Tag: Hebron - Page 49 - International Solidarity Movement

Sami Janazreh enters 46th day of hunger strike

17th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Today volunteers from ISM attended a demonstration in Al-Khalil for Prisoners’ Day. Once the main demonstration had ended in the city a group of young Palestinians invited the volunteers to the Fawwar refugee camp outside the city.

Prisoner's day demonstration in occupied Hebron — Prisoner’s day demonstration in occupied Hebron

At the camp they were greeted by the Janazreh family, relatives of Sami Janazreh who invited the volunteers into their home for tea so they could tell us his story. Sami’s brother Haitham explained that Sami was detained on the 15th of November 2015 from his home in front of his family. The Israeli military brought no charges against Sami, but he was brought before a military court, with no jury or media present and sentenced to 4 months in a military prison. Once the 4 months were up he was brought before the military court again and sentenced to a further 4 months, without charge.

Three young demonstrators hold images of Sami

On the 3rd of March 2016 Sami was left with no option but to begin a hunger strike in protest at his detention. He is now 46 days into his hunger strike, and for the last 20 days his family has had no contact with him. The last information they received was that his kidneys were failing, his teeth had begun to fall out and he was unable to walk. The family have made concerted efforts to contact the prison to get updates on his condition but to no avail. They have had no contact from the Israeli government and there have been no official reports made.

On April 3rd 2016 two other prisoners, Adeb Mafaga and Fuouad Asse also began a hunger strike in protest at their illegal detention. The three men are striking in the hope that the Israeli government will release them to their families with signed papers to say they will no longer be detained without cause.

Sami's brother Haitham — Sami’s brother Haytham

Sami’s home is within the Fawwar refugee camp where he live’ with his wife, 3 children, Feras (13), Mahmod Darwesh (7), Marya (4) and other relatives including his brother, Haitham. The family has accepted that their father will die in prison without them having the chance to say goodbye. They asked the human rights defenders from ISM to highlight the plight of these men and raise awareness in the international community to give Sami the strength to continue his protest. As the hunger strike on its own has not been successful, it is now vitally important that we highlight this issue and put worldwide pressure on the Israeli government to release the men and save their lives.

On this Palestinian Prisoner’s Day we urge you to show support for Sami, Adeb and Fuoud by tweeting #FreeSami and by spreading his story through social media as much as we can.

Tree Planting and Protest in Beit al-Baraka

10th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Trees were planted and a demonstration took place today at Beit al-Baraka today to protest the extension of the illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

An international presence had been requested by the organisers so two ISM volunteers headed to Beit Ummar to meet with them, and along with three Israeli activists headed to Beit al-Baraka, 38-dunam (9.3 acre) compound located near the al-Arrub refugee camp. This is an area which used to be owned by Palestinians, but which has now been fenced off, either by settlers or by the American millionaire, Irving Moskowitz, who is rumoured to have purchased the site through a front company in 2012 in order to create an illegal Israeli settlement there. What is very clear is that this area is earmarked for illegal settlement and will form a strategic extension to the illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc that overlooks the area. What local Palestinians fear is that the entire Gush Etzion junction will be closed to Palestinians, permanently closing the road between Hebron and Behlehem for them. This fenced area is now a closed military zone forbidden to Palestinians.

Close to this closed area a group of around 25 local Palestinians, and the international and Israeli activists planted a number of trees on Palestinian land as a protest, attended by several Palestinian Authority officials, and some press. After the tree planting, which was observed by Israeli soldiers, the demonstrators marched peacefully towards the closed area of land and the soldiers and confronted them, during which there was some arguing and scuffling with soldiers. Two men were detained for a time, but nobody was arrested.

The creeping extension of the Gush Etzion cluster of settlements which Israelis call ‘the gateway to Jerusalem’ and increasing tension and violence at the junction make this entire area a frightening place for Palestinians to pass through.

House demolitions in Um Al-Khair leaving children homeless

7th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Wednesday the 6th of April 2016 at 6 o’clock in the morning, Israeli forces demolished 6 homes in the village of Um Al Khair in the south Hebron Hills in the southern part of the occupied West Bank in Palestine. 36 people are now with out shelter. Most of these are children, who are now homeless.

Children standing on the land of their now demolished homes, Um Al-Khair

During the demolition of the 6 houses, the Israeli forces beat up an elderly man from the neighbourhood, who is the grandfather to some of the children, who was protecting the houses and trying to stop the demolition. The demolition order was made, to make an expansion of the near by settlement possible and to confiscate the land belonging to the Palestinian families.

