2nd July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Aqraba, Occupied Palestine
Fadi Bassem is a farmer who lives in the village of Aqraba, 20 km south of Nablus, in the northern half of the West Bank. He lives with his extended family, 15 people in a single house.
At 03:30 in the early hours of the morning, Bassem was awoken by the sound of footsteps outside his house. When he went to investigate, he saw four men running away in the darkness. Turning back, he smelled smoke and realized that his barn, which was adjacent to his house, was on fire. Bassem and his family spent the next four hours dousing the flames and rescuing the sheep from the barn. There were two large water tanks nearby, and the family was able to extinguish the fire.
The next morning they saw that graffiti had been spray painted on one of his walls. “Price tag, revenge of the Jews”, it read in Hebrew.
Photo by ISM
These events occurred two days after the discovery of the bodies of three Israeli settler youths, who had allegedly been kidnapped by supporters of Hamas. The nationwide outrage at the deaths of the teenage settlers has precipitated calls for revenge from diverse elements of Israeli society, and especially from settlers.
“I don’t know whether they were settlers or soldiers who did this,” Bassem said, “but all the footprints were identical, which tells me that they were probably soldiers.”
The presence of Israeli soldiers in the village was confirmed by the fact that they arrested two young men in Aqraba that night.
22 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qalil, Occupied Palestine
The Israeli army invaded seven family homes in the village of Kafr Qalil, south of Nablus, between 1am and 2am on 20th May. They trashed the properties and people’s possessions and stayed in them for several hours apiece. Lastly, they arrested a university student, Saleh al-Amer, 22.
Saleh al-Amer had thought administartive detention was done with and he could look to his future
Instead of just ringing the bell, they obliterated the homes’ heavy metal doors, creating fear and manifesting uncertainty for the innocent residents. They were given no reason for the destruction of their property despite repeatedly asking for one. Nader Soloman, one of those who had his home invaded, having his 2 and 4 year-old daughters terrified in the process, even spoke in Hebrew but answers were still refused. The army ransacked their homes, ordered the adults and children about, broke their furnishings and emptied cupboards of clothes, throwing them on the floor to then continually walk all over them. The army remained in the homes for 4 to 5 hours.
At 2am the army changed tact and knocked on the door of the al-Amer family house, home to eleven people. The army didn’t enter the house and asked the family’s father who the sons of the household were. He said the two names and the officer requested Saleh, was then placed under arrest and taken to Huwwara military base for a few hours, before being moved to Salem prison on the Green Line for another couple of hours. At which point he was able to contact his lawyer and tell him of his whereabouts before being transferred to Megiddo prison in Israel.
The younger children are now traumatized by the event, crying when they see images of the army on the TV, while other family members are unable to sleep. Saleh’s younger sister explained to the activists who came to speak with the family that Saleh had done nothing wrong; “my brother is the most lovely person, we can’t live without my brother. He needs to come back to his house, to his family, his village, study”. Saleh had just finished his first-year university exams and was happy about the changes to the family home to accommodate him and his soon-to-be wife. Saleh studied hard and also worked to bring money into the home, he enjoyed sport and caring for and playing with the younger children.
Saleh was arrested two years previously and held in administrative detention for five months, only seeing his family once, when they were in court. At that time the army officer during his arrest told him he was being arrested so that he wouldn’t be able to go back to university.
Administrative detention is the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial by administrative rather than judicial procedure. International law, as set out in the Fourth Geneva Convention, allows for it only in very extreme cases of ensuring security and even then grants the right for those interned to be held within the occupied territory with support to be given to their family and dependents. They are also due greater privileges than ordinary prisoners. The Israeli government has claimed that administrative detention is not an arbitrary form of internment, in part, because detention orders are subject to review. However they can be renewed indefinitely every six months, leaving prisoners and their loved ones with no countdown to their release.
The front doors of one house look as if they were broken with more than human strength (photo: ISM)
Huge metal chunks flew off the door and its frame into the corridor (photo: ISM)
The door will be replaced, a sense of safety is harder to come by (photo: ISM)
15 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
In the afternoon of Tuesday, 11 September 2012, settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar burned farmers’ land containing almond trees in the Palestinian village of Burin.
Around 10 settlers came down from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar and started to burn the trees; when Palestinian shepherds came to investigate the fires they returned quickly to the settlement. They were guarded by security officers as they watched from above.. The firemen arrived within several minutes and were successful in their efforts to control the fires. After one hour the Israeli army, Israeli Disctrict Coordination Offices (DCO) and border police arrived.
Land belonging to villagers from Burin burns as firefighters struggle to put it out.
This small village of approximately 3,000 people deal with a constant threat of settler attacks and Israeli army harassment. Two illegal settlements and one illegal outpost surround Burin: Yitzhar, Bracha, and Givt Arousa. The residents of these illegal colonies make it clear that they will do whatever it takes to force the Palestinians out of their homes. Their criminal acts range from burning olive trees, to shooting home made rockets at the village. In 2011, approximately 4000 trees were destroyed, burned and uprooted, by the settlers’ violence.
