Tag: ‘Price tag’ campaign - Page 2 - International Solidarity Movement

Eight children from Beit Ummar facing suspension from their village of residence

by Satu

26 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Eight children between the ages of 14 to 17 years old were arrested in Beit Ummar during night raids from 6th to 11th of March conducted by the Israeli occupation forces following a nonviolent solidarity demonstration for the hungerstriker Khader Adnan on the 21st of February.

On Tuesday 20th of March the youth went to court at the Israeli military court at Ofer and faced a sentence of being banned from Beit Ummar, where they live with their families, for a period of 6 months. The youth are being accused of throwing stones at Israeli military installations. The detainees are Ayesh Khalid Sabri Awad (17 years), Basil Khalid Hassan Abu Hashim (15 years), Zain Hisham Khalil Abu Maria (15 years) Sami Amer Ahmed Abo Joudeh (16 years), Emad Mohammed Saed Solaiby (16 years), Mohab Jawdat Adi (14 years), Bilal Mahmud Awad Ayyad (16 years), and Ahmed Ali Mahmoud Solaiby (16 years)

The announcement of the sentence aroused opposition on the part of family members of the accused, leading to removal of the family members from the court and adjournment until the 25th of March. Issa Solaiby, father of Ahmed, says his son was also beaten by 4 soldiers in the court.

Hisham Abu Maria, father of Zain , claims that the children are being pressured to agree to false accusations. He said, “They made him (Zain) say he threw rocks at the soldiers even though there were no soldiers” present at the time noted in the charges.

The village of Beit ummar has around 17000 inhabitants and is surrounded by illegal, Zionist settlements. According to Issa Solaiby a member of the local Popular Committee, Beit Ummar used to consist of 33 000 dunams of land. The building of the separation wall by Israel and a road that is closed off to Palestinians took 13 000 dunams of the village land.

Since then an additional 3000 dunams have been stolen by settlers living in illegal Israeli settlements. The inhabitants of Beit Ummar suffer from violence from the settlers living in the surrounding settlements. Issa Solaiby also complains that the settlers prevent the farmers from access to their own land and destroy olive trees and grape vines.

In March the settlers living in illegal Beit Ain settlement destroyed 14 olivetrees, 21 grape vine plants, and 2 citrus trees from the village in an act of incitement.

According to Issa the settlers also enter the village with soldiers and guns to make the villagers aware of their aggressive presence. One year ago 17-year-old Yousef Ikhlayl was shot and killed by Israeli settlers as he was farming with his father. His killers remain unpunished.

Many of the villagers have been arrested and gone to jail. Imprisonment is a problem especially with young people. According to Muhannad Abu Awwad 10,000 villagers have gone to jail and at present 30 inhabitants, most of them under 16, are serving time in Israeli occupation prisoners.

Muhannad himself went to jail for two years from the age 21 until 23 and is now studying law.

Satu is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

A family’s nightmare: Beaten and kidnapped by illegal settlers near Qadumim as Israeli military facilitates the crime

by Jonas Weber

23 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A family of four was kidnapped by settlers on Thursday afternoon while having a picnic close by an outpost near Qadumim. When soldiers arrived at the scene they chased away the relatives of the kidnapped family with tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets alongside settlers throwing stones.

It was around 4.30 pm on Thursday that the El Seddi family, who were eating almonds on their families land in the outskirts of Jit, east of Nablus, was kidnapped by a gang of settlers. The settlers approached the family on four wheelers in a group of about ten young men with their shirts wrapped around their heads to conceal their faces.

The family was dragged down the valley by the settlers who were armed with big sticks, and forcing the mother to say to their children that “this land does not belong to us.”

The youngest of the children, only 2 years old, took no notice of this and blatantly told the settlers what he thought of them in response. The father, Samer received many blows during the descent into the valley, and the day after his face was swollen and patched up.

The little three-year old girl also sustained wounds on her legs, and the mother says that she was constantly being pushed around and taunted by the settlers while carrying her children.

After about half an hour Samer’s father Ibrahim and two of his brothers became worried for the family and went to look for them. As they climbed a hilltop adjacent to the settlement they saw how the family was being dragged up the hill towards the settlement.

” They have an old dried out water well by the outpost, we think their plan was to throw the family in there,” said Ibrahim Jamil Khader, who hides a black eye behind a pair of big shades.

When the settlers realized they had been discovered they momentarily released the family who started running towards their relatives on the adjacent hill. Right behind them 25-30 settlers followed. When the family reached the top of the hill adjacent to the settlement, Israeli soldiers had arrived at the scene.

It soon became obvious however that they had not come to apprehend the kidnappers. Instead Samer’s father and brothers had to stall the soldiers and settlers while the family made their way back towards the village.

