February 22, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
This afternoon Israeli occupation forces attacked a non-violent demonstration organised by Palestinian civil society and attended by locals, internationals and Israelis.
Occupation forces invading Bab Al-Zawiye, Al-Khalil
Protestors demanding an end to the illegal occupation of Al-Khalil were attacked by Israeli soldiers and border police who fired tear gas, stun grenades and other “less-lethal” weapons as they stormed the Palestinian H1 area of the city.
During the course of this invasion, the Israeli occupation forces directly targeted members of the press, who were recording their attacks on nonviolent demonstrators. Footage of this can be seen below. If you look carefully you will notice that a child was caught up in the attack. He was very near the checkpoint, directly in the line of sight of the soldiers. Despite his presence the soldiers showed no restraint.
The occupation forces invaded the Bab Al-Zawiye area of Al-Khalil for over two hours, raiding homes, stopping and searching people and cars, and attacking Palestinians. It has been reported that one person was shot in the leg, and one Palestinian man was abducted by the army. ISM activists managed to film the abduction, although the whereabouts and safety of the man are currently unknown.
It is important to note that this morning, a group called Im Tirtzu staged a rally in the occupied part of Al-Khalil to celebrate the fact that the UN Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) had been forced out of the city by the Israeli government. Im Tirtzu, which has been described by the Israeli court system as a fascist organisation, demonstrated freely in the H2 area of Al-Khalil. Even though they have a record of inciting violence against Palestinians and regularly engage in Islamophobic rhetoric, they experienced no violence or restriction on their movement from Israeli occupation forces. Sadly, this type of collusion between occupation forces and the most radical streams of the Zionist movement is all too common. This is the reality of life under occupation.
Against imperialism, from Palestine to Venezuela
Despite the occupation forces’ efforts to stop the demonstration, hundreds of people took to the streets and resisted together. It was a beautiful sight to see Palestinians on the streets together with their international and Israeli comrades, calling in unison for an end to the illegal and immoral occupation. Moments like this give us a glimpse of what can be achieved when we work together to confront tyranny and violence. Let’s keep working, lets keep dreaming, lets keep fighting. End the occupation.
February 18, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
The day after a group of illegal settlers and soldiers invaded a Palestinians’ home and threatened to slaughter their children in front of them, one of their children was arrested by the Israeli police.
On Saturday, a group of settlers climbed down onto the rooftop of Emad Eqneibi’s home. Among them was Noam Arnon (נעם ארנון)–a right-wing settler who referred to Baruch Goldstein (the mass murderer of 29 worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque) as an “extraordinary” and “lovely” person.
Responding to settler complaints, a group of soldiers descended on Eqneibi’s house the following day and arrested his 14-year-old son, Amer Eqneibi. Video was captured as the soldiers were taking the child away:
Amer is currently being held in an adult prison Ofer outside Ramallah. Locals expect that it may be more than 40 days before the child is released.
17th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
At the end of January the occupation barred international ‘observer’ groups from Al-Khalil (Hebron), who were stationed throughout the city for more than 20 years, following the massacre of 29 Palestinians inside Ibrahim mosque in 1994 by a fanatical Israeli terrorist. Illegal settlers, many of whom proudly celebrate this massacre, are becoming increasingly empowered; effectively given free reign to attack and intimidate Palestinians, facilitated by the occupation soldiers who protect them as they run riot throughout the city.
Last week, hundreds of settlers were bused in from their fortified colonies, roaming the streets laying siege to Palestinian houses, bombarding them with bottles and stones. Families were gravely threatened that if they don’t vacate their homes, they would meet the same fate as the Dawabshas’ who were horrifically murdered by settlers in their home near Nablus. In 2015, Israeli settlers infiltrated the village of Douma, under cover of darkness, to firebomb the Dawabshas’ home, where the family of four were asleep in their beds. The father Saad, mother Reham, and 18-month-old Ali were burned alive, while 4-year old Ahmad suffered from 3rd degree burns over most of his body.
In this ‘organized demonstration’, a mob of settlers marched along Shuhada Street, chanting racist anti-arab slogans, before descending upon Palestinians homes and climbing onto rooftops. Terrifying shrieks for help could be heard as the settlers attempted to force themselves through the front and back entrances of houses, with families stacking furniture behind the doors to barricade themselves inside. At the same time, dozens of occupation soldiers, dressed as though they were entering a war zone, surrounded local and international activists who were attempting to reach the families – detaining them under orders to prevent them from leaving. Eventually, in the distance we could see the frenzied mob ushered back into buses and chauffeured by police escort, only for the sake of the military who feared the repercussions should any settlers get hurt.
