Tag: Settlement

Permission to enter their own lands: Kufr Qaddoum rampaged again by military

21 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In the village of Kufr Qaddoum the people held a demonstration for the 17th Friday in a row. The demonstration started around 11:30 AM in the center of the village and consisted of approximately 80 people. The procession only made it to a barbed wire that blocked the road although it stood within the infamous “red line” that outlines Kufr Qaddoum and separates it from the nearby illegal settlement of Qadumim.

With border police and Israeli military present, the protesters were immediately fired at with tear gas. The soldiers directly targeted the protesters from a distance of approximately 50 meters. One young man was hit by a tear gas canister on his thigh by one of the very first shots before the protesters pulled back into the village. They soon returned and were again violently attacked with tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets by the Israeli army.

Kufr Qaddoum attacked by Israeli military – Click here for more images

At around 12 PM the army passed their own barbed wire blockade and entered the village in military vehicles. Sound bombs and tear gas was fired in large amounts. Civilians who were not taking part in the demonstration were also affected, including one elderly woman who was seen falling over when running for her life outside the mosque in the middle of the village.

One ISM activist was nearly arrested during the military rampage on Kufr Qaddoum, but managed to escape from the soldier chasing him. Two Palestinian activists were injured and taken inside the mosque for treatment from the Red Crescent, and several people were seriously affected by tear gas inhalation.

 

The demonstration ended just before 1 PM when the army withdrew from the village. The soldiers  later announced in loud speakers that all villagers had to leave their lands and none were allowed to continue the olive harvest during the rest of Friday and Saturday, though the villagers have permission already from Israeli authorities to enter their lands on Friday and Saturday.Four days before the protest Israeli soldiers entered the village during the night and arrested nine people. They are all still being held.The weekly demonstrations in Kufr Qaddoum are arranged by the Popular Committee of Kufr Qaddoum and held in protest against the closure of the main road entering the village. The road was closed in 2003, and the case was taken to the Israeli High Court. After years of waiting the people were allowed access to the road. The court ruled that the villagers could not use the road until 2012 after Israeli claims of the road not being “suitable” or “safe.” The main road leads from Kufr Qaddoum out to the main road to Nablus and passes the nearby illegal settlement of Qadumim, which was established in 1976.

Youth arrested in Hebron over cereal

2 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On 2 October in Al Khalil (Hebron), the Israeli army and police arrested 2 Palestinian children based on petty, unfounded accusations whilst allowing settlers to employ violence with complete impunity. 13 year old Khaled Abu Snaeneh and 15 year old Said Abu Aisha were arrested and detained for over 4 hours at Kiryat Arba police station.

At 2:45 soldiers came to the Abu Aisha house in Tel Rumeida to investigate a complaint made by settlers that Palestinians had stolen some boxes of expired cereal from their backyard. A group of around 30 settlers gathered around the house shouting at both the Palestinian residents and the police and army. Under pressure from the gradually increasing number of settlers surrounding the house Israeli police made the decision to arrest the two young boys, solely on the evidence of being accused by the settlers.

Ibrahim Abu Aisha explained that the boys arrested had not taken the cereal as they were working at the time the incident took place.

Several Palestinians reported that Baruch Marzel from the Tel Rumeida settlement kicked 30 year old Fawaz Abu Aisha requiring him to go to hospital. Despite the visible bruising on Fawaz’s leg and attempts to complain to the police they refused to take any action on this assault. Marzel has a history of assaulting Palestinians and was formerly a spokesperson for the Kach party before it was made illegal in Israel as a racist, terrorist organization.

After being driven to Kiryat Arba police station and detained for 4 hours, the boys were not charged but still forced to pay a fine of 200 shekels each.

A land divided: Gate closures for Salim’s olive harvest by IOF

3 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

For more pictures of Salim's olive harvest ordeal, click here.

As Palestinians in Salim began the first day of their annual olive harvest this morning, October 2nd, Israeli Occupation Forces locked the gate which gives those living in Salim access to their olive trees. The gate was unlocked at 7:00am to allow farmers to reach their trees, but shortly afterward, soldiers locked the gate for purported ‘security reasons’ around 9:00am according to many reports. When passing shortly after 8:00am, four ISM volunteers reported no problems with two soldiers guarding the gate. Sporadically throughout the day, the gate was opened a few times to allow access to the olive trees or village center. From 9:00am until 5:00pm, there was only a possibility for those living in Salim to reach their land through the single entrance/exit.

The village itself is divided — the settler only road has carved the land in two and beyond the road lies the majority of the olive trees which are adjacent to the illegal Israeli settlement, Elon Moreh. After the al-Aqsa Intifada, the gate was built not only to restrict movement for Palestinians in Salim to reach their land where the majority of trees are growing, but also to continually keep the residents of Salim completely enclosed. The gate now serves as the only entrance and exit for those living in Salim to reach their olive trees, many of which have been overgrazed by settler’s sheep.

