4th Feburary 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Team | Gaza, occupied Palestine
Yesterday there were several events in Gaza supporting the Palestinian political prisoner Mohamed AlQeeq, who is actually in the 72nd day of hunger strike and has lost his sight and hearing.
Palestinians protesting for the release of political prisoners
Moataz Dalul, spokesman for the prisoners, stressed that “Mohamed AlQeeq is not fighting just for him but for all the prisoners and the freedom of Palestine” and “we want the Palestinians inside the green line to support him and stand with him until his freedom”. He also demanded the human rights organizations inside and outside Palestine to “just say the truth… we don’t need your support, we just want you to tell the truth”.
After Tahsin AlAstal, official of the journalists union, claimed “we speak a lot with international associations and organizations for human rights, but we are quite certain that this is useless, as they don’t do anything. Everyday Mohamed is dying and the Red Cross and the high commissioner of the UN are silent. People in Palestine is understanding that all those NGO and associations don’t move a finger for them, so we question them, what’s their reason to be here?” “We don’t need the people to say that they are worried for Mohamed or to denounce with empty words, we just need real moves and our prisoners to be saved”.
Palestinians protesting for the release of political prisoners
PCHR and other human rights associations, on their side, denounced Mohamed situation “administrative detention is a crime, as it is force feeding, and Israel is using both of them with Mohamed and other palestinians in front of the eyes of all the world, but they choose to look to the other side. Mohamed united all the spectrum of the Palestinian people under the motto: freedom or martyrdom”.
31st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Saturday, 30th January 2016, large groups of settlers, accompanied by heavily-armed soldiers, entered the Palestinian market at night and took it over for about an hour during night-time in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
Israeli forces blocking the entrance to the Palestinian market
Around 9:30 pm, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements throughout al-Khalil gathered at Bab al-Baladiyya, from where they walked into the Palestinian souq, the market, surrounded by heavily-armed Israeli forces. The group of more than 50 settlers started a ‘tour’ of the Palestinian market, with Israeli forces ‘guarding’ them throughout the Palestinian market. Palestinian residents were not allowed to pass and forced to wait at a distance, with soldiers repeatedly pointing the lasers from their guns at them to indicate they have to stop. The walk home at night took almost an hour for some Palestinians, instead of the usual 10 minutes.
Settler clogging up the Palestinian market
This kind of ‘settler tour’ through the Palestinian market used to take place regularly on Saturday afternoons. During the ‘tour’ Palestinians are often denied to pass, stopped, ID-checked and detained. In the recent months, no ‘settler tours’ took place, but last week they started again with a nightly-tour at 11pm. For the Palestinian residents of the souq, these tours have become a regular form of intimidation and harassment in the past.
31st January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Sunday, 31st January 2016, Israeli forces fired large amounts of tear gas at school-children on their way to school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).
Heavily-armed soldiers approaching the students
In the early morning, as children were walking to their schools located past the Salaymeh checkpoint, three school-boys picked up some small stones and tossed them in the direction of the checkpoint. The children are forced to go through this checkpoint on their daily walk to school, and are often subjected to body-searches, bag-searches and random detentions by Israeli forces.
Israeli forces shooting tear gas canisters at students
Even though the soldiers were standing safely behind a fence, one of the soldiers immediately picked up a stone throwing it back at the children. After a while, the soldiers crossed the checkpoint and started shooting tear gas at the children. They were shooting both tear gas grenades and tear gas canisters in rapid succession at the same time. Israeli soldiers forced two international human rights defenders to move away from them in order to stop them from documenting, thus forcing them to move into the clouds of tear gas lingering outside the schools.
Despite only three boys were throwing stones, Israeli forces attacked the whole neighbourhood with more than a dozen tear gas grenades and canisters. This is clearly unproportional and a form of collective punishment, aimed not at anyone in specific, but instead affecting all the students and residents in the neighbourhood. Teachers tried to bring the children, who were coughing badly, to safety inside the school-building, but were tear-gassed even there as soldiers were shooting tear gas directly into the school-yards. 4 tear gas canisters landed straight in the Khadiga school yard, while 6 more were shot into the Hebron school yard. As teachers were calling ambulances, the majority of the children went back home in order to escape from the noxious tear gas.
Tear gas clouds lingering in the school-yard and on the streets
In the afternoon, the few children that were left at the school were forced to have their bags searched by heavily-armed Israeli forces on their way home.
This is not a uncommon occurrence on the regular way to school for Palestinian children in occupied al-Khalil. Children are often facing tear gas, stun grenades and violence from Israeli soldiers. The right to education for Palestinian children in this environment is not guaranteed and often schools are forced to close early due to violence. While passing the checkpoint, many children are accompanied by their parents or elder siblings since they are afraid of the heavily-armed Israeli forces and some of them run past the checkpoint quickly to escape from anticipated intimidation and harassment.
ISM is currently working to expand the campaign to put pressure on Israeli authorities to heed the demands set forth in the Action Alert, which over 35 organizations have now signed calling for an end to the closed military zone in Tel Rumeida, Hebron and for Israeli authorities to abide by international law and the dictates of human rights in the city. Palestinian residents in Tel Rumeida have now been living under a closed military zone for over two months. Palestinians have been forced to register in order to be allowed into their homes; all others, including Palestinian family members, human rights defenders and members of the media are barred from the area by Israeli forces, even as settlers from the adjacent illegal Israeli settlement can walk the neighborhood unimpeded. Since January 17th local Palestinian activists and residents of Tel Rumeida have been nonviolently protesting outside Shuhada checkpoint, calling for an end to the closed military zone.
