23rd February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On Sunday the 23th of February at around 9:30 a.m. more than ten settlers forced a Palestinian shop owner to stop renovating his shop. The settlers did this by sitting at tables and chairs they had brought from the nearby Gutnick Center in Hebron, an Israeli visitors center close to the Ibrahimi mosque, eating breakfast right in front of the shop while harassing the men at work.
Photo by ISM
The shop owner had gotten permission to do the renovation by the Israeli Civil Administration but this was not satisfactory to the settlers, who forced the Palestinians to stop working. When the Palestinians tried to continue their work the settlers became aggressive towards them, making them stop.
The Palestinian workers from the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, an organization which rebuilds Palestinians houses and helps improve living standards in the Old City in Hebron, asked the settlers to move the table and have their breakfast on the other side of the road but they refused.
The Israeli police, border police and soldiers were all present but did not interfere with the settlers’ harassment of the Palestinian workers. The stated reason for not interfering was that the settlers were on a public road and therefore were allowed to be there, ignoring the fact that the settlers confronted the workers each time they tried working.
The Israeli Civil Administration called the shop owner and ordered him to stop working for an hour until the settlers had gone away. As a result, the settlers managed to postpone the work of restoring the shop for about three hours.
Hebron was with the Oslo Protocol in 1997 divided in two parts, H1 and H2. H1 is area A and controlled by the Palestinian Authority, while H2 is under full Israeli control even though it is inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians and about 500 Israeli settlers.
It is not rare that Israeli settlers from the Tel Rumeida or the Kiryat Arba settlements harass or even attack the Palestinians living in H2 in Hebron.
16th February 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On Sunday, the 16th of February, Israeli soldiers and border police in Hebron fired tear gas and sound grenades at children on their way to school. The border police also chased the children, attempting to arrest them.
Soldiers and border police chasing schoolchildren in Hebron (photo by ISM)
At Checkpoint 29, around 7:30 a.m., a few children on their way to school (there are three schools near the checkpoint) were throwing stones at the soldiers stationed there. In response to this two border police and a soldier appeared from an alley and threw a sound grenade at the kids close to the United Nations school on Tareq Ben Ziyad Street.
This frightened not only the children who had thrown stones but all the children on their way to school, causing them to flee. When they did not catch any children the two border police and the soldier stood in front of the school blocking the entrance and started firing teargas at those who had fled.
As the border police and the soldier returned to the checkpoint, three new soldiers came out of an apartment across the street, preventing the children from entering their school. The soldiers continued firing teargas towards the crowd of upset and frightened children.
(Photo by ISM)
Tear gas is a nondiscriminatory nerve gas which affects all persons nearby. The gas often takes a long time to disperse, forcing children to go through the half-dispersed gas clouds on their way to school, leaving them crying and coughing. The use of tear gas against schoolchildren is common in Hebron.
In total, seven soldiers and two border police were involved in the incident, firing six tear gas grenades and two sound grenades at the children.
14th February 2014 | Operation Dove | At Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
On the afternoon of February 11, Palestinians discovered about eighty olive trees uprooted alongside bypass road 317 near the Susiya junction in the South Hebron Hills.
Uprooted olive tree (photo by B’tselem)
The olive tree grove belongs to the Hushiya family from the nearby town of Yatta and had been planted only three weeks ago. Yesterday afternoon the owners and B’tselem staff members gathered near the destroyed trees, waiting for the police. The Israeli police and District Coordination Office arrived on the scene and documented the incident. Today Operation Dove volunteers and B’tselem staff went there to take more pictures.
This field is part of the area that settlers from the nearby settlement of Susiya illegally occupied during 2007, planting a vineyard. Immediately the Palestinians with the help of Rabbis for Human Rights filed a complaint and started a legal process concerning this land (for more details click here). In 2013 the Israeli High Court ordered the army to dismantle these crops and the order was implemented by force.
The number of Palestinian-owned trees uprooted and damaged in the South Hebron Hills area since the beginning of 2014 has risen to 100. Olive trees are an essential resource for the Palestinian community, and their damage causes serious economic loss.
Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly involved in using nonviolence as a way to resist to the Israeli occupation. Just two days ago twenty-five Palestinians planted sixty new olive trees on their own land close to the illegal Avigayil outpost (for more details clickhere).
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
12 February, 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On the afternoon of February 11, 2014, settlers in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Al-Khalil (Hebron) cut down trees belonging to the Abu Eisheh family. While attempting to film the destruction of the trees, four human rights activists were arrested by Israeli police.
At approximately 3:30 p.m., three activists, a Swiss-American, an American, and an Italian, were sitting in their apartment in Tel Rumeida when they heard a commotion outside. Outside the apartment, they found a group of settlers, Palestinians, Israeli soldiers and Israeli police. They were informed by the Palestinians that a group of settlers was cutting down trees at a house just up the road.
