Tag: Settlers - Page 71 - International Solidarity Movement

Apartheid Safari

By Markus Fitzgerald

21 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Saturday evening, around 6pm, a group of illegal Israeli settlers move through the Old City of Palestinian Al Khalil (Hebron). They are both surrounded and fortified by Israeli soldiers. On paper, this tour through is a supposed “ultimate family experience in Israel“. In reality however, families should be steering clear. This tour is living proof that apartheid is not something of the past.

HEBRON

‘Settler tours’ are guided tours throughout the Old City of Hebron, where settlers can take a walk – enforced by soldiers and police armed to the teeth. At given places, the guide tells stories about historical circumstances in and around Hebron, more or less based on biased historical views.

In 1994, the Palestinian city of Hebron was divided into 2 zones. H1 area is under Palestinian Authority control, while H2 area harbours illegal Israeli settlers within central Hebron. During the second intifada that began in 2000, more than 337 days of curfew for the Palestinians were proclaimed in H2. Today, any Palestinian entering the zone must go through check-points.

The ancient Old City centre contains, like in many other Arabic states, tightly packed and roofed alleys with small shops on either side. Hebron is different. During the morning prayers in 1994, an Israeli settler massacred almost 30 Palestinians as they prayed in the sacred Ibrahimi Mosque. As a result, Israeli forces punished the Palestinian population by closing a great deal of Palestinian shops and homes and seriously strangling a vital and once-lively Palestinian trade.

The settler tour passes through both the closed (for Palestinians) and still open part of the city centre. It is in the latter part that problems often arise, when settlers attack Palestinians and their property with impunity under protection of the Israeli military soldiers.

SETTLERS

The ‘security’ seems flawless. The young Israeli soldiers slowly move through the tight allies while securing (pointing their guns at) the small shops, side alleys, and small box windows. They step into this everyday market as though it is a minefield. Always surrounded by army, the settlers and tourists listen to the guide who gesticulates and energetically runs around and explains the city’s history from a Zionist perspective. Around the city, Israel has hung specific Hebrew signs, again reinforcing the biased view of the city’s rich religious history.

The first Israeli settlement in Hebron was established in a hotel in 1968, one year after Israel had occupied the West Bank in the Six-Day War. An Israeli family simply proclaimed that they did not intend to leave the hotel room that they had rented. Ever.

A short time after, they were visited by distinguished members of the Israeli Knesset. The army supplied them with weaponry and training.

Later the hotel building was cleared of the settlers, but the problem had just begun. In 1971, the first families moved in to the settlement Qiryat Arba, not far from Hebron. In 1984, the Israeli Knesset approved the establishment of settlements in the heart of Hebron, in which up to that point had only been occupied by people from Qiryat Arba.

FEAR

With a mixture of touristic astonishment and glaring confrontational faces, the group of neatly dressed settlers are now standing in the middle of the relatively empty street. 30 minutes earlier the area was full of life and noises. Everyone with knowledge of an Arabic souq, or market, knows what that means. It can seem hypnotic, fantastic, and stressful. But as the tour makes its way through, the atmosphere turns surreal and strangely silent. Now only the growling guttural ‘R’s and instructive arrogant voice of the guide bounces between the old stone walls.

The second-class status of the Palestinians is painfully clear in situations like this. They are not allowed to walk by on their own roads and must patiently wait until the propaganda-machine has finished it’s work. A young boy joins the waiting group of Palestinians and looks up questioningly. He retires to the curb. His sudden change of plans has come about knowing the risks if he were to pass on to the road.

Harassing the shop-owners and bystanders is a common occurrence with settler-tours. Muhammad, who is often inviting internationals for a chat and tea in his little sand glass shop, explains how settlers passing by smashed his inventory on previous occasions. Protected by the Israeli army, the settlers, who face impunity under Israeli law, seem to see no other objection to such actions. The certainty of fatal consequences or unnecessary attention from the occupation forces restrains victims from seeking justice.

Fortunately the settlers do not smash anything this time and keep relatively calm. Soldiers on the other hand seem extremely nervous, which contributes to the tense atmosphere. This new battalion has only just arrived to the city as a part of their 3 months duty. Many have hardly celebrated their 20th birthday. It is possibly their first time outside the military base. Eyes glance shiftily from their commanding officer to surroundings and back again. The sweat drips from the chin, runs down the gun, past the handle and the moist index finger, resting disturbingly close to the trigger.

The guide continues undeterred, while the whole situation seems to open doors and bring memories from a world that no one thought world reappear. None mentioned – None forgotten.

