26th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
Last night at 10 pm, a live ammunition bullet was fired at the headquarters of the human rights organisation Youth Against Settlements (YAS) in Hebron.
Live bullet shot at YAS house (Photo by activists)
The spokesperson for YAS, Damer Atash, explains that a group of activists were sitting in front of the house headquarters when the bullet was fired. The bullet was shot from the nearby olive groves making it impossible to see the shooter, although two voices were heard. Luckily, the group of activists were not hurt, instead, the bullet bounced off the window right behind them. “At first we thought it was a stone but instead we found a bullet”, said one of the activists.
At 22:15 pm, the group called the Israeli police, who arrived some 40 minutes later at approximately 11 pm, after the police arrived the military joined them and stayed for about 20 minutes. However, none of them searched the premises for the bullet canister.
The shooter was not seen, but it is likely that it was an attack from one of the neighbouring settlers, as the bullet was bigger than those used by the army. Even though this is the first incident of shooting against YAS, this would not be the first time the house has been attacked by settlers. They have previously tried to burn the house, set the kitchen of the headquarters on fire and uprooted trees. In these incidents the Israeli army or police have not taken any action against the settlers.
Israeli army and police also participate in the harassment of YAS and its human rights organizers. On Wednesday alone, the army invaded the house three times during the evening and night for what it is believed to be a training exercise for the army.
The despair and fear this causes is not uncommon for the 35,000 Palestinians living under complete control of 1500 Israeli soldiers and police officers, and the constant harassment and violence from the 500 settlers illegally living in the Israeli controlled H2 area of Hebron.
23th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Azzun, Occupied Palestine
Israeli forces continue their strike on the village of Azzun. Last week alone, three teenagers were arrested and one was handed a paper to go to the Israeli DCO (District Coordination Office).
On Thursday 18th July, two young men, Yahya Ali Adwan and Abdal Hameed, both seventeen years old, were arrested by the Israeli forces. Soldiers invaded the village early in the morning and took the boys from their homes, handcuffed and blindfolded.
Yahya Ali Adwan’s photo on his family living room wall (Photo by ISM)
At around 1am on the morning of Thursday 18th July soldiers invaded Azzun, entering houses, claiming to have reason to search. They were looking specifically for Yahya Ali Adwan, as they raided the house of his uncle and demanded to be taken to him. On arriving at Yahya’s home the Israeli army, dressed in balaclavas, refused to wait for his father to open the door and forced entry. The family were woken and told to produce their IDs. When they saw Yahya’s they handcuffed and blindfolded him and took him to a waiting military vehicle. When his father asked why they were taking his son the soldiers simply replied ‘He is under arrest’.
No contact was made to the family until two days after, with a call informing them that Yahya had been taken to al Jalame prison (Jenin) and was under investigation.
Abdal Hameed, also seventeen, was arrested on the same night under similar circumstances. Both boys, even at this young age, have already spent over two years in Israeli prisons. Yahya was released just three months ago.
During the time of their arrests, numerous other military jeeps and soldiers were in the area, shooting tear gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets and sound bombs to suppress resistance from local residents.
Various members of Abdal Hameed and Yahya Ali Adwan’s family are also currently in prison. Abdel Hameed’s brother has been in jail for a long time and has been put in solitary confinement for months at a time – treatment which has severely affected his health. According to the family, once when his mother went to visit him in the prison he didn’t even recognize her.
On the Friday 19th July, after these 2 arrests, at around 10pm, two more young men from Azzun were detained by the Israeli forces when they were walking on the main street near their home. Thamer Thabet Aabed, seventeen, was taken into a military jeep and arrested for the first time in his life. The other teenager, also seventeen, was let go but told to meet with the Israeli DCO on Sunday 21st July. Contact was made with the Red Cross on Saturday 20th to try and find out where Thamer was taken, but his location is still unknown.
The town of Azzun is the home of about 10,000 Palestinians. It is located in the northern West Bank district of Qalqiliya and it is surrounded by several military towers and five illegal settelements including Ma’ale Shomeron, Qarne Shomron and Alfe Menashe.
Since 1990, the Israeli military has been randomly blocking three entrances to the village; the eastern, northern and northwest which leads to Road 55. In 2005, the military removed all roadblocks except the one in the eastern entrance. However, the main entrance, located in the north part of the village, has been closed regularly for several years. This ranges from closures of several hours to 45 days, with the military using road blocks or closing the army-installed gate to enforce this on Azzun. According to B’Tselem, since the beginning of 2013, the military has blocked the road nine times.
Northern entrance to Azzun (Photo by ISM)
Blocking access to the road from the northern entrance not only harms the lives of the residents of Azzun but of the population from the villagers nearby as they have to access road 55 from Azzun.
Settler attacks are also a constant for residents of Azzun. On June 18, settler women hung up a banner at the entrance of Azzun reading: “On Tuesday, the village will become ours.” The unconcealed threat was signed by “The Women of Samaria”. About three months earlier, the town had been attacked by around fifty young settlers who entered the town through the eastern-most checkpoint.
