Three months ago, in the wake of two extrajudicial executions committed by Israeli forces in Tel Rumeida, Israeli military authorities forced Palestinians living in the neighborhood to register and receive numbers in order to be allowed to reach their homes. Everyone else, including family members, media and Palestinian and international human rights defenders are barred from the area even as Zionist settlers from the adjacent illegal settlements continue to travel unrestricted.
We are calling on everyone to participate in the Twitterstorm on February 1st, 3 pm Palestine time to demand an end to the closed military zone; three months is far too long under an illegal, unjust program of collective punishment!
Starting at 3:00 pm Palestinian time (8:00 am EST, 2:00pm for most of Europe) on February 1st, tweet with the hashtag #EndHebronMilitaryZone using our sample tweets. Please spread the word (whether or not you have a personal twitter account), and call on friends, family, and anyone you know who believes in Palestinian rights to participate. You can share this Facebook post, and also follow @ISMPalestine for any further updates leading up to the Twitterstorm. Remember to NOT use the hashtag before the date and time of the Twitterstorm.
The document contains sample tweets to use along with some accounts to target, and this folder contains visuals that you can use in your tweets We encourage you to address some of your tweets to your representatives, politicians, ambassadors/embassies to Israel and UN members; though we may continue to update the list on the google doc also feel free to tag accounts not including if you think they are relevant. Also link to the Action Alert – the call by Palestinian and international organizations to open Tel Rumeida and respect Palestinian human rights, out thunderclap campaign page, and our Call for Action listing more concrete steps people can take.
Please participate and bring awareness to the situation in Tel Rumeida, to help build public pressure on Israeli authorities to end the closed military zone. As Palestinian resident of Tel Rumeida Abed Salaymeh explains,“soldiers and settlers are making life for the Palestinians intolerable to force them to leave their houses voluntarily. This is a crime under international law. They are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop the truth from reaching the whole world.” We are reaching out to you to ask that you please help spread the truth of what is happening to the world.
30th January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
More than four month ago, 24th September 2015, at the very start of the current escalation of violence, human rights group Amnesty International demanded a proper investigation in the execution of Hadeel al-Hashlamon at Shuhada checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) on 22nd September 2015. Amnesty consideres it proven, that the 18 year old female student posed no threat to the soldiers who executed her and then let her bleed to death without medical help for more than half an hour.
More executions followed and they all seem to have the same pattern: Soldiers at the checkpoints gun down Palestinian men and women who just wanted to pass the checkpoints and gave them no medical care until they were dead. They put a knife next to the body and made a photograph of the body and the knife, for the ‘stabbing attack story’ in the official Israeli news.
While the international press blindly copied the official Israeli version of the events saying “Israel has the right to defend themselves against terrorists.” The Israeli government furthermore tries to criminalize any human rights organisation that actually did proper report on the incidents.
From then on, the Israeli Army killed Palestinian civilians every day. The number counts 167 killed Palestinians suspected of knife attacks, car attacks or trowing stones. Most of them in Hebron in the southern part of the West Bank
In the last week of October 2015, there were almost daily executions by the Israeli army in the city of Hebron:
On 22 October, Israeli forces in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood killed Islam Ebeido (23), from the same neighborhood, while passing by Gilbert checkpoint .
On 24 October, at approximately 14:50, Israeli forces killed Sa’d al-Atrash (20), from the south of Hebron, in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque. They shot him from a range of less than 2 meters. Israeli forces claimed that al-Atrash attempted to stab an Israeli soldier. It should be noted that the area were al-Atrash was killed can’t be entered without passing through a metal detector in a checkpoint.
On 25 October, Israeli Border Police stationed at the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque, south of Hebron’s Old City, killed Dania Jehad Ersheid (17), from al-Hawooz area. They opened fire at her when she stopped to have her school bag searched.
On 27 October, at approximately 22:30, Israeli special troops, temporarily replacing the soldiers at the Gilbert Checkpoint in Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron killed Homam Adnan Sa’id, 23, claiming ‘he had a knife’, but eyewitnesses report seeing soldiers throwing a knife next to his dead body.
On 28 October, Islam Rafiq Obeid, 23, was shot by Israeli troops in Tel Rumeida in Hebron. Witnesses say that soldiers arrived at around 14:30, cleared the spot, then waited for the first to come, which was Islam, and killed him with over 11 bullets. Soldiers also detained Palestinian medics and stopped them from providing Obeid medical help. According to witnesses, he was left to bleed to death by Israeli forces that surrounded the area and closed it.
On 29 October, soldiers at Qurtuba checkpoint, in Shuhada Street, killed Farouq Seder (19), from Izone neighbourhood east of Hebron, by opening fire at him from behind. Israeli forces claimed that he attempted to stab a soldier. However, photos posted by Israeli soldiers on social media clearly show that there was no knife in the crime scene.