The three activists began filming but were not allowed up the road to where the tree-cutting was taking place. While filming, the American activist was physically assaulted by a settler. None of the soldiers or police officers present intervened. Instead, the Israeli police took the passports belonging to the American and Swiss-American and told them to sit on the ground.
At this time, the Italian citizen returned to the apartment, where she was joined by a fourth activist, an American, who had just arrived. Shortly thereafter, a group of soldiers and police officers attempted to enter the apartment. They were not allowed entry, but briefly questioned the two activists outside the apartment door. The Israeli police then confiscated the passports belonging to the American and the Italian.
Not long after, all four activists were transported to the police station near Kiryat Arba, where they were interrogated and threatened with deportation. After seven hours, the activists were released.
The following day, February 12th, two activists from Christian Peacemaker Teams visited Tel Rumeida to document the destruction of the trees. They were not there long before several Israeli soldiers approached them, told them to stop filming, and took their passports. They were held for two hours before their passports were returned. Israeli soldiers informed the two activists that if they approached the trees again they would be arrested.
The destruction of Palestinian trees by settlers is a chronic problem, not only in Tel Rumeida, but all over the West Bank. In the past month alone, more than 2500 trees in the village of Sinjil were destroyed by settlers. Trees have also recently been destroyed by settlers in Qusra, Ramallah, and Nablus. Fruit trees are an essential resource for the Palestinian community, and their damage causes serious economic loss. It takes as long as 12 years for an olive tree to reach full maturity.
ISM activist with settlers in Tel Rumeida (photo by ISM Italy)
January 20th, 2014 | Operation Dove | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Between January 18-20, four Palestinians and two Operation Dove (OD) volunteers were arrested by the Israeli police and army while Palestinian shepherds were grazing their flocks.
On January 18 at 1:04 p.m. seven settlers came out from the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), entered the Humra valley while two of them crossed the Palestinian-owned fields, trespassing in an area to which entry is prohibited for Israeli citizens. In the meanwhile two Palestinian shepherds, accompanied by three OD volunteers, were grazing their sheep in this area. At 1:14 p.m. the shepherds left for their homes and encountered another group of five settlers. After one minute Israeli soldiers arrived, telling the settlers to move away and declaring the area a closed military zone. Subsequently arriving to the area were an additional nine settlers, several Palestinians and Israeli activists, the Israeli police, Border Police and officials from the District Coordination Office (DCO). Once the Israeli forces start to push the people away from the area the shepherd, Mfaddi Ahmed Rabai, refused to leave the area, claiming his right to remain on his own land. While a policeman and a group of soldiers tried to arrest him, he collapsed on the ground. At 1:43 p.m. the Israeli army forced everyone to leave the area. Palestinians, Israeli activists and OD volunteers slowly came back to At Tuwani. The Israeli police arrested Mfaddi Ahmed Rabai and brought him to the Kiryat Arba police station before the ambulance arrived to check his health. Rabai was released after some five hours of detention.
On January 19 five Palestinian shepherds from Umm Al Kheer and Tuba villages were grazing their flocks in the Umm Zeitouna valley, accompanied by two OD volunteers. At 10:58 a.m. an army jeep arrived and three soldiers chased the shepherds along the valley. After several minutes the soldiers were situated very close to a Palestinian child, so an OD volunteer placed himself between them. The soldier then forcibly took the passport of the OD volunteer. Afterwards the same soldier caught a Palestinian man and asked the other OD volunteer to give him his passport, but he refused. The soldier threaten the OD volunteers with arrest and ordered the other soldiers to bring him to the jeep. The soldiers, the OD volunteers and the Palestinian walked toward a gravel road inside Ma’on. Once there they encountered three settlers, including the settlement’s security chief, and two policemen. The police officers collected every detail about what happened and declared that the OD volunteers and the Palestinian were under military arrest. At 12:40 p.m. the army brought them to the Kiryat Arba police station by jeep. Those arrested waited several hours inside the police station without knowing the charges against them. At around 5:45 p.m. the Palestinian shepherd was released after the policeman took his fingerprints. The OD volunteers were released at around 8 p.m. after been interrogated for 45 minutes total.
On January 20 at around 8:20 a.m. two Palestinian children from Umm Al Kheer were chased by Israeli soldiers while leading their flocks to the grazing areas in the nearby valleys. Meanwhile another Palestinian went up the hill facing the village to tape this chase. To that hill arrived two settlers, three soldiers, seven women from the Palestinian village and at 8:44 a.m. the Israeli police also arrived. The security chief of Karmel settlement told the police that two women on the hill tried to stone him. After half an hour the police arrested the Palestinian women and brought them to the Kiryat Arba police station. They were released at 3:35 p.m. without any charge.
The villages of At Tuwani and Umm Al Kheer are situated in the South Hebron Hills, defined as area C. According to the Oslo accords, area C is part of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and security control. As like many of the Palestinian villages located in area C, At Tuwani and Umm Al Kheer suffer from settlers and military intimidation and violence. As a result, the Palestinian residents encounter great difficulties in accessing their own lands for their everyday farming activities.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
