17 February 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
Israeli occupation soldiers and settler army. @ISM
On February 14, for the second time in 3 days, a settler from an illegal outpost west of Ma’on settlement, entered At-Tuwani, in Masafer Yatta, to do illegal drilling and construction work in the Youth of Sumud garden. Five heavily armed and masked settlers in reservist clothing blocked Palestinians, who were with solidarity activists, from accessing their own land. A surveillance drone was also present (video).
Video of a surveillance drone. @ISM
The settler soldiers called for backup and were quickly joined by more masked settler soldiers and three active duty occupation soldiers, who further blocked access to the land, giving time for the settlers to complete their work.
When a member of Youth of Sumud asked the commanding soldier if he would make the settler leave his land, the officer answered: “No, and in fact you are the one disturbing the peace, so I will ask you to leave.” He then told him he could file a complaint with the police.
The soldier then showed a digital map of the area with a red circle over large parts of the Sumud garden and declared it a military zone for the next 30 days, which means Palestinians and solidarity activists cannot enter without facing arrest or violence.
A map showing the new closed military area ordered by the Israeli occupation forces, without a date. @ISM
Such digital maps are not reviewed by a judge and are not legal; this one did not even have a date. Israeli solidarity activists report they have seen them produced on the spot in the Jeep.
Finally the police came and, acknowledging the illegal digital map, demanded IDs from all Palestinians and solidarity activists present, and the settler soldiers together with the occupation army and police pushed Palestinians to the family home.
This is only one example of how Israeli occupation police, army, and settlers work together to commit illegal land grabs and settlement expansion, and to drive Palestinians from their lands and homes. There is a pattern of land grabbing in at-Tuwani and in Masafer Yatta, which has intensified since October: first the bulldozing of the garden, then the installing of Israeli flags and now these illegal construction works.
Yet the people of at-Tuwani and neighboring communities have been showing their steadfastness, as they resist daily oppression and colonization of their lands.
Activist from Youth of Sumud confronting the IOF. @ISM
Illegal settlers working on Palestinian land under the protection of settler army. @ISMIsraeli flag illegally installed in the Youth of Sumud garden, at-Tuwani. @ISM
This week the International Solidarity Movement has been targeted in the Israeli media. Articles have appeared naming and showing pictures and videos of ISM Volunteers and Israeli activists accusing them of spreading ‘a false campaign against settler violence’ and of being Hamas supporters and ‘Nazi helpers’. In the current atmosphere of violenceagainst dissent this puts the individuals accused at considerable risk.
The right-wing attack on the ISM began after we called on supporters to contact international embassies over the situation in Masafer Yatta. Our callout must have touched a nerve, and we would like our supporters to renew efforts to pressure representative offices and embassies in the coming week.
The attack on ISM and other Human Rights Defenders is an attempt to ensure that there are no witnesses to report the attacks of Israeli colonial settlers on Palestinians, so that the settlers and military can continue committing ethnic cleansing across the West Bank with the support of the occupation. They claim that we are falsely posing as Human Rights defenders along with another 22 organizations who have called to stop the ethnic cleansing in the South Hebron Hills.
They are also accusing us of “fueling the false settler violence” campaign in order to cause significant damage to Israel in the international arena. In fact, our statements and documentation of the reality of the situation on the ground have only covered a fraction of the atrocities being committed by settlers. In September, the UN reported that settler-driven displacements had already been increasing in number throughout 2022, and that those Palestinians remaining in isolated communities were at “elevated risk.” Of the nearly 2,000 Palestinians displaced amid settler violence since 2022, 43% of these displacements by persistent settler attrition have occurred – in just over one month – since October 7th 2023.
We will not be intimidated, we will continue to provide protective presence to communities that ask for it, and we will continue to call-out and nonviolently resist the ethnic cleansing that is going on. Now is a critical moment in the Palestinian struggle, and in the global struggle for justice. Solidarity is needed now more than ever.
Since the beginning of the attack on Gaza our volunteers have reported on and witnessed uniformed settlers terrorizing small Palestinian hamlets, making threats to kill and opening fire at civilians with live ammunition. ISM’s role in Masafer Yatta – along with our Israeli comrades – is to maintain a protective presence to deter further violence, and to report on the colonial settlers’ attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from the area.
