Tag: Settlement

Non-violent action in al-tuwani

17th of February, 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

 

Saturday 4th a group of villagers from Al Towani, South Hebron Hills, held a non-violent demonstration against settler violence and illegal settlement expansion, which affects their village. This non-violent demonstration was met with harassment from residents of the illegal out-post settlement of Havat Ma’on, and a large presence of Israeli army and Israeli police. Towards the end of the demonstration a large group of settlers, the Israeli police and army invaded the Palestinian village. They were met with non-violent resistance from residents of the village and eventually spread.

Colonial Israeli Settlers from nearby settlement, enter the Palestinian village.

At 10:00 a demonstration consisting of about 15 Palestinian villagers, supported by international and Israeli activists, left the village of Al Towani to go through the lands stolen by the illegal settlers out-posts Havat Ma’on. This is an area where local children experience violence and threats on a near daily from settlers while going about their daily lives. The demonstration was mostly women and children from the local village, protesting against the violence they experience and the continued expansion of the settlement.

“Banner made by protesters, reading: Women for Freedom of Movement”

Upon arriving in a piece of land that is currently threatened by the illegal extension of this out-posts demonstrators stopped to sing songs, sang, and plant some olive trees. At this point, a settler from the illegal out-posts came down, openly wearing a gun and started to harass people demonstrate, filming all and calls for the Israeli army and police.

Israeli Forces are ordering Palestinian protesters to move.

Shortly after a large group of Israeli forces arrived and the demonstration moved to another piece of land, again chanting, singing songs, and plant more olive trees. At this time came around 8 Israeli army vehicles with two Israeli police vehicles. The soldiers and police stood talking to the settlers before they came to the demonstration to declare the country a “closed military zone”. They used this excuse to disperse protesters while the non-military settlers to remain where they were. This order was non-violently resisted as did the military threaten a Palestinian man with arrest – strongly to take him away from the demonstration. At this time began to move, and the man was released.

While this was going on a group of about 20 settlers from the illegal out-posts invaded local Palestinian village Al Towani. They were met with strong nonviolent resistance from the community and some of the people at the demonstration who rushed back to confront this illegal intrusion into their country. The Israeli army and police came to protect the settlers – refuses to demand they leave. It was only through the strength of the local community, as the settlers finally left the Palestinian village.

 

Al Tuwani is a village in the South Hebron Hills, which has experienced many problems from extremist illegal settlements and out-posts built on their land. Children of the village and the nearest face violence and intimidation by settlers and the Israeli army while walking to school which makes shepherds while we are trying to get access to land. The village has for many years been using non-violent resistance to resist the occupation.

 

In commemoration of the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre: #DismantleTheGhetto take the settlers out of of Hebron

14th February 2017 | The National Campaign to Lift the Closure of Hebron “Dismantle the Ghetto” | Hebron, occupied Palestine

February 25th marks the 23rd commemoration of the Ibrahim Mosque Massacre in Hebron. This year’s commemoration coincides with Israel’s unprecedented escalation in seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank for settlement expansion. This has been accompanied with ideas from Israeli ministers to construct settlements and annex most of the C areas in the West Bank. The commemoration also coincides with Israel’s increasing campaigns to Judaize the Naqab, similar to what has happened in Um Al-Hiran recently, with a general rise in the policy of demolishing Palestinian houses whether in the occupied territories or within the Green Line.

Following the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, the Israeli Occupation closed the Mosque for six months. Palestinians were punished by an imposed 40-day curfew and movement restrictions within the city. The Occupation also divided the Mosque into two parts whereby one part was converted into a synagogue. The Israeli government also increased settlement expansion within the heart of the City which further restricted the presence of Palestinians there, turning the city center into a ghost town.

The Israeli escalation continues in the heart of Hebron until the present day. The closure of Shuhada Street to Palestinian vehicles following the massacre, and then closing it for the Palestinian pedestrians and residents after the Al Aqsa Intifada was followed by the closure of Tel Rumeida neighborhood and whatever was left accessible of Shuhada Street in November 2015. They also continue to kill Palestinians on checkpoints and in restricted areas in Hebron. As of today, the number of those killed by the Israelis since October of 2015 within the closed area and surrounding it has risen to 22 people. The Israeli occupation’s practices against Palestinians amount to the level of ethnic cleansing, given the increasing checkpoints, restriction of movement, and the numbering system implemented to enter the closed areas in the Old City. This creates a Ghetto-system.

