26th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ofer, occupied West Bank
On 25th March 2016, Israeli forces at Ofer military prison injured 8 Palestinians with various kinds of weapons, and later on attacked the nearby village of Beitunia, injuring even more.
A demonstration against the Israeli military occupation and for the freedom of the prisoners held in Ofer military prison – often in so called ‘administrative detention’ where the accused can not even expect to be charged or have a trial – was violently attacked by Israeli forces. They shot endless rounds of tear gas at protestors, as well as rubber coated metal bullets which injured 8 Palestinians. Additionally, Israeli forces used a new kind of stun grenade and fired live ammunition, including 0.22 caliber bullets, directly at protestors. 5 Palestinian protestors were arrested by the army and taken to an unknown destination.
Demonstrators run from tear gas
Later the same day, Israeli forces attacked the nearby village of Beitunia, where the army again used an excessive amount of stun grenades, rubber-coated metal bullets, live ammunition and showered the village in tear gas. During this assault, 5 more people sustained injuries from rubber-coated metal bullets. In total 13 Palestinians were injured, including one in the head and one in the chest with rubber-coated metal bullets.
Israeli forces regularly use excessive force and injure protestors in demonstrations against the illegal settlements and Israeli occupation throughout the West Bank.
25th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ni’lin, occupied West Bank
On Friday 25th March, Palestinians, Israeli activists and foreign activists alike took part in the weekly demonstration to oppose the apartheid wall that surrounds the town of Ni’lin and has taken much of the villages land. The demonstration which started peacefully was cut short by large amounts of tear gas being fired upon the demonstrators, along with sponge bullets and rubber coated metal bullets; the standard excessive force that is always used by the Israeli army.
Peaceful demonstrators marching forward
The demonstration began after noon prayer, with the crowd walking along the local roads, chanting songs of defiance. Within minutes the first rounds of tear gas were fired by the Israeli army who had made their way deep into the Palestinian territory. The first shots were fired high into the sky, landing in front and around the demonstrators, this caused slight pandemonium and the demonstrators were forced to fall back. As the protestors were running, seeking clear air to breath amidst the heavy plumes of tear gas, the army began firing their frequently used and at times deadly high velocity tear gas canisters. These canisters were not fired in the arching fashion in which they should be, instead being fired directly at disbursing activists from all sides. The canister being used are the same type as the ones responsible for the serious wounding of fellow ISM activist Tristan Anderson in Ni’lin who suffered cognitive disfunction and physical injuries after he was shot by the Israeli forces from close range.
The Israeli forces and peaceful protestersAn activist and a medic amidst heavy clouds of tear gas
As demonstrators continued to pull back the Israeli forces continued to fire directly at the crowds rather than upwards, choosing to ignore the correct protocol for use of this deadly weapon. From this point on, some of the local Palestinian youths began to throw stones which prompted Israeli army to begin using sponge and rubber coated steel bullets.
A red crescent medic shows the lethal tear gas canisters that are being used
As the activists were driven back, the only remaining resistance was the stone throwing children. While soldiers on the front line fired upon them a different section of the army began systematically firing high velocity tear gas canisters into the surrounding homes of the area.
Two ISM activists at the demonstration were driven into one of the nearby homes amidst the aggression and counted seven tear gas canisters land inside the families property. The Red Crescent ambulance service was also required to evacuate and treat another two Palestinian families due to heavy tear gas inhalation inside their families residencies.
The move by the Israeli army to fire on the houses of the local towns people is a strategy to create decent amidst activists and the locals, hoping that they will end the demonstrations via a certain style of collective punishment.
One Palestinian was treated for injuries sustained from being shot with a rubber coated steel bullet while seven people, including women and children were treated for severe tear gas inhalation whilst inside their family homes.
24th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied West Bank
On the morning of the 24th of March, around 8:30 am, two Palestinian youths, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, 21 years old, and Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21 years old, were shot to death by Israeli forces after an alleged stabbing attempt in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida. Tel Rumeida is also home to a large number of often violent, illegal Israeli settlers. Since the 1st November 2015, the area itself has been deemed a ‘closed military zone’ by the Israeli army which makes documenting what happens inside the area extremely difficult for anyone other than the Israeli military.
