Tag: Settlement

In Pictures: The day of the UN bid

24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

September 23 was a historical day for Palestinians worldwide and within the territories, as the Palestinian Authority submitted a bid to the UN to be recognized as the 194th nation of the world. While diplomats and political discussions ensued, a typical dialogue between Palestinians continued in the face of constant illegal Israeli oppression.

Qalandia:

The demonstration started just after the noon prayer. By 5 there were approximately 200 Palestinians. Most of the soldiers were special forces, dressed in black uniforms. The “Scream” a loud siren used  to deter demonstrators with its screeching noise, made its second appearance at Qalandia this week. A jeep mounted tear gas launcher was used to fire at least ten tear gas canisters at once. Due to the enclosed environment near the Qalandia checkpoint and refugee camp, escaping the clouds of gas was difficult for demonstrators. After launching teargas rounds, special forces charged up the street firing rubber coated steel bullets into the backs of protesters running from the gas. Red Crescent workers estimated at least 30 people were injured, with one person suffering a gunshot wound to the head after being hit with a rubber coated steel bullet. As late as 8:30 PM, the Israeli army was still firing occasional volleys of teargas from the Qalandia watchtower and on the ground until demonstrators finally dispersed.

Nabi Saleh:

Following noon prayers, peaceful demonstrators found themselves being attacked by Israeli military volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets almost immediately upon their presence. With a skunk water truck present, the “Scream” siren sounded to deter the presence of locals, as the Israeli military shot low to the ground and at close range, about 16-20 meters from peaceful demonstrators. 4 were injured by rubber coated steel bullets while a French photographer sustained a wound to his leg from a tear gas canister.

Qusra:

After finishing their Friday prayers, Qusra residents found that illegal settlers from a neighboring  illegal settlement were destroying olive trees just before the national olive harvest season. As locals approached their land to salvage what they could, the Israeli military intervened to defend these illegal settlers, killing Essam Aoudhi and wounding others.

Hebron:

Following an emergency call, international volunteers immediately went to the home of the Sultan family, where the previous settler attacks were documented at Tar Abusie School children.  When they arrived on the closed off road for Palestinians, they encountered a collection of vehicles filled with settlers from a nearby large, illegal Israeli settlement off the road. At the entrance of the compound, a soldier awaited them and opened gate. At the end of the group, a soldier enclosed jeep followed behind.

Volunteers continued toward the Sultan family area to see if more settlers had stayed behind. They had left, but the family expressed that the settlers held a demonstration regularly, every Friday about 12 noon to1 p.m. Internationals will be monitoring this area of Hebron regularly this Friday.

Around 5 p.m ISM received another call that the settlers had returned to harrass the farmers in the Sultan family area.

Later that night in the main center of Hebron, a gigantic screen was placed in the street for the town to hear the speeches of all the PA politicos. The town came out for the occasion.  A large barbed wire had been placed into the opening of the old city past Checkpoint 56. At least 100 PA police, as well as Israeli soldiers were out guarding.  At one point about 300 young men gathered in a street to get into the Old City and possibly the checkpoints, but the PA police held them back.  The IDF was ready for them near the checkpoint with about 40 soldiers.

However, the boys dispersed slowly.

 

Settlers parade Hebron

24 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Today at 4 p.m. the settlers paraded as usual around the Old City of Al Khalil, or Hebron,  from  4 to about 5 p.m. About 5  international observers, as well as members of Christian Peacemakers Team and World Council Church volunteers witnessed the pompous parade.  Over 15 soldiers protected settlers during their weekly walk around the market.

“They came into my shop and started to question me about the Palestinian map I have on the wall,” said Nawal, a local merchant as she pointed to a textile map of Palestine she had on the wall.”This woman said that the map was wrong and that this area was all of Israel,   I told her that it was correct and if she didn’t like it she could go elsewhere.”

The procession turned into a minor riot as Palestinian children ran and screamed through the old city while soldiers pointed guns at them, as well as several foreign journalists  and about 10 observers.

A member of the armed service police videotaped the crowd. Eventually, after stating to no one in particular that Hebron belonged to the Israelis, a rabbi led the procession  into their well-fortified compound and were followed by the soldiers.