Some of the articles in the Israeli right wing media have focused on an American former ISM volunteer who they claim is a founder and ‘the leader of ISM’. The person in question, although they were in the past an ISM volunteer, they were not a founder and nor were they a leader of ISM. In fact, one of ISM’s four guiding principles is that we are a non-hierarchical movement and do not have individual leaders. This individual is no longer a part of ISM following an internal process addressing ethical disagreements that ended with the individual in question leaving the group in 2017. ISM is not responsible for the actions of this – or any other – individual who do not operate within our principles aND are no longer connected to our support groups
The articles also say that ISM is “an operational arm of Hamas”, when in fact the ISM is independent. We are not proponents of any political parties. We use only nonviolent tactics, and believe that nonviolent actions are a powerful tool in fighting oppression, occupation and apartheid.
Attacks of this kind have recently escalated, but they are not new. Last November Bezalel Smotrich stated that human rights organizations are “an existential threat to Israel” and that their real purpose is “to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel.”
As well as the ISM, the attack targets 22 other Left-wing organizations that recently issued a call to the international community to stop the ethnic cleansing and forcible displacements in the West Bank. The letter sent by the organizations reads: “The international community is called upon to act urgently to stop the wave of settler violence, which is carried out with the support of the state, and which leads and will lead to the expulsion of Palestinian communities in the West Bank. We believe that the only way to stop the deportation in the West Bank is through direct, strong and unequivocal intervention by the international community.”
The situation in the West Bank has rapidly deteriorated since the most recent war on Gaza began on October 7th. Since the start of the war on Gaza, more than 169 Palestinians – including 46 children – have been killed in the West Bank, and more than 3,000 have been arrested. As Gaza suffers from ceaseless and criminal bombing, settlers have expanded their attacks on herding and isolated rural communities in the West Bank to force Palestinians to leave by making their lives unbearable. In herding communities in the South Hebron hills, armed settlers close off access roads, attacking those who try to leave. Villagers are regularly injured by settlers opening fire with live ammunition. No food or fodder can get into communities, children cannot access their schools, and the community members are in a persistent state of anxiety and dread.
The ISM has maintained a continuous presence in the West Bank since the beginning of the Second Intifada. Our role is to support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, and provide an internationalist platform for volunteers to stand side-by-side with Palestinians, enhance Palestinian voices and bring the truth of ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing to the international community.
ISM Volunteers, side-by-side with Israeli human rights defenders, provide a protective presence in these West Bank communities. We are hosted by members of the community. Our presence is intended to deter settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces carrying out acts of violence in these communities. Volunteers document human rights violations and act as night guards in the communities staying awake overnight so that the families can get some sleep.
As the world’s eyes are rightly upon the Israeli genocide taking place in Gaza, many horrific episodes of ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities are taking place in the dark in the West Bank, unnoticed by the majority of the international community.
We ask people around the world to pressure their governments to take immediate action to stop the attacks happening in the West Bank
Script for communication to Embassies and Representatives:
I am writing to demand rapid action be taken by this body to defend human rights in the West Bank. As violations of International Humanitarian Law continue to be committed against occupied Palestinians, world leaders who do not take every action to defend human life and dignity are complicit in the denial of them.
Daily incidents of violence committed by Israeli settlers against isolated and vulnerable Palestinian families in the South Hebron Hills are being documented and transmitted to the world. Daily transgressions of the rights of Palestinians to live their lives without being harassed, searched, arbitrarily arrested and held without charge, raided, shot at and humiliated by the army and settlers -who are being emboldened by the silence of the international community. These violations are being reported by human rights organizations across the globe. With the whole world watching, what side of history will you be on?
December 1st | International Solidarity Movement | Al Khalil, occupied Palestine
Last Saturday, November 23rd, was ‘Sarah’s day’, a festivity for the Jewish community that gathers Israeli settlers from all around the occupied Palestinian Territories and Jews travelling from abroad, in the Palestinian city of Al Khalil (also known as Hebron). This year in particular, there has been a special effort by the Hebron Fund to bring as many devotees as possible, who converged in the ‘H2’ zone of Al Khalil, including the old city area and all the surrounding illegal Israeli settlements.
A sign on Shuhada Street, Hebron,
In their daily life, Palestinians’ right of movement in this zone is severely restricted, and at times forbidden. The incoming celebrations worsened, if possible, the situation. In response to the huge influx of settlers and people coming from abroad, military involvement was significantly increased.
The outcome of these three different factors -massive presence of zionists, increased military presence and effective closing down of the area for the Palestinian residents – was a situation in which the incoming crowds were legitimated to do any type of action inside a de-facto ‘amusement-park’, with the complicity of the army, whose effective duty is to control and suppress local people and activists. The situation resembled the conditions under which the first settlement in Hebron was created. In 1968, a group of Israeli zionists reserved hotel rooms in the old city during a Jewish holiday. Their stay evolved into a permanent occupation, protected by Israeli soldiers and endorsed by the Israeli government.