Seven years ago, 100 sheep were stolen by settlers from Salim’s Abu Sultan while he and his family were bound up inside their home. Those sheep, now belonging to the Eskali family, graze on the lower branches of the trees belonging to the Ahmed Abul-Jabar’s family which then leave them barren, dried out, and unable to grow olives. It isn’t just overgrazing, however — the farmers from Salim are only able to tend to their trees twice a year due to the Israeli occupation and annexation of their historic land. In April, Palestinians are allowed to till the land and ensure the trees are ready to grow. The next time they are able to reach the groves is October when harvest season begins. Palestinians are restricted from being able to access their land in order to properly irrigate, prune, and care for the olive trees. Today, family members all remarked how poor this season was in particular due to these problems from the illegal Israeli occupation.

This morning marked the first of four allotted days Palestinians in Salim for the olive harvest. Before the Intifada, Salim’s farmers could spend a month properly picking the olives. Now, after applying for a permit through the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Agriculture which secondly gets approved through the Israeli District Coordination Office, residents of Salim are only given four days.

Many farmers today reported being frightened and scared of being threatened by the settlers surrounding Salim or being intimidated by the Israeli soldiers. While there were no clashes with settlers today as in the past, the closure of the main gate proved troublesome for many looking to access their land. Soldiers reluctantly unlocked the gate when Palestinians and ISM volunteers asked only to lock it again shortly after.

Observations from Hebron daily life

26 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

A child of about eight years old sneaks past a multitude of soldiers at as they hold back Al Rumeida residents from climbing the hill to their homes. He runs into the corner store, comes out and joyously waves his forbidden purchases at them–a bag of candy—and continues running home.  A settler funeral was going on in a Jewish cemetery half way up the hill.  Although the procession only took about two hours, Checkpoint 56 at the bottom of the hill was closed for five hours.

Palestinian women on the bus chat happily and endure the wait it takes to fill the bus from Bethlehem to Hebron. A young Bedoin woman with a small child does not miss the opportunity to try to make a sale. She shows the lone tourist on the bus some exquisitely woven money bags and pillow shams. Everyone hustles: it is called survival. Whether it is olive soap, scarfs, kafiyas, watches, Kleenex packages, or bread, Hebron Palestinians hauk their wares daily.

A merchant selling fruit juice noisily liquefies carrot juice five meters from where the supposed Settler Hebron Tour passes.  According to the sanctimonious settler, something happened to someone who lived or died some 100 or 2,000, or 3,000 years ago. The merchant grinds on.

A gaggle of children, some as young as four years old,  run and bang on metal doorways yelling in unison as they hurry through the old city alleys together with journalists and international observers, only to be stopped at intervals by many soldiers who protect the Saturday Jewish Settler Hebron Tour.  A small child pushes his metal cart through the cobblestones. The din is deafening.  Local Palestinian merchants sitting in their stalls endure it for the sake of resistance. This has been going on for years. They wait.  The Zionist settlers look terrified even though one of the strongest military in the world protect their parade.

They have been taught from a very young age that the Palestinians want to kill them or push them into the sea. It is a tragic drama where the aggressors play the role of victims although in reality, all are victims, either of deception or of cruelty.

A woman merchant is accosted by a gang of settlers during the tour.  One  tells her that her Palestinian map is wrong: that it should be all Israel. She stands up to them, albeit afraid, and declares it is indeed Palestine and if they don’t like it they can go elsewhere. “We have been here for 64 years, and we will be here another 64 years,” she said, defiantly.   And they will.

Haiya of Qalandia Refugee Camp

24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Haiya and her family are originally from a village called Ber Maael know called Mudaeen near what is now Tel Aviv.

Haiya’s brother was a close friend of Ali Khaleefa, one of the young men who was killed when the Israeli army raided the Qalandia Refugee camp on the second of August. He told us he was with Ali just hours before the soldiers raided the camp and killed him.

Haiya speaks.

We were at the funeral and people were so shocked and angry, the army came in the middle of the night right at the start of Ramadan to arrest two boys about 13 years old. And they killed 2 people even though no one there had any weapons apart from the soldiers. The Palestinians from Qalandia cannot forget something like this.

The Israelis are afraid of the Palestinian people, they are afraid because they know that this land does not belong to them, and they are afraid they will lose it. So they shoot at us to make us scared, but it doesn’t work.

Palestine doesn’t have anyone to fight for her, just the people who live in Palestine. We believe that we need a country, but before, the people here did not have any hopes for a state. Every time we are promised our own country, nothing happens. So now the people are trying to do something for themselves.

Obama said in his speech we wants safety for the Israelis first, second, third and last. He says this as though Israel is the victim! But it is Israel who is slowly killing all our people and taking our land.

I think many of the people of Israel want peace, but the leaders certainly do not.

If the UN does not give us a state then, we must fight with the protests and the stones. I think what is happening now could lead to a third Intifada and Israel thinks this too and they are very scared.

I think the settlers are the worst people in the world, they burn our mosques and they burn our olive trees. You know the soldiers they have orders to shoot bullets and drop bombs. But the mustawtaneen [settlers] do what they do because they hate us. Just today in Hebron they killed a child with a car.

The army will never stop the settlers, they say ‘go home’ but it does nothing because they know that the army will not hurt them.

Of course we would love to go back to our land; we hope to go back. Our grandfather is 83 years old, whenever we pass near the place our home used to be, he cries.