Tag: Settlers - Page 64 - International Solidarity Movement

Bassem Tamimi injured and arrested with 3 others at Boycott Israel protest

24 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

VIDEO from the action:

Dozens of Palestinians and internationals protest at Rami Levy Supermarket near the illegal settlement of Sha´ar Benyamin on October 24th. This direct action aims to highlight the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) Campaign that seeks to promote a boycott of Israeli goods.

Four people, including Bassem Tamimi, the head of the Popular Committee of Nabi Saleh, were arrested by Israeli police today as Palestinians staged a peaceful direct action in an Israeli supermarket near the illegal settlement of Shaar Binyamin, north of Ramallah, calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. Two Palestinians were injured and removed in ambulances. Before he was arrested, Tamimi’s ribs were reportedly broken.

Two of those arrested were international human rights activists. One is an American and the other is from Poland. The American activist was dragged away by four Israeli officers.

Starting at around ten this morning, Palestinians and international activists gathered in the parking lot of Rami Levi supermarket, which is frequented by Israelis from the surrounding illegal settlements. The activists entered the market and walked up and down the aisles, holding Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) placards and waving Palestinian flags.

Demonstrators left the market voluntarily when the Israeli army arrived on the scene. As activists exited the building, about forty police, border police and soldiers were waiting in the parking lot. There, the Israeli authorities attacked the demonstrators and fired sound bombs at them.

Even though the demonstrators remained non-violent, soldiers punched, dragged and choked them. As one Palestinian man was pulled away from the soldiers by other demonstrators, to prevent his arrest, his walking stick was taken away as he lay on the ground – following this, he could not walk without assistance. A sound bomb was thrown just metres from the head of another Palestinian man who was already unconscious following attacks from the authorities.

Bassem Tamimi is the head of the popular committee of Nabi Saleh, a village that has suffered drastically from the creation and expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Halamish settlement was created less than 1km away from Nabi Saleh, stealing a great deal of the villages’ land, as well as a spring that provided a vital water source for the village. Tamimi was released from prison in April of this year after spending 13 months in an Israeli prison for being accused of “taking part in illegal gatherings.” He was released on bail in April in order to take care of his elderly mother who had suffered a stroke.

The action today aimed to highlight the BDS campaign (www.bdsmovement.net ), which calls for a boycott of Israeli goods.

The status of the detained demonstrators is currently unknown, they remain held in the police station of the illegal settlement of Shaar Binyamin.

A Paletinian demonstrator gets arrested by Border Policemen during the protest at the Rami Levi Supermarket

A demonstrator gets first aid help after being injured by a sound grenade at the protest

3 Arrested as Palestinians attacked by settlers and soldiers in Tel Rumeida

By Vicky Blackwell and Elyana Belle
Photographs by Vicky Blackwell

22 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

VIDEO from Youth Against Settlements:

UPDATE: 10.30pm – All 3 men have now been released without charge.

Today, a group of settlers from the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida arrived at Hashem Azzeh’s olive grove next to his house at around 12.30pm, whilst he and his family were harvesting their olives, yelling for everyone to get off of “their” land.

Hashem and his family were on their land harvesting olives for the first time in 5 years after being granted permission from the District Civil Liaison. He was accompanied by several members of his family as well as activists from the International Solidarity Movement. The situation quickly escalated as settlers pushed the Palestinians in order to try and enter Hashem’s house.

Within ten minutes the soldiers arrived and began to separate the Palestinian family and internationals and siding with the Israeli settlers. Arguments continued with both sides yelling “this is my land,” regardless of the fact that Hashem has the deeds to the land. The settlers were also heard shouting “This is not your land, this is the land of the Jewish people.”

At this point around ten more settlers had come down and joined in, shouting abuse at Hashem and his family. The soldiers pushed the Palestinians and internationals back towards Hashem’s house threatening to arrest anyone who did not obey. The soldiers grabbed a young Palestinian man by the name of Imad Al Atrash who was video taping standing behind international activists: pushed him against the wall and zip-tied his arms behind his back.

Then they went after an International activist trying to arrest him for taking video footage. While trying to escape they grabbed another of the International activists standing by, put him in a headlock on the ground and arrested him. Jawad Abu Eisheh who had arrived in solidarity with his neighbors was also captured and arrested (this comes only 9 days after Jawad and his family were also attacked by settlers whilst harvesting their olives nearby, see: https://palsolidarity.org/2012/10/settlers-attack-and-injure-palestinians-harvesting-olives-in-tel-rumeida/ )

The two Palestinians and Italian activist have been arrested and taken to a police station in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba.

