Posts Tagged hebron
Protest in Hebron 25 February 2010
Posted by Joseph Dana in Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on February 26th, 2010
On the afternoon of February 25, 2010 about 300 Palestinian, Israeli, and International activists met at the Hebron municipality where they made posters, distributed t-shirts and hats, and spoke with media personnel before they began the march towards Shuhada Street in Hebron. The protesters marched in the rain waving flags, linking arms, and chanting slogans in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The protesters remained true to their commitment to nonviolence, yet they were met by a very heavy army presence which was quick to deploy harsh crowd dispersal techniques that included a heavy amount of tear gas and stunt grenades. The tear gas canisters were fired from all directions, often coming very close to hitting people. A few elderly protesters fainted and were evacuated by ambulance. Protestors scattered and rain in all directions to avoid the tear gas, but the army appeared to be surrounding the protest and shooting from all sides. The army continually tried to push the protesters further back by creating a human wall and physically pushing the protesters who, in response, formed their own wall to withstand the pressure. Three Israelis were picked out the crowd at random, taken away by the police and detained temporarily. One international activist was arrested and then released several hours later. The clashes between the military, police, protesters, and a few notorious settlers continued for about an hour and 45 minutes until a final barrage of tear gas caused everyone to retreat.
What it Means to re-Open Shuhada Street
Posted by Joseph Dana in Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on February 24th, 2010
a Letter from Zleikha Muhtaseb, resident of Shuhada Street:
What it means to re-open Shuhada Street..
Many people migh think why do we need to have Shuhada Street open.. it’s one of the most important streets in Hebron, as it connects the northern part of the city to the south. Not only this, it also connects people.. many people have lost their social life when the Street was closed, because their relatives and friends do not like to be stopped at the check-points or in the streets when they come to visit. And when they visited in the past, it used to be a walking distance, but now they need to take a detour around the city to get to the house they desire. People now think ten times when they plan a visit to house at Shuhada Street. First, they have to consider the time that they will take for the visit, and the money they will spend. Many people lost their businesses when Shuhada Street was closed and the job opportunities are less available these day than before, so they have to think money wise.
Personally, I live at Shuhada Street but I can’t use my front door because I am Palestinian. My neighbours made an opening in their wall to make me a passage so that I don’t become a hostage in my house. In fact I live like a prisoner in my house.. I have installed some wire fence on my balconies to be protected from the stones “gifts” that the settlers always throw at the house. Before the fence, I could not open my shutters. If by mistake I left the shutters open, I would immediately recieve the “gifts” from these settlers. I still recieve these “gifts” but they do not hit me like before. I collected these “gifts” and used them to decorate my garden and wrote the word “peace” in Arabic.
It’s really hard to live where I am because everything is closed, I used to go shopping nearby, but now if I go shopping, I need to walk a distance and carry my shopping because I can’t bring my shopping home in a car. One time I had a sever kidney pain, I could not have the ambulance in front of my door to go to the hospital. My brother’s house is 2 minutes walk from Shuhada, but I need to walk about 20 minutes to get to his house.
The Israeli army and police always tell us that they are in the area for the protection of both Palestinians and Israelis, but in fact, they stormed my house 3 times in one week to check about a complaint from a soldier that some children threw stones at the street from my house, although I live only with my mother and have no children. Many times the settler children and youth threw stones at my house and I filed complaints to the soldiers and police, and they did nothing to stop it.
Opening Shuhada Street is a big need for peace and humanity.
Zleikha Muhtaseb
Shuhada Street
For More Information Click
Open Shuhada Street in Hebron
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, West Bank on January 17th, 2010
Open Shuhada Street! February 25, 2010 International Day of Action from Open Shuhada Street on Vimeo.
This is a call to action for everyone who stands in solidarity with Palestinians fighting for their human rights. On February 25, 2010 activitsts around the world will participate in an international day of action to raise awareness about the issue of lack of freedom of movement in the Palestinian city of Hebron. The closure of Shuhada Street to Palestinians is just one prominent example of the policy of separation that affects the lives of Palestinians all across the occupied Palestinian territories.
