Tag: Hebron - Page 88 - International Solidarity Movement

Orphans protest demolition of dairy factory

5th September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday, 300 orphans staged a protest following the demolition of Al-Rayyan Dairy Factory, north of Hebron, which occurred in the early hours of 1st September 2014.

The future of the children remains unclear as the two orphanages they live in, the Hebron Charity House for Girls and The Hebron Charity House for Boys, are dependent on the profits made by the dairy factory. Both the orphanages and the dairy factory are owned by the Islamic Charitable Society.

The dairy factory, which housed 150 cows and produced six tones of milk products, such as yogurt and cheese, had run for 24 years, ever since the Islamic Charitable Society received funding from the Kuwait government in 1991 to set up the factory. The purpose was for the Society’s orphanages and schools to have their own source of regular income, rather than relying on donations. The dairy products were distributed to Hebron and the surrounding villages.

The Israeli government, since 2002, has targeted the dairy factory. The first demolition order was based on concerns about environmental regulations, saying that the waste produced by cows was not dealt with suitably. Despite solving this problem, the dairy farm continuously fell under threat by the Israeli military, especially since it was located in Area C, the area of the West Bank completely under Israeli military control. Claims were also made by the Israeli Council for Planning that parts of the farm were illegally built; however, Abed Al-kareen Farrah, one of the lawyers working with the Islamic Charitable Society, confirmed that the farm received approval from the Israel Antiquities Authority for a license to build. He said, “The farm has been under fire for years with a lot of administrative issues, and Israel constantly put pressure on it to close.”

In June 2014, the dairy farm received a second demolition order, accusing the Islamic Charitable Society of having affiliation with Hamas because one of the dairy farm’s workers had been an administrative detainee for the past twenty months. The Chair of the Islamic Charitable Society’s Board of Directors, Hatim al-Bakri, stated that the society is not funding Gaza. On the 3rd of July 2014, Israeli forces confiscated all of the farm’s machinery before demolishing the entire farm a few days ago.

Hatim al-Bakri added that the farm would be impossible to rebuild, not only because it would cost two million dollars to do so, but also because of the heavy resistance they would face from the Israeli forces. Anything built on that plot of land would risk being demolished again and again.

“The future is dark for the orphans in Hebron,” he says. “I don’t know how we will be able to continue to fund the orphanages, or the seven schools the Islamic Charitable Society runs in and around Hebron. This question should be asked to the occupation.”

The demolition of the dairy farm is yet another example of how collective punishment affects hundreds of Palestinian people every day. Not only does the entire workforce of the farm have to lose their jobs because of one administrative detainee working there, but children, far removed from the workings of the farm, will also suffer the consequences.

When the school day ends with tear gas

2nd September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

ISM watched over two different checkpoints in al-Khalil (Hebron) on the 31^st of August, Qeitun (209) and Salaymeh (29), both separating the H1 and H2 zone in this occupied city (H1 is supposedly under full Palestinian Authority control, H2 under full Israeli military control).

At the Salaymeh checkpoint, three tear gas canisters were fired at children on their way home from school. One child threw a stone in the direction of the checkpoint, and due to apparent problems with the gun, the soldier at the checkpoint did not fire.

A few moments later, a child approached the checkpoint in order to pass it and the soldier fired a tear gas canister right at the child’s feet. The gas filled the street and schoolchildren, some as young as six-years-old, had to flee the area coughing while their eyes streamed.

Later a group of three Palestinian children threw stones towards the checkpoint and the soldiers fired another tear canister at the children. The same routine repeated moments later. The tear gas lingered in the air for several minutes, irritating bypassing schoolchildren, teachers, and others residents walking in the street.

Similarly, children passing through the Qeitun checkpoint did not end their school day unharmed. A group of children threw stones towards the checkpoint from a rooftop. The soldiers fired a total of four tear gas canisters on the roof where the children were located.

This afternoon, September 2^nd, two ISM volunteers watched over Salaymeh checkpoint at school closing time. Two Israeli soldiers were stationed at the checkpoint to begin with, and as usual, children started walking home after a day at school. At one point two young boys threw stones at the checkpoint. This was shortly followed by a short-range tear gas canister fired by one of the soldiers, which was aimed at the stone-throwing children but primarily affected those who needed to pass the cloud of tear gas in order to reach their homes.