The district of Tel Rumeida is heavily militarized and contains the homes of both Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Hasham’s family moved to Tel Rumeida in 1950 after being forcibly removed from their homes in what is now Israel. The Tel Rumeida settlement was installed in 1984.
In an attack in 2006 the settlers smashed Hasham’s nephews’ teeth in with a stone. That same year his wife (3 months pregnant at the time) was attacked and subsequently miscarried. Again in 2006 she was attacked, this time 4 months pregnant, and again, suffered from a miscarriage due to the attack.
The settlers living directly over Hasham’s house have also in the past raided his house, (bullet-holes near his front door show when the settlers shot live ammunition at his house), they cut his water-pipes and poisoned his water tank, cut his trees down in his garden and have physically attacked and assaulted him and his family as well as breaking-into and vandalizing his house on several occasions.

Previous reports on settler violence against the Azzeh family:

https://palsolidarity.org/2006/05/report-on-razor-wire-closing-entrance-to-the-track-leading-to-the-al-azzeh-homes/

https://palsolidarity.org/2006/09/hebron-27th-sept/

https://palsolidarity.org/2006/10/olive-picking-tr-settlement/

https://palsolidarity.org/2006/10/tr-harassment/

https://palsolidarity.org/2012/09/hebron-man-walks-down-street-for-first-time-in-years/

Settlers arrive to the Azzeh family land

Soldiers twist Imad Al Atrash’s arms behind his back to tie with zip-ties

Soldiers place an Italian activist in a head-lock

Soldiers bound the Italian activists hands with zip-ties

Jawad Abu Eisheh is thrown against the wall by soldiers and detained

Illegal settlers look on as the 3 men are detained

The illegal settlement blocks in Tel Rumeida with Hasham’s olive trees in the foreground

Vicky Blackwell and Elyana Belle are volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (Names have been changed)

Arson Attack on Olive Trees in Qaryut

14 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Latif Ali with one of her trees that were destroyed.

Last night in the West Bank village of Qaryut, 12 Palestinian owned olive trees were irreparably destroyed in a late night arson attack by Israelis from the illegal West Bank settlement of Eli.

The attack follows an incident last week, on the night of October 8^th, in which settlers cut the branches from 130 trees with chainsaws. The branches will take some ten years to regrow, during which time the eight farmers who owned the trees will be without this crucial source of income.

Tree damaged last week by settlers’ chainsaws.

The attacks seem to have been carried out so as to maximize economic impact. Many Palestinian olive farmers are financially dependent on the olive harvest, which begun earlier this week. In last night’s attack, the settlers seem to have targeted the oldest and most fruitful trees. They set fire to hollows in their trunks, which kills the tree. Growing a new one to their size takes hundreds of years.

The timing, too, maximized the impact of the attack. For the last two years, the Israeli government has run a permissions system for Palestinians harvesting olives in areas near to West Bank settlements: although the farmers own both the land and the trees, they have to apply for Israeli permission to access the land. Permission is usually granted for impossibly short periods of time: in this case, the Qaryut farmers were able to harvest for either two or three days (traditionally harvest lasts between four and six weeks). The first attack came the night before the first permissions began in the area, thereby devastating the harvest the night before it started.

Such incidents are not uncommon. During the last two harvests, a reported 300 trees were destroyed in Quryat alone. In 2009, the village suffered violent attacks by settlers from Eli and another nearby illegal settlement Shilo (more here and here). Such attacks are commonplace across the West Bank during olive harvest, when the symbolic and economic importance of the crop make their farmers frequent targets for settler violence.

By Matt Reed (Matt Reed is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (Name has been changed).

Settlers Attack and Injure Palestinians Harvesting Olives in Tel Rumeida

12 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

In two separate incidents on Wednesday 10th and Friday 12th October 2012 settlers from the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida, Hebron stole olives from two trees belonging to Jawad Abu Eisheh and attacked his family whilst they attempted to harvest from their land.

Between 2pm and 4pm on Wednesday 10th October 2012 settlers from the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida stole olives from two trees nearby. The settlers carried out this theft in full view of the Israeli soldiers manning the Gilbert checkpoint only about ten meters away at the top of Tel Rumeida hill, who did nothing to stop them.

