Tag: Hebron

large rock thrown at human rights workers

By Joe Skillet

Israeli settlers in the Tel Rumeida section of Al-Khalil (Hebron) celebrated the shabbat yesterday by attacking several Palestinian children and international supporters.

During the attacks, one 15 year old Palestinian was kicked, one 13 year old was punched in the face, and a 7 year old was kicked. This assault occured when the three Palestinian boys were sitting peacefully, chatting with two international human rights workers (HRW), then two passing settler boys, aged about 13 and 11, stopped in front of the group and glowered. After the attack the settler boys ran away.

HRWs provided first aid to Moussa and summoned observers from the international monitoring group TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron), who photographed the boys and wrote up the incident. The HRWs also called the police, who came and took a statement at the scene from the boys.

After the HRWs had left an older settler kicked a seven-year-old Palestinian boy, Hamdan, several times in the back and buttocks. His mother called the police, who again took a report on the incident.

Several hours later two human rights workers were attacked by settlers on Shuhadda Street. The HRWs had been practicing on the street for their weekly circus performance when they were kicked and stoned by a group of settler men.

At 4:30 PM, one of the five settler men, between the ages of 20 and 25, conjured up a mouthful of phlegm and spit it at one of the HRWs as they passed on the street. The HRW’s escorted a Palestinian boy, approximately 10 years old, to his home passed the settlers. The soldier at the post, too, entered the street. The settlers followed behind and, after the boy entered his home safely, one of the settlers kicked a HRW behind his left knee, almost knocking him to the ground.

The other HRW shouted, “Don’t you hit him!” and began to run towards the door. At this point, the same settler kicked the HRW again in the same spot on his back leg as the other settlers hovered around.

The same settler who initiated the violence then picked up a large rock, and threw it at the other HRW. She was hit on her right thigh, causing much pain.

The soldier from the post yelled at the settlers to stop. The two additional HRWs showed up and the police were called. The settlers continued to throw stones, hitting one of the additional HRWs in the leg.

A police car happened to be driving by at this point. The settlers retreated into Beit Hadassah settlement, not to be seen again. The soldier admitted to the policeman that he saw a rock hit the HRW, but denied seeing the settler kick the other twice.

After arriving at the police station to file a report, the HRW with the rock/leg injury began to feel more pain radiating from the injury and began to limp. The policemen were insistent that the HRWs wait there until the Israeli solider-paramedic arrived to assess the situation.

After 25 minutes or so, the medic arrived. He took the blood pressure of the rock-injured HRW and the other HRW took her pulse. He then said he was finished. The HRW still required medical attention from a doctor. Merely taking her vital signs was, as projected, not enough.

After another 15-20 minutes, a police car arrived and drove the HRWs back to their home in H2. Because her pain was increasing, the injured HRW went directly to the hospital and the other HRW went home to tend to his injury. The police report has been put on hold.

After nine days of imprisonment, on July 12, 2006 Musa Abu Mariya, a peace activist from Beit Ummar, was released from prison after a “military court for petitions in Judea and Sumaria regions” ruled that he should be released.

Musa was arrested on July 4th when he and international volunteers were walking on Palestinian land that was being bulldozed to build a wall around the settlement of Karme Tzur. He committed no crime other than a commitment to non-violent resistance against the wall and settlement expansion.

Although he was released and the prosecution provided no evidence, the judge banned him from protests on Palestinian land near the wall being built and allowed the prosecution to continue to interrogate him. The judge agreed to release him on bail of 3000 shekels with conditions. He must go to the police station in Gush Etzion each week for more questioning. He must live more than 3km from the construction site of the wall and not be closer than 1km from the wall, preventing him from going to other demonstrations.

He was charged with “participating in an illegal demonstration against the separation fence in which he broke the order of a closed military zone and brought other people with him to that demonstration who broke that order. And he attacked IDF soldiers when they tried to arrest him.”

The judge acquitted him of all these charges because a video tape provided by his defense that shows “that Musa did not use any kind of violence with IDF soldiers” and “the prosecution does not have any proof that he violated any laws”.