Join the struggle to end the occupation and organize a demonstration in your city on February 25, 2010!!
For more information:
openshuhadastreet.org
openshuhadastreet@gmail.com
Hebron: Another Day in the Occupation
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on June 21st, 2009
Who Benefits?
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on June 17th, 2009
Visiting the city of Hebron is a jarring experience. The center of the city has the eerie feeling of a ghost town yet there are people walking the streets. As if the city had been deserted and suddenly a small group of residents took over the whole place. The once thriving Arab shops are now boarded up and have graffiti of Jewish ownership on the doors (Stars of David spray painted on every shop door). Every 200 meters is an IDF checkpoint manned by two or three helpless Israeli boys not over the age of nineteen. It is grim.
How could anyone have a feeling of happiness in such a place? One can say that the Jews have a special relationship with Hebron but the situation of the ground there should make that person cringe. If you believe that Hebron has a special place in Jewish religious and historical perspective, like me, the current situation there should have you in tears. Yet, there are settlers who walk the streets of the city with pride and accomplishment written on their confused, violent faces.
Yesterday, Ta’ayush along with Breaking the Silence had a social gathering at the house of Issa Amro, the director of Youth Against Settlements and field member of Btselem. Issa’s house is nestled in a quiet grove in the center of the city surrounded by Jewish settlers. As we walked to his house we were stopped by two IDF units demanding to see a ‘permit’ to be in the area. For you see, if you are an Israeli Jew and not a settler, your freedom of movement in Hebron is limited. The Israeli government does not want anyone to see the reality of life in Hebron not even its own population. Solider after solider stopped us and told us that we could not be there and droves of young settler children surrounded us yelling, ‘you are not allowed to be here! You are not allowed to be here!” We just kept walking and finally made it to the house and the party.
The party was wonderful. We were Israelis and Palestinians together in the heart of the occupation having a barbeque and enjoying each other’s company. A more impossible situation I cannot imagine but we pulled it off. Despite the group of settlers who came to videotape what we were doing (Arabs and Jews socially eating together? What?). As well as a brief visit by Police officers who were sent to harass Ezra, the evening was a smashing success. We ended the night with a speech of two South African volunteers about their experience volunteering in the West Bank. They talked about their experience with nonviolence in South Africa and the hope that they have for us.
Earlier in the day, Mairav and I went with Ezra Nawi to the land of the Maharik family who were under threat of house demolition. The Maharik family are farmers and live in two places throughout the year depending on the season, a common practice among groups of farmers in the Southern West Bank. The IDF often harasses these types of people usually with little official permission. When we arrived to their land two International Red Cross workers were interviewing the land owner. The clearly marked Red Cross car was like a shield in front of the remaining tent.
The area where the family lives is between the settlement of Susya and Asahel right next to the IDF base Shani. According to the Red Cross members, the IDF had come, without a permit for house demolition, and destroyed two tents in the middle of the night. They informed the land owner that they would return and destroy the final structure but were not clear as to when. His entire family, almost thirteen children, was now living in one tent. Our goal and purpose was to be a presence when and if the IDF returned. We spent a calm afternoon with them in their remaining tent. Some internationals arrived in the early evening with plans to spend the night. As it stands now, the internationals are still there. Patiently acting like a presence.
The afternoon was spent playing with the children of the Maharik family who were happy for the strange visitors. They were dancing, laughing, and smiling like kids do. I was struck that they could, at any minute, be left without a home. It was encouraging to see their smiles and feel the resilience of children but I left them with a feeling of such deep sadness.
How these children must be scared when, in the middle of the night, the IDF comes to destroy their home? How this experience must affect the poor soldiers who are commanded to carry out the deed? Who wins in this situation? Who benefits from this?
