Tag: Nablus

by Lina

Israel is constantly inventing new ways of making life in the occupied Palestinian territories ever more difficult and humiliating and several companies in the Nablus region have recently been subject to one of these policies. ISM Nablus visited but one of the affected companies – a small enterprise started in 1995, employing only three people.

They receive tenders from various private and public medical institutions in Nablus, and import supplies directly from abroad – mainly from Turkey, Italy and China. The majority of their shipments are based on inquiry and most items are low-cost such as syringes, casts, stethoscopes, gloves and IV-bags. Occasionally, larger and more expensive items such as infant incubators and electrically powered beds are needed and imported. In the past year, the price to import and process shipments has drastically risen, although it is only recently that companies in Nablus have been affected. One particular order got stuck in Israeli customs for more than 2 months and the company was forced to pay an additional import fee of 25,000 NIS (about $5,000 dollars) to access the order.

The fee was officially required for covering the cost of a so-called CB (Certification Body) Test Report. The CB scheme originated in Europe, where nations were moving toward adopting a common set of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards. It was originally intended to provide a common test format to be used by all participating certifying agencies, but manufacturers are increasingly using the CB test report as final proof of compliance to a specific international standard. Although the goal of the CB scheme is to provide a harmonized international environment, manufacturers must still comply with local electrical installation codes and practices. This creates deviations for many countries, which greatly decreases the value of the scheme.

Despite these difficulties, Israeli authorities claim that these new fees are designed to ensure quality. It is, however, clear that the addition of these fees to the regular costs of foreign imports, has a prohibitive effect on small companies such as that described above. On average, this new policy means that each item will be 10 times more expensive to import.

The only way to circumvent the CBTR and related costs, is to buy directly from Israel. By adding these fees for foreign imports, Israel is in fact forcing Palestinian companies to buy Israeli. This is, apart from politically unappealing, also much more expensive than importing directly from foreign manufacturers.

The interviewed company and its client institutions are not the only ones to suffer from this unprecedented offensive on foreign imports. The proprietor of one Nablus company was unable to meet the costs and consequently had to send back a large shipment to China and buy the same items from Israel. Several other company owners are now, reluctantly, considering doing the same.

by Michael

Israeli setlement and raized olive field in Beit Furik

Today, August 12th 2006, in the village of Salim, near the city of Nablus, Palestinians joined one another in solidarity to resist soldiers of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) who were attempting to prevent a villager from farming his land. Later that day, a Palestinian woman with Israeli citizenship was detained at Beit Furik checkpoint because her husband was “wanted.”

In the village of Salem, a Palestinian farmer attempted to travel up a mountain to farm olive trees planted on his land. On his way up the mountain, he was detained by Israeli soldiers who told the man that he was not allowed to travel to his land without permission from the Israeli D.C.O. (District Coordination Office). Furthermore, because of his attempt to farm his land, the farmer was being detained. In an act of resistance and solidarity, the villagers of Salem, came to the aid of the farmer, when they arrived, they stood with the man and collectively negotiated his release. Because of their joint efforts, the man was released from detention, though he was still prevented from farming his land.

Salem village is surrounded by a number of Israeli settlements. The settlers of one particular colony recently attacked the village of Salim, cutting down hundreds of trees.

Israeli military guard tower overlooking Beit Furik

Later in the same day, as internationals were crossing Beit Furik checkpoint, they encountered a woman being held in detention. The woman, approximately 35 years old, was at the checkpoint with her two children, one of which a newborn, while the other was about 3 years old. The soldiers of the IOF explained that while the Palestinian woman had a valid Israeli passport, she was being detained because her husband was “wanted.” She had been at the checkpoint, with her children, for over 4 hours. The IOF told the woman that she was waiting for a police transport, then changed their story telling the woman that she was waiting on the D.C.O. Despite these claims, after over 4 hours of military detention, the woman and her children were released without charge.

