On the morning of July 19, 2007, the Israeli occupation force invaded the village of Zawata just north of the city of Nablus [see previous ISM reports here and here]. The army proceeded to demolish the house of Asad Natoor. Moving deeper into the village, the force besieged another home and proceeded to destroy the external walls while “interrogating” an individual inside.
Human rights activists arrived to the scene alongside medics – attempting to halt the destruction. The Israeli Army blocked the entrance of an ambulance called for a pregnant woman. The army used force to repell human rights observers from the first home demolition.
Upon the arrival of human rights legal observer, the army openly admitted they had no demolition order. Furthermore, the District Command Office (DCO) continually ignored calls. When officials from B’tselem (Israeli Human Rights Organization) inquired as to the presence of a demolition – the civil authorities indicated they weren’t aware of the operation. Soldiers then assaulted the human rights workers requesting documentation and authorization from the soldiers.
Zawata: Witness to Israeli War Crimes is a short documentary covering the events of this day. It includes extensive interviews from the victims of that day and film of the soldiers who committed these crimes.
After a standoff in ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp, Friday morning, July 20, 2007, in which six international human rights activists … all >> confronted the Israeli Occupation Forces, at 11:30am several Israeli snipers were forced out of the home they had occupied since 3:00 am that morning. The internationals entered the house after the withdrawal of the snipers and found 35 civilians inside, 20 of which were children.
Several Palestinian boys approached the activists to point out Israeli snipers in a building on the hill above the camp. The Israeli soldiers had forced four families, 30 people, into a first floor room and held them hostage for over eight hours.
Occupying and using a civilian home as a military position is illegal under international and Israeli law.
Nablus, a city in the North of the West Bank is surrounded by military bases and invaded nightly by heavily armored Israeli Occupation Forces. These incursions kill and injure civilians on a daily basis. Not only are the individual actions of this platoon, these soldiers, and the Israeli Occupation Forces illegal, but the entire occupation of the West Bank since 1967 is in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and in contravention of numerous UN declarations.
The siege on ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp continued until noon on Friday, July 20, 2007 when the Israeli Occupation Force completely vacated the West Bank city of Nablus. International human rights activists who had been in the camp since 9:30am discovered a system of holes the IOF had blown through the walls of the refugee camp homes.
The IOF destroyed walls of numerous homes, labeling the holes in order to allow soldiers to move through the refugee camp without entering the streets. This systematic tactic of collective punishment traumatized many of women and children who woke up to their homes being invaded and destroyed by the IOF. Internationals took still-photos of three homes connected by two partially demolished walls. They documented broken windows linked to holes in the walls of adjacent homes.
When the IOF entered each of the homes, they immediately forced all those present into a single room and compelled them to stay there while their homes were occupied and used to link civilian homes in the military operation. Many homes had significant damage not only to their windows and walls but also to their personal affects.
One woman told the international human rights activists that the IOF soldiers asked where her husband was. She told them that he was not home because he worked in Nablus Municipality. She said she asked them who they were looking for and they replied they were looking for everyone because everyone is Hamas.
Another woman sobbed as she told an international human rights activist that 20 or more soldiers remained in her house for two hours. “They brought sandwiches. They destroyed my home and then they ate their lunch,” said she. “My children were so scared they hid under the bed in the room we were forced into.” The mother was allowed to leave the room in which her children hid only to serve water to the soldiers occupying her living room.
The IOF occupied a total of nine homes all of which were connected by this system of holes in the walls and broken windows. Activist found the residents in a complete state of shock and despair thanks to the morning’s invasion.
After a standoff in ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp, Friday morning, July 20, 2007, in which six international human rights activists forced three jeeps of the Israeli Occupation Force to retreat, denying them further access to the camp, the international activists achieved a second success. At 11:30am several Israeli snipers were forced out of the home they had occupied since 3:00 am that morning. The internationals entered the house after the withdrawal of the snipers and found 35 civilians inside, 20 of which were children.
International activists combed the main thoroughfare of ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp, Friday morning after the standoff, to ensure the army had vacated the area completely. Several Palestinian boys approached the activists to point out Israeli snipers in a building on the hill above the camp.
The activists proceeded toward the building where they found the door of the gate kicked in. From the outside of the door they negotiated with the soldiers. “Your position is know you need to leave now,” one international activist shouted at the door. Several other activists echoed his sentiment. A soldier opened the door. “We are here to let you know that its time to leave,” said an activist as the soldier raise his gun to the activists’ chest. “There is absolutely no reason to point that gun at us and you know that.” At this time the activists could see several of the people being held prisoner in their own home. The soldier quickly shut the door when he realized everything was being caught on film.
They shouted from the door to the soldiers that their location was known and that it was pointless to continue occupying the building. They implore the soldiers to leave and think of the families inside who they had endangered.
“Your position depends on the fact that you think it’s a secret that you are in there. You and I both know that that is not the case, so its time to pull out,” said an activist. “This is a war crime. You cannot use civilians as human shields, which is what you are doing. You cannot take up place in an occupied residence and use it as a sniper position. It’s time for you to leave.”