Max Blumenthal Covers Ta'ayush
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on June 1st, 2009
Max Blumenthal, the cutting edge American journalist, has been covering Israel from the inside over the past month. Three weeks ago, he accompanied Ta’ayush to the village of Safa and the illegal outpost of hilltop 26 (18). Below is his video report from the day. I am interviewed from the fifth minute forward.
update from hilltop 18: Rebuilding an illegal outpost
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on May 31st, 2009
Ta’ayush has been tracking the illegal outpost of hilltop 18 (26) over the past two months. Last week it was ‘dismantled’ by the IDF at the directive of the Israeli government. This is an important step but, if history is any guide, not a long lasting one. The day the outpost was ‘dismantled’ Ta’ayush activists were on the ground protecting local Palestinian residents from settler attacks of reprisal. We were not able to reach the actual outpost because of the IDF presence and certain arrest waiting for us there. Our goal was to document the reconstruction of the outpost. Today the settlers of Kiryat Arba have done us a favor and posted photos of their rebuilding. You can visit their forum here if you read Hebrew otherwise here are the photos. Does the Israeli government think that the public is stupid? Why don’t they declare the area a closed military zone and not let any settlers return? I am taken aback by this insanity.
hilltop 18 after the IDF dismantled the outpost
the rebuilding
an outpost is reborn
Update: Army is Dismantling Hilltop 26, Settlers Building it Up
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on May 27th, 2009
I am waking up to news that the Army is dismantling hilltop 26. According to initial reports, the Army arrived at hilltop 26 and began to dismantle the outpost because the settlers had connected electric to the structure. The army, finally, issued a closed military zone on the settlers and began to tear down the structure. According to Ynet, the IDF dismantled parts of the structure but all ready it has been fixed up by the settlers. The settlers are rallying around this outpost and Itamar Ben Gvir has been quoted that this destruction only gives the settlers more vigour to build more outposts.
It is great that the IDF is removing this outpost but everything has a price. We fear that settler violence will escalate in the coming days. It is a high price to pay for the native population especially considering this hilltop 26 will be there next week. Let’s hope that it is a quiet day in the southern West Bank. Hazon David is on the list of those that will be destroyed. If this happens, violence is assured. Stay tuned for updates.
Hebron, Friday Morning
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on May 22nd, 2009
We arrived at the Jabari family home just outside of Kiryat Arba at about nine this morning. On our way there we could not help but notice that since last week, electrical poles have been added to Hilltop 26, the illegal settlement outpost we wrote about in our op-ed piece that appeared in the Haaretz English edition newspaper today.
Initially we had planned on helping the Jabaris farm their land, as we had done last week, but today Abu Enan, the patron of the family, was feeling under the weather. We decided to go meet with our friend and partner Issa Amro, who wrote an article in YNET about the restriction on Palestinian movement on the “Zion” route in Hebron.
Hebron is a ghost town, but one full of scattered pockets of Jewish life actively engaged in the oppression of Palestinian life. All of the Palestinians shops that once comprised a bustling market area are boarded up. Driving through the “Zion” route, one encounters checkpoint after checkpoint, soldier after wanton soldier, and since not a single Palestinian car is allowed on the road, one cannot help but feel that this city has essentially become a prison.
Hebron - Friday Morning
After parking the car, we were immediately flooded with threatening questions and comments from the soldiers, who are scattered throughout every corner of the city center: Where are you going? Why are you here? You can’t be here. Where do you live? We kept walking, well aware of our legal right to be there, but the soldiers stopped us, demanding to see our IDs, which would be a regular occurrence throughout the day. Since we don’t reside in Hebron, the soldiers wanted to see an order permitting us to be there, however we insisted that we, like other Jews there, were completely within our legal right and continued on our way. After meeting with Issa for a while undisturbed, a policeman approached us, asked for our IDs and informed us that the whole area was a closed military zone and that at any moment he was authorized to evacuate us. We were made to feel that it was a crime just being there to meet with a friend, although the policeman did allow us to conclude our meeting. It is clear that the IDF does not want Israelis and Palestinians meeting and uses any means at their disposal for preventing the maintenance of these relations.
