed on Shuhada Street, between the Beit Hadassa settlement and the checkpoint separating H1 and H2, when they heard exchange of gunfire from outside Tel Rumeida in area H1 that lasted for at least a minute. There was then an immediate increase in military activity on Shuhada Street; two police jeeps, two military ambulances, and several army jeeps were rushing down Shuhada Street, lights flashing, in the direction of the checkpoint. The HRWs then decided to leave their post and head up the hill towards their apartment. At that time another HRW called the HRWs on Shuhada Street to inform them that settlers from the Tel Rumeida settlement were shooting in the streets.

The HRWs walked toward the checkpoint, where many military vehicles were congregated, and saw that the checkpoint was completely closed to passage in either direction. They confirmed from others in the area that the other two entrances to Tel Rumeida had also been closed by that time. The HRWs continued up the hill to their apartment. The first thing out of the ordinary that they noticed was that some twenty soldiers were guarding the Tel Rumeida settlement up the hill from the apartment, and seemed primed for action. All of the Palestinians in the area seemed frightened or on alert and were closing up their homes and apartment buildings.

Soon after the HRW arrived, at around 3:00pm, about ten of these soldiers rushed down the hill to the Palestinian apartment building across from the HRW apartment. The soldiers banged on the main door of the building with the barrel of a gun and demanded entry, and then forcibly entered and searched the Palestinian homes inside. While around five soldiers searched the homes in the building, one soldier was stationed at the door and another two were at the corner of the building, positioned on their knees with guns poised. At 3:25pm, the soldiers moved on to the neighboring house. In the next two house, almost every house in Tel Rumeida within eyesight of the HRW’s apartment was forcibly searched. Based on information gathered from others in the area at the time, it seems that many, likely most, Palestinian homes in Tel Rumeida were searched during that time.

During the following two hours, the military presence and activity in the area seemed to constitute a full scale military operation. Many police and army jeeps, as well as Israeli intelligence vehicles were highly active in the area. Strangely, many settlers, some of them armed, were out on the streets during the military activity, walking about as they pleased. Two settlers contentedly sat on the neighbor’s stoop and watched the military go from house to house, humiliating one Palestinian family and then the next.

During the operation, two soldiers also tried to enter the HRW apartment. The HRWs demaded to see a warrant, and although the soldiers insisted they did not need one as they just wanted to talk “person to person,” the HRWs assured them that they did need a warrant and refused to answer any questions. The soldiers left and did not return after they realized the HRW would not be cowed into complying.

During the two hours of observation, the HRW called several sources to try to understand why this military operation was happening and how it was related to the shooting that preceded it. From information gathered from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron and other sources, the initial shooting the HRWs heard was internal fighting between Palestinians. There was a feud between two Palestinian families somewhere in H1 that led to shooting, which caused four Palestinians to be injured. Settlers from the Tel Rumeida settlement apparently responded to the sound of gunfire by firing their weapons toward H1. The settlers purportedly told soldiers that they saw Palestinian militants in the streets of Tel Rumeida, and this was why they were shooting. This apparently led to the IOF becoming involved and invading the homes to seek the non-existent militants.

By 5:00pm Tel Rumeida had calmed down considerably, the systematic home invasions seemed to have ended, and the army seemed to retreat to its usual positions in Tel Rumeida. In the following hours there were an unusually high number of settlers walking about the streets, some of them apparently here for the tour. Then around 6:30pm the HRWs were called and informed that soldiers had invaded homes again in the Tel Rumeida area.

When the HRW arrived at the invaded house (Abu Haykal Family) they found that the family was forced to sit outside while the soldiers searched their home. The soldiers had the identity cards of all the men in the family. Only the father of the family was allowed inside the house while the IOF searched their property. The HRWs tried to get into the house to monitor the behavior of the soldiers and be with the father, but the soldiers forcibly prevented them. When the HRWs insisted that they were allowed into the house unless the soldiers had orders that the house was a closed military zone, the soldiers guarding the entrance made such remarks as “I am the law!” and “I’m going to be violent and arrest you if you don’t leave!” They also joked between themselves in Hebrew that they planned on beating up the HRWs later on. In response to attempts by the HRWs to film the situation, the soldiers threatened to break their cameras. After about 15 minutes, a military jeep arrived and five more soldiers entered the house. The HRWs were continually threatened with arrest for “interfering with our [the soldiers’] work.” At one point two soldiers tried to forcibly push one HRW to the jeep as if they were going to detain him, but he sat on the ground and prevented them from doing so. In retaliation, the soldiers arbitrarily ordered the entire family and the HRWs to move behind the military jeep, and were threatened with arrest if they crossed an imaginary line. Meanwhile the soldiers searched a neighboring house. About 15 minutes later, the army then tried to order the Abu Haykal family into their house and to close the door. The HRWs and some family members refused to do so, and after about 10 minutes, the IOF handed out the IDs again and left.

The HRWs then proceeded to another house in the area that was being searched. The HRWs walked up the stairs to the front door despite the shouting of the soldiers outside that they were forbidden from doing so, and the HRWs told the soldiers that they would leave only when they saw the order that this house was a closed military zone. The soldier repeatedly threatened to arrest the HRWs and made calls as if he was arranging to have this done. The HRWs then noticed that soldiers were angrily shouting and preventing Palestinians from walking down the nearby hill to their homes. A group of older men insisted to know why and moved defiantly toward the hill as if they were going to ignore the soldiers’ orders. In response the soldiers became very aggressive, cocked their guns, and began shouting loudly at the men. About five minutes later another group of soldiers, including the commander of them all, came towards the scene. The commander ordered the angry soldiers to allow the men to go down the hill towards their homes.

