Tag: Shuhada Street

Waiting at a checkpoint

November 3 | International Solidarity Movement | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Ash-Shuhada street in al-Khalil full of Israeli flags welcoming Netanyahu. Less welcome are the Palestinians living there: they are not even allowed to access their houses through their main entrances.

This is what normality in al-Khalil looks like

I was somewhere between excited and afraid the night before the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to al-Khalil (Hebron) on September 4 this year as part of his re-election campaign and timed with a ceremony commemorating the 1929 Hebron massacre, a central element of the justification narrative employed by the Israeli settlers in al-Khalil. I was afraid that the Israeli military and police would use excessive violence against the Palestinian residents during the occasion. The last few days had already been marked by extra army patrols through the streets, more frequent ID checks, night raids and arrests of political activists. However, there was also a feeling of excitement that the controversial visit could draw attention to the various human rights violations inflicted on Palestinians and the specific border(zone) management that made them possible. Serious restrictions of movement and different forms of violence have been part of Palestinian Khalilis’ everyday lives for decades. The latter include settlers attacking their houses and assaulting them in the streets; families getting woken up in the middle of the night by soldiers smashing down their front doors to search their homes and arrest fathers and sons (no matter their age); children getting teargassed on their way from school and sometimes even while sitting in their classrooms. I could go on. As shocking as this may all sound, for Palestinians living in the Israeli controlled part of al-Khalil, called H2, this is normality. And for everyone coming from outside it quickly becomes it too. This summer, I spent a month in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territories, to volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). And I had to realise that even the events surrounding Netanyahu’s visit just became another dat – part of al-Khalili normality.

Al-Khalil – the occupation in a nutshell

Al-Khalil is the Israeli occupation in a nutshell. The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and gradually transformed into a disintegrated territory dotted by Israeli settlements which are deemed illegal under international law. The order chosen by the Israeli regime to handle the presence of two different populations – Israeli settlers and Palestinians – in the same territory is based on borders. Borders essentially regulate who is able to move freely where, when and under which circumstances. As the two groups inhabit the same space, bordering results in a system of segregation that traces through society instead of geographical fixed points. This manifests itself in a segregated road system throughout the West Bank and – less visible by eye but even more far-reaching – in two different legal systems leading to drastically unequal treatment for Israelis and Palestinians. While Israeli civil law is applied to the settlers, Palestinians are subjected to military law. In the old city centre of al-Khalil this order reaches its peak.

Al-Khalil is divided into two areas: H1 which comprises 80% of the city and is formally under control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and H2 in which Israel retains responsibility for security matters. Al-Khalil’s old city is part of the latter and through the restrictions imposed on it over the last 20 years it has transformed from a bustling market area into a ghost town. These restrictions are part of the security measures taken by the Israeli military in order to ensure the protection of about 700 settlers living amidst approximately 7,000 Palestinians. For the latter, lives have transformed into one big restricted zone (see grey area on the map).

In the grey-coloured area of H2 Palestinian movement is restricted by checkpoints and various road blocks. To some roads (indicated in red) Palestinians are completely denied access.

OCHA counts 121 obstacles (walls, slabs, fences and barriers) limiting free movement in this area including 20 checkpoints, 6 of which are fortified, equipped with face-recognition technology and metal detectors. For the Palestinian residents this means that going about any simple daily activity can become a lengthy and uncertain process. The Israeli security policies in al-Khalil do not only restrict their access to health, education, housing and work but also deeply affect their family lives and social fabric. As a result of the difficult living conditions in H2 the number of Palestinian residents has considerably dropped over the years. The existence of a restricted area is based on the Hebron protocol from 1997 that lead to the division of the city and called for a buffer zone between H1 and H2. However, the function of this buffer zone doesn’t correspond to its initial idea. Rather than preventing violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers it has become a tool for the Israeli military to exercise violence against the local Palestinian population and effect their forcible transfer. Israel thus uses the buffer zone to solidify its colonial practices under the guise of security concerns.

Another example of who draws the borders around Khalil

Back to Netanyahu’s visit: After mid-day, H2 was under near complete lockdown. There was a massive police and army presence in the streets, several of them stationed on the roofs of Palestinian houses. 3 of the major checkpoints accessing the restricted area of H2 were closed for the whole afternoon. Whoever happened to be out at the wrong time, would spend their afternoon waiting in front of a closed gate.

And life stands still – Palestinians waiting in front of a checkpoint that stayed closed for more than 6 hours the day Netanyahu visited al-Khalil.

