Tag: Jenin

“We are still here”

by the ISM media team, March 13th

This was the message from the IOF commander of Jenin district to students from Zababda village south of Jenin when 15 students from the Arab American University and 6 students from the local secondary school were arrested early on Monday morning. During the three hour invasion the army broke down the doors of students’ dorms and apartments and threw rocks at windows.

Most of those arrested were released except one student from the university and four young students from the village who remain in detention – Mohammad Sharqawi, 14 years, Sadam Sharqawi, 15 years old, Bilal Sharqawi, 16 years old and Jawad Sharqawi, 14 years old.

According to those detained, most of whom belonged to the Hamas bloc at the university, the IOF asked them to work as informers before telling them that they knew everything anyway. Children are often detained by the IOF to get information from them or to persuade them to work as informers in the future.

Zababda has experienced several atrocities and attacks on students’ dorms by the Israeli military, with four students and one professor being killed in the past three years and more than 60 imprisoned.

Last night, the Israeli army set up a checkpoint at the entrance of the village stopping vehicles and invaded the village again, arresting another three students.

M’riha – A Saga of Expulsion and Dispossession

by Stop the Wall, February 16th

M’riha, a Bedouin community west of Jenin, came under attack on Thursday 15th February by Occupation Forces who destroyed four sheep farms under the pretext of the community lacking necessary “building permits”. Occupation Soldiers, flanked by several bulldozers, entered the village at 9.30 am. The area was closed off and the Bedouin community was prevented from rescuing the fodder, equipment and the water containers from which the sheep drink from the buildings.

The owners of these farms are Qa’ed Hamdouni, Nawaf Mustafa Hamfouni, Tawfiq Hamdouni and Mustafa Saleh. All of them take their main source of livelihood from these farms, and engage in agricultural production that is vital to the Bedouin community as a whole in that area. As such the people from M’riha resisted this latest assault collectively.

The community gathered around the area and started to resist the attack with their bare hands. Clashes ensued and the people broke through into the area under demolition. The destruction was temporarily brought to a halt as Palestinian Bedouins stood in front of the bulldozers. Occupation Forces, with their guns and military might, had to beat people back so bulldozers could resume the demolition.

The pretense for the demolition on Palestinian infrastructure – as in the vast majority of cases – was the lack of necessary “building permits”. Farmers and workers from M’riha saw the action as part of the wider Israeli Occupation plan to transfer the people and to eventually isolate and confiscate their land. One goal in issuing such demolition orders is often the clearing of the land for confiscation.

Stripping the Bedouins of their land is an attack on the century’s strong ties held by such communities with their traditional livelihoods. It results in the creation of more refugees and is part of the systematic and coordinated policy of removing Palestinians from their lands.

M’riha is composed of 45 Bedouin families who have already suffered expulsion and dispossession. They are refugees, expelled from the lands which were cleansed of Palestinians in 1948. They settled immediately behind the Green line in Jenin district and re-established their community. In 2002, with the construction of the Apartheid Wall, the Occupation forced them to leave a second time. With the latest attack, this Bedouin community is now subjected to devastating measures which threaten their means of livelihood for a third time.

Again/Still

by Amy, February 1st

It’s my third time visiting Palestine, and not much is different. I was just commenting to my co-volunteers on how I’ve already written about such and such issue, I can’t do it again… but my housemate here pointed out the truth: repetition is life here. If reading the same stories over and over feels exasperating, imagine living it.

A few days ago, we were called by Maher, a town leader in a village in the north of the West Bank, very close to the actual 1967 green-line border of Israel. In fact, it’s right next to an Israeli town where 70% of this Palestinian village population worked before the intifada (or “uprising”) began and Palestinians were no longer allowed entry inside Israel. When we arrived, Maher led us to a home and explained how, as the family was religious, we would be visiting with the women and a family member would translate for us. We entered a room where 50 women sat on floor mattresses against the wall. It was the final day of the three day mourning period in which family members and neighbors sit with the father, brothers, sisters, spouse, and mother of the deceased from morning till night. We sat next to the mother and wife of Omar, a 28-year-old Palestinian man who was assasinated while walking with his wife and 30-day old baby from his brother’s house next door after an evening visit. Plain clothes officers jumped out from the entrance way in his apartment building and shot him 3 times, put the baby in his arms and told his wife that if she screamed, the baby would die as well. They ran towards the road where military jeeps stood waiting.