The two slain Palestinian men (photo credit maanimages)
Around 8:30 am, six gunshots were heard reverberating from the walls of the nearby buildings. Shortly after hearing the shots it was confirmed that two Palestinian youth had been shot by the occupying Israeli army near the illegal settlement of Tel Rumeida. The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was prevented from reaching the two men to offer medical assistance while the slightly injured soldier was seen to by Israeli medics immediately, while the Palestinian youths were left lying on the ground struggling for their lives. The denial of medical aid to Palestinians is a systematic breach of the concept of triage, that requires medics to treat the most urgent cases first.
Israeli forces treat the wounded soldier
Palestinians and international human rights activists were prevented from getting close to the scene while illegal Israeli settlers including the notoriously renowned ambulance driver Ofer, were allowed to walk freely around the two victims, heavily armed and filming from their mobile devices.
The notorious settler Ofer, who runs his own youtube channel depicting the shootings of Palestinians and who also drives an Israeli ambulance, who is not a medic and has never been seen administering first aid to any of the Palestinian victims, instead filming, laughing with soldiers and directing soldiers as to what they should be doing (even though he is in no way part of the military) was one of the first on the scene today.
Ofer in the blue shirt seen filming after the point blank execution of one of the Palestinians
An eyewitness to the shootings reported that as one of the Palestinian men lay dying on the ground, he moved and this prompted the response of one of the illegal settlers on the scene to instruct a soldier to shoot him – a request the soldier followed by shooting him in the head at point blank range. As can be seen in this video, the Palestinian man is disarmed and not posing a threat to anyone – thus making his cold-blooded murder an extrajudicial execution.
*** WARNING, the following video contains extremely graphic material. A soldier is seen executing one of the Palestinian men at 1:52 *** Video-credit: Imad Abu Shamsiya
Given the impunity that the Israeli army receives from their government regarding the killing of Palestinians, it is doubtful that charges or even an investigation will be forthcoming.
The actions taken by the Israeli army in nearly all cases of reported stabbing attempts bring into question the excessive use of force that is frequently used on Palestinians, the use of force that is not only deemed acceptable by the Israeli government and military but encouraged. With the military training that soldiers are given, one would think that the soldier would be capable of disabling the attacker rather than shooting to kill.
The knife that was found, bearing no blood
With in the last two weeks, five additional Palestinian men from the city of Hebron have also been killed by the occupying forces.
On the 14th of March, Qasem Farid Jaber (31 years old) and Ameer Fuad al-Junaidi (22 years old) were killed by Israeli Forces after allegedly opening fire towards the soldiers in the area near the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba. No evidence of this has been found and no soldiers were injured. Approximately half an hour after the slaughtering of the two young men, 18-year-old Yousif Walid Tarayra was shot to death by Israeli forces after allegedly driving forcefully toward the soldiers in his car and hitting three of them. No soldiers were reported injured.
On the 18th of March, 21-year old Mahmoud Ahmad Abu Fanunah from Hebron was killed at the Gush Etzion junction 17 kilometers from Hebron. He stepped out of his car near the junction and was shot immediately in what soldiers described as “foiling” the alleged attack. No knife was found at the scene of the murder.
On the 19th of March, 18-year-old Abdullah Muhammad al-Ajloini was shot and left to bleed to death at Queitun Checkpoint in Hebron. Witnesses said that the soldiers “showered” al-Ajlouni with bullets, adding that Israeli forces had closed all entrances to the Ibrahimi mosque in the old city of Hebron following the attack.
With condemnation coming from the global allies of Israel against Palestinians committing knife attacks, why does the international community care not to investigate the circumstances as to why in nearly all cases the Palestinian is critically wounded and predominantly left to die without medical treatment being offered? It appears that medical treatment is yet another human right denied to the Palestinians living life under occupation.
16th March 2016 | Rachel Corrie Foundation | Gaza, occupied Palestine
February 27 2003
(To her mother)
Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again – a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here. Yesterday, I watched a father lead his two tiny children, holding his hands, out into the sight of tanks and a sniper tower and bulldozers and Jeeps because he thought his house was going to be exploded. Jenny and I stayed in the house with several women and two small babies. It was our mistake in translation that caused him to think it was his house that was being exploded. In fact, the Israeli army was in the process of detonating an explosive in the ground nearby – one that appears to have been planted by Palestinian resistance.