The negotiations continued between the international activists and the occupying soldiers who whispered on the other side of the door.
“I know you have orders that make sense to you right now, but what you need to understand if that you are breaking the law. And you still have a decision to make about what is right. Its time to leave and you know that,” said an activist. “You cannot hold a family prisoner while you use their home as a sniper position. And it doesn’t make sense anyway. Everyone knows you are in here, how do you think we found you—other than the door blown off the gate, its not very subtle. We know you are here. So it is time to leave. Call your boys, get your jeeps, and get out…This is not a strategic forward position for you anymore. It’s time to relocate. Call the jeeps and leave.”
After about 20 minutes, the Israeli snipers did call the jeeps to return for them. Seven Israeli snipers exited the building. When the soldiers and jeeps left, the people trapped inside flooded out onto the street.
They entered the house at 3:00 am, about 12-15 soldiers, and occupied the top floor, one man who had been held captive in his own home told the international activists. He continued saying that they made all the families stay downstairs. They separated the children from the adults. Two soldiers guarded the door to the building as well as the door to the room where they had forced the families to stay. The rest of the soldiers, he said, stayed upstairs.
“My children were very afraid—they cried,” said one woman who was alone in her flat with her children because her husband, forced by the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime, sought employment abroad.
“The Israeli occupation controls the whole country, what’s another house to them,” said another man about being held prisoner in his own home for 8 and half hours.
One of the families inside the occupied house was visiting from Jordan for a wedding next week; they just arrived the day before. A woman in this family expressed deep sadness and shock over how quickly and drastically life changes in Palestine.
No one was physically hurt during the house occupation nor were any of the families’ personal affects destroyed. One man told the international activists at the scene that he did not hear any gunfire coming from the third floor.
The invasion of ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 10:20 am when several jeeps returned to the main street of Nablus and entered the camp. International human rights activists present created a human roadblock on the main thoroughfare of the camp to stop any other jeeps from entering the camp and continuing their siege on the camp’s inhabitants. Three internationals were shot with rubber bullets during the blockade. They were just three of the several victims of the IOF’s aggressive and excessive use of force that morning, on what could have otherwise been a quiet, peaceful and sunny Friday holiday.
For approximately 40 minutes the activists stood and sat in the road denying the IOF access to the camp from that route. During the standoff between the jeeps and the non-violent activists, several sound bombs were thrown out of the jeep’s windows, tear gas was shot up into the air, and rubber bullets and sound bombs were fired at extremely close ranges.
“They are not going through,” the activists echoed to each other making it clear that they were committed to staying in the road despite the IOF’s attempts to scare them away.
The activists shouted to the jeeps, “Who are you shooting at?” The IOF continued to fire rubber bullets in the direction of the activists as well as at the Palestinian boys that lined the right-hand side of the road. “The ammunition in that gun will kill if you shoot it at this range. That is an M16 it will kill at this range. Do you understand, you will murder somebody if you shoot it. You will kill!” an international activist screamed at the jeep as it continued to fire its ammunition at the non-violent activists.
Three jeeps were blocked from entering the camp by the activists, one on the offensive with two stacked behind it the second on the same road, and the third at the bottom on the main road perpendicular to the main thoroughfare of the camp.
As the first jeep retreated and quickly approached, revving its engine each time it came within a half meter from the activists. “Does it look like we are moving? Back off! Back off!” said one of the international activists. They were undeterred, unintimidated, and unwilling to allow this vehicle as arm of the occupation apparatus access to the camp and its innocent inhabitants—the activists sat down together in the road. The jeep quickly sped up, stopping mere centimeters from the activists’ heads, which were then parallel to the bumper of the jeep, to rev its engine creating a dust cloud in their faces.
The IOF soldiers pointed their weapons at the activists from small holes in the steel jeeps they hid behind. “Do you know what will happen if you shoot?” asked one international activists. As the word “shoot” crossed her lips, a rubber bullet came flying out of the jeep. “Do you know what will happen if you shoot? she repeated. “You are shooting at children. You are shooting children. You have brothers their age. This is your younger brother. You are shooting at your younger brother.”
The jeep continued its offensive hoping to scare the activists with its bullets, sound bombs, quick advances and loud engine. Many of the activists seized this opportunity to have a smoke while they sat in the sun showing the soldiers they were unimpressed with how they spent the United States’ Foreign Aid this year.
“Look at me! You can see me. We are not doing this to harm you; we are doing this so you can’t harm them,” said an activist pointing at the streets behind her that made up ‘Ein Beit Al Ma’ refugee camp. “Are you going to murder me because I am standing in your jeep’s way?”
After 40 minutes the IOF was forced to drive away. The international activists successfully warded off the threat of three more jeeps to the refugee camp. Not one soldier exited the jeep during the whole entire exercise. It was machine versus man on the streets of Nablus. Man, the human spirit, won that morning.
