Israeli forces raid Qusra following murder of Palestinian

December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

On Thursday the 30th of November, Mahmoud Ahmad Zaal Odeh, age 48, a Palestinian farmer from the village Qusra in the northern West bank was murdered by Israeli settlers from a nearby settlement. “Mahmoud was walking on his land when he noticed the settlers cutting down one of his trees. They were armed with guns,” a local Palestinian that spoke with Mahmoud only minutes before the attack says. “He ran towards them to stop them when they opened fire on him.“ Mahmoud died shortly after due to his immense wounds. 

Soldiers from the Israeli forces run into the village in an attemt to arrest.

Later that same evening, soldiers from the Israeli military accompanied by settlers from nearby settlements entered the village. Clashes then escalated between the Israeli military forces and young Palestinian boys. The Israeli military fired tear gas at the entire village as a part of a larger collective punishment towards the village, injuring around 40 civilians.

Palestinian women looks for her son mids the group of soldiers from the Israeli military in Qusra

Among those injured was a 3 year old child, as well as the disabled and elderly, all of whom were unable to move quickly from the rounds of tear gas fired at some of the houses. Four Palestinians were also injured by live ammunition and 15 were shot with rubber coated steal bullets.

Teargas shot by the Israeli military affected the whole village.

The day after, soldiers from the Israeli military fired over 100 rounds of tear gas, set a field on fire and shot rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition inside Qusra during the Friday demonstration, which was held because of the murder of Mahmoud Odeh.

At noon on Friday, the 1st of December, around 300 Palestinians and a few internationals gathered in the olive groves where Odeh had been murdered only a day before. After a prayer the group walked towards Odeh’s fields.

Around 300 Palestinians prayed in the olive grove where Mahmoud had been murdered only a day before.

The soldiers shot a few rounds of tear gas and some rubber coated steel bullets while some young Palestinians threw stones. Around eight civilians were injured, including press, by the numerous rounds of tear gas fired at the group, waving Palestinian flags towards the hillside. “You could still see his blood on the ground. It’s so shameful that the Israeli military does nothing to investigate his death – it just shoots at the whole village,“ one ISM activist said.

Mahmoud’s blood was still on the ground after the attack only a day before.

Around 1:00 AM, clashes began at the entrance of the village, where the Israeli military with Border Police had situated themselves, armed with military trucks and weapons. The soldiers proceeded to fire rounds of tear gas at the crowd, and after a while ambushed the village with four military jeeps.

Soldiers from Israeli military fire teargas in the center of the village.

For the next four hours, the Israeli military forces fired rounds of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets at houses in the village, which resulted in over 20 people being injured by gas coming into their homes. On the 2nd of December, clashes continued in the village with the Israeli military forces firing around 15 rounds of teargas and shooting rubber coated steel bullets. When the army collectively punishes a village in such a way, it affects all of its residents.

Medics assist people injured by the massive amounts of teargas fired at everyone.

Settlers of Yitzhar set fire to olive fields and attack farmers the next day

15th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwarra, Occupied Palestine

Israeli settlers of Yitzhar, set fires in two places in Palestinian olive fields around their illegal outposts, and attacked a group of farmers a day later, under the eyes of around 30 border police, present at the site.

On Sunday 5 November, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, ISM activists saw smoke coming from olive fields on both hillsides underneath an outpost of Yitzhar, the illegal settlement south of Nablus, built on the Hill between the Palestinian villages Huwarra and Burin.

It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Since the expropriation of the farmland of Huwarra, Burin and Madama, and the illegal creation and steady expansion of the Israeli settlement Yitzhar, violent settlers do anything they can to harm the Palestinian farmers and families without any risk of being punished for these crimes.

Attacked in 2016. No sign of life a year later.

A farmer from Burin, whose olive field was set on fire, explained to us that the settler group chased him and his two companions and that they managed to escape.

The Palestinian Fire-brigade of Burin waited for permission from the Israeli authority to extinguish the fire, which they apparently did not get.

Israel is authoritative for the security in Area-C, and should instead of blocking the Palestinian Fire brigade, fight any fire in Area-C themselves, which it has not done in the 25 year since this authority was agreed on in the Oslo accords.

Instead of this, we saw border police, settler security and the settlers side-by-side in the illegal Hilltop outpost, looking at the burning fields.

