Tag: Shuhada Street - Page 12 - International Solidarity Movement

Unprovoked settler attack and military house invasion in Shuhada Street, Hebron

25 April 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Army gathers outside house in Shuhada Street

At approximately 11pm on Sunday 24, two Palestinians were physically beaten, one also attacked with pepper spray, by Israeli settlers in Hebron. Shortly afterwards, a reported 20 Israeli soldiers forcibly entered a house in Shuhada Street and ordered all under 16s out into the street.

According to a man interviewed by the ISM who lived in the house, two Palestinians, a middle-aged woman and a young man, were hit and the young man pepper-sprayed by Israeli settlers in the unprovoked attack. They fled to Checkpoint 56 located at the end of Shuhada Street.

Around 20 Israeli soldiers forcibly entered the Shuhada Street house containing three families which included young children. The soldiers then demanded that all children under 16 leave the house. The families refused this demand. The man interviewed by the ISM was then forcibly removed from his house, pushed up against a wall and searched by the military.

Whilst the two attacked Palestinians were giving their statements to the police at Checkpoint 56, two Israeli settlers, one heavily armed, watched close by. Witnesses from the Shuhada Street house were taken to the police station to give their statements. The ISM is not aware of any Israeli settlers having been questioned by the police.

The sharp end of Hebron

11 April 2011 | Issa Amro

Hebron’s problems began after 1967. The Israeli army worked hard to create the Kiryat Arba settlement, and after that the settlers and soldiers started living inside Hebron, transforming it into an occupied city. We started to feel it when they created settlements in the heart of the city. In the early 1980s settlers started to come from all over the world, moving into our houses and markets. They treated Palestinians as slaves and animals, fourth-class humans, only there to be taken advantage of.

All this was not so obvious until 1994 and the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when a fanatic settler killed 29 Muslims. After that we were punished. The apartheid policy was employed more obviously, with the closure of Shuhada Street and many local businesses. The army divided Ibrahimi Mosque and confiscated the gardens.

My resistance efforts began in 2003. The army had closed Palestine polytechnic University when I was a student there. They locked the gates and told us to “go to the streets. You will have no future here.” This made my decision. I would struggle, in a nonviolent way. I was fortunate to be guided by a specialist in activism. With him I discussed strategic planning and a methodology for how to re-open our university. One day we just broke in, opened the doors, started the classes and began to study by ourselves. The army arrived shortly after, so we camped out in a sit-in tent that we had bought. We called our international friends and media. We explained to everybody the importance of our university to us. After six months, it was finally re-opened.

That has given me the encouragement to continue ever since. I understand when Palestinians feel that resistance is hopeless. The Israeli army does not distinguish between unarmed demonstrators and armed enemies. They have one law, which is against protest in every form. To oppose them is to provoke a killing machine.

I do not criticise any form of resistance. It is our right. I follow the nonviolent path for two main reasons. Firstly, I want our community to remain peaceful. As Ghandi said, using violence to be rid of an oppressor “establishes a pattern of violence.” This is not our way. Secondly, through nonviolence we can achieve massive participation from whole communities rather than individuals.

Nonviolence is dangerous for the occupation. How do I know? Between April 2010 and now, I have been arrested no less than ten times. This tells me that our methods are working. The army is not trained to deal with nonviolence, as the Egyptian authorities were unable to handle the youth movements. It is only a matter of time, and will, before we see a similar result here. When I am arrested they try to paint me as a terrorist. I have been accused of attacking policemen and settlers, of stealing guns, and of other crimes which fit their image of Palestinians. I am never discouraged by being arrested, but it is very difficult for my wife and family. We all know that my safety is endangered by my activities.

The army has a new crime to accuse us of: “incitement.” It is such a vague term that it can be applied to anything, especially protest. It carries the threat of prison time and was used to jail Bi’lin organiser Abdallah Abu Rahmah in 2009. The creation of this law implicates the highest Israeli authorities and the legal system in allowing, even promoting, institutional racism. The law itself is racist. If incitement means anything, why not use it against Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who talks about killing people, rather than me, for exercising my right to peaceful demonstration? We see racist laws every day in Hebron, where we are under Martial Law, and our settler neighbours are under Israeli Civic Law.