Army incursions into the town happen on a daily basis and arrests of minors and men are extremely frequent. According to a council worker, Azzun has the largest number of arrestees, around 150 people, 95% of them less than eighteen years old.
The Israeli army use torture and violence to force confessions from children prisoners. Often the arrestees are made to sign a statement written in Hebrew that they can’t understand, which includes details of other children living in the town or confessions from the arrestees, allowing the army to use this as ‘evidence’ of invented crimes.
“Azzun is like Guantanamo, a huge prison where human rights are systematically violated with total impunity” stated a council worker.
22nd July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On Saturday the 20th, whilst taking his sheep out to graze on his land, 56 year old Abd Al-Karim Ibrahim Al-Jabari was stopped and harassed by settlers and soldiers before being taken for questioning to the police station in Givat Ha’avot, an illegal settlement in occupied Hebron.
The Jabari House (Photo by ISM)
Abd Al-Karim’s land is located between the two illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha’avot. When he took his sheep out to graze on his land yesterday morning, he was stopped by settler security guards from the nearby settlement of Givat Ha’avot who subsequently called the Israeli occupation forces. He spent several minutes discussing with the soldiers, who refused to believe that he is the owner of the land and insisted it was Jewish land, as the settlers had told them. A soldier said to Abd Al-Karim: “This land and this house is mine and I will get you out of it”. The soldiers then decided to take him to Givat Ha’avot police station for further questioning. Abd Al-Karim, who speaks Hebrew, heard the soldiers say to each other that they wanted to handcuff him and then push him out of the jeep whilst driving. However, he managed to calmly insist and persuade them that there was no need for him to be handcuffed or blindfolded.
When they arrived at Givat Ha’avot police station, a police officer who knows Abd Al-Karim and his situation scolded the soldiers for bringing him there, confirmed that he owns the land, and told the soldiers to take him home again, which they did. Abd Al-Karim explained that the soldiers who arrested him are Shabbat reinforcements from another brigade that is not normally stationed in Hebron and therefore do not know the Jabari family and their situation.
Israeli settlers tried to pave this road through the Jabari land and straight to the Givat Ha’avot settlement above (Photo by ISM)
After Abd Al-Karim was arrested, his son continued discussing with Israeli soldiers and asked them to stay to protect them from settlers, who were gathering in a tent set up on the Jabari family’s land which serves as a synagogue. However the soldiers refused to stay and said they would only come back after a one-hour coffee break. They also prevented international activists from filming the scene. Two hours later, the soldiers still hadn’t returned, leaving the Jabari family vulnerable to settler attacks. Abd Al-Karim explained that this has happened many times before.
The Jabari family used to live where Givat Ha’avot settlement now is, and they owned two more houses that were demolished. They have been living in their current house for 16 years.
The Jabari family has suffered countless attacks by both settlers and soldiers over many years. The settlers regularly come to harass and attack the Jabari family when they are out on their land grazing sheep or tending to their trees. They also steal vegetables from their land before the Jabari family can harvest them. In the past, settlers have often thrown rubbish, stones and empty alcohol bottles into their garden. Abd Al-Karim says he has recorded about 1,500 incidents since 2001. Everyone in his family has been arrested at some point or other. They have filed countless complaints at the police station, which has only led to further aggression and arrests by the Israeli military, who are seemingly trying to crush their spirit of resistance and defiance. Abd Al-Karim believes that his family is more vulnerable to settler attacks than their neighbours because they refuse to back down and insist on continuing to enter and use their land.
Israeli settlers built this prayer tent right in the middle of the Jabari land and made a path to it (Photo by ISM)
A few years ago, a couple of thousand settlers entered the Jabari family’s property and prayed outside their house. The settlers have said many times that they intend to take over the Jabari’s house and land.
Once, settlers were throwing stones at one of Abd Al-Karim’s sons. Soldiers came and twisted his arms behind his back and told the settlers to continue throwing stones at him. He was hit in the face by a stone and badly injured.
Two years ago, during Ramadan, soldiers would come to several houses in the neighbourhood just a couple of minutes before the call to prayer for iftaar (breaking the fast). They would force the whole family to move into one room and lock them inside, with all the food prepared and ready outside. The Jabari family’s neighbours were locked inside a room for 24 hours without food or water and were only released for iftaar the next day, meaning they had to fast for 48 hours. They were at the mercy of the soldiers to let them out to use the toilet.
When they soldiers attemped to do this to the Jabari family one day, Abd Al-Karim argued with them and refused to move into a room. The soldiers nevertheless entered their house and watched them break their fast. They then demanded to be shown around the house, but again Abd Al-Karim refused and insisted on calmly drinking his coffee and smoking a cigarette. He told them to go look around the house on their own, but refused to have his break ruined. The soldiers checked the house and left after an hour. Abd Al-Karim says he is proud that he refused to be locked into a room like his neighbours and that the soldiers could not force him.
