Tag: Hebron

Q: What if you live in Tel Rumeida and you have a heart attack ?

A: You die.

By Shlomo Bloom

I had a pretty bad case of stomach flu for the last few days and was reluctant to even try to go to the doctor because it meant leaving Tel Rumeida on foot, as Palestinians are not allowed to drive cars here. Not even taxis, buses or ambulances. The entrances to the neighborhood are blocked off by checkpoints and roadblocks. Settlers are, of course allowed to drive cars, buses, taxis, ambulances and can leave the neighborhood through settler-only roads that Palestinians are not even allowed to walk on.

I had decided it might be better to just stay in bed than to try to walk out and catch a taxi but then some friends came over and told me they had a car parked at the roadblock outside Tel Rumeida and would take me to the hospital. It was at night so the temperature outside was not so dreadfully hot and I decided it might be a good idea to at least get some fresh air.

As we were walking to the roadblock, about a quarter of a mile away from where I live, I asked my friend “What happens here when someone is really sick and cannot walk to the checkpoint or to one of the roadblocks ?” He told me that they have tried to call for ambulances to come in here but they are not allowed. Last year his uncle had a heart attack. They had to carry him out to the checkpoint where an ambulance was waiting. But by the time he got to the hospital, he was already dead.

So that was the answer to my question.

Some observations about this Palestinian hospital:

At first I was reluctant to go at night because it meant going to the emergency and stomach flu was not an emergency and I didn’t want to get in the way of people who were really sick, but my friend said, no it was ok and not to worry. I was expecting to wait like 4 hours like you do when you go to the emergency at night in the United States. What happened when I got there shocked me.

I literally did not even sit down in the waiting room. I was seen immediately but two nurses and a doctor. They did a blood test and gave me an injection. I was in and out in about 40 minutes (the blood test took half an hour to process).

Total cost for an uninsured foreigner ?

$10

This is of course if you can make it out of the Israeli controlled part of Hebron into the Palestinian controlled part without dying first.

So, Americans.. you go to the emergency with no health insurance, get a blood test and an injection.. I think it would be safe to say that you can count on paying minimum $400 for this. This is democracy ! We can give billions of dollars to Israel and spend God knows what on a war in Iraq but we cannot afford to give all our citizen health insurance.

Palestinian Buildings Destroyed by IOF in Beit Ummar

by Lee and Zadie


Settler carries gun as they bike through Beit Omar

Last Thursday, May 24, we visited Beit Ummar, which is a village of 20,000 just south of Bethlehem’s large settlement block that includes Gush Etzion. The main road, route 60, connects Bethlehem to Hebron and goes right through Beit Ummar. It is not a settler-only road, but because there are settlers near both Hebron and Bethlehem, they also use this road. The Border Police and Army use their duty to protect these settlers as an excuse for confiscating land along route 60 and destroying property.


Before the flower shop and grocery were destroyed

We visited two groups of people whose livelihoods have been demolished by Israeli military bulldozers the night before. The military has issued demolition notices to all the business and homes 150meters from this road in Beit Ummar, saying that they needed to protect the settlers and these buildings posed a security risk. They also accused them of building without a permit, which in some cases is true because Israel rarely grants permits to Palestinians even on land that they own.


After the bulldozers came

The IDF chose to bulldoze a flower shop with a small grocery and a mechanics shop a day before. At the flower shop, ceramic pots and flowers lay in the midst of rubble from grocery shop while back at the owner’s house, plants that the guy had managed to salvage lay out in the sun wilting for lack of water and cover. Habess Shehdah Adami, the owner of the land and shop lamented, “I see them dying in front of my eyes and I can’t do anything. In 5 hours these will be dead. What can I do? They cost thousands of shekels. I can’t cover them, I can’t irrigate them, I can’t sell them.”

And then he added, “What did I do? I’ve never been arrested. I am a man of peace. I am a romantic man. I love flowers. Even if they can’t make good to me, they should make good to the trees, to the flowers. They are a gift from god!”

Habess had papers proving that he owned the land and had a permit to build. When the bulldozers came in the night, however, and he told the commander of the 60 soldiers who showed up that he had a lawyer, the commander told him, “Let your lawyer sleep” and then proceeded to level the building.

