Tag: Jerusalem - Page 27 - International Solidarity Movement

Settler guard murders Palestinian in East Jerusalem; police fire gas at his funeral

23 September 2010 | ISM Media

On the morning of Tuesday 22 September a privately-hired Israeli settler security guard shot and killed a Palestinian man in the neighbourhood of Silwan in Palestinian East Jerusalem (Al-Quds). The killed man, Samer Sarhan, was aged 32 and had five children.

Eyewitnesses say the shooting followed a verbal disagreement between Sarhan and the security guard.

Palestinian outrage at the murder precipitated a general strike in the Silwan neighbour, with hundreds of people gathering in the street, chanting and shouting “Allahu Akbar”. Hundreds of Israeli police, border police and soldiers occupied the area in anticipation of the funeral. Silwan residents created makeshift roadblocks trying to slow down forces entering the area. Some youths threw stones towards the occupying soldiers, exasperated by the impunity with which settlers are allowed to shoot at Palestinians. They set fire to one Police vehicle.

The funeral procession left the Al-Aqsa Mosque and soon came under fire from Israeli settlers living in their outposts around East Jerusalem. Mourners at Sarhan’s burial found themselves confined inside the Bab al-Rahma cemetery, the exits blocked by the Israeli authorities. The border police then proceeded to open fire with tear gas canisters at the trapped people, the gas inducing severe breathing difficulties in some cases.

The private security guard was released on bail the day after the killing. Silwan resident Abu Nasser said: “We are sure that the murderer will not be punished and perhaps even be given a medal for his crime.”

Israeli and international activists joined the Palestinians in solidarity, documenting the police’s and soldiers’ activities throughout the day, hoping to discourage human rights abuses with their presence. Some activists volunteered at the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre, helping produce Hebrew and English-language media updates.

One international activist commented: “the brutal occupation and illegal demolition of houses in Silwan was inevitably going to lead to this kind of situation with the settlers, who are heavily armed. It’s unbelievable: they’re kicking people out of their homes to build car parks. Classrooms and roads have collapsed into the ground because of subterranean excavation. It’s archaeological terrorism.”

Silwan is a neighbourhood of around 45,000 in Palestinian East Jerusalem. A small number of Israeli settlers have moved there, occupying Palestinian houses or living in the illegal Beit Yonatan settlement building. There are currently twenty-two houses with outstanding demolition orders – prohibited by international law. An archaeological theme park has begun excavating beneath a large area of Silwan; this has already caused land to collapse.

News on Silwan can be followed at the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre.

Two Silwan residents shot dead by settlement guards

22 September 2010 | Wadi Hilweh Information Center – Silwan

Update: only one man was killed in Silwan. More people were injured but not killed by gunshots.

Massive army presence as clashes continue in Baten el-Hawa, next to Beit Yonathan settlement.

Very early this morning in Silwan Village, a patrol of private armed guards stopped near a group of unarmed Palestinian men who were on the Wadi Hilweh Street. According to eyewitness reports, the guards spoke provocatively to the Palestinians, and an argument took place between them. It was during the verbal argument that eyewitnesses say the settlement guards opened fire on the Palestinian men. The two injured were brought to Ein Kerem hospital. One of the Palestinians, Samer Sarhan, who is a father of five young children, was pronounced dead immediately upon arrival to the hospital. The second man is now confirmed as having died.

After confirmation was received of the first Palestinian death from Silwan, clashes erupted in the village and are continuing. There are reports of numerous injuries, although the number of injured people is unknown. There is a massive force of police and army personnel in the village, and the entire street has been cordoned off by officials. Helicopters are monitoring the area from overhead.

SilwanIC will be posting updates on the story.

Israeli police accused of targeting Jerusalem’s Arab residents

11 September 2010 | The Independent

A leading civil-rights group has accused Israeli police of systematic discrimination against the Arab residents of East Jerusalem as growing numbers of hardline religious Jews take up residence in Palestinian areas.

A report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) found that violent confrontations between Jewish residents and their Palestinian neighbours had risen rapidly, but that Israeli police have largely ignored Palestinian complaints.

Israeli authorities “practise selective law enforcement and fail to provide even the most minimal protection to Palestinian locals,” Acri claimed. “Law-enforcement authorities have become complicit in violating Palestinian rights; in many cases, they do not enforce the law or do so only in a discriminatory manner.” Palestinians claim that they are often arrested as suspects when they make complaints against Israelis, that their children are arrested in circumstances that flout Israeli law on the treatment of minors, and that widespread surveillance cameras violate their privacy.

