25 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Over 33 Palestinian-owned olive trees were uprooted by the Israeli military in the village of Qusra, near Nablus, when the military entered the village around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, July 17. For one hour and a half, Israeli soldiers and equipment uprooted the olive trees.
When International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers arrived, the Israeli soldiers had already left, but four armed border police officers appeared in an armoured vehicle. Three Qusra residents took the ISM on a tour of the land that was cleared earlier that morning. The border police followed closely. Nothing was visible but holes in the dry soil where the trees used to stand.
The farmer who owns the land explained that the field had not been worked on for 18 years. This served as the legal argument for the clearing. The military had no formal court order, which is otherwise required, for the uprooting, and they came without warning.
The two other young men showing ISM around were approached by the border police and asked to present their identification. As they were not carrying ID on them, the officers detained them behind their vehicle and ordered the internationals to leave the field. When the young men reappeared, they said that they were violently searched and threatened against talking to internationals.
“I said I didn’t know who you were, so that I would not get arrested,” said one of the young men, “but if you had not been here, they would have beaten me and probably arrested me. Now they are too afraid of your cameras.”
The uprooting of olive trees and the consequent destruction of livelihood may be one of the gravest threats that the people of Qusra face from the Israeli forces which occupy their land. It is by no means the only one.
Walking through Qusra, the young guides point to a home that has recently received a demolition order.
Later, ISM volunteers visited a shelter belonging to Qusra resident Fathallah Abu Readeh. He explained how he one morning he awoke to a note from the Israeli authorities ordering him to remove the shelter within 7 days, along with some scrap cars on his own land. The note was written in both Arabic and Hebrew, but as Readeh doesn’t read Hebrew, he missed the correction in the Hebrew text stating 3, not 7, days of notice.
“They did this on purpose, just to be able to punish me,” says Fathallah.
Apart from various forms of harassment by the Israeli military, Qusra is regularly exposed to attacks from the adjacent, illegal Israeli settlement of Migdalim. Earlier this year, a mosque in the village was set on fire by Migdalim settlers.
Nina and Saffron are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).
28 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Sunday, June 24 in Aqaba, Muhammed and Nassa Al-Jabba received a demolition order by Israeli authorities demanding that they evacuate the premises of their home within the next 3 days. The Al-Jabba family have not evacuated the home as it is the sole residence for their family of 10 children. The Israeli military may arrive at any time to demolish the building in the Area C (Israeli civil and security control) village.
Muhammed Al-Jabbar holds a demolition order for his family’s home
Upon arriving in the village of Aqaba, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers spoke with the mayor, Haj Sami, an older man left wheelchair bound after suffering 3 gunshots from Israeli soldiers while working on his farm in 1971. He was only 16 years old at the time and fortunate to survive.
Haj Sami introduced ISM volunteers to Nassa Al-Jabbar, the mother of 10 who has been faced with a demolition order, giving her only 3 days to abandon the premises before the Israeli army is able to arrive with bulldozers and raze her home.
Nassa and her husband Muhammed have spent 10 years building their home. When asked why it took them so long, Nassa replied that because a permit to build on their own land is impossible to attain from Israel, the house was built in 7 different stages in order to avoid the soldiers attention.
Nassa says that if Israeli forces demolish her home, she, her husband, and her 10 young sons and daughters will have no other place to go. They do not have the funds to build another home.
Muhammed states that regardless of the outcome, he will not leave his home. If demolished, their house will join the over 24,000 Palestinian homes that have been demolished since 1967.
Nassa and Muhammed’s home is not the only building that faces demolition. Four other shelters and a concrete factory have received orders as well.
The village of Aqaba has suffered extensively from the Israeli occupation. Of a population of 1000, 700 residents are internal refugees. The villagers live in constant threat of home demolition.
On September 15, 2011, two animal shelters and a home were demolished. There was no advance warning, not even a demolition order. The roads that provide easy access into the village was also destroyed by Israeli forces. On a weekly basis, Israeli forces hold military training near the village, subjecting Aqaba to the sound of gun shots. On Tuesday morning however, the Israeli military began also training with tanks. The explosions are resulting in stress and trauma for the villagers.
If allowed to happen, Nassa and Muhammed’s home will join the list of thousands of demolitions inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli military occupation.
