Improvised checkpoint by border police at the entrance to Isawiya
August 1 | International Solidarity Movement | Isawiya, East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine
For the past two months, Isawiya, a Palestinian neighbourhood of 17,000 in East Jerusalem, has been under a constant state of siege by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Tactics used by the IOF include nightly raids, arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, as well as increasingly inhumane and bizarre actions such as the interrogation of toddlers and holding the body of an unarmed 20 year old killed by Israeli Border Police.
Palestinians have lived in Isawiya since the 1500s, as shown by Ottoman records, but has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Today, the Occupation continues in many forms, particularly through police raids and harassment day and night. Palestinians in Isawiya are interrogated, fined, and arrested on a near daily basis, regardless of age. Residents told ISM a man was fined 500 NIS for throwing a cigarette butt on the ground, while another villager fined 1,000 NIS because his motorcycle exhaust was “too loud”. On July 30th, a 4 year old child was summoned for interrogation on charges of throwing a rock at a police car, and less than 24 hours later, a 5 year old boy was summoned for interrogation for throwing a juice carton on the street. Under Israeli military law, it is illegal to detain a child under 12 years old.
11 year old injured by police who pinned him to the ground
Palestinian activists, as well as international and Israeli activists have been working to document and raise awareness of the ongoing police intimidation, harassment, and violence against the residents of Isawiya, who have continued to non-violently oppose the Occupation while struggling to carry on their work and daily lives in spite of the brutality around them.
July 25 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Abu Dis, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of the 25th of July Huzaifa Bader, 27, was rushed to Ramleh Prison Hospital in the occupied West Bank after he had been on hunger strike for 25 days. With his health deteriorating and with no sign of progress in his legal battle, his family don’t know how much longer he can cope. It may be a matter of hours.
Huzaifa Bader, 27
Huzaifa began his hunger strike at the start of July having spent just over 13 months in administrative detention. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have held him without charge, extended his detention arbitrarily and held him in solitary confinement.
Huzaifa, who became a father while in prison is still waiting to see his daughter, Majdal, who is now 6 months old. His family told us that with every extension of his detention he has become more and more desperate to hold her for the first time.
Bader’s six-month old daughter who has never met her father
The situation has only been made all the more unbearable for Huzaifa because of his medical condition. A childhood accident left him with burns on almost 90% of his body and he has required specialist medical treatment ever since. During the period of his detention, Israel has not only denied him any kind of justice (or even anything resembling due process) but has gone as far as to deny him the medical treatment he needs. His brother, Musaab, told ISM, ‘we wish to see him back with his family to enjoy a normal life and to come back and receive the medical treatment he needs’.
With the situation becoming more desperate for him and his family, Huzaifa took the decision to go on hunger strike at the beginning of the month and now 25 days in he is fighting for his life. His father appealed to all the human rights organisations to take notice of the appalling case of his son, saying ‘Huzaifa is strong and will keep fighting for his rights’.
The whole town of Abu Dis has been showing its support for his hunger strike and the 40 or so other prisoners from Abu Dis held by the Israeli Occupation. A protest tent was set up by his wife and his parents and has been visited by the people of Abu Dis every single night that the huger strike has gone on. Even his six month old daughter, who now faces the prospect of never meeting her father, has attended.
Demonstrators sit in the solidarity tent erected in Abu Dis
After hearing his news, his family, supporters and the people of Abu Dis have taken to the streets again while Huzaifa is fighting for justice, and his life. His family told this morning that IOF still have not let his lawyer see him.
The Week of action started rocking the Eurovision boat before it began. The international media reported on the campaign announcement: “Pro-Palestinian activists have urged supporters to “join us in disrupting Israel’s latest PR stunt” and to participate in a ‘Week of Action Against Eurovision in Tel Aviv’. The Israeli authorities were quick to state that it would not allow the activists in. The activists were prepared to remain in Israeli custody if they were denied and thus highlighting Israel’s policy of denial of access to Palestinians, their family members and human rights defenders to Palestine. But, we managed to enter!