During conversation with the soldiers, one proudly explained that while the woman’s Israeli passport helped her “case” she was still an Arab-Israeli and said, “I can detain whoever I want, but if she was Jewish, she would be let go.” When asked why the police had not arrived to transport the woman after 4 hours, the soldier responded, “The police, they do this, they take a longtime because she is Arab.”

This type of harassment and collective punishment is a regular occurrence in the villages of Palestine, especially those around Nablus.

Hundreds of people wait at Huwarra checkpoint when soldiers closed it completely on Thursday

by Michael

At Huwarra checkpoint on August 10th at 2:30, there was a crowd of up to 300 Palestinian people waiting to cross. The soldiers stationed at Huwarra checkpoint would not let anyone through and were aggressive and violent towards the crowd. Instead of standing in orderly lines of one or two people abreast, with their ID-cards ready, the men, women and children were spread out across the entrance of the checkpoint.

About twenty Israeli soldiers were shoving, yelling and poking their guns into the chests of people in the crowd, attempting to make them “get back”, “shut up” and “go into the pen.” The frustration of the Palestinians mounted at the closure of the checkpoint. Old men, mothers with children and shoppers of all ages were determined to push through the line of soldiers and refused to back off. People continued to make problems for the soldiers despite the fact that Israeli soldiers had fired live ammunition into the air only ten minutes before.

A female soldier attempts to remove the hijab of a woman wanting to cross the checkpoint

After some time, the frustrated crowd decided that old people and women with children should be allowed to pass. As two cars filled with Red Cross personnel backed up to wait on the side of the road, elderly Palestinians picked up their bags and simply walked through the car lane. Exasperated, the soldiers started checking their ID’s, pretending that this had been their plan all along. As the crowd started thinning, with several people pushing through at the same time, the military finally gave in and opened up the regular entrance to the checkpoint.

Perhaps as a form of retaliation, one of the female soldiers started checking each person who passed through her lane in a very rough manner. She grabbed several women’s hair, almost pulling their headscarfs off, and patted their breasts for an unnecessarily long time. The same soldier also inspected the men, groping their behinds and waist area in a culturally inappropriate and humiliating way. After some negotiation with a commander, the men were inspected by a male soldier.

The checkpoint at Huwarra will be full of people yet again being refused passage tomorrow, or at any time, but today people were able to use civil disobedience to force their way through.

Over 100 Palestinian men wait at Beit Furik checkpoint after Israeli military closed it completely

by Lina

After an exchange of fire between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli military on one of the apartheid roads connecting Israeli settlements north of Nablus, the Israeli military retaliated by collectively punishing Salim and other surrounding villages. About 15 Israeli jeeps entered the 5 500 person village of Salim, completely closing all entrance and exit to the village and interupting the festive preparation to the evening’s wedding party.

All the roads around Salim, including the dust paths ordinarily used by people to get around sporadically closed checkpoints, were blocked by military at around three o’clock in the afternoon and no one was allowed in or out of the village. Some frustrated people decided to try and cross over the open fields, with varying results. Several vehicles carrying people, all tired and hungry after a hard day at the office, were turned back at gunpoint.

Soldier points his loaded gun at Palestinians waiting in the checkpoint terminal

The major checkpoint at Beit Furik was also completely closed, affecting the inhabitants of not only Salim but of several villages in the area. The soldiers there initially promised to let women, children and sick people through, but were then given stricter orders by their commanders and closed the checkpoint completely. After some negotiation, women with very
young children and the ill were allowed to pass. A large crowd of about
100 men were, however, forced to wait for almost four hours before the
checkpoint was opened to them at about half past seven.

The elderly men of over 50 years of age were initially denied passage unless they backed away from the checkpoint and stood behind the metal barrier used to stop cars from driving through. The soldiers were, however, forced to stop this ridiculous order, seemingly purely designed to humiliate, since everyone decided to ignore it.

The roads around Salim were closed until around nine o’clock in the
evening, when the Israeli military finally left. Undaunted by this kind of
recurring interruption to their daily lives and trains of thought, the people of Salim are expecting the wedding festivities to go on all night.