Tag: Hebron - Page 80 - International Solidarity Movement

Two Palestinian youths violently arrested in Al-Khalil (Hebron)

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.

Harvesting While Harassed- Jabari family face military and settlers to gather their crops

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.

The demolished Synagogue-Tent on the Jabari land

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.

The Jaabari family asked for support with harvesting their fodder crops. As all of their land is either bordering the demolished synagogue-tent or the illegal settlement of Givat Ha’vot, Youth against Settlements (YAS) arranged to help with the harvest on 1st May 2015. Together with YAS, volunteers from a range of human rights organisations, both local and international, joined the family to harvest the area directly next to the demolished synagogue tent, the area most threatened by settlers. Israeli occupation forces are prohibiting the Jabaris and all volunteers from using any kind of harvesting tools under threat of arrest. Shortly after harvesting began, settlers, police and the army arrived. At first they only watched the harvest, but after two hours the Israeli forces declared the field a closed military zone and everyone was ordered to leave.

On Saturday, another small field at the top of the Jabari’s land, close to the police station and the illegal settlement of Givat Ha’vot was harvested without interruption by settlers or Israeli forces. The majority of the Jabari family’s crops still remain to be brought in.

South Hebron Hills – farming under occupation

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”

At-Tuwani - village in the South Hebron Hills where Operation Dove is located, helping provide an international presence in the area. — At-Tuwani – village in the South Hebron Hills where an Italian organisation, Operation Dove, is located, helping provide international presence in the area.

School children amusing themselves before taking the dangerous walk home.

Israeli jeep accompanies the children on their walk to and from school. The path is squashed between a settlement and an outpost, which make the children at risk of settler attacks.

Palestinians harvesting their land. They are at constant risk of being attacked by the illegal settler outpost overlooking them.

Donkeys are a common way of getting around in the area.

Nestled in the hills, lies the community of Tuba. — Nestled in the hills, about a 40 minute walk from At-Tuwani, lies the community of Tuba.

Like many other communities in the South Hebron Hills, people live inside caves.

Inside one of the caves. Mattresses get spread around the floor in the evening to chat, share meals, watch tv and lay their heads.

TV inside the cave. Electricity is powered by their wind turbine.

The second to youngest of Tuba, posing in front of the pile of mattresses.

Communal breakfast for the sheep of Tuba.

The family’s breakfast - composed mainly of products that came from within a radius of 50 metres from their home. Bread from their wheat, eggs from their chickens, cheese and butter from their goats. — The family’s breakfast – composed mainly of products that came from within a radius of 50 metres from their home. Bread from their wheat, eggs from their chickens, cheese and butter from their goats.

Hiding away from the view of settlers and soldiers, men and women harvest their land.

Bundles of wheat collected during the harvest season.

Donkeys are used to carry up the harvested crops. — Donkeys are used to carry the harvested crops.

Siggy and Frida.

Peaceful tree planting attacked by settlers and soldiers, two hospitalised and one arrested

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.

hebron land day 1 — Palestinians gathered to plant trees in Tel Rumeida in an event marking Land Day

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.”

kids planting trees khalil land day wm — Young children planting trees beside Qurtuba primary school

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.

khalil land day on the ground — Soldiers and onlookers gathered around Palestinian man after he fell unconscious after being shoved by soldiers

khalil land day ambulance — Injured Palestinian being taken via stretcher to the ambulance, as a settler in the foreground watches the scene

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.

henry — Israeli soldiers at the tree planting demonstration in Hebron

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.

Stories from Al Arroub refugee camp

28th March 2015 | International Women’s Peace Service | Al Arroub refugee camp, Occupied Palestine

Situated along the main Hebron-Jerusalem road, across the street from a University, sits the heavily fenced and concrete blockaded main entrance to Al Arroub Palestinian refugee camp. Taysir, a 39 year old former prisoner of the Israeli government and resident of the camp, waits out front of the camp entry way to give an intimate and shocking view of Al Arroub which is home to over 10,000 refugees living on less than a square mile of land and originating from nearly 3 dozen villages from as far away as Gaza.