The exhausted HRWs then went home for the night.

By Missy and Giuseppe

At approximately 1:00 PM on August 17th, settler boys were throwing rocks at Palestinian people descending the Qurtaba School stairs. One international human rights worker approached the area quickly, but was told by the soldier to get away. The soldier then came yelling out of his post, and threw his chair at the settler boys nearby. He then grabbed one of the boys and yelled at him, in Hebrew. The Palestinians who were coming down the stairs continued on their way, but were very frightened of the situation, and left quickly down Shuhada Street.

At around 1:30, while three internationals were talking on Shuhada Street, one female settler teenager and two younger boys walked past. The settlers stared and suddenly threw a large glass bottle at the human rights workers, which landed at their feet. The settlers took off running towards the checkpoint, where the soldier at the post began yelling and running after them. One of the settlers attempted to hit the soldier and took off running. One international attempted to talk to the soldier, but he said to her, “Go away! This isn’t for you, it’s for myself!” Palestinians were walking down the road at this point, and had seen the settler kids throw the glass bottle at the internationals. One Palestinian man was very concerned and called the police, telling them what happened; the police never came.

About five minutes later, an human rights worker stationed at the checkpoint, came to Shuhada Street to report that settler kids had thrown a glass bottle at her. It was verified that they were the same settlers who had just thrown the bottle at other human rights workers.

By Missy, Giuseppe, Gary and Sebastian

At approximately 9 PM August 14th, human rights workers (HRW) living in Tel Rumeida went to the checkpoint to investigate a rumor of abuse of a Palestinian man by the soldiers there. They noticed at the checkpoint a small man crouching in the corner of an impromptu soldier’s post to the right of the checkpoint. He had his T-shirt pulled up over his head.

The human rights workers asked the soldier standing near the entrance/exit of the checkpoint to check on the condition of the man in the corner. They called to him in Arabic and the man had pulled his shirt from his face before I spoke to him, but then pulled his shirt up again, appearing afraid. The soldier told them to shut up and then told the Palestinian man, inches from his face, several times in Arabic, “Uskot! Uskot!”, which means “shut up”. A HRW then told the soldier he wanted to offer the guy a cigarette, and the soldier agreed. The HRW was able to look at the man quickly and see that he was having a difficult time breathing. The other soldier inside the checkpoint room came out and told the HRW to leave the guy alone and go away from him. The HRW calmly walked away and reported the man’s condition to us.

This situation went on for about half an hour. During this time, one human rights worker called the Humanitarian Office of the DCO (an adminstrative branch of the Israeli military) twice, to report that the man was possibly injured and might need medical attention. I also told the DCO that the soldier appeared to be under the influence of some substance or was acting mentally unstable. The soldier had been going from being hyperactive and talking about his past history of doing “crystal, meth, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol…” to taking his helmet off and hanging his head with a blank stare on his face. The soldier had also offered me pizza several times, walking close to me with box open; he also asked if I wanted to drink vodka. He offered the same to other HRWs, who refused.

The soldier then became agitated and said that he hated all Arabs and wanted to shoot or kill them. He said that terrorists had killed his family when he was a small child, and that he spent many years before the military doing drugs. He went on to talk about doing methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol, and said that when his family was killed, his brain was dead. He said that since joining the Israeli army he was a new man. He also commented that he had been in the Army for two years now. The soldier then moved the detained man, who appeared to be autistic, behind the door to the right of the checkpoint and said that he could go and beat the man if we wanted, and then asked us repeatedly if we wanted him to beat the man. The HRWs calmly replied, ‘No’.

Another HRW then got water and asked if he could offer water to the man; the soldier took the bottle and said he’d give it to the man. The HRW followed the soldier and attempted to assess the man’s condition again. He asked the Palestinian man to lift up his shirt, but could see no injuries. The man still appeared to be having a difficult time breathing. At the one hour mark, the unstable soldier went to the Palestinian man and said in Arabic, “Tayib, halas?” which means, roughly translated, “Ok, enough?” The Palestinian man was rocking back and forth and said ‘yes’. The soldier let the man get up and he began to walk away.

At this point, another soldier’s jeep with four soldiers inside appeared from Shuhada Street. They stopped the Palestinian man and began checking his ID again. The unstable soldier went to the jeep, and then about five more soldiers arrived from the hill. The autistic man stood near them, rocking back and forth. The unstable soldier then approached two of the human rights workers standing nearby, “What? What’s the problem? You are gay, and your friend is a bitch,” he said. The soldier was holding his gun in a downward but forward position. He then swung his gun towards his back and put his hands forward, as if to push or hit the HRW. The HRW put his hands up in the air as if to block a possible blow. Another soldier came to the unstable soldier and pushed him away.

The unstable soldier became aggressive and from about ten feet away, he put his gun up and pointed it at an HRW’s head with the flashlight lit. The unstable soldier then took his gun and pulled it up over his head. He then took the barrel end in his hands and swung the butt of the gun at her head. The HRW ducked and four soldiers surrounded the unstable soldier and led him to the military jeep. The other soldiers had removed his gun, vest and helmet from him. He attempted to come up the hill, but was stopped; he then went yelling and screaming towards the checkpoint. All the HRWs left at this point.