The Israeli police rejected the allegations. A spokesman claimed that many of the incidents contained in the report were blown “out of proportion.” Most disturbances, he said, are initiated by Palestinians throwing stones at Jewish residents.

Large numbers of religious Jews, ideologically committed to an undivided Jerusalem, have moved into Arab-dominated East Jerusalem in recent months, provoking clashes with local residents. Palestinians fear that Israel is seeking to prevent East Jerusalem – illegally annexed by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967 – from becoming the capital of a future Palestinian state. Stoking the tensions, according to Acri, are the armed private security contractors employed to protect the Jewish residents in East Jerusalem.

Even Palestinian chilldren attacked by settlers are often arrested as supects

Ahmad Qarae’en, a Palestinian resident of Silwan, described how he was shot in the thigh during an argument with an off duty soldier visiting Jewish settlers. Mr Qarae’en was questioned as a suspect and the man who shot him was released after 24 hours without charge.

In a second case, Jamalat Mughrabi, who was evicted from her home by Jewish settlers, claims she was punched repeatedly by a Jewish man. When she arrived at the police station, she found that she was the suspect, and was taken into custody. At a hearing the following day, investigators allegedly refused to show video footage proving her innocence, and she was charged and fined.

Ronit Sela, a spokesman for Acri, said it had yet to receive an official police response. She said: “We’re just calling on the police to do their job.” Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday a new and creative approach was required to reach a peace deal.

“We will have to learn the lessons of 17 years of experience from negotiations and to think creatively,” he said Mr Netanyahu. “We’ll have to think of new solutions to old problems.”

Read ACRI’s full report “Unsafe Space: the Israeli authorities’ failure to protect human rights amid settlements in East Jerusalem” in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

East Jerusalem home demolitions continue

Ma’an News Agency

13 July 2010

Israeli bulldozers demolished two homes in the East Jerusalem town of Al-Isawiya on Tuesday morning, saying the buildings were constructed without permits, with a third reported by a Reuters cameraman in Beit Hanina.

Witnesses in Al-Isawiya said Israeli forces entered the town early in the morning, blocking off main streets and forcing entry into the two buildings later demolished.

The families of Sabah Abu Rmeileh and Mahmoud Abu Rayaleh reported that one woman, Sabah Abu Rmeileh, was injured during the incident, during which clashes erupted. Both homes were reportedly under construction, and a third structure serving as a small shed, was also demolished.

Reports from Reuters said a cameraman captured a third demolition in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, which the Israeli press billed as the first home demolition in eight months.

The demolitions were the first in nearly a month, following the destruction of two agricultural buildings in Abu Tur and Silwan. The last home demolition was a self-demolition, ordered by an Israeli court on Nayef Kasteru, a father of three living in the Aqbat As-Saraya neighborhood of Jerusalem’s Old City on 4 July.

Fatah Revolutionary Council member Dmitry Dliani said the demolitions, coming a day after the announcement of plans to build 32 more settlement homes in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement, showed the “true colors of Israel.”

Dilani noted that the demolitions also came between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US, and the nation’s Middle East Envoy’s visit to the region, expected to be his last unless proximity talks are transformed into direct peace negotiations.

In a statement about the demolitions, Dliani said the only conclusion to be drawn about the timing of the demolitions was that “the occupying power and the American administration share a common interest in harming the Palestinians of Jerusalem.”

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=299074

Israelis and internationals demonstrate outside Barakat’s house in west Jerusalem

Wadi Hilweh Information Center

6 July 2010

Dozens of international and Israeli solidarity activists protested in solidarity with Silwan in front of the west Jerusalem house of Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat. Demonstrators stated that they were opposing his racist policy in Silwan, which follows an agenda of promoting illegal settlements.

The demonstrators condemned the intention of the Jerusalem Municipality to demolish houses in Silwan in order to build a biblical garden which will be linked to the settlement City of David tourist site in the village.

The demonstrators instead sarcastically demanded that Barakat’s house should be demolished and a biblical park built upon it. They also asked that Barakat’s neighbors accept the building of a second floor for Barakat upon their own house – in mockery of the ‘compensation’ offer he made to the 22 houses that he plans to demolish in Silwan.