Tag: Hebron - Page 34 - International Solidarity Movement

The Weight of Each Stone

For generations, stones have played a significant role in both Palestinian society and within resistance movements. For this reason, it should be no surprise that the Israeli state has historically targeted the use of stones in a variety of ways, and continues to today.

The significance of stones within the Palestinian context is deeply-rooted. For centuries stones and boulders have been used across Palestine in agricultural lands to give structure and strength to the soil holding the olive and fruit trees that feed and sustain Palestinian society. Homes in many areas of Palestine are also built from these materials which are of the earth, of the land that is so sought after by imperialist powers. The connection between physical home, and homeland is grounded partially in the stones of the earth.

Within Palestinian resistance movements, stones have played a crucial role. They are often used to barricade roads from Israeli military jeeps entering Palestinian areas. In the first Intifada, masses of Palestinians took to the streets to fight the Israeli occupation and colonial forces using the only ‘weapon’ available to them: stones. Perhaps one of the most iconic photos from the first intifada was that of a young boy throwing a stone at a monstrous military jeep with precision and purpose. These practices extended through the Second Intifada and into today, as we continue to see children and youth fighting for their communities against Israeli colonial and violent practices, with stones.

Occupying Israeli soldiers enter the Palestinian market in Al Khalil. — Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian market roads in Al Khalil Friday, met with a front of stones.

Last Friday in Al Khalil, seven Israeli soldiers came through the Palestinian market roads; a nearly daily practice and demonstration of Israeli entitlement. It seems to have become normalized in many ways as a part of living under Israeli occupation. But some days, like this past Friday, it is met with a statement of strength that reflects a history of Palestinian liberation movements. A handful of Palestinian children from ages eight to ten, defended their streets with stones in hand. The soldiers, suited up in helmets and military gear including their ever present M-16s, seemed to laugh at the front the young boys held. But in the end, the soldiers left. These few boys, with so much righteous anger and frustration, held their ground, and fought for their community in a small, but powerful show of resistance.

One day prior to this in Beit Ummar, a village in northern Al Khalil, yet another Palestinian youth, Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces for alleged rock throwing. According to Ma’an News, Bahr became the 235th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since a wave of violence spread across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in October 2015.

The sobering number of Palestinians killed are what you might expect when you look at the policies supported by the Israeli parliament, such as the shoot-to-kill measure introduced in September of 2015, legally allowing the use of live-fire against Palestinian protestors. This tactic has been common practice, but like so many other unconscionable Israeli policies, has now been ushered into legal practice under the occupying state. This measure has been used by the Israeli government continuously over the past year as a rationalization for the unjustifiable killings taking place in large numbers, including against youth who participate in throwing stones.

These intentions are further echoed in the policies around arrests and imprisonment for stone throwing. Palestinians can be imprisoned for up to twenty years if charged with throwing stones with intent to harm. The testimony of one soldier is all that the Israeli court often deem necessary to charge and sentence Palestinians for throwing stones, whether or not this actually took place, and with no regards to if anyone was harmed in the process. The absurdity of a sentence such as this is not only used as a tactic to imprison thousands of Palestinians, often children and youth, but is targeting the symbolism of resistance that continues to drive Palestinians fighting for freedom, fighting for liberation, and fighting for their homeland.

Each stone thrown today, holds the significance and weight of each thrown before it. As Israeli colonialism continues to spread, the stones of the earth continue to build a foundation for Palestinian resistance to stand on. They have acted as this from the beginning of the occupation and will continue to for as long as the oppressive policies of the Israeli state persist.

‘We are strong and we will be free’ – Hashem Azzeh memorial

24th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

One year has lapsed since the passing of Hashem Azzeh, a devoted husband and loving father of three, and close friend of ISM. Hashem died following an exacerbation of a latent heart condition that was triggered by tear gas inhalation suffered in his own home when Israeli forces were showering demonstrators at Bab al-Zawwiyeh with tear gas. The circumstances of Hashems death are inextricably entwined with the objective of his life, which was to defend his city of Hebron and its Palestinian residents from Israeli occupiers determined to remove them from it.