In the neighbourhood where the memorial ceremony took place, the Palestinian residents were put under curfew. A small demonstration took place close to the restricted area but within H1, which is formally under Palestinian control. The Israeli military didn’t hesitate to enter the area though as well as use cars and their Palestinian occupants as shields for their operations. Two demonstrators were arrested. In the evening, I thought to myself: “It could have been a lot worse.” It took me some time to realise how normalised the situation in al-Khalil had become for me in order to come to such a conclusion. Night raids, closed check-points, curfews and arrests. All of this has been happening for decades and so the 4^th of September 2019 was nothing new. It was just another example showing who draws and manages the borders around the lives of Khalilis. Whom those borders protect, and whom they hurt.

Entrance to Palestinian house on Shuhada Street welded shut on multiple occasions; Israeli forces and settlers assault Palestinians outside

11 June 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine.

In the two weeks since the Zahida family moved into their new house on Shuhada street in the H2 area of occupied Hebron, they have been subjected to repeated harassment by Israeli forces and Zionist settlers, resulting in their door being welded shut on multiple occasions whilst they were still inside. Israeli authorities in Hebron want to make Shuhada street an area exclusively for Israelis, and carry this out by closing the Palestinian doors that lead down to Shuhada street.

Shuhada Street in the H2 area of occupied Hebron (photo by ISM)

On June 1, Israeli forces entered the Zahida house and closed the only exit with metal cords. Due to the extensive harassment by Israeli forces, around twenty Palestinian friends and family gathered in solidarity with the residents. All were locked inside the house. After Palestinians managed to break open the door and exit the house, Israeli forces assaulted a 14 year old boy who had been inside with the family. A soldier hit him in the face with the butt of his rifle multiple times.

On Friday 7 June at 8 AM, Israeli soldiers entered the home again, gathering the family in one room, confiscating their phones and keeping them there for a brief period. After detaining the family, Israeli forces broke one of the windows in the house and exited through it. They allegedly said that if the family wanted to leave their home, they should also exit through the broken window from then on. The soldiers then proceeded to seal the house’s only entrance by welding it shut and locking the residents; a young man, his pregnant wife and their two children (age three and four) inside the house for several hours.

At around 11 AM, Palestinian residents of H2 and activists from Human Rights Defenders came together to open the door again and free the family. As the door was being opened, a settler known for harassing Palestinians arrived at the scene. He began to verbally insult activists from Human Right Defenders and film the people present. At the end the door was opened again with the help of neighbors and activists.

At around 9 PM, a group of settlers, protected by heavily-armed Israeli soldiers and police, gathered on the steps to the family’s home. The group of settlers consisted mostly of children and teenagers, who were having a picnic (whilst shouting and trying to intimidate passers-by) on the steps leading to the only entrance directly outside the door, thus trapping the family in their own home for the second time that day. The soldiers stated that the settlers were protesting, but when asked to clarify the reason of the protests, they had no comment. Another group of settler children also physically assaulted a Palestinian woman and a group of children on Shuhada street, whilst under the protection of Israeli forces. The settlers stayed for several hours and left at around midnight.

On the 8th of June, international activists were present in the house with the wife and two children after the Palestinian friends and family had left for work or iftar. A commander and two soldiers entered the house, taking the remaining Zahida family members into a room without their phone and without allowing the activist to enter. The commander then photographed their ID’s and allegedly promised the family that he would “do everything in his power to register them, so they would be left alone.”

An Israeli commander talks to residents of the Zahida family on the doorstep before entering the house (photo by ISM)

On the 9th of June, the same commander (pictured above) returned stating that he could not appeal their eviction order and that they had to leave their home.

In the early hours of the 10th of June, at around 1 AM, a large group of Israeli forces came to the house to weld the front door shut for the last time. Palestinian and international activists were prevented from getting near the house and were forcibly pushed back and assaulted by soldiers, so they wouldn’t be able to see or film what was going on near the house. A soldier, who was preventing people from coming near the house, assaulted a Palestinian child as he tried to pass onto Shuhada street.

A Tel Rumeida resident, Haji Mufid al-Sharbati, was trying to reason with the soldiers but was then detained. It was during his detention that he was assaulted by a soldier and subsequently collapsed. Israeli forces stood by as the elderly man lay on the ground, motionless for around ten minutes, before a stretcher was allowed through the checkpoint and he could be taken to hospital.

Haji Mufid al-Sharbati after being assaulted by Israeli forces (photo by Human Rights Defenders)

Allegedly an Israeli ambulance should have been on standby at the scene, but Haji Mufid Al-Sharbati still had to wait for a Palestinian ambulance to arrive and then for a stretcher to be able to pass through checkpoint 56, before he could get professional medical assistance. He was sent home the same morning and is reported to have recovered.

At around 3 AM, Israeli forces let the people gathered come back onto Shuhada street to check in on the family. By then, the door had again been welded shut. International activists were shown the new way out by a family member, which had been created by knocking down a wall next to their staircase. The new route takes much longer than going through Shuhada street and the staircase leading up to the entrance is very steep and unsafe, with no bannisters to prevent a fall to the street below. For a 4 month pregnant woman and two young children this is highly dangerous.

