1st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine
On 1st April, the weekly non-violent protest in Ni’lin village commemorated the Palestinian Land Day – and was, as every week, attacked by Israeli forces with endless rounds of tear gas, including long-range tear gas canisters that mainly targeted civilians.
The demonstrators, as every week, set off to march towards the illegal apartheid wall that separates them from the majority of the villages land, after noon-prayer. Behind the apartheid-wall, on land that belongs to the village of Ni’lin, where one of the many illegal Israeli settlements is located. In protest against this land-theft through the apartheid wall and the Israeli forces weekly excessive force and targeting of innocent civilians, the villagers protest every Friday.
Israeli forces, that were ready and waiting for demonstrators before the prayer had finished, were located very close towards the villages centre, thus preventing them from even approaching anywhere near the illegal apartheid wall. In a clear example of excessive force, Israeli forces inundated not only the protestors, but the whole village with endless rounds of tear gas. Five persons required medical care due to excessive tear gas inhalation. Both a bakery and the mosque were targeted with tear gas this week.
Tear gas canister inside the bakery
This use of excessive force in Ni’lin is not directed against the protestors, but targets innocent and completely uninvolved civilians. In the recent weeks, Israeli forces’ use of excessive force when targeting civilians in Ni’lin became obvious with private homes and a public park with playground repeatedly the main target of Israeli forces attack on the villagers of Ni’lin.
Additionally, Israeli forces have re-introduced the use of the dangerous and potentially deadly long-range tear gas canisters that can cover an area of more than 500 meters and due to the extremely hard black-tip not only break through windows and walls, but also severely injure and kill any civilian hit.
Long-range tear gas canister that has been shot at Palestinians in demonstrations all over the occupied West Bank
26th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, West Bank, occupied Palestine
After completely closing Shuhada checkpoint to Palestinians in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) on Thursday, 24th March 2016, Israeli forces have now returned to the practice of ‘numbering’ Palestinian residents in order to restrict access to the adjacent neighborhoods. Soldiers are now barring all Palestinians without numbers, and sometimes even those already registered as residents, from entry into the closed military zone.
The neighbourhood of Tel Rumeida and the tiny strip of Shuhada Street that remains accessible for Palestinians after the closure of the rest of the street following the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre have been declared a closed military zone since November 1st, 2015. Palestinian residents – in contrast to the Zionist extremist settlers living in the illegal settlements nearby – were forced to register with the Israeli forces as residents, and each given a number used to identify them. The closed military zone was designed deliberately to include the Palestinian neighbourhoods while excluding illegal settlements, thus facilitating settler movement on roads that connect the settlements inside the city center of al-Khalil with the Kiryat Arba illegal settlement on the outskirts of the city, roads that only settlers and Israeli forces are allowed to drive on.
Israeli forces completely closed the checkpoint on March 24th, barring any Palestinian from entering, after soldiers gunned down and killed Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, both 21 years old, summarily executing al-Sharif with a shot to the head after he was already lying incapacitated (warning: graphic footage including execution in video captured by Palestinian B’Tselem volunteer). Throughout the day, Palestinians trying to go back to their homes were denied passage through the checkpoint and Israeli forces at times forced people to wait for more than twenty minutes only to tell them that they would not be allowed in – even though they were officially registered, numbered residents. An elderly woman was repeatedly told by Israeli forces to ‘wait’ when trying to walk to her home through the checkpoint; only after waiting for more than twenty minutes was she finally told that no-one would be allowed to pass that day. She had to turn around and leave after standing outside the checkpoint for close to half an hour. Watch this video taken by the local activist group Youth Against Settlements of the old lady denied access.
As of Saturday, 25th March, Israeli forces entirely returned to the practice of ‘numbering’ Palestinians, checking the numbers of anyone attempting to cross the checkpoint against a list of numbers of residents that have previously been registered. Many Palestinians were forced to wait for hours outside the checkpoint, only to be denied to go to their homes – even though they had registered and thus did appear as a number on the soldiers’ lists. The soldiers were extremely aggressive, yelling at Palestinians in the closed-off ‘room’ inside the checkpoint loudly enough to be clearly audible to anyone waiting outside. When Palestinians tried to seek shelter from the pouring rain in the vicinity of the checkpoint, soldiers exited the checkpoint, yelling and screaming at them to move back. All of the soldiers had removed the orange pin that acts as a safety on their Israeli-government-issued assault rifles – a practice that seems to have become common policy throughout occupied al-Khalil.