Hashem lived in the H2 area of Tel Reumeida, a neighbourhood that has been devastated by the Israeli occupation and the settlements that now surround it. He and his family suffered daily harassment at the hands of settlers and Israeli forces alike, who regularly attacked their home and enforced upon them curfews, which often saw them imprisoned in their own home. In perhaps the most disturbing example of the violence they experienced, his wife, Nizeem, suffered two miscarriages following physical assault by settlers during her pregnancies. However, despite these despicable and inhumane atrocities carried out against them, Hashem and his family remained steadfast and unwavering in their determination not to be intimidated from their home, and that of several generations that preceded them. It is for this unyielding strength and resilience shown in the face of relentless assault that Hashem will best be remembered.

Hashem’s activism saw him conjure close ties with international activists from all over the world. Testament to the admiration held for him by the international activist community was the presence of a large number of internationals at his memorial, which was held last Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of his passing, organised by the Hebron Defense Committee (HDC). Invited to speak were Anan Dana (HDC), Ahmad Jaradat (Alternative Information Centre), Fahmi Shaheen (Co-ordination Committee of the Political Factions), Abdelmaieed AlKhateeb (The Residents of Tel Rumeida) Mohammed Al Qeeq (Hungerstriker of 94 days) and Stella (Unadikum Association representing international friends of Hashem).

Since Hashem’s death, the situation in the Old City of Hebron and throughout occupied Palestine has only worsened. Hashem, like Fadi and Hadeel, is just one of the more than 35 Palestinians killed in the Old City of al-Khalil by Israeli forces, with completely impunity for the occupying forces and settlers from the illegal settlements committing these war crimes. In addition to executing and murdering Palestinians, Israeli forces then kidnap the bodies of these martyrs, denying their families the very basic right of a funeral. In the Tel Rumeida neighborhoud, the roadblocks and checkpoints have increased and worsened, and the whole area has been declared a ‘closed military zone’ in obvious attempts of Judaization of the area through ethnic cleansing of it’s Palestinian population.

However, by far the most moving tribute was delivered by Hashems’ daughter, Raghad Azzeh, who described how after her father’s death, the situation just grew worse. In a time where the international community is not acting, the Palestinians of the area need to stand with each other as Hebronites (people living in Hebron). After her fathers’ death, the prison that Israeli forces have made the family home, has worsened, with the main access to their house closed down just a day after Hashem’s tragic death. In her address she appealed to those present that they honour his memory by embracing the principles that guided Hashems’ own activism, and to remain resolute in opposition of Israel’s continued encroachment of their homes and livelihoods until Hebron, and its Palestinian residents, are freed from the occupation under which they currently suffer.

Watch ‘Hashem, a living legend of resistance’ by the Alternative Information Center.

Roadblocks, stun grenades and settler aggression: another Jewish holiday in occupied al-Khalil

23rd October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

The events of Tuesday the 18^th of October began to unravel as my friend and I accompanied school children through an Israeli checkpoint (Salaymeh) as they made their way home that afternoon. On our return journey from the school we noticed a car stopped next to a number of school children, its passengers yelling loudly at them, prompting us to film the confrontation. When the driver became aware of our filming the car began to move slowly towards us. As it neared, the car accelerated slightly, forcing us to move quickly to avoid it. Some of the passengers immediately jumped from the car and began to hurl insults at us, calling us “Nazis” and “Jew killers”. They continued in this fashion, pushing and shouting at us to “leave their land” until we were forced through the checkpoint to relative safety. The soldiers present did little to stifle their aggression towards us and even offered one of these men a friendly pat on the back as we left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ8tLf5tnfY

