Tag: Settlement - Page 13 - International Solidarity Movement

Susya faces demolition for the eighth time

27th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Susya, occupied Palestine

The village of Susya in the south Hebron hills faced complete demolition again yesterday as the Israeli court, and the villagers, waited for the Israeli government to announce its plan for demolition. The Israeli government asked the court for a 48 hour continuance, which means that the plan will probably be provided to the court on Tuesday 28th February and demolition may begin on Wednesday 1st March.

Internationals from ISM and from Christian Peacemaker Teams were asked by villagers to be present in Susya yesterday to give support should demolition go ahead. The presence of internationals cannot prevent demolition but may encourage Israeli forces to empty the tents about to be demolished with more care, and will provide the international community with documentation of the demolition.

Nasser al Nawajja from the village is used to facing situations like this. He told us that he felt that some demolition this year is inevitable, but that delays are good because when the weather is better it is easier to cope with the disruption and to rebuild. The Israeli government is under intense pressure from local settlers and Israeli right wing political groups to remove Susya altogether, but there is strong pressure and support also from the international community which will make complete demolition difficult. What is most likely, says Nasser, are piecemeal demolitions.

This will not be the first demolition or expulsion faced by the village: since the villagers were turned out of their cave dwellings half a mile away in 1986 for a ‘Jewish archeological park’ they have lived in semi-permanent tent dwellings which have been either demolished or expelled seven times already. This will be the eighth demolition and, Nasser says, ‘We will rebuild. We rebuilt seven times already. We will rebuild again. A seventh and an eighth time.’

Susya is a symbol of what is happening in the rural West Bank. Strong settler pressure for expansion of confiscated land meets weak international pressure to preserve some vestige of hope for a two state solution (still championed by the international community). Who will win this battle is anyone’s guess now that Trump is in the White House. But the lives of the people of Susya continue to be under threat. As Nasser says, ‘The settlers are in the White House now.’

Israeli army attacks peaceful demonstration in Hebron and injures protesters : eye-witness accounts

24th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On 24th February several hundred people joined together for a demonstration in al-Khalil (Hebron) in occupied Palestine. Palestinians, Israelis and international activists protested together against the occupation of Shuhada Street and Tel Rumeida in the heart of the city, closed by the military after the massacre of 29 Palestinians in the al-Ibrahimi mosque in 1994. The protesters marched from the centre of the city to the military base at the entrance to the closed zone but were fired upon with tear gas and stun grenades within minutes of the start of their peaceful protest. The protesters were immediately forced to disperse with many suffering from tear gas inhalation. Some needed treatment on site and some were taken to hospital.

ISM activists attended in groups of two and three to support, document and protest. Here are some eyewitness accounts:

Group 1

“After midday prayers people started marching towards the old city, chanting slogans against the Israeli occupation and the settlers. After about ten minutes, the march was faced by a sizeable group of Israeli soldiers and border police. They marched towards the Israeli forces nonetheless, but were soon met with two stun grenades thrown towards protesters in the front line and teargas canisters shot throughout the street. I saw a teargas canister hit a north American army veteran below his left shoulder: it is entirely plausible that it was shot intentionally into the crowd. Shooting these canisters directly towards people is not only in direct contradiction of Israeli ‘rules of engagement’ but also potentially lethal.”

Group 2

“I was in front of the demo when the teargas canisters were fired directly into the first lines of protesters. Stun grenades exploded next to me and I couldn’t hear anything for the next minute. Everywhere on the street were clouds of teargas expanding and the demo turned into a big escape. I and many other protesters took refuge in the side streets, hiding from Israeli soldiers and tear gas.”

Group 3

“Our group started near the back. Tear gas started in great quantity within minutes and together with a large number of Palestinians and other internationals, we scrambled up a side set of stairs and spent the rest of the demonstration trapped there, tear gassed frequently and running in different directions to escape. There was no possibility of rejoining the march route. Red Crescent ambulances, with paramedics in gas masks, attended to the large number of people who were suffering from excessive gas inhalation and some were taken to hospital.”

Group 4

“Emotion, censored freedom, pain, oppression, … these are the words which describe the commemoration of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, fifty years of occupation and the closure of Shuhada Street for over twenty years. After just ten minutes, the Israeli forces showed up in front of the crowd. They immediately stopped the demonstration, leaving no freedom to Palestinians and internationals to commemorate the Ibrahimi mosque’s victims. The atmosphere was tense as Israeli forces started to throw teargas into the crowd. Once again, Israel pretends to be a democracy but leaves no freedom to Palestinians to express themselves and to commemorate those they lost.”

Sumud: Palestinian for endurance

22nd February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

As a second time ISMer I write a blog for friends and supporters back home (at salamfrombetty.tumblr.com if you would like to follow). I asked for questions from my readership and I got this from my friend Rachel:

How are you coping with living with this huge sense of injustice? How do the Palestinians manage it day in day out?

