Tag: Hebron

A woman from Sweden, Gabby, and a man from Austria, Sebastian, were kicked, pushed, jumped on, and bitten by settlers while they walked on Palestinian farmland the evening of August 8th.

The internationals live in Suseya in order to accompany farmers to their land, provide support for the community, and prevent attacks from settlers. They were living in a valley where eight Palestinian families live, and staked their tent on the Palestinian-owned land nearest to the Israeli settlement of Suseya.

At about 7pm on the 8th, two internationals and one Palestinian were confronted by two Israeli settlers, with their sheep at first. One of the settlers began yelling and charged at the internationals and the Palestinian. The settler attacked the internationals by kicking and pushing, as the internationals attempted to document the attack. The settler and the internationals both backed away, but the internationals noticed that the settler was calling for others.

Soon after, six additional settlers (two of whom were armed with guns), and one Israeli soldier appeared. Three settlers jumped on the Austrian man, grabbing his camera. The settlers grabbed the Austrian man by the throat, hit and pushed him. They kicked him in the back and another settler bit him on his hand. While the Austrian man was pinned to the ground, the Swedish woman appealed for help from the Israeli soldier, who appeared to be escorting the settlers. The soldier responded in English, “I don’t speak English.”

The settlers managed to steal the video camera that contained the footage of the first attack, before retreating. The internationals called the police to file a report, and while the police initially agreed to meet, they later claimed that they were unable to find the area and did not respond.
“I have to admit, I am really scared,” said the Austrian man. “I mean, there is no law here, it is just gang violence and I don’t know what those people want, or what they will do to me.”

On August 5th, two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) from Denmark were sitting on Shuhada Street in Tel Rumeida. At around 2:45 PM a Palestinian boy, around age 15, wanted to use the stairs at the end of Shuhada Street, opposite the Beit Hadassa Settlement. A group of six settler children, around ten years of age, were hanging out next to the stairs. A Palestinian boy asked the HRWs to accompany him. The settlers tried to trip the Palestinian and the HRWs and kicked one of the HRWs from behind. One of the internationals accompanied the Palestinian all the way up the stairs, while the other stayed at the bottom of the stairs. When the HRWs descended the stairs and went back onto Shuhada Street, one of the settlers kicked one of the internationals on the back of her leg and threw a rock at her neck. Only one soldier was present in the military post opposite the stairs. He yelled at the children and ran towards them, and they backed off.

Around 3:20 PM two elderly men wanted to descend the stairs. A group of about ten settlers blocked their way at the end of the stairs. The soldier told the settlers to leave, but they refused. Two settlers around eight to ten years of age and one teenager, around fifteen years old, hit the elderly men with sticks, and other children threw rocks at them. One of the HRWs began screaming very loudly and ran towards the settler boys, while the other HRW started video taping the attack. The HRWs called the police, but they did not answer. The soldier told the attacking settlers to leave and called the police. The settlers still did not stop.

Four more HRWs came down to Shuhada Street. As the elderly men were leaving, the settlers began throwing numerous rocks at the HRWs. At this point, around 25 settler children and teenagers, between the ages of 8 and 14, and one adult settler woman were present. One American HRW from the Tel Rumeida Project was hit with a brick-size rock in her back and two other HRWs were lightly hit on the legs. At least three TIPH members arrived and observed the situation. The entire attack on the HRWs is recorded on video tape.

At 3:46 pm the police arrived and the attacks stopped. The adult settler woman told the police that the HRWs had entered the Beit Hadassa settlement and were causing problems. The soldier present during the entire incident said that it was not true. One police officer, who the HRWs recognize from daily interactions while on the streets, wanted to hear their version of the story. However, the head border policeman told the HRWs to leave Shuhada Street or he would arrest all of them. The HRWs attempted several times to talk with the head border policeman, but he refused. Since there were no Palestinians in the area, the internationals left Shuhada Street. During the interactions with the police and soldiers, settler girls under the age of 12 stood next the HRWs and mimicked their words and body language.

