Tag: Settlers

Sheikh Jarrah woman arrested as far-right MK tours settler-occupied homes

International Solidarity Movement

14 February 2010

Sheikh Jarrah resident, 45 year old Fatima Diab was arrested by Israeli police on Saturday evening, February 13, following the provocative appearance of far-right Knesset member Micheal Bin Ari at the Al-Gawi home in solidarity with the extremist settlers occupying the house. Diab was released on a bail of 2000 shekels following an appearance in Jerusalem District Court on February 14.

Tensions were raised in the neighbourhood as MK Bin Ari arrived around 7pm, entering the occupied Al-Gawi house to inspect the state of the settler takeover, accompanied by heightened settler and police presence. Shouting broke out as Bin Ari exited the stolen home, with settlers and Palestinian residents exchanging taunts. Diab, who stood in the crowd, flicked water on Bin Ari as he walked to his car, causing police to immediately demand that she accompany them to the police station for questioning.

Returning home to Sheikh Jarrah at 2am, an exhausted Saleh Diab (brother of Fatima) informed the some ten residents and international solidarity activists assembled for night watch that his sister was being forced to spend the night at the police station. In a split second the entire atmosphere of the neighbourhood had morphed from the relaxed air of the nightly, fire-lit vigil to one of distress and renewed tension. Diab was the first woman of Sheikh Jarrah to be imprisoned.

Diab appeared in the Jerusalem District Court the following afternoon, by which point she was suffering dehydration and exhaustion from her night in an Israeli cell. She was permitted no access to a doctor or medicine until she was finally released around 7pm on the bail of 2000 shekels and was able to return to Sheikh Jarrah. Diab was sentenced to one week of house arrest and is banned from attending the weekly Friday demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah against settlement expansion in the area.

The incident has only served to exacerbate tensions in the community by the settler takeover, and further highlight the racist and discriminatory nature of Israeli police working in east Jerusalem. Diab herself was burnt by a cup of boiling coffee hurled on her by a settler youth two months ago, who was never reprimanded for the action.

Micheal Bin Ari of the National Union party is known for his position in the Israeli far-right as a provocateur, having been arrested in West Bank settlement demonstrations and protests against Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan in 2005. Several right-wing Members of Knesset have visited the settler-occupied homes in Sheikh Jarrah in recent months to show their support for the process of ethnic cleansing that is being waged on the Palestinian population.

Background on Sheikh Jarrah

Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.

So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.

The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.

Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

Legal background

The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.

The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.

The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.

Almond Tree Planting Interrupted by Israeli Soldiers

International Solidarity Movement

13 February 2010

Almond Tree Planting Interrupted by Israeli soldiers
Almond Tree Planting Interrupted by Israeli soldiers

Saturday morning around 9am, Palestinian residents of the Jubbet adh Dhib Village, south east of Bethlehem, were planting almond trees on their limited land when settlers from the nearby illegal outpost of Noqedim called the Israeli soldiers to stop them from doing so.

The soldiers arrived quickly, but didn’t do anything before their commander arrived half an hour later with a paper stating that the area was a closed military zone. Meanwhile, the settlers tried to herd their goats out on to the field, but the Palestinians verbally herded them back and demanded that the soldiers tell the settlers to leave the area as well. After another half an hour of discussion about who started the trouble and whose land this is, the soldiers made the settlers go back to their road and the Palestinians proceeded back to their village as well.

The village of Jubbet adh Dhib is surrounded by the settlements of Noqedim and Teqoa, which have been the target of many harassments from settlers and Israeli soldiers over the past several years. The villagers, who are denied electricity, had their water cut off one week ago and have only recently gained access to the only road that leads to the village.

The Noqedim settlement is home to Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, which the illegal outpost settlement economically benefits from.

Collective Wall-Building Effort Baffles IOF in An-Nabi Salih

International Solidarity Movement

12 February 2010

Soldiers Climb Hill to Attack Residents in Home
Soldiers Climb Hill to Attack Residents in Home

Israeli army and border police used tear gas, stun grenades, rubber- and plastic-coated bullets, live ammunition and “stinky water” to disperse close to 150 Palestinians who tried to reach their village well in An-Nabi Salih.  The villagers were accompanied by over 20 Israeli and international solidarity activists.

Following mid-day prayers, protesters marched towards the well and their agricultural lands but were immediately confronted with tear-gas and rubber-coated bullets.  A group of 50 settlers from the neighboring settlement of Halamish watched as the Israeli Occupation Forces attacked the Palestinians.  In total, 14 protesters were injured, including one hit in the face with a tear gas canister.

The march began in its usual fashion. Villagers, Israelis and internationals descended the hillside to attempt to plant olive trees in the settler-occupied land. As the contingent came within 50 meters of the road that splits An Nabi-Salih, IOF soldiers launched 15-20 tear gas grenades in rapid succession. The group went up the hill to regroup and there was an hour-long lull in the demonstration.

During this respite, a smaller group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals began tending to the fields near the road dividing the settlement and the village. In unison, they moved large boulders and rocks to build a series of three retaining walls that will further the growth of the crops in An-Nabi Salih. Differences that seemingly divide some were forgotten in that respite from the tear gas. Words such as “ownership” and “territory” were not a part of the repertoire.

The group’s project moved them closer to the road and the 6 soldiers guarding it. As the laborers approached, the soldiers appeared flabbergasted as they didn’t know how to handle such a situation. Those soldiers knew only force and how to implement it to repress, but this show of solidarity was something quite different then anything there training had taught them. Confused looks were all they could muster.