Weirdly I don’t find it hard coping with the injustice here. I don’t know why. The last time I came I was really scared beforehand that I would, but I don’t. I don’t really get angry much anywhere in my life, and I guess this cutting off is what might make a good nurse too.

I have no idea how Palestinians manage. Living under occupation comes at great psychological cost. Children in Tel Rumeida can’t sleep without the light on because they have been night raided so often by soldiers; they often wet the bed until their teens. Women are attacked by settlers and lose pregnancies. Families lose sons to prison and bullets. Everybody inside the ghetto which is H2 has to go through the daily humiliation of not having any control of how they will be treated at checkpoints, and of facing soldiers who attempted to humiliate them yesterday or last week.

Of course this is the old centre of Hebron that I am talking about. Most Hebronites from the city at large do not go there much. They live lives of occupation certainly, but not of this daily hardship. I taught a class of young and ambitious Hebronite students last week and they have studied in Jordan, Amman, Germany, travelled to China for business; they take driving lessons, they drink Italian coffee, and have dreams of running businesses, taking PhDs in physics, transforming the Hebron fire service. Great dreams. But they are still under occupation and they still know it. They are stunted in their hopes and opportunities and feel the injustice of Palestinian powerlessness. Many have not seen the sea only thirty miles away.

And then of course, many of the people I talk to in the old city have children who have ‘escaped’, who are engineers in Saudi, professors in Oxford, they have educations themselves and choose to stay. They are resisting by choice, not trapped by circumstance.

This is the front line: when the houses of Hebron are taken by settlers; when the villages in the Naqab (the Negev) are demolished and the Bedouin moved off; when the villagers of the fertile Jordan valley are put to work as labourers on their own land: then the Israeli occupying machinery will come and swallow up the next bit of Palestine and the next and the next…

My friend Talal thinks that it has taken all the years of occupation to bring Palestinians to this degree of strength and endurance: this sumud (steadfast perseverance). 69 years since the Naqba of 1948; 50 years since the occupation of 1967. That is a lot of time to develop endurance.

12th anniversary of the popular resistance in Bil’in

18th of February, 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Bil’in, Occupied Palestine

The 17^th of February marked the 12^th anniversary of the popular resistance of the people of Bil’in against illegal Israeli settlements and the apartheid wall. Throughout these 12 years there have been protests every week by the people of the village, supported by both Israeli and international activists. These demonstrations have been met by serious repression by the Israeli military and police. To mark the 12^th anniversary a large demonstration was organized consisting of activists from across Palestine and across the world. This demonstration of around 400 people managed to march to the apartheid wall before eventually being suppressed by the Israeli forces.

The demonstration began as normal after noon prayers. Around 400 people marched towards the apartheid wall, chanting slogans and waving the Palestinian flag. On reaching the wall some activists managed to climb to the top, cutting away the wire at the top of the large concrete barrier. Tyres were also burnt at the bottom of the wall. A group of Palestinian activists, accompanied by international and Israeli activists, then marched to the large metal gate in the wall which is used by the Israeli forces to invade the village lands. This gate was forced open and people threw stones at the soldiers inside. Some soldiers took sniping positions from metal cages on top of the wall and fired tear gas at a group of demonstrators, also shooting at least one rubber coated metal bullet.

Shortly after this, as the demonstration was ending, the Israeli forces invaded the village lands both on foot and in two military vehicles. This group of soldiers harassed the youth as they were dispersing, with reports of one group of Palestinian children briefly detained and the released. Further on, towards the village, one Palestinian man suffered a possible fracture when he fell over after being chased by the soldiers.

*A reporter holds a sign against Israeli forces targeting of the press*

Bil’in is a village in Palestine that has been very active in the popular resistance against the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel. The village has been greatly affected by settlements and building of the apartheid wall. Despite facing serious repression over the last 12 years the people of Bil’in still actively resist, holding demonstrations every week.

Photographs courtesy of Charlie Donnelly – do not reprint without permission

Khalil children: a candlelit vigil for the 1994 massacre

20th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On February 19th children from al Khalil came together at dusk in the old city to light candles to commemorate the 29 Palestinian men who died in the massacre at the Ibrahimi mosque here in al Khalil in 1994. They sang and chanted their hopes for a free Palestine, the end of occupation, settlements, and an end to the ghetto conditions in which they live at the heart of al Khalil. At the same time, Israeli soldiers with machine guns stood over them on the rooftops watching and pacing, their shadows projecting giant armed figures onto the wall opposite.

The event was organised by Youth Against Settlements and was attended by internationals, press and filmmakers. It is part of the annual campaign to Open Shuhada Street and to end the ghetto conditions suffered by those who live within the checkpoints around the old city. A week of events is planned, in the streets, schools and houses of the city, with a demonstration planned for Friday 24th.

Photograph courtesy of Youth Against Settlements