While preparations for the international contest where underway Israel committed yet another massacre against the besieged population of the Gaza strip. Bombing the densely populated strip from the air, tanks and gun boats, Israeli soldiers killed to 25 including a family – mother, father and 4-month old baby, and two pregnant women and a twelve year old child. On May 5th, with bombs still raining on Gaza, Eurovision events and the protests against them began. Activists descended on Tel Aviv, postering pictures of slain Palestinians in the city centre, graffitiing slogans and opening a banner calling to Liberate the Gaza ghetto at a Eurovision event.
From the day that the Eurovision opened on the 15th of May we were thereBlindfolded and handcuffed at the Eurovision in Tel Aviv to remind the participants of the stolen lives of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons. We projected images of the occupation taken by activestills, during one Eurovision party and held a die-in at another in solidarity with the Palestinian Great march of Return. And hung posters at the venue to bring the faces of the children murdered in Gaza to these parties were held on the beach the land of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of Manshiya in solidarity with the great march of return. At the semi final and ISM activists unfurled a banner inside the venue that read “We dare to dream an end of Apartheid”
We also brought our banners and joined forces with Israeli Anti Zionists at their protests on the 14th at the Eurovision finals on the 18th and highlighted the alternative events organised by our Palestinian comrades across Palestine in Haifa, Gaza, and Bethlehem as part of the International “Global vision.”
18th March 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Occupied Palestine
Two years ago Dima al-Wawi woke up for school feeling sick. Her throat hurt and her lymph nodes were swollen. Her parents were already out of the house, on their land that is split in two by the illegal settlement Karmi Zur in Halhul outside of al Khalil / Hebron.
Dima al-Wawi, present day, in her room in Halhul
Dima’s parents have faced many problems with settlers from this illegal settlement who tried ceaselessly to prevent them from entering their land through the main checkpoint. They took their case to Israeli court and miraculously won access through the checkpoint to both sides of their land sandwiched between the illegal settlement on the East and West side of the Al Wawi’s land. The family remained cautious due to settler harassment and thought that only the adults of the family should enter through the checkpoint as violence is always inevitable.
Dima, 12-years-old at the time, didn’t think so cautiously that morning innocently wanting her mother to take her to the doctor. This day would be the first time she attempted going through the checkpoint onto her own family’s land.
Immediately Israeli soldiers and border police accosted her, blindfolding and handcuffing her behind the back (an action deemed illegal under international law). At 8 a.m., the soldiers shoved her to the ground and commenced beating her and kicked her in the back. Dima was then taken to the police station in Kiryat Arba, another illegal settlement in al Khalil/Hebron.
12-year-old Dima on the day of her arrest
Scared, confused and traumatized, Dima remained calm thinking she would be released that evening since she had done nothing criminal. Through several hours of questioning, her interrogators never asked her if she would like to phone a lawyer. Since the subject of a lawyer never came up, she didn’t know to ask for one unaware of her rights. In the end, she was given a four-month sentence and carted off to notorious Hasharone Prison in between Haifa & Tel Aviv on the charges of carrying a knife. It is worth noting that this act is also illegal under international law to transfer an occupied person from the West Bank into Israel.
Dima with her sisters and mother in their home in Halhul
The al-Wawi family is cheerful and welcoming beyond belief. Meeting the whole clan two years later, one would not think such intense trauma existed within their home. Dima’s disappearance and arrest caused the family many sleepless nights. All of them applied for permits to visit her in prison and only her mother was granted access and only twice.
Dima with her parents on the day of her release 24 April, 2016
Two and a half months passed and Dima was released early with an 8000 NIS bail. Her memories of prison are brief, recalling her many mother figures, the cold iron cells and falling out of the top bunk bed once. She still wakes from nightmares of prison guards counting her endlessly. The media attention surrounding her case was vast, as the Israeli occupation forces falsely claimed Dima carried a knife to the checkpoint with violent intentions. The family resents this cover-up story as well as the amount of media attention, claiming it makes their family vulnerable to settler harassment in the future.