“As I was talking to the soldiers one of the settlers jumped out in front of them and punched me in the face. I asked the soldiers why
isn’t he here to care about our lives and he answered that ‘We can’t fight these people, they are dogs.'”

The three men were chased off by the soldiers shooting tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets as well as the settlers who threw stones. There have been problems with the settlers before but something like this has never happened.

“No one was prepared for this, says Ibrahim. The children are mentally exhausted, and we are afraid that they will be traumatized by this.”

The military has a different view on what happened that day.

“The official story is that the family was lost in the hills and that the settlers helped them find their way back. They are so full of lies,” says Ibrahim.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Mapping a pattern of Israeli violence in Burin

13 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The pattern of settler and military invasion of Burin, a village near Nablus, is what locals and internationals are mapping to brace themselves for more property damage, violence, and threats by nearby illegal settlements and hardcore adherents to the volatile “Price Tag Campaign.”

If the pattern continues, the next attack will be settlers, according to local ISM coordinator, Lydia. “Within a few days after that, Burin should be due a visit from the soldiers.”

According to notes and statistics prepared by Lydia, a British volunteer stationed in Burin, it is predicted that soldiers will enter the village with approximately 8 to 12 jeeps, which has been the range of jeeps the military bring to raid the village in a three week span. This comes following today’s settler attack and military incursion into the village, which resulted in the confirmed arrest of two 16-year-old boys. Lydia has been barred from entering the village at times when ISM has been notified of these attacks through the use of a makeshift checkpoint, and she notes that the same did happen today at the entrance of Burin. Typically military remains present for around 4 hours, which has been a consistent amount of time stayed during each of these invasions.

The time of an Israeli attack cannot be predicted since they have been so random, adding to the psychological games that the Israeli military enjoys playing to keep the villagers vulnerable. The residents of Burin know it is always coming, but when is the mystery.

Ghassan Najjar, Director of the Bilal Najjar Youth Center, named after the martyr, stated that despite the patterns, “We know in the village that from 9 PM until the early morning that the village is no longer ours, it is the military playground.”

The military uses tear gas and sound bombs frequently, using these during both attacks and when the military uses Burin as a venue for military training. Ghassan Najjar, awoken by these activities notes that soldiers have stated, “Don’t worry, we are only training, go back to sleep.” They are on roofs, shooting gas at no one, and throwing sound bombs near peoples houses and even raiding houses during these drills.

When the settlers and soldiers are together and enter Burin, the illegal settlers remain in the village fields and hills, never entering the heart of the village. Yet the Israeli military will advance to protect these settlers, with the weapons they train with and even live ammunition to disperse peaceful protesters.

The settlers have all come from the same direction, from the stolen land now referred to as a settlement named Bracha. They have come in numbers between 10 and 25 and they come armed, weapons ranging from handguns to M-16s.

These three attacks have been focused on the Sofan household. They are not new to the suffering, having had their house set on fire twice. The second arson attack resulted in the death of Atallah Sofan, husband of Hanan Sofan who currently lives in their home. Her husband died after he had a heart attack due to the sight of his home in flames. They have had their chickens, sheep, horse and donkey killed and their house stoned and paint bombed.

“Our house is the only thing stopping the settlers from taking this area,” said Sofan.

The nearby settlement of Yitzhar is home to some of the most violent Price Tag Campaign settlers

This is what happened on the latest occasions; bottles and stones were thrown at their home and their sheep were also under attack. As usual, the youth of Burin came down to protect their land by throwing stones. On March 9th this was soon met by Israeli soldiers who protected the settlers, contrary to what they claimed about wanting to provide security for the Palestinian residents. There were clashes between all three parties, which is typical for Burin, each time lasting between 30 to 90 minutes.

While patterns in the behavior of illegal and violent settlers are being mapped, and the relationship between the occupying forces and these rogue bands of settler gangs becomes clearer, the pattern itself does not change the inability of Palestinians to prepare for Israeli violence.

“Although patterns are made, the [Israelis] also can come whenever they like and do whatever they like,” said Lydia. “For me all I can do is document. Even if clearer patterns are made, what can the Palestinians do, leave their houses for those hours? If they do begin to leave, the soldiers win as people change the way they live to avoid the army.”

Israeli flags hanged in Yanoun are a reminder of Itamar settler violence

by Ramon Garcia

7 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The illegal settlement of Itamar, constructed illegally on the land of Aqraba, Awarta, and Beit Furik, has taken a provocative step of incitement in the village of Yanoun, from which Zionists have also stolen land. On 7 March 2o12 illegal settlers entered the village of Yanoun and rose the flag of Israel over the home of village elder Abu Muhmad al Ajoori, who resides in the lower part of the village. Another flag was suspended over a water reservoir in the upper part of the village. The settlers were then seen by locals, wandering off into the hills.

