23rd November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Monday 21 November at Ibn Rushd Square, youth from Hebron gathered together with adults at a protest against the Israeli detention of Palestinian children. The protest was organized by the Prisoners Club and human right defenders who shared their information about over 350 Palestinian children in Israeli prisons with the public.
Israeli investigators are using torture techniques, both physical, emotional and psychological, to extract confessions from arrested children, who then will still be admitted in courts as evidence. Some Palestinian children receive life sentences by Israeli courts. Many others were sentenced to 10 or 20 years in prison.
At the protest meeting, the children showed pictures of their imprisoned age companions.
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According to Palestinian official data, more than 7,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons.
20th November 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Bethlehem, occupied Palestine
On the evening of the 10th of October, a group of approximately 25 children playing outside the community center at the gate of Aida refugee camp, were suddenly, and without provocation, attacked by soldiers dressed in civilian clothing. Caught completely unawares and gripped by fear, the group scattered and began to flee down two streets leading to the camp, only to find both routes blocked by several more soldiers, also dressed in civilian clothing. Eyewitnesses describe boys being punched, kicked, and thrown violently to the ground and against the wall. At that very same moment, a large number of soldiers emerged from the army base (the only street not occupied by soldiers in civilian clothing), encircling the boys so that there was little chance of escape. A total of nine boys were arrested that evening.
There is no question that what happened at the gates of Aida camp that evening was a well-planned and coordinated sting operation, executed with a level of sophistication that one might conceivably associate with the apprehension of hardened criminals, but certainly not of a group of apathetic adolescents, minding their own business outside their own homes.
So why were they attacked in this way? What warranted this level of aggression and sophistication? Did the boys pose some sort of existential threat? If so, what threat did they pose? If not, why were they targeted in this way?
None of these boys had ever been previously arrested or charged with any crime of any sort, nor did they pose any real threat, and after this attack several of the boys were charged in the following days with minor offenses. For example, Mohammed Derwash (14) was charged with throwing a plastic container at a soldier; his cousin, Adam Derwash (16), for having marbles in his pocket with, “intent to throw”. Putting to one side the sheer absurdity of these charges, for which many of the boys are still being detained, it’s important to note that these charges are for offenses that are alleged to have occurred at the time of the boys’ arrest. Remember, from the boys’ perspective, they were being attacked by crazed civilians. Therefore, one might reasonably argue that these actions were taken in self-defense (if at all).
Following their arrest, the boys underwent a traumatic interrogation process. 13-year-old, Amir Mahmoud, was one of the nine arrested that day. His nose was broken when his assailant threw him against a wall, and punched him in the face. He was subsequently charged with “throwing an object with intent to harm” and “beating a soldier”. His bail was posted at 6000 shekels, the equivalent to €1450 Euros, a sum that is veritably unobtainable for many of the impoverished residents of Aida refugee camp. He, and the other boys arrested that day, were bound, blindfolded, and taken to a military base where they were then violently beaten. He knew that other boys were around him because he could hear their cries. He showed us the cuts incurred from the handcuffs that still mar his wrists, a week later. When he shared with a soldier that his handcuffs were too tight, the soldier proceeded to tighten them further.
Right: Amir Mahmoud. Left: Cuts on Armir’s wrist from handcuffs
Amir was interrogated with no lawyer or family member present. His interrogation began with a gun being placed on the table, pointed ominously in Amir’s direction. However, the officer’s style of interrogation quickly changed from subtle gestures to outright verbal assault, as he grew increasingly frustrated with Amir’s unwillingness to engage in questioning, or incriminate any of his friends. The officer then resorted to beat Amir, when he finally tired of the boys’ silence.
The interrogation for 13-year-old Dawud Sharaa began at 2 am in the morning on the eve of his arrest. The four hours previous he spent in the cold, blindfolded, handcuffed, threatened and beaten, told to wet himself if the urge to go to the toilet became too great. His interrogation lasted for approximately one hour. It began with him being told to call his father, that he was to be released. His father, heartened by this news, asked to speak to a soldier to confirm. The soldier yelled at the boy to shut up, and hung up the phone.
Israeli documents label his name: ”the criminal” Dawud
The psychological torment did not finish there for Dawud. The soldiers then proceeded to engage Dawud in a mentally exhausting cross-examination where he was verbally assaulted, spat at, threatened with violence, and even physically beaten in order to provide them with information, or admit guilt to acts he did not commit. His father produced for us a medical certificate in which the boys physician documented the bruising he had suffered as a result of the beating he received.
Medical certificate documenting pain in the head, neck and lower back and bruises on his body.
For the remainder of that night, from approximately 3am until he left for his court case at 7 am the following morning, he spent in a cell, above which a water tank was situated so that cold water dripped down upon him with harrowing regularity. Even times when an exhausted Dawud began to drift off to sleep, the patrolling soldier smacked him in the back of the head with the but-end of his M16 riffle.