On 29 October, Soldiers at the ibrahim Mosque Checkpoint killed Mahdi Muhammad al-Muhtaseb, 23. An eyewitness told Ma’an News that he saw an Israeli soldier shoot at the Palestinian, hitting him in the shoulder. “Then the Israeli soldier approached him and shot him in the head and dropped a knife near his body,” the eyewitness added.
Militairy bulldozer enters Tel Rumeida for building the new armybase, while residents get registration numbers
Since these assassinations, which in the Israeli press were dubbed ‘terror attacks’ perpetrated by Palestinians, families in Shuhada Street and the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood in Hebron were punished with severe restrictions. They had to register with the army, who build a new military camp in the old Jewish cemetery in Tel Rumeida, fortified the checkpoints and closed down all paths on the hill, forcing everyone to walk through the checkpoint, where other Palestinians had been killed.
Then the Israeli army declared the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and Shuhada street a ‘closed military zone’, evicted all human right observers and closed the offices of ISM and YAS, two human rights defenders groups. Only registered residents have since then been able to enter the region but are subjected to daily harassment and threats. Illegal Israeli settlers can move freely in the area.
It’s collective punishment which is an abuse of international law. This closed military zone has now lasted for more than 3 months.
To the world, Israel is pretending to defend itself, but the assassinated men were not attacking the soldiers at all. There’s clear evidence that most of the killings were random executions.
Many residents and internationals saw the special troops arriving and checking the environment before waiting for the first Palestinian to come and kill him. They put knives next to the body to pretend they neutralized terrorists, made pictures of it, stole the dead bodies, cleaned the blood from the street and left the scene.
Families are afraid to complain or give testimony because they will surely be punished for it by the occupation forces. They know they can be killed for no reason, or have their children traumatized, injured or even killed, if they stay where they live in their neighborhood. Some families already temporarily left.
This is ethnic cleansing, a war crime, and brutal abuse of Human Rights and International Law.
Sit-in tent against the closed military zone in Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street.
That’s why the international politicians are slowly demanding a proper investigation into all those killings. Swedish foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom was brave enough to start demanding this, and is publicly supported by other foreign ministers.
The Israeli reaction is furious and devastating. As long as we’re waiting for more brave politicians to join this justified demand, it is necessary to support Margot Wallstrom, because she will be attacked inside and outside of Sweden.
A good start is to send a supportive message to the Swedish embassy in your country <http://www.swedenabroad.com/en-GB/Embassies/>, using the underneath text or writing your own. You may also consider writing a message to your own national and local politicians asking them to support Palestine and Walström and demand investigations of the assassinations. To the attention of Mrs. Margot Wallström, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden
Dear Mrs. Wallström,
I have taken notice of your stance on the necessity to investigate Israel’s extrajudicial killings of Palestinians. I have also noted the shameful reactions of Israeli leaders and others. It’s the ferocity and disgrace of these reactions that urge me to speak out in support of your remarks and integrity.
I support your position that Israel should be held accountable for what are in fact proven extrajudicial killings. Amnesty International and other organisations have provided plenty of evidence, as in the case of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun, the young Palestinian woman who was executed point blank by the Israeli army. Much of this evidence is available online, ranging from reports to video’s and testimonies. They make clear that these killings are no exception, but part and parcel of the structural Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians.
Its not that we don’t know about the Israeli atrocities. The problem is that we refuse to act on them. As a result the Palestinians pay the price and Israel goes unpunished – giving the country carte blanche to proceed, which is exactly what we are witnessing. This is why I applaud your principled stance. If no one acts, the remains of the Palestinian society will be destroyed before our eyes.
[If the FM of your country doesn’t support the demand:] I regret that the Foreign Minister of my own country has not acted, and has not expressed his support for Sweden. Please be informed that I will urge him to correct these failures.
31st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Saturday, 30th January 2016, large groups of settlers, accompanied by heavily-armed soldiers, entered the Palestinian market at night and took it over for about an hour during night-time in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
Israeli forces blocking the entrance to the Palestinian market
Around 9:30 pm, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements throughout al-Khalil gathered at Bab al-Baladiyya, from where they walked into the Palestinian souq, the market, surrounded by heavily-armed Israeli forces. The group of more than 50 settlers started a ‘tour’ of the Palestinian market, with Israeli forces ‘guarding’ them throughout the Palestinian market. Palestinian residents were not allowed to pass and forced to wait at a distance, with soldiers repeatedly pointing the lasers from their guns at them to indicate they have to stop. The walk home at night took almost an hour for some Palestinians, instead of the usual 10 minutes.
Settler clogging up the Palestinian market
This kind of ‘settler tour’ through the Palestinian market used to take place regularly on Saturday afternoons. During the ‘tour’ Palestinians are often denied to pass, stopped, ID-checked and detained. In the recent months, no ‘settler tours’ took place, but last week they started again with a nightly-tour at 11pm. For the Palestinian residents of the souq, these tours have become a regular form of intimidation and harassment in the past.
