Tag: Israeli Army

Madama village marks Land Day 2017 under heavy military violence

31st March 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team  |  Madama, occupied Palestine

Palestinians gathered in Madama village to plant olive trees during Land Day

Thursday the 30th of March was Land Day, a day in which Palestinians and their supporters commemorate the loss of huge amounts of land, stolen by the Zionist colonisers in 1976. In Madama village, in the Nablus area, around 300 Palestinian activists with some internationals marched to the outskirts of their village to plant olive trees on village land which has been stolen by the extremist illegal settlement Yitzhar. This non-violent action came under heavy attack by the Israeli Forces with more than 45 people shot with rubber-coated metal bullets and many more suffering from tear gas inhalation.

At around 12pm the march set off from the centre of Madama with many people carrying flags and singing songs, including women, children and men. After climbing a steep street up onto the fields at the edge of the village people began to plant olive trees. There were Israeli Army vehicles and around 20 heavily armed soldiers waiting for the demonstration on the hillside. As people began to plant olive trees the soldiers started to shoot tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets without any warning. Despite this repression, people continued to plant trees and a small group of people responded to the tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets with stones.

Israeli settlers stood next to the Israeli Forces while tear gas was being shot

Over the next two hours or so, the Israeli forces became more and more aggressive firing rubber-coated metal bullets at anyone who was there, often at head height. If someone was injured and on the floor they would fire upon them again and at the people coming to rescue them, even if they were clearly marked as medics. According to the Red Crescent at least 45 people were injured by rubber-coated metal bullets throughout the demonstration. An activist from ISM was also shot with both a rubber-coated metal bullet and hit with a tear gas canister upon their lower legs whilst providing medical support to the injured.

Extremist settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar also came to attack the demonstration with stones. They were held off by the people of the demonstration and after talking to the army sat and watched the Israeli forces fire upon unarmed demonstrators.

More than 45 people suffered injuries and needed assistance

Despite this extreme repression of a group of unarmed demonstrators, people did not leave until all the trees were planted, demonstrating that this is their land and they will not be threatened into not using it.

The villages around the illegal Yitzhar settlement have suffered a huge amount since it was set up in 1983. The extremist inhabitants of this settlement regularly attack Palestinians with impunity, sometimes even killing them. They regularly intimidate Palestinians off their farm lands, attack buildings and lands in the local villages, throw stones at Palestinian cars, and, block roads, these attacks are done with the protection of the Israeli Army. Yitzhar is just one example of the over 196 illegal settlements built throughout the West Bank, supported by Israel, but deemed illegal by the international community.

Long-awaited maintenance works offer rare sight for Palestinians in al-Khalil

30th March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Wednesday 29th March 2017 Israeli forces opened a blocked-off street for the first time in almost two decades to allow long-overdue sewage system works. The alley in occupied al-Khalil, open for less than a day, gave Palestinians the rare opportunity to see Shuhada Street and the illegal settlements which have caused countless closures for the civilian Palestinian population.

Palestinians working on the sewage-system while Israeli forces stand by

Palestinians have been pursuing permission from the Israeli side to do this maintenance work for years – with no success. The market in the Old Town runs almost parallel to Shuhada Street, where the main illegal settlements in the heart of Hebron are located and where Palestinians are totally prohibited. As one of the lowest points in the Old City, this area of the souq is regularly flooded in winter by rain water and overflowing sewage as much of the sewage system has been cut off by the illegal settlements. Despite a one-day ‘permit’ granted by Israeli forces for work to be undertaken, several delays were caused when Israeli forces would not allow additional maintenance vehicles to enter the area. Furthermore, the small amount of time granted by the permit only allowed workers to fix a short stretch of sewage pipe immediately beneath the concrete slabs, with other vital works having to be postponed.

Palestinians gathering to watch the ongoing work

Heavily armed Israeli forces were present on site at all times to ‘guard’ the path to what was once a thriving Palestinian market and the main route between north and south al-Khalil. After the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in 1994 – in which colonial settler Baruch Goldstein gunned down and killed 29 Palestinians and injured more than 120 more when he opened fire with his machine gun during prayers – Israeli forces have slowly but steadily eradicated the Palestinian presence in Shuhada Street. This process has been achieved through broader, ever-increasing restrictions, harassment, and intimidation towards the Palestinian civil population of al-Khalil.

During the maintenence, passing Palestinians could be seen reacting with surprise and stopping to watch the work and take photographs. Sunlight – long hidden by the high cement slabs barricading the street – suddenly flooded the souq from the small archway. For many Palestinians, this brief opening served as a reminder of a time before the severe crackdown on Palestinian human rights by the Israeli forces in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. One elderly man demanded the soldiers let him through so he may visit his shop, which remains sealed-up on Shuhada Street where Palestinian movement is entirely forbidden by Israeli forces to favour and facilitate settler movement.

