30th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Wednesday 28thin the evening activists from the International Solidarity Movement once again received a call from local shop owner Ghassan telling that his shop was being surrounded by settlers from the illegal settlements in al-Khalil (Hebron).
The settlers were shouting curses at the Palestinians in the shop, harassing them and physically blocking the entrance to the shop. A group of about 6 adult settlers, most with machine guns, and a dozen of children were blocking the street in front of the shop and tried to prevent internationals access to the shop. The Israeli police did provide passage through the mob of settlers but then ordered the internationals to leave the area as soon as they realized ISMers were going into the shop.
Settlers outside Ghassans shop
The group of settlers kept shouting insults at the shop-owner and Palestinians as well as the internationals inside the shop. The settlers attempted getting into the shop, but luckily were prevented by the Israeli forces. When groups of settlers started attacking and insulting everyone inside the shop, the police banged one of the two remaining open door-jambs closed. A female settler, as can be seen in the following video, then insulted Palestinians, threatening them and calling for their death:
Instead of preventing this violent attack, Israeli forces slammed the door shop thus locking everyone on the inside in the shop without a possibility to leave or communicate. The settlers could still be heard banging on the doors and yelling. Only after the yelling and commotion calmed down after more than half an hour, the owner slowly opened the door to see if the settlers were gone. A few soldiers were still standing outside the shop, but no one informed the people on the inside of the shop that they would be able to open the door of the shop and thus get fresh air.
Short video of the police slamming the doors shut:
Ghassans shop is one of the last remaining Palestinian shops on Shuhada Street. Most Palestinian shops in the area, which used to contain Hebrons main fruit marked, have been closed by soldiers or the owners driven away by harassment and violence. Ghassan’s shop has, since it was opened in spite of violent settler-protests in the middle of this year, experienced countless incidents of settler violence and harassment.
27th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
During the last two days international human rights activists have repeatedly been attacked verbally and physically by infamous illegal settler Anat Cohen.
At 7:15 this morning, Anat Cohen emerged from Beit Hadassah illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida onto Qurtuba checkpoint, where two internationals were documenting the treatment of children and teachers as they passed through on their way to school, when she started screaming in Hebrew. When both internationals listened to her for a moment, then turned up the stairs where they were headed, she charged and punched one international in the back of the head. Six Israeli soldiers stood about five feet from them and did nothing to intervene at any time.
On deserted Shuhada street, a car rode up close to three internationals returning home from their monitoring of students safety at checkpoints near school clusters. After a short while a settler identified as Anat Cohen got out of the car and immediately started to harass the three human rights observers. Over the course of approximately six minutes, she physically assaulted all three, knocking one to the ground so that he was bleeding in multiple places, and attempting to destroy recording equipment, and striking them in the head.
Anat Cohen hitting international
Among other things in the constant stream of verbal assault and profanity, she said: “Go to Auschwitz. (…) Die in Hitler’s gas.” “Are there not enough European ladies in Europe? Do you have to come here to f*** Arab women? I know you are doing that!” After she noticed a male settler had arrived with his jeep, she became more physically aggressive while continuing to rant: ”What do you help the Palestinians with? Killing us?!”
All activists strictly complied with non-violence, backed off from her or shielded themselves with a raised hand against her attacks. Israeli forces arrived on the scene and asked her what the activists had done; she replied they wanted to help the Palestinians. The human rights workers were allowed to go while she kept on complaining to the soldiers.
Watch a video of the attack on internationals:
The day before the settler had followed two activists in her car to their apartment. While they were walking up the hill towards Tel Rumeida, she trailed them in her car and then blocked the way when they attempted to cross the road. She then complained to soldiers at a checkpoint about the internationals.
Anat Cohen
While Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces on a daily basis and four inhabitants of Hebron were shot to death in and around Hebron in the last two days only, also the hostility and violence towards internationals is soaring high.
Settlers have shot close-up photos of internationals serving different organisations and put up posters of them warning soldiers and settlers of them. The headline of the individual posters read : “This is not a tourist- it’s a hostile anarchist! Watch out: The individuals in these pictures are here to harm Israelis for anti-semitic reasons. Act accordingly!”
26th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
The morning of October 26th, four high-risk locations near schools in Hebron were monitored by international human rights workers, and all four saw incidents of violence to Palestinians and internationals at the hands of Israeli forces and illegal settlers.
