Tag: Nablus

Witness to checkpoint abuse “punished” by IOF

by aspiringnomad December 5th

On Saturday at 4pm a human rights worker based in Nablus received a call from some fellow HRWs at Huwwara checkpoint, that hundreds of Palestinians including a mother with a sick child weren’t being allowed through after the checkpoint had been closed.

When the HRW arrived there were hundreds of people waiting to pass through the illegal Israeli checkpoint. A middle aged woman was pleading with soldiers to be able to pass as she was cradling a sick child who required treatment.

The HRWs attempted to ask the Israeli soldiers the reason for the closure and whether it would be possible for the women and child to pass through, but his pleas were met with stony silence. After further inquiries, the soldiers informed the HRW that if he didn’t go away he would be “punished”. The woman continued to remonstrate with the soldiers in the presence the HRW, at which point the soldiers wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him.

During the arrest the HRW was lighly injured and his camera was damaged. He was then detained in a small holding cell for an hour before being taken to Ariel settlement police station where he was questioned and detained for a further 4 hours.

Police claimed that the HRW had struck one of the soldiers and asked him to sign a document promising never to visit Nablus again. The aggrieved HRW refused, pleading wrongful arrest and physical abuse. He was then asked to sign a document promising not to argue with Israeli soldiers at Huwwara checkpoint for a period of 15 days, before being released without charge at approximately 10pm.

Huwwara checkpoint is notorious for long unexplained closures, which have become more common of late. In the last few weeks Palestinians have had to spend up to 2 hours waiting to pass through. As well as Huwwara checkpoint, Palestinians have to travel through other permanent and temporary checkpoints on their way to Ramallah, resulting in journey times of up to 5 hours for a journey of 20 miles, if they are allowed through them.

There are currently 72 permanent military checkpoints throughout the West Bank along with at least 25 temporary and flying checkpoints set up randomly by Israeli occupying forces.

Checkpoints can be a major deterrent for Palestinians on any road because of the extensive delays, security searches, as well as physical and psychological abuse by Israeli soldiers.

The checkpoints and Israel’s closure policy are often used as a means of enforcing collective punishment on the inhabitants of a certain area, or even the entire population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories .Collective punishment is illegal under international law.

The system of Israeli checkpoints in the Occupied Palestinian Territories violates international humanitarian law as codified in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

Nablus village schoolchildren terrorized by IOF

by aspiringnomad, December 3rd

On Tuesday a group of six human rights activists travelled to the small vallage of Sarra, west of Nablus, in response to a plea from a local school headmaster about Israeli army harassment of schoolchildren. According to countless eyewitness reports, during the last week an Israeli military Humvee would arrive in front of the school as the children were coming out, and proceed to let off sound bombs, tear gas and fire rubber bullets. However, the previous day the Humvee had arrived earlier and stayed for 4 hours between 10am and 2pm.

During the documentation of these harrowing witness statements a message arrived that the Humvee had just appeared at the gates of the girls school across the street. The six activists immediately went to the scene in order to ascertain the Israeli army’s motives and also to document any further harassment.

On seeing the approaching activists the soldiers quickly jumped into their Humvee and sped towards the centre of town at high speed. Three activists pursued the vehicle whilst the others stayed back at the entrance to the school.

As the activists caught up with the Humvee it proceeded to double back towards the school. It then stopped beside two activists and an Israeli soldier asked the reason for our presence. When the same question was asked of the soldier it was met with a cynical smile before he slammed the door, and the humvee drove into town, stopping only to throw a tear gas canister at some schoolchildren and fire a volley of bullets into the air before driving away.

After the Humvee’s departure, a call was made to the DCO (District Coordination Office – the civil administration wing of the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank) making them aware of what was happening, after which the activists remained for a further two hours.

Sarra is a typical small village that relies on agriculture for its income. Therefore the Israeli army’s military presence, and their subsequent behaviour can only be seen as a means to harass, humiliate and terrorize the residents.

The following day the activists returned to Sarra, but fortunately the Humvee didn’t return. More data was collected on Israeli army harassment that had occurred over the previous month, which included several late night visits by the army, who raided homes.

Almost a week after the initial presence of the activists at the scene, the military has yet to return to sarra.

Haaretz: “25-year-old Palestinian shot for protesting IDF’s treatment of women”

by Amira Hass, November 19th

A critically wounded Palestinian youth is hospitalized at Beilinson, allegedly after Israeli soldiers shot at him for protesting their treatment of women. Heitham Yassin, 25 years old, has been under heavy sedation and on a respirator since the November 4 incident.

Yassin’s doctors have told a lawyer for the family that he has undergone two abdominal surgeries, and that he also has pelvic injuries and peritonitis.

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman’s Office stated, “The incident in question is being investigated by the division.”

Attorney Moied Kabhah says he is still waiting for the full particulars from the doctors, including the number and type of bullets that hit Yassin.

Yassin lives with his parents in Algeria, but came a few months ago to visit the village of his birth Asira al-Shimaliya, north of Nablus. On the Saturday in question, he took a taxi from Nablus back to the village in the early afternoon. Access to five villages in the area is limited by a military checkpoint open only to residents of those villages and special permit holders.