As the Jabari family was sitting with ISM volunteers telling their story, a settler entered their garden. Abd Al-Karim and his son reassured the worried internationals and explained that this settler was an old friend and came to visit them regularly. They offered him coffee and cigarettes, and told stories of how they already used to play together as children. “We’re not against Jews or Israelis living here. All we ask of God is to live in peace with our children.”
21th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On the evening of Sunday, July 14, in the old city of Hebron two Palestinian children named Mohammed and Ahmed, both aged 13 years old, were arrested. Though joining a wave of child arrests in Hebron during the last weeks, the arrests of the two boys stand out because of the massive number of soldiers and police actively participating.
5-year-old Wadia arrested with his father, also blindfolded, by Israeli focers in Hebron (Photo by ISM)
The first boy, 13 year old Mohammed, was taken from his family home in the Israeli controlled H2 area of Hebron, home to 31,000 Palestinian people and approximately 500 illegal Israeli settlers. Allegedly the arrest was made because Mohammed threw a stone at Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets, though no evidence of this has been made public to international observers who witnessed soldiers invading Mohammed’s home and leading him away to Beit Romano Military base. The second boy, named Ahmed and also 13 years old, was taken from one of Hebron’s market streets, situated in H1, an area that is supposed to be controlled fully by Palestinian police forces. Sidestepping this agreement, the soldiers invaded H1, grabbed Ahmed and brought him with them back into H2, claiming he had thrown a tomato at a nearby settlement.
Both individual arrests were carried out by more than five Israeli soldiers, but as events rolled the number progressed to more than 30 heavily armed members of the occupying forces. The arrest of Ahmed led to outcries in the market, with Ahmed’s mother demanding the soldiers on the wall separating the two areas to give back her son. The soldiers responded by sending more than 30 soldiers to the wall, bringing with them both live ammunition and several teargas grenades, threatening to shoot these into the mass of assembled people gathered on the other side of the wall. The situation escalated as armed settlers joined the soldiers, harassing international observers.
Finally, an hour later, a visibly shaken Ahmed was taken through the mass of settlers and military personnel and released back into H1 to his waiting family. Mohammed had to endure further dehumanizing punishment as he was taken to the Police station outside Ibrihimi Mosque. This was where an Israeli police officer lied to internationals present, stating the boy would be released and that those present could “trust him”; in fact Mohammed was transferred to Qiryat Arba police station and held until his family could make their way there to pay a fine of 500 NIS for his release.
The city of Hebron has experienced a wave of child arrests during the last weeks, often violating Israeli military law stating that children under the age of 12 cannot be arrested, as in the case of 5-year-old Wadia[i]. Though both Ahmed and Mohammed are 13, Palestinians complain that this law, giving Israeli occupation forces the right to arrest children from the age of 12, is only ever enforced for their children and not for settler children. On Sunday night in Hebron this proved true, as settler children attacked internationals by throwing a stone on the scene before the eyes of Israeli soldiers without consequences.
16th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine
On Saturday the 13th of July about forty settlers on a settler ‘tour’ once again strolled through the Old City of Al Khalil (Hebron).
Today they were joined by almost as many soldiers from the Israeli army, Israeli Border Police and Israeli police force. The occupation forces kept blocking the streets, forcing local Palestinians working or shopping to use longer alternative routes or wait behind for the full hour the tour lasted.
Almost as many soldiers as illegal settlers disrupted the daily life of the local Palestinians in the streets of Al Khalil/Hebron (Photo by ISM)
Around 1.30 pm the settler tour was preceded by the army invading a private Palestinian home and occupying their rooftop. The ‘tour’ went on through the streets of the Palestinian neighbourhoods while the heavily armed soldiers escorting the illegal settlers and Zionist tourists controlled how close the international observers could get, to the point of threatening to throw tear gas grenades. Meanwhile soldiers prevented Palestinian men, women and children from moving through their own streets and tried to expel children from their own neighborhood. At one point a young boy tried to get through with a cart, coming from one of the shops where he was helping with work, but not even he was allowed to pass by the tour. As the settlers moved through the Palestinian residential areas, the soldiers kept intruding into Palestinian homes to enter their rooftops.
Today the settlers’ tour followed a different route than in previous weeks, following narrow streets within the old city. Four Border Police officers remained at the back of the group, keeping international observers at a long distance from the settler group, effectively preventing much observation of the settlers’ behaviour as they entered the old city. As people started to gather behind the ‘tour’, waiting to enter homes and shops one of these officers took out a camera and started filming the Palestinian children and the international observers. At no point were people allowed to pass the settler group.
The soldiers wouldn’t let this young boy trough despite obviously interrupting his working routine (Photo by ISM)
This weekly “tour” of Hebron disturbs the daily lives of Palestinians in the busy Souq of Hebron, which has seen an extreme decrease in trade since the Israeli occupation forces closed Shuhada street, which was formerly Hebron’s busiest market. Rather than closing the Souq, where there are several illegal Israeli settlements, Palestinian residents think the Israeli forces are trying to make life there as uncomfortable as possible and thus pressure them to move out of the area.
