Tag: Nablus

On 8th November 2008, at 1:15am, more than 20 Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Burqa, near Nablus, throwing over 100 sound bombs throughout the area. The soldiers entered fifteen houses in the village, forcing villagers at gunpoint to fingerprint mysterious documents written in Hebrew.

Gharib Saif stands in front of his house, looking slightly embarrassed as he recalls the night almost one week ago when Israeli soldiers invaded his home, dragging all of his family out into the cold night, with a gun to his wife’s head. At 2am the soldiers woke the family with sound bombs, before entering the house through the small convenience store the family run underneath. Gharib had been out harvesting olives for many days, and explains that he was very, very tired. Initially, explains his wife, Nihaya, four soldiers entered the house, screaming that they wanted to make the house into a “nuktah” – a military command post set up inside a Palestinian house when a village or city is invaded. Instead, after they were joined by a further eight soldiers, the soldiers targeted her husband. Putting a gun to both his and his wife’s heads, soldiers told him to fingerprint the a piece of paper, blank but for a few words in Hebrew at the top. “They didn’t say why”, recalls Nihaya, “they just kept saying ‘Sign! Sign!”.

When Gharib refused, he was carried out to the Israeli jeeps waiting in front of the house, where he was beaten by the soldiers. He was then returned to one of the front rooms of the house, where he was further beaten, and where Israeli soldiers forcibly took his hands, and inked and fingerprinted him.

The family were left to wonder what it was that had just been done to them in the 45 minutes during which the operation had taken place; and why it was that they were then instructed to keep the front door of their home open for the next two and a half hours.

This same process took place in home after home, most of them along the main street of the village. Next in line was the home of Hussam and Tharwat Saif, across the road from Gharib’s house, where soldiers again woke the family with sound bombs before invading the house. There four soldiers ransacked the house, turning over all of the furniture, breaking some of it, as they had done in Gharib’s house.

Tharwat and her five children were forced to stand by and watch as the soldiers demanded Hussam produce his identification, taking a photo of him holding it next to his head. Tharwat recalls that the soldiers then took Hussam outside and beat him, before taking him back inside and forcibly fingerprinting him.

At yet another house across the street, belonging to Ahmad Zeki, the soldiers stole 1000 shekels while undertaking the same operation there.

No one in the village has any notion as to why the men were fingerprinted that night. “We search, we search”, says Mohammad Masoud of the village municipality. “We want to know exactly what was written on the paper, but no one in those houses can read Hebrew”.

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While being forced to fingerprint documents they do not comprehend is new for villagers in Burqa, home invasions are not. Seemingly every family in the village has a story about Israeli soldiers invading their homes.

Abu Sami tells about how four years ago his house would be invaded and occupied by Israeli soldiers with great regularity – up to three times each month. One night his wife gave birth to one of their children, Kais, soldiers invaded the house, forcing all of the family, including the mother and the five hours old baby into the street, where the temperature was close to zero degrees. After this incident the baby became so sick that he had to be taken to hospital for treatment everyday for six months. “That’s what happens here”, he says. “That’s what happens to everyone”.

While many Palestinian villages are subject to regular invasions, Burqa’s woes seem to be the result of their proximity to the now evacuated settlement of Homesh. Just as the evacuation has not meant an end to the settler attacks villagers endure, it has also not meant an end to the military incursions the village faces. .

Um Eyad, mother to a large family, suffers regular home invasions by Israeli soldiers. “Every time they enter the village they come to my house”, she says. “And every time they break something. Now they have broken two wardrobes; the washing machine and the refrigerator”.

Another young student from the village, Mohammad, tells about how four months ago, Israeli soldiers invaded and occupied his house for two hours, keeping the family locked in the kitchen.

It seems that until the land of Homesh is returned to the villagers, as they have begun demanding in weekly demonstrations, there will be no peace for the residents of Burqa.

Three people were injured near Homesh settlement on Friday 21st November, when Israeli military force fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a non-violent demonstration.

For the second week in a row, approximately 100 Palestinians from the villages of Burqa, Sebastiya, Beit Imreen, Talluza, Deir Sharaf and Silat adh Dhahr, as well as international activists, were stopped by more than 40 Israeli soldiers and police as they marched towards the evacuated settlement. Israeli military forces had blocked the road with coils of razor wire, behind which soldiers and police lined up with weapons readied, despite the clearly non-violent nature of the demonstration.

Prevented from entering their lands by the Israeli forces, the Palestinian villagers held Friday prayers by the razor wire, before they were viciously attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets in response to a single rock thrown from far back in the crowd that fell well short of the assembled Israeli military forces. Firing from a distance of just 20 metres (illegal under Israeli law which states these weapons are to be used only from a minimum distance of 40 metres), soldiers and police fired into the departing crowd, aiming at head-height, which again contravenes Israeli military laws. Three people were injured, including 19 year old Munqeth Ragheb, who, in what appears to be a deliberate targeting, was shot in his face; the back of his head; his back; and his hand with rubber bullets, as well as shot in the shoulder with a gun-fired tear-gas canister.

