Tag: Nablus

One year after killings: Iraq Burin continues its struggle

By Jonas Webber

31 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Three days before the start of Ramadan, the small mountainside town of Iraq Burin was attacked by Israeli settlers from the illegal colony of Bracha. The attackers descended from the settlement at 12:30 a.m. and were soon followed by the Israeli military, shooting tear-gas and sound grenades.

“Since Ramadan started, things have been relatively calm here,” says Yousef, a resident of Iraq Burin, “earlier we used to have trouble all the time.”

Ironically, the settler attacks are most common on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath, which traditionally is revered as a day of rest.

“But there have also been plenty of attacks on Wednesdays and Thursdays,” says Yousef.

The settlers target farmers closest to the settlement, making it impossible for them to work their land due to risk of being attacked or shot. The farmers’ lack of activity is then used against them as settlers claim the land to be abandoned and subsequently annex it. By these means, the illegal settlements across the West Bank continue to steal the lands of neighboring Palestinian villages.

Bracha is one of over 250 Israeli settlements and outposts erected in the Palestinian West Bank and violating Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Seizure of land for settlement building and future expansion has resulted in the shrinking of space available for Palestinians to sustain their livelihoods and develop adequate housing, basic infrastructure and services,” wrote the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

From Yousef’s rooftop one can see clearly where the irrigated fields of Bracha have stretched down into the valley since its construction in the early 1980’s.

Of the 2000 dunums that originally was Iraq Burin, 300 have been annexed by the settlement of Bracha and many hundreds have become inaccessible to Palestinians due to the risk of violent attacks. To protest this, the village has been holding demonstrations every Saturday for the past year. Similar to numerous protests across the West Bank, Iraq Burin’s regular demonstrations are met with brute force by the Israeli army.

“The failure to respect international law, along with the lack of adequate law enforcement vis-àvis settler violence and takeover of land has led to a state of impunity, which encourages further violence and undermines the physical security and livelihoods of Palestinians. Those protesting settlement expansion or access restrictions imposed for the benefit of settlements (including the Barrier) are regularly exposed to injury and arrest by Israeli forces,” noted OCHA.

For a short while, the demonstrations ceased after 2 young men, Muhammad and Usaid Qadus, were shot dead at close range by an Israeli soldier.

“But our peaceful struggle will continue among both the young and the old,” promises Yousef.

Jonas Webber is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Nablus: night raids and arrests

By Jonas Webber

30 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement

Five Palestinian men were arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in a night raid inside the old city of Nablus on Saturday, July 28. Tear gas and sound bombs were used against families and civilians protesting the arrests. 19 young men suffered asphyxiation and were taken to hospital. Israeli soldiers remained inside the city until 6 a.m. terrorizing residents.

A Palestinian woman walks through the destroyed home of the Kharuf family | Team Palestina & Free Gaza

Military incursions in Nablus, which is located in Area A and therefore under Palestinian military jurisdiction, are breaches of the Oslo Agreement, but nonetheless occur regularly. As always in occupied Palestine, human rights and agreements take the back seat to Israel’s political desires.

Among the families who were particularly afflicted by the night raid was the al-Kharuf family. At 2 a.m. their home was attacked by Israeli soldiers shooting tear gas at the 9 inhabitants, 5 of whom are children under 12 years old. The children were terrified by the attack and have now been sent to stay with relatives outside the city. An elderly woman had to go to the hospital after suffocating from the tear gas.

The IOF entered the house, where they seized Walid Kharuf. He was questioned on the whereabouts of his brother Omar and was severely beaten. When Walid claimed he did not know where his brother was, he was threatened by the commanding officer, “if you are lying and I find you brother here, I will destroy the house.”

The Kharuf home was turned upside down in the search for Omar, who was eventually found. After arresting the 23 year old young man, Israeli soldiers ordered everyone outside while they applied a bomb to one of the walls in the house. The blast that followed tore a hole in the house and devastated the room in which it was placed.

A Palestinian man looks into a wardrobe of the home of the Kharuf family after Israeli forces carried out a raid and bombed a wall of the home | Team Palestina & Free Gaza

All of Saturday the Kharuf family was busy clearing their home of rubble and broken furniture scattered throughout the house.

“So now we are homeless,” Walid solemnly noted, surveying the damage to his home.

Jonas Webber is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Taking BDS to the streets

By Marshall Pinkerton

30 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On July 26, youth activists in Nablus, in connection with the Tanweer Center for Enlightenment and Dar Al Qandeel association for arts and culture, kicked off a campaign to encourage residents of Nablus to boycott Israeli products this Ramadan and beyond.

Because people tend to purchase more products during Ramadan, the activists resolved that the month would be a perfect time to encourage the masses to resist Israeli occupation through boycott.

Activists met on Monday, July 23 to discuss what their new campaign would look like. It was decided that the campaign would focus first on the old city of Nablus, a densley populated area that acts as the commercial center. The discussion included deliberation over how best to encourage people to begin boycotting in Ramadan, and to continue afterwards.