Shuhada checkpoint gate
When a woman and her four children tried to pass Shuhada checkpoint, the three smallest children were initially allowed through. When Israeli soldiers delayed the mother and older daughter inside the checkpoint, continuously yelling at them, the young girl on the other side of the checkpoint started crying as she was waiting in the rain for her mother to be allowed to go home with them. After an ordeal of more than ten minutes, soldiers arbitrarily decided that the mother would not be allowed to pass – even though she is registered and numbered – and yelled at her till she finally left. Her children that had been allowed to pass earlier came back to be with their mother, the girl still crying. With many extremist settlers gathering and walking freely on Shuhada Street, the children were too terrified to go home without their mother.
The number 230 on the outside of this Palestinian ID has faded with age. It denotes that Israeli forces should theoretically allow its holder to pass into the Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street neighborhoods, but provides no protection against harassment, threats, abuse and being arbitrarily denied passage through Shuhada checkpoint
This practice of assigning numbers to Palestinians clearly demonstrates the intent to dehumanize them, to make them solely into ‘numbers’ as if they were not human beings. For the Israeli forces – and thus the government supporting and commanding them – this is precisely the case: Palestinians are not considered as human beings, but rather solely as ‘terrorists’ and potential threats. How this influences the behaviour of the Israeli forces was clearly demonstrated when on March 24th soldiers gunned down two Palestinian youths in Tel Rumeida and then executed one of them with a shot to the head at point blank range. A shot in the head of an unarmed man, struggling for his life and being denied any medical assistance, did not cause so much as a twitch from the soldiers looking on.
This practice of ‘numbering’ Palestinians in Tel Rumeida and Shuhada street, and of dehumanizing the entire Palestinian population, is a government policy that intends to force Palestinians out of the area declared a ‘closed military zone’ in particular and ultimately the whole of the occupied West Bank. These policies pave the way for the brutal actions must recently exemplified by the killings in Tel Rumeida, practices falling under the internationally recognized definition of ethnic cleansing which the Final Report of the Commission of Experts established pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 780 defines as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”
24th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied West Bank
On the 24th March, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) celebrated the holiday of ‘Purim’. The settlers marched through the Old City of al-Khalil, starting off from the spot where just a few hours before, Israeli forces gunned down two Palestinian youth and then executed one of them in cold blood.
In the morning, Israeli forces shot and severely injured two Palestinian youth in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and then left them lying on the ground seriously injured while Israeli medics were attending to a slightly injured Israeli soldier. Palestinian ambulances, that are not allowed to drive on this road that is only for settlers use, were prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the injured Palestinian youth. In a video published by B’Tselem, a soldier can clearly be seen shooting one of the youth in the head at point-blank range even though he is lying on the ground and is not posing a threat to anyone.
Only a few hours after this extrajudical execution, settlers started their joyous march, dressed up in costumes, with music blasting from a bus, dancing in the same spot where the two Palestinians were murdered in cold blood.
Illegal settlers celebrating in the exact spot where two Palestinians were murdered in cold-blood Photo credit: Youth Against Settlements
The procession of settlers then proceeded down Shuhada Street, where the main illegal Israeli settlements in the heart of the city are located, before turning towards the Ibrahimi mosque. Shuhada Street, except for a tiny strip, has been completely closed for Palestinians, who are not allowed to even walk there – unlike the illegal settlers who can walk and drive. When the march reached the vicinity of Ibrahimi mosque, Israeli forces started closing off the area to all Palestinians, physically pushing back children behind barriers and preventing Palestinians from accessing the area, even if they were residents, in order to create a space free of Palestinians for the celebrations of the settlers to take place.
Settler children. One drinking wine, one holstering a machine gun and another aiming a pistol at onlookersIsraeli settlers celebrating while Palestinians are denied walking down the streetPalestinians and Internationals are not allowed to pass
One of the settlers, of which many were dressed up in costumes, was seen in a shirt flashing a raised fist on a yellow background, which is the symbol of the ‘Kach’, a party of extremist Israeli fundamentalist settlers, deemed a terrorist group even by the Israeli government. The party was founded by Meir Kahane, who publicly called for the expulsion of Palestinians and to end culture relations between Jewish and Palestinian students. On Tuesday, two days before, during celebrations for the same holiday, the loudspeakers of the Ibrahimi mosque were mis-used to broadcast hate-speech calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from al-Khalil.
Israeli settlers with a Kahane-shirt (settler in the middle)
One of the settler children dancing on top of a bus was playing with a pistol. Even though the police realized this, they merely took the weapon from him – but then gave it back shortly adfter. If a Palestinian of any age had been seen with anything resembling a weapon, the person would likely be shot immediately.
The settlers’ celebrations kept going uninterrupted with Israeli forces ensuring that Palestinians would not cross the way of the settlers, forcing them to stay back, and even closing Ibrahimi mosque checkpoint to ensure no one would even come close.