An almond tree burns
Alex Marley is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
7 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
When Ali Awad visited his orchard on Friday morning before the midday prayer he noticed nothing out of the usual. But eight hours later, when he returned to his land in order to gather grape leaves to sell in the local market, he was shocked to find that his trees had been poisoned. The grape leaves, which Ali depends on substantially for income, had died and shriveled up, making them impossible to sell. Twelve peach trees belonging to Ali’s neighbor were also destroyed.
Ali’s three dunums of farm land, where 28 grape trees have been growing for over 30 years, are directly adjacent to the barbed wire fence which separates the Palestinian village of Beit Ummar from the illegal Zionist settlement of Karmei Tsur.
Horrified and dismayed, Ali called his brother, Muhammad, to come and take pictures of the destruction. Before Muhammad could take any pictures, Israeli Occupation Forces and two older settlers arrived and began to hassle the two brothers, threatening to confiscate Muhammad’s camera. The settlers, one of whom is the mayor of Karmei Tsur, told Ali that his plants were accidentally sprayed with pesticides when Karmei Tsur farmers attempted to destroy the weeds on their land earlier in the day. Ali’s grape trees are located at least ten meters away from the settler’s field, opposite a fence and settlement road.
Ali, whose wheat crop was burned during the night by settlers last year just before harvest time, does not believe that the destruction of his trees was an accident.
“Its not unintentional, like they say, they mean to do this,” he said. “They want me to leave my land. My presence is an obstacle to the expansion of the settlement.”
But Ali, whose family has already lost several dunums of their ancestral land to the illegal settlement, steadfastly refuses to leave.
“I have deeds going back to Turkish times, why should I leave? The land is for me, for my family, not for the settlers.”
According to the Israeli organization Peace Now, Karmei Tsur is built on 27% privately owned Palestinian land. The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the construction of settlements in occupied territory.
Joseph is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
8 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Houses overturned during night raids – For more pictures click here
April 5th marked a day to celebrate the children of Palestine. This year the Israeli military decided to contribute to the special day of the children of Kufr Qaddoum by invading the village and kidnapping 20 fathers and brothers. Boys and men were taken from their homes in a series of overly aggressive and destructive raids.
At 2 AM approximately 200 soldiers stormed the center of the village and split up in to groups of around 30 soldiers. Efficiency was key in the military’s plan to cause as much destruction and intimidation before the sun rose. The soldiers did not come alone, all teams were accompanied by dogs, and intelligence showed up later on in the morning to assist with interrogations.
The Israeli military has seen escalating its intimidation of members of the village, and the soldiers’ main goal is to stop the Friday demonstrations that the villagers host. These have grown in strength and popularity.
Since June 2011, Kufr Qaddoum has been subjected to many night raids but nothing of this scale. Murad Ishtawi, the lead organizer of the weekly demonstrations, said, “I have never seen anything like this in the village before, I have never seen them storm in like that.”
Bashar Ishtawi, brother of Riad who was arrested, likened the raids to “a video game. Very aggressive and American style.”
Out of the 20 arrests made, five of the homes entered by the soldiers were overturned and vandalized. Upon entering the house of Bashar Ishtewi, husband and father of three children under the ages of 11, soldiers demanded that Ishtewi “give them the men.” Ishtawi tried to tell them all he had were his children and his wife, but this answer was not sufficient. The soldiers herded the family into one room and carried on destroying the house. Their daughter, Zainab, who is 6 years old, was vomiting from stress and has not uttered a word since the raids on her house.
In the house of Iman Ishtawi, father of two children under the age of three, is where the story is most disturbing. Ishtawi informed the soldiers that he had no son to arrest and was told “we know this, we are here simply to destroy your house, nothing else.” Ishtawi with his wife and children were made to stand outside and listen to there home being destroyed. After twenty minutes the children became sick and started to cough. Iman tried to to reason with the soldiers, to show the commander that his babies need warmth. The soldiers simply replied, “That is the business of a doctor, not the business of a soldier.” The family was finally allowed in but were forced to stay in the small kitchen until the soldiers were finished.
The nightmare continued until 5am. The homes were turned upside down, in another house they even removed the windows from the entire house, showing the transparency of this operation. For the Israeli military, they will convince themselves that this operation was in search of rms and young men unlawfully defending their land, but in reality this was an act of intimidation, an operation to try and put an end to the peaceful, popular resistance carried out lawfully every Friday. It fits in an agenda of ethnically cleansing Palestine.
The fate of the following names is still not known, they are currently in interogation centers:
Rihad Mohammad Ishtawi – 38
Thaer Baseem Ishtawi – 38, Ibrahim Mohammad Amer – 38
Hekmat Mahmoud Ishtawi – 35
Harib Mashur Jumaq – 18
Alkamia Mahmoud Jumaq – 18
Mohammad Majid Jumaq – 17
Mujahed Hassan Habas – 24
Ahmad Abdelkadar Abdullah 17
Salam Teyseer Bayram – 20
Yousef Mustafa Ishtawi – 17
Kais Chaher Jamaq – 16
Roslan Abdulkhalid Ishtawi -25
Awis Abdulrizik Amer – 24
Mujahed Sabeh Darwish – 22
Sabir Atta – 22
Tarik Mahmoud Taha – 18
Mahmoud Manjur Ishtawi – 18
Nisfat Mahmoud Ishtawi – 26
Wassim Abdulkhalid Ishtawi – 25
Lydia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