Banner put by zionists during Sarah’s day.
What it was possible to witness from the participants in the Sarah’s day celebrations, seemed to be all the frustration and the rage cumulated during the year, crystallized, materialising into the basest actions, and enabled by an unlimited sense of power. These feelings were exemplified by banners such as “Palestine never existed… and never will” [source: Hebron Fund]. They transformed into overt hostility and aggression against the international activists observing the events. They emerged as physically violent attacks with pepper spray against unarmed Palestinian civilians, including children. This culminated with the stoning of a two-years old sleeping child.
A 2 years old kid stoned by the settlers in Tel Rumeida.
This gathering of zionists seems to flush out all the frustration due to the incompleteness of the apartheid process: the Palestinians in Al Khalil are guilty of not being fully subjugated by the racist policies of the state of Israel, and such a gathering is a good opportunity to remind them of the hierarchy that is supposed to be in place.
In view of all this, several questions are raised.
First of all, of course, why? Why such a rage and such a violent spirit? Does Israel not have enough? Illegally occupying a vast majority of Palestinian land seems not to be sufficient. The real occupation and the true oppression is carried out through the routine and persistent humiliation of Palestinians, and the feeling of impotence with which local people are left after every attack. However, it does not take much time for the Palestinians to resume their usual spirit of resistance. Their resilience is stronger than the fascist soul of a bunch of extremist settlers.
Secondly, what is the role of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) present there? On
Friday afternoon, a group of almost 150 settlers attacked a barber shop on the way to the Kyriat Arba illegal settlement, assaulting the five people inside with pepper spray, wood and furniture. All around, a huge presence of IOF soldiers; did they stop this fascist aggression?
A couple of hours later, a 12 years old child was attacked by a group of settlers, spraying him with pepper spray and kicking him whilst on the ground. Nearby soldiers were stationed at an observation tower 50 meters away; did the soldiers intervene?
A 12 years old Palestinian kid gased and then kicked by the settlers.
In both cases the soldiers did not stop the violence. They observed, and they waited. They waited and watched while the illegal settlers vented their hatred against the Palestinians. At what expense?
A further, even more extreme example, took place on Saturday afternoon. The family of a Palestinian activist living in the Tel Rumeida neighbour (within the ‘H2’ zone) was gathered together in their home, when a group of settlers climbed on the roof and entered their garden. After shouting verbal abuse, the settlers began to throw stones at the house, the family came outside trying, in vain, to convince them to go away. One of the stones passed, not by chance, through a window and hit the two year old nephew of the activist, who was sleeping inside. The soldiers were on the rooftop, “containing” (i.e. observing) the settlers. A Palestinian ambulance could not reach Tel Rumeida: Palestinians are forbidden to drive inside ‘H2’. The only way for the family of the injured child to get him to safety and medical treatment, was to hold him and run, through the throngs of yelling settlers, towards the closest checkpoint. Then they could only hope for the medics to be able to pass the control and take the child. There are at least two past examples this not being possible. In one case, the victim died waiting at the checkpoint. On this occasion, mercifully the child could reach the ambulance, and the medical staff were able to take him to the waiting ambulance.
Palestinian medical staff trying to pass the check point 56 in order to enter Shuada street.
Hence it seems clear that the role of the IOF is not to prevent clashes. Not even to defend the Israelis. Their role is to indulge the settlers, whatever the price to pay for the others. In their amusement-park there is no place for disrupters, such as activists, adult and child Palestinians, who are systematically and brutally repressed.
IOF during Sarah’s day.
In the end, what should Palestinians do in order not just to be spectators of their own everlasting humiliation? The answer is more complicated than ever. As time passes by, the imbalance of power shifts further away from them, as the recent US declaration highlights. Active resistance is undermined by both the continued oppression of the Israeli police and the internal conflicts within the Palestinians factions. The presence of international activists helps in documenting the constant violations of basic rights, but is certainly not enough to change the inertia of the dynamics. While hope for change by pure political means weakens, space is created for more radical, and sometimes more appealing, answers based on the juxtaposition of Islamist ideas to the zionist arguments. The international powers, focused on the pure capitalistic interest of maintaining good relationships with Israel as an ally, are responsible for this radicalisation. They, and all those who turn a blind eye to the injustices happening here lose the right to judge the Palestinian means of resistance, in the face of an oppression in which they are accomplices.