As we stood near route 60 on the rubble in his lot brooding and feeling helpless, three army jeeps drove by heralding the approach of about 200 settlers on bicycles. It was the holiday of Jerusalem Day, which is the celebrates the capture of Jerusalem in 1967, and entails parading through Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem wearing Israeli flags. These settlers wanted to do some parading of their own, donning the Israeli flag and something not as accepted in Jerusalem: there were about three of the young guys wearing M-16, army issued, strapped to their backs. Some young women yelled at us and the Palestinians, “You are all donkeys!” and we laughed, because of the way she acted, it seemed obvious and pathetic that she was scared of us even though we just stood there.

The settlers are like a branch of the military, their presence makes it easier for the military to be there and their undercover violence towards Palestinians is unchecked by the military.

More Settler Attacks on International Volunteers in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Youth from the Tel Rumeida settlement spat on, beat, assaulted, and stoned human rights workers from Canada, Denmark and Sweden yesterday (May 27, 2006). In three separate attacks on internationals and Palestinians the kids were encouraged by adults of the religious extremist Jewish community. Israeli soldiers and police refused to do anything to stop the violence. These attacks occur almost daily in Hebron but on Shabbat they are more frequent and in the last few weeks have become more violent, sending more than two internationals to the hospital.

Yesterday afternoon, on Shuhada Street in the H2 area of Hebron, Jewish Canadian human rights workers Peter Trainor, of Toronto, and Canadian Chris Johnston were filming settlers throwing stones at the Palestinian Qurtuba Girls School. Two women, about 18 years of age, then tried unsuccessfully to rip Peter’s video camera out of his hands. About 10 boys, aged between 8 and 18, threw stones as well as kicking and hitting them. The soldier posted nearby, who was just a few meters away, did nothing to stop the stone throwing despite Peter’s calls for help. Instead he left the scene completely. An adult settler with an assault rifle approached and encouraged the children to keep stoning them.

At about the same time, Danish human rights worker BJ Lund was harassed and spat on at the top of Shuhada Street. The soldiers watched the event and agreed that it wasn’t OK, but when BJ asked why they had not intervened, they gave no answer.

Later that day Anna Svenson from Sweden, Chris, and Peter were attacked by a group of about ten male youth between the ages of 8-15 as they walked down Shuhada Street. The youth spat on them, hit Anna in the face, and taunted the soldiers who reprimanded the youth for spitting. A group of soldiers stood between the internationals and the youth, but the youth just threw the stones over their heads. When the police arrived, they threatened to arrest Anna and Peter if they didn’t leave the area.

Human rights workers are stationed in Hebron to make sure that Palestinian children are safe as they go to and from school past the Tel Rumeida settlement. The settlers regularly throw rocks at the children as they walk past and have told soldiers to put razor wire across the beginning of a path that leads to Palestinian homes. The children have to move the wire out of the way every day. There is an Israeli Supreme Court order that allows the children to use this path but soldiers on duty nearby rarely know this and often refuse to help the children get home safely.

Tel Rumeida is a Palestinian neighborhood in the center of Hebron that the most violent and extremist elements of the Israeli settler movement occupy. Soldiers tell the human rights workers that they feel there is nothing they can do to stop the children from throwing stones or hitting the international volunteers. In an article of the Jerusalem Post on Jan 16th, a senior Hebron Police officer Dep.-Cmdr., Shlomo Efrati, explained their lack of power in the area. “[The police] have been suffering from the settlers for years. The government needs to decide to fortify the police and army in Hebron on a permanent basis since even if we evacuate them they will just go back and take over new homes. It is up to the government to decide if it wants this minority to continue running the city or not.”

For more information contact:

ISM Media Office: 02 297 1824

Villagers of Jab’a to Work Their Land After Settler Vandalism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Over two days, Thursday the 25th and Friday the 26th of May, the villagers of Jab’a, south-west of Bethlehem will attempt to access and work their land, from 9am till 3pm.The villagers will bring agricultural equipment to develop the over-grown land. Settler intimidation and violence had, until very recently, prevented them from accessing.

Last month, with the support of international and Israeli activists the villagers were able to work the land for the first time in 5 years. A few days later, settlers herded 150 goats onto the land, where they destroyed the village’s crops.

Jab’a is a Palestinian village of 900 people, which has 4000 dunams of land, 200 of which will be de-facto annexed to Israeli after the building of the illegal apartheid wall there. It is near the Gush Etziyon settlement block and faces frequent problems with settler violence.