In light of the bleak reality, and given our belief that the best way to end the occupation and its discriminatory policies is by resisting it, the national parties, popular committees and civil society organizations in Hebron announce the launch of the “National Campaign to End the Closure of Hebron” through a series of different events. In commemoration of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre we call on our supporters and allies in the struggle, as well as members of our community, to participate in the campaign events, rejecting the Occupation’s practices in the City, and to demand the dismantling of checkpoints and barriers in the City, as well as the removal of settlers in Hebron.

These events will happen as part of the larger struggle to resist the Judaization policies within the Green Line and in an effort to bring greater awareness of the increasing campaigns from our friends and allies around the world that demand the dismantling of the Ghetto and removal of restrictions so that Palestinian citizens have freedom of movement inside Hebron. These events will also happen as part of the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).

Our campaign is based on principles and rights sustained in international humanitarian law and the United Nations’ resolutions that consider Israeli Settlements and collective punishment as forms of war crimes. As such, UN Security Council decision 2334 calls on the Israeli government to stop all forms of Settlement activities in Occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

Let the struggle to lift the restrictions and the removal of settlers in the Heart of Hebron continue.

The National Campaign to Lift the Closure of Hebron “dismantle the ghetto”

 

ISM Honors Kayla Mueller

10th Febreury 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, occupied Palestine

Kayla, sitting under a poster of Ashraf Abu Rahma from Bil'in.
Kayla, sitting under a poster of Ashraf Abu Rahma from Bil’in.

Two years ago, on February 10, 2015, it was confirmed by her family, that former ISMer Kayla Mueller had been killed in Syria, while being held captive by Da’esh (ISIS). Today therefore, ISM honors her memory.

Kayla Mueller, originally from Prescott, Arizona, volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine from August 2010 till September 2010. “Kayla came to Palestine to stand in solidarity with us” says Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the popular committee in the village of Bil’in. “She marched with us and faced the military that occupies our land side by side with us”.

As an ISMer, Kayla supported the Palestinian people in nonviolently resisting the confiscation and demolition of Palestinian houses and lands; she stayed with the Al Kurd family in Sheikh Jarrah to prevent Israeli illegal settlers from taking over their home; she participated in weekly demonstrations against the consequences of the apartheid wall, and she accompanied school children on their way to school in the neighborhood of Tel Ruimeda in Al-Khalil (Hebron), where children are often exposed to attacks by Israeli Forces.

I could tell a few stories about sleeping in front of half demolished buildings waiting for the one night when the bulldozers come to finish them off; fearing sleep because you don’t know what could wake you. … I could tell a few stories about walking children home from school because settlers next door are keen to throw stones, threaten and curse at them. Seeing the honest fear in young boys eyes when heavily armed settlers arise from the outpost; pure fear, frozen from further steps, lip trembling.” Excerpt from a post written by Kayla on October 29, 2010.

Three years later, on the 4th of August 2013, Kayla Mueller was abducted by the terrorist group Da’esh in Aleppo, Syria, where she was helping Syrian refugees escape the horrors of their country. According to fellow western hostages sharing a cell with Mueller in Syria, she had told them that on the day before her abduction, she had helped a friend – a Doctors Without Border contractor – install satellite internet at one of the Doctors Without Border hospitals in Aleppo. After having spent the night at the facility, she and two staff members had been abducted on the next day from a Doctors Without Borders vehicle.

Unfortunately though, Doctors without Borders refused to take responsibility for Kayla, and ransom negotiations where therefore ignored by the organization until their other staff members had been released.

Kayla therefore, was a captive of Da’esh for 18 month, during which she was exposed to severe torture and abuse by Da’esh members. On her final days, she was held as a sex slave by the oil and gas emir for ISIS, Abu Sayyaf. And she is believed to have been killed in an alleged Jordanian airstrike targeting ISIS.

Our hearts are with Kayla, and all others who have lost their liberty, lives or loved ones in the global struggle for freedom and human rights for all.

#DismantleTheGhetto: start of campaign in al-Khalil

10th February 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces and colonial settlers on Thursday, 9th February 2017, disrupted a peaceful protest near Qurtuba school on Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Settlers attacked and injured one female student, and prevented Palestinian teachers and students from leaving the area. The event was organized by the National Campaign to Lift the Closure of Hebron as part of the ‘#DismantleTheGhetto: Take the Settlers out of Hebron’ campaign.