Al Arroub, a maze of crumbling buildings and graffiti telling the story of Palestinian resistance to occupation, was established in 1949 and remained as tented housing until concrete living structures were built in 1956. Just steps into the camp, laid the remnants of a fired rubber-coated steel bullet laying near a post which bore the scar from the shot. Taysir lifts the bullet, “Violence here explodes within moments.” A few more steps and along the building sits a small cement structure to mark the spot where a 17 year old Palestinian boy was murdered, but he is not alone- throughout the camp there are photos, posters and spray paint stenciled portraits of those Palestinians whose lives were ended violently by Israeli soldiers. Palestinian refugee camps are the heart of the resistance and the birthplace of both intifadas; this is evidenced in a colorful section of wall which calls out in Arabic, “Enough! We want freedom!”

There is one children’s center in the camp and from the outside you can see the cage like fencing around the play area for dozens of young children, their ecstatic yells echoing through the bars. Proud mother’s lead the way upstairs to a room for infants where babies born to an occupied nation lay napping. The children sing, change into traditional Palestinian dress and rush excitedly around one another in the cramped center. One of the main issues facing the refugees of the camp is overcrowded schools. UNRWA’s camp profile cites three schools in Al Arroub; along with high unemployment rates and the lack of an appropriate sewage network.

IWPS members are introduced to Nazaar, whose 28 year old brother Eid, married just one year, was shot two dozen times by occupation forces during a raid in the camp as last year’s war in Gaza raged to a fever pitch. The murder took place on the first day’s Eid celebration of the Ramadan month of fasting as Nazaar was driving his brother’s to a family meal. He stands beside the poster of his murdered brother as he recalls the horror, “This was an execution. They killed him in the streets in front of everyone. Why? He was happy, he loved life. This was a tragedy.”

Just over a week ago, violent clashes were reported in Al Arroub when solidarity protests for Ibrahim Jamal, a prisoner of Israel’s Eshel prison, lost sight and speech after hitting his head on the end of an iron bed, occurred in the camp and Israeli forces responded by firing tear gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets indiscriminately at the protesters. Jamal, already suffering from an uncurable disease, received no treatment despite being injured in the prison. Violence stemming from Israeli incursions has seemingly touched every life inside the camp. Between raids, kidnappings and collective punishment, the personal stories are as seemingly endless as the occupation itself.

The day is ended at the home of a woman who has had every one of her children imprisoned. Two of which still languish in administrative detention. In the room is Taysir, imprisoned four years- A young Palestinian who was kidnapped from a field near school and imprisoned two years along with a film maker and actor who spent “just a year” in Israeli detention. The young man still bears the scars from his time in jail, two on his knee- for which he didn’t receive medical attention for three days, and many others on his arm- but these were self inflicted. “Before my time in jail, I was happy and gentle. Now I feel rage over the smallest thing. I began to cut myself. I didn’t feel relief until I saw the blood.” He goes on to expose a sinister issue that is eating away at the very fabric of life at Al Arroub and indeed all over occupied Palestine.

“Yes, we love life and freedom. But we are not afraid of dying for our rights and for the absolute truth. “

“When I was released from prison, I had drug withdawal symptoms and had no idea why.” He fears he was drugged during his time in Ben Yamen, Asharon and Demoon Prisons- It is common for Palestinians to be moved from prison to prison, it is a disorienting and unnerving tactic. “They called me three times since I have been released offering me money, a car and a pass to work inside of Israel if I sell ketamine for them. We don’t need you to collaborate with us, you are our brother, let’s just be friends, they told me.” Collaboration has been reported as a huge point of harrassment, especially for child prisoners, coming from elements of the Israeli military. And drug abuse is rising among residents of Palestinian refugee camps.

Torture is also a common tactic utilized in Israeli prisons, ranging from psychological and emotional abuse to violently imposed physical trauma. Taysir recalls the hours he spent in a chair, sleep deprived and in isolation. He was seated in a room where he could hear prisoners screaming in pain and calling for help. “You can hear the torture and you fear that this will happen to you next. They do this on purpose.” Taysir went two years in detention before he received a court date. Two years later, he was released through a prisoner exchange agreement. “The pain during interrogation may go away quickly but the pain of the life you spent in prison never goes away.”

At the heart of Palestinian resistance to occupation, Israeli violence, military presence and poor living conditions continues to be the reality of day to day life for refugees living inside of Al Arroub refugee camp as well as the many other refugee camps located in occupied Palestine.