In recent months activists on the ground have witnessed an escalation of violence directed at Palestinians. There is an urgent need for international volunteers to support grassroots, non-violent Palestinian popular resistance to the Israeli Occupation. Continue reading Join The Resistance! Join the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine
04th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
In the early evening of Friday the 1st of May, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian youths in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of occupied Al-Khalil (Hebron). Nizar Salhab, accused of attacking a settler was released the same evening, Awne Imad Abu Shamsiyeh was only released the next evening and now faces charges in an Israeli military court.
Around 5 o’clock on Friday, Israeli soldiers physically assaulted Awne Abu Shamsiyeh at the entrance to his family’s house. When his father heard the commotion he came out and started filming the incident. The soldier attacking Awne escaped to the nearby illegal settlement in order not to be filmed. Awne was left with marks on his neck from the attack.
Shortly afterwards, another Palestinian boy, 14-year old Nizar Salhab, was detained by Israeli forces. He was physically assaulted by an Israeli settler, who was allowed to leave the scene of the incident as soon as soldiers turned up. Nizar was taken to the military base in Tel Rumeida illegal settlement. After video evidence (filmed by Human Rights Defenders) of the settler attacking Nizar was brought to the police station, he was eventually released the same night. Even with the video showing clearly the settler attacking Nizar, the assailant does not face any consequences for his actions.
About an hour after Awne was first attacked by Israeli soldiers, he was arrested outside his house and taken to Givat Ha’vot police station in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba and formally charged. He had to spend the night in a prison in Hebron. Awne’s lawyer managed to negotiate bail of 500 shekels so he could be released.
Initially, the family was told that the court date would be the next day, Sunday, leaving only one night for Awne to spend with his family. Later that evening, it was confirmed that the court date will be postponed until June. What will happen now is still unknown .
The Abu Shamsiyeh family lives in H2 close to Israeli settlements in Hebron (Al Khalil) and experience extensive harassment from both Israeli settlers and soldiers. Just a few months ago, settlers tried murdering the family by poisoning their water tank. Luckily, the family noticed that something was wrong before drinking any of the water. Awne has been arrested several times before, and was violently detained a month ago with visible marks on his neck.
On the following day, Nizar Salhab was again detained by Israeli soldiers, with no reason given. Local and international volunteers documenting the incident were harassed by settlers from the nearby illegal settlements, as shown in this video taken by Human Rights Defenders.
Palestinians, especially in H2, live in constant uncertainty about their future. They know that the Israeli soldiers might arrest them at any time and for no identifiable reason. And they know that once they are arrested there is no telling when they will be free again.
In 2014 three children were killed as a direct result of Israeli military and settler presence in Hebron. A total of 182 Palestinian children were in Israeli detention in the month of February 2015 alone, with 25 of them being only twelve to 15 years old.
Read an interview with Awne (2014) about his experiences and daily life in H2.
Read about Israeli settlers poisoning the Abu Shamsiyeh family’s water tank.
3rd May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
The Jabari family owns land sandwiched in between the illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha’vot. In 2001, settlers illegally took over part of the land to erect a synagogue-tent on the Jaabari-family land. All settlements are illegal under international law, unlike most settlements however, this synagogue has also been deemed illegal under Israeli law. In February 2015 an Israeli court finally ordered the demolition of the tent-synagogue. Even though the demolition was carried out in April, the debris until now still remains on the land and settlers keep on partly rebuilding under the protection of the Israeli forces.
When settlers from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba first constructed the tent-synagogue on the Jabari family land , they also erected a path connecting Kiryat Arba with the illegal settlement of Givat Hav’ot. It took the family until 2003 to get a demolition order issued by the Israeli Civil Administration. Nothing happened afterwards until the synagogue-tent was destroyed by heavy snow in 2013, only to be rebuild again by settlers.
Finally, on the 18th February 2015 an Israeli court issued a demolition order for the structure and the synagogue-tent was demolished early in the morning on 14th April 2014. Even though the tent was demolished, the Israeli military did not clean up the rubble, that until now is still on the family land. Since the demolition settlers have been partly rebuilding the synagogue-tent with the materials still on the land. “Price Tag” violence from the settlers, both adults and children, has rapidly increased since the demolition, with Palestinians walking past on the main road attacked by settlers, and the Jabari family has been attacked verbally and physically, with stones thrown by settlers. Israeli police and soldiers present at the sight- they watch but do not stop the settlers.