As two more tear gas canisters were fired, many of the smaller children became scared, crying and running in panic. Minutes later, two more soldiers arrived at the checkpoint. One boy threw five or six stones towards the checkpoint, as with other stones, none of them reached the checkpoint or the soldiers. Two more short range canisters of tear gas were fired, as well as three or four long range canisters, one landing inside the school yard and the others landing in the middle of a group of approximately 80 children, exiting the UN school further down the street.

One tear gas canister landed in the path of three schoolchildren, no older than six-years-old, who were walking in the direction of the checkpoint, the ISM volunteers saw how one of the two girls was dragged away from the tear gas by the boy, however the other girl did not run away, seemingly too shocked and scared to move.

An ISM volunteer present said, “I ran into the cloud of gas to get the crying girl away and into safety. In a situation like that it is difficult to show a child, who is so terrified and wary of the world around her, that she can trust you. Especially as it becomes difficult to see and breath when surrounded by tear gas. Thankfully she took my hand and I led her to the other two children who she was walking with.”

The groups of children affected by the teargas were more than hundred meters away from the checkpoint and were no threat to the soldiers in any way. This resulted in children being delayed on their way home, either because they had to wait for the gas to clear or because they were forced to take a detour home. It is clear to see how the Israeli army’s tactic of collective punishment is carried out in the daily lives of Palestinians, and children suffering from tear gas inhalation before and after school is not an unusual occurrence in Hebron.

Injured and forced to walk

27th August 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

It was a warm Saturday night in late August in al-Khalil (Hebron). For the Palestinian children school was starting the next day, and a feeling of anticipation and excitement for a new year of learning floated over the hot Palestinian night. A group of ISM members were invited to a barbecue with a local activist organization, which we happily attended.

After eating, I went with a group of from the organization that invited us, to a nearby kindergarten for Palestinian children from the neighborhood. The kindergarten had been created in an empty house last year so young children would not have to pass through a checkpoint everyday on their way to school. We went to bring some toys, clean up, and prepare for the coming invasion of toddlers. When I, along with the rest of the activists, wanted to leave the kindergarten again, three settlers from one of the illegal Israeli settlements of Hebron appeared and blocked the entrance. They accused us of bringing in building materials to the kindergarten, due to Israeli law, building an extension is forbidden for Palestinians in the H2 area of al-Khalil (H2 is under full Israeli military civil and security). The kindergarten was created in 2013, a bathroom was built, and then demolished by the Israeli army since it was an extension to the house and was therefore ‘illegal’.

As we tried to leave a group of settlers surround us and began to yell and scream in Hebrew. One of the settlers called the Israeli police and about 10 minutes later the army arrived. They escorted the settlers away and made space for the police on the narrow path up leading up to the kindergarten. The police then quickly searched the kindergarten for building materials and left after none were found.

Following this unprovoked confrontation, we drank tea on the fake grass of the outside kindergarten floor, a football was found, and the Palestinian kids enjoyed their newly renovated kindergarten in advance. Unfortunately I fell badly fall on my left side while playing with the children, resulting in a dislocated shoulder. Of course I had to go to the hospital and an ambulance was out of the question since all traffic, other than that of the Israeli settlers and the army, is forbidden in H2 except with explicit permission from the military.

Another ISM member had previously seen how injured Palestinians were carried through the checkpoint on a stretcher after a settler attack. The ambulance did not have the right permit to pass the checkpoint and the injured were forced to be physically rushed through.

Palestinians injured after setter attack and excessive tear gas inhalation

I, and three ISM friends, decided to try to walk through the checkpoint and then find a taxi. The checkpoint we needed to cross in order to reach the hospital was Checkpoint 56 on Shuhada Street. During a clash a couple of days ago the checkpoint had been burned on the inside, and it was now closed for everyone except for the army. This is a form of collective punishment as it was still possible to cross if the soldiers decided to allow it. In recent days some people have passed and other have been denied.