Musa was interrogated by the Israeli security, Shin Bet, for three days in the Gush Etzion prison, then transferred to Orfer prison near Ramallah for the remaining 5 days. Eight days is the maximum legal number of days that Palestinians can be held in prison without being charged or without due process. On the eighth day he was allowed to see his lawyer, Gabi Laski, for the first time, and on the nineth day he was released.

by Jonas and Signifier

Yesterday June 12, at approximately 3:00pm in the West Bank village of Beit Ummar, Isreal Occupation Forces shot tear gas cannisters at two human rights workers (HRW) that were sitting and eating plums in a backyard. As the activists attempted to cover the fume-spewing cannisters, three Palestinain children, the apparent targets of the noxious projectiles, ran by and another cannister landed at the feet of the HRWs.

Six other HRWs were 5minutes away meeting and gathering information with the family of Yusef Abu-Maria, who has been incarcerated by the Israel Occupation Forces for 15 days. These HRWs were called and informed of the situation back at the house. The HRWs proceeded to run back to their home.

The tear-making, breath-shortening projectiles were the sign of a mini-incursion into Beit Ummar by the IOF. This has become a routine occurence since villagers started protesting the wall that is being built around the nearest settlement that will destroy and annex villagers’ land. When the six HRWs arrived back at the house, the fumes were still radiating from the home and family members were cleaning the floors and mattresses to expel the undulating fumes.

Meanwhile, approximately twenty armed Israeli soldiers entered the village in armored hummers. The soldiers began to canvas the streets and some homes. Two or three Israeli police cars also arrived. The kids and teens began throwing rocks and approximately seven HRWs were present and filming. The soldiers responded to the rocks with disproportionate force, firing rubber bullets and sound bombs at the children in the street, lasting for over an hour.

Additionally, the car window of Mahmoud, a Palestinian taxi driver, was smashed by an IOF Hummer, with the front end of the car badly damaged. Mahmoud was transferred by the soldiers to the DCO. Four HRWs and Mahmoud’s brother drove to the DCO to seek information.

After about 90 minutes of waiting oustide, Mahmoud was released.

The back entrance to the Abu Haykal family’s home. The Israeli military is now confining them to this rather than the front of the their home.

by ISM Hebron and Tel Rumeida Project

The Hani Abu Haykal family, which lives directly opposite the Tel Rumeida settlement in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Al-Khalil (Hebron), has received a written military order declaring the street in front of their house a closed military zone until November 3rd, Abu Haykal told human rights workers today. The order prevents Abu Haykal and the nine other members of his household from using the main gate to their home, forcing them instead to use a rough, roundabout path through olive groves to reach their jobs, shopping, or anything else.

The order is in direct contradiction with an order previously issued by the Israeli High Court allowing Hani Abu Haykal and his family to use the street. The family’s lawyer has gone to court in an effort to have the recent order lifted. Hani said he has also asked the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) for help with the problem, and monitors from TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) claim their group is also trying to get the order lifted. For now, though, the family is complying with it.

According to Hani Abu Haykal, the order, in Hebrew and Arabic, with an accompanying map, was delivered at around 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 6th by an officer from the Israeli civil administration who identified himself as Hamoudeh. The order applies only to Palestinians, not to people with Israeli IDs. When Abu Haykal asked why the order had been issued, Hamoudeh said it was because the military anticipates that there could be problems in the area in the coming months. When Abu Haykal objected that the back way in and out of his home wasn’t suitable for everyday use by the family, which includes an elderly woman and another woman with heart problems as well as several children, the officer looked at the pathway and pronounced it “not bad,” according to Abu Haykal.