THE END

The guided group moves at an agitating snail-speed through the narrow streets. The language is mainly Hebrew but sometimes a muffled American voice reveals tourists or visiting Jews, strolling along, possibly feeling inspired to settle down and test their luck in this religious center.

Israel encourages Jews in the ‘diaspora’ to move here. Rising housing expenses and lack of space in Israel makes the illegal settlements throughout the West Bank an obvious and welcoming choice for newcomers. The Israeli state provides financial support as well as guaranteed housing. As a result more than 50% of the occupied West Bank is now annexed and designed for Israelis and Israelis to come, in direct contradiction with international law.

Back in the Old City, the tour is coming to an end. The group is channelled through a military roadblock and a massive iron gate closes behind them. They are now in the H2-area. Palestinians living there are subject to thorough searches before they are allowed in their own neighbourhood. Everyday life is imbued with security and control.

A few soldiers stay outside the gates. In a little while they are ordered back in to the ‘secure area’ and life will continue in the old city of Hebron, only interrupted by regular patrols. In a weeks time however, apartheid-tourists will once again come back to remind us that 1948 was indeed a catastrophic year.

Yanoun: Settlers and soldiers attack village, injuring five

By Marshall Pinkerton

8th July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Saturday 7 July, 2012, the village of Yanoun, located 12km southeast of Nablus, was attacked by illegal settlers from the illegal Itamar settlement. Five Palestinians were injured in the attack and large sections of agricultural land were set ablaze.

The attack began at roughly 2pm. The illegal settlers descended on the village and began setting fire to sections of land and firing on sheep while they were grazing. In the course of the attack on Yanoun, 5 resident of Aqraba, (the neighbouring village) were injured to varying degrees. Two men, Ibrahim Hamid Ibrahim, and Adwan Rajih bini Naber were beaten by settlers, and another, Joudat Hamid Ibrahim was stabbed in the shoulder after being beaten as well. When the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrived, they joined in the attacks, injuring two more. Hakimun Ahmed Yusuf Bini Jaber, 42, was shot in the arm with live ammunition by an IOF soldier and Ashraf Adel Hamid Ibrahim, 29, was shot in the back with a tear gas canister when the soldiers attempted to scatter villagers who were to aid the injured.

The villagers who were aiding the injured attempted to carry the injured men to ambulances, but IOF soldiers blocked the roads and refused to let them through. The IOF and illegal settlers also stopped residents from putting out the fires. The first ambulance to leave was reportedly stopped at Huwwara checkpoint en route to a hospital in Nablus. Two of the injured men were taken from the ambulance and held in Israeli custody for an undetermined period of time. The second and third ambulance were not allowed to depart with those wounded for two hours.

After the attacks had stopped, IOF soldiers still held Adwan Rajih Bini Jaber captive, refusing to allow the ambulance carrying him to depart. Illegal settlers stood by heavily armed, protecting the fires that they had set to Palestinian land.

IOF soldiers blocking the main road out of Yanoun.

Nearing 6pm, illegal settlers and IOF soldiers once again advanced on the Palestinians, as internationals gathered to show solidarity, which ending in the firing of tear gas canisters and live ammunition into the air.

Yanoun and its residents have been subject to terrorism by illegal settlers from Itamar for many years. On October 19, 2002, there was a temporary mass exodus due to the harassment, drawing parallels with the refugees created in 1948. The villagers returned little by little in the weeks following, with the help of peace activists from Ta’ayush & other groups but the village still suffers from violent attacks regardless.

Marshall Pinkerton is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

The spirit of Ni’lin in the face of apartheid

By Steve Plaank

2 July 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday, June 29th, dozens of residents of the Palestinian village, Ni’lin demonstrated in opposition to the ongoing apartheid carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). The village of Ni’lin is located near the 1967 Green Line and has been a center of popular resistance throughout the history of the Israel occupation of Palestine.

Following the Friday prayers, Palestinians, along with approximately a dozen internationals, marched to the recently completed apartheid wall. There they were met with a heavy dousing of a foul-smelling liquid fired out of a truck mounted water canon commonly referred to as the ‘skunk truck’.

In true Ni’lin spirit, the protestors were not deterred and continued expressing their steadfast opposition. Following the skunk truck, the IOF shot close to 100 tear gas canisters into the hills and fired upon protestors with rubber-coated steel bullets from the safety of their perch on a ridge and from the security of their armored jeeps.