Yousef Deria, a local activist against the wall and settlements, said locals contacted him following the incident, avoiding any conflict with the settlers who tend to have violent tendencies against Palestinians through their declared “Price Tag Campaign” which violently targets Palestinian villagers.

Deria was accompanied by peace activists and locals as they removed these flags.

Residents of Yanoun have suffered many years of terrifying violence at the hands of Itamar settlers – the murder of villagers, slaughter of their livestock, desecration of crops, property destruction and daily invasions and intimidation by armed settlers. The increasing brutality climaxed in 2002, as settlers rampaged the village, cutting down over 1000 olive trees, killing dozens of sheep, beating Palestinians in their homes with rifle butts, and gouging out one man’s eye. Unable to stand the fear – and indeed reality – of terrorism any longer, the entire village evacuated at the time, mostly families fleeing to the nearby village of Aqraba.

An international and Israeli activist campaign was launched immediately to allow the residents of Yanoun to return to their lands. A permanent international presence was established in the village by EAPPI which has assisted in encouraging people of Yanoun to return home, and has remained instrumental in what little peace of mind the people of Yanoun have salvaged since they were uprooted from their land. One by one, they boldly returned.

Over the 2002-06 period the entirety of the village’s families eventually came back to their homes and attempted to start their life in the shadow of Itamar’s ever-increasing outposts that dot the hills surrounding the village. Approximately 100 people remain in the village – 40 in “lower Yanoun” in the valley, and 60 in “upper Yanoun”, whose houses ascend the hill to where just a few hundred meters away lie dozens of settlement houses and agricultural complexes.

Although the entire village is located in Area C – under full Israeli civilian and military control – and stands at risk of being slated for demolition, residents believe that the settlement’s – and Israeli government’s – strategy is what may already be underway – a gradual exodus of families and individuals as they are confined to an ever-shrinking amount of land, engulfed by the expanding settlement and its violent inhabitants.

There are some who remain though, who are determined to stay – many families steadfastly refusing to relinquish the connection to the land that is rightfully theirs. The very existence of Yanoun today bespeaks its fighting spirit, one that will hopefully continue despite the collective punishment waged on the village.

Settler violence rages in Nablus area

by Jonas Weber

29 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Yesterday, violence erupted close to Joseph’s Tomb when settlers gathered near the site. Youths from Balata refuge camp came out to chase the settlers off but where kept at a distance by the soldiers that accompanied the illegal settlers as usual. This is the second time this month that violence occurred due to settlers visiting Joseph’s Tomb.

In the nearby village of Burin, dozens of settlers from the illegal settlement Yitzhar attacked the house of Umm Ayman Sufan by throwing rocks and bottles. The olive trees surrounding Sufan’s home on the southern edge of the village were also cut down.

Meanwhile, another attack on Burin from the illegal settlement of Bracha was reported by the Palestinian Authorities.

“Recently we have noticed that young settlers are hanging out with soldiers at the checkpoints, and we know that they receive training in handling fire arms from the age of 15 under the cloak of self defense,” says Ghassan Daghlas. “Why do they need to learn about fire arms for self defense when they have an entire occupational army protecting them?”

Yitzhar is considered to be home to some of the most militant Zionist settlers of the West Bank, and Palestinians from nearby villages claim that settlers from Yitzhar coordinate attacks against Palestinian villagers with other settlements. The illegal settlement Yeshiva has been suspected by the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet to be teaching racist and violent ideologies to their students.

The Yeshiva leaders Rabbi Yitzhak Ginzburg and Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira have many times been at the center of controversies surrounding their statements about non Jewish people. Shapiras organization Od Yosef Hai, which includes various grades of educational institutions and publishing, up until recently received extensive funding from the Israeli Education Ministry. In November 2011 both Ginzburg’s and Shapira’s institutions were closed down by the Education Ministry due to information about the participation of students and teachers in attacks on Palestinians and Israeli military forces.

Since these institutions were closed the settler violence from Yitzhar has increased according to Ghassan Daghlas. After all, Yitzhar was the settlement to first take the so called “price tag” tactic into practice. The price tag tactic means to target Palestinian civilians or property in order to get revenge for actions from the Israeli military or government to curb settlement activity, perceived as unjust by the illegal settlers.

Generally the settler attacks increase during the summer when the weather is warmer according to Ghassan Douglas. They also change character with the weather

“In the summer everything is dry and they tend to burn crops and trees, when it’s colder and damper they move on to burn mosques and cars,” he says.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).