Did the family contact a lawyer? They said no. See, Omar’s brother is in prison. After a long period of hiding from the military police, he was finally imprisoned last year. Omar’s family knows he has been tortured and fears even more retaliation if they initiate a legal battle with the Israeli military.

Almost EVERY single Palestinian family has had a few people imprisoned in Israeli jails and few people die from Israeli bullets. Where would your anger lie?

Haaretz: Military probe ordered in 2003 shooting of American in Nablus

by Yuval Yoaz, November 26th

The Military Advocate General, Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, has instructed military police investigators to open a probe into the question of whether Israel Defense Force soldiers bear criminal responsibility in the shooting of a 24-year-old American citizen and leftist activist in the Jenin refugee camp in April 2003.

The investigation was opened almost two years after Brian Avery, of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), petitioned the High Court of Justice for a criminal probe in his case, and after both Mandelblit and his predecessor, Major General (res.) Menachem Finkelstein, refused to order such a probe, arguing that the military investigation after the incident should suffice.

Avery, from New Mexico, came to Jenin as part of his work with the ISM in April 2003. He extended humanitarian aid to local residents, among other things, assisting doctors treating the residents. On Saturday April 5, Avery and his flatmate, Jan Tobias Carlson, heard shooting. When the shooting stopped, the two called other activists and went to find out if anyone had been injured. According to testimony by ISM members present at the scene, Avery was standing under a streetlight and wearing a red vest with the words “doctor” on it in English and Hebrew on front and back. Four eye-witnesses said an IDF armored personnel carrier (APC) and a tank came into the street, and Avery and his companions raised their hands to show they were unarmed. The witnesses said the APC and the tank continued to approach Avery and when they were a few dozen meters away, the APC opened fire and shot about 30 bullets. Avery was hit in the face, his cheek was torn, and his eye-socket, mouth and jaw bones were smashed.

The IDF probe stated there was no proof the shooting had been by IDF soldiers.

In the petition, Avery’s attorney, Michael Sfard, said an operational investigation by the IDF was “not a reliable tool,” adding that “in a number of cases soldiers have been cleared, while the military police investigation revealed incriminating evidence and resulted in harsh indictments.”

Three months ago the High Court ordered the military advocate general to show cause why he would not open a criminal investigation into the incident.

The state responded last Thursday that the chief military prosecutor saw no reason to change the previous decision. However to remove any doubt, he decided to order a military police investigation.

The state also agreed to pay Avery’s court costs of NIS 15,000.

Sfard said “it is unfortunate that it takes three and a half years and pressure of the High Court justices for the military advocate general to order what is fair and desirable in a place where human life is not worthless. There are a few soldiers who were involved in the incident and thought the story was over. The message from the High Court is that the story is not over. Brian and I will continue to fight until the truth comes out,” Sfard said

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See also our press release into the previous Supreme Court hearing on September 20th and the resulting instruction of the Court to the IOF.

“I only listen to what they tell me” – a Palestinian account of what it takes to travel from Jenin to Ramallah

by Ashraf, 7th November

Today at 9 in the morning, a group of 30 students from my university in Jenin left to attend a conference and an exhibit of Information Technology held in Ramallah. IT students were invited to visit a joint Palestinian market of different Palestinian computer and software companies.

The first checkpoint we reached came a few minutes after leaving the campus just outside the village of Zababdeh. Two Israeli army jeeps controlled the road, stopping cars traveling in one direction. It was not long till we were stopped at our second checkpoint outside Buckram. The army forced us to leave the bus and wait on the side of the street. Two soldiers went inside to check our bags, while anther two soldiers checked our IDs. After 10 minutes we were allowed back in the car. The driver stopped just few a meters ahead waiting for them to finish checking our IDs.