Sunny is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
22 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Friday, June 22, several hundred Palestinians and solidarity activists gathered in Susya to demonstrate against the demolition orders imposed on them. Earlier this week, Israel issued orders threatening to demolish the entire the southern West Bank village of Susya.
Israeli soldiers push on a human chain of activists in Susya – click to see more photos
At least 5 full buses as well as private cars, taxis, and media, arrived in Susya join the demonstration on Friday morning. Among them were several different human rights and solidarity organizations. One such group included drum-players and clowns giving spontaneous performances.
Israeli army, border police, and police arrived immediately and began to fire sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the peaceful protest. Israeli military attempted to arrest a Palestinian man but he was successfully de-arrested by fellow demonstrators. When demonstrators formed a human chain, soldiers approached and were directly violent with them. The demonstration lasted some 4 hours.
Earlier this week, demolition orders were issued for over 50 structures which add to numerous demolition orders given earlier. The orders cover most of Susya, including not only dwellings but also animal pens, water cisterns, a kindergarten, a medical clinic, and the solar-powered electricity system.
Nina Larsson is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
28 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Friday, May 25, illegal Israeli settlers drove into the village Lubban ash-Sharqiya where they attempted to forcefully enter a family’s home. When Israeli soldiers and policemen arrived at the scene they joined the settlers, supporting’ them whilst they tried to enter the house.
Men of the Palestinian family, together with International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers and other internationals, stood at the gate of the house to prevent the settlers from entering. The father of the household, Khaled Daraghmeh, and his son were then beaten and arrested.
Lubban ash-Sharqiya is a village located some 30 kilometres south of Nablus, adjacent to Route-60, the primary north-south road that runs through the occupied West Bank. The village is surrounded from all directions by 3 illegal settlements: Eli, Shilo, and Ma’le Levona. The illegality of these Israeli colonies has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice and the United Nations Security Council.
On the outskirts of Lubban ash-Sharqiya, near the colony Ma’le Levona, Khaled Daraghmeh lives with his family. Khaled, like many other Palestinian villagers, works as a farmer and is dependent on what the harvest provides him. Living next to Israeli settlements is not an easy fate for Palestinians and Khaled has suffered a lot.
“It began to get really bad about five years ago. That was when the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) demolished my first house.” says Khaled.
After his first house was demolished, Khaled moved to his father’s old house just across the road. The peace he seeked there did not last long. Only a couple months later, settlers attacked and burned down the entire building. Khaled was then forced to move to a third house, an ancient Ottoman building that also belongs to his father. Here the family lived in one part of the house, using the remaining space as a poultry farm.
The settlers have made it clear, however, that they are determined to get rid of Palestinians in the area. Last Saturday, some 50 settlers forcefully entered the house, removed all the furniture, and burned it. They also poisoned the drinking water of the poultry farm, leading to the death of most of the animals inside.
Now Khaled is frightened of life in his own home. He welded the door to the living area and moved into a small, dark room, where he used to keep animals.
“In the past, I was able to repair or rebuild what the settlers destroyed, but now I have used up all my savings,” says Khaled.
The harassment continues to today. As Khaled worked his land, a settler car stopped at the road and began making phone calls. He feared a new attack and called the ISM, seeking their immediate presence. Upon their arrival, the settlers had already left and everything appeared calm. Later, while the group of Palestinians and internationals sat together having lunch, approximately 20 settlers of all ages arrived and started walking towards the Ottoman house.
Palestinians from the area, accompanied by the ISM, approached the settlers and asked them what they were doing here. They replied that the land was ‘community property’ and that they had the right to be there. Khaled, who owns the land and has all the needed documents to prove it, replied by saying that this is his land, and that he wanted them to leave.
While the discussion continued, an Israeli military jeep with 6 soldiers arrived and began to split up the crowd. A policeman told the settlers that they could not enter the house as it belongs to Khaled and his family. The settlers grew upset with the policeman and screamed that he was a coward and afraid of the internationals and their cameras.
A discussion in Hebrew took place between them and meanwhile another police car arrived and 2 other policemen joined the crowd. After a couple of minutes of heated dialogue, the 3 policemen, the 6 soldiers, and the illegal settlers walked towards the house while the settlers screamed, “you see, you see, now we can enter!”