Palestinians and international supporters gather every day outside Shuhada checkpoint
We call on all those who believe in human rights, justice and freedom for the Palestinian people to please help in whatever ways you can. Together, we are stronger! We will continue to post updates on the campaign, any new developments in the situation and more actions you can take. Please also let us know if you have any other ideas for actions to help raise awareness and put pressure on the Israeli government to end the closed military zone.
Palestinians gather outside the recently renovated Shuhada checkpoint, waiting for Israeli forces to determine whether they are permitted to enter Tel Rumeida
There are many ways you can take action now:
Join our Thunderclap campaignand share it with your contacts via Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media platforms
Call on organizations you work with or are affiliated with to add their names to the Action Alert, and to issue brief statements detailing why the organization is supporting this campaign and why you find it important. Please send all requests to sign and statements to palreports@gmail.com for publication. Please also contact us for versions of the Action Alert in languages other than English and Arabic – we currently have translations available in German, French, and Dutch, and will update this page as more become available.
Organize an event, such as a demonstration, presentation or other campaign to raise awareness on the situation in Hebron and mobilize support in your area
Contact media outlets in your country and call on them to report on the situation of the closed military zone, in Hebron and Palestine in general
Join our second Twitterstorm and social media action day on the 1st of March. and tweet with the hashtag #EndHebronMilitaryZone. This google document includes a list of sample tweets to use during the Twitterstorm, which we will continue to update. Please DO NOT use these tweets or tweet with the hashtag #EndHebronMilitaryZone before the time of the Twitterstorm!
Write a message to your elected representatives (MEPs, members of congress or whichever position is the equivalent in your country) using the sample text included below, and encourage your friends and contacts to the same
If you are based in Europe, call on your EU representativesto suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel complies with international law
Organize a delegationto visit Hebron, see the situation for yourselves and talk to Palestinians about the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation. Seeing the conditions in Hebron with your own eyes offers an understanding of the occupation that one cannot get from reading about it. If you want to organize a delegation you can contact the ISM in Hebron at palreportskhalil2012@gmail.com and we will help you and answer any questions you might have.
Thank you for all your support!
Young Palestinian man body searched by Israeli forces in Tel Rumeida
Sample text for message to representatives:
Since the 1st of November 2015, the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron, Palestine, has been declared a “closed military zone.” The zone was specifically designed to include Palestinian neighborhoods while excluding adjacent illegal Israeli settlements. Palestinian residents were forced to register with the Israeli military or else risk being barred from their own homes, while Israeli settlers are free to roam the streets without being stopped. Any Palestinians not registered as residents, international human rights defenders and media are all barred from the area. These restrictions of movement constitute collective punishment, considered illegal under international law.
In the city of Hebron, Palestinian and international human rights defenders are constantly targeted by Israeli forces and settlers from the illegal settlements inside the city for their efforts to document the situation. Meanwhile since the beginning of October over 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers, many in incidents Amnesty International has said may amount to unlawful, extrajudicial executions.
As Abed Salaymeh, a Tel Rumeida resident directly impacted by the closed military zone explained, “soldiers and settlers are making life for the Palestinians intolerable to force them to leave their houses voluntarily. This is a crime under international law. They are targeting activists to silence the truth and stop the truth from reaching the whole world.”
We [or I] call on you to act now for the immediate ending of the closed military zone and the restriction of movements imposed on Palestinians in Hebron. It is time for the international community to take action and call on the Israeli government to comply with international law and especially with the Geneva Conventions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
17th January 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Yesterday, 16th of January 2016, the area of Queitun in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank was invaded by more than 50 Israeli Forces and more than six military jeeps and two police cars. The Israeli Forces raided multiple houses in the area from 4 pm until 7 pm and arrested at least seven Palestinians from the area before finally leaving the families alone.
Israeli Forces entering house in Queitun
According to witnesses, the Israeli forces entered the area explaining that they heard shooting coming from an unidentified Palestinian home close to the Queitun Checkpoint that leads into the area. However, Palestinians in the neighborhood did not hear any such noises throughout the day.
After the Israeli Forces entered the checkpoint, they raided multiple family homes nearby. In some homes, the soldiers damaged the residents’ belongings and left the homes wrecked. They also beat some residents without any reason. A young man from one of these homes needed medical treatment in the hospital after soldiers violently attacked him.
Young man beaten by soldiers with there guns.
During the three hours that the Israeli Forces spend terrorizing the area and harassing the residents, they arrested at least 7 Palestinians. Three of the arrestees were taken around 4 pm and were all from the Karaki family. They were released after less than three hours.
Arrest in Queitun. Photo Credit: CPT Palestine
At the same time 40 soldiers entered the Abu Ramooz family home in Queitun to search before going to the neighbor’s house to arrest Hammad Said, 19. During that time, the 8-year-old sister of Hamad was struck in the head by a soldier after asking the Israeli Forces why they were attacking her brother and taking him away. The soldiers then went back to the Abu Ramooz family and arrested Wasam Abu Ramooz, 20, local shop owner Yunis Serbel, 32, and Shaudi Abu Hadid, 48, who was taken from his house where he was alone at the time. These four men had not been released at 8 pm and the families were still not being informed about where they were or what was happening to them.
More than 50 Israeli Forces took part in the mission in Queitun leaving many families in fear.
House raids and arrests like these are not uncommon in the area of Queitun that has been suffering from ongoing harassment and military presence. The Israeli Forces took over a whole floor of a Palestinian house more than a month ago and have been using it as a military outpost. The increasing amount of harassment in the area has left many families afraid of letting their children play in streets and opening their shops. This is a clear example of how the military occupation affects the everyday lives of Palestinian families.