Both these cases provide telling insight into on the larger agenda being forwarded by Israeli State Forces against Palestinian youths. During my time at the camp I met with some of the boys who had been arrested that day and who had since been released, but also with several others who had been targeted in separate incidents, as well as their families, and a number of community leaders and volunteers. What became abundantly clear during my time there was that this was not an isolated incident. Palestinian youths, aged between 12 and 16 years old, are now the primary target of Israeli state aggression throughout the West Bank
Only last week 14-year-old Ahmad Manasra was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was alleged to have been complicit in a stabbing incident involving an Israeli settler. The video of his interrogation and confession, which was leaked on the Internet and can be found here, is telling of the type of treatment these boys receive at the hands of Israeli Security Forces. Ahmad was 13 when he was arrested. The date of his trial was put off until he was 14, after which age he could be given a prison sentence under Israeli military law. Sentencing of Palestinian youths under Israeli military law has become an important tool of the Israeli apartheid regimen. Interestingly, both Amir and Dawud’s trials have similarly been postponed until the boys turn 14.
Almost unbelievably, the day we went to interview Dawud, he had been arrested again, this time from his home at 6am. The soldiers had a photograph of a boy wearing a white shirt, apparently resembling Dawud, throwing a stone, and so they raided his house in search of the white shirt. They found nothing. It was not Dawud in the picture. But state forces are willing to adopt unscrupulous measures to attempt to incriminate this young boy.
So why are young boys increasingly being targeted by the occupation? I posed this question to the father of 14-year-old Motaz Ibrahim Msalm. Motaz, in a separate incident, had his house raided in the middle of the night on the 5/10/16. He was pulled from his bed, thrown against the wall, arrested and detained for 5 days. As justification for his arrest the Israeli state forces declared that he posed a “security risk”. He was interrogated similarly to the cases described above.
Motaz Ibrahim Msalm
“To create a generation crippled by fear”, was the fathers’ response. “To create a generation who are afraid to leave the house, afraid to go to school, afraid to visit the mosque, afraid to play with their friends, but most importantly, afraid of soldiers, and afraid to resist.”
“To get information”, proclaimed another. “To use fear and torture to get the boys to give up information and then use that information against them and others, so as to incriminate and lock up as many of them as they can.”
“We are also afraid of foreigners now”, Amir interjected. “The soldiers who attacked us wore civilian clothing. So now we are suspicious of everyone that comes into the camp”.
There is no hiding from the fact that these boys were tortured by Israeli state forces. Describing the psychological scars left behind, one father told us that his son wakes up at night screaming with fear, that he wets the bed and panics at even the slightest of disturbances. That he has become withdrawn, no longer leaves the house and has become prone to aggressive outbursts against his mother and siblings. I couldn’t help but notice this fathers eyes well up as he detailed for us how profoundly his son has been affected by the torture he endured.
That this can happen to anyone, anywhere, in the twenty first century is hugely upsetting. That this can happen to a collective of innocent teenagers, playing outside their homes or snatched from their beds, kidnapped and held at ransom by the state, is even more troubling. But that this is a policy now systematically practiced by a nation that is held to such high esteem by the international community, a nation that publicly presents an image of itself as a “free” and “open” society. That, to me, is truly terrifying.
The question I am left with is how? How have we, the international community, allowed ourselves to be deceived in this way, charmed by Israeli rhetoric yet oblivious to their wicked intent? For how long will we allow it to continue? When will you say… ok, this has gone too far! Enough is enough! If the on-going ethnic cleansing, annexation of land and demolition of homes wasn’t enough to make you speak up, what of child torture and imprisonment? Will you speak out against that? Or will this too go unchallenged by the international community, as has every atrocity that has preceded it?
The truth is its up to you! So the real question is, where do you draw the line?
24th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Monday morning, infamous Israeli settler Anat Cohen attacked a group of school-children harvesting olives near their school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). She then ordered the soldier to not only evict the students and teachers from the area, but assist in her attack.
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A group of scout students was helping Palestinian families, picking olives for them next to the Qurtuba school on Shuhada Street. Immediately after the group started picking the olives, a soldier from the nearby Daboya checkpoint came to order them not to pass the fence when harvesting, but allowing them to harvest the olives, as long as they don’t cross the fence.
Only a short time after, he came back, this time with infamous settler Anat Cohen. Anat Cohen has at many times attacked the school-students, teachers and families in this area, always with complete impunity. She makes no difference between elderly, children, men or women, and deliberately attacks Palestinians for the sole fact of them being Palestinians, and also internationals supporting them. She is well-known for those vicious attacks and insults, many of which were caught on camera. Despite this video-evidence, she is always showered with the unwavering protection and support from the Israeli soldiers and civil police, and thus enjoys complete impunity for her crimes.
