Tag: Israeli Army - Page 11 - International Solidarity Movement

“If you don’t leave this house, I will slaughter your children”

17th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

UPDATE: Child arrested after settler death threats. Link here.

On the night of February 16, ISM activists joined a number of local Protection Unit activists to go on a night patrol of the old city in Al Khalil. During the night patrol, we were brought into the home of of a family who have recently experienced intimidation and aggressive harassment from illegal settlers and the military.

Our hosts described to us how settlers, including prominent Hebron settlement spokesperson Noam Arnon invaded the family home by climbing down the stairs from their rooftop, accompanied by the Israeli army. Our host described how, in the presence of the army, Noam Arnon threatened that he would murder the entire family who lived in the house if they did not submit to the demands of the settlers and give up their home. This disgusting threat was allegedly made by the man who is often portrayed as a man of peace, and a reasonable voice in the settler community. Our host went on to describe how Anat Cohen, another prominent settler in Al Khalil, was watching this interaction from a nearby home, encouraging the soldiers and settlers to kill the homeowners. Also among the mob was Baruch Marzel (ברוך מרזל), the extreme right-wing politician and previous spokesperson of the Kach organisation – a party outlawed in Israel and the US as a terrorist organization. In 2000 Marzel organized a party at the shrine of Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli terrorist who murdered 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahim mosque, to celebrate the massacre.

Nighttime invasions of homes by the military are common throughout occupied Palestine. However, instances like this shine a light on the inner workings of the occupation. The event described above is the occupation in a microcosm: one of the world’s most technologically advanced armies, acting on behalf of a group of extremists with an agenda of ethnic cleansing. There is no justice in an occupation.

Hebron Report 15.02.2019

On the morning of February 14, 2019, ISM activists were forced to leave the Shuhada Street area as it was declared a closed military zone. The activists were monitoring the Qurtuba checkpoint, which is passed every morning by teachers and children going to school. Palestinians are regularly targeted and harassed by settlers and the military at this checkpoint. Over the 37 minutes that activists were present at the checkpoint, approximately 100 Palestinians were subject to its control and surveillance.

The map illustrating the closed military zone imposed by Israeli occupation forces

The declaration of a closed military zone came on the foot of a large coordinated settler attack on Palestinian families living close to this checkpoint. This took place on the night of February 12, 2019 and several people were injured. Significant damage was caused to Palestinian homes also. The following morning, ISM activists were forced out of the H2 area near Qurtuba by police with no explanation as to why. During this time, settlers moved freely with the police, harassing and filming activists as they were forced out. Footage can be seen here.

On the morning of February 14th ISM activists were notified that a closed military zone had been declared for the day of February 14th. Prior to this, Anat Cohen, an infamously violent settler, assaulted an ISM activist. This was the fifth time in the past week that ISM activists have been assaulted by settlers. Leaving the Qurtuba area, activists joined others who were monitoring the Qeitun checkpoint.

Going to school in Al Khalil/occupied Hebron

At Qeitun, Israeli forces fired 2 concussion bombs and 4 tear gas canisters at Palestinian people. One concussion bomb exploded very close to a mother and her baby. While thankfully there were no serious injuries, it is terrifying to think about the effect that such weapons would have on a newborn’s ears and lungs. Unfortunately, unprovoked attacks and collective punishment are normalized and occur regularly under the illegal occupation of the West Bank.

Tear gas flooding the streets around Qeitun

It has been said many times before, but it worth restating the saying that “existence is resistance”. Under these circumstances the peaceful act of trying to make your way to school or work is an act of defiance and courage. To do so is to stand up against the logic of systemic violence, oppression and land theft that is imposed by the Israeli State, its armed forces and settlers.

End the Occupation

Occupation forces shoot 9 demonstrators near Ramallah

9th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Despite being condemned by all authoritative bodies, the occupation continues to expand it’s settlements throughout the ‘West Bank’, with total disregard for international law. All the settlements are built on Palestinian land and these illegal settlers often raid local villages, lacerating olive groves and destroying crops. In addition, violent, unprovoked attacks by settlers against Palestinians have increased alarmingly over the past year, with 200 race-related incidences recorded in 2018. The village of Al-Mughayyir north-east of Ramallah has experienced constant harassment, including settlers setting fire to the local mosque.

Last week, a group settlers invaded and attacked Al-Mughayyir, shooting indiscriminately toward houses. As residents gathered to resist the invasion with stones, the settlers immediately and randomly fired a barrage of bullets at the crowd, killing 38-year-old Hamdi Nassan who was shot in the back. Many others were hit with live ammunition, leaving three wounded in serious conditions.