Yasmine Zahida stated, “I’m worried about our entry and exit now. There’s nothing to hold on to when you walk down the stone stairs and it’s especially dangerous in the dark for me and my children. But I’m happy it’s all over, for now”.

The brother of Sami Zahida informed international activists that Israeli forces had ordered the door shut for two years before they would consider opening it again.

Israeli forces suppress Palestinian demonstration against apartheid restrictions in Al Khalil, Hebron

International Solidarity Movement Al Khalil/Hebron Team 16/02/2018

Today a demonstration was organized by Human Rights Defenders and Hebron Defense Committee under the umbrella name Dismantle the Ghetto. Around 300 Palestinians prayed inside and outside the mosque and shortly after prayers they marched from the mosque to Bab Al Baladia which was once a Palestinian gold market before the settlers and occupation forces shut it down and forced Palestinians out. Israeli forces immediately came through the gates of the illegal settlement at Bab Al Baladia and proceeded to throw many stun grenades and fired tear gas down the street at those who were demonstrating peacefully for their basic human rights.

Video of the march to Bab Al Baladia:

Palestinian vehicles were stopped at gunpoint by the Israeli army and car keys were taken as drivers were forbidden from continuing down Shalala street. Palestinians on foot were made to stop in the middle of the road at gunpoint lifting the top parts of their clothing, their ID’s were also checked before being allowed to walk past.

A Palestinian pedestrian made to lift Tshirt by the Israeli army

Clashes then followed immediately after at Bab Azawiyeh. Israeli forces entered H1 area from checkpoint 56 under Palestinian control pointing their guns at Palestinians on foot and at vehicles before firing even more tear gas. Clashes went on between Palestinian youth and armed Israeli forces for around three hours, Israeli snipers were positioned on adjacent rooftops.

Video of clashes in Bab Azawiyeh:

The heart and economic center of Al Khalil/Hebron, Al shuhada street was once a major part of the Palestinian market which was closed in 1994 after a settler called Baruch Goldstein from a nearby illegal settlement opened fire inside the Ibrahimi Mosque killing 29 Palestinians and injuring over 100. Israeli occupation forces imposed draconian rules and apartheid orders on the Palestinian population as collective punishment instead of punishing the settlers. As a result of this, many shops were forced to close and these unjustified orders still exist today. This is why Al Khalil, Hebron is known as the ghost town. Palestinians are forbidden from walking down or driving down their own street and those Palestinians who refuse to leave cannot even open their front doors onto Shuhada street, as the Israeli army welded their doors shut. There are many areas with such severe measures in Hebron which prevent Palestinians from access and freedom of movement. Twenty checkpoints are in the heart of the city which Palestinians have to pass through daily, whilst Israeli settlers face no measures or restrictions whatsoever.

The commemoration of the Ibrahimi massacre falls on the 25th of February every year Al Khalil, Hebron. We expect to see many actions and demonstrations organized against this immoral ongoing occupation, unjust military orders and the expansion of illegal settlements.

Right to education severely impeded for Qurtuba school students

29th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) are severely restricting, for the second day in a row, the freedom of movement for Palestinian students and teachers at Qurtuba school. Whereas on Monday students and teachers were detained by Israeli forces for almost half an hour before being allowed to continue on their way home after the school day, the following day Israeli forces prevented the students from bringing essential school materials and denying them, again, to pass the checkpoint.

Palestinian students detained at staircase leading to Shuhada Street when leaving Qurtuba school on Monday

Qurtuba school is located in the H2-area of occupied al-Khalil, under full Israeli military control. In order to reach Qurtuba school, all students and teachers are forced to pass at least one, sometimes two, or even three Israeli military checkpoints within Palestinian neighborhoods. The majority of the students and teachers accesses the school through a set of stairs at Daboya checkpoint. This checkpoint marks for Palestinians the spot where Shuhada Street has been ethnically cleansed of Palestinians, an undergoing policy which continuously forbids them from this point further down the road – the part of Shuhada Street where the illegal Israeli settlements in the heart of the city are located. At Daboya checkpoint, thus, the only possible direction for Palestinians is to go up the stairs, which lead to Qurtuba school.

At the end of 2015 though, right after the whole area of Tel Rumeida including Shuhada Street has been declared a ‘closed military zone’ by the Israelis, limiting the access to registered (that is, numbered Palestinians), the access to the staircase has been closed for use by Palestinians, whereas settlers are free to use the stairs as they please. The only exception to this closure is Qurtuba school’s students and teachers twice a day: in the morning at the start of the school day, and in the afternoon once school finishes – at least, in theory. Several times students and teachers have been denied passage or detained for hours at this spot.