At the Qurtuba school location, two international observers were denied their legal right to stand ten meters from the checkpoint while counting children passing and recording any incidents. A police officer demanded both passports, copied down some information onto paper, and angrily barked orders for one observer to give his name. The international was confused, as the officer was holding his government identification, until it became clear he was attempting to read it right-to-left, as though it were Hebrew. The internationals retreated, but then soon decided to observe from the top of a stairwell for which they were previously given permission. Illegal settler and frequent violent offender Anat Cohen came out of adjacent Beit Hadassah illegal settlement, screaming and charging at the observers, then striking one observer with a closed fist in the back of the head. Six soldiers standing five feet from her made no attempt to prevent the assault or intervene after the fact, and the observers continued up the stairs while Anat continued screaming obscenities.
Tear gas filling the streets at Queitun
Today at the Salaymeh checkpoint, through which children pass to attend three different schools, two international observers witnessed soldiers provoking the children on their way school by pretending to shoot at them. Israeli forces opened fire with rounds of tear gas at children gathered in this dense urban area, where the buildings are tall and close together, and there is nowhere to quickly escape the thick clouds of CN particles. Suddenly, two soldiers charged toward a cluster of children and fired tear-gas again, at 20 meters, dangerously close range. In total more than thirteen tear gas canisters were shot over approximately fifty children. A settler was watching the scene, visibly enjoying it and photographing the pupils and internationals.
Palestinian schoolgirls running away from tear gas
The Al Faihaa Basic School is situated at the end of Shuhada street. This morning, two internationals who were stationed there, along with a caretaker who lives at the school stood in front of the gates, hurrying the girls into the school-grounds, watching for fast passing illegal settler vehicles, and accompanying the girls across the road. He explained that lately, teachers and school officials have been particularly worried that a student will be attacked or kidnapped on the way to school in light of recent settler violence. Tear-gas fired on children at nearby Salaymeh and Queitun checkpoints entered Faihaa school through the windows around 8am, during the morning assembly. Teachers hurried to close the windows to protect themselves and the children against it, but one teacher called to say she would be absent from school as she had to be rushed to hospital for teargas exposure, and another who was in attendance had to be administered an oxygen mask due to excessive teargas inhalation sustained on the way to and within the school yard. The school was closed at 9.30 due to teargas, and it was later reported from teachers in the school that 3 girls had been attacked on the way to school. An illegal settler attempted to run one over, a second had stones thrown at her by settler children, and a third was grabbed by the neck by settlers and threatened before being released.
Israeli forces right about to shoot tear gas at school-children
In the streets surrounding the Salymeh and Queitun checkpoints, over 30 youth, whose schools had already been closed due to excessive teargas in the area, were chanting and approaching the checkpoint. Israeli Forces shot at least 24 rounds of teargas at the youth, and clashes lasted until at least 9:15AM. An ambulance and several cars had to drive through the teargas. It was reported that approximately 50 children had already been taken to the hospital that morning due to teargas related medical issues.
Palestinian ambulance forced to go through clouds of tear gas
Watch a video of Israeli forces shooting tear gas at school-children
24th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Hamza Khalil Abu Eltarabish| Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine
Hamza Khalil Abu Eltarabish is a freelance journalist who graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza
The young Palestinian man Fadi Alon performs the dawn prayers in his home in the west of Jerusalem and browses his Facebook and other social media, until he falls hungry. He heads then to get some fresh Palestinian cakes for breakfast.
Carefully, Aloun, 19, walks in the alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem, with all the fears a young man can feel coming up, as Israeli settlers surround the city waiting for any Palestinian to attack and kill.
When he gets close to the bakery, a group of settlers surround him insulting and attacking him. The young man defends himself alone before the savage settlers.
After being attacked and beaten, Alon manages to escape and run towards his home. The group follows him and keeps saying “this is a vandal, kill him!” Immediately a policeman comes and shoots him, according to videos released on social media. His public execution is documented by videos that prove the handsome young Fadi Alon was not attacking Israelis, but that he was attacked by settlers and then shot by seven bullets.
“Israeli police killed my son while he was peacefully walking, with their alleged charge of stabbing Israeli settlers, where is the knife! We want to see the surveillance camera tape that separates every corner of the streets,” Alon’s father stated, accusing Israeli police of killing his son.
What happened with Alon is one of dozens of stories of Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Most Palestinians killed publicly are aged between 11 and 20 years of age, according to The Independent Commission for Human Rights.