This action is supported by the Popular Committee from nearby Beit Ommar. The people of Beit Omar recently held a similar land access action in their village. See the report from the 18th of April on www.palsolidarity.org entitled “Jab’a Ploughs its Land” for an account of the last such action in Jab’a.

For more information call:
Mosa Abu Mariya: 054 583 8925
ISM Media office 02 297 1924

How Many Escorts Does it Take to Get 3 Children Home?

“When are we going to get a reality show in Tel Rumeida?”
by Shlomo Bloom


HRWs (the two women in vests) try to escort Palestinian kids (left) through a razor wire fence while settlers (background) and Israeli activists (foreground) look on

20th May 2006: How many people does it require to escort three Palestinian children home while they pass a bunch of angry and violent settlers? Really, it was so many this time that I lost count. This report is the combined testimony of several different Human Rights Workers (HRWs) present in Tel Rumeida, Hebron today.

After last week’s attacks, we decided to have four HRWs present to make sure that three Palestinian children got home safely as they passed the Tel Rumeida settlement. I was going to stay on the roof of our apartment and film where I had a great view of the street and hopefully not get attacked by soldiers and settlers like last time.

A little bit of background on this particular situation: there are three Palestinian children who have to walk along a narrow path directly below the Tel Rumeida settlement in order to go home from school. The settlers consider this a provocation and regularly throw rocks at the children as they walk home. The settlers told soldiers to put razor wire across the beginning of the path and the children have to move it out of the way every day. There is an Israeli supreme court order that allows the children to use this path but soldiers on duty nearby rarely know this and often refuse to help the children get home safely.

Today, Shabbat, is always especially difficult because the settlers are not at work or school and they hang around waiting to cause trouble.


Settler woman (with baby) tries to convince soldiers that Palestinian kids (left) are not allowed to pass

I began filming as I saw one HRW walking with the children up to the entrance to the path and this is what I saw and what the HRW later told me. The HRW walked with the three children up the hill. A member of EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniers for Palestine and Israel) was close behind. The HRW started explaining to the soldier on duty that the children must be allowed access to the path to go home. The kids began trying to climb over the wire when several settlers appeared and a settler woman began yelling at the Palestinian children and at the soldier, telling them they were not allowed to pass and that they had to go around. Immediately on hearing the settler woman, the soldier told the kids that they were not allowed here because this was Israel and that they should go back. The HRW replied that it was an Israeli supreme court order that they should be allowed to pass! No one gave solid reasons whythe children were not allowed. The HRW then asked the soldier to call for backup because the settler woman hit her and was shoving her in an attempt to get at the Palestinian kids. Many settlers were crowding around the HRW and the Palestinian children at this point as they were trying to climb over the razor wire. One of the settler threw a rock that hit the HRW. The HRW begged the soldier to ask his commander about the order and he refused.

Eventually the soldiers ordered the two HRWs and the Palestinian children back down the hill where they would wait for approximately 45 minutes for the right people to show up and allow them home.


Palestinian child waits to go home

At this point there were about fifteen soldiers present and they noticed me filming on the roof. Some soldiers took my picture and I smiled, waved and blew them a kiss.

At this point the HRW on the street with the children called the District Command Office to try and get them to order the soldiers to let the children go home. She also called the police.

Another Jeep full of soldiers arrived. Some soldiers were holding the settlers at the top of the hill at bay but most had positioned themselves in the road so that the children could not pass.


Members of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) watch soldiers

Now there were four members of TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron), four members of EAPPI, three of us, two Israeli activists, two people wearing UN vests and God knows how many soldiers present all discussing whether or not these poor kids should be allowed home.


The Palestinian children’s uncle (in black jacket) tried to convince the soldiers to allow the children to go home

One of the Israeli activists called the police, explained the situation in Hebrew and requested their presence. They finally showed up.


The three Palestinian kids wait


UN workers talk to Israeli police

Eventually someone figured out what was supposed to happen and one police officer, the two UN workers and three or four soldiers walked the children up the hill and over the razor wire.


The children are finally escorted home by police, soldiers and UN workers

As soon as the police and soldiers were out of view, an adult settler woman threw several rocks at the Palestinian children as they walked along the path to their home.


The children are finally escorted home by police, soldiers and UN workers, settlers are in the background, guarded by soldiers


Kids walk over the razor wire

The children got to their home about an hour after they should have.