Despite the use of such weapons, no protestors needed to be taken to the hospital although many were treated, sometimes multiple times, for tear gas inhalation.

After the demonstration had come to an end, the international visitors were treated to an educational presentation in the newly reopened Center for the Ni’lin Popular Resistance.

Ni’lin resident Saeed Amireh explained the history of both the apartheid and the popular resistance in Ni’lin. More information can be found here.

Saeed himself has grown up with the aggressions of an apartheid state on a daily basis. Life has been difficult during the 22 years of his existence. In the last 10 years alone, the village has experienced a reign of terror and oppression. As the nearby illegal settlements grew in size, they began occupying the agricultural lands upon which the residents of Ni’lin depend for their livelihood. Since 1967, the village’s lands have decreased from the 58,000 dunums to only 7,000 remaining dunums. Five Israeli colonies have been built around Ni’lin. With the settlers came increased oppression and violence from the IOF.

When the order came to build the apartheid wall in between the illegal Israeli settlements and the long standing village of Ni’lin, the resistance from the Palestinians took on a new life. Through unending protests and refusals to cooperate, they were able to force the Israelis to change the location of the wall, saving 1500 dunums from confiscation.

Despite the adjustment, the route of the wall still annexes a great deal of Ni’lin’s agricultural land. The residents continue to demonstrate against this apartheid structure. Saeed captured the sentiment of

the village saying that, “everybody deserves freedom and peace.”

The struggle for peace, however, has been faced with a violent response from the IOF. As Saeed stated, “there is no freedom without a price.”

Since beginning the popular protests in 2007, Ni’lin has suffered over 350 arrests, 5 deaths, multiple injuries from the use of live ammunition, and at least 15 people with bones broken from the firing of tear gas.

Saeed embodies the resistance spirit of Ni’lin. He has no memories of life without occupation. He dreams of being able to visit the sea, which he can glimpse from his rooftop on a clear day, but like other Palestinians in the West Bank, is unable to access without a difficult to receive permission.

“Daily life is a resistance,” Saeed says. The fact that Ni’lin continues to exist despite the efforts to make life unbearable, is a resistance to the ongoing apartheid. Israel has not only cut the village from much of its agricultural lands but also from their water resources. Thus, Ni’lin has been cut from its main sources of income.

“The occupation is not only shooting the people…the occupation in our lives is like a cancer in the body. [It affects] everything in our life,” says Saeed.

Saeed wants visibility and international attention for his village. “I want people to see our existence… people have no work, no jobs, no land. By coming here people can stand [by us] and see [what is happening].”

As for the the Palestinians of Ni’lin, their struggle is far from over. They are fighting for survival. As Saeed puts it, “we will not stop the fight, even though we are tired, we will not stop the fight.”

Steve Plaank is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Hebron: three arrested in women’s march on Shuhada street

By Nina Larsson

17 June 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On June 13th, 20 Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign women dressed in traditional Palestinian clothes attempted to walk the central street in the West Bank city of Hebron but were violently attacked and dispersed by the Israeli military. Six individuals were arrested; 3 international, 2 Israeli, and one Palestinian journalist.

At three o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, 20 women managed to enter the closed Shuhada street in H2 area of Hebron. Symbolically dressed in traditional Palestinian clothes, the women aimed to bring attention to the apartheid politics of the Israeli military occupation and the oppression that Palestinian women face on a daily basis. Palestinians are not allowed to walk on Shuhada street in the centre of their city, while Israeli settlers from the local illegal settlements can walk freely.

The procession had just begun when an Israeli settler assaulted the women. Shortly after, Israeli military violently blocked and harassed the women. When several men joined the group they were violently attacked by Israeli police, one of them thrown into the ground. When women attempted to prevent the arrest of a man among them, soldiers attacked them too. One female International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer was pressed to the ground and prevented from standing up. Eventually she was dragged to her feet by two soldiers, who forcefully marched her off to an Israeli military jeep and detained her.

“When I cried out to the soldier to let me go, I heard someone shouting behind me, ‘not let you go, let you die, in jail you will die,’ I couldn’t see if it was a soldier or a settler’, the detained female volunteer said, who emerged with a bruised eye from the soldier’s violence.

6 were detained, 3 women and 3 men. Several others were injured by the soldier’s brutality. Israeli soldiers prevented journalists from filming and a settler broke the camera of one observer.

“I did not really understand what was going on, everything happened in a rush. I just could not believe how violent they were. When pushing me into the ground, they kicked me in the head and hit me with the bottom of a rifle”, said another ISM volunteer.

