Tag: Invasion - Page 8 - International Solidarity Movement

Interview: Living under constant fear of arrest

5 November 2009

Mohammed Ahmed Issa Yassen, 20, lives in the occupied West Bank village of Bilin, where he works in his family’s car garage business as a mechanic. He is also a student at the al-Quds Open University, but since he has joined the Israeli intelligence’s “wanted” list from the village, studying has been difficult. The Electronic Intifada contributor Jody McIntyre interviewed Mohammed about living under the constant threat of arrest:

Jody McIntyre: How many times have the Israeli army been to your house?

Mohammed Ahmed Issa Yassen: During the most recent wave of arrests in the village [which has been over the last four months], the army have been to my house eight times. The first time they came was 3 July; I was not at home, so they started trashing our house and destroying the furniture. My mother, who is 52 years old, was at home at the time, and they told her to bring her son to prison. Each time they came, they were more and more aggressive towards my mother. Nowadays, she can’t sleep at night.

They also went to the house of my older brother, Mazen, and gave him an invitation demanding that he hand me in at Ofer military complex, so that they could arrest me. They didn’t say why they wanted to arrest me.

JM: How have the night raids affected your life?

MY: I can’t live a normal life. I can’t sleep at home during the night, because I fear that the army will come to arrest me, and during the day I must work; my father passed away in January of this year, so I must earn money for the family. We don’t live a luxurious lifestyle, not by any means, but we need to have food on the table.

My young nieces and nephews used to come over to my house to stay with [their] grandmother, but on one occasion the army invaded while they were here, and now they’re too afraid to sleep over again. It’s not just my family though, it’s a problem for the whole village — no one can sleep at night anymore.

JM: What about your studies and relationships with friends?

MY: It was difficult to continue my studies before the night raids, because of the expense of traveling to university and paying the semester fees, but now it is pretty much impossible. The night raids have ruined my education.

Some of my friends are afraid to hang out with me now, because they fear that they might also be arrested. I don’t want to go to stay at my friends’ houses anymore, or to have them over to stay, because I don’t want to drag them into my problems.

JM: Has anyone else from your family been arrested in the past?

MY: At the beginning of the nonviolent resistance in Bilin, towards the start of 2006, they were using a similar tactic as recently, invading the village at night and arresting the participants of the demonstrations. They arrested my oldest brother Bassem, and kept him in jail for four months.

At around the same time, they arrested my younger brother Abdullah. He was just 14 years old at the time. I was 16, and it was the first time I had seen the soldiers at such a close range … the first time I’d had a chance to look them in the eyes. I was terrified.

During the second or third of the most recent raids in my house, they arrested Abdullah, now aged 18, again. He’s been in jail for the last two months, and won’t be released for another four and a half. I miss Abdullah so much … before he was arrested, we would spend the whole day working together in our family’s garage, and then playing around afterwards. I would give him some money from the business’ takings, without telling our mother … sometimes we didn’t have enough money to go around, so I would give him some from my own pocket, just to make him feel like he was living a normal childhood. Since our father died, I’ve felt like a father to Abdullah.

JM: Why do you think the Israeli army want to arrest you?

MY: I don’t know why they have made me into this big criminal … I have to work all day to make sure my family has bread, so I don’t even have time to go to the demonstrations! Young boys from the village, under intense interrogation, supposedly “confessed” that I had thrown stones in the past — this isn’t true, but even if I had, what difference does this make to the fourth largest army in the world? After all, they are the ones stealing our land!

It seems that every couple of years, the army in Bilin, perhaps under different leaderships, try a new tactic to stop our nonviolent demonstrations. Sometimes they arrest people from the village, like they are doing now, sometimes they impose curfews, and sometimes they kill people … like my friend Bassem Abu Rahme.

They think they can stop the demonstrations in Bilin, but they can’t, so they punish us instead.

JM: What is your message to the Israeli government who want to put you in jail?

MY: Leave me alone so that I can go back to my studies, to play football with my friends, and to continue with my normal life. And release my brother Abdullah so I can see him again.

