Tag: Kafr Qaddum

Nablus sisters fall victim to yet another hit and run crime

7 October 2011  | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Sajah, 19, and Ahlam Bilal, 18, from Kufr Qaddoum were injured on Tuesday October 4th by Israeli settler, Eliyaho Miller, on the main road in Huwara. The two women were walking to Ibn Sina College of Nursing where they are studying when the settler crashed his vehicle into the women. After he hit them both and Sajah was thrown 10 meters from the accident, he attempted to flee the scene by foot. Miller was stopped by a Palestinian taxi driver until the Israeli police came to make a report.

The hit and run attack occurred at 7:50am as the two sisters were walking to campus. As Sajah and Ahlam were about to cross the road, they both saw the settler’s car speed up when they stepped into the street. He made contact with Sajah first in her left shoulder which flung her body into the air until she fell 10 meters from the car. She now has suffered three broken bones in her upper left arm as well as both hips broken. Her sister Ahlam has a bruised, swollen eye and an injured right leg. Sajah was rushed to Rafidya hospital to be treated for the injuries.

The father and brother of the hit and run victims, Saja and Ahlam Bilal

Under Israeli law, the Israeli police are under obligation to call an Israeli ambulance when there are injuries of any sort of accident involving settlers. In the hesitancy from Israeli police to call an ambulance, Palestinians living in Huwara took it upon themselves to have an ambulance arrive in order to bring Sajah and Ahlam to the Nablus hospital. Both of the women said Israeli police and military personnel eventually arrived at the scene, but the Israeli army said it had no information on the accident and police reported that they were checking into details of the event.

This particular settler incident comes on the tails of increased harassment and violence towards Palestinians by Israelis. An official report quoted by Quds Press earlier this week stated that there were 33 cases of deliberate vehicular attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank since the start of 2011. Farid Jaber, 8, was murdered after being hit by an Israeli settler’s car in Hebron on September 26th. Nasser Abu al-Kabbash, 20, was involved in a similar hit and run accident with an Israeli settler in Beit Dajan on October 10th.

All this is in addition to “pricetag” violence from Israeli settlers, the uprooting and burning of olive trees in Palestinian cities around occupied West Bank as olive harvest begins, and increased legal persecution of Palestinians for trivial reasons. Sajah received surgery on October 7th for her 3 broken bones in the left shoulder which went successfully according to her doctor in Nablus. The doctors at Rafidya are waiting to see how well her pelvis bones begin to heal before undergoing any correctional surgery.

Kufr Qaddoum demands access

by Alistair George

30 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Israeli military forces mounted an aggressive incursion into the centre of Kufr Qaddum today, in response to the weekly demonstration against the closure of the main road linking the village to the nearby city of Nablus, in the North of the West Bank.  The Israeli military fired tear gas canisters directly into streets crowded with villagers and international observers, causing many to suffer from severe gas inhalation.

Murad Shttaiwi, spokesman of the demonstrations, confirmed that this was the furthest that the Israeli military had entered into the village since the weekly protests began on 1 July 2011.  He also claimed that after the protest in Kufr Qaddum on Friday 23 September 2011, fires caused by Israeli military tear gas canisters burned nearly 200 olives trees.

After midday prayers today around 250 villagers, marched to the edge of Kufr Qaddum where they burned an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and called for the road to be re-opened.  In response, the Israeli military deployed military vehicles and fired tear gas to drive the protesters back into the village, whilst Palestinian youths threw stones.

The main road linking Kufr Qaddum to Nablus passes by Qadumim, an illegal Israeli settlement, and was closed by the Israeli military in 2003 during the Second Intifada.  The distance from Kufr Qaddum to Nablus is 13km on the main road; however, villagers are now forced to take an alternative route which is 26km long.  The road remains closed to the emergency services and, according to Murad Shttaiwi, three people have died since 2003 because the ambulances were forced to take seriously ill villagers via the longer route to Nablus.

A recent report published by the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy estimated that restrictions on movement imposed by Israeli forces costs the Palestinian economy $184m a year.

Murad Shttaiwi says that the village has suffered greatly for many years because of the closure of the road.  He is also concerned about the upcoming olive harvest in Kurf Qaddum;

“Last year the military only allowed us to collect olives for one or two days.  On the days that we couldn’t go, the settlers came and stole the olives.”

 

Alistair George is an activist with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Kufr Qaddoum holds funeral for illegal occupation

17 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The people of Kufr Qaddoum demonstrated on Friday, September 16th, against the illegal settlement Qadumim, which is situated west of the village. They demanded access to their main road which passes adjacent to the settlement and leads out from the village.

The demonstration started at 1:30 pm and consisted of around 300 villagers and four internationals from the ISM. The demonstrators carried a coffin covered by the Israeli flag which symbolized the funeral of the Israeli Occupation in spirit of  the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the UN this month. The coffin was then burned.