This is not an unknown concept in the South Hebron Hills, which is an area that is very vulnerable and under constant threat of demolitions, because of the amounts of settlements and the lack of building permissions, that are not given. The two Hebron Hills villages of Tuwani and Susiya in particular are being targeted a lot, not just with demolition orders and subsequent demolitions, but also by settlers, who attack them often and by very violent means. The Palestinian children going to school in Tuwani who live out side of the village, need to have a military escort on the way to and from school, to avoid settler attacks while going through a piece of land that has been illegally stolen from the villagers, by the settlers.

Children being escorted to school by soldiers to avoid settler attacks

Just within the last few weeks, both Tuwani and Susiya have experienced demolitions and since the start of this year, more than 700 Palestinians have been left homeless and without shelter due to Israeli Forces demolishing Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank. In just over 3 months this is the same number for the whole of 2015.

Settlers expropriate Palestinian garden as police stand by

4th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Tel Rumeida, al Khalil, occupied Palestine

On Saturday 3^rd of April 2016 settlers entered land belonging to Muhammad Abu Haikal in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron on the occupied West Bank in Palestine. The settler children built a tent and then brought other settlers who prayed and ate there. It took more than four hours from when the police arrived until the settlers actually left, still claiming that it was their land and running around so that the police would not be able to evict them.

The first young settler kids arrived at the land at around 9 o’clock in the morning and started building a tent out of wood and sheets that they had found and playing on the land. They were actually playing in Muhammad Abu Haikal’s garden, but the end of the garden has been declared a closed military area by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who have made a military outpost in the garden and cut off the end of it of with barbed wire. The settler children entered the garden using the staircase that has been built for the soldiers to reach the outpost: they stamped down the barbed wire and covered it with a piece of wood to prevent themselves from getting injured.

Settlers and their children trespassing illegally on Palestinian land.

Later on, while the family was trying to pick almonds from trees in the part of the garden that is not a closed military Area, the settler children returned with a number of adult settlers and more children. Muhammed Abu Haikal and the internationals present asked the settlers to leave the land, but they refused. He then contacted the police.

After the police arrived, the settlers once again claimed to be the owners of the land, with the right to remain there. The Palestinian family was asked to step back and had to stop harvesting their garden. Not until after the settlers had prayed on the land multiple times, brought food and played ball there, did the police finally try to get them to leave. The police asked all Palestinians and internationals to leave as well, as they said, “it is impossible to make Israelis leave, if there are Palestinians on the land”. It then took the police over two hours to evict the settlers. They then removed the materials that the children had left on the part of the land that is not a closed military area, but refused to pull down the tent, because, they said, it was not allowed on Shabbat.

Finally the soldiers closed off the closed military area with more barbed wire and allowed the family back into their garden. If Palestinians had been trespassing on settlers land, which is illegally occupied, they would probably have been arrested immediately, but when it is the other way around, which it usually is, the police do not use any kind of force.

A night of protective presence needed

3rd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

The two boys met us at the store, shouting the name of our Palestinian contact and waving us along. The cobbled stones in the alley made a nice contrast to the darkness of the night. My feet landed softly on the mud where we started our climb. Glimpses of trash were seen from the flickering flash lights, as if we were threading our way across the city dump. We were going to the house of Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, the man who had managed to catch last week’s execution on film. His name was out in the media and he and his family had received death threats. The local illegal settlers had also put up posters with his name and face on them, saying they wanted him skinned alive. The house had already been firebombed. We were going there as an international presence to act as a deterrent to what seemed a likely further attack.

Emad in his family home — Imad in his family home

This night his backyard looked like your average neighbourhood barbecue, except that nobody was eating. Imad was sitting by the brazier alongside ten other men from the surrounding houses. His children were buzzing about, and his wife Faisa made sure everyone got their coffee and tea. When the soldiers showed up she made sure everything got caught on film.

There were three of them, all dressed in green, with black automatic rifles and some form of knee pads, which went well with the beret of their leader. They reminded me of turtles with their inability to look back over their shoulders. The execution had been condemned by president Netanyahu at first but later on, as the Israeli public opinion cleared in favour of the soldier, the shooting was surrounded with excuses. The situation for the messenger had however deteriorated.

As the soldiers walked in to the backyard a handful of camera LCDs lit up the night, like torches keeping the wolves at bay. Faisa brought her camera close to the officer’s face, where he hopefully saw a reflection of himself, a harasser of ordinary people.

The soldiers stood around for a while as they checked our passports and IDs. The situation was a bit tense but as everyone had the right to be there, they turned on their heels and left. They were the second delegation from the Israeli army that night. A lone soldier had come at first, to see if there was any protection present, and Issa guessed, to go back and tell the settlers. Luckily, there were a lot of people showing Imad and Faisa their support.

As the hours passed people started to leave for their homes. Our delegation from the ISM spent the rest of the night at Imad’s place. There was an Indian soap opera on TV, dubbed to Arabic, and the children surfed the internet. It could have been a quiet night in a home anywhere in the world, if it hadn’t been for the occupation, or the death threats.