Farid Atrash, a lawyer at the ICHR told Donia Al-Watan that this is a deliberate execution and violates all the international law, Rome, and Geneva conventions. “They are war crimes, the executions of the child Abdulrahman Obidallah and Ahmed Sharaka prove that.”
The ICHR documents the Palestinian killed under the execution policy: Ahmed Abdullah Sharaka (13 years); Amjad Joundi (17 years); Mohammed Al-Jabari (19 years); Obaidullah Abdul Rahman (11 years); Hudhaifah Solomon (18 years); Ibrahim Ahmed Mustafa Awad (28 years); Fadi Alon (19 years); Thaer Abu Ghazaleh (19 years); Sam Mansi (20 years); Isaac Badran (16 years); Ahmed Salah (20 years).
Hadeel’s execution as she refused to take her veil off
This is not a different story to Alon as she was executed in Hebron the second day of Al-Adha Eid, on September 22, 2015.
Fawaz Abu Eisha, an eyewitness to the incident, said that Hadeel tried to pass as others through Checkpoint 56. As she was wearing a veil, the soldiers asked her in Hebrew to leave the barrier immediately but she didn’t understand the soldiers, she stood not responding. Fawaz Abu Eisha, a Palestinian municipal worker, tried to translate the soldiers’ words to her.
Hadeel performed the soldiers’ order but they ordered her to stop again, firing a shot where she stood and firing another shot at her left leg then another at the right one until she fell to the ground.
A Palestinian ambulance arrived but Israel prevented them from evacuating Hadeel in order to give her medical treatment. Omar Ja’ara, a specialist in the Israeli issue pointed out that Israel claims that it directly kills Palestinian people in order to deter persons from stabbing Israeli soldiers, however Israel is executing Palestinians as a deterrence preemptively, rather than provoked by the Palestinians. Ja’ara pointed out that Israel has surveillance cameras so why hasn’t this been sent to the media?
Palestinian journalist Sawsan Shaheen declared that the Israeli attack on Palestinians comes in a calculated way by putting sharp tools near a Palestinian who is wounded or killed to send the international media a version about what happened: that Palestinians are terrorists.
Presidency Stance
The precedency spokesperson said in a statement released by the official media news Wafa that if the Israeli executions continue, the area will be considered to be an uncontrolled situation and everyone will pay the price.
Legislative Council Stance
The legislative council condemned these publicly committed Israeli crimes and that the world does not raise a finger against Israel, suggesting that the world continues to consider Israel above the law.
Negativity of Local Media
Palestinian local media deals with this policy very passively. Israel succeeds in passing on its poison as most journalists and activists spread any killing as a stabbing attack by Palestinians.
Issa Abdullah, a journalist at the official newspaper Al-Ayam said that journalists are approaching the news in this way due to their incomprehension of the Israelis, in a call-out to all activists and journalist to be sure about news they’re publishing especially the execution cases.
Finally, we remind the reader of the video of the Palestinian child Ahmed Manasra, who was lying down, surrounded by many settlers calling him dirty words and saying “die son of *****!” Since the beginning of October, killings have increased to reach 24 Palestinians and more than 1000 wounded [Ed note: this number has increased significantly since this article was written] . The videos prove that Israelis shot Palestinians without being a threat. After all this evidence, who will draw an end to public executions?
22nd October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | West Bank, occupied Palestine
At 8pm on Thursday, October 22, an armed illegal settler and a group of Israeli soldiers searched a garage in Huwwarah and assaulted the owner and other Palestinians present, causing visible injuries. They were searching for a youth who allegedly threw a molotov cocktail at a settler car passing by on the main street toward Nablus. The suspect was not found and they all left.
Afterwards a new group of soldiers arrived in seven jeeps and started searching the area. They asked the owner of the garage what had happened earlier with the settler and soldiers and then carried out a superficial investigation, with questions such as, “What did the soldier who attacked you look like? Was he tall or short? Did he have a beard?”. They then advised the Palestinians to report the assault to the police for further investigation.
According to the Palestinians, this kind of ‘investigation’ is a sham. Similar incidents regularly occur without any real action taken by the Israeli authorities. Afterwards the soldiers went to nearby shops to search for cameras that might have captured the youth throwing the molotov cocktail.
Sellter family in Huwarrah as the soldiers invaded.
Other illegal settlers passing by the garage stopped to offer coke and sweets as gifts to the soldiers. Reportedly, this incident lead to the closure of the Huwwarah check point, causing heavy traffic congestion on the road between Ramallah and Nablus for over 2 hours.