Kafr Qaddoum is surrounded by a red line which prevents the villagers from crossing. When this boundary line was reached, just a few hundred meters from the center of the village, the demonstration stopped for speeches, chants and dancing, and the spirit was positive.

Inside the illegal settlement compound one settler family and a few soldiers were seen watching the procession. From outside the settlement boundaries 3 military vehicles were waiting for the protesters to cross the line, which they eventually did. Just a few steps over the line was enough to make all the vehicles drive in full speed against the peaceful protest. Immediately the soldiers started to fire tear gas in high volumes, and the young protesters began throwing stones.

At least four soldiers were also watching from the hill north of the village from where tear gas also was shot.

As the protesters were moving back into the village, the soldiers followed and tear gas was fired into the village. At least one family was affected by the gas inside their home and was seen fleeing. Two people were taken away from the scene by ambulances, and a significant amount of people were helped by doctors from the Red Crescent.

The demonstration ended at 2:30 pm with celebrations inside the village.

This was the 12th week of Friday protests in Kufr Qaddoum, and the first time in three weeks since the army left the settlement to violently obstruct the demonstration.

Settlers and Israeli military team up to intimidate Kufr Qaddoum

6 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the 5th and 6th of September, settlers from the illegal settlement of Qadumim entered Kufr Qaddum in an act of blatant provocation. The settlers were encouraged to leave by a spontaneous demonstration from the villagers who left their houses and rallied in the centre of Kufr Qaddoum.

The Israeli army punished the people of Kufr Qaddoum for exercising their rights by invading the village during the night. Over 500 soldiers entered the village shortly after midnight from all entry points and began making their way through the village. Three Palestinians, named Mouriya Mohammed, Kaib Kadumi and Khaber Juma were arrested. During the arrest of Kaib Kadumi, he was handcuffed, blindfolded and lead into the olive groves outside of the village. None of those who were arrested appear to have been charged with anything and their whereabouts are still unknown.

This was the first invasion into Kufr Qaddoum since the village began to demonstrate non violently against the closure of their road. The road closure, which happened in 2002, has claimed the lives of 3 villagers who were being taken in an ambulance towards the hospital in Nablus but were denied passage by the Israeli army. Their names are Fahmi Aquel (2003), Khadra Shtaiwi (2004) and Ammen Tayem (2004).

The arrests continued on the 6th of September when the army re-entered the village and carried arrested of Faris Nidel (age 19) and Nedar Ahmed (age 20). In this incursion the Israeli forces targeted houses in the village and damaged them.

Threats were also given to some of the leading members of the local Popular Committee during the invasion, stating that if the non violent demonstrations were to continue then the demonstrators would be met with live ammunition and the intent to kill. It is clear that these invasions are an act of intimidation and an attempt to suppress the growing enthusiasm, support and participation in the weekly demonstration.

Kufr Qaddoum cutting the wire on illegal settlements

19 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A joyful demonstration occurred in Kufr Qaddoum today, when more than 100 demonstrators successfully cut open and tore down a razor wire fence on a road leading to Nablus just outside the city.

The demonstration began at around 12:30 p.m., when about 100 Palestinians and 15 international activists began to march down the main road of Kufr Qaddoum. Amid the clapping and chanting, they encountered around 20 armed soldiers further down the road towards the settlement of Qadumim, standing about 50 meters beyond a razor wire fence that blocked the road at waist’s length. As the soldiers and Palestinians watched, a few ISM activists used wire cutters to sever the fence, and dragged it off to the side. The crowd erupted in cheering, and after 20 seconds the soldiers began firing volleys of tear gas into the crowd. At that point, a cat-and-mouse game ensued for about 20 minutes between Palestinians and soldiers, whereby the former threw stones and the latter shot tear gas. Through the course of the demonstration, soldiers fired tear gas at protesters’ bodies and faces, and on at least 2 occasions fired high velocity tear gas canisters.

The deliberate act of cutting the wire fence, in plain view and in plain defiance of Israeli soldiers and the illegal settlement, inspired feelings of great hope and perseverance among Palestinians and activists alike. This was the 9th week of Friday protests, organized by the Popular Committee in Kufr Qaddoum since the beginning of July. The main road, which has been used by residents of the land for centuries, has been closed at portions by the Israeli government for nine years, as part of the expansion and colonial policies resulting from the illegal settlement Qadumim, which was established in 1975. Because of the settlement, which itself occupies 600 donums of land, there is now an Israeli Military Camp on Kufr Qaddoum land, many colonial neighborhoods have been established around the settlement, and more than 3,000 olive trees have been uprooted. After this great success, the weekly protests at Kufr Qaddoum will surely continue well into the future.