Tag: Hebron

“We call on the international community to intervene and stop settler violence against us.”

by Zadie

Today, June 30th, the people of Qawawis accompanied by people from Tuwanwi and other neighboring villages as well as Israeli and international activists demonstrated against the settlements and the wall. About 50 people gathered and marched to the wall. The Israeli group Rabbis for Human Rights also donated ten bales of hay that will be used to feed the sheep to replace what was burned by the settlers earlier this week.

The settlers have a history of aggression towards people in Qawawis and neighboring villages. They have damaged villagers’ wells and harassed and attacked children and farmers.

One month ago an inner barrier was built along the road that passes Qawawis. This barrier separates farmers from their lands and makes it hard for tractors and sheep to pass.

There were very few army and Border Police present and no journalists representing any of the local or Arab media because of the attention on Gaza. Despite this fact, the people of Qawawis continued to demonstrate their resolve to resist the illegal settlements and the wall.

by Harry, Tel Rumeida Project

June 27th: Settler youth continue to trash a internationally funded project intended to make it safer for Palestinian girls living in the Tel Rumeida section of Al-Khalil (Hebron) to reach their elementary school.

The project, funded by the international monitoring group Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), involves several improvements to a staircase and pathway the girls have to take to reach the Qurtuba School, which is located opposite the Beir Hadassah settlement. Workers have recently bricked in the path and built a low cement-block retaining wall alongside it to protect it from erosion of the hillside above it. Five days ago, on June 22, 2006, settler youth began vandalizing the wall, using bricks and boulders to smash the cement blocks. Israeli Police summoned to the scene refused even to get out of their jeep to assess the damage.

Human rights workers witnessed a second attack on the wall by the settler youth the next day, and there have apparently been at least two (probably more) subsequent attacks. As of today, June 27th, the top row of cement blocks has been completely destroyed along most of the length of the wall, and the bricked-in pathway is littered with fragments of broken cement.

Meanwhile, the workers on the job have not returned to the site since on June 22 when an Israeli military officer ordered them to stop work, on the grounds that they lacked a permit for the construction of the retaining wall. The officer issued this edit a few hours before the first attack by the settler youth. In fact, according to TIPH, the work is completely in line with the permit for the project issued by Israeli authorities.

by ISM Hebron

At approximately 6:15 PM today, I was sitting on Shuhada street with another Human Rights Worker (HRW) and we noticed some settler kids throwing rocks at Palestinians in front of the Beit Hadassah settlement. My fellow HRW went to investigate and I kept my eye on him as I saw the notorious Anat Cohen approaching. She began yelling at him in Hebrew and yelling at the soldier on duty to stop him. The soldier approached the HRW and demanded that he leave, saying he was not allowed in the area and was not allowed to film the scene – two claims that are completely contrary to Israeli law. As three settler children were continuing to throw rocks at Palestinians on the path above, the HRW continued to try to film them. I walked over as Anat began to physically block my friend’s way.

Ms. Cohen began yelling something about Auschwitz to us in Hebrew, and the soldier continued to insist that we could not be filming. Ms. Cohen put her arms up in front of my friend, waving them in his face. I told her to knock it off, that we were allowed to be there and allowed to film. Then she kicked me in the leg.

At this point more soldiers had showed up and began yelling at US and I decided it was time to call the police.

They came very quickly this time.. one of the soldiers must have called them as well.

After explaining to a commander what we were doing there (filming and intervening when settlers throw rocks at Palestinians), the commander told us that Palestinians were not allowed to walk along this street except when they were going to school, which was out for the summer. I informed him that was absolutely false, they were allowed here. He argued with me some more and then I decided it was time to call our nice friend Hamad at UN OCHA. He advised me to file a police report at the Kiryat Arba police station and I informed my friends this was where I was going.

I was pretty angry at this point and I walked up to Ms. Cohen and informed her that I was going to the police to file a complaint against her for kicking me.

This was where our trouble began and I realized that I had made a mistake.

As I got into the back of the police jeep, Anat told a police officer that my fellow human rights worker assaulted her.

He was told to get in the back of the jeep too. The police officer informed us that the soldier on duty was backing Ms. Cohen up.

We both went to the police station where we would spend the next 3 hours.

I gave my testimony, my friend gave his, then the soldier gave his.

While we were waiting and worrying that my friend was going to get arrested, our other friends back in Tel Rumeida said they spoke to a soldier who had seen everything, knew we hadn’t done anything wrong but was too scared to come forward in our defense.

Fortunately for us, Ms. Cohen’s reputation as a nutcase was widely known and the police let my friend go.

Beit Ummar settlement guards

by Zadie

At 7:30am yesterday morning Abu Ayyash and his son Yousef, from Beit Ummar, were accompanied by 3 peace activists in order to go to their land to spray the grape vines with pesticides. Despite Israeli army and settler security forces attempts to stop them, they succeeded in working the land.

On the way to the land we met another farmer, Mahmoud A’akel from Halhul who asked if we could also accompany him. Abu A’akel and one international peace activist never made it to the land and just crossed the settler road when they were stopped by the settlement security. The security guards, equipped with m-16’s, told them that they were not allowed to enter.

Beit Ummar Israeli security guards ‘protecting’ state interests in a Palestinian vineyard.

The security then drove to the land of Abu Ayyash and tried to physically stop them from spraying the grapes. Abu Ayyash owns 3 dunums of land that borders the Karme Sur settlement road, which acts as a border to the settlement. The three security guards said we were not allowed to be on the land because we were too close to the settlement. When they noticed that the internationals were taking pictures they became less aggressive and retreated to call for army backup.

The farmers continued to work as the Israeli army arrived. The soldiers said that they must call the DCO for permission to work on their land. They conceded that there was no official order, but said that we couldn’t be on the land. The settler security and the army worked together to agree on a plan that we could stay on the land as long as the army stayed to watch.

The farmers continued to work until all their grape vines were sprayed. Abu Ayyash may not have a chance to harvest the grapes, however, because the settlement plans to put a wall around the settlement and confiscate most of his land. We pulled out the metal stakes that were marking part of the route of the wall. A soldier told us that his commander ordered them to remove us from the land because it was owned by the settlement. He said that the settlement purchased the land from Abu Ayyash to build the wall. We told him that this was a lie and he has not sold his land or received any money for his land.

Beit Ummar Israeli soldiers preventing Palestinian farmers from farming their land

Abu Ayyash has contacted a lawyer to fight this illegal confiscation and plans to continue to fight for his right to work his land.