The Tanweer Center provided Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) newspapers, as well as Ramadan calendars with a call for boycott displayed on them. The campaign has already planned 3 days of presence in the old city, followed by a meeting for reflection before continuing to other areas of Nablus.

Over 25 activists participated in the first day of canvassing, with largely positive feedback from their interactions with residents. Many of the old city’s residents were unaware of the growing campaign and interested in participating in a further form of resistance.

Alaa Abu Sah, a member of Dar Al Qandeel, said that the new campaign in Nablus is part of a larger effort. Tanweer is one of 20 centers participating this Ramadan, and the intentions reach beyond boycotting. Abu Sah believes that BDS will contribute to development in Palestine, strengthening economic and cultural aspects in Palestine.

In 2005, Palestinian Civil Society Organizations called for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194

More can be read about the BDS Movement and the original call here.

Olive trees uprooted in Qusra

By Nina and Saffron

25 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Over 33 Palestinian-owned olive trees were uprooted by the Israeli military in the village of Qusra, near Nablus, when the military entered the village around 7 a.m. on Tuesday,  July 17. For one hour and a half, Israeli soldiers and equipment uprooted the olive trees.

When International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteers arrived, the Israeli soldiers had already left, but four armed border police officers appeared in an armoured vehicle. Three Qusra residents took the ISM on a tour of the land that was cleared earlier that morning. The border police followed closely. Nothing was visible but holes in the dry soil where the trees used to stand.

The farmer who owns the land explained that the field had not been worked on for 18 years. This served as the legal argument for the clearing. The military had no formal court order, which is otherwise required, for the uprooting, and they came without warning.

The two other young men showing ISM around were approached by the border police and asked to present their identification. As they were not carrying ID on them, the officers detained them behind their vehicle and ordered the internationals to leave the field. When the young men reappeared, they said that they were violently searched and threatened against talking to internationals.

“I said I didn’t know who you were, so that I would not get arrested,” said one of the young men, “but if you had not been here, they would have beaten me and probably arrested me. Now they are too afraid of your cameras.”

The uprooting of olive trees and the consequent destruction of livelihood may be one of the gravest threats that the people of Qusra face from the Israeli forces which occupy their land. It is by no means the only one.

Walking through Qusra, the young guides point to a home that has recently received a demolition order.

Later, ISM volunteers visited a shelter belonging to Qusra resident Fathallah Abu Readeh. He explained how he one morning he awoke to a note from the Israeli authorities ordering him to remove the shelter within 7 days, along with some scrap cars on his own land. The note was written in both Arabic and Hebrew, but as Readeh doesn’t read Hebrew, he missed the correction in the Hebrew text stating 3, not 7, days of notice.

“They did this on purpose, just to be able to punish me,” says Fathallah.

Apart from various forms of harassment by the Israeli military, Qusra is regularly exposed to attacks from the adjacent, illegal Israeli settlement of Migdalim. Earlier this year, a mosque in the village was set on fire by Migdalim settlers.

Nina and Saffron are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (names have been changed).

Sleepless nights in Burin

By Alma Reventós

25 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

“I have not slept all night.” The words of a young man from the Bilal Al-Najjar youth cultural center in Burin, after a night of raids by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the town.

On Monday 23 July at 9:30 p.m., some 20 IOF military jeeps entered Burin, a village of 3,000 inhabitants located southwest of the city of Nablus. The Israeli military closed all entrances to the town, isolating it during the invasion. Burin’s residents are accustomed to such raids on a weekly basis, but usually they occur much later at night. This time, as the military entered Burin, many residents of the town were still outdoors and encountered the IOF jeeps on their streets.

 During the invasion, soldiers repeatedly fired tear gas in the center of Burin, even inside of residents’ homes. A woman of 65 had to be evacuated by ambulance to hospital in Nablus after suffering suffocation from the gas.

Accompanying the military were 5 Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal settlement. According to Palestinian witnesses, the settlers at first were hesitant to leave the military jeep that they arrived in, but the back-up of the Israeli military encouraged them. The settlers took photos of the new Bilal Al-Najjar cultural centre, still under construction, and the old original center.

Israeli occupation forces left the village at 11:30 p.m., after two hours in the village.

“We are leaving now but we will return very soon,” threatened the commander of the Israeli forces present in the village of Burin Monday night. Indeed, 5 military jeeps returned that very night at 1 a.m. to patrol the residential streets.

Thousands of olive trees in Burin have been burned during attacks by settlers from nearby illegal Israeli colonies

The residents of Burin suffer such raids on a weekly basis, and the presence of Israeli military jeeps in their village is constant. These occurances prevent many from a peaceful night of sleep, for fear of arbitrary arrest or injury during the invasions.
A youth from the Bilal Al-Najjar cultural center recalls a similar raid on Burin three months ago. Several youth were arrested and to this day remain in administrative detention (no charge, no trial) in Israeli prisons. Many fear the same fate.

Burin is a town which, apart from the regular nightly military incursions, also suffers repeated violent attacks by Israeli settlers from the two adjacent illegal settlements, Yitzhar and Bracha.

Alma Reventós is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).