We look to international leaders to help our struggle against settlements, and we were shocked by the recent American veto (of a UN resolution condemning them). US leaders announce that they are against them, but when they are tested we find that they are still blindly supporting Israel.

So we must do it ourselves. I represent the Youth Against Settlements group in Hebron, which includes the Tel Rumeida project, empowering families to deal with the daily effects of settlers. Our work is preventing the quiet transfer of Palestinians from their homes and is a barrier against the beatings, theft, and rights abuses so common here.

Yet we face a complex and determined opposition. The Israeli government is clever in using settlers. They are trying to say that Hebron is important for religious history, but what I hear from settlers is that it is a step towards taking Nablus, Ramallah, and the entire West Bank. Hebron is a frontline. If they succeed here in their campaign of ethnic cleansing under the banner of religion, they will move on to new goals.

But I am very optimistic about the future. Our Open Shuhada Street demonstrations attract thousands. Our movement is growing, and we will soon have a new Youth Against Settlements branch in Ramallah. We need Palestinians from all towns and villages to come and lend us their support. On the settlement issue we are all united and our youth activism movements are developing. International boycott campaigns against settlements must continue as they are already effective. It is only a matter of time before we see our own mass nonviolent uprising, as in the other Arab countries. A new generation is coming together to reject the violence and injustice of settlements. I believe it will happen next year.

Issa Amro is a lifelong Hebron resident. He is an electrical engineer, human rights activist and community leaders. He has founded several youth projects and initiatives

Many injured and several detained at al-Shuhada street demonstration

26 February 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Hundreds gathered in Hebron on Friday to march against the continued closure of al-Shuhada Street. The non-violent protestors were met with tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets from the Israeli army. Witnesses also said that the army fired tear gas canisters directly at the protestors, which is illegal under international law. Organizers say 20 people were taken to hospital – around half for physical injuries, the rest to be treated for tear gas inhalation – and one Israeli, two Palestinians, and three internationals were detained. Military sources say that only one arrest was made.

One of the city’s major streets, al-Shuhada (Martyrs) Street was forced to close following the Baruch Goldstein massacre of 1994, in which a Jewish extremist murdered 29 Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahim mosque and wounded a further 125. Friday’s march was held on the anniversary of the massacre as protestors demanded that the street be reopened.

Protestors chanted slogans including “Hebron is Palestine!” and “Down with the occupation!” and waved Palestinian flags. The soldiers and border police occupied the centre of Hebron, blocking movement throughout the city and confining many in the city’s old town.

As the protestors were displaced widely throughout the city, estimates of the numbers vary widely. The Israeli military claim that only were 300 present, however the Temporary International Presence in Hebron – an international civilian observer mission mandated by the Israeli and Palestinian Authority to report on events in Hebron – estimate that 1,500 people took part in the demonstrations.

The demonstrations began from several locations throughout the city following midday prayers, and the clashes with the Israeli army continued for several hours. Palestinian Authority soldiers were also present in stopping the demonstrations.

Hebron is home to around 600 Jewish settlers, living in settlements which are regarded as illegal under international law. In 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the settlers should be evicted from the area and that al-Shuhada Street should be reopened, but no action has been taken against the settlers and the street remains closed.

Demonstration to re-open Shuhada Street returns to Hebron

25 December 2010 | Youth Against Settlements

Saturday, in the city of Hebron, Israeli occupation forces suppressed an anti-settlement movement in the city to reopen Shuhada Street. Two internationals and two Israeli activists were arrested; four activists were beaten.

Seventy activists participated in the demonstration, which took place at the eastern entrance to Al-Shuhada Street, which was closed by the Israeli military in 1994.

Participants raised Palestinian flags and banners, demanding that Shuhada Street be opened, and an end to all forms of racial discrimination practiced by the occupation. They chanted—in Arabic, English and Hebrew–to condemn the closure of the street and the practices of the military and the settlers against the citizens of Hebron.

The protesters tried to enter Al-Shuhada Street, but Israeli border police, and soldiers who had gathered there, blocked the demonstrators at gunpoint, declaring the area a closed military zone. The soldiers became violent toward the non-violent demonstrators in the market area near the settlement of ‘Abraham Avenue’. Israeli soldiers and police arrested three solidarity internationals, and attacked demonstrators, beating wounding 4 demonstrators.