The soldiers at the checkpoint could easily see that I was in pain. We asked the soldiers if we could pass, since it was an emergency, and the alternative route around the checkpoint would be extremely long and demanding. The soldiers did not really seem to take much notice of our situation; it even looked like they were having fun at my expense. When we asked a soldier for his name and ID, he gave two different answers the two times we asked him, even though the soldiers are required to provide that information when asked.

The encounter ended with the soldiers telling us, with plastic handcuffs in their hands that we had two minutes to leave the area or we would be arrested – even though it is out of their jurisdiction, and we hadn’t done anything illegal. We decided it was not worth it and started the long walk around the checkpoint to the Government hospital in H1 (under Palestinian Authority civil and security control).

Now I am sitting with my shoulder in a sling; the treatment was quick and very professional. The Palestinians at the hospital were extremely helpful, showing me the different places I needed to go in order to get the right treatment. Now I cannot help thinking of how it must be to live under these circumstances, when the way to the nearest hospital is hampered by several checkpoints, manned by soldiers who do not care about except settlers and their fellow soldiers. I was lucky that my injury was not more serious; in another situation the outcome could have been much worse.

VIDEO: 15 tear gas grenades and 5 stun grenades fired at schoolchildren

25th August 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Today in al-Khalil (Hebron), Israeli forces fired 15 tear gas grenades and canisters, as well as five stun grenades at children as they waited to go to school.

15 tear gas grenades and 5 stun grenades fired at schoolchildren

Each morning and afternoon the children of al-Khalil, some as young as four-years-old, are forced to cross through a checkpoint manned by Israeli border police.

This morning, the second day of school after summer break, four young teenagers threw stones at the checkpoint and Israeli forces present threw two stun grenades.

An ISM volunteer who was present at the checkpoint stated, “I was standing with my fellow ISM’er next to two young boys who were both under six-years-old. We were all very close to the stun grenades. We tried to comfort them when they [the stun grenades] exploded close by, but what could we say? They were both terrified. We walked with them down closer to their school and they began to run. At that moment, a tear gas grenade was fired and there were no children throwing stones. The smoke was thick and I began choking, it felt like I couldn’t breathe. I can’t imagine what this sensation would have been like for a child, and there were so many present. From there the situation just seemed to get worse, with so much tear gas in the air, children were unable to reach their schools.”

One young boy spoke to an ISM volunteer, with his eyes still red from tear gas, he pointed towards the checkpoint and said, “The soldiers from Gaza are here!”

Tear gas drifted into the courtyard and many children and teachers choked and spluttered in the playground. School was delayed for over an hour. At one point a Red Crescent ambulance had to be called as two teachers and two children, aged 10 and 12-years-old, required medical treatment for excessive tear gas inhalation.

Another ISM volunteer present this morning said that, “Overall the Israeli forces shot 5 stun grenades. I also counted at least 15 tear gas grenades and canisters, two of which were shot at a group of Palestinian teachers, myself, and my fellow ISM activist.”

International activists monitor the checkpoints the children are forced to pass through on their way to school, both to document the events and to stand with the children. Israeli forces’ firing military weapons at children is unfortunately common. Last school year ISM documented many cases of tear gas and stun grenades used against schoolchildren in al-Khalil, some as young as 4-years-old.

Resistance and tear gas

21st August 2014 | Saeeda Al-Rashid | Occupied Palestine

It’s late May [2013], and the air is stifling. Heat sizzles from the pavement, and Khalili youth, though well-adapted to these conditions, can be seen wiping sweat from their brows as they trek home from school. A few trickle through Checkpoint 56 into the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, formally designated Israeli-controlled territory under the Hebron Agreement. Soldiers search their bags and detain one, but finding no reason to arrest him, release him an hour later, a routine form of harassment youth are all too accustomed to. At some point, a school-bus turns up the road. It’s labeled in Hebrew and English, “Air-Conditioned Video.” The school bus is only for settler children, whereas many Palestinian vehicles are not allowed to drive in Tel Rumeida.

The word “apartheid” is often used to criticize Israeli racism and the Israeli state’s policies of segregation. But on the street level, what does apartheid actually look like? While living in occupied Khalil under Israeli military occupation for a few months, I experienced only the beginning of the answer to those questions. The rest is in the lived experience of businessmen and women, school children, farmers and shepherds who have lived under occupation for forty-plus years.