This is in the area where Sunday about 150 men were rounded up and contained outside the settlement with gunfire over their heads and around them, while tanks and bulldozers destroyed 25 greenhouses – the livelihoods for 300 people. The explosive was right in front of the greenhouses – right in the point of entry for tanks that might come back again. I was terrified to think that this man felt it was less of a risk to walk out in view of the tanks with his kids than to stay in his house. I was really scared that they were all going to be shot and I tried to stand between them and the tank. This happens every day, but just this father walking out with his two little kids just looking very sad, just happened to get my attention more at this particular moment, probably because I felt it was our translation problems that made him leave.
I thought a lot about what you said on the phone about Palestinian violence not helping the situation. Sixty thousand workers from Rafah worked in Israel two years ago. Now only 600 can go to Israel for jobs. Of these 600, many have moved, because the three checkpoints between here and Ashkelon (the closest city in Israel) make what used to be a 40-minute drive, now a 12-hour or impassible journey. In addition, what Rafah identified in 1999 as sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed – the Gaza international airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a giant Israeli sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years by a checkpoint and the Gush Katif settlement). The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around 600, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. I think it is maybe official now that Rafah is the poorest place in the world. There used to be a middle class here – recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people’s vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can’t.
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours – do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? I think about this especially when I see orchards and greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed – just years of care and cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a labour of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.
You asked me about non-violent resistance.
When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family’s house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I’m having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can’t believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be. I felt after talking to you that maybe you didn’t completely believe me. I think it’s actually good if you don’t, because I do believe pretty much above all else in the importance of independent critical thinking. And I also realise that with you I’m much less careful than usual about trying to source every assertion that I make. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. But it makes me worry about the job I’m doing. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above – and a lot of other things – constitutes a somewhat gradual – often hidden, but nevertheless massive – removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive. This is what I am seeing here. The assassinations, rocket attacks and shooting of children are atrocities – but in focusing on them I’m terrified of missing their context. The vast majority of people here – even if they had the economic means to escape, even if they actually wanted to give up resisting on their land and just leave (which appears to be maybe the less nefarious of Sharon’s possible goals), can’t leave. Because they can’t even get into Israel to apply for visas, and because their destination countries won’t let them in (both our country and Arab countries). So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can’t get out of, I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. I don’t remember it right now. I’m going to get better at illustrating this, hopefully. I don’t like to use those charged words. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.
Anyway, I’m rambling. Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not what I meant when I looked at Capital Lake and said: “This is the wide world and I’m coming to it.” I did not mean that I was coming into a world where I could live a comfortable life and possibly, with no effort at all, exist in complete unawareness of my participation in genocide. More big explosions somewhere in the distance outside.
When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I’ve ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.
I love you and Dad. Sorry for the diatribe. OK, some strange men next to me just gave me some peas, so I need to eat and thank them.
15th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza, occupied Palestine
Today marks the thirteenth anniversary since the passing of fellow ISM activist Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003). Rachel was tragically crushed to death under the front blade of an Israeli military, American funded, Caterpillar D9R bulldozer near Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Rachel died whilst placing herself in the path of the military bulldozer to protect the family and their home that the bulldozer was on route for and due to be demolished. Rachel’s death created a global outcry towards the Israeli military’s actions and prompted an international investigation under the contested circumstances in which she died during the height of the second intifada.
Rachel Corrie
Rachel had come to Gaza during part of her senior-year college assignment that connected her home town with Rafah in a sister cities project. Whilst in Palestine, Rachel had engaged with other International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists in efforts to prevent the Israeli army’s continued demolition of Palestinian homes in operations that the Israeli military claims were aimed at eliminating weapons smuggling tunnels.
Less than two months after Rachel had arrived into Palestine, on March 16, 2003, Corrie was killed. Her death came during an Israeli military operation after a three-hour peaceful demonstration between occupying Israeli forces operating two armoured bulldozers and eight ISM activists.
Rachel Corrie after being crushed
The exact nature of her death and the culpability of the bulldozer operator have since been disputed largely through extended judicial proceedings, with fellow ISM protestors that were at the scene saying that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran over Corrie, and Israeli eyewitnesses saying that it was an accident since the bulldozer operator could not see her.