Emad Saif, aged 48 years old; and Thaer Machmoud, 14 years, were also injured by rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas canisters. Many more were treated for gas inhalation as Israeli armed forces fired volley after volley into the crowd, with approximately 50 canisters fired in total.

Demonstrators had aimed to get to the evacuated settlement to reclaim the lands upon which it stood – lands which legally belong to Palestinian villagers. “These lands belong to private Palestinian land-owners”, said Burqa municipality member, Mohammad Masoud. “They [Palestinian villagers] have papers to prove that they own the land”. While the settlement was evacuated in August 2005, the lands have not yet been returned to the legal owners, under the flimsy pretext that the land is demarcated as Area C under the Oslo agreement.

This goal of land reclamation is not just borne of the legitimate desire for vital lands to be returned to their legal owners, but also out of a real fear of the resettlement of the lands by ideological Israeli settlers. This fear is informed by the regular return of Israeli settlers to the evacuated lands – part of an ongoing campaign by the settler movement called “Homesh First” which demands the resettlement of Homesh. Burqa villagers claim that there are currently settlers occupying the lands, suggesting that this is part of the reason why their demonstrations are so forcefully prevented from accessing their lands by the Israeli authorities.

This spectre of the resettlement of Homesh is evidenced in placards carried by demonstrators: “We will not allow the nightmare of Homesh back again”. This “nightmare” refers to the regular attacks carried out by the settlers, who would especially target farmers and shepherds with lands adjacent to the settlement, beating farmers and killing livestock. These attacks have not abated since the evacuation of the settlement, with visiting Israelis continuing to attack farmers and shepherds, and burn olive trees. The very presence of the settlement in the area also leads to regular attacks on nearby villages by Israeli soldiers, especially in Burqa through which the main road to the settlement passes. Houses along this road are regularly invaded by Israeli soldiers, with those closest to the settlement having been forcibly evicted and destroyed by Israeli forces.

Palestinian villagers have vowed to continue their struggle against the continuing nightmare of Homesh with weekly demonstrations.

In the village of Burin on Tuesday November 18th, armed settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar attacked Palestinian villagers, throwing rocks and shooting in the air.

At 8:40 pm, the houses of Khalib Kasam and his extended family, near Route 60, were assaulted by approximately twenty settlers. Shortly after, the mayor of Burin called the DCO (District Coordination Office) who sent the Israeli army. The army set up a checkpoint, stopping Israeli and Palestinian cars, then telling the drivers to keep going. Meanwhile, according to eyewitnesses, settlers hid in the bushes and trees 50 meters away and threw rocks at several Palestinian cars, which as a result of the checkpoint, were easy, slow-moving targets. Although the army was present during the violence, no settlers were held accountable.

As a military occupying power, Israeli forces are required under international law to provide security in the Occupied Territories. But rather than fulfilling its legal and moral obligations, the Israeli military not only fails to provide for the safety of the Palestinian population, but in many instances, as is exemplified here, facilitates violence towards Palestinians.

The Kasam family, due to their proximity to the road and settlement, face frequent harassment and attacks, causing them to live in a constant state of anxiety and fear. As the mother of the family says, “Whenever we sit down to eat, one person is always looking out the window.”

Over 100 Palestinians and international activists were attacked by Israeli soldiers with tear gas and sound bombs as they attempted to march to the evacuated Israeli settlement Homesh from the village of Burqa, near Nablus, on Friday 14th November.

The villagers and internationals intended to enter the settlement, which was evacuated by Israeli authorities in August 2005 as part of the so-called Israeli “disengagement plan”, in order to plant trees inside the grounds of the former settlements – lands which legally belong to Palestinian villagers. The tree-planting was to symbolise a reclamation of the land, which, though evacuated, has not been returned to its legal owners, and remains under Israeli military control.

Demonstrators carried placards that read: “We will not allow the nightmare of Homesh back again!”, referring the high-levels of violence enacted by settlers before Homesh was evacuated, and is continued by settlers who visit and attempt to re-occupy the land. This is exemplified by the recent burning of more than 500 olive trees by Israeli settlers at the beginning of this year’s olive harvest; as well as by attacks on shepherds and their livestock which continue despite the settlement’s evacuation.