Jamal Daraghmeh is peppersprayed and loses his shoe in the violent arrest | Katarina Reigo
The Palestinians together with the internationals formed a line at the gate of the house to prevent the approaching group from illegally entering the house. Khaled was wrestled to the ground and beaten by soldiers and police men, even after being handcuffed. When Jamal, Khaled’s 21 year old son, saw his father beaten and attacked, he ran over to try to help. When he reached, the soldiers and policemen attacked Jamal in the same way they did his father.
Khaled’s 17 year old son, Jalad, then tried to help them and was instead attacked by the settlers and pushed away by the soldiers.
As the policemen walked away with the handcuffed men, they struck Jamal in the head a couple of times. The youngest son, Mu’min, 14, was filming the attacks on his brother and father when the policemen tried to kick him in the head. The boot missed him only by a few centimetres. Then policeman pulled the camera out of the teenager’s hands and stole it.
Only moments later, Jamal was pepper sprayed in the face before they forced him into the police vehicle. Khaled was then pushed into the jeep with bleeding hands from the brutal handcuffing.
“This has become normal to us. My father has been arrested 4 times recently and my brothers is beaten up all the time. Mu’min can not even walk to school without the settlers attacking him,” says Jalad.
To survive as a Palestinian living adjacent to these illegal settlements, can, with the assistance of the Israeli Occupation Forces, feel like a losing game. Only last year, 250 to 270 of Khaled’s olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Last week, an entire field of cucumbers was destroyed along with the irr system of the family’s land.
These attacks have pushed the Daraghmeh family into the desperate situation they are now in. After being forced to start over again and again, they have no money left. They can not repair the things that are destroyed, leading to a bad harvest, and less income.
Simultaneously, the Israeli state has offered Khaled 5 million shekels (1 million Euros) for his land. But as many other Palestinians, he is rejecting the money, and the resulting ethnic cleansing, and will continue to live and work on his land even if it means sleeping in a small, dark room with no electricity or running water.
Alex is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
8 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Monday, May 7 in the southern West Bank village of Idhna, Mohamed Temezi was busy working on his caravan home. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrived unexpectedly and subjected him and his wife Faizah Temezi to a 3 hour ordeal in which they were detained, and beaten. Their new home was threatened with demolition.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) provided the caravan for the Temezi family. They have experienced house demolitions on two previous occasions by the IOF. The first demolition was in 1989 and the second 5 months ago in December 2011. Both took place in the West Bank village of Idhna. Prior to the arrival of the caravan, Mohamed, Faiza, and their son had been living in a tent.
Now the Temezi family may be facing the loss of a third home. Israel issued a demolition order for their caravan dated May 29, 2012.
Currently, Mohamed is subject to weekly visits by the IOF, threatening that if he does not cease building his home that they will forcibly confiscate it. Mohamed tells the IOF that he will rebuild his home if it is destroyed. Their reply, says Mohamed, is that they will simply demolish it again.
The Temezi family complain of regular harassment and taunting during the weekly Israeli army raids.
On Monday, 8 soldiers arrived at Mohamed’s caravan site and threatened him with arrest if he continued to build. Mohamed refused to comply and was detained alongside his wife, inside the caravan.
During the detention, they were both physically and verbally assaulted. Mohamed was struck by a soldier’s personal radio on his scalp on various occasions while being verbally assaulted. At one point, Faizah attempted to safeguard their electric motor which Israeli soldiers were attempting to confiscate. IOF responded by wrapping cable wire around her neck and forcefully pushing her head into the wall.
As the violent behaviour continued, the Israeli soldiers seized all remaining tools in the house as well as 300 metres of cable which the family required for electricity. There has been no electricity in the house since.
After 3 hours, as soldiers left, they again threatened Mohamed of the consequences of continuing his work. The equipment the IOF stole from Mohamed is valued at some 7000 NIS (approximately 1420 Euros or 1830 USD). Among the equipments seized are those required for access to the sewage system.
This is the first time that OCHA has supplied displaced Palestinians with caravans. The project has also assisted three other families in the valley of Idhna. OCHA also supplied Mohamed with two workers and 41,000 NIS for equipment to construct access to basic amenities such as water and electricity.
OCHA have been informed about the incident, however action has not been taken.
Mohamed has been held under administrative detention (no trial, no charge) on 7 occasions for a total of almost four years. The Temezi family say they fear this visit was not the last, and that they do not want to lose their home a third time. This unwanted prospect may become reality on May 29.
Sunny is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)
