Tag: Hebron

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.

Successful Land-Access Action in Beit Omar

Sunbula’s Journal: “Settler Brats and Weed Pulling”

20th May: From Jerusalem to Beit Omar, you need to change taxis three times in order to get there, partly because of two Israeli checkpoints. It is a small village outside Hebron (al-Khalil) past Bethlehem. An international presence was needed there today in order to help the farmers farm their land outside the village which is being encroached upon by an illegal settlement. The settlers have been harassing the villagers and attacking them to stop them from working on the land, in order to try and annex more of it. We were received in the house of Ibrahim Abu Marya and his family and then walked with other internationals from the Christian Peacemaker Teams and Israeli anarchists and peace activists to the fields. Army jeeps were driving past us and when we got to the land just in front of the settlement, there were soldiers gathered. I thought they were going to harass us, but they were mostly trying to stop the settler children from coming and provoking us and the villagers. The settler children, some of them probably under 10, were gathered there and cursing at us in Hebrew, shouting such nice things as “Nazis”, “sons of whores” and “Hitler needs help” and giving us middle fingers. This is one of the things I detest most about the settlers – they send their little children to attack Palestinians and peace activists because they know the army can’t and wont do anything against them. Talk about cowardice. The soldiers today seemed rather indifferent to the settler kids and seemed to have a bored “I want to go home” expression on their face, which I don’t blame them for.

We were lucky in that sense that they didn’t help the settlers today. This behavior from settlers is pretty mild compared to what goes on in Hebron city, where the faithful of Meir Kahane, Baruch Goldstein, the Kach and other such nutcases live; they are considered racist and insane even by mainstream Israeli political standards, which is saying something, but they have money and influence in the Israeli establishment and from sections of American Jewish communities, who believe they are helping to settle the land of Greater Israel.

The internationals and Israelis helped pull weeds from the land and just stay there to prevent the settlers from attacking. The army is more likely to restrain them, in fact much more likely, when there are internationals present, which is why the presence of international solidarity activists is so important and why the Israelis harass people at the borders whom they suspect of being activists. The army is less likely to beat and shoot Palestinians at demonstrations when there are international faces present, watching, photographing, recording, and protesting. It was fairly peaceful today overall, which is the way it should be more, especially after the large number of injuries at this Friday’s protest in Bil’in village. It was also fun, everyone was impressed by my Arabic and the village kids surrounded me and kept chatting with me about various things. They also demonstrated their ability to sing, in unison, “we shall overcome” and “we will rock you”, clearly showing their varied and eclectic taste in western music. I also learnt lots of vocabulary relating to nature and plants, which should hopefully be helpful.

I am off to Ramallah tomorrow, leaving Jerusalem, for the ISM office and the training for newly arrived people. Excited to meet people I had befriended last time and my good old first Palestinian friend, Mansour the big joker from Biddu.

Successful Wire Cutting Action in Beit Omar

Today, May 17, two international and one Israeli human rights activists joined a small group of Palestinian farmers in their non-violent action of cutting up 50 meters of a 500 meter long barbed wire fence. A fence the Israeli army illegally had set up the previous day on Palestinian owned land.

Together with the two other international activists I reached Beit Omar early this morning. We met up with Ahmed, one of the owners of the land that was now defaced by army barbwire. We bought some food and water and then went altogether in a car to Ahmed’s fields situated just outside the village of Beit Omar, opposite the farmers university of Arob village. It was a hot morning and we all sat down in the shadow of Ahmed’s grapevine, pear and all kinds of other sorts of trees to eat and he started to tell us the story of his land and the newly set up barbed wire.

He tells us that the land we’re sitting on belongs to him and his family and that the surrounding parts of the field belong to two other families. In total the size of the land of the three families is 6000 square meters and altogether 40 people are living off and depending on the products and the incomes this land is bringing them.

The previous day the army had come and set up a 500-meter long barbed wire fence crossing straight through the bottom part of the lands of the three families. It effectively makes it impossible to enter the field with a tractor and all the farmer equipment necessary for the work. And though it’s possible to get around the fence by foot, even this is a disrupting and unpleasant 500 meters hiking in difficult terrain. Ahmed continues, “It’s spring! We’re soon going to harvest. If we’re not able to work in the fields now and prepare for harvest and then not even be able to do the actual harvesting, 40 people will starve this year!”

When Ahmed asked the army commander, Izik Affasi in charge of the military operation, for a reason why the barbed wire was set up he got the answer that there had been Palestinian kids throwing stones from this land on settler cars on the close by settler bypass road. When Ahmed then asked the commander for papers proving that there was a court decision behind this operation he was told they didn’t have any papers right now but that they would bring him papers the following day.

When we, the internationals, later had the possibility to speak to the commander in question he made it clear that there were no accusations on the landowners or their families of throwing stones. The commander even said he knew that the kids came from another village close by, but then he added that the army still holds the landowners responsible for what ever happens on their land at whatever time.

Whether there had ever been any kids throwing stones from Ahmed’s and the other families’ lands or not we could all agree on three things. First of all there was no legal papers shown to the landowners when the barbed wire was set up, so there was no reason for them to let it stay there. Second of all the stone throwing accusations weren’t directed to the farmers or their families and they should therefore not have to be the ones suffering for it. That’s called collective punishment and is, from what I know, illegal by international law. Thirdly the barbed wire doesn’t, in any way, fill the purpose of keeping stone throwing kids away. It’s perfectly possible to stand either in front or behind the barbed wire and throw stones.

When this was made clear the internationals started to cut up the fence and effectively removed all barbed wire from Ahmed’s land.

At 11 o’clock soldiers showed up and though they were obviously angry, after awhile, they actually started to listen to what the farmers had to say. As showing the soldiers the damage the barbed wire has caused on his groves Haj Mahmoud, one of the neighbor landowners, argued the absurdity of the barbed wire being put in the middle of his land “Why does it have to be here, in the middle of our fields? Put a high wall on the side of the road instead!” To demonstrate Haj Mahmoud picked up a stone from the ground and threw it on the now empty road “Even me, an 80 year old man, can reach the road with a stone from this side of the barbed wire!” A couple of hours of discussions actually made them agree on our arguments and it was decided that all of the remaining barbed wire could be removed and instead a wall will be set up on the side of the road, allowing the farmers full access to their land. No one was arrested.

We’ll have to wait and see if this agreement will be kept to or not.