Passengers sharing the cab with Yassin told human rights watchdog B’Tselem that their taxi, with four men and five women passengers, arrived at the checkpoint after an hour’s wait. The driver collected the identity cards of all nine passengers and gave them to the soldiers.

At that time, following procedure, the women got out of the cab. According to the witness accounts, one of the soldiers instructed the women to pat their chests and stomachs in a sort of physical security check. Some or all of the women refused. Some witnesses say the soldier ceded the demand and only examined bags, while others say the soldier cursed the women and yelled at them.

After the women, the men got out of the cab and Yassin was the first to step up to the check, about two meters from the soldiers. The soldier instructed Yassin to pull up his shirt, which he did, while walking closer to the soldiers. At that time, the men heard him ask the soldier in English why he told the women to touch themselves. Another witness believes he told the soldier he could not instruct women to touch themselves.

According to witnesses, the soldier did not answer, and just yelled at him and pushed him. Yassin kept talking. One witness heard Yassin say, “Don’t hit me.” The soldier pushed him again and then apparently Yassin pushed back. The soldier yelled and cursed and hit Yassin on the arm and pointed his gun at him. At this point, two soldiers who had been searching the taxi joined the first soldier and also pointed cocked guns at Yassin.

One witness said Yassin then pushed the soldiers away as they tried to catch him and then they hit him. One soldier fired shots into the air and then at the ground. Another witness reported one soldier fired into the air while the other shot down at the ground, whereas the third soldier pointed his rifle at the other standing men.

According to the witnesses, one soldier shouted in Hebrew, “Stop, arms in the air.” However, Yassin – who doesn’t speak Hebrew – continued to walk forward and then the soldiers shot at him. Then Yassin fell to the ground. According to the eyewitnesses, the soldiers held him, hurling him face down on a cement block and handcuffed him.

All three witnesses say the soldiers beat Yassin for five minutes in the back and head with their fists and their rifle butts and kicked him, also in the head.

After about ten minutes, a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, summoned by another passenger, arrived on the scene, but the soldiers refused to allow the medical team access to Yassin. An Israeli ambulance arrived shortly thereafter and transferred Yassin to a hospital in Israel.

A number of military officers arrived at the checkpoint and questioned the witnesses for about fifteen minutes.

Click here for an ISM report of the incident.

Stef’s Blog: settler road block temporarily becomes Israeli law

by Stef, Friday, November 10, 2006

On Wednesday I harvested in the village of Qaryot with another international volunteer and 2 Israelis, assisting 80-year-old Salimon, his brother Aziz, and his 27-year-old son Ahmed. We were greeted in the morning with a hearty “Buenos dias!” and warm smiles from the elder men. Both Salimon and Aziz spent 20 years working in Brazil, and during that time were unable to come home to see their children grow up. Between them they have a very large family and over 1,000 trees in the area, which is sandwiched between a few relatively new Israeli settlements. One is called Gilad — an extremist outpost that is illegal even by Israel’s standards.

Salimon and Aziz are friendly men of few words. We spent the day communicating through a bit of Arabic and also Spanish and Portuguese, which both men and some of the volunteers happened to speak. Salimon, whose hospitality is in true Palestinian style, watched us carefully and often re-lit the cigarettes he handed out, which must have gotten damp at some point. Aziz spent the day pruning the trees silently with his small saw, occasionally saying “Aaaiiii-wwaaa, tamam” (yes, good) and “Bueno” (good), when he cut a branch down and volunteers began to pick olives from it.

Earlier in the week Israeli settlers hiked down the hill to throw rocks at Palestinians harvesting in Qaryot, sending one man to the hospital with a head injury. Many families were afraid to return to finish picking, but the brothers who have land in the most dangerous area, were determined to finish.


The road-block made by the settlers.

We began the morning picking close to the settlement road. Within 10 minutes we were approached by three Israeli soldiers and three Israeli border policemen, who told us that we needed to stop for the day. Although we asked to see a court order that stated so, we were offered no explanation except “someone is coming with a map”. The brothers returned to picking and the volunteers attempted to join them. The soldiers demanded that we stop and not touch any olives until more of them arrived with answers to our questions.

Eventually more vehicles of soldiers, border police, and a military lawyer showed up. They also could not answer our questions, and as we stood around waiting and wasting precious picking time, they pulled out a map and started arguing over what to do. The founder of an Israeli human rights group with experience in the area showed up after our phone calls. He negotiated with them over an apparent land dispute that began recently when settlers created a dirt mound roadblock in order to claim some of the land as their own. One soldier even said: “It’s obviously Palestinian land, let’s just let them stay,” but it was decided that we were only allowed to harvest on the other side of the roadblock for the day, closest to the village.

Following the lead of the elders, we agreed and moved to an area that was not claimed by the settlers to continue picking. This felt frustrating since the trees are hundereds of years old like the village, and the settlement is only about 20 years old. Even though some of the soldiers and police disagreed with each other about who the land belongs to, the message this situation sends is pretty clear: it is possible for a simple mound of dirt placed in the road by Jewish extremists to throw legal borders into upheaval, effectively blocking the rightful owners from accessing and harvesting it.

