27th October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Silwad, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday a funeral was held for 14-year-old Orwa Abd al-Hadi Hammad, shot dead by the Israeli military on Friday, in the small village of Silwad close to Ramallah.
Orwa was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday, during a demonstration at the edge of the small village of Silwad. The demonstration was about the Israeli military occupying the edge of the village to protect a road used by Zionist settlers from the the illegal settlement of Ofra.
Orwa was a US citizen. His funeral was delayed until Sunday so his father would be able to travel from the United States to attend the funeral. The funeral procession consisted of thousands of men, waving flags and chanting through the narrow streets of Silwad, while carrying Orwa’s body on a stretcher. In the procession were parents of other children shot by the Israeli military. All shops in the town were closed and posters honoring the victim were posted everywhere.
The procession moved from the mosque to the funeral sight in the center of the village. At the end of the somber service the relatives’ grief turned into frustration towards the Israeli occupation and the loss of the young boy.
Later, young men gathered at the spot where Orwa was killed, near where the Israeli military base is placed on the edge of the village. As 50 – 100 mourners, among them relatives of the deceased, residents of the village and internationals, burned tires and chanted, the Israeli military began to fire rubber-coated steel bullets and many tear gas canisters.
After more than an hour the Israeli military withdrew, just before entering the center of the village. Four ambulances left the scene carrying people wounded by the rubber-coated steel bullets and overcome by tear gas inhalation.
3th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
By Team Nablus
Teargas being shot at demonstrators in Deir Jarir
Around four hundred Palestinians, joined by a handful of international activists, participated in today’s weekly demonstration organised by Silwad and Deir Jarir villages on their lands, upon which settlers from Ofra set up an illegal outpost more than four weeks ago.
Today, at around 12pm, several hundred people from Silwad and Deir Jarir villages gathered on a hilltop facing the new outpost to hold their second weekly protest. As they were waiting for more people to join them, around ten settlers invaded the nearby Palestinian valley and clashes ensued. Israeli forces, already present at the scene, began shooting tear gas canisters at Palestinians.
After the midday prayers were performed on the hilltop those who were gathered started marching towards the new outpost. Israeli soldiers assembled in a line facing the protesters immediately started shooting extensive amounts of tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets at the people.
The march was then dispersed, with several people suffering from tear gas suffocation and requiring assistance from Palestinian Red Crescent personnel. One international activist was also shot with a plastic coated steel bullet. As clashes continued to erupt between Israeli forces and protesters, settlers appeared again at the scene. Palestinian protesters went forward to push the settlers back from their land and were soon met with more tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets fired by Israeli forces.
Confrontations between Palestinians lasted for another hour until the settlers retreated from the scene. The extensive use of tear gas throughout the afternoon led to a number of fires being sparked on the agricultural land that continued burning throughout the clashes.
Yesterday, a jeep driven by settlers drove on to the land broke down a gate and ran over top of 35 olive trees destroying them. Settler attacks often occur in these villages, settlers from nearby Ofra settlement recently raided the village of Deir Jarir, setting fire to ten of the resident’s cars. Earlier in April settlers severely attacked a Silwad villager who used to be a judge, beating him with an iron rod until he lost consciousness. Silwad has seen consistent clashes in recent weeks due to this violence and the establishment of the illegal Nezah Benjamin outpost twenty days ago.
Trees destroyed by settlers on 2nd May 2013
This outpost consist of caravans and huts situated on Palestinian farm land that the residents of Silwad, Deir Jarir, Taybeh and Ein Yabrud have been denied access to for over a decade. A settlement outpost is the first move made by settlers when conducting a land-grab in the West Bank; establishing temporary buildings which are protected by the military and eventually made permanent, in order to establish ‘facts on the ground’ and steal Palestinian land.
This is the second weekly demonstration that the villages of Silwad and Deir Jarir have held together to protests the land theft and settler violence and more demonstrations are expected to be organised in the following weeks.
26th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Silwad, Occupied Palestine Israeli military shooting tear gas at protesters. Photo credit: ActivestillsAround six hundred Palestinians along with a small number of international and Israeli activists participated in today’s demonstration in the lands between Silwad and Deir Jreer, in protest against both settler violence and settlement expansion. A new illegal outpost of Ofra settlement consisting of several caravans was established on the villages’ land 20 days ago. This sparked the several days of clashes, followed by this Friday demonstration, one of the first organised with collaboration between the villages.
The protest began as midday prayers were held on a hilltop facing the new illegal Israeli outpost. After the prayers, demonstrators proceeded to march towards the outpost but were soon met with excessive amounts of tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades, shot by Israeli forces standing on a nearby hilltop. As protesters got closer to the outpost Israeli forces pursued the group, shooting tear gas canisters at them. Multiple rounds of tear gas canisters were also fired from military jeeps. Several demonstrators were treated by Palestinian Red Crescent medics for tear gas inhalation, including some children.
The demonstration finished at around 3pm when Palestinian activists left the fields. Despite this, Israeli forces continued shooting tear gas at the nearby road where people were standing and cars were driving past.
Settlers from nearby Ofra settlement recently raided the village of Deir Jarir, setting fire to ten of the resident’s cars. Earlier in April settlers severely attacked a Silwad villager who used to be a judge, beating him with an iron rod until he lost consciousness. Silwad has seen consistent clashes in recent weeks due to this violence and the establishment of the illegal Ofra outpost twenty days ago.