As the soldier came back together with Anat Cohen, he suddenly ordered the students and teachers to stop harvesting immediately – orders that obviously came straight from Anat Cohen, who was standing right behind him. This is just another example of soldiers acting directly on the orders of the settlers from the illegal settlements, without any interest at all for the law or human rights. Even when Anat pushed a teacher, the soldier refused to intervene or arrest her, and instead threatened to arrest the teacher. The teachers tried to reason with the soldier, telling him that he allowed them to harvest before, and now clearly takes his orders from Anat, and assured him that they would leave if he has an official order stating that the harvest in this area is not allowed. As a reply, the soldier that communicated just fine in English before, suddenly stated that he does not speak any English. The soldier proceeded to grab, push and pull students himself, all the while Anat was cursing and harassing the group. He then pulled a student, that was held up to reach the olives by the director of Qurtuba school, almost causing him to fall down from great height.
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This is just another in a string of attacks of Anat, for which she never has to feel any consequences. This impunity provided for by the Israeli army and civil police only emboldens her in her vicious attacks. The collaboration between the Israeli forces and settlers, together against the Palestinian civilian population of the area is obviously geared towards the ehtnic cleansing of this area, in order to instead create a ‘sterile’ continous illegal settlement.
23rd October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
The events of Tuesday the 18th of October began to unravel as my friend and I accompanied school children through an Israeli checkpoint (Salaymeh) as they made their way home that afternoon. On our return journey from the school we noticed a car stopped next to a number of school children, its passengers yelling loudly at them, prompting us to film the confrontation. When the driver became aware of our filming the car began to move slowly towards us. As it neared, the car accelerated slightly, forcing us to move quickly to avoid it. Some of the passengers immediately jumped from the car and began to hurl insults at us, calling us “Nazis” and “Jew killers”. They continued in this fashion, pushing and shouting at us to “leave their land” until we were forced through the checkpoint to relative safety. The soldiers present did little to stifle their aggression towards us and even offered one of these men a friendly pat on the back as we left.
After passing through the checkpoint we noticed an armored bulldozer parked outside the gate and so we decided to wait a while. Before long the checkpoint gate opened and the bulldozer began to move through the street towards another checkpoint (Qeitun), accompanied by three armed Israeli soldiers. We followed it to Qeitun where it began to fashion a roadblock from rubble, large stone blocks and rubbish that was piled up in the street. As we got closer the soldiers began shouting aggressively at us to stop, preventing us from properly observing what they were doing. In the commotion a number of people came out from their homes and businesses, and children, whose homeward journey was blocked due to the soldiers activity, began to congregate at a nearby junction. With this, the soldiers began pointing their weapons threateningly into the crowd. One soldier regularly lifted a stun grenade from his jacket pocket, seemingly eager to use it. As the bulldozer returned to Salaymeh, soldiers continued to fixate their rifles on young children and people passing by. One soldier aimed his rifle at children moving through a near by field, laughing out loud as they ran, terrified that he might fire at them. As the bulldozer passed through Salaymeh, a single stone was thrown from the crowd of school children who had congregated at that junction, landing harmlessly on the ground at the soldier’s feet. In response, the soldier ran towards the congregated school children, throwing a stun grenade into the middle of the crowd causing it to scatter in a frenzied panic. Again he laughed at this triumph.
An armored bulldozer rolls out of the Salaymeh checkpoint through the Palestinian neighborhood to create a roadblock off of a narrow side street.
Roadblock built from large stones and rotting garbage blocking off a Palestinian side street near the Qeitun checkpoint.
It was clear that these children, ranging in age between 5-15, posed no real threat to these soldiers and most were simply waiting to go home. Many of the adults among them, some of whom were presumably teachers, tried tirelessly to keep the children out of harms way. Despite this the soldiers enjoyed taunting the crowd and frightening them with violent intimidation and excessive use of force.
To the Palestinian residents of Hebron such incidents are a familiar occurrence, but these operations increase in regularity during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which draws hundreds of Jewish holidaymakers to the fully Israeli controlled H2 part of the city to celebrate the “Feast of the Tabernacles”. Under the auspice of “security”, Israeli military presence similarly escalates during this period, as the number of roadblocks, closures and checkpoints increases dramatically. A number of Palestinian-owned businesses are even forced to close during this time and many residents are prevented from entering or leaving their homes as Jewish tourists parade freely through the so-called Palestinian controlled H1 part of the city, accompanied by soldiers armed heavily with rifles and a variety of other weaponry. Armed guards frequently humiliate and harass Palestinian residents, young and old, with an upsurge in the frequency and ferocity of body searches. Barricades are erected to separate passing Palestinians from Jewish tourists, further reinforcing the apartheid system already enforced by the illegal Israeli occupation of Hebron.
An atmosphere of trepidation consumes the Palestinian residents of Hebron during Sukkot for fear that this military escalation will be used to further the Israeli agenda of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians from the city. Violence, eviction and destruction of property at the hands of settlers and the Israeli forces has become commonplace for the Palestinian population of Hebron who, despite it all, remain admirably resolute and resilient throughout.
School children prevented from returning home due to this activity by the Israeli forces.