Approximately 45 minutes later, the internationals went back to Shuhada Street. The police were still present and told the internationals to go away.

Around 6:00 PM, the HRW who was assaulted with the brick-size stone was again sitting on the street, this time at the top of the hill. The soldier who was present during the attacks on Shuhada Street stopped by and asked her, “Are you OK? Are you injured?” The HRW told the soldier that her back was hurting. He said that the boys were very stupid and bad, and then apologized for her injury. He then said that he wasn’t allowed to do anything about the settler boys.

by Ernesto

At 8:30am on Sunday, July 30th, six internationals accompanied Abu Ayyash and Yousef, both farmers, and Ahmed, a local organizer, from Beit Ummar, to spray their grapes with pesticides. Despite aggressive activity by settler militia and an Israeli military presence, the farmers successfully completed their tasks.

The Karme Tzur settlement has been constructed directly across the street from the farmer’s grape vines. The farmer’s plot of land is bordered on two sides by a paved road that carries settlers in and out through a gate with a guard post. The settler militia is extremely hostile to Palestinian farmers working their land, referring to them as “terrorists.”

When we arrived, one international who had accompanied these farmers before noticed that a dirt road had been created where grape vines once grew. There were pink ribbons on some of the vines that remained that might have signaled the path of the road. The bulldozer was parked a few meters away on the other side of the settler road. It was probably the one that bulldozed over a few dozen grape vines on this plot alone and countless numbers on farmlands around the settlement.

As the farmers sprayed their vineyard, four settlement guards arrived and one attempted to enter the land by force but was called back by his comrades, when he couldn’t manage to get past internationals who demanded to know why he was entering land that didn’t belong to him.

Another settlement guard began to become verbally abusive and taunt the farmers and internationals by making fun of the greeting “salaam”, and plainly stating “You are my enemy! If you come here with Palestinians and have no military permission you are my enemy.” He also attempted to enter the land proclaiming, “This is my land!”

The military also attempted to remove the farmers from the land saying that the Palestinians need to get permission from the military to be on land so close to a settlement. However, we were able to stall the military and the settler militia long enough for Abu Ayash and Yousef to finish their work for the day. Unfortunately, Abu Ayash is afraid that the next time he is due to spray his grapevines, there will be none left, either as retribution for his summoud (steadfastness) or to pave a wider road.

We will provide Abu Ayash with photos of the land for his legal battle to protect his rights and property.

On July 28th, a human rights worker (HRW) was sitting by checkpoint 56 (which is the main entrance to Tel Rumeida, Hebron from the Palestinian controlled H1 area) from about 12 noon til 3:00 in order to monitor the behavior of the soldiers. During this time she was also drawing the surrounding buildings in her sketchbook. The two soldiers on duty who were friendly, asked to see what she was drawing and she showed them. The soldiers behaved well towards the Palestinians coming and going through the checkpoint and complied when the HRW requested they keep their dogs away from the Palestinians. They made an effort to control the dogs and the HRW thanked them for this.

At about 3pm the “nice” soldiers left and were replaced by two new ones. At about 3:30pm, approximately six other soldiers and a police jeep showed up. One soldier asked the HRW what she was doing. She showed him the drawing she had been doing and he asked to see the whole sketchbook. She denied his request. The police officer asked her if she was causing problems or taking notes about the soldiers at the checkpoint. She said no she was only sketching the buildings. At this point there were about six soldiers standing around her, accusing her of causing problems for the soldiers on duty at the checkpoint and demanding that she show them her sketchbook. She refused again and tried to leave the area. The soldiers physically blocked her path but she pushed passed them.

She headed back to the her apartment and was intercepted by a soldier at the top of the hill by the apartment. He told her she needed to stop. She refused, telling him she urgently had to go to the bathroom. He told her she must leave her backpack with him if she wanted to go to the bathroom. She refused and he attempted to grab her backpack and physically prevent her from going into the apartment. She held onto the backpack, pushed passed him and entered the apartment.