The next day, 6 November 2017 already at 8:30 AM, a group of nine settlers tried to attack farmers and workers who had official permission of the Israeli security authority, to harvest and cultivate the fields of the Owda family, which was partly burned down the previous day.

The large group of border police refused us entrance to the the area, which apparently was declared a closed military zone. The commander showed us the declaration on a paper, which didn’t show many details.

Instead of assisting the farmers, we could only be remotely present and filmed the situation from a distance. We again witnessed a close cooperation between the settlers, the settler-security and the border police. The threat of an instant attack was constantly felt that day.

Around 14:30, a group of around 20 settlers attacked the farmers, and most border-police did little to avoid it and arrested none of the settlers. Instead it commanded the farmers to stop their work and quickly leave their land.

Settlement outpost are illegal, even by Israeli law, although that law may change one day.

In February 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed a new law to legalize all 4000 illegal outposts. But, the High Court had concerns and postponed the implementation in August 2017.
However, if that law ever comes to reality, it would accept these 4000 outposts as new settlements ready to expand, and would give legality to the expropriation of more private Palestinian land, in a clear violation of the Oslo Agreements of 1993.

When buildings break bones

1st October 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Urif, Einabus & Huwara, occupied Palestine

It was a somber trip through the villages of Urif, Einabus, and Huwara yesterday. Their peripheries continue to be threatened by the illegal settlement of Yitzar, which sits strategically on a hill above them, allowing for fast and terrifying raids on the Palestinians’ homes and cash crops below.

The mayor of Urif shows ISM activists where settler attacks have come from

In Urif we met the mayor, who walked us by the village school and within view of the illegal settlement houses perched above a hillside rich with olives. Finally, he took us to see a man named Munir al-Nuri, the subject of a tragic story about an April day that would change his life forever. It surely began like any other – with the handful of chores that keep his house up and running. On this day however, heavily armed settlers – in the company of Israeli soldiers, no less – would march into his village, enter his home, beat him, break his legs, terrorize his family in the process, destroy the family car, and as a final measure, slice his foot open with a knife, robbing him of any hope of working his land for the next year, possibly longer. Needless to say, the soldiers did nothing to protect Munir, discourage the settler from carrying out more attacks like it in the future, or provide justice or reparations to Munir’s family. It was a gut punch for us listening, and frankly we didn’t know whether to cry or scream at the injustice of it all.

Munir al-Nuri keeps printed photos of the extremist settler who attacked him in his home.

In Einabus, we sat in the office of a local council member, who again walked us through the terrors of the same settlers in his village. He began with the chemical poisoning of the Palestinians’ olive trees – a break from the settlers’ more commonly used tactic of simply burning them. Finally, he came to the story of a shepherd who encountered an invading settler out in the fields. The settler, heavily armed and primed for violence, stripped him of his clothes and sent him naked back to his village – an obvious form of cultural and psychological warfare in a modest society, and even further, one that conjures up remembrances of Abu Ghraib. The man had a heart attack and died a week after the event.

As we sat in his office, I felt a similar thought passing through all of us: ”How could I possibly convey the gravity of what I was hearing to people – particularly Zionists – back home?”. With the hill perfectly framed by the window behind him, the stories carried a certain resonance.

Short of people sitting there with us, however, and looking at the hillside, where you’re actually able to picture the death squads walking down the hill into the villages, I remain unconvinced that it will translate. But perhaps a start, for those who don’t understand just what the illegal settlements mean for Palestinians, or who yet don’t care, would be to emphasize that the buildings themselves are not the source of such primal terror felt by the villagers. It’s the settlers – barbarically violent and insulated from recourse – that constitute the more immediate danger.

While the land itself is pregnant with meaning, as is the Palestinian memory it summons, the truth of these settlements is that no matter how inanimate they may seem, they’re ultimately tantamount to neatly paved, artfully constructed gore. When Netanyahu, Danny Danon, and the like talk about “strengthening the settlements”, what they’re really advocating for is bloodshed. Not hyperbolically, and not anything less. Brick by brick, Palestinians are attacked, they’re murdered, their farms and olive trees and their livelihoods set on fire. Next year their kids will grow weaker with hunger, life savings will be tapped into just to make ends meet, and the flame of bright futures will be extinguished in an instant. And all of this will happen because of mere buildings, for the settlers are the settlements – terrorizing, functionally above the law, and quite literally a threat to Palestinian survival.