The demonstration is not violent, to emphasize the fundamental right of Palestinian human rights, the right to move freely in the city of Hebron through Shuhada Street.

One demonstrator said, “we demand, all countries in the world to exert pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion and dismantle the settlements as a prerequisite to achieving a just peace.”

It is worth mentioning that Al-Shuhada Street, which is located in the heart of the city of Hebron, was once a main street connecting the northern and southern neighborhoods of Hebron. The trade in these areas is now paralyzed, and the Israeli occupation forces have closed more than 600 shops by military order since the end of 2000. More than a thousand shop-owners have had to close their shops in the old city, and about 100 military checkpoints and gates have been set up by the occupation forces, without care for the lives of Palestinian civilians living in the area.

CPT: Keeping the quiet (when there’s no peace to be kept) on Shuhada Street

Sarah M, Christian Peacemaker Team – Hebron

“Excuse me!” the Israeli soldier called to us. “You can’t walk down that street.”

Elizabeth and I turned toward him, questioning. “We can’t? But the German tourists here earlier walked this way,” Elizabeth recalled.

“I walked down the street three days ago,” I added. “No one stopped me then.”

The soldier shrugged. “We can’t let CPTers walk on this street. That’s the order we’ve been given.”

The street in question was Shuhada Street, once a central route and thriving marketplace for the Palestinian community in Hebron. Since 1979, ideologically radical Israeli settlements have grown along the street. Often the settlers have harassed and attacked their Palestinian neighbors.

In November 1999, the Israeli military closed Shuhada Street to Palestinians. They locked or welded shut the doors of Palestinians shops. Even the Palestinian residents who still live on Shuhada Street can no longer use their front entrances. Instead they must take back exits and circuitous routes to stay off the street, sometimes even climbing ladders or ropes and crossing rooftops to get in and out of their homes.

In 2004 U.S. Aid renovated Shuhada Street with the intention of opening the street to all Hebron residents. Yet to date the street remains closed to Palestinians, while Israeli settlers freely walk and drive along it. Palestinians, supported by Israeli and international activists, have launched a campaign to “Open Shuhada Street” and end this example of what they consider “Israeli apartheid.”

Usually internationals are allowed to walk the street. But CPTers, apparently, fall into a different category, with our recognizable bright red caps and our known support of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the occupation.

“The order is specific to CPT?” Elizabeth questioned the soldier. “So if I take off my CPT hat, I could walk down the street?”

“You could,” he acknowledged, “because then I wouldn’t know you’re with CPT.”

Elizabeth and I didn’t need to walk Shuhada Street that day. We could—as Palestinians habitually must—take a longer route to our destination. But we wanted to challenge even this small cog in the machinery of the Israeli occupation of Hebron.

So we pressed the soldier to explain the rationale for the order. “It’s to keep the peace,” he finally told us. “We don’t want any trouble with the settlers who live here.”

“I wouldn’t call that peace,” I objected. “Your order seems more about keeping things quiet.”

To my surprise, the soldier agreed with my shift in words. “Yes, it’s about keeping the quiet.”

“I know you’re only following the orders you’ve been given,” I continued. “But isn’t there something wrong in this order? If you’re worried that we will make trouble, then it’s appropriate to keep us off the street—”

The soldier shook his head, even grinned: he wasn’t worried about trouble from CPTers.

“But if you’re concerned that settlers might give us trouble, then there’s something upside down in us being the ones barred from the street,” I concluded.

“Of course it’s upside down,” the soldier admitted. “Everything here in Hebron is upside down. The system is wrong—I know that, you know that—but what can we do? We have to follow orders. There’s nothing we can do, except keep the quiet as much as possible while we work toward a solution.”

Yet keeping quiet rarely moves us toward genuine peace. As Martin Luther King, Jr. noted in his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the real obstacles in a liberation struggle are the moderate people “more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice,” those who prefer “a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

Someday, I believe, Palestinians will again walk down Shuhada Street. In this and many other ways, they will experience the equality and dignity rightfully theirs. But the journey to reach that day of justice will not be quiet.