Hebron: “We have been waiting over 60 years for this”

21 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Atta and Rudaina Jeber’s farm is situated upon a hill. The area is called Sheik Sherah, in the Beca’a Valley in the outskirts of Hebron, or Al-Khalil.  Atta’s family has owned the land since the Ottoman Empire was in power, and he explains that he is part of about 19,000 Palestinians who originally settled the hills when they came from the lands now called Jordan, some 800 years ago.

He will also show you the caves where many of his ancestors were born.  It is in this part of Palestine where the Israeli settlers have fought so aggressively in recent years to invade Palestinian lands especially where Atta and his brothers live on two hills now fractured by two large settlements, Gryet Arba and Givat Ha Harsina.   Atta and his brothers and cousins have been petitioning the State of Israel to recognize their deeds to the land since 1986. Instead, in 1982 Israel had already confiscated thousands of dunams to build a highway which links Jerusalem in the north to southern towns like Hebron which bring settlers in.

To date they have confiscated about 7,000 dunams  and bulldozed the  fruit orchards of the families.  The confiscation of the land, however, was kept a secret from the Palestinians, Atta said.

“They wanted to bring strange people from different countries,” he said.

According to Atta, the Israeli judge in Beit Il himself is a settler.  This struggle has cost the Palestinian families thousands of dollars in legal papers, and lawyer fees, only to give people like Atta and his brothers reprieves of three days or one month or a year, but never a clear permit to remain on their property. Sometimes the families don’t get the permits to keep their houses.  When that happens, “You don’t know when they (Israeli Military) are going to come. Sometimes it is about 5 AM, and they come with many soldiers, and they tell us to get out.”

Atta’s two houses were bulldozed twice in the past 10 years.

“My family has been petitioning the Israeli government for a permit since 1983 and we have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees. They do this until you don’t have a cent left. Every time you go to the high court it costs us $1,800 dollars. When they take over our houses, they demolish them and then rebuild for settlers.”

Both Atta and Rudaina were born in 1962, but like the rest of the Palestinian farmers, their weathered faces show the hardship they have endured since the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.  They were both seven years old when the Israelis first bulldozed their fathers’ homes.

Rudaina’s brothers then joined the resistance with the P.L.O. One brother spent 16 years in an Israeli prison; her other brother spent three years, and the other spent one.  At one point, an uncle and his three sons spent five years in jail.

Atta laughs at the pain. This is life for the families.  Their four children go to school. When they are not fighting in court to keep their property, they till the soil, separating the mineral rich dirt from the rocks. They built terrace farming where they grow abundant eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables which they sell in the marketplace. Their white grapes are abundant and their fig trees bend with fullness.  Over the years the families have built an extensive irrigation network for their crops and they have a well that has also gotten them in trouble with the State.  The well was also bulldozed once.  Within the last 10 years, 13 cisterns of all the families have been destroyed.  Atta’s irrigation system was also destroyed.  But again, the family rebuilds and fixes what the settlers and the Israeli Military destroy.  And now, the family must buy their drinking water from the Israeli district authority which sells them their  own water.

“They try to steal our humanity,” Atta said, when asked by a visitor to explain what the Palestinians want.  He waves his hands, “I’m asking the world to support us in our struggle for humanity.  This is all we want. We don’t want help from the world. We have minds and muscles. We have a rich mind. We don’t want a million or a billion dollars. We are not beggars.  We have been waiting for over 60 years for this. I can support myself and my family,” he looks down at his wife who is busily making stuffed grape leaves for supper, and he gazes with pride at his daughters nearby working on a computer.

When asked where he learned his English, he proudly states that he worked in an Israeli hotel  for 12 years and pointed to a hotel management certificate on the wall. He added that he also speaks some Spanish and German.

Atta and Rudaina have three daughters and one son all of which go to school in Hebron.  One of them comes to us with a huge sunflower and breaks it in several parts. Together we pick the seeds and crunch them in silence occasionally looking down the next hill at a gas station across the road in what was also once family land, where the settlers are amassing.

Rumor around the town all week has been that there would be trouble with the settlers. They are incensed that the United Nations this week is considering a petition by Palestinians to declare them a legitimate state.  Whenever there has been trouble in any part of the Occupied or Israeli territories, the settlers from the two illegal settlements descend upon the Palestinian families.  They have entered Atta’s house and set fires then afterwards prayed.  “They are a very religious, you know,” Atta said as he crushes a cigarette butt in an ashtray.  The irony is not lost on the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) observers.  In Hebron in August the Israeli military arrested 200 men when the attacks in Eilat occurred.