Apartheid Defined

In his final report as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the oPt [Occupied Palestinian Territories], Richard Falk called for an investigation into the Israeli practices, broadly referred to as hafrada meaning “separation”, that could constitute apartheid under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. Offenses that come in conflict with the Convention include the unlawful taking of life, administrative detention, and torture, and also the segregation of land and parallel legal systems in the West Bank that “prevent participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the full development of a racial group” (18).

This invokes a flood of memories from my short time in Palestine, including a young couple in Masafer Yatta living in a former sheep pen because the Israeli Civil Authority won’t grant them a permit to build a house; shops forced to close down during Jewish holidays so that settlers can illegally pass into the Palestinian-controlled part of Khalil; a B’tselem caseworker laughing aloud when we asked whether any action would be taken after Abu Shamsiya documented Israeli settlers’ assault on his family and was himself arrested on false charges of spitting at the nearby soldiers throwing stones and a tomato, whilst at the same time an Israeli boy of similar age threw eggs at internationals and went unpunished.

Saeeda waits outside the IDF compound with the family of a child arrested for 'throwing a tomato' (Photo by Youth Against Settlements). — Saeeda waits outside the IDF compound with the family of a child arrested for ‘throwing a tomato’ (Photo by Youth Against Settlements).

Apartheid, as Falk points out, is not a recurrence of isolated crimes; rather, “the combined effect of the measures designed to ensure security for Israeli citizens, to facilitate and expand settlements, and, it would appear, to annex land, is hafrada, discrimination and systematic oppression of, and domination over, the Palestinian people.” Apartheid is in the rain that flooded the Khalil Souq (market), ruining goods that provide needed income for Khalili families, because Israeli authorities have prevented the construction of appropriate drainage facilities.

Women in Hebron shop flooded (photo by Women in Hebron).

Apartheid is in the rocky, rat-infested paths Palestinians travel on to climb the prayer road because the main roads are only for settlers. Apartheid is in the children who inhale tear gas nearly every day on the way to school, and every family stuck in the Qalandiya checkpoint during Ramadhan, barred from entering Jerusalem to worship. Apartheid is the reason ISM volunteers on the ground believe strongly in only taking actions led by Palestinians – this is their home, and their lives are impacted every day by apartheid years after we’ve flown home to our respective countries.

Resistance and Tear Gas

Richard Falk’s final report also pointed out that persecution of those who resist apartheid practices falls under article 2(f) of the Convention. Upon investigating the types of tear gas deployed by the IDF against peaceful protestors, from an organic chemistry perspective with the help of a leading chemist who was my professor, I unearthed a plethora of information on this vile substance.

The IDF principally uses CS gas (o-chlorobenzilidenemalononitrile). Exposure to CS gas has been implicated in a number of deaths in the West Bank as well as South Korea because it’s a potent Michael acceptor, making it able to inhibit many important chemicals in our bodies including the amino acid cysteine, which can be found on the TRPA1 protein channel that mediates our continued responsiveness to a wide variety of irritants and has been implicated in the prolonged sense of irritation experienced by some who are exposed to tear gas. (This is potentially the reason biting into an onion, a popular on-the-ground treatment for tear gas exposure, also counteracts the toxicity of CS gas – the inert sulfur-containing compounds in onions serve as alternate Michael donors).

Additionally, CS and CN gas produce methylene chloride, which as a nervous depressant and mild carcinogen reaches dangerous levels at exposure above 250 ppm by the constant barrage of intense tear gas deployment I witnessed at demonstrations. Finally, CS gas has been shown to be a mild mutagen (via intercalation with DNA) and thus it is also a potential carcinogen. Much has been said about the disparity in living conditions that results from the Israeli military occupation; prolonged exposure to dangerous chemicals for not only activists who resist the wall but shop-keepers and schoolchildren intertwines with the many different ways the system of apartheid and physical and legal segregation impact the daily lives of Palestinian people.

I believe this apartheid in and of itself is violence; there is no state of peace from which the more obvious forms of violence such as stone-throwing and shootings arise. There will only be peace when real justice is served – when apartheid is nothing more than a history lesson for our children.