After performing Friday prayers in the field of the village, the residents gathered to commemorate Hamdi and to protest the continued annexation of their land. Despite being on village land and posing no threat to the surrounding settlements, dozens of occupation soldiers were positioned across the hills surrounding the field. Within moments of shebab throwing stones toward fully-armored soldiers standing more than 100 metres away, the occupation began firing tear gas canisters from a machine known as ‘venom’- capable of shooting 64 canisters per launch. While protesters scattered in order to dodge hailing canisters, soldiers descended from the hills, firing rubber-coated steel bullets indiscriminately into the crowd. Yet as a cloud of tear gas smothered the field, the youth surged forward, using the toxic gas as cover to lob rocks at the armoured vehicles. At no point did anyone get within 50 meters of a soldier but in a reality that is all too familiar for the Palestinians – yet no less deplorable – snipers started ‘picking off’ protestors. Nine youths were wounded by live ammunition and many others injured.

“They take everything,” explains Bruqin farmer during 2018 olive harvest

October 22, 2018 |International Solidarity Movement | Bruqin, Occupied Palestine

ISM volunteers spent the day harvesting olives with farmers in Bruqin village, a day that began with Israeli soldiers confronting the farmer and his family and ordering them to leave their land no later than 5 p.m. Since the harvest workday typically concludes around 4 p.m., this did not prove an obstacle for the harvesters. But it was a potent reminder that the residents of Bruqin, a primarily agrarian village located in the fertile Salfit governorate area, continue to lose control over and access to their land due to ongoing Israeli military occupation.

In the last few decades, Israel has expropriated hundreds of dunams of land from Bruqin in order to build Israeli settlements, settlement “outposts,” military checkpoints, and Israeli-only settler by-pass roads. Bruqin village has existed since Roman times. Yet Israel’s historically recent military occupation is swiftly eroding this village’s existence.

Despite the vastness of the olive groves in which they were working, the buildings and vast structures of the hilltop settlements of Bruchin and Barkan Industrial Zone proved impossible for volunteers to overlook. These settlements are connected by settlement highway roads 5 and 446, which were both audible and visible from the land where volunteers were working. The sound of cars zooming by on the settler roads was ever-present.

Since its creation, Barkan Industrial Zone has pumped its wastewater into Bruqin’s agricultural land, causing pollution and the spread of disease in both humans and animals. As volunteers walked through the groves of olive trees, the stench of human waste was palpable, even in the middle of wide-open farmland. This “policy” is a continuation of past practice when Ariel, another nearby settlement, began channeling its sewage into the northeast side of the village more than twenty years ago.

Palestinians and ISM volunteers were able to harvest the rest of the day without further Zionist interference. In conversation with the farmer, however, ISMers asked the name of the settlement looming over them as they worked. They were initially confused by his answer, because it sounded as though he were simply saying the name of his own village. Carefully re-iterating and exaggerating the slight difference in pronunciation between “Bruqin” and “Bruchin” for his international listeners, the farmer explained, “They take everything. They take our land, they take our freedom. Then they take our names.”

Barkan pumps its wastewater into Bruqin’s agricultural land

Video: Israeli soldiers, police harass olive pickers in As-Sawiya village

October 7, 2018 | International Solidarity Movement | As-Sawiya, Occupied Palestine

A group of Israeli soldiers, one Israeli policeman, and one Israeli settler harassed a group of Palestinian and international olive pickers in As-Sawiya village yesterday, demanding identification and threatening to expel the harvesters from the area.

Soon after the group began work, they noticed security vehicles from the nearby settlement of Alia arrive and park along the settler road above them. The occupants of the vehicle got out of the car and stood along the road for some time, taking photographs of the olive pickers. Soon thereafter, a team of Israeli soldiers arrived, along with an Israeli police officer in an Israeli police vehicle. The soldiers and police officer immediately approached the olive pickers and asked for IDs. One Israeli soldier filmed the entire interaction with his mobile phone, while the police officer photographed the passports of all the international harvesters. He returned the passports immediately, but held onto the Palestinians’ IDs for a much longer period of time, walking away from the group to make a phone call and visibly sorting through the IDs. After the phone call, he appeared to photograph one or more of the Palestinian IDs before returning them. The officer then tried to tell the group that they needed to leave. The team refused, with the Palestinians insisting that this was their land and they were there for the olive harvest.

During the confrontation, a settler came and sat nearby, watching. After the confrontation, the settler, along with two Israeli soldiers, remained on the scene for an additional 20-30 minutes, trailing the olive pickers. Eventually all Zionists left and the rest of the day’s harvest proceeded without incident.

As-Sawiya is slowly being surrounded by Alia as it expands along three sides of the village and encroaches on its land. The particular area being harvested yesterday was among the closest to the Alia settlement.