Last week, settlers from Kfah Tappuah settlement near the West Bank village of Jamaeen trespassed on the Palestinian villagers’ land 2km from Jamaeen village, burning approximately 30 dunums of vital agricultural land hosting olive trees.
The village of Jamaeen lies just south of Nablus and, like the many other villages in the Nablus and Salfit region, depends on olive production. Thus, the loss of trees was a substantial blow to the local villagers.
Palestinians and international supporters will gather Wednesday, October 31st at 8 am to visit villagers’ land and document the arson attack. The peaceful demonstration, led by Jamaeen villagers, will welcome internationals and Palestinians to partake in a show of solidarity and steadfastness, to proclaim that the villagers do want, need, and use this land and are not willing to be harassed away from it by settlers.
Villagers and supporters will meet at Jamaeen municipality at 8 am Wednesday morning.
October 16th, 2007
approximately 10 am to 9 pm
Marda, Salfit region
Witnesses: family members and IWPS members
At around 10a.m. on the 16th of October, 2007, the Israeli army entered the village of Marda in the Salfit governate in the Occupied West Bank. The Israeli military declared curfew on the village and arrested 7 young men and detained them for half hour. The home of four families were also occupied, with soldiers taking up positions on the roof where they fired rubber bullets and sound bombs.
According to eyewitnesses at approximately 10 a.m., Israeli military jeeps, No: 443, 610100, 011259 and a Border Police jeep No 611121 entered the village of Marda. Dozens of Israeli soldiers started spreading the announcement that the village had been placed under curfew.
The Israeli soldiers occupied the roof of homes of 4 families, whose members included 15 adults and 10 children, aged 1-14 years old. IWPS team members called to the village were informed that at the morning, the soldiers had been firing rubble bullets into the village, resulting in
three civilians being injured. Despite injuries to civilians, the Israeli army refused to allow an ambulance to enter the village to attend the wounded and to transport them to hospital. Villages reported that the 7 young men were arrested by the Israeli forces but were released after a
half an hour.
An IWPS member witnessed a heated exchange between the Israeli military and the four families whose house had been invaded by the military. During the argument, the Israeli soldiers attacked and pushed to the ground a young girl, who was a member of the families.
At the time of writing this report, Israeli soldiers continue to occupy the family house and are patrolling the village, preventing any Palestinian civilians from being able to leave their homes and to move about freely. Soldiers have also begun to shoot tear gas inside villagers’ homes.
At the end of the day soldiers wired shut the occupied house. The wiring was later cut open and most people have left. There are a handful of women remaining, with one Human Rights Worker (HRW) staying with them.
***Update***
Soldiers have left as of this morning, the 17th of October.
Following the Israeli army invasion of Deir Istiya on October 7th, during which the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) imposed a curfew on the village, one which officially continued throughout the next day, Human Rights Workers visited with families who had been subjected to IOF house raids and arrests.
The IOF entered homes during this latest raid on the northern West Bank village of 4,000. In one home, Occupation soldiers entered the home and seized three children, ages 11, 15, and 16, taking them out of the home to a nearby schoolyard to interrogate them. The youths were accused of having thrown stones at the invading IOF forces from the rooftop of their home. An hour of interrogation, during which soldiers kicked the youngest boy, resulted in little more than harassment of the youths. The army realized that they had no reason to hold the youths, and so returned them to their house.
The soldiers had arrived in three military jeeps, approximately 20 soldiers of whom remained outside while four soldiers proceeded to search and ransack the house, from bottom to top, before leaving.
The family reports that soldiers returned two hours later, parked in front of the home and waited for a while before again leaving.
IOF soldiers later went to both boys and girls schools, interrupting students in their classes. Although the schools were opened, the curfew was still imposed and officially remains so as of the evening of October 8.
Villagers at the west end of Deir Istiya reported hearing sounds bombs going off around 8 pm that evening.
HRWs also visited families who had suffered from Israeli army violence just over a week ago when they invaded.
During that invasion, at least 3 youths were kidnapped by IOF soldiers.
One family recounted how approximately 20 IOF soldiers had come to their home 8 days prior after 1 am while the family was sleeping. One daughter had been sleeping in the front room when she heard noises outside. Calling her parents in the next room via her mobile, the family soon learned that their home was surrounded by Israeli soldiers. While the soldiers did not demand entry, they instead proceeded to throw stones at the two entrances doors in the front and the windows around the house. Later inspection revealed the IOF soldiers had broken a window in one front-facing room, as well as a window in the family vehicle around the back of the house.
After waiting for the soldiers to cease stoning the house, the father finally opened the door to ask what they wanted. The father and mother report that 4 soldiers entered the home, and beat the father and one daughter, 23 years old, and his wife all over their bodies.
The family of 8, including three children under 18, was made to leave their home and were kept outside, guarded by soldiers, while 4 soldiers searched and ransacked the home for approximately another 45 minutes. The father managed to gain entry into his home and accompany the soldiers as they went room to room, damaging the home and their possessions.