After passing through the checkpoint we noticed an armored bulldozer parked outside the gate and so we decided to wait a while. Before long the checkpoint gate opened and the bulldozer began to move through the street towards another checkpoint (Qeitun), accompanied by three armed Israeli soldiers. We followed it to Qeitun where it began to fashion a roadblock from rubble, large stone blocks and rubbish that was piled up in the street. As we got closer the soldiers began shouting aggressively at us to stop, preventing us from properly observing what they were doing. In the commotion a number of people came out from their homes and businesses, and children, whose homeward journey was blocked due to the soldiers activity, began to congregate at a nearby junction. With this, the soldiers began pointing their weapons threateningly into the crowd. One soldier regularly lifted a stun grenade from his jacket pocket, seemingly eager to use it. As the bulldozer returned to Salaymeh, soldiers continued to fixate their rifles on young children and people passing by. One soldier aimed his rifle at children moving through a near by field, laughing out loud as they ran, terrified that he might fire at them. As the bulldozer passed through Salaymeh, a single stone was thrown from the crowd of school children who had congregated at that junction, landing harmlessly on the ground at the soldier’s feet. In response, the soldier ran towards the congregated school children, throwing a stun grenade into the middle of the crowd causing it to scatter in a frenzied panic. Again he laughed at this triumph.

An armored bulldozer rolls out of the Salaymeh checkpoint through the Palestinian neighborhood to create a roadblock off of a narrow side street.

Roadblock built from large stones and rotting garbage blocking off a Palestinian side street near the Qeitun checkpoint.

It was clear that these children, ranging in age between 5-15, posed no real threat to these soldiers and most were simply waiting to go home. Many of the adults among them, some of whom were presumably teachers, tried tirelessly to keep the children out of harms way. Despite this the soldiers enjoyed taunting the crowd and frightening them with violent intimidation and excessive use of force.

To the Palestinian residents of Hebron such incidents are a familiar occurrence, but these operations increase in regularity during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which draws hundreds of Jewish holidaymakers to the fully Israeli controlled H2 part of the city to celebrate the “Feast of the Tabernacles”. Under the auspice of “security”, Israeli military presence similarly escalates during this period, as the number of roadblocks, closures and checkpoints increases dramatically. A number of Palestinian-owned businesses are even forced to close during this time and many residents are prevented from entering or leaving their homes as Jewish tourists parade freely through the so-called Palestinian controlled H1 part of the city, accompanied by soldiers armed heavily with rifles and a variety of other weaponry. Armed guards frequently humiliate and harass Palestinian residents, young and old, with an upsurge in the frequency and ferocity of body searches. Barricades are erected to separate passing Palestinians from Jewish tourists, further reinforcing the apartheid system already enforced by the illegal Israeli occupation of Hebron.

An atmosphere of trepidation consumes the Palestinian residents of Hebron during Sukkot for fear that this military escalation will be used to further the Israeli agenda of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from the city. Violence, eviction and destruction of property at the hands of settlers and the Israeli forces has become commonplace for the Palestinian population of Hebron who, despite it all, remain admirably resolute and resilient throughout.

School children prevented from returning home due to this activity by the Israeli forces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQiyLibtpmo

“No Palestinians during the holiday”: Palestinian man harassed during Sukkot

21st October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Late Thursday morning, as Palestinian schools in the Old City of occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) were dismissing their students early due to enhanced settler activity, Israeli forces harassed a Palestinian man and denied him his right of movement through the large parking lot near the base of al-Ibrahimi Mosque. The reason for this incident, as well as the increase in settler activity, was due to the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles. Throughout this entire week, Israeli Forces have increased their numbers stationed around the Mosque, and it was one of these members of the occupation forces that decided to harass this Palestinian civilian.

The man, a local tour guide in the Old City of al-Khalil, entered the parking lot in order to reach a group of Turkish tourists who had just arrived. Upon setting foot in the lot, two members of the Israeli Border Police approached him, with one using his hands to physically shove him away from the cordoned off entrance. As he tried to explain that he merely wanted to pass through to reach the tourists, the border policeman raised his voice and shouted at him to get back. When the man asked why he was not allowed to pass through when so many tourists were permitted to, the answer he received was, “You are Palestinian. No Palestinians pass through here during the holiday.” The man had no choice but to turn around and walk around the parking lot.

