Tag: Nablus

by ISM Nablus, October 1st

Huwarra checkpoint, just South of Nablus, is notorious for its volatile atmosphere and violent soldiers. Today was an example in point. Hundreds of women and men were forced into a large holding pen, with small children being crushed against the turnstiles separating the soldiers from the Palestinians waiting in line. Young and old suffered from the heat, perspiring and holding onto one another as not to faint or fall. Young infants and fragile groceries were carried on shoulders and heads so as to escape injury as the soldiers shouted and waved their weapons in the faces of people at the back of the line to make them step forward.

Ramadan is an exertion in itself, yet one which the pious believe that Allah will repay in plenty in the afterlife. What should be a humbling and beautiful display of piety and steadfastness is transformed and sullied by aggressive soldiers intent on, in the words of one commander, “torturing the people as much as possible until they break the fast.” To this soldier’s contentment and flying in the face of the spirit of this the ‘prohibitive month,’ Palestinians waiting in line were reduced to elbowing their way forward in line and arguing heatedly about who was to go first.

At one point, a well-known journalist, Jafar, from the nearby village of Salim, approached one of the higher-ranking soldiers in order to inquire whether he could take pictures of the chaos unfurling in front of him. Yet before he even had time to open his mouth, the soldier punched him in the face and beat his chest with his rifle. As the journalist backed away, the soldier followed and continued kicking his shins and thighs with his heavy boots. Bleeding from his mouth and limping badly due to pain in his right leg, the journalist demanded to file a report on the incident while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

The attack was witnessed by a human rights worker and reported to a senior officer who arrived at the scene shortly afterwards. After threatening to arrest the journalist, the officer finally ceded to his demands and documented all injuries incurred, promising to let the journalist know what consequences this completely unprovoked attack would have for the soldier in question.

Just as the line of people started moving more smoothly through the checkpoint, four young men requested that human rights workers go with them through the olive groves around Huwarra checkpoint. They wanted to make sure that three of their friends, who had been intercepted by Israeli military while trying to make their way home around the checkpoint, and thus avoid the several hours long wait, were not being beaten or otherwise maltreated. While walking across a field between Rujeeb and Awarta, two soldiers spotted the group and ordered them to approach. They were extremely aggressive, pushing two Palestinians and holding their guns to the head of one of the men. While assaulting the men physically in front of the human rights observers, the soldiers cursed at the Palestinians, and repeatedly addressed them as “dog.” The group was taken to Awarta checkpoint, where three others were already being made to wait since two hours back.

After half an hour there were in total 10 Palestinian men and 3 international human rights observers detained at Awarta checkpoint. At four o’clock they were told that they would not be allowed to leave until nine o’clock in the evening as “punishment for breaking the law.” When human rights workers inquired as to what punishment the law proscribed for the offense, the soldier responded, “I have the gun, I make the law, and I say they have to be punished for 5 hours.” When asked exactly what law the group was breaching, the soldiers answered that there was a law stipulating that everyone must go through the checkpoint. Upon being asked what they would do if they had to wait six to ten hours every day after having been at university just to go home and eat with their families, they offered nonsensical answers such as that they think that the young men should pass through the checkpoint only in the morning or bring food with them and break the fast on their own in Nablus.

At one point, a plainclothes settler from Britain approached the people being detained pretending to be a police officer and then a soldier, threatening them with arrest. The soldiers gave the settler a welcoming hug and then stood chatting, smoking and snacking on pomegranate seed right in front of the fasting Palestinians without any regard to their feelings. The settler stood menacingly over the seated detainees and joined the soldier in his questioning and taunting. In effect, the settler was allowed to ‘play soldier,’ with the lives of the Palestinians in detention.

After an hour, the group was allowed to return to Huwarra where their IDs were given back to them and they were allowed to go home. Before leaving, one of the men, a university student from Beita, told the human rights workers that their presence had prevented “physical punishment today” but emphasized that this is a daily occurrence and that he will continue to walk around the checkpoint. “Why not take the chance? I have to wait at the checkpoint anyway so I might as well wait outside in the fresh air,” he said and winked.

by ISM Nablus

The olive harvest of 2006 in Nablus has officially begun! Although not an ideal starting-date, an olive farmer from the Palestinian village of Azmut and his family who own 150 dunums of land partitioned by an Apartheid settler-only road, decided to start harvesting a few days ago. They fear that the Israeli colonists of nearby Elon Moreh will otherwise steal the olives from the trees closest to them.

This is an annual occurrence that further decreases the family’s harvest, already decimated by the limited amount of harvest-time permitted by the DCO (District Coordination Office – the civil administration wing of the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank). The colonists generally send one or two young girls to pick the olives, making it extremely difficult for the landowner to protest as anything he might say or do to the girls would be blown out of proportion and used against him by the colonists and their allies in the Israeli military and police forces. Thus, he has remained silent so far.

Previous olive harvests in the Nablus region have also been characterised by a substantial degree of violence on the part of both Israeli colonists and soldiers. In this village in 2004, two Palestinian olive pickers were shot by colonists, killing one. Israeli gunmen have without fail turned up to chase the family off their land and the Israeli army’s sole contribution has been to advise the farmer not to return as “the settlers are crazy and they will kill you”. Apart from physical violence, Israeli colonists also cut down about 300 trees belonging to this family in 2000, and burnt an additional area of land in 2004.

