Tag: Settlers

Popular resistance expands in An Nabi Salih

International Solidarity Movement

5 February 2010

For immediate release:

10 people were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas cannisters in today’s demonstration in An-Nabi Salih village, in the north Ramallah region, against the expansion of the illegal Halamish settlement on to village lands.

The storm clouds and cold temperatures did not deter demonstrators, as some 100 locals (approximately a fourth of the village), both male and female, were joined by 20 Israeli and international activists in the village square following the midday prayer. Protesters then marched towards the lands south of the village where stands Halamish settlement, built on the stolen lands of An-Nabi Salih, and where Israeli occupation forces awaited their arrival. Demonstrators chanted songs of protest and carried baby olive trees in the hopes of planting them on the seized land as a peaceful assertion of their rights to be there. These hopes were squashed as the first volleys of tear gas grenades were fired, causing protesters to disperse to the fields either side of the road. A barrage of tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets were fired on demonstrators from soldiers positioned to the south and south-east of the village.

Protesters carry baby olive trees to plant on the annexed land.

The demonstration quickly became an exercise in organized community resistance, as demonstrators created makeshift barricades on the roads, pre-empting an invasion of military jeeps to the village. Dumpsters wheeled down the road towards the soldiers served as an effective road block, and doubled as shelter to the volleys of tear gas, .22 caliber bullets and rubber-coated steel bullets whizzing past their heads. Several tires were positioned in the centre of the road and set ablaze, the black smoke it exuded mingling with that of the gas canisters landing amongst the protesters.

10 young local protesters were injured in the attack launched by Israeli occupation forces, including Omar Tamimi, hit 5 times by rubber-coated steel bullets, and Risat Tamimi, hit twice. 8 more were struck by rubber-coated steel or tear-gas grenades, fired from soldiers’ M-16 automatic weapons and causing severe injury when fired directly at people. Those injured were removed from the scene by Red Crescent medics.

Flaming tires lit by demonstrators

Despite the overwhelming use of disproportionate brute force by the Israeli military, the village’s youth showed remarkable courage in what has become the weekly struggle to defend their village from violent occupying forces. Previous demonstrations in An-Nabi Salih have culminated in targeted military attacks on village children, tear gas fired in to homes from short range and violent arrests when Israeli soldiers entered the village. Demonstrators succeeded in keeping military forces at bay today, and preventing the possibility of arrest. The demonstration came to an end around 4pm as the soldiers appeared relinquish their positions near the village and retreat to the road that split Halamish and An Nabi Salih.

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.

Sheikh Jarrah: Gawi family tent demolished as tension builds, gathering to rebuild tent today at 4PM

International Solidarity Movement

2 February 2010

What? Gathering to rebuild Gawi family tent and show support for evicted families in Sheikh Jarrah

When? 4pm, 2 February 2010

Where? Outside occupied Gawi family house, Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem

Settler attacks young boy in Sheikh Jarrah.
Settler attacks young boy in Sheikh Jarrah.

Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem – At 4PM in a showing of solidarity with the forcefully evicted families of Sheikh Jarrah, Israeli, Palestinian and international supporters will gather to rebuild the Gawi family tent after it was demolished by police earlier today.

At 9AM police raided and removed the living space of the Gawi family in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. Local residents scrambled to remove personal belongings before police confiscated the Gawi tent where the family has been living since their forceful eviction in August of last year.

This is the 12th demolition of the Gawi living space. Previous demolitions have occurred as tension in the neighborhood builds and settler vs. Palestinian conflict occurs. This demolition is no different. On Sunday, January 31st one settler and Nasser Gawi were suspended from entering the neighborhood for 15 days after an altercation.

The settler exited the occupied Gawi house with an M-16 and physically attacked a neighborhood child. As residents stepped in to defend the child, the settler punched Nasser Gawi and after Nasser returned blows the settler cocked his assault rifle, pointing it wildly at the gathered crowd. The weapon was confiscated and both were detained.

Press is invited to today’s tent re-building.

Report on altercation between settlers and neighborhood residents on 31 January 2010 including photo and video: https://palsolidarity.org/2010/02/11104

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.

