Tag: Settler violence - Page 21 - International Solidarity Movement

Illegal settlers celebrate Purim after cold-blooded murder of Palestinian youths

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 — 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 onlookers

Israeli settlers celebrating while Palestinians are denied walking down the street

Palestinians 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 checkpoint

https://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.

Israeli Forces push their way into girls school

21st March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Sunday, 20^th 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.

Continuous struggle for justice in occupied Hebron

15^th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On 9^th March 2016, Israeli forces yet again demolished the illegally erected synagogue-tent on private Palestinian land close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron).

The synagogue-tent was build up by settlers some years ago opposite the main entrance to the biggest settlement on the outskirts of the city, Kiryat Arba. Even though it is privately owned Palestinian land, Israeli forces have never even attempted to stop the settlers from going onto the land and illegally erecting the so called synagogue – first as a tent, later on as a more permanent structure.

Settlers gathering on the Jabari family land with police protection

The land is located in between the entrance to Kiryat Arba and a second illegal settlement of Givat Ha’vot – and strategically connects the two with a set of stairs which already cuts right through the land. The Jabari family who legally owns the land has been fighting this in Israeli court for years. Even though the court ruled that they are the legal owners, the family are banned by the Israeli forces from using the stairs and even ordered to leave and threatened with arrest by Israeli soldiers when they try to go onto their land. Settlers, on the other hand, freely trespass on the land protected by both the Israeli army and the civil police.

After the synagogue-tent was last demolished in April 2015 in accordance with the Israeli court’s decision, settlers returned only a day later to start rebuilding. The structure was demolished yet again on 9^th March this year.

For years the families living in the direct vicinity have faced settler harassment and attacks on an almost daily basis. At the end of last year, Israeli forces put an additional tent, a military checkpoint, on the land. Palestinians walking down the main road next to the land are stopped, checked, interrogated and searched by the Israeli forces. This is a road which only settlers and Israeli forces are allowed to drive on. Palestinians must walk.

This clearly illustrates the way that Palestinians not only in al-Khalil, but all over the Israeli occupied West Bank, have barely any chance of successfully addressing illegal land-theft or any other violations of their basic human rights. Humiliation, violence, attacks and crimes against Palestinians are going unpunished as settlers enjoy complete impunity and injustice prevails.

Israeli forces continue policy of arbitrary and violent arrests in Hebron’s Old City

25th February 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On 25^th February 2016, Israeli forces violently arrested two Palestinian men in the souq, the Palestinian market, in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Both of them were arbitrarily arrested and finally allowed to leave only after residents intervened.

Palestinian arrested by Israeli forces with arm twisted behind his back

Israeli forces entered a Palestinian house in the souq that is undergoing renovations already in the morning – as settlers from the nearby illegal settlements had repeatedly complained about the ongoing renovation work at the Palestinian house to the army. Following the orders of the settlers, the Israeli army entered the Palestinian market and the Palestinian family home in order to stop the renovations. Similarly, in the afternoon, Israeli forces climbed the staircase to the roof where they stayed for about an hour. International observers that arrived in the house were prevented by the Israeli forces from accessing the roof as soldiers pointed their guns at them to force them to stay at the bottom of the staircase.

When the soldiers finally left the family roof, it became clear that they had arrested two Palestinian men. They clearly dragged one of them, Yusef, down the staircase with his arm painfully twisted behind his back, even though he at no point resisted or fought back. Israeli forces also violently pushed him into a door. A second man, an engineer with the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee that is overseeing the renovations in the house, was forced to come with the soldiers. They briskly walked both of the men to the back entrance of the illegal settlements, where they were held in front of the door that directly leads into the settlement by the group of seven soldiers. The whole time, Yusef had his arm twisted behind his back by a soldier, that would not let go of him. When international observers asked the engineer for his name, in order to be able to inform his family about the arrest, soldiers forcefully instructed him not to talk to them.

Israeli forces dragging Yusef down the stairs

Palestinian families living close to the entrance to the illegal settlement came out of their houses, trying to find out why the two men were arrested. Soldiers refused to give any information though, and only when two residents that were able to speak Hebrew talked to the soldiers, did they say what the problem was. According to the soldiers, Yusef was arrested as his ID was ‘old’, meaning it was worn out. As residents took out their own ID-cards and compared them with Yusef’s to show to soldiers that this does not mean that it is a mere photocopy of an ID-card, but how the green West Bank Palestinian ID-card actually looks like, they eventually let him go. The other man was also eventually allowed to leave.

Israeli forces photographing Palestinian ID with their private phones

The soldiers disappeared back through the door into the illegall settlement located in the historic city center of al-Khalil. The power the settlers living there wield over the soldiers is clearly illustrated by simple complaints by them resulting in soldiers stopping renovations in a Palestinian house that had previously been approved by the Israeli government, and the entirely arbitrary arrest of the two Palestinian men.

Wreath-laying in commemoration of Ibrahimi mosque massacre

25th February 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

25 February 2016 marks the 22^nd anniversary of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). In commemoration of the Palestinians killed in this massacre, the Hebron Defense Committee (HDC) organised a wreath-laying at the martyrs cemetry.

Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler walked into the Ibrahimi mosque on 25^th February during the Ramadan noon-prayer and opened fire on the worshippers, executing 29 and injuring more than 120 Palestinians. In the direct aftermath of this massacre, Israeli forces started cracking down on Palestinian basic human rights, freedom of movement and freedom of worship. The Ibrahimi mosque was divided into two parts and a synagogue installed in one part with exclusive use for Israeli settlers from the illegal Israeli settlers in al-Khalil. The once bustling Palestinian market in Shuhada Street was closed for Palestinians, their shops forced to close and doors welded shut – and has now become known as ‘ghost town’.

In order to remember and commemorate the Palestinians killed in the massacre, the Hebron Defense Committee, representatives of the families of the martyrs of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, the governor of Hebron amongst others attended the wreath-laying at the martyrs cemetry in al-Khalil, where those killed by Israeli forces and settlers are laid for their last rest. In a speech, Hisham Sharabati, the coordinator of the HDC, stressed the importance of the ‘freedom of worship’ that is so often infringed on by the Israeli forces, and the duty to protect this freedom. As direct results of the heinous massacre committeed by Baruch Goldstein, Israeli forces imposed restrictions and closures on the whole Palestinian population – a collective punishment that is illegal under international law – in an attempt to force Palestinians out. According to Hisham Sharabati, thus it is even more important to remember and continue the struggle for their rights, under the motto ‘Dismantle the Ghetto, take the settlers out of Hebron‘ with the aim of ending the illegal Israeli occupation.

The representative of the families of those murdered in the Ibrahimi mosque massacre asked for more attention for the victims families. Whereas the grave of Baruch Goldstein in the biggest illegal settlement right on the outskirts of occupied al-Khalil, Kiryat Arba, has become a shrine that is worshipped by settlers not only from al-Khalil but throughout the occupied West Bank and Israel; while the families of the Palestinian victims are asking for more attention. Instead, they are suffering from the Israeli forces violence, harassment and closures that are violently enforced on the whole Palestinian population in al-Khalil.