This setting alone creates an atmosphere not especially conducive to learning, with the constant uncertainty of what will happen: whether you will be checked, searched, detained or arrested at a checkpoint on the way to school or home, whether your teachers will get to school or settlers might attack you on the way or inside the school, in what becomes a vital part of the (psychological) occupation of the Palestinian civilians living in this area. On Monday, 28th August, the students were detained with their teachers after the end of the school day, waiting at the top of the staircase for the soldiers to finally decide to allow them to reach their homes. On Tuesday, when students wanted to bring school books, they were again detained by the soldiers at the top of the stairs, while down on Shuhada Street, infamous and aggressive settlers Anat Cohen (ענת כהן) and Ofer Yohana (עופר אוחנה) gathered to watch the show of power by the Israeli forces. Eventually, the soldiers denied children the possibility of carrying their school materials altogether, and the children went back to their classes without books.

Palestinian students detained and eventually denied to bring school materials by Israeliforces on Tuesday

These actions constitute severe infringements on the Palestinian students basic human right to education, and are deliberate attempts at the quiet transfer of the Palestinian community from the whole area. Israeli forces are creating a coercive environment in order to leave no other option for Palestinians to leave the area and thus create an already connected area of illegal settlements – free of any Palestinian presence.

Apartheid illustrated: Israeli soldier shoots another soldier in Hebron

6th July 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Tuesday, 4th July 2017, Israeli forces were conducting a ‘military training’ in a civilian Palestinian neighborhood near Gilbert checkpoint in Tel Rumeida in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). The result of this ‘military training’ was a fatal shot by one Israeli soldier to the other. The injured commander was immediately evacuated to hospital by an Israeli ambulance, and was later confirmed dead. The Israeli forces immediately closed the whole area to Palestinians by closing all the checkpoints, collectively punishing the civilian Palestinian population. The army, after the incident, announced that these ‘military trainings’ will be suspended in al-Khalil.

The whole incident, though, needs to be contextualized: an occupying army conducted a ‘military training’ near a checkpoint installed for the control and humiliation of the occupied population, in a civilian residential neighborhood. Immediate medical assistance to the injured occupying soldier, with an ambulance that, without any problems, was granted immediate access to the injured.

Military trainings, under international humanitarian law, are prohibited in civilian areas. The Israeli occupying army in al-Khalil, and all over the occupied territories, though, conducts trainings in civilian areas. This serves two functions: for one, it is more ‘real’, a training in the area where the perceived ‘enemy population’ is living, and second, the intimidation of the population. Israeli forces in al-Khalil are sometimes seen ‘practicing’ the ‘neutralization’, as it is called in Israeli rhetoric, of Palestinians at checkpoints. In those cases, a Palestinian that allegedly carries a knife is seen as a threat to the life of the heavily armed and armored occupation forces – and thus has to be shot and, as documented in so many cases, left to bleed to death on the ground without any medical assistance. The idea is always to shoot to kill.

Whereas an Israeli soldier or settler from the illegal settlements would immediately receive medical assistance, as Israeli ambulance are free to pass, Palestinian ambulances, and actually any Palestinian vehicles (often including donkeys and bicycles) are not allowed to drive on one of the roads in al-Khalil – which conveniently connects the settlements in down-town al-Khalil with the Kiryat Arba settlement on the outskirts of the city. Palestinian ambulances, as they are not allowed on this street, instead, are often detained by Israeli forces at the checkpoints, denied to pass and thus denied access to give first aid.

Immediately after the incident, the Israeli forces closed all the checkpoints in the area, effectively putting the area under curfew – for Palestinian residents. Any Palestinian civilian inside the area, thus, was prevented from leaving, and anyone outside trying to reach their homes, was prevented from coming back home. This is clearly collective punishment of the Palestinian civilians, who are not involved in the incident at all – other than living in an area that the Israeli forces are trying hard to rid of any Palestinian presence. Whereas Palestinian movement was completely restricted and Palestinians trying to film the incident and it’s aftermath were stopped and harassed by soldiers. Settlers, however, from the illegal settlements, were allowed to move around freely. In a separate incident, a settler beat up a Palestinian young man, causing his face to be unrecognizable as it was covered in blood. The settler though, can be sure that he’ll enjoy full impunity under the protection of the Israeli forces.

These kind of military trainings in the aftermath were declared ‘suspended’ in the city of al-Khalil. However, only because a soldier was killed, not because of their illegal nature in civilian areas or a possible threat to the occupied population.

This incident illustrates the apartheid system installed by the Israeli occupying forces in al-Khalil, and all over the occupied Palestinian territories. An apartheid-strategy that aims to displace the Palestinian population from their homeland in favor of illegal settlements.