9th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Bil’in, occupied Palestine
The weekly protest took place in Bil’in on Friday April 8th, as it has done every Friday for over a decade. Around 35 protesters, a mix of multi nationals and Palestinians, took part. Very soon after the peaceful march started, the protesters were met with a hail of teargas delivered by approximately 10 Israeli Occupation Force soldiers and border guards who had arrived in five jeeps and were parked about 500 meters away. They continued to shoot teargas for about 20 minutes. One protester was overcome by teargas and had to be treated in an ambulance by medics.
Teargas being shot by Israeli Forces towards peaceful protesters
Bil’in is a village with a population of 1,800 residents and is situated 12 km west of Ramallah in the central West Bank of Palestine. It is internationally renowned for its weekly demonstration against the occupation and the building of the annexation wall. Frequent injuries, and even deaths, have occurred at this protest, and the Oscar nominated movie 5 Broken Cameras has documented the violence that the protesters continuously face.
Peaceful protesters being attacked by Israeli Forces. One person needed medical treatment.
Despite the death and destruction wrought upon the beleaguered villagers, they remain unbowed and continue to march every single week in an attempt to make their voices heard, and to bring international attention to their plight.
4th April 2016|International Solidarity Movement | Al-Khalil Team, occupied Palestine
In the north of the Jordan Valley, and adjacent to the town of Tubass, are three agricultural communities: Yarza (with 4 families), Ibzk (13 families) and Samre (11 families). These families have existed on this land for hundreds of years, and some were born in a cave in the hills overlooking their homes. Their homes are regularly demolished; Yarza has been demolished five times with the last demolition occurring in August 2014.
The area is littered with ammunition, including bullets and landmines, as a result of the frequent Israeli Occupation Forces training exercises that occur here. These exercises are illegal under international law since this is an agricultural community, and they take place in close proximity to homes. Many of the residents have been injured or killed, according to activists who work for Jordan Valley Solidarity, including a father of three who was burying landmines in order to secure the safety of the community. One exploded, killing him instantly.
Soldiers training on Palestinian land.
The local community, with the help of different organizations, requested protection from the UN office in Ramallah, to no avail.
On Sunday, April 3rd the residents were notified that military training exercises would be taking place for two days starting Monday, April 4th, and they were to refrain from going out. However, the training started that night. When military training is taking place, the children are prohibited from going to school, since they are usually bussed to Tubass. Where they live has been designated Area C, and there are no schools within close proximity.
Palestinian family living in the village.
On April 4th, two International Solidarity Movement volunteers arrived at Yarza. There they observed the arrival of more than 200 heavily armed soldiers who arrived in buses and jeeps. They crossed the land the communities live on, many on foot, and positioned themselves over a small rise approximately 500 metres away. Throughout the night very loud explosions were heard all the way to the village of Tubass.
The communities feel very threatened by these actions, and the children especially are terrified by the presence of the Israeli soldiers and by the exceedingly loud explosions. The residents believe that there are many other areas further away that the IOF could choose instead of being so close by and endangering their safety.
This beleaguered community has suffered in countless ways; their livestock is regularly confiscated, their homes are frequently demolished, and worse yet, there have been lives lost to Israeli military training which could very easily take place elsewhere.
4th April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Tel Rumeida, al Khalil, occupied Palestine
On Saturday 3rd of April 2016 settlers entered land belonging to Muhammad Abu Haikal in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron on the occupied West Bank in Palestine. The settler children built a tent and then brought other settlers who prayed and ate there. It took more than four hours from when the police arrived until the settlers actually left, still claiming that it was their land and running around so that the police would not be able to evict them.
The first young settler kids arrived at the land at around 9 o’clock in the morning and started building a tent out of wood and sheets that they had found and playing on the land. They were actually playing in Muhammad Abu Haikal’s garden, but the end of the garden has been declared a closed military area by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who have made a military outpost in the garden and cut off the end of it of with barbed wire. The settler children entered the garden using the staircase that has been built for the soldiers to reach the outpost: they stamped down the barbed wire and covered it with a piece of wood to prevent themselves from getting injured.
Settlers and their children trespassing illegally on Palestinian land.
Later on, while the family was trying to pick almonds from trees in the part of the garden that is not a closed military Area, the settler children returned with a number of adult settlers and more children. Muhammed Abu Haikal and the internationals present asked the settlers to leave the land, but they refused. He then contacted the police.