Today especially there is talk of problems in Hebron particularly in the old city. Everyone is on high alert. Abuses by the Israeli military happen daily especially at night and around the checkpoints.  Atta looks out in the distance and sees a white car approaching.

It is Rabbis for Human Rights activist, Rabbi Arik Acherman. The family is elated. Rudaina and her daughters serve dinner. Both the Rabbi and Atta are on the phone connecting with other Palestinian leaders as they eat.  By now about 50 people have amassed at the gas station. In the distance we can see several armored cars and dark figures that turn out to be soldiers.  Some people carrying Israeli flags begin walking toward the lands of Atta an his brothers.  A regiment of about six soldiers begin to ascend up the road, but stop at a large boulder below the house.

Lara, Atta’s youngest, clutches her father waist. He strokes her head tenderly, looks over and says she is afraid.  Meanwhile, Rudaina retreats to a corner of the terrace and begins to pray.  Rabbi Acherman sooths the family and observers by explaining that he has spoken to the Israeli military, and they have told him that the settlers would be allowed to go onto state land but not unto private property.

Evening has descended upon this human drama.  Rudaina comes out of the house, nervously looking towards the valley.  She takes out an automizer inhaler and breaths in.  After about two hours, the settlers begin to disperse. Only an SUV with a very,very loud speaker and a glowing menorah defiantly blasts music to the wind.  The observers wondered if the driver’s hearing will be permanently damaged by the blasts.  Only the soldiers behind the boulders can be seen. Eventually, even they disappear down the road and into the night.  Rabbi Acherman takes his leave saying he has to get back to his family in Jerusalem.  The children gleefully guide the ISM observers down the hills around to a waiting taxi.  They kiss and bid the ISM observers goodby. The last words they hear are al hamdulilah, Praise be to God, and ma’ al salama,[go] with Peace.

For now, at least.

“Holy water” in Qusra attracts violent settlers

18 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

While farming their land in the village of Qusra, 50 year old Fathalla and his three sons were attacked by a group of armed settlers on the morning of September 16th. The attack came amid recent increase of settler violence in anticipation of the UN vote on recognition of Palestinian state.

Fathalla and his three sons were working in a fig orchad, when one of the boys heard someone breaking the lock on their well. They saw 9 armed settlers, three of them with M-16 and the rest with pistols and a dog. The Abu Reida family decided to hold back the settlers until Israeli military arrived. Following a similar incident, Palestinians reported settler attacks to the Israeli district coordination office, but were dismissed and told to “hold back settlers” next time there is an incident  until the army could arrive.

As Fathalla and his sons approached the well, they noticed that one of the settlers was taking a bath in the well, which houses water used for both farming and drinking by the Palestinian family.

“I’m afraid to drink this water now. I think they dirtied it, and maybe even poisoned it, as has happened in the past,”  said Fathalla, adding that settlers believed that water from that area was holy and bathing in it rinsed all sins.

In the mean time, one of the Fathalla sons called Qusra’s local sheikh, who announced on the villages loudspeakers that settlers had invaded the village. Fathalla and his sons were preventing settlers from leaving by blocking a fenced road running through the fields. Settlers kept firing their guns in the air.

When villagers approached, settlers panicked and one of them jumped the fence. Fathalla’s19-year-old son followed  one of the settler’s who was armed with an M-16.

Another settler released the dog, which attack the young man. As he was being attack and fell to the ground, the settler broke his leg. His brothers left the other settlers to flee, while they assisted their injured brother.

As they were escaping the scene, settlers shot random series of live ammunitation in the direction of villagers, wounding Fathalla Abu Reida in his thigh.

Tought by the previous experience with reporting settlers attacks, Fathalla sons took plenty of pictures documenting the entire incident. Abu Reida family submittted pictures and their testimonies to the Palestinian Authority, who in turn said they would communicate with the Israeli district coordination office.

“I don’t believe they will react. But I still have to do everything that is possible to try to save my land,” said Fathalla.

The Israeli military forces, claiming they were coming to arrest one of the settlers, arrived to Qusra around 1 pm on the same day.