If Israelis want to meet me then we can go to the playground and have a game of football, not in a military prison!

JM: Do you think there will ever be a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

MY:I just want to see a peaceful solution in my house and in my village. For now, it is difficult for me to think about the bigger picture.

Village of Iraq Burin invaded by Israeli army in the aftermath of a settler attack

31 October 2009

The village of Iraq Burin, in the southern region of Nablus, came under attack again today in a display of force yet more brutal than last Saturday’s clashes with settlers and Israeli military forces. Palestinian youth clashed with 30 settlers on the edge of the village only to be driven back, as Iraq Burin was invaded by approximately 50 Israeli soldiers, firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and sound bombs on civilian residents. One man and woman were injured and another man arrested.

In a repeat of last week’s events, at 2pm 30 settlers approached the eastern edge of Iraq Burin from the illegal settlement of Bracha, reaching a now-decrepit well that lies on a small hill opposite the village. In a bizarre display of provocation (the well is located in very close visual proximity to Iraq Burin itself, and well within its rightful territory) the settlers proceeded to not only pray on the lands, facing the Palestinian youth that had gathered on the opposite side of the valley to watch, but in fact descend in to the well to swim.

The theatrics were shortlived however, as once again the settlers took up stones and began hurling them at the young boys from the village, who returned the attack with more stones. The Israeli army, who had been observing the situation from the nearby military watchtower that lies between Bracha and Iraq Burin, chose only now to intervene. 40 soldiers, arriving in six jeeps along a small agricultural road from the settlement now entered the fray on foot, driving the Palestinians back to defend their village as the settlers retreated, of their own volition, to the well to watch the ensuing violence from their vantage point.

As the youth were forced back to the village by the army, another two jeeps carrying a further 10 soldiers entered Iraq Burin from the western side, trapping them between the two units. Israeli Occupation Forces, now well within the confines of the village unleashed a torrent of tear gas and sound bombs and fired rubber-coated steel bullets at the retreating Palestinian youth.

Three ISM activists entered Iraq Burin at approximately 4pm, to the sound of gunfire and detonating tear gas and sound grenades. The stench of the gas and smoke hung heavy in the air as young boys with rocks – their only weapons – in their hands ran past and families – some huddled around their windows, some gathered on rooftops – watched the scene unveil below. Activists witnessed IOF forces aim long-range tear gas directly at youth in the street, passing less than a foot from their heads, and sound bombs fall within metres.

The army exited Iraq Burin a half hour later, firing more gas back upon the village as they went. Not long after a Red Crescent ambulance was able to depart for Raffidiya Hospital, to provide Sayad Faqeeh with immediate medical attention. Faqeeh had been hit directly in the foot by a long-range tear gas canister, which not only releases clouds of suffocating smoke but at a range of 350m is often used by the IOF as a – at times, fatal – weapon itself.

As activists were able to move through the village they discovered a second victim, Salwa Faqeeh. An Israeli soldier had beaten her in the face and chest with the butt of his gun as she tried to stop them beating her husband, Wael Faqeeh, who was subsequently arrested. ISM learned that he had been released approximately 3 hours later.

The Saturday attacks are fast becoming an expectation for the people of Iraq Burin, who say this year has seen a chilling increase in the level of settler violence in the region. The Israeli military’s subsequent display of brute force may have become a harsh reality for the village, but serves only to strengthen its spirit of resistance.

Israeli forces invade Balata refugee camp

29 June 2009

Early morning the 29th of June, the Israeli Occupation Force invaded four houses in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus. The soldiers arrested 3 boys of between 16 and 17 years old, without letting them or their family know why. In several of the houses, the soldiers had destroyed furniture, mirrors, cabinets and kitchen equipment.