This year the family decided to brave the hot sun in the middle of Ramadan to tend to their fields, without DCO permission and armed only with the deed to their land. On Tuesday 26th September 2006, the elderly farmer, his wife, five of his daughters and nieces, and four international observers picked olives from trees adjacent to the Apartheid settler bypass road. These trees had not been picked by their rightful Palestinian owners for more than 10 years due to colonist theft and constant threats.

The first day progressed smoothly, with no interruptions from colonists or military. The mood was cheerful, almost festive, as branch after branch was picked clean. Certain trees grow only 5 metres away from the settler-only road and each vehicle that passed by momentarily caused conversations to cease and breathing to quicken. Yet the work was soothing and spirits were high despite the heat. When the internationals commented on how meditative picking olives could be, a couple of the women joked about organising working holidays for rich westerners looking for an exclusive getaway. We imagined the brochure – “experience the thrill of a lifetime! Come pick olives in beautiful landscapes. Adrenaline rush guaranteed!”

The promised adrenaline rush was delivered the day after. As we proceeded to pick olives on the other side of the Apartheid road, only 100 meters away from Elon Moreh settlement, two colonist gunmen in a jeep pulled up and got out, carrying their machine guns. They did not approach or shout to us but stood at the top of the hill looking down with binoculars as we worked, talking into their radios and driving back and forth at times. There are cameras set up along the entire breadth of the hillside and so they probably saw us coming on their screens, or were told by someone passing by on the road below us. After about half an hour, five soldiers arrived and told us to stop picking.

After some negotiation, we continued picking and the soldiers retreated further down the hill. After another half hour, a DCO representative drove up and spoke to the farmer. Despite not having gained DCO permission prior to going to his field, the farmer successfully talked the DCO officer into leaving us alone. Before leaving, the officer ordered the soldiers to guard us as we worked, once again emphasising that the colonists of Elon Moreh are violent and not to be trusted. We continued working as the soldiers sat in the shade playing with their mobile phones and muttering something about “Palestinians planting bombs in the groves.” We continued picking until the time of day that we had decided at the outset, packed our harvest onto the donkey and left, light-headed and filthy, yet triumphant. The soldiers followed, slipping and sliding among the rocks with their heavy armour.

The family still has many dunums left to pick but have decided to postpone this until after the end of Ramadan due to the extreme heat. They urge internationals to come with them as they continue harvesting after Eid ul-Fitr (the Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadan), because “if you were not here today, there would be no talk, only guns and threats. We thank you for coming and hope we will meet again someday under happier circumstances.”

This experience shows the importance of international accompaniment for the Palestinian olive harvest. We urge all internationals seeking to build links of solidarity with the Palestinian people fighting occupation to come to Palestine, come to the fields and help ensure that every last olive is harvested.

AP photo

by ISM Nablus

At dawn on September 27th Occupation forces invaded Balata camp with jeeps and an armoured bulldozer with support from Apache helicopters hovering overhead. Military vehicles heading for Balata from many directions were reported. A curfew lasting several hours was imposed on the area and 21 year old Ala’ Mohammad Zaid Shraiah, 17 year old Jihad Yousef Zuqan and 17 year old Abd-Allah Qatawi were arrested.

As in a previous invasion 3 weeks ago the armoured bulldozer plowed through the narrow main street of the camp destroying shop fronts and concrete paving. Children were later seen improvising chairs and see-saws out of the mangled plastic facades whilst reconstruction work was going on. A falafel stand owner, Jamal, didn’t let the invasion dampen his festive Ramadan spirit: “We hardly notice the attacks as they happen so often and we won’t let them spoil Ramadan”.

AP photo

by ISM Nablus

At around twelve o’clock on Tuesday night Israeli special forces entered four West Bank cities in a raid against money changers and banks. By four o’clock the military had left, with up to 6 million stolen shekels in their possession.

The Israeli military stole money from Jenin, Tulkarm, Ramallah and Nablus. In the latter, the Jordan National Bank and three private money changers were targeted. Unable to open the bank’s treasury, the Israeli forces stole around NIS 500,000 in total from three money changing enterprises and arrested one of the owners, 40 year-old Ghilab Swidan, from his home.

The three exchange shops are all badly damaged. After forcing and blowing open their doors with dynamite, the Israeli military proceeded to ransack the shops, throwing the contents of the offices onto the street outside. They then stole around NIS 250,000 from each in cash and checks, claiming to have information that this money was to be used to fund militant operations against Israel and to support Hamas.

The two money changers who escaped arrest are adamant that they know nothing about the intended usage of the money they handle. The Palestinian authorities do not know why precisely these companies were targeted but Palestinian police officer Hassan Meyrat says, “this is not the first time it has happened. Three years ago, the Arab Bank was raided and millions of shekels stolen.”

In that particular incident, the Israel National Treasury was forced to return most of the stolen money to the bank. This time, with several smaller companies targeted, it is not clear what will happen. The Jordan National Bank is, however, considering pressing charges against the Israeli army.

Although no money was taken from the three-storey Jordan National Bank, the damage sustained to it’s main office in Nablus city centre is extensive. The director of the bank, Abdul Latif Nasif, estimates the reparation costs to amount to around NIS 2 million. The stairway leading up to the office is strewn with glass, the remains of filing cabinets, window blinds and smashed computer screens. The Israeli military also broke most of the windows, punching holes in them for their snipers.

The Israeli military fired heavily throughout the city center during the entire operation, but no one was injured. Ghilad Swidan remains in Israeli custody.

As if economic sanctions and an economic blockade were not severe enough measures, the Israeli authorities have decided to raid some of the remaining sources of Palestinian capital on unsubstantiated allegations of ‘terrorism funding’.