“There were 200 soldiers! Why would they send so many soldiers to arrest one man?, said Fathalla.

Soldiers cracked down on the village, showering it with tear gas at the southern outskirts of the village. Women, men, and children reportedly protested this second invasion by Israelis.

Qusra inhabitants felt their village has become a scene of increasing settler violence over last four months. Settlers activity typically occurs every Friday during the congregational prayer time for Muslims.

The last attack took place on September 5th, when settlers from an outpost of the illegal settlement Migron torched a mosque. Just few days earlier, on August 28th, settlers uprooted 100 hundred olive trees. The entire village came to stop them, yet the army arrived soon after, ordering people to disperse. As Jamal Adli Hassan was walking away, an Israeli officer shot him with live ammunition in his leg.

The surge in violence coming from the illegal settlements in the West Bank last week might be connected to arming and training settlers by the Israeli miliatary in anticipation of Palestinian protests against lack of recognition of their basic right to self-determination as the Palestinian Authority approach the UN for their bid as the 194th country in the world.

Settlers burn ISM tent in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah

14 September 2011 | The Alternative Information Center

At about 2am on Monday, 11 September, settlers in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah burnt to the ground an International Solidarity Movement tent that had been established to monitor and prevent settler violence in the neighborhood.

The tent, which thankfully was empty at the time it was torched, had been located in the front yard of the al-Kurd family home since March 2011. The Al-Kurd family, who have  lived on the property since 1956, reside in the back section of their home while a constantly rotating cast of Orthodox Jewish young men occupy the front extension of their home. This is due to an Israeli court ruling that forbids the Al-Kurd family from living in their home extension, which they built with their own hands in 2000. Since it was occupied with settlers in 2008, the al-Kurd family has been forced to endure an uneasy, tense and potentially violent co-existence with settlers in their own home. The ISM has maintained a constant presence outside the al-Kurd home to monitor this situation and demonstrate international solidarity.

“I was in the house,” says Nabil al-Kurd, “and at 1.30 a.m. I heard something. I went outside, I saw firemen and I saw the policemen.” Mohammed Sawbag, resident of the neighborhood, adds that “the police asked for proof, photos or something, pictures that we took- we have our cameras around the site, and computer screens inside Nabil’s house. We will send a disc of what happened to the police.”

Settler violence is nothing new for this area of East Jerusalem accustomed to political, civil and ideological conflict. In 1956, 28 Palestinian refugee families were allocated the land by UNRWA and the Jordanian government, the latter controlling East Jerusalem after the 1948 Middle East War. The Promised property deeds to the land were never delivered  to the families, and after the 1967 Middle East War the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset Israel Committee produced Ottomon-era title deeds alleging Jewish ownership of the land from the late 1800s. Despite the dubious authenticity of the documents (a trip to the Ottoman archives in Turkey in the late 1990s revealed that the alleged documents do not exist in their records, and the documents themselves lack essential specifying features characteristic of the era, such as detailed descriptions of the property), and despite the fact that ownership guaranteed by the documents is merely a primary registration of ownership that does not allow for the uprooting of third parties who inhabit the land, the Committees quickly began demanding rent payments from, and seeking to evict, the 28 families of Sheikh Jarrah.

The vicious legal battle which has plagued the community since the mid-1970s took a drastic turn in 2009, when four families were forcibly evicted by Israel from their homes. Now, numerous settler families live side-by-side with the 23 remaining Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, who are embroiled in court battles and live suspended in a precarious state of uncertainty.

Why does Israel want this land? The Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinians’ Rights in Jerusalem, in its December 2009 report ‘Dispossession and Eviction in Jerusalem: The Stories of Sheikh Jarrah’, writes that “Sheikh Jarrah’s…strategic importance is based on the fact that Israeli control over this area…will form a Jewish ring or buffer between what Israel intends to keep, Jerusalem with a Jewish majority, under its direct control”[1]. The report continues that “collectively the various development initiatives in Sheikh Jarrah are intended to advance the creation of Israeli strongholds in the historic basin surrounding the Old City- with Sheikh Jarrah to the north, Silwan to the south, and the Mount of Olives to the east. Sheikh Jarrah is situated between the Old City and Mount Scopus which is home to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. In order to establish continuity through this valued corridor linking West Jerusalem with locations of strategic, historical, and religious significance to the Jewish population, a succession of Israeli neighborhoods were built to link West Jerusalem and Mount Scopus”[2].