As we were leaving Hebron, accompanied by police escorts both in back and in front of us, another policeman decided to stop us, gratuitously, right at the exit. Ezra got very angry about being stopped by this specific police officer, who has been known to repeatedly verbally abuse him. Today, Ezra’s frustration got the best of him and told the officer that he was “stupid.” This led to him and another Ta’ayush member (who defended Ezra) to be detained. Clearly it is extreme to be arrested for calling a police ‘stupid’. The remainder of the group was forced to leave the entire area of Hebron and Kiryat Arba under the authority of, you guessed it, a closed military zone order. The police escorted us out of the area under penalty of arrest. That was the end of our day.
Ezra after being arrested
Although we had planned on visiting Hilltop 26 to document the new additions constructed by the settlers, this was made impossible because the closed military zone order applied to this hilltop as well. As we drove out, beside the series of two-meter high electrical poles, we also saw an IDF jeep parked next to the outpost, clearly protecting the area. Issa informed me that the electric poles were put up within the last two days and that the settlers have been moving rocks making way for a mobile home. This is a major escalation in construction and exactly what we describe in our op-ed piece. The fact that the army has now stationed a jeep at the outpost is clear evidence of their intention to continue working together to create new facts on the ground in the southern west bank.
Joseph Dana and Mairav Zonszein
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Arrests of Peace Activists
Posted by Joseph Dana in Israel, Jerusalem, Southern Hebron Hills, West Bank on May 23rd, 2009
I was arrested today because the state does not want its own citizens to see how it supports illegal outposts. I went to Hilltop 26 to view the progress of the outpost that I have been writing about over the past month. As is customary, the IDF, which was stationed at the hilltop today, declared it a closed military zone within minutes of our arrival. According to the discretion of the commanders, only non-settler Israelis were forced to leave the area.
They showed us the order which, according to the laws of the State of Israel must follow certain criteria in order to be official. Chief among them is that the order must be signed by the commander of the area. The order showed to us was not signed and as such is against the law. Ta’ayush was willing to accept the order and leave the area but we wanted to see the settlers removed from the area as well. (See Max Blumenthal’s excellent video of the settlers being removed from hilltop 26 last Saturday) The commander said to this that he will decide who is removed from the area. This means that the government has decided that the settlers are allowed to remain at Hilltop 26 and anyone who wants to visit the area in order to document yet another outpost in the West Bank will be removed. Non settlers are essentially forbidden to view the actions of the state of Israel in the West Bank.
The army began using excessive force against Ta’ayush activists as we were peacefully leaving the area. They arrested two people who were not walking fast enough. At this moment, a solider got in my face and I said to him, you can take me as well. I was not able to take yet another visit to Hilltop 26, having to see the settlers enjoy the full support of the Israeli army. They arrested me and told me that I was disobeying an order from the IDF. As I was sitting in the army jeep with two other Ta’ayush members, we could see more and more settlers arriving to Hilltop 26 in clear violation of the closed military zone. One of the settler children thanked the army for removing the leftists.
The soldiers threw us into the army jeep, which was on with the air conditioning on high, and closed the doors. After a minute, one solider said to the other, turn the air conditioning off, leaving us to bake in the steamy locked vehicle. We sat in the heat and watched the settlers laugh at us and thank the soldiers individually. I felt like I was on another planet.
At the police station in Kiryat Arba, the police officers immediately began asking us why we would engage in provocation. “Why come here on the weekend and provoke? Don’t you have anything better to do with your time? Why are you always creating chaos here?” I found this to be insulting and another reflection of how Israelis view the settlements and the people that wish to document and expose them. What provocation were we guilty of? Documenting the IDF breaking the law? It is horrible the situation that we all face in Israel.
After waiting for an hour we were taken in for a formal interview by the police officers. They informed me that a military order was placed on the area and that I did not obey this order. I responded, on record, that the order was not official because it lacked a signature, that I was leaving the area in peace and the settlers violated the order by staying in their illegal outpost. I insisted I did nothing illegal, and rather that it is the soldiers’ very decision to remove us but allow settlers to remain at an illegal outpost that is the true crime.
After deliberation, the officers finally charged myself and another Ta’ayush member with disobeying an IDF order and told us that