The demonstration was prevented from reaching the evacuated settlement, however, by Israeli military and police, who immediately threw sound bombs and tear gas into the non-violent crowd, burning two people. After initially fleeing, the villagers returned to stand their ground, refusing to be further intimidated, despite constant threats from Israeli soldiers. Instead, they chanted: “They steal our water and we are thirsty” and “Settlements are the death of our land”, demanding an end to the settlements and the occupation which enables Israeli settlers to steal Palestinian land. Villagers were also demanding the removal of the military checkpoint near the entrance of the settlement, which denies Palestinians freedom of movement.

After speeches from representatives from a number of the surrounding villages who were participating in the demonstration, as well as the Nablus governorate office and various supporting organisations, the crowd began to disperse, at which point the Israeli soldiers again started to fire tear gas into the crowd.

Villagers were not deterred from their struggle by this use of violence by the Israeli army. One local youth remarked “We don’t have guns to fight the army, but we have big hearts for our land”.

Other villagers noted that it was particularly ironic that they were not allowed to enter the evacuated settlement, as it was alleged that an Israeli settler had entered the settlement the night before and erected a tent in which he had slept the night. Villagers claim he was still inside whilst the demonstration took place. Many Palestinian villagers from the region are concerned that the lands will be permanently re-occupied by settlers.

The villagers, however, are determined to continue their struggle, committing to regular demonstrations against the military occupation of their lands.

Three households were terrorised by Israeli soldiers in the village of Zawata on Friday night, 7th November.

At least twenty Israeli soldiers from the nearby military base at Shave Shomron stormed through the upper parts of the village on foot – throwing sound bombs and firing at family homes; surrounding houses and forcing families out into the night. Soldiers advised the invasion and terror tactics were a response to the discovery of a few small children burning a tyre on the nearby military road.

Soldiers entered the village at approximately 5pm, first surrounding the Attaallaa family home. “We were sitting here, with guests – my cousin, his wife and their three children – watching tv when the sound bombs went off; two at the front door and two at the back”, recounts Ahmad, a 23 year old English teacher. “They [Israeli soldiers] were pointing the laser sights of their guns through the windows. As you can imagine, everyone became frightened. The kids started crying”. The 20 people in the house were then all forced outside at gunpoint, with two of the soldiers pulling aside Ahmad’s elder brother, 32 year old Mohammad who wears a neck-brace due to a recent car crash. The soldiers started beating him, especially attempting to exacerbate his injury by punching him in the neck. The soldiers repeatedly asked Mohammad about “the terrorists”. “Who is the terrorist?”, asks Mohammad. “Who is coming here and making all the kids frightened? They keep talking about terrorism and they are the terrorists”.

After 30 minutes soldiers left the Attaallaa family, letting them back into their home, taking two of the spent sound bombs with them. “This is strange behaviour for them”, says Ahmad. “They don’t want the world to know about their violent behaviour”.

The soldiers then surrounded the nearby home of Azam Zarifi, where, after firing three bullets into the air, soldiers again threw sound bombs at the house, and stones at the front door, shouting and forcing the 10 family members out of the house. The commander of the unit then threatened that if children from the village go back to the military road, the soldiers would return to the Zarifi family home and beat the entire family, and smash the house.

The unit then moved on to the last house on the road, home to the elderly Ahmad Khawalid and his extended family of more than sixty people. There, soldiers shot at the three-storey house, further marking the front wall that is already covered in bullet holes from belligerent Israeli soldiers. The soldiers also threw sound bombs at the doors, and, without waiting for the doors to be opened, kicked them in, damaging them. Soldiers then entered the house, forcing all family members out into the cold night, including 9 month-old Mohammad, who was being bathed by his mother when the soldiers invaded. Regardless of his mother’s pleas, soldiers forced her to carry the baby soaking wet and without clothes out of the house, where they were kept for over an hour while soldiers searched the home.

Ahmad Khawalid was also threatened with return by the soldiers. The commander again threatened Ahmad that should children come near the military-only road again, the soldiers would come and attack his family, beating them and damaging their home.

The Khawalid family have suffered a great deal as a result of the military-only road, which was built on village land in 1997-8. Mohammad Khawalid, nephew of Ahmad, and shepherd, was murdered by Israeli soldiers when he was with his sheep near the road in 2002. He was just 25 years old. Israeli soldiers have also killed a horse and a donkey belonging to the family – shooting the animals as they were driving past the family’s fields that lie close to the road. During the second intifada, the family would suffer daily, as the area was “like a bottle for the Israeli soldiers and resistance fighters”, says Ahmad. Each day the soldiers would shoot at the windows of the house, forcing all of the family out of their home, searching for resistance fighters. “Now it is just when children from the village go up to the road and whistle at the soldiers” – something that happens monthly.

This kind of collective punishment is illegal under international law. As Ahmad Attaallaa recounted: “I said to him [the soldier], if someone sets fire to a tyre on the road, then deal with them. Don’t come to my house and bother my family, scaring them all, making the kids cry”.