Tag: Jenin

Green Palestine marks Nakba day

19 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Palestinians planting a tree to mark one of the villages wiped out in 1948
With the creation of Israel in 1948, four hundred and eighteen Palestinian villages were wiped out and destroyed, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people from homes they had lived in for generations. This year on May 17, in further commemoration of the Nakba (the Catastrophe), the ISM joined the Palestinian organisation Green Palestine in planting olive trees in the village of Al Tayba, near Jenin in the north of the West Bank. After each tree was planted a laminated tag with the name of each individual village was tied to a branch.

Arwad and Fakreh Adiri, two Palestinian activists for the Green Palestine, put together a schedule of events over the Nakba period, which included 63 horses (standing for 63 years of exile) riding to Jenin, 418 bicyclists wearing the names of the 418 villages cycling for 3 kilometres to the centre of Jenin and an Ambulance alarm sounding during a 63 second silence in which the whole of Jenin observed.

ISM talked with Arwad, one of the organizers of the event.


What has been the aim of today?
To tell the young people that these 418 villages existed. The Palestinian people are patient enough to wait to go back home. We chose Al Tayba as it is next to the 1948 border, the wall has split this village so half of it is in Palestine and the other half is in Israel, leaving families cut off from each other.

This is just the beginning, we are planning to turn this into Haifa’s garden, we will invite other districts in Palestine to come and visit and also put an information board in French, German and English to tell this story so that we raise awareness in the international community.

What is the significance of planting trees?
Olive trees are the strongest trees in Palestine, they last for hundreds of years. This is to indicate that our roots will remain in Palestine, we are going deep in the ground and we will stand tall.

What do you think the future of Palestine will be?
That’s a very hard question but I will be honest… as long as we have internationals coming to Palestine, we see the light coming close. And I don’t mean governments I mean regular people like you. We feel like we have solidarity which is more important to us, it will take longer this way ´[to bring about change] but finally I’m sure we can and we will have change, Inshallah.

I am for having Israel as a state, but living all together. Don’t steal my stuff, let’s share it or leave it alone. Look at this water issue, settlers use 80% of the water available to Palestine and the rest of us have just 20% because they dig their wells deeper. They are stealing. It is not fair.

Mourning Juliano Mer-Khamis

Jeff Halper | Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

The ICAHD family mourns the tragic slaying of Juliano Mer-Khamis

The ICAHD family mourns the tragic slaying by masked gunmen of our friend and comrade Juliano Mer-Khamis in Jenin. Juliano was a major figure in the struggle for a just peace and the forging of a new multi-cultural society in Palestine/Israel based on human rights, freedom, equality and, not least, creative, critical expression.

Juliano, filmmaker, actor, and the co-founder and director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, supported the work of ICAHD and frequently attended our summer rebuilding camp in the West Bank, showing his films to our activists and sharing his thoughts and vision. That vision was of a bi-national society, although Juliano was far too critical to confine himself to “Jewish-Israeli-Palestinian” dichotomies. As a man of the theatre as well as a political figure driven to forge a better society against sectarian forces who sought only to divide and dominate, he opened issues of equality, gender, religion, and individual expression, bringing young people – his “actors” – into experiential encounters with them. This may have cost him his life; in both the societies in which he lived, Israeli and Palestinian, the conflict has not only suffocated equal rights and individualism by group-think sectarianism, but has legitimized the use of violence against anyone envisioning unfettered pluralism. Juliano did not allow fear or pressures to shut him up, but it is having its effects on all of us. Liberals and even those of the critical left are hunkering down; many of Israel and Palestine’s brightest young people are fleeing.

The ones that envision and work for a just society are decreasing among us. The loss of one of the bravest, one of the most energetic, articulate, and creative among us, the symbol of what might be, is a cruel blow, not only to his family, to whom our condolences go, but to the rest of us who must struggle on without him. No, not “without him,” since Juliano will always inspire and guide us. Someone of his presence, like Rachel Corrie, cannot be easily removed from the scene. Juliano, we will miss you but we will continue your struggle.

Israel begins expanding settlement in Jenin

Saturday, October 16th, 2010 | Ma’an News Agency

JENIN (Ma’an) — Israel began large-scale digging works on Saturday in preparation for the expansion of an illegal settlement in the northern West Bank district of Jenin.

Residents of the Ya’bad village, on which the Shaqed settlement is built, said bulldozers entered on Saturday and began razing village land to make way for several new housing units.

The expansion follows the expiration of a partial settlement moratorium in the West Bank last month, which the US and EU urged Israel to prolong in a bid to save flailing peace talks from collapse over settlement activity.

The Ya’bad village is surrounded by several Israeli settlements including Shaqed, Rehan, Hinnanit, Mevo Dotan and Hermesh.