Video from Youth Against Settlements of the settlers stealing olives:
www.facebook.com/v/10151224631772220

On Thurday 11th October 2012 three International Solidarity Movement volunteers accompanied Jawad to his land to record any further criminal activity from the illegal settlement as Jawad and his family carried on harvesting their olive trees. Jawad has permission from the Civilian Military Commander, Rami Ferris, to harvest his olives at this time.

Jawad and the volunteers were stopped at the Gilbert checkpoint by an Israeli soldier who said that Jawad could not harvest any olives today and that no international volunteers could accompany him to his land. Jawad phoned the police and started to make a complaint. On seeing that he was not going to accept this arbitrary decision the soldier radioed to his commander. After talking on the radio the soldier relented and said he did have permission to harvest his olives after all.

The remainder of Thursday 11th October 2012 passed without incident as the Palestinians harvested their olives.

The Abu Eisheh family harvesting olives.

On Friday 12th October, the Abu Eisheh family went to their land at 9.30am to begin to harvest. Shortly after, a soldier came over and told them to stop – Jawad informed him that he had been allowed by the commanding officer to harvest yesterday. No sooner that he had been stopped by the soldier, settlers began to appear from the illegal settlement nearby, “don’t harvest the olives, they are for us” they were heard shouting. At this point the soldiers told Jawad that he “must stop now there are settlers.” The family refused to stop as they had been allowed to harvest the previous day. Jawad told the soldiers “if I leave the settlers will steal my olives.”At this point a settler pushed over Jawad’s brother Wajdy, who fell to the ground, to which the soldiers did not respond.

The Israeli Army then attempted to arrest Yiyah Abu Eisheh (21) for refusing to leave the land, and as the soldiers grabbed him, Noor Abu Eisheh (27) got in the middle, so the soldiers bound both the men’s hands with cable ties and took them to the Gilbert checkpoint nearby.
At this point all the family was forcibly removed from their land by the army, and as they reached Gilbert Checkpoint there was around 30 settlers who started to attack the family and a number of Palestinian onlookers.

Settlers in Tel Rumeida who attacked the Abu Eisheh family.

Wajdy Abu Eisheh (25) was at this point injured by the settlers and needed medical attention. The army carried him into a vehicle which later transferred him into a Palestinian ambulance where he was taken to Al-Khalil Hospital.

An injured Wajdy Abu Eisheh being treated at the scene.

The Abu Eisheh family has suffered much from the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida. Jawad used to run a brass mending and nickel, copper and zinc plating factory from his home employing twenty people. His factory amongst other work repaired parts for cars. The factory was closed by the Israeli Military along with other successful businesses in the area in the year 2000. His workshop has been broken into by settlers who destroyed chemicals and vandalized his electroplating equipment. The Jawad Abu Eisheh property had a wall to protect it from intrusion but after an illegal chicken farm was erected by the settlers next door they bit by bit broke down the wall by removing stones from it. About 18 months ago the settlers completely destroyed the wall which means that any time they want the settlers can come on to the property to vandalize or steal olives.

The Jawad Abu Eisheh family have lost their successful business because of the illegal settlement in Tel Rumeida and now they are losing the olives that grow on their land to thieves from the illegal settlement.

Jawad says:
“They don’t like to see Palestinians working their land.
How long must this family pay the cost of Israel’s Illegal settlement program?”

Team Khalil

Hebron: Soldiers invade Kurtuba School, attempt arrest

By Ruby Astaire

26 September | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Israeli soldiers invaded a Palestinian school in the city of Hebron with intentions to arrest two sixth grade students after false allegations of throwing stones at a nearby checkpoint.

Israeli soldiers based in the Palestinian city of Hebron entered the Kurtuba school on Sunday to arrest two sixth grade students after they allegedly threw stones at a nearby checkpoint. Kurtuba school is located on Shuhada street which is occupied by illegal settlers and has been closed to Palestinians since September 2000. The students and staff at Kurtuba school are granted special permission to walk down this street by the Israeli government.

On Sunday morning at 9.30am, armed soldiers with dogs surrounded and entered the school grounds to arrest two young male students. They asked Miss Samir, the English teacher, if the soldiers had seen the two boys throw stones: the soldiers refused to answer. When she questioned them further about what the boys looked like, they described two boys which did not fit the description of any of the students at the school. The soldiers then picked two boys at random from a classroom and tried to take them by force, but the teachers refused to let them go. The soldiers occupied the school for half an hour before deciding to leave.

As the soldiers were leaving Kurtuba school, they threatened to close the school if it was found that any stones were thrown. Unconfirmed reports say that after the soldiers left the school they arrested two boys from Tel Rumeida.

Ruby Astaire is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)