A tally of the damage and acts of IOF violence during the house raid includes:
• A side panel was ripped off of the computer and internal damage was done to it
• The frame of a bed was ripped apart
• Several cupboard and cabinet doors were broken and torn off their hinges
• Outer doors damaged by stones
• The cassette door of a stereo was ripped off its hinges
• Many items from the kitchen were broken; as well, many belongings and personal items were torn out of cupboards and off shelves, left broken or on floors
While these acts of collective punishment are common in occupied Palestine, adding yet further misdeeds to a litany of IOF misdeeds to civilians, the family’s greatest sorrow that day was the kidnapping of their son: the youth, 19 years old, is a student at Salfit University and is not involved in political activities. He was taken during this house raid, in his underwear as he had been sleeping. Soldiers would not permit his mother, desperate to clothe and help him, to give him a shirt and pants. The youth was taken blindfolded from the house and dragged down the street nearly a half kilometer away. At one point, the mother recalls, he was pushed from his standing position and kicked while fallen on the ground.
The family was given no information on the whereabouts of their son, and have since been making all efforts to locate him, without success. Two other youths, ages 18 and 19, were also kidnapped by IOF soldiers that evening.
Another village resident, Dr. F, a professor at a local university, mentioned that it is common for the IOF to raid villages throughout the year, but particularly around Ramadan and the Olive Harvest season, when families are especially keen to avoid problems from either soldiers or settlers. He feels that the increase of attacks by both settlers and IOF soldiers is part of a greater plan long put into practice of dividing society at all levels, economically and communally.
A family in Al Funduq had a demolition order delivered to their home while both were at work yesterday, 16th May. The paper was left on the door. It was the third final order and it left them three days to leave before destruction of their home.
The man, 29 years old is a worker for the Red Crescent Society. The woman, 25 years old, is a school-teacher. They have two children, four years and 8 months old. The house, which had been built for them to move in after their wedding, is 150 square meters and an approximate value of NIS 180,000 or USD $45,350.
The International Women’s Peace Service, Haris, Salfit, Palestine.
Tel:- (09)-2516-644
The house has been under threat of demolition since February 2006, when the first demolition order was delivered. The second demolition order followed in May 2006. Each time, the family has retained an attorney in an attempt to appeal against the demolition. They paid out approximately NIS 12,000 or USD $3020 USD to the lawyers and nothing was achieved. The order which had been left by Israeli soldiers on the door of their house yesterday, the family retained a third lawyer for NIS 7,940 or USD $2000.
Last year, one of the man’s brothers had his home demolished (see IWPS HR Report No. 279) nearby to this house. The reason given then was lack of a permit to build. Reasons given for this year’s slated demolition is also lack of a permit to build. The family has a deed to the property dated from 1964.
Young Haris banker detained by Beth, IWPS, 13 May 2007
When a young Ramallah bank employee returned home to Haris shortly after midnight on May 13, 2007, he was confronted by soldiers who suggested he was driving a stolen car and carrying stolen money. He was kept on the road for an hour and a half, subjected to searches and questioning, and finally allowed to leave after police had arrived and conducted another inspection.
The young man was first confronted in front of his house by soldiers, who demanded he back his car up to the entrance of the village a few metres away. There, they made him lie down on the ground, which was muddy from rain. They suggested that his car was stolen and searched it fully, making the young man open the hood and trunk. The man had purchased the car over two months earlier from someone in a neighbouring village; his father said police from nearby Ari’el settlement had been by the family home eight days earlier to check on the car, and did not consider it to be stolen property.
Soldiers also searched the young man’s bag and asked why he was carrying so much money. The man explained that his job requires him to travel throughout Salfit to collect money from bank customers wishing to make deposits into their accounts, as there is no branch of this bank in Salfit. The man must often visit customers late in the evening after they have returned home from their jobs, often in settlements in Salfit. He then makes the cash deposits the following day in Ramallah. The young man was carrying his bank ID card with him when he was stopped.
However, when IWPS arrived on the scene, a soldier was still suggesting the money and car might be stolen, and said the young man would be detained with his car near the village entrance until police arrived. At one point there were nine soldiers and three jeeps at the village entrance (compared to the young man, an older brother and their parents, a friend who was interpreting for the family, and two IWPS team members). One soldier positioned himself in a small field to the side of the road, pointing his gun toward the houses in the distance, prompting the young man’s mother to remark that “we are not afraid as they are, with their guns.”
Police finally arrived shortly after 1:30 a.m. and after yet another inspection of the car, allowed the young man to go home with his family.
The village of Haris has also suffered in recent days from army incursions and checkpoints, with so-called “flying” checkpoints having been set up after dark, near the entrance to the village, on May 4, 5 and 6. The young banker and his family live on the main road of the village just inside the entrance, and so are particularly affected by such army actions.
IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved. However, we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant information you may require. Photos by Beth