Settlers target Palestinian car in arson attack for the second time

International Solidarity Movement

31 January 2010

Settlers torched a car in the northern West Bank village of Asira Al-Qabliya in the early hours of Thursday morning, January 28. The attack was launched from the notorious Shalhevit Yam outpost of Yitzhar settlement, that lies a short distance from the village and has been waging a continuous campaign of intimidation on the village.

Residents of Asira Al-Qabliya reported a car from the outpost approaching the village at approximately 1:30am on Thursday morning. An Israeli military jeep was then sighted pulling up alongside the car, at which point soldiers were witnessed conversing with the settlers, although making no effort to force the settlers to retreat to the outpost. The jeep departed towards the settlement, leaving the settlers to linger on the edge of the village.

The family of Machmoud Darhoud awoke the next morning to find Darhoud’s work vehicle burnt down to its framework, still smouldering, in the driveway. The Darhoud home is located on the eastern edge of the village, halfway up the hill which atop sits the Shalhevit Yam outpost. The car appeared to have been doused in gasoline, inside and out, then set ablaze. Several tools necessary for Darhoud’s work in Asira Al-Qabliya’s stone quarry, left inside the car, were lost in the blaze too.

It is not the first time Darhoud’s property has come under attack, nor is it the first time such an assault has been launched with arson. A car belonging to the family was torched under almost identical circumstances in 2007, both cars costing the family a hefty value of 5000 shekels. Their home itself has been targeted repeatedly by settlers also. 2 weeks prior to the most recent arson attack a gang of 20 settlers surrounded the home, hurling rocks and screaming abuse at the terrified family inside. 9 months ago saw the most vicious attack yet, when approximately 60 settlers surrounded the home, hurling dozens of rocks and destroying almost all of the glass windows in the house. When the Israeli military arrived on the scene they quickly occupied the home, firing live ammunition that punctured the water tanks on the roof.

The attack spurred the family on to construct a large concrete wall around their home. The wall has done little to deter the assailants however, as sporadic attacks continue unabated. Despite the impressive two-storey stature of the Darhoud home, the entire family now sleeps in one room, as the 6 traumatised children manage only to sleep in the safety of one another. Darhoud reports that he will now be parking his other vehicle at his father’s house each night, located within the relative sanctity of the village.

Other families living nearby suffer similar problems from the precarious nature of their homes’ locations. The Jamal family home to the east of Darhoud’s has been spraypainted with Jewish Stars of David so many times now that the family has simply given up trying to clean them off. ISM activists maintain a period presence in the area, particularly on Saturdays when the Jewish holiday of Shabbat gives rise to the most violent manifestations of settler harassment.

Since the creation of the Shalhevit Yam outpost in 2001, families living in Asira al-Qabliya’s east have experienced more problems than they ever bargained for. It is a reoccuring theme for those unfortunate to live in the shadow of Yitzhar settlement, that has stolen thousands of dunums of farmland and dozens of water wells from Asira al-Qabliya and the surrounding villages of Buin, Madama, Einabus, Urif and Huwara. The last decade has seen a sharp increase in territorial settler violence.

Background on Yitzhar settlement:

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighbouring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Saturdays, the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat, typically sees Yitzhar settlers roused to fever pitch zeal, wrecking havoc upon Palestinian villages unfortunate enough to live in its shadow. Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area. In one of the most extreme act of terrorism students of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Hai yeshiva fired homemade rockets on Burin in 2008.

Not content with committing their own acts of brutality, Yitzhar rabbis are key players in incitement of targeted violence across the West Bank. Rabbi Elitzur from the same Yitzhar yeshiva published a book this November titled “The Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles”, condoning even the murder of non-Jewish babies, lest they grow to “be dangerous like their parents”. Rabbi Elitzur is vocal in his encouragement of “operations of reciprocal responsibility” such as the arson attack made on Yasuf mosque in December 2009.

Despite West Banks settlements’ status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Yitzhar also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.

Call for international day of action to re-open Shuhada street to Palestinians

Open Shuhada Street

29 January 2010

On 25 February 2010 activists and organizations from around the world will join together in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron, through local protests, and petitions to the Israeli Government. We will be calling to re-open Shuhada Street to all Palestinians, bring life back into the city of Hebron, and to end the Occupation.