The irony of building walls collectively wasn’t lost to the group, when barriers physical and social that keep two cultures far from one another pervade their daily lives. These walls were different. They  didn’t divide, they were not impassable. These walls unified. They paved the way for An-Nabi Salih future crops. Crops that would come to fruition, in some degree, being nurtured through the solidarity between two cultures. It may be awhile, but perhaps they’ll be able to sit at a table, lacking the presence of soldiers, tear gas and conflict, and enjoy the fruits of the labor.

Wall construction ended when shots were heard from the southern edge of the village. ISM activists battled clouds of tear gas with hands visibly extended in order to reach an An-Nabi Salih home, containing women and children, which had been surrounded by IOF forces. Soldiers thankfully descended the hill after several tense moments.

Barricades were set up on the main road leading to An-Nabi Salih, using rocks and burning tires.  At around 2pm, a group of soldiers entered the village from the southwest side and fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas at protesters, endangering villagers trapped inside their homes. “Stinky water” was used twice on protesters.

Soldiers occupy the roof of a house in An-Nabi Salih
Soldiers occupy the roof of a house in An-Nabi Salih

At around 5pm, a group of approximately 8 soldiers occupied the roof of a villager’s house, firing plastic-coated bullets and tear gas at protesters below. The villager reported that when soldiers entered his home, they pointed their guns at him and told him not to move or they would kill him. Four adults and six children were trapped in the house until the soldiers left, but not before damaging the family’s internet receiver, located on the roof.

Thirty minutes later, the soldiers entered the same home again, cutting the back-yard fence in order to pass through.  An ISM activist present at the house was told not to film the soldiers’ actions. When the activist continued taking pictures from the entrance of the home, one soldier threw a stun grenade that exploded less than 3 meters from the activist and a young child.

The protest ended around 6pm, when soldiers began to use live ammunition.

The weekly Friday demonstrations in An-Nabi Salih commenced in December 2009, in protest to the uprooting of hundreds of olive trees by settlers from Halamish settlement. Construction of Halamish settlement began on farmland belonging to An-Nabi Salih and neighbouring villages in 1977. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened in the past month due to the settler’s attempt to re-annex An Nabi Salih land despite the December 2009 Israeli court case that ruled the property rights of the land to the An Nabi Salih residents. Despite the Israeli District Co-ordination Office’s promise to allow the village unrestricted passage to the land, farmers have been barred and violently assaulted when they attempted to access the land in question. An Nabi Salih’s resistance mirrors the ongoing resistance in Bi’lin, Ni’lin and the burgeoning popular struggle in Sheikh Jarrah, Iraq Burin, Burin and Al-Ma’asara.

Ma’asara Demonstration Takes a New Route to Settler Road

12 February 2010

Palestinians, Israelis and internationals walk on Road 60 during the demonstration.

Activists in Ma’asara village near Bethlehem changed their demonstration route today and marched to the “settler only” road outside the village. Once they reached Highway 60 the demonstration was surrounded by Israeli soldiers and the area was declared a closed military zone. Demonstrators were then besieged by tear gas as they made their way back to the village. Soldiers began following people into the village once the activists crossed the razor wire fence that the military uses to block the progress of weekly demonstrations. Many people suffered from tear gas inhalation at today’s demonstration, and many children were terrified once the military invaded the village.

Demonstration against the Wall in Al Ma'sara
Demonstration against the Wall in Al Ma\’sara

At the beginning of 2010 the Israeli military began intensifying the level of violence used in their methods to repress non-violent demonstrations in villages opposing the apartheid wall and settlements. Compared to Bil’in and Nil’in villages, which have dealt with military violence for their involvement in campaigns to halt the building of the apartheid wall and illegal Israeli settlement for the last five years, this is a relatively new occurrence in Ma’asara. International activists have been intermittently staying in Ma’asara to document and hopefully diminish soldier violence since the beginning of the year. The army has been targeting activists and popular committee members involved in organizing non-violent demonstrations in a series of night raids. People from the village expressed concern that the military would return tonight and continue targeting activists.

Sheikh Jarrah settlers threaten Palestinians with M-16 for the second time in 8 days

International Solidarity Movement

8 February 2010

A banner is hung during a demonstration against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions.
A banner is hung during a demonstration against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions.

According to local residents, a settler was seen spray painting a swastika on the Ghawi tent. The truck driver yelled at the settler and called the police. When the police arrived they ignored the settler and accused neighborhood Palestinians of having painted the swastika. Palestinians painted over the swastika to prevent further accusations.

Later, at 5.30 the settler came back again and this time accompanied with another settler dressed in army uniform. This time they threatened the 87 years old Rifka Al-Kurd with a M-16 machine gun and said that they would kill her. All this was taped by the Al-Kurd daughter and the recording was shown to the police who arrived 15 to 20 minutes after the incident started. The settler who was carrying the machine gun was arrested, but one managed to escape the scene before the police arrived.

The police wrote a report on the spot in Hebrew and handed it over to Mr. Al-Kurd and less then 45 minutes after the incident began the police had left.

The occupied Al-Kurd house where the M16 incident happened. The protest tent is to the right.
The occupied Al-Kurd house where the M16 incident happened. The protest tent is to the right.

Neither of the two settlers involved live in Sheikh Jarrah, but they are known by the Palestinian families from previous harassment incidents.

This event, combined with the events of last week mark a recent escalation of illegal and unjustified aggression by the Sheikh Jarrah settlers. The unexcited and light handed reaction of police against this aggression shows continued support by the Israeli government of these religious extremists and the settlements which have been condemned by the international community.

Last Sunday there was a similar incident with a settler waving a M-16 machine gun at the Palestinians.

See last report on settler violence in Sheikh Jarrah

Background on Sheikh Jarrah

Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.

So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.

The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.

Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

Legal background

The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.

The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.

The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.