31st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Sunday, 31st January 2016, Israeli forces fired large amounts of tear gas at school-children on their way to school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
Heavily-armed soldiers approaching the students
In the early morning, as children were walking to their schools located past the Salaymeh checkpoint, three school-boys picked up some small stones and tossed them in the direction of the checkpoint. The children are forced to go through this checkpoint on their daily walk to school, and are often subjected to body-searches, bag-searches and random detentions by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces shooting tear gas canisters at students
Even though the soldiers were standing safely behind a fence, one of the soldiers immediately picked up a stone throwing it back at the children. After a while, the soldiers crossed the checkpoint and started shooting tear gas at the children. They were shooting both tear gas grenades and tear gas canisters in rapid succession at the same time. Israeli soldiers forced two international human rights defenders to move away from them in order to stop them from documenting, thus forcing them to move into the clouds of tear gas lingering outside the schools.
Despite only three boys were throwing stones, Israeli forces attacked the whole neighbourhood with more than a dozen tear gas grenades and canisters. This is clearly unproportional and a form of collective punishment, aimed not at anyone in specific, but instead affecting all the students and residents in the neighbourhood. Teachers tried to bring the children, who were coughing badly, to safety inside the school-building, but were tear-gassed even there as soldiers were shooting tear gas directly into the school-yards. 4 tear gas canisters landed straight in the Khadiga school yard, while 6 more were shot into the Hebron school yard. As teachers were calling ambulances, the majority of the children went back home in order to escape from the noxious tear gas.
Tear gas clouds lingering in the school-yard and on the streets
In the afternoon, the few children that were left at the school were forced to have their bags searched by heavily-armed Israeli forces on their way home.
This is not a uncommon occurrence on the regular way to school for Palestinian children in occupied al-Khalil. Children are often facing tear gas, stun grenades and violence from Israeli soldiers. The right to education for Palestinian children in this environment is not guaranteed and often schools are forced to close early due to violence. While passing the checkpoint, many children are accompanied by their parents or elder siblings since they are afraid of the heavily-armed Israeli forces and some of them run past the checkpoint quickly to escape from anticipated intimidation and harassment.
21st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On 21st January 2016 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) gathered in Shuhada Street. From here the settlers went into the Old City of Al-Khalil, where they broke into two houses on al-Sahla Street near the Ibrahimi mosque at around 2.30 pm today. Backed by more than 50 soldiers and policemen, the settlers could freely break down the doors and enter the houses, that they claim they bought legally, but the houses have not yet been signed over to them. During the occupation of the two houses the settlers started throwing stones at the Palestinians in the area around the two houses, and broke multiple doors and windows of surrounding houses.
The two occupied houses with Israeli flags on the roof
Shop owners in the whole area were forced by the Israeli Forces to close down their shops, and the whole area was closed off for everyone else than settlers and Israeli Forces, leaving many Palestinians unable to go to their houses. After the settlers had entered the two houses that have been uninhabited for an unspecific amount of time, they put up several Israeli flags on the roofs and harassed the Palestinian families in the area by yelling and throwing stones at them. The Israeli forces entered multiple houses and stormed through Palestinian families living rooms and bedrooms before taking over their rooftops and using these as an easy way to shoot teargas and sound grenades into the Palestinian market in the Old City of Hebron. Just in the half hour between 3.45 and 4.15, 14 tear gas canisters were shot at residents in the Old City, but Israeli forces were continuously showering the Old City most of the afternoon. At least one person suffered from excessive teargas inhalation and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
Al-Sahla street 21st of January. Settlers partying in the other end surrounded by soldiers and police.
At 7.30 pm the settlers and soldier were still in al-Sahla Street playing music and celebrating their newest house-takeover in Hebron. Two danish human rights defenders entered the area and were verbally attacked by a settler who came at them aggressively and yelled: “You killed my father and my grandfather. You are Nazis. This is my land.” Soldiers intervened and stopped the man from physically attacking the two young women.
Palestinians and internationals are still not allowed to be in the area even though there is no official order claiming this. All checkpoints leading into the area around the Ibrahimi mosque and al-Sahla Street are closed by Israeli Forces. At one point they detained more than 15 Palestinian men on their way home from work, because they lived in the ‘closed area’. This kind of restriction of movement is a clear violation of Palestinians freedom of movement.
Many families in the Old City of Hebron are now living in houses that have roofs still occupied by Israeli forces, leaving the families completely in the dark about what is going to happen next. A human rights activist explained: “The family which we are staying with have had up to ten soldiers on their roof for more than four hours. They stormed in and ran through the house, while the kids were playing and ran up to the roof to monitor the neighbourhood. The mother of the family is pregnant and lives in the house with her husband and four young kids and they do not know what to expect from the soldiers.”
Ambulances, policemed, soldiers and settlers in the closed area around Ibrahimi mosque
This is just a small example of the impunity of Israeli settlers violently taking over Palestinian homes and how Israeli forces’ actions are determined by settlers and their every wish. Settlers are now celebrating their illegal deeds in al-Sahla Street playing loud music and harassing the families in the whole area.