Our demands:
• Open Shuhada Street to Palestinian movement and commerce
• Full civil and human rights for all Israelis and Palestinians
• End the occupation

Shuhada Street used to be the principal street for Palestinians residents, businesses and a very active market place in the Palestinian city of Hebron. Today, because Shuhada Street runs through the Jewish settlement of Hebron, the street is closed to Palestinian movement and looks like a virtual ghost street which only Israelis and tourists are allowed to access. Hate graffiti has been sprayed across the closed Palestinian shops and Palestinians living on the street have to enter and exit their houses through their back doors or, even sometimes by climbing over neighbor’s roofs.

Photo by Issa Amro

Shuhada Street was closed for the first time following the Baruch Goldstein massacre on February 25, 1994, in which a settler from nearby Kiryat Arba settlement murdered 29 Palestinians while praying in a mosque in Hebron. In order to raise awareness about the injustice of the closure of Shuhada Street, we will coordinate a joint solidarity campaign/action all over the world which will take place on February 25, 2010, as an effort to commemorate the Baruch Goldstein massacre which took place 16 years ago on this date.

We are calling on activist groups in cities around the world to participate in this action by gathering their forces together to symbolically shut down a major street in their cities and/or organize a protest/demonstration on February 25 in solidarity with Shuhada Street. We are focusing on Shuhada Street as a symbol of the settlement issue, the policy of separation in Hebron and the entire West Bank, the lack of freedom of movement, and the occupation at large. In addition to raising awareness about these issues, the campaign, if organized well, can be an important sign of the strength of global movement for human rights in Israel.

For more information about the campaign and to find out how to get involved please go to www.openshuhadastreet.org/campaigns, contact openshuhadastreet@gmail.com or join us on Facebook.

An Nabi Salih: Village children gassed while taking refuge from military

International Solidarity Movement

29 January 2010

Over 20 village residents – including 14 children – were targeted by Israeli soldiers in a volley of tear gas and rubber coated bullets as they took refuge in the Tamimi family house in An Nabi Salih. The residents were not part of the weekly demonstration and children from surrounding houses had gathered there for safety. One boy was hit in the stomach with a gas canister. Five people, children and elderly women, were taken away in ambulances and treated for injuries including tear gas asphyxiation.

Earlier, near 12:30PM, Israeli soldiers blocked the non-violent demonstration as they attempted to reach a spring recently taken by settlers from the near-by Jewish-only Hallamish settlement. Demonstrators slowly advanced a few meters and sat down. Israeli and international activists joined in solidarity. This tactic was repeated many times until soldiers began firing tear gas canisters directly at the demonstrators. As soldiers surrounded the village, shooting tear gas from three sides, a water cannon shooting foul smelling waste-water was deployed.

Just after the water cannon emptied its tanks, the Tamimi house was fired on.

As tear gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets flew through windows of the house, Red Crescent and activist volunteers responded to the attack, helping women and children outside to safety. In all, nine women, one man and 14 children were caught inside during the attack.

Water cannon shoots waste-water at demonstrators
Water cannon shoots waste-water at demonstrators

The same house was targeted one week ago when tear gas and sound grenades broke through the windows. Seven people were gassed but no injuries were serious. As the women and children exited the house, soldiers told them to go back in. They refused due to large amounts of tear gas lingering inside and the soldiers hit them. One woman was arrested.

This brutal repression of a non-violent demonstration and targeting innocent bystanders comes as the Israeli government attempts to squash the popular resistance through illegitimate arrests and disproportionate force.

According to one An Nabi Salih resident, the demonstration’s goal was to reach a spring taken by Israeli settlers, but the over all motivation for ongoing demonstrations is to stop the constant advance of the Hallamish settlement onto Palestinian land. Residents say that since 1977 the settlement has taken half of the village’s farm-land, burning or cutting down trees tended by the village for generations.

Approximately six weeks ago, a group of Halamish settlers took over the spring located in privately owned Palestinian land in between the village and the settlement. Since then, and despite the fact that ownership of the land undisputed, the army began preventing Palestinians from accessing the area.