At around 2 o’ clock in the morning, about 40 heavily armed soldiers with around 8 jeeps surrounded the house of the Mamroti family in the Balate Refugee Camp in Nablus. When the soldiers entered the house, they wanted to talk to the father in the house, Daod Salem Mamroti, whom they asked to undress. Later, the soldiers forced the parents with their five children out on the street, and demanded to see all their ID-cards. When they found the family’s 16 year old son Mohamed Daod Salem Mamroti, they took him to the school nearby while the rest of the family had to stay inside a groceryshop close to their house.

“While we stood inside the groceryshop, we could hear the soldiers entering our house above, and we heard how they broke our things and our furtiture. They didn’t tell us what they were looking for, or for how long we had to stay inside the shop. It was terrifying!”, Daod says.

After the family had stayed in the groceryshop for two houres, the soldiers left their apartment, put Mohamed in a jeep, and drove away. When the family again could enter their apartment, they didn’t believe their eyes. Everything was torn upside down, furniture were destroyed, mirrors were broken, cabinets were empty, and all their stuff was on the floor. They found the water tanks opened, without knowing if the soldiers had done something to the drinking water, and the kitchen looked like a wreck.

The same night, at around 2 am, a group of about 11 heavily armed Israeli soldiers from IOF also entered the house of the Hashash family in the Balata Refugee Camp. The soldiers demands everybody to go outside, except the father of the house who was forced to go with the soldiers in to the house with the them as well as two huge, military trained dogs. The soldiers were saying that they were looking for a gun, and tore the bedroom up side down. The soldiers demanded to see the family’s tree son’s ID-cards, and asked particularly to talk to the family’s 16 year old son Ashraf Kait Hashash. Thy asked Ashraf many questions, and arrested him. The family was not told why he was arrested, were they were taking him, or when he was going to come back.

At around 3 am the 29th of June, another group of Israeli soldiers, entered the house of the Awais family in the Balata Refugee Camp, and arrested the family’s 17 year old son Mohamed Besem Mahmod Aweis without any explanation. The soldiers did not destroy anything within this house, nor did they treat any of the family members violently.

At 2 am in the morning, the 25th of June, a group of Israeli Soldiers entered a small house in the Balata Rafugee Camp, and arrested the family’s 17 year old son Mohamed Salam Hashash. They did not explain why they arrested him, or when he will be released. Luckily the soldiers did not destroy anything inside the house.

A fierce attack on the village of Bil’in

At around 4am soldiers from the Israeli military stormed the village of Bil’in by foot. They abducted Suleiman Sif, aged 16 years, from his home and dragged him to an unknown destination.

This raid is part of a broad campaign over the last two weeks by the army to strike terror into the villagers of Bil’in. It is meant to stop the people from continuing their peaceful, non violent resistance at a time when a major court case against nearby settlement builders is pending in Canada.

It is yet another case of collective punishment by the Israeli government which fears that the resistance in Bil’in is achieving results.

Children ‘very scared’ in Israeli incursion

Dominic Waghorn | Sky News

25 June 2009

Salah Awad claims Israeli soldiers ransacked his house

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government hopes the move will help defuse growing tensions with the Obama Administration in America.

A rift between the two countries appears to be widening over Israel’s refusal to halt settlement building.

A meeting between Mr Netanyahu and US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell has been put off, reportedly because of growing frictions.

Israel has already lifted a number of checkpoints, and now says its military will refrain from entering Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem and Qalqilya except in cases where they believe attacks on Israelis are imminent.

Two nights ago in the Nablus village of Awata, a Palestinian family experienced one such Israeli military incursion.

Salah Awad told Sky News his sister-in-law was at home alone with seven of her children, aged two-and-a-half to 10.

“They came at midnight making a big noise to open the door,” he said. “But they didn’t say who they were. The children were very scared.”

Mr Awad claims the soldiers stayed for five hours, putting all the children in one room while ransacking the house.

“They destroyed all the furniture. They asked the children if their Dad carried a gun showing them their weapons.”

According to Mr Awad, three other homes in the village were searched but the Israelis found nothing.

The Israeli Defence Forces spokesman unit told Sky News its soldiers “uncovered AK-47 and Carl Gustov antitank rifles” during a “focused operation to uncover arms” in the area.