Watch this video taken by the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) on settler children attacking Palestinians and human rights observers.
27th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Al Khalil | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
Located in the tip of the West Bank, the South Hebron Hills are dotted with farming and shepherd communities.
We are currently in the wheat harvest season and the children are spending their last few weeks at school before the holiday break.
But just like everywhere else in Palestine, the population is threatened by the Israeli occupation and the illegal settlements that overlook, menace and harm their daily lives.
“Existence is resistance”
Siggy and Frida.
1st April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On March 31st around 40 Palestinian children and adults gathered in Hebron near Qurtuba school, a Palestinian school in the H2 neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida, to plant trees in commemoration of Palestine’s Land Day. Israeli extremist settlers from the illegal settlements in Al-Khalil (Hebron) attacked them as Israeli forces stood by, threatening to arrest the Palestinians and international volunteers while doing nothing to stop the settlers’ violence. Settlers pushed a 13-year-old girl down the stairs leading up to the school, and soldiers injured a 48-year-old man with a back condition; both were hospitalised. Israeli soldiers also arrested Jenny, a 24-year-old German solidarity activist, while she was filming the action.
Military harassment began even before activists had reached the planting site. Jenny, the German activist later arrested at the demonstration, recalled the difficulty of getting the trees to the site: “Half of the trees had already gone through the checkpoint when Israeli soldiers decided that, as one officer put it, ‘trees are sensitive items’ and that the children carrying them would not be allowed through.”
“It was a very peaceful action,” she recalled. “Small children were planting trees near the school in Tel Rumeida. Everything was calm until Anat Cohen (a notoriously violent extremist settler) turned up; she began taking down the Palestinian flags demonstrators had put up on the fence beside the tree planting site, then randomly attacking Palestinians and international volunteers.”
Extremist settlers pushed a 13-year-old Palestinian girl down the stairs close to the tree planting site. She was taken to the hospital half an hour later. Israeli soldiers harassed her friends and told them they were not allowed to sit beside her. A 48-year-old Palestinian man who had just undergone surgery on his spine was pushed violently by Israeli forces, despite the fact that soldiers were told several times that the he suffered from severe damage to his back. When they continued to shove him against a wall, he collapsed and lost consciousness for several minutes, and was taken to a hospital via ambulance.
Settlers and soldiers continued harassing people; settlers accused many of being nazis, swearing at and insulting the demonstrators. Palestinians looking out from their houses were told to step away from their front door. When internationals tried to document the situation, they were met with yelling and pushing from Israeli soldiers as well as settlers.
Amanda, an ISM volunteer present at the scene, recalled what she experienced at the hands of settlers and soldiers. “I was being attacked from all sides. A soldier shouted at me, brandishing handcuffs at me and threatening to arrest me even as a settler woman physically assaulted me. She stepped on my feet, kicked at my legs and punched me in the stomach, calling me a nazi and a[n extremely vulgar word for prostitute].”
Jenny spoke of her arrest, based on spurious testimony by the settler woman. “At the police station I was accused of attacking Anat Cohen. While I was filming her and the soldiers earlier as soldiers forced back the Palestinian group, she grabbed my hand and attempted to take my camera. I told soldiers at the time that she attacked me, but they paid no attention. They grabbed me and violently pulled me away from where I was documenting the tree planting.” Israeli soldiers took her to the military base on Shuhada street before transferring her to the Israeli police, who interrogated her and held her at the police station before releasing her early that same evening, after about five hours in custody. She has been temporarily barred from the city of Hebron.
“As people were leaving I saw soldiers trampling all over the area,” an ISM volunteer recalled. “I doubt that the trees survived.” Tuesday’s action was the third time in the last few months that Palestinians gathered near the school to plant trees on their land in Tel Rumeida. Three weeks ago olive trees were planted in the same area, but zionist settlers uprooted and stole them.
Later in the afternoon a Palestinian funeral, in the nearby Muslim cemetery, was disrupted by settler children who taunted the mourners.