Dima’s personality is fiery, friendly and cunning. It seems she has room for one emotion at a time; she catches everyone’s attention in any given room. Now Dima is 14-years-old, a grounded young woman despite the knowledge that she could be sentenced to five years in prison if she has another incident with occupation forces.
The Karmei Tzur checkpoint is a constant source of violence against Palestinians, not only to 12-year-old girls but also to many teenage boys. Just last month, a 19-year-old was martyred there leaving his family in complete disarray. After leaving Dima’s, we visited the Zamara family just three weeks after their son entered the illegal settlement with a knife and was fatally shot and beaten as a result.
Hamza Yousef Zamara served two sentences in Israeli prisons before his fateful and early end. First in 2014, 16-years-old he spent one week in prison, released on a 3000 NIS bail. Second time, also 2014, this time for 14 months. 45 days of this sentence was spent in intensive torture, Hamza came out a different person, a changed man.
His weeping mother, dressed in black, described his personality after incarceration as withdrawn and psychologically damaged. Hamza’s health was in steady decline and he was severely underweight. His experience and trauma brought him to seek revenge against the Israeli occupation by way of bringing a knife to the checkpoint. According to Israeli sources, Hamza “very lightly wounded the guard in a stabbing attack in Karmie Tzur.” His attempt at violence was met with severe beating, stabbing and four shots fired fatally killing him.
It is custom in the Islamic religion to bury a body within 24 hours of death. However, Hamza’s body was held by Israel out of spite for 10 days in the freezer. When finally released, Israeli soldiers invaded the family’s home interrogating his family, detaining his father, Yousef Zamara, and deeming Hamza a terrorist directly to his family. Israeli forces also threatened the family “that they would pay for [Hamza’s] actions.”
Sadness cannot begin to describe the collective emotion of his family and friends. All dressed in mourning, Hamza’s photograph was quietly passed around and tightly clutched by his loved ones. His mother, Arwa Zamara, remembers identifying Hamza’s frozen body as “the most difficult moment.” Arwa and Yousef have two other sons imprisoned by Israel.
When asked how she has the strength to go on after losing her child, Arwa mentions the overwhelming support from her neighbors and community. Her daughter chimes in, “we are one body;” no one is alone in the brutality of the Israeli occupation.
Dima, a child, and Hamza, a young man, did not deserve the brutality and injustice they experienced by the Israeli legal system and occupation forces. The worst part is they are not alone, and their stories are not uncommon. All Palestinian civilians are tried in military court, even children, with a conviction rate of 99.7% while Israeli civilians are tried in civil court.
Palestine is home to countless administrative detainees, political prisoners and martyrs. Internationals and Palestinians wonder when this will stop. When will the international community take responsibility and halt their support of Israel’s unjust legal system and illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
We wish the al-Wawi and Zamara families well in recovering from their trauma and hope their families have peace within their homes.
15th March 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Occupied Palestine
Yesterday, Ayman al Fakhori, age 25, was detained for an hour outside the Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint before being arrested for no reason and escorted down Shuhada Street into a military base. He was shortly after released and escorted by Israeli forces out of checkpoint 56.
Internationals interviewed him after his release about his time in the military base. He relayed to us that the commander said, “This is the last chance you’ll get,” and threatened his life if he gets arrested again. Fakhori, however, doesn’t know what caused his arrest in the first place.
The only logical explanation, according to Fakhori, is that he is active in informing the public about the Israeli occupation via giving tours throughout al Khalil / Hebron to pro-Palestinian NGO’s and individuals.
The normalcy of his case showed as Fakhori nonchalantly explained the events of the day, affirming that he will not leave his home to make room for the settlers as the soldiers recommended he do. He was happy, though, to see Shuhada Street for the first time; as it is now an apartheid road closed to all Palestinians for the majority of 24 years.
