Tag: Settlers - Page 29 - International Solidarity Movement

Jamal, steadfastness and a death

21st March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine

Jamal is younger than I am but he doesn’t look it. He is always there, as are all the storekeepers in the souk and he always greets us, as does nearly everybody (walking down the souk when it is open can be a slow business). We walk through the souk several times a day to monitor tension at the mosque and at the checkpoints beyond them.

Jamal sells beautiful Palestinian embroideries, rugs and cushions, but nobody buys. I stay with him for an hour to do this interview, and unusually in that time he has one group of customers, tourists from France who have bought before, but they don’t buy today. He gets out all his rugs and explains how good they are. He asks nervously if they wouldn’t like to buy a small something today, but they don’t. I want to shake them but I don’t.

We settle down to a cup of ginger tea (no conversation conducted without tea or coffee) and he tells me that he has been coming here for forty-seven years, starting as a child after school and in the holidays. It is his father’s store. (I’m going to leave Jamal’s words in the good but slightly broken English that he speaks in his very soft voice.) He has been here through all the troubles in Hebron.

‘I did watch the first intifada and the second intifada and now the third intifada. I did stay all that time and when settlers began occupying lands after the war in 1967, they start building settlements outside the city, and after that they move to the heart of the city you could say the 80s, inside the city, four settlements.’

That’s the situation we have now and that is what makes Hebron unique: four settlements in the heart of the old city, in Palestinian houses, with about 600 settlers living behind barbed wire and checkpoints, with between 1500 and 2000 armed Israeli soldiers stationed to ‘protect’ them from their Palestinian neighbours.

‘Number four the one it’s behind my store and on top of my store; it’s what they call Abraham Avino settlement. They built it on the main vegetable and fruit market. They occupied all these old houses above us, they rebuild them which is not their properties, they just took them, their owners did not sell them, they fight in court and they won the case but [the settlers] didn’t leave them.’

What this doesn’t convey is how close and how hostile the settlers are. They live literally above the shop, above a wire netting filled with rocks and rubbish which they throw from their windows: ‘We done it, we fix it as a kind of protection and sometimes that metal net won’t do any good as while you are standing they pour on you liquid such as dirty water, urine, rotten eggs, and all that happens in front of the soldiers’ eyes. On both sides there are watching towers, sometimes we do complain, we shout to the soldiers.’ The soldiers however do nothing. The soldiers do not do anything to protect Palestinians (or internationals) when settlers attack them and this happens often. They say it is a matter for the (Israeli) police but the police are never there.

I ask him how things used to be before the 1994 Massacre in the mosque that led to the obscene division of Hebron city centre into the two halves we have today. ‘It used to be crowded, active, so busy because you see the main city to produce this stuff [embroideries and rugs] is Hebron. Palestinians from all over used to come every day, even from the Gaza Strip, to buy their goods from here and to pray in the mosque and to leave late in the afternoon, and even internationals from the embassies from Ramallah and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, they used to come at the weekends to buy their stuff. We used to make a lot of money, we had a nice business and good life, no trouble, no problem, no nothing.’

I queried him: really, even though the settlements had begun to make their presence felt? ‘The settlements when they came in the eighties they were small and it wasn’t like any trouble between Palestinians or settlers. It used be that a lot of settlers even they came from Kiryat Arba to buy fruit and vegetables.’

Then I ask him about the Oslo Accords, that set of negotiations and agreements from the 1990s to the 2000s which led to the setting up of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank: that seemed to be a time of hope for many Palestinians, didn’t it? ‘People thought Oslo was good in a way. It might help and sort problems and solve it. We might have our own state. We were disappointed after that because they said at the beginning by the year 2000 all settlements in the heart of the city, they were going to leave them and to go and to live in Kiryat Arba, the main and the first and the biggest settlement outside the city.’

And why did it not happen? ‘Since that time the Israelis don’t want the peace process to go forward to let Palestinians have their own state, they don’t want it. Americans and British and a lot of countries, they said to them stop building settlements; they ignore everyone; they are not listening to anyone, they don’t want to give us a state.’

Jamal is very clear about the Israeli strategy: ‘Life is so hard, difficult, tough. We don’t feel safe and secure down here from the army and the settlers, we are frightened they will open fire on us and shoot us. Look what they have done round the mosque: they have shot so many people, they want the area empty, they want people to be frightened and to leave the area. By shooting these kids they made it so frightening even I don’t go there.’