Palestinians in Al-Khalil are deeply concerned that the expulsion of international observer groups, authorized to operate for the past 20 years, will further galvanize settlers, who make no secrets about their intention to expel Palestinians through violence and intimidation, in order to occupy the entire city. In spite of this however, the communities in Khalil are mobilizing to prepare for the new conditions on the ground. Today, in the primary-school on Shuhada Street, Rana* the principal organized a meeting, gathering more than forty mothers among local and international activists, to discuss strategies to protect the community from future attacks. Particularly the morning and afternoon ‘school runs’, where settlers swoop on Palestinians traveling and returning from school and work; regularly harassing and hurling abuse, driving up and down the road, accelerating through puddles when children walk past. Sometimes they accelerate directly towards the children. Residents have already begun an accompaniment system, while others including the Hebron Defense Committee are positioning themselves on rooftops daily to scout and record.
The illegal settlers and their heinous tactics of intimidation are a vulgar extension of the occupations intent to colonize the entire city. Talking with the principal from a school down the road, he spoke of his kindergarten students who are subject to bag and body searches as they pass through checkpoints each day. Teachers who stand waiting more than an hour as collective punishment for a few stones thrown on the roof of the armored mini-fort the night before. Hundreds of tear-gas canisters collected in and around the schoolyard from illegal invasions made by the occupation soldiers, as they kidnap children accused of throwing stones. Concussion grenades thundering before the first bell. Tear-gas wafting through the classroom before lunch..
Since the 67’ occupation, the Israeli settler movement has concentrated on the colonization of Al-Khalil, with the construction of five illegal settlements penetrating into the heart of the Palestinian city. A policy of indiscriminate restrictions on Palestinians has developed as a means to perpetuate indigenous displacement and the expansion of these illegal colonies. In the early 2000s, the occupying military imposed curfews on the Palestinian community, with entire streets shut off from access. Over 520 Palestinian shops in the center of Khalil were forcibly closed, and another 1000 closed due to the economic impact of Israeli’s checkpoints, road closures, and settler violence. Khalil is described as a microcosm of the colonization of Palestine, with apartheid and occupation in its most acute and vulgar form. Although, despite its perceived entrenchment, a fierce rejection of normalization exists throughout all fragments of society. Organizers tirelessly mobilize protests and actions, non-violent resistance committees are established regularly, shebab in symbolic defiance rain stones on the rooftops of checkpoints, and the Palestinians as they say, remain in Al-Khalil like the roots of their thousand year old olive trees.
17th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
UPDATE: Child arrested after settler death threats. Link here.
On the night of February 16, ISM activists joined a number of local Protection Unit activists to go on a night patrol of the old city in Al Khalil. During the night patrol, we were brought into the home of of a family who have recently experienced intimidation and aggressive harassment from illegal settlers and the military.
Our hosts described to us how settlers, including prominent Hebron settlement spokesperson Noam Arnon invaded the family home by climbing down the stairs from their rooftop, accompanied by the Israeli army. Our host described how, in the presence of the army, Noam Arnon threatened that he would murder the entire family who lived in the house if they did not submit to the demands of the settlers and give up their home. This disgusting threat was allegedly made by the man who is often portrayed as a man of peace, and a reasonable voice in the settler community. Our host went on to describe how Anat Cohen, another prominent settler in Al Khalil, was watching this interaction from a nearby home, encouraging the soldiers and settlers to kill the homeowners. Also among the mob was Baruch Marzel (ברוך מרזל), the extreme right-wing politician and previous spokesperson of the Kach organisation – a party outlawed in Israel and the US as a terrorist organization. In 2000 Marzel organized a party at the shrine of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli terrorist who murdered 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahim mosque, to celebrate the massacre.
Nighttime invasions of homes by the military are common throughout occupied Palestine. However, instances like this shine a light on the inner workings of the occupation. The event described above is the occupation in a microcosm: one of the world’s most technologically advanced armies, acting on behalf of a group of extremists with an agenda of ethnic cleansing. There is no justice in an occupation.
February 17, 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
Anat Cohen (ענת כהן), daughter of the convicted Israeli terroristMoshe Zar, attacked another international who was observing schoolchildren on their commute to the Qurtuba school this morning.
The International was an elderly woman who was keeping tally in a notebook of the number of schoolchildren that passed through the checkpoint and how many were harassed by illegal settlers or the israeli occupation forces. These numbers are submitted to UNSECO and Save the Children.
Cohen suddenly appeared and, before ISM volunteers could start recording video, she punched the woman in the ribs and began scolding her. ISM caught the rest of the exchange on video, when Cohen stole the observer’s notebook:
The observer complained to the police–who retrieved the notebook from Cohen–and then the police proceeded to evict the observers (including ISM volunteers) out of H2, claiming that the school and its surroundings were a “Closed Military Zone.”
The above document presented by the israeli occupation forces to the international observers shows that the order was created just 30 minutes before they were told to leave.
Creating closed military zones is a common tactic used by Israel to thwart international observers from being able to monitor for the illegal settler’s and soldier’s crimes against the Palestine people. In this case, Palestinian children.