After less than a day of permitted work for Palestinians, the access is tightly blocked off again

The fire under our feet: a journal piece

I’m OK.

Actually, personally, my family and I are well, Alhamdililah! But I can feel the intensified fire under our feet.

I know the feeling. And I know the explosion that comes after it.

This week alone the Israeli apartheid government has escalated its actions, bombing Gaza daily while tightening the already lethal siege around it, announcing that the PLO fund that provides support for families of Palestinian martyrs is illegal, while killing more young boys and men, escalating land theft through settlement construction and land confiscation, and promoting a law that will regulate that theft, announcing that colonial settlers will invade al Aqsa under armed guard during Ramadan while making the call to prayer from mosques illegal … The ground under our feet is burning.

I have felt this before. And I can only conclude that those in charge of the apartheid authorities know what they are doing. I have seen them do it before. They must know the Palestinian people will not just decide to roll over and die quietly. They must want a violent reaction in response to these actions, and I have no doubt that they will get one. Young people with no hope of being allowed to live with their dignity intact and with nothing to lose will sacrifice their lives in the hope that this situation will change for others.

And the apartheid authorities will then respond by doing what they do best: a torrent of death and destruction that they can then display at the international arms trade exhibitions, with clinically proven, effective weapons, tested live in the modern battlefield of urban warfare, on a besieged and imprisoned population. They will show your military and police force, “We got them where it hurts, we destroyed essential public infrastructure and killed x people in x days and, the best part is, we got away with it. If we can do it, you can do it too. All you need is a smart system of security cameras and a fleet of killer drones. All for the discount price of …” and your countries are literally buying this.

Now tell me again why BDS makes you uncomfortable?

 

Palestinians ID checked and searched during early morning incursion in Hebron souk

21st March 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

In the early morning of the 21st March a group of Israeli forces carried out ID checks and body searches on young Palestinian men and children on their morning commutes through the souk (old market) of Hebron.

Two ISM activists were walking to a checkpoint to monitor and report on violations of freedom of movement when they encountered large numbers of Israeli soldiers in the souk. Local Palestinians were ordered at gunpoint to throw their ID cards on the ground for inspection, and many were subjected to body searches and made to sit in the road. One boy was ordered to remove his shoes and toss them towards the soldiers before being made to sit on the cold ground for over fifteen minutes.

A young Palestinian boy is made to remove his shoes and sit on the ground for fifteen minutes by Israeli forces.

Cars were also stopped, delayed, or diverted. One Palestinian shop owner was forced to leave his van whilst he and it were both searched by Israeli forces.

A Palestinian man is stopped by Israeli forces whilst driving through the souk.

The incursion lasted for over an hour before the Israeli forces returned through the gate which leads to the military base, having searched over fifteen Palestinians and delayed many more. Incursions such as this highlight the restrictions on freedom of movement faced by Palestinians in Hebron and across the West Bank every day.

A van driver is body searched and questioned by Israeli forces.

 

The driver is made to sit whilst Israeli forces search his van.

16-year old killed by Israeli forces in Al Arrub, Hebron

18th March 2017  |  International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team  |  Hebron, occupied Palestine

Yesterday evening, on March 17th, 16-year old Murad Yusif Abu Ghazi died after being shot by Israeli forces in Al Arrub refugee camp outside Hebron in the occupied West Bank. A second Palestinian identified as 17-year old Saif Salim Rushdie is in a critical condition after being shot in the chest by the Israeli forces in the same incident.

The funeral for Abu Ghazi was held in Al Arrub camp today, and hundreds of mourners came to pay their respects. After the funeral, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces and according to Ma’an News Agency, 8 young men were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets, receiving treatment on the scene. In addition, dozens of other Palestinians, among these women and children, were treated for severe tear gas inhalation.

Hundreds of mourners paid their respects at the funeral.

Murad Yusif Abu Ghazi is be the thirteenth Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army since the beginning of 2017. His death marks the second killing of a minor this year and once again highlights the excessive use of lethal force against civilians.

According to an Israeli army spokesperson, the killing happened after firebombs were hurled at passing vehicles on a road near Al Arrub camp and “in response to the immediate threat, forces fired towards suspects”. The spokesperson added that investigations are still underway. Statistics provided by Yesh Din, an Israeli organisation of volunteers for human rights,  however demonstrate that criminal investigations into alleged offences committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians have a poor chance of being effectively investigated. According to Yesh Din, only 4 cases out of 186 criminal investigations in 2015 resulted in indictments.