Palestinian civilians stopped by Israeli forces after they opened the street for Palestinians again while settlers freely pass the checkpointhttps://youtu.be/tvXD1LM5P8k
Israeli forces also used the roof of a Palestinian family home in the vicinity of the mosque as a look-out point. This is just another small example of the impunity and supremacy settlers enjoy with the active support of the Israeli forces, while Palestinians are systematically humiliated, oppressed and killed in cold blood under the Israeli military occupation.
23rd March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied West Bank
The Israeli government has announced that as of Wednesday the 23rd of March, until Sunday the 27th of March, all roads leading into or out of the occupied Palestinian territories, be it either the West Bank or Gaza will be completely closed for Palestinians.
The Erez crossing, given the Israeli governments forced closure of the Rafah crossing with the outside world, is the sole remaining pedestrian crossing connecting the Gaza Strip with Israel and the occupied West Bank. It will be closed from Wednesday to Sunday morning, again leaving the population of the occupied Gaza Strip, often referred to as the ‘biggest open air prison’, as the Israeli government effectively controls all the land borders, the sea and even airspace, is thus again locked inside the walled-off territory without any possibilities to leave.
Erez crossing
Checkpoints connecting the occupied West Bank with Israeli-controlled territories, manned by Israeli forces – a common obstacle for Palestinians that get delayed, harassed, intimidated, questioned and detained, or even denied to pass here – will be entirely closed for Palestinians. Whereas Palestinians holding the green ‘West Bank-ID’ are only allowed to cross these checkpoints with special permits issued by the Israeli forces, that are almost impossible to attain; Palestinians living within Israel and the illegally annexed East Jerusalem will thus be prevented from using these checkpoints. This leaves any Palestinian from these areas working or attending university studies in the occupied West Bank without any possibility to reach their places of work or education, infringing on their basic human rights of education and movement – yet another restriction on day to day life that Palestinians are subjugated to under the illegal Israeli military occupation. Additionally, flying checkpoints are expected to pop up and checkpoints within the occupied West Bank and at the entrances of Palestinian cities also.
Passage through these checkpoints, it has been announced, will be limited to Christians holding permits for the holidays, ‘special humanitarian cases’ (definition of this term depending on Israeli government), foreigners and Israeli citizens. This clearly illustrates that this closure is intended on only affecting the Palestinian population (with very few exceptions like humanitarian cases and permit-holders). Israeli settlers, living in illegal settlements throughout the occupied West Bank in contrast will be allowed to freely pass into and out of the occupied West Bank.
Thus the enforced closure is only partly – based purely on the ethnicity, allowing illegal settlers and Israeli citizens free passage while barring Palestinians. This clearly qualifies as an apartheid measure taken by the Israeli government to impose yet more restrictions on Palestinians in order to facilitate the free movement of settlers. The United Nations Apartheid Convention defines apartheid as ‘inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them’.
Palestinians, during this enforced closure, are yet again discriminated against based solely on the fact of being Palestinians, and their basic human rights as well as international law – supposed values guarded by the whole international community – are trampled on by Israeli forces.
21st March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Sunday, 20th March 2016, Israeli forces raided the al-Faihaa girls school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron), using the staff in the school as human shields.
In the morning, three heavily-armed soldiers in full combat gear entered the premises of the school when the girls were still going to their classes. Al-Faihaa girls school is located near Ibrahimi mosque, on a road that connects Shuhada Street, which Palestinians are completely banned from using, with the biggest illegal settlement on the outskirts of al-Khalil, Kiryat Arba. Only settlers are allowed to drive on that road, while Palestinians are banned from driving any kind of cars, including ambulances, there, and often face harassment and violence from settlers.
The soldiers entered the girls school and locked themselves in the directors room with the director, the caretaker and another female teacher, preventing them from leaving the room. They then proceeded to go through the video camera footage of the girls school, accusing them of allowing Abdullah …….., a Palestinian gunned down at the nearby Queitun checkpoint the day before, pass through the school premises. As the girls school has repeatedly been threatened by Israeli forces that their main gate will be permanently shut if people other than teachers and students use it, the gate is now always locked shut except for when students are passing through for school.
An activist and caretaker look on as a soldier proceeds to check security camera footage
Israeli forces kept the director, a teacher and the caretaker hostage in the director’s room, preventing them from leaving the room and anyone else from entering for about an hour. They then left the school while the other teachers were trying to make sure that the girls stayed in their class-rooms in order not to scare them any more due to the presence of the soldiers.
The right to education in al-Khalil is often trampled on by Israeli forces, that routinely raid schools, detain, search or even arrest students at checkpoints, or shoot tear gas at them.