After the police arrived, the settlers once again claimed to be the owners of the land, with the right to remain there. The Palestinian family was asked to step back and had to stop harvesting their garden. Not until after the settlers had prayed on the land multiple times, brought food and played ball there, did the police finally try to get them to leave. The police asked all Palestinians and internationals to leave as well, as they said, “it is impossible to make Israelis leave, if there are Palestinians on the land”. It then took the police over two hours to evict the settlers. They then removed the materials that the children had left on the part of the land that is not a closed military area, but refused to pull down the tent, because, they said, it was not allowed on Shabbat.
Finally the soldiers closed off the closed military area with more barbed wire and allowed the family back into their garden. If Palestinians had been trespassing on settlers land, which is illegally occupied, they would probably have been arrested immediately, but when it is the other way around, which it usually is, the police do not use any kind of force.
3rd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine
The two boys met us at the store, shouting the name of our Palestinian contact and waving us along. The cobbled stones in the alley made a nice contrast to the darkness of the night. My feet landed softly on the mud where we started our climb. Glimpses of trash were seen from the flickering flash lights, as if we were threading our way across the city dump. We were going to the house of Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, the man who had managed to catch last week’s execution on film. His name was out in the media and he and his family had received death threats. The local illegal settlers had also put up posters with his name and face on them, saying they wanted him skinned alive. The house had already been firebombed. We were going there as an international presence to act as a deterrent to what seemed a likely further attack.
Imad in his family home
This night his backyard looked like your average neighbourhood barbecue, except that nobody was eating. Imad was sitting by the brazier alongside ten other men from the surrounding houses. His children were buzzing about, and his wife Faisa made sure everyone got their coffee and tea. When the soldiers showed up she made sure everything got caught on film.
There were three of them, all dressed in green, with black automatic rifles and some form of knee pads, which went well with the beret of their leader. They reminded me of turtles with their inability to look back over their shoulders. The execution had been condemned by president Netanyahu at first but later on, as the Israeli public opinion cleared in favour of the soldier, the shooting was surrounded with excuses. The situation for the messenger had however deteriorated.
As the soldiers walked in to the backyard a handful of camera LCDs lit up the night, like torches keeping the wolves at bay. Faisa brought her camera close to the officer’s face, where he hopefully saw a reflection of himself, a harasser of ordinary people.
The soldiers stood around for a while as they checked our passports and IDs. The situation was a bit tense but as everyone had the right to be there, they turned on their heels and left. They were the second delegation from the Israeli army that night. A lone soldier had come at first, to see if there was any protection present, and Issa guessed, to go back and tell the settlers. Luckily, there were a lot of people showing Imad and Faisa their support.
As the hours passed people started to leave for their homes. Our delegation from the ISM spent the rest of the night at Imad’s place. There was an Indian soap opera on TV, dubbed to Arabic, and the children surfed the internet. It could have been a quiet night in a home anywhere in the world, if it hadn’t been for the occupation, or the death threats.
2nd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine
On Saturday 2nd April, Palestinians and international activists alike worked together in solidarity to plant olive trees in the town of al-Bikaa in the Jordan Valley, the town falls under area C of the occupied territories. The act of planting the trees today was symbolic and had several meanings behind the days actions.
Planting of olive trees
In November, 2015, the occupying Israeli forces confiscated a field of land from the native Palestinians and used it to plant grape vines, fruits that often end up on the tables of naive western countries who’s citizens have very little idea of the vegetation’s origin and the ongoing struggle for Palestinians that is created from these malicious land confiscations.
A man in the new field with the Israeli field behind him
The primary agenda behind the tree planting today was to strategically plant the olive trees in a freshly ploughed and fertilised field to the right of where the Israeli government has planted their grape vines. There is hope amongst the Palestinians that if the fields are being utilised then the occupying forces will not confiscate the land.
A Palestinian man plants an olive tree
It was the first activity organised by the popular union to protect the Jordan Valley. It was a symbolic and momentous day as previously, each village throughout the regions of Nablus, Tubas and Jericho have each had their own governing bodies. There have been more than twenty five unions in the past and this has brought them all together under one new body.
Young children playing whilst helping in the planting of the olive trees
The Palestinians of the Jordan Valley face an ongoing struggle against the occupying forces from malicious land confiscations, the constant threat of home demolitions, the struggle to attain building permits along with limited water and electrical supplies to Palestinian local farmers (illegal Israeli settlers have unlimited water and electricity at their disposal). Despite all of this the Palestinian people remain defiant, resilient and will stand together in solidarity in hope for a brightful future of their rightful lands.