The denial towards Palestinians of their right to movement by Israeli forces is a fundamental weapon of the occupation. By preventing Palestinians from entering historical and religious sites, and working to minimize their presence around Jewish festivities, Israel uses the excuse of the holidays to continue its process of ethnically cleaning al-Khalil of its indigenous Palestinian population. On Wednesday, Israeli Forces came out in force to block off a road in the so-called Palestinian controlled H1 area to allow settlers from the illegal Israeli settlements to have access to a supposed prayer site in the city. This is merely one of the many examples of how Jewish holidays act as a cover for forceful intimidation of Palestinians.

The harassment of this man this morning is symptomatic of the devaluation of Palestinian life under the Israeli occupation across the land of Palestine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrToi8Hq2AM

Israeli forces shut down Palestinian street for Sukkot tour in occupied al-Khalil

20th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Shortly after noon on October 19, Israeli Forces began congregating on the militarized H2 side of the Shuhada Street checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil. A massive gathering of international Jewish tourists and settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlements followed shortly after. This is nothing new for the people of occupied al-Khalil – every year during the week of Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles, Israeli forces shut down part of the central square of Bab al-Zawiye to form a “safe zone” for settlers and tourists.

Palsetinian civilians forced to stand back as Israeli forces take over area outside Shuhada Street checkpoint. — Palestinian civilians forced to stand back as Israeli forces take over area outside Shuhada Street checkpoint.

First to exit the checkpoint into the so-called Palestinian controlled H1 area were the Israeli forces. After forming a human barrier around the two armored cars that had just arrived from around the corner via an H1 street, additional soldiers marched up towards a supposed sacred site in order to line themselves up in the “safe zone” formation. Once this had been done, massive groups of settlers and tourists began walking along this now-militarized Palestinian street. By this point, snipers had set up on rooftops, soldiers had sound bombs at the ready, and Israeli forces of all colors were spontaneously aiming their weapons at unarmed Palestinian civilians as a form of intimidation.

Jewish tourists and settlers from nearby illegal Israeli settlements walk up and down the now-militarized H1 street.

These “safe zones” are simply additional tools used by Israeli forces to further their ethnic cleansing operations in occupied al-Khalil. The military setup of the operation presented a distorted and dehumanized spectacle of Palestinians as wild, bloodthirsty animals that needed to be controlled to the settlers, when in reality these people were only seeking to shop, socialize, and live their normal, everyday lives. By demonizing Palestinian civilians as “terrorists” and presenting their military offenses as “security operations”, Israeli forces have sought to justify their illegal incursions into the H1 area. These incursions present an ample opportunity for arrests and acts of violence against Palestinians, in many cases leading to the clearing of Palestinian residents to make room for additional illegal Israeli settlements.

Therefore, not only are these guided settler tours and the militarized “safe zones” they conjure up used as a powerful zionist propaganda presentation, they are in fact part and parcel with Israel’s process of ethnically cleansing al-Khalil of its indigenous Palestinian population. At no time is this practice so consistently played out annually than during the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Every year in occupied al-Khalil, settlers and tourists from Israel and abroad are bussed in by the truckloads towards the al-Ibrahimi mosque.

Israeli Border Police block off roads leading to the settler tour destination, doing whatever they please to modify the physical boundaries of the occupation.

The mosque becomes shut down for Palestinian Muslims and many of the checkpoints throughout the city are closed at random points with no prior warning. As Jewish tourists set up tents on the lawn in front of the mosque, many abandoned buildings (former homes of evicted Palestinians) are refitted into military bases. Students from the nearby schools are forced to walk to and from school past this military madness every day of the week, and young male Palestinians are stripped searched for weapons while Israeli settlers are allowed to walk by fully armed to the teeth with assault weapons slung across their bodies out in the open.

What happened today in the thriving Palestinian center of Bab al-Zawiye is nothing new for the people of occupied al-Khalil. It is simply a systemic occurrence of the slow and violent creep of ethnic cleansing by the state of Israel towards the people of occupied Palestine.