We finally got our IDs back after 30 minutes of waiting. The next checkpoint was Za’atara, one of the biggest in the West Bank. It separates the central and southern regions of the West Bank. A large white sign acted as a propaganda message at the checkpoint. It has the picture of a large red flower along with a greeting written in Arabic “Kol A’am Wa Antum Bi Khayer” – “wish you good health every year”. In this way Israel hope to polish and consolidate the checkpoints, hoping to legitimize their daily humiliation of Palestinians.

Our bus was stopped again for more ID checks. Some students got bored of waiting and got out for a cigarette. I sat at the back of the bus watching the traffic. Soldiers denied the passage of an old man with an x-ray, and two women with a baby. Welcome to the “Kol A’am Wa Inta Bikhayer” checkpoint.

I recognized one of the female Israeli soldiers from the Huwarra checkpoint, just a few kilometers to the north. She is notorious for her humiliating treatment of Palestinian passengers. She was obviously in charge here. Three soldiers approached the bus holding our IDs divided into two stacks. We were told to move our bags off the bus for checking and to stand in a line. One soldier started calling our names. We were forced to walk forward a few steps, lift up our shirts so as to prove that we were not wearing explosive belts around our waists, then wait on the side with our backs facing the soldiers. I was the third to be called. I was given my ID back and told to open my bag. The soldier ordered me to lift up my shirt, but I refused to submit to that and instead I tucked it in and walked away without waiting for the soldier’s order. One of the soldiers laughed and said in Hebrew to the female soldier that I hadn’t lifted up my shirt.

After 5 minutes, only the students who had been given their IDs back were allowed to pass. The rest -almost half of the group- were turned back. I walked towards the soldier who it seemed was in charge and asked in English “are you the one who is in charge here?”. She smiled and answered she was. I explained the reason for our trip and that we are all students from one group going to a conference in Ramallah, “why can’t they come with us?” I asked. She replied in slow broken English that: “they shouldn’t be here, they are not allowed”.

“Why? You have a computer here, check their IDs and let us all go. You know what you are doing, right?” I asked

“I can’t do that – I listen to what they tell me to do”.

“Listen to who?”.

“Them, my boss” she said, raising her hand up. I asked again: “but you know what you are doing, right? Don’t you think this is injustice?” She ended the exchange with the answer: “this is my job, it’s orders!”

Orders! What kind of order asks every Palestinian passing through a checkpoint to get close to soldiers and lift up their shirt for “security checks”? What if a Palestinian was really hiding something? Can’t the soldiers see how stupid these procedures and orders are? Or maybe these orders are not really meant for security.

We headed back into the bus arguing what we should do at this point. Some tried to talk to the soldiers again, but made no progress. As we were talking, a young Israeli soldier, apparently from a different army unit came over. He yelled at the crowd of students and grabbed one of us aggressively by his bag and led him to the other side of the street. I got out of the bus and asked the female soldier loudly: “why is he doing this? Where is he taking my friend?” she said in Hebrew “he is Magav” (the notoriously brutal Israeli border police). Was this one of the orders too?

The students who were denied entry then split into two new vehicles. They headed back towards Huwarra so as to try and find a road around the Za’atara checkpoint they had been turned back from. When they found a road, the first car was turned back at a flying checkpoint “for security reasons”, but the second one was allowed through. Maybe there was an order for them to only let one of the two cars pass. The denied car eventually found another road that they were allowed to pass through.

We waited in a small village after Za’atara for our colleagues to arrive. While we waited we all (even the bus driver) went olive picking with a Palestinian family near Assawiya village. It was a new atmosphere to change our mood. We swapped jokes at the end of the day after 7 hours of traveling about how we finally made it all together despite the dehumanizing checkpoints.