The battle of Sheikh Jarrah residents against the Israeli Commissions is thus simultaneously a battle against the Israeli occupation, annexation and colonization of East Jerusalem.  Standing in front of the charred ruins of the ISM tent, Sheikh Jarrah resident Mohammed Sawbag relates how “from the beginning they don’t want this kind of protest. It makes them nervous….they don’t like the tent, with or without [people in it]…they don’t like this kind of symbol”.

This recent act of violence is the most extreme in a string of assaults over the last month. “It’s not the first time they tried to burn it”, relates one ISM activist. “In July settlers tried to destroy it, they ripped the side, entered the tent, and were urinating on the mattresses, we had to get new blankets. Then they urinated and defacated on the sofa” outside the tent. The most horrific incident occurred in late July. “We were sitting outside, it was 2 a.m. and from the small window next to the tent they threw all this shit in the tent, it went on the mattress, on the floor, inside, everywhere. We cleaned and then an hour later, shit again. Then we cleaned again and the settlers went out, pretending they didn’t do it.”

The blaze in the front yard of the al-Kurd family home came as a shock to the close-knit Palestinian community of Sheikh Jarrah. Says Nabil al-Kurd, “nobody does anything like this except for the settlers, because nobody in the [neighborhood] can do anything to my house, because they are good. If I am good with you, I don’t do anything bad.”

The settlers have left visible signs of their animosity throughout the property. The front door and surrounding courtyard of the Al-Kurd family’s home extension, which settlers have occupied since 2008, is adorned with layers of Israeli flags and Stars of David, a display that oversteps the boundaries of religious-cultural pride and enters the terrain of sheer brazenness and stubborn self-assertion. This display pales, however, in comparison to the occupied house across the street, which, in addition to being draped with Israeli flags, is crowned with an enormous 10-foot tall menorah on the roof. The walls of the Al-Kurd courtyard are emblazoned with graffiti like ‘Fuck Palestine’ and the logo of the Jewish Defense League, and most of the colorful drawings on the walls, painted by activists along with the children of the Al-Kurd home and the Sheikh Jarrah community, have been scrawled over with black spray paint. Slogans like ‘Free Paly’ and images of Palestinian flags wrapped in barbed wire, however, still remain on the courtyard walls as testaments to resistance and solidarity.

As ISM will continue its presence in Sheikh Jarrah, Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity is developing new tactics to raise awareness and combat the occupation throughout East Jerusalem. Says Sarah- “Sheikh Jarrah isn’t an isolated incident, you can’t isolate the incident in Sheikh Jarrah from what’s going on in all of East Jerusalem. So through the past year we’ve been demonstrating in other places, and the objective now is to bring this situation to new audiences, that maybe may not come to a demonstration because they’re scared, or don’t like to demonstrate. So we will do this by way of tours and by founding an information center which will be a base in Sheikh Jarrah, and not something which will just be on a weekly basis, and raising the situation there as related to the rest of East Jerusalem…. the point is we are working out of very basic human rights…it’s about fighting for equality and justice. And obviously what’s going on in East Jerusalem is that Palestinians are being discriminated against- that’s why it’s easier for Jewish settlers to take over the land, because the law favors them.”

For now, the police are investigating the al-Kurd family footage, and searching for the suspect(s). Meanwhile, ISMers maintain a nightly presence in Sheikh Jarrah, sitting out under the stars until a new tent is constructed. Says Mohammed Sawbag, “they [the settlers] will not try to do anything for the next few days, because the situation is bad for them. We have pictures of who did it. They are afraid. A settler told me he was not responsible, that he doesn’t know who did it. I told him you are lying! He tried to tell me that during the last month there were no insults and nothing bad has happened. He is lying!”

Nabil al-Kurd said it best as he stood in his front yard, next to the charred remnants of the ISM tent, three feet away from the words ‘Fuck Palestine’ scrawled on his courtyard wall, beside the home extension which legally is not his, though he built it with his bare hands- “This is democracy in Israel!”

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[1]http://www.civiccoalition-jerusalem.org/ccdprj.ps/new/pdfs/Sheikh%20Jarrah%20Report%20(2).pdf. page 9

[2]page 19

[3]http://www.en.justjlm.org/584