The issuing of the order closing the street to Hani Abu Haykal and his family follows by roughly three weeks an incident in which Hani and his son Jamil, 13, were attacked and beaten by a solider and approximately 20 settlers as they tried to enter their front gate on their return from the family’s shop in the nominaly Palestinian-controlled part of Al-Khalil (H1). The pair had already passed three Israeli checkpoints, but the soldier stationed in front of their house demanded to see his ID and then declared that he was not permitted to enter his own gate. Hani explained that he had an order from the Israeli High Court guaranteeing him the right to use the street to reach his house, but the soldier refused to listen, pointed his gun at the pair, and cocked it. Meanwhile, settlers gathered in the street and began throwing stones. Abu Haykal and his son were forced by the soldier to turn around and travel back down the street through the crowd of stone-throwing settlers and walk approximately a quarter mile around the Tel Rumeida hill to the path leading to the back entrance of their home.

Human rights workers live just down the street from the Abu Haykal house but are not permitted to use the road either. Instead, they must use the same roundabout way to visit the family.

Abu Haykal also reported that the family has been trying to get a new phone line installed in their home, but has been unable to to get permission for a worker from the phone company to visit the house to do the installation.

In another ominous development Hani Abu Haykal said that soldiers recently visited shopkeepers in the Baab al-Zawiyye business district, in H1 near the Checkpoint 56 entrance to Tel Rumeida district. After checking their IDs, the soldiers reportedly told the shopkeepers that their shops might be shut down and the area declared a closed military zone in the future.

Abu Haykal’s mother has a heart condition and was seriously ill recently. As Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are not allowed into Tel Rumeida, Abu Haykal had to negotiate for two days with the Red Cross and the DCO (District Command Office of the military) to allow an ambulance into Tel Rumeida to pick up his sick mother. When permission was finally given, the ambulance was held up at a checkpoint near the Beit Romano settlement for seven hours because soldiers insisted that the ambulance must wait until an army Jeep could escort it into Tel Rumeida.

When the ambulance finally arrived at the Abu Haykal house, soldiers insisted that they needed to examine it. They removed all of the equipment from the ambulance and checked under the hood. This took half an hour. As Abu Haykal’s mother was carried from the house into the ambulance, settlers began throwing rocks. Soldiers did nothing to stop them.

Abu Haykal’s mother was so ill at this point that she was kept in the intensive care unit for five days and ten days total in the hospital.

After she was released from the hospital, the ambulance waited for five hours at the roadblock leading into Tel Rumeida for soldiers to let it in.

The family complains of isolation because their friends and family are too afraid to visit them. This is especially distressing for the children when it is their birthday.

When school is in session, Abu Haykal leaves work to walk his kids home in order to protect them from settler attacks. On Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, when many settlers are out on the street, the Abu Haykal children go directly from their school to their father’s work and wait to go home until he is done because it is too dangerous to go home during the day.

Recently Abu Haykal’s car was set on fire by settlers. Witnesses said soldiers were present and did nothing to stop the torching of the car.

In the past, soldiers have told Abu Haykal that they are here only to protect settlers. This means they will not intervene if they see settlers attacking Palestinians. However, if they see Palestinians attacking settlers, they will shoot the Palestinians. In addition, soldiers have reported that soldiers and police do not have permission to shoot at or harm settlers, even if they are shooting at Palestinians.

by Harry in Tel Rumeida

July 5th: A fire apparently set by Israeli settlers destroyed a large and obviously ancient olive tree in the Tel Rumeida section of Al-Khalil (Hebron) today. The tree, located about 100 meters west of “Abraham’s Well,” belonged to the Abu Ghalyoun family, according to a Palestinian fire fighter quoted by the International Middle East Media Center. The fire was reported in mid-morning to the municipal fire brigade, which dispatched a truck to the area, but the fire fighters were unable to get equipment directly to the burning tree [Palestinian vehicles are not allowed on the road in the Israeli-controlled H2 area under which Tel Rumeida falls]. They used pails of water to put out the flames in the grass surrounding the tree, preventing damage to other trees, but their efforts to extinguish the fire in the tree itself were not successful. Twenty four hours later, the fire continues to smoulder, and the targeted tree is almost completely destroyed.

While there is no conclusive proof that Israeli settlers started the fire, they have in the past set many other fires in the area – including one that burned two dunams last month – as part of their decades-long campaign to drive Palestinians out of the Tel Rumeida neighborhood.