I am sitting here writing this as my fellow activist Jenny comes in with breakfast and tells us that someone was shot and killed ten minutes ago at one of the checkpoints, not the one that we just came back from, one that none of the internationals was at. This says two things to me: this is exactly what Jamal is saying. Every day, small things and big things. Every day, pressure to leave. And secondly, if I was ever unconvinced, standing for two hours at a checkpoint counting and watching, that my time is well spent, I am not now. This would not have happened if international observers had been there. I am sure of this. How can we be everywhere all the time?

And Jamal reminds me of the other reason we are here: ‘The media is not on our side, it is on their side. When you go back home you are going to tell your husband, you are going to tell your kids, your neighbours, you are going to say what you have seen with your own eyes and they will know from you the harassment and the attacks and the bad things they do against us.’

There is already a funeral today. Now there will be another tomorrow, if the Israelis release the body. Muslims have to bury their dead the same or the next day. Three funerals last week. Funerals every week.

Jamal rejects violence for himself and his family. All that is left is sumud, steadfastness: ‘We are resistant, we are determined to stay, its hard for us to leave. It’s in our blood, it’s in our soul. To stay and to be patient. Here you have to live and to take this way of life because this is the way it goes, safe or not safe, peace or not peace, to me as a person I can’t do anything about it.’

I put my metaphorical pen down, sobered.

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.

Ethnic cleansing of Shuhada Street in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron)

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

Since the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, the majority of Shuhada Street – once the thriving Palestinian market and main thoroughfare connecting north and south al-Khalil (Hebron) – has been closed to Palestinians. They are completely barred from accessing it, except for a small stretch in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood.

Shuhada st split — Photos of the same portion of Shuhada street – a thriving market before 1994, now an empty street where no Palestinians are allowed to enter (published by B’Tselem)

This tiny strip that is legally still accessible for Palestinians is restricted by the recently ‘renovated’ Shuhada checkpoint at the beginning of the street and ends where the street begins to border the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah, beyond which Israeli forces assure that no Palestinians exist. Further down Shuhada street, clearly marked with yet another military post barring anyone who might attempt to enter the street, are even more Israeli settlements – all illegal under international law – located directly in the city center of al-Khalil.

The settlements on Shuhada Street are connected via a settler-only road to the much larger settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of al-Khalil; settlers can also reach the illegal Tel Rumeida settlement easily by traversing the tiny stretch of Shuhada Street still open to some Palestinians and the road leading up into Tel Rumeida from Shuhada checkpoint, now encompassed within the closed military zone. While Palestinians are allowed to walk on this part of Shuhada Street, Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, are forbidden from driving there. Since Israeli authorities declared the area part of a closed military zone on 1^st November 2015, the already barely existent access has been further restricted – Isreali forces only allow entry to Palestinians registered with them residents, while any Israeli settler, regardless of whether they are residents or not, can pass freely and without ever being harassed, stopped, detained, arrested, or threatened by the ever-present military forces.

Map of the city center of al-Khalil with Shuhada Street Credit: B'Tselem — Map of the city center of al-Khalil including Shuhada Street (the longest street marked in red) by B’Tselem

At the line demarcated by Daboya checkpoint (Checkpoint 55), where the illegal settlements on the street begin and Palestinians are no longer allowed, a steep flight of stairs leads up to Qurtuba school and into the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood. These stairs, the only way for Palestinians to continue traveling in the same direction above the street as they are not allowed to continue down Shuhada Street itself, have been closed by the Israeli forces with a metal gate since November 2015.

Stairs with the closed gate leading down to Shuhada Street

Even though this gate is currently not locked, Israeli forces deny any Palestinian, except for the students and teachers of Qurtuba school during school-time, to use these stairs. As a result Palestinian residents of this neighbourhood, once they have passed Shuhada checkpoint – an ordeal that can take several hours – have been denied to reach their homes by walking down Shuhada Street and the stairs leading up to Qurtuba school, forcing them instead to take a much longer detour around. With yet another way denied for Palestinans, navigating the maze of Israeli military-enforced checkpoints, complete bans on travel, roads where Palestinians cannot drive, settler-only roads, closed military zones and new arbitrary closures has become even more arduous.

Israeli forces are thereby also clearly working to minimise the number of Palestinians who will actually use this last portion of Shuhada Street – now a complete dead-end – as they bar Palestinians not only from going farther down the closed street but also declare the stairs, formerly an alternate route, yet another closed zone. This illustrates the Israeli attempts to rid Shuhada Street entirely of Palestinians. Ethnic cleansing in al-Khalil, and all across Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands is not a sudden, headline-grabbing event; it progresses gradually as Palestinians are restricted in certain areas, barred from driving there, prohibited from even being there, forced out to facilitate the expansion of the illegal settlements. Ethnic cleansing happens slowly, by erecting new and ‘fortifying’ existing checkpoints, advancing one more closure at a time.