This outpost consist of caravans and huts situated on Palestinian farm land that the residents of Silwad, Deir Jarir, Taibe and Ein Yabrud have been denied access to for over a decade. A settlement outpost is the first move made by settlers when conducting a land-grab in the West Bank; establishing temporary buildings which are protected by the military and eventually made permanent, in order to establish ‘facts on the ground’ and steal Palestinian land.
Tear gas fired onto the road at the end of today’s demonstration
While the world watches in horror as the death toll in Gaza continues to rise, in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army is taking the opportunity to unleash a level of deadly force, in the knowledge that, under the shadow cast by their war on Gaza, these atrocities will go unseen by the international community.
Palestinian communities in the West Bank have responded to the war on Gaza with daily demonstrations in cities and villages throughout the region. Taking the form of marches, sit-ins and candlelight vigils, as well as stone-throwing by young boys, these demonstrations have met with lethal repression from Israeli soldiers in their role as an occupying army.
In the village of Ni’lin, West of Ramallah, two young men, Arafat Al-Khawaje and Mohammad Al-Khawaje were both brutally murdered in a spray of live ammunition from Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the war on Gaza. Arafat, aged 22, was killed immediately as a bullet cut through his back, stopping his heart. Mohammad, who was shot in the head, held-on in Ramallah hospital in a critical condition for four days, before dying on the evening of Wednesday 31st December. A third young man, Mohammad Sror, was shot in the leg. International eye-witnesses to the slaughter describe the attack as being “callous and calculated”, with Israeli soldiers feigning an invasion of the village to lure the young men into the olive groves, where they had concealed themselves, before opening fire from a distance of just 15 metres.
The attack took place with full knowledge that there was no ambulance in the village, as Israeli forces had refused to permit it to pass through the checkpoint. Once the shooting occurred, the ambulance was detained for a further five minutes at the checkpoint, before the soldiers allowed it to enter the village.
In the village of Silwad, another young man, 17 year old Mohammad Hamid, was shot by Israeli soldiers from a guard-tower whilst at a demonstration – dying in hospital from three gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.
On 4th January, in Qalqiliya city, another young man was assassinated by Israeli soldiers for throwing stones over the Apartheid Wall that surrounds the city. Mofed Saleh Walwil, 20 years old, was killed with a single sniper bullet to the forehead, when an Israeli jeep opened fire on the boys.
Two more young men are in a critical condition after also being shot by Israeli soldiers whilst demonstrating against Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead”. Hammam Al-Ashari, 17 years old, from Abu Dis, near Jerusalem, was shot in the head with three rubber-coated steel bullets at close range, while he was walking up a stairwell with friends. For 30 minutes, the soldiers prevented a waiting ambulance from reaching Hammam, significantly worsening his condition.
17 year old Mohammad Jaber is also in a critical condition after Israeli soldiers again opened fire on a Gaza protest in Hebron, on Sunday 28th December, shooting him in the head. In the period of two days from 28th-29th December, Israeli soldiers in Hebron wounded at least 21 demonstrators with live ammunition, according to doctors at Hebron’s al-Ahli hospital. International human rights workers living in the area, describe this as a significant “escalation in the violence used by the Israeli Occupation Forces”.
The number of Palestinian youth shot by Israeli armed forces in the West Bank continues to rise, with at least 3 more young men injured by live fire from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th December.
Severe repression has also been leveled at Gaza demonstrations in the form of arbitrary mass arrests. In East Jerusalem 90 people were arrested for taking part in a non-violent street march. Protesters were all released upon the condition that they not enter Jerusalem’s old city for ten days, despite the fact that many of the arrestees reside there. Many Palestinians living in East Jerusalem now express fear of taking part in non-violent demonstrations, saying that the consequences for such acts are too high.
Suppression of public dissent seems to be the motivation behind many of the repressive tactics being executed by Israeli Authorities. This is exemplified by the denial of entry to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s old city on Friday 2nd January for any men under the age of 50 years, under the pretext that the first Friday prayers since the air strikes on Gaza began would foment further protests. Further, Thursday 1st January saw Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak momentarily invoke of curfew across the entire West Bank for Friday 2nd; later downgraded to a closure of all checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel, including East Jerusalem.
In light of the violence and repression being leveled at Palestinians in the West Bank, claims made by Israeli military spokespeople – that they are attacking Gaza in order to put an end to rocket fire – ring hollow. As Israeli authorities protest that their massacre in the Gaza Strip is self-defensive, and that the civilian casualties are an unfortunate by-product of Hamas members “hiding” amongst the civilian population; as they proffer their occupation of the West Bank as an example of their even-handed, democratic restraint in the terrain of Palestinian Authority governance (“There are no rockets fired from the West Bank, so we don’t need to attack them”); the realities on the ground paint a very different picture.
As the Israeli government continues their brutal occupation of the West Bank – killing and injuring youths; firing tear gas in to Palestinian civilian homes (leading to a house fire in the village of Ni’lin on Thursday 1st January); continued invasions of cities and villages, involving curfews, house occupations and arbitrary arrests; the continued imprisonment of some 11000 Palestinian political prisoners – including 327 children; and continuing settlement expansion and settler violence – claims that Israel is not targeting Palestinians as a people are increasingly difficult to believe.
Amidst the barrage of rehearsed Israeli government rhetoric, Palestinian civilians are being killed by Israeli soldiers, in greater or lesser numbers, regardless of where they live, or what their political affiliations. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian youths will continue to die under the shadow of Gaza, as Israeli forces act with impunity – immune to the international gaze and any potential censure that may accompany it.