The next day we met Salimon and Aziz again. After a successful negotiation on behalf of the human rights group, we spent the day picking olives beyond the roadblock, on the “disputed” land directly next to the settlement road. This time we brought more volunteers due to the high risk of attack. Throughout the day about two Humvess or jeeps full of Israeli soldiers and police watched us from a short distance. They claimed it was for our protection, but were clearly facing us and watching us with binoculars, not the settlement.

Eventually Aziz picked up his tarp and bucket and walked right over to the settlement entrance road, a couple feet from a guard dogs fence and about 200 feet from the nearest home. This is the closest to a settlement that any family I’ve been with over the last week and a half has dared to work. I get the impression that Aziz is not scared of anything, even though he said that most of his children are afraid to come harvest the land with him. The soldiers and police pulled their vehicles up right next to us, but we ignored them and continued picking until the brothers decided they were finished with the area for the day.

We returned to the village piled onto a tractor with large bags of olives. Aziz’s kaffiyeh blew in the wind as he smiled and waved to greet neighboring farmers. Salimon rode ahead on his donkey. Ahmad reported that we had picked a few hundred kilos of olives, and thanked us warmly for our presence. In the following days we will continue to have an international presence in Qaryot, until all of the olives are picked.

“The truth is plain for anyone to see” — account of Israeli incursion into a Nablus refugee camp

by ISM Nablus, November 15th

At 2.30 yesterday morning (the 14th), Israeli forces entered ‘Ein Beit El Ma refugee camp just North of Nablus city center, randomly shooting teargas and live ammunition into the camp as they entered. During the invasion, five people were lightly injured, including a 14-year old girl who was shot in the leg while standing in her hallway.

Israeli snipers took up strategic positions on Palestinian roofs and top-floors, evicting families as they did so. Awoken at gunpoint, men, women and children were forced out of their beds and made to sleep in hallways and storage rooms. One woman and her daughter were startled by a concussion grenade thrown outside their window and, unable to go back to sleep, moved into the living-room. Ten minutes later, 12 soldiers crawled through a large hole in the wall, knocking a heavy wardrobe onto the bed where the two women had been sleeping only moments before. Sledgehammer in hand, the first soldier to enter the home ordered the women to get into the kitchen and locked the door. They were released six hours later.

At least 20 homes were occupied by the Israeli military this morning. One distraught grandmother asked international solidarity workers to check on her three-year old grandson who was being held by Israeli soldiers on the top floor together with his mother and older siblings. After some negotiation, the soldiers left the house, leaving a scene of devastation in their wake that is sadly mirrored in every other neighbouring home. Bullet holes riddle walls and furniture, piles of rubble and shredded martyr posters lie in the alleyways below, children’s bedrooms are overturned.

Brown footprints from army issue boots stain mattresses, shards of glass hang from broken window frames, and grave children’s faces wander around on tired legs, looking up at their parents almost manically cleaning up the reminders of the invasion. Reclaiming some small sense of normality.

Earlier in the morning, a 26-year old PFLP resistance fighter, Baha, was shot in the waist by an Israeli sniper. Denied access to medical assistance, he bled to death an hour later. His mother was accompanied through the camp by solidarity workers in order to be able to say goodbye to her son in peace before the funeral procession. He lay on a mattress among his relatives, his jaw tied up with a bandage and with a determined but calm look on his face, younger than his years. His mother sat beside his head for a long while, stroking his hair and his folded arms, reminding him of something funny he had said last week and beating her cheeks in grief.

Meanwhile, two teenage Palestinian Medical Relief Society volunteers were abducted from where they stood on the outskirts of the camp by Israeli soldiers. They were blindfolded, handcuffed and bundled into a jeep, where they were held until solidarity workers were able to put enough pressure on the Israeli forces to release the volunteers. Six other men were detained inside the camp but released a couple of hours later.

The Israeli forces left the camp at about 11.00am. With teargas still lingering in the air, people stormed out onto the streets to inspect the damage. At least 5 cars had been crushed, dumped upside down or thrown into ditches by bulldozers and the sidewalks were crumbling.

Teary-eyed women and men marched through Nablus behind the stretcher carrying Baha’s body, loudspeakers blaring out a beautiful duet about a mother who loses her son to the struggle. Yet even without music, the solidarity and genuine grief exhibited by neighbours toward one another in the camp is touching and impressive.

As Hassan Ali Khatib, father of six, said “I do not need to take words from outside, or add anything to my story. I speak from my heart and that is enough. The truth here is plain for anyone with eyes to see it.” He had spent the entire night stuck on the far side of “Sabatash” checkpoint, worrying about his children and wife as he received more and more worrying reports from friends in the camp. Sitting on the couch with his youngest daughter beside him he looks up, suddenly optimistic, and starts talking about football. And so everyday life jump starts into action yet again.

See also this eyewitness account of the same events by the Guardian’s Conal Urquhart.