On Friday, the US said it was disappointed by Israel’s announcement that several new homes in two illegal East Jerusalem settlements had been approved, describing the move as “contrary” to efforts to resume direct negotiations.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian youth in Yabad

3 October 2009

On Wednesday, 30 September 2009, the Israeli army murdered a Palestinian youth outside his school, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam high school in Yabad village, west of Jenin. This school had been closed from 2001-2006.

Around 11:35am, a military jeep with the license plate number 655474 left the main road to turn into the access road to the school where a group of male students gathered close to the main entrance of the school. The jeep was driving at a fast speed and targeted Foad Mahmoud Naiyf Turkuman (age 17) who was crouching down close to a small concrete wall. According to eye witnesses (one of his teachers and three of his friends), the jeep hit Foad directly and pushed him against the wall. Due to the impact, Foad was thrown 2.5 meters and fell to the ground in front of the vehicle. The driver of the jeep then drove his vehicle forward running two wheels over Foad’s chest and torso of the already injured youth a second time. He then stopped the engine and called for reinforcement, claiming mechanical failure. The driver of the jeep closed the gate of the school and did not allow any of the teachers’ cars to go out and take the injured student from the ground, or help him.

A second jeep with the license plate number 611041 arrived. The newly arrived soldiers threw tear gas at three friends of Foad’s standing nearby as well as into the school court yard to prevent anyone from coming to the scene. About 24 students were injured by the tear gas. Eventually, the second jeep towed the first one away to underline the claimed mechanical failure. While the media portrayed the event as an accident, the Palestinians clearly see it as a deliberate murder. Some witnesses documented the event with their mobile phone cameras.

When Foad’s brother, Mahdi Mahmoud Naiyf Turkuman ran to the scene to help his brother, the soldiers blocked his way. He injured his wrist when he slammed his hand against the jeep in an attempt to get through. As teachers and students tried to come to Foad’s rescue, saying that they will call an ambulance to take him to the hospital, the soldiers allegedly asked what was the problem and if anyone was injured!

Foad, who was seriously injured, was left unattended for 30 minutes because the army prohibited anyone from approaching. Finally, the teachers and a relative were allowed to rescue him and take him to Jenin hospital in a relative’s private car. He died from his injuries at the hospital an hour later. His brother Mahdi had to be sedated by injection since he witnessed the murder of his own brother and was in shock.

Eye witnesses mentioned that the soldiers obviously assumed that the boys were about to throw stones. Since the Israeli army is not supposed to use their guns on stone throwers, they seemed to have opted to use their jeep as a weapon instead.

Most of the students were in their classes, but a few were finishing up and going to their homes.
Foad’s family, who are refugees from Haifa since 1948, decided to file suit for murder against the Israeli army.

Background

The village of Yabad is surrounded by five illegal settlements, Mevo Dotan, Hermesh, Rehan, Shaqed, and Hinnanit. The Separation Wall is located west of Yabad village. Since 2003, the new road 585, located south of Yabad, is used primarily for military vehicles. Before that, the military used the old road. There is a checkpoint with 3 towers close to the school.

The Separation Wall, the Israeli-only road and the illegal settlements claimed 2,000 donums of land belonging to Yabad farmers. Since 2001, a total of 40% of Palestinian land has been lost throughout the West Bank.

One of the reasons why the military jeeps are coming to the area of the school is that the Israeli army is checking the water level for Yabad village once a month. Water is a serious issue here as everywhere else in the West Bank. Only 9% of the total available water resources are accessible to Palestinians, 91% are appropriated for Israeli use.

IDF jeep hits, kills Palestinian youth

Efrat Weiss | YNet News

30 September 2009

A 17-year-old Palestinian high school student was injured after being hit by an IDF jeep in the village of Yabed near Jenin, and died shortly later of his wounds.

The IDF said the youth was injured during a riot in the area, but his relatives claim he was intentionally run over.

The IDF said the incident occurred during a routine tour of soldiers and representatives of the Mekorot water company, meant to improve the infrastructure in the village.

A violent riot reportedly broke out, and residents began throwing stones at the force. The military vehicle drove backwards and fatally hit the youth. He was evacuated to hospital in Jenin, where he died of his wounds.

The IDF is investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources in Jenin said the youth, Fouad Naif Turkman was hit by the IDF jeep intentionally. The youth’s uncle, Muhammad Naif, told Ynet, “The students that were with him told me the jeep hit him once at the entrance to the school, drove forward and then backed up again to hit him and run him over a second time on purpose.”

Naif said the soldiers left his nephew to bleed for 20 minutes. “They didn’t let the body be removed, which attests to their intention to hurt the boy,” he said.

The family is preparing to lay the youth to rest later in the day.