Masked settlers in Urif the day Munir al-Nuri was attacked, with Israeli soldiers protecting them. Credit: Institute for Middle East Understanding

Closure of Kifl Hares following several night raids and arrests

19th September 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team| Kifl Hares, Occupied Palestine

“They punish us in all the ways they can”

The last two weeks, 17 boys and men aged 16-25 have been arrested during night raids in the village of Kifl Hares. Since a week ago, the Israeli military have also closed off the main entrance to the village, which is located south west of Nablus in a hot spot next to the illegal settlement of Ariel. The villagers now have to go through the surrounding villages in order to get out, which leads to an increase of 20 minutes to their daily commute.

(The closed gate to Kifl Hares leading to the main road is guarded by Israeli military.)

Some  nights, the raids happened during some of the Jewish holidays. The settlers made a circle in the village square, dancing, guarded by soldiers placed on the roofs of the Palestinian homes around the square. ISM met the father of two of the young men who have been arrested. The home of the family has been raided six times in the last two weeks.

The first night raid, the father asked the soldiers what they were looking for, and after searching the entire house they replied: “We are just checking if you are OK.” The night raids have been following the main pattern of conduct: the military storms the village and closes it off, enters family homes, forces the families to get up where they then lock them in one room, whilst they destroy the family’s belongings in their search.

The second raid, the Israeli forces woke the village and the family up at 2 am to give them a document with a call for a court hearing. The third time,  the Israeli soldiers forced two of the sons to the Ariel police station, detained them there for two hours, and then released them. The fourth raid,  the military searched the house violently again. The fifth time they arrested a 19 year old son and the sixth time, the 22-year old son. The sons endured days of questioning, and after a rubber stamp in Salem court, they were then taken to Meggido, awaiting another trial in Salem court. The family only managed to see their sons briefly in the court hearing. In 2013 their older son was also kept in military detention for 16 months.

The father told ISM that he asked the commander of the military raiding their home why they come in the middle of the night. The commander replied: “I choose when I want to come”. The commander then threatened the father to steal the family’s land, to revoke his potential work permit and confiscate his car if he would protest more. “They punish us in all ways they can”, the father told ISM.

He told us his wife started screaming when the soldiers entered her bedroom, and the military then questioned why she was screaming. When the father emphasised the horror of the situation,the soldier said: “I have the right to do what I want. If you protest I will have your house demolished.” The soldiers also pulled their 85-year old grandmother up from her mattress in order to check her room.

Several families in Kifl Hares have suffered from similar horrific experiences during the last two weeks. Several villages around the occupied West Bank have also been raided during the night, and the villagers have seen their sons and neighbours being arrested by the Israeli forces. What are these Palestinians being punished for? The father answered: “For being Palestinian.”

 

Israeli occupation forces suppress peaceful protest with rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition

20th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara-team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine

Israeli occupation forces suppressed another non-violent demonstration on Friday the 18th of August, in the village Kafr Qaddum, in the occupied West Bank. The weekly demonstrations protest the closure of the main road connecting the village with Nablus, which is the main city in the area.

The blocking of the road was enforced, to “secure” the nearby illegal settlement Kedumim, thus prohibiting Palestinians from using the main road to Nablus. Kedumim illegal settlement is currently being expanded further.

Smoke from burning tires rising at the demonstration

Within the first 30 minutes of the demonstration the Israeli forces were firing both live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets at protestors. This went on for two and a half hours, before the army retreated and the participators of the march went home. Throughout the demonstration the Israeli forces circulated the area with a drone, filming the participants of the protest. Additionally, the soldiers were carrying cameras on their bodies.

Palestinians demonstrating the illegal land theft

Apart from keeping files on individuals supporting the popular resistance, such pictures can serve as ‘evidence’ against Palestinians for the participation in ‘illegal’ demonstration.

While it was not the case this particular Friday, the occupying army has been raiding houses regularly in the early hours on days of demonstrations, taking pictures of all young men in the given homes.

Israeli forces in Palestinian civilians homes

During this Friday’s demonstration however, various homes were raided, as Israeli soldiers made their way unto balconies and rooftops of strategically located houses, to control the protest. This is a common protocol for the Israeli army, and an intrusion the local residents can do nothing about.