Joe Carr, an American ISM activist who used the assumed name of Joseph Smith during his time in Gaza, gave the following account: “Still wearing her fluorescent jacket, she knelt down at least 15 meters in front of the bulldozer, and began waving her arms and shouting, just as activists had successfully done dozens of times that day…. When it got so close that it was moving the earth beneath her, she climbed onto the pile of rubble being pushed by the bulldozer…. Her head and upper torso were above the bulldozer’s blade, and the bulldozer operator and co-operator could clearly see her. Despite this, the operator continued forward, which caused her to fall back, out of view of the driver. He continued forward, and she tried to scoot back, but was quickly pulled underneath the bulldozer. We ran towards him, and waved our arms and shouted; one activist with the megaphone. But the bulldozer operator continued forward, until Corrie was all the way underneath the central section of the bulldozer. “
A Caterpillar D9R bulldozer
Corrie’s father, Craig Corrie has said “I know there’s stuff you can’t see out of the double glass windows.” But he has denied that as a valid excuse, saying “you’re responsible for knowing what’s in front of your blade… It’s a no brainer that this was gross negligence”. He added that “they had three months to figure out how to deal with the activists that were there.”
The report on the autopsy findings that were initially denied to the public by Israel were later revealed by the Human Rights Watch, who say a copy was provided to them by Craig Corrie, along with a translation provided by the U.S. Department of State. In the report they quote Professor Yehuda Hiss, who performed the autopsy, as concluding, “Her death was caused by pressure on the chest (mechanical asphyxiation) with fractures of the ribs and vertebrae of the dorsal spinal column and scapulas, and tear wounds in the right lung with haemorrhaging of the pleural cavities.”
The Israeli army conducted an investigation into Corrie’s death, which concluded that her death was an accident, and that the driver of the bulldozer could not see Corrie due to limited visibility from his cab. Many have criticised the investigation as bogus and are outraged at the level of direct negligence displayed by the driver and the impunity that the Israeli army receives under Israeli law.
Corrie’s family has been involved in ongoing legal battles through the Israeli supreme court in an attempt to attain justice for Rachel.
Following extended trials in an attempt to attain justice for their daughter, the Corrie family lost their latest appeal in the Israeli Supreme Court on the twelfth of February, 2015, exempting the Israeli defense ministry from liability for actions by its forces that it deemed to be “wartime activity,” but wrongly refused to assess whether those actions violated applicable laws of armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said.
A statement from the Corrie family on the twelfth of February, 2015 read, “Today we received word from our attorneys that the Supreme Court of Israel dismissed our appeal in the wrongful death case of our daughter and sister Rachel Corrie. Our family is disappointed but not surprised. We had hoped for a different outcome, though we have come to see through this experience how deeply all of Israel’s institutions are implicated in the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli military.”
Cindy and Craig Corrie
Human Rights Watch documented that in the primary stages of Rachel’s trial, Israeli investigators failed to call any Palestinian witnesses, threatened to indict other foreign volunteers who witnessed Corrie’s death while questioning them about the incident, and failed even to ask witnesses to draw a map of the area at the time of the incident. The initial military inquiry into her death even concluded that “no signs substantiate [the] assertion that Ms. Corrie was run over by a bulldozer,” a conclusion that the military later reversed.
Rachel’s death is an extremely sad and timely reminder of the callus acts of negligence and the immunity that the Israeli military receives under Israeli law. However, Corrie’s death is no way in vein nor is it forgotten. The spirit she displayed in her actions along with her will to take up the fight against injustice to those whom it is imposed upon by the zionist regime will forever be remembered.
Rachel Corrie
At the time of her death, Yaser Arafat, the first President of the Palestinian Authority, offered his condolences and gave the “blessings of the Palestinian people” to Corrie. The municipality of Ramallah in the West Bank dedicated a street to Rachel Corrie whilst a cafe in Al-Khalil/Hebron bears her name. Yearly demonstrations are held in the name of Rachel by Palestinians and by activists for human rights alike. The memory and the fight for justice displayed by Rachel will not be forgotten and will continue to be remembered by those fighting the war of injustice and human rights abuses that plague the Palestinian people to this day and onwards, until occupation is non existent and there is peace.