When asked why he believes he was targeted by the Israeli military, he replied, “because of the colour of my skin. I am a bit too dark for their liking.”

Another ISM volunteer who was present said, “we were not shouting or anything, just walking, and suddenly we were surrounded by soldiers with machine guns. When some among us were violently dragged by soldiers onto the ground, I was shocked. One girl was bleeding. For what? All we were doing was walking.”

3 of the 6 detainees were released within a few hours. The 3 remaining were arrested and arbitrarily accused of attacking and injuring soldiers. They were held handcuffed and imprisoned for over 24 hours. In court the three international and Israeli participants were freed from charges of attacking soldiers, but convicted for preventing soldiers from arresting. The final court decision prevents them from entering Area A and Hebron city for the following 3 months. If the conditions are broken they are sentenced to pay an amount of 5000 shekels. The 3 declared that they may appeal the decision.

The illegal Israeli settlement on Shuhada street is occupied by some of the most radical settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Shuhada has been closed to Palestinians since the killing of 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi Mosque by settler Baruch Goldstein in 1994. As a result of the massacre, Palestinians were forced to close down their stores, schools, houses, and mosques in the area. Further restrictions were imposed on Palestinians the following years. In the central parts of Hebron, Palestinians face daily harassment by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

Nina Larsson is an International Solidarity Movement volunteer (name has been changed).

Between Qaryut and Jaloud: systematic ethnic cleansing

By Maria Erdely

30 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Derar Ammer’s family has owned the land they live on since 1936. He is in possession of the papers that state that this land and the home his ancestors built on it is rightfully his, which date back to the British mandate. Nevertheless, Derar is not allowed to expand his house, let alone construct a new one on his land. The 13 members of the Ammer family are forced to live in an early 20^th century home lacking built in running water and electricity which instead must be purchased separately every month.

Derar Ammer's backyard, Shilo settlement visible in the background.

The Ammer family home is located about 20 kilometres south-east of Nablus, between the villages of Qaryut and Jaloud. Both these villages have been the target of attacks by settlers from illegal Israeli colonies built in the area. They are surrounded from all sides by the colonies of Shpot Raheel, Shilo, Eli, and Eli Eaval. Shpot Raheel, which was illegally erected in 1993, is less than 200 metres distance from Derar’s house.

“Sometimes the settlers come close and they start throwing stones directly at my house. It becomes more and more difficult to access my land,” says Derar.

Particularly during the time of the olive harvest, life is difficult for the inhabitants of both Qaryut and Jaloud. The village’s residents face Israeli settlers who have repeatedly attempted to burn the trees, and with that, ruin the small source of income for the villagers.

Basher, a young man from Qaryut, spoke with the International Solidarity Movement. He says that throughout the year, settlers and soldiers alike block the road that leads to the fields of the villagers, in order to prevent them from working on their agricultural land.

“A 35-year old man was shot by a settler 3 years ago because he was trying to access his land,” says Basher.

According to the villagers, every Israeli settlement is surrounded by cameras that monitor every move of nearby Palestinians. Dogs kept off leash ‘guard’ the illegal colonies. The Israeli military is present and many of the civilian settlers are heavily armed.

Last week however, a 13-year old boy managed to defy these and lit fire to some of the electric wires and cameras with the intention of allowing his family to work their land. As a response, Israeli soldiers raided Qaryut later in the day, and damaged several houses of the village while searching for the boy.

He has not been found yet. The Israeli military has been present in the village every night since as they continue to search for the child.

Both Jaloud and Qaryut are located in Area C which means that they are under full Israeli civil and military control. The most fertile land has been annexed by the illegal settlements, as well as many water springs and grassing fields for livestock. Several Palestinian houses are due to be demolished by Israel, and neither of the 2 villages are allowed to expand despite their growing numbers. Some families have hired lawyers.

“The settlers and soldiers make it impossible for us to access our lands for such a long period of time, that in the end it gets taken away by [a law of] the Israeli government,” says Basher.

Life is becoming more difficult on a daily basis in both Qaryut and Jaloud. The Occupation Forces, settlers, and soldiers alike are attempting to drive the people out of their rightful homes by denying them basic commodities such as water, electricity, and new or improved housing. The Palestinian villages’ lands continue to shrink, whilst the illegal Israeli settlements expand. It is nothing less than systematic ethnic cleansing that is sneaking up on the Palestinian people of Qaryut and Jaloud.

Maria Erdely is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).