The day started with a celebration at Qurtuba school, which is located just above Shuhada Street, where most of the houses and businesses have been ethnically cleansed of Palestinians by the Israeli forces in the aftermath of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. Students performed a play, sang songs, and the best students from each class were honoured, along with teachers.

Afterwards, the group walked towards the Qurtuba school stairs, which used to be blocked for access for Palestinians by the Israeli forces since the area was declared a closed military zone 31st October 2015. Now, depending on the whim of the soldiers, most days teachers and students are again allowed to go up and down the stairs to school.

As the Palestinians were chanting slogans against the occupation and for freedom for Palestinians in al-Khalil and for an end to the closed military zone and the ghettoization of this part of al-Khalil, soldiers at the bottom of the stairs immediately called for reinforcements and settlers started gathering.

Settlers gathering on Shuhada Street, insulting and threatening Palestinians.

The settler Anat Cohen, who is infamous for violently attacking Palestinians and internationals with complete impunity (search YouTube ‘Anat Cohen Hebron’ for several filmed examples, ran up the slope that separated the children from the soldiers on Shuhada Street and began violently to attack the schoolchildren. She was joined by another settler with a violent and aggressive history. This had been an entirely peaceful demonstration where children demanded their own freedom of movement and an end to the occupation of Palestine, according to their human rights. There was no provocation.

Infamous settler Anat Cohen harassing studnets and teachers

At the same time, students who were trying to go down the stairs to get home were detained by Israeli forces, while colonial settlers gathered on the street and at the illegal Beit Hadassah settlement opposite, ridiculing and threatening the Palestinians as seen in this video. As children were eventually allowed down the stairs they faced aggressive settlers, some armed with assault rifles, and Israeli soldiers chasing them down the street and yelling at them.

Palestinian student support down the stairs while settlers harass them

One female student was injured and unable to walk, and had to be supported by two teachers down the Qurtuba stairs, as Anat Cohen stood by filming them. Once she was down on Shuhada Street, the girl had to be carried in a chair by teachers towards Shuhada checkpoint so that she could get an ambulance on the other side. Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are not allowed on this tiny strip of Shuhada Street. Palestinians are only allowed to walk, not drive, and then only if they are registered as residents (for which they are checked by number not name).

Palestinians carrying the girl on a chair to the checkpoint

Israeli military forces and Israeli police officers were present and did nothing to protect this girl or any of the Palestinians and internationals present.

Non-violent action in At-Tuwani

10th of February, 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

On Saturday, February 4th, a group of villagers from At Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, held a non-violent demonstration against the settler violence and illegal settlement expansion that affects their village. At 10:00, a demonstration consisting of about 15 Palestinian villagers, supported by international and Israeli activists, left the village of At Tuwani to march through the lands stolen by the illegal settlers’ out-post, Havat Ma’on. This is an area where local Palestinian children experience violence and threats from settlers while going about their daily lives. The demonstration was mostly women and children from the local village, protesting against the violence they experience and the continued expansion of the settlement.

At-Tuwani - Village in the South Hebron Hills.
At-Tuwani – Village in the South Hebron Hills. (Archive)

The demonstrators walked through the land, which is constantly threatened by the ever-expanding settlements, sang and planted olive trees. While this was happening, a settler from the illegal out-posts came down, openly wearing a gun, started to harass the demonstrators, began filming the protest and called for the Israeli army and police.

Shortly after, a large group of Israeli forces arrived and the demonstration moved to another piece of land. The demonstrators continued singing songs and planting more olive trees. At this time, around 8 Israeli army vehicles and two Israeli police vehicles drove around the demonstration. The soldiers and police stood talking to the settlers before they came to the demonstration and declared the area a “closed military zone”. They used this excuse to disperse protesters while the non-military settlers were allowed to remain where they were. The demonstrators non-violently resisted the order. The Israeli forces threatened a Palestinian man with arrest, only releasing him when the demonstrators agreed to move.

While this was going on, a group of about 20 settlers from the illegal out-posts invaded the local Palestinian village At Tuwani. They were met with strong nonviolent resistance from the village as some of the people from the demonstration rushed back to help the village. The Israeli army and police came to protect the settlers. It was only through the persistence and determination of the demonstrators and villagers that the settlers finally left.

At Tuwani is a village in the South Hebron Hills, which has experienced many problems from the extremist illegal settlements and out-posts built on and around their land. Children of the village are faced with violence and intimidation by settlers and the Israeli army while walking to school. Shepherds and anyone trying to access the village are met with similar intimidation and violence. For many years, this village has used non-violent resistance to defend their land and oppose the occupation.