‘It is my job to scare Palestinian children’ – Israeli forces justify intimidation of kindergarten children

6th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Kindergarten-children in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) often face harassment and intimidation by Israeli forces on their way to kindergarten.

Listen to this audio recording of a discussion between an international volunteer and the soldiers about why the soldiers ‘have to’ scare the kindergarten-children and see it as ‘their job’.

Israeli forces justify the intimidation and harassment of the children, between the ages of 4 to 6 years, that are forced to walk up a broken path – as the paved road on the other side of the fence is only allowed for Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements in al-Khalil – and then past a checkpoint on their daily way to and from the kindergarten, saying that they ‘need to scare them’ because otherwise they would ‘grow up and stab a soldier’.

Listen to the full recording:

Israel’s silent war on the children of Palestine

29th February 2016| International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Fortunately much of the world is now fully aware of Israel’s apartheid wall and the zionist state’s grotesque, illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories that it represents. But few are aware of the endless number of other apartheid structures scattered throughout Palestine with the direct purpose of further demoralizing and dehumanizing its proud people. At just four and five years old some might wonder if the Sasrriya kindergarten kids in Al-Khalil (Hebron) are aware of the apartheid fence they encounter every morning walking to and from kindy. On Sunday february the 29^th, whilst under the protection of international volunteers, these Palestinian kindergarten kids set off from home for a short yet challenging journey to school.

Palestinian children still find happiness in an apartheid regime — Young minds of the innocent blissfully unaware of the zionist apartheid regime

The kindergarten sits atop a hill. At it’s base is an apartheid fence. This symbol of persecution and maltreatment splits the path below in two. On the left is a well paved and regularly maintained strip. On the right is an old, eroding stretch of rubble littered with waste. The fence and its paths are located in the H2 area of Hebron, home to both Palestinians and illegal Israeli settlers, yet only one is accessible for these young Palestinian kids. With the well preserved strip specifically constructed for exclusive use by zionist settlers and the Israeli forces based in the area to serve them, the young children are forced to trudge up and down the dangerous, uneven path to get to and from kindy. Slipping and sliding on the loose ground below, the internationals always do their best to guide the kids through the uneven rubbish filled terrain and safely to their destination.

International activists do their best to keep the children safe from Israeli soldier harassment

“Its a horrible thing to see. To be exposed to this callous process of oppression and degradation at such a young age… I really feel for the Palestinian kids.” Human rights defender in Hebron.

Palestinian kindergarteners are forced to use the dangerous route by Israeli forces

Parents will only allow their children to attend kindergarten under the guidance and protection of international activists. Each morning volunteers from all over the world pick up the excited children from their homes and make their way up the apartheid path hand in hand. With Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers regularly abusing and harassing the innocent young children, the presence of these international activists is essential to ensure the safety of the kids. But even with the efforts of these human rights defenders Israeli forces and zionist settlers still attempt to dehumanize the kids, often hurling rubbish at them, making animal noises, learning their names to confuse and scare them and even attempting to take their hand and lead them astray. The harassment is so great that even the kindergarten teachers fear for their safety when leaving for the day and seek out the protection of the volunteers through multiple checkpoints.

“The kids are so innocent, they are born innocent… They aren’t born full of hate or division, no child is. But occupation deliberately attempts to poison them with it in the hope of one day labelling them the cause of this disaster.” ISM volunteer.

International volunteers ensuring the kindergarten kids get home safe

“It sums up Zionist Israel perfectly. Gutless and heartless in their ethnic cleansing of Palestine. They can’t even give kindergarten kids a break… They just want to make life so unbearable for these poor people, from every possible angle, so they quit and leave.” International activist on the scene.

Apartheid can be defined as any system or practice that separates people according to colour, ethnicity, etc. The structures built throughout the Palestinian territories are representative of this process of separation and the collective punishment imposed by the zionist State of Israel. Not only are the Palestinians encaged by an immoral apartheid wall built on illegal boundaries, but the young kids of the nation are being exposed to similar structures of division on a daily basis, teaching them a self image of contempt, isolation and inferiority.

The journey to kindergarten crosses an apartheid fence, razor wire and abusive Israeli soldiers

Teachers and kindergarten children are forced to deal with these structures daily, with no end in sight. As the confidence and dignity of the precious Palestinian children is slowly stripped away, those responsible are never held accountable. Much like the excessive force used at many checkpoints, where tear gas and stun grenades are often used on young kids, this psychological abuse is sadly a crucial component of zionist occupation that the rest of the world has long accepted. It is now up to the rest of the world to feel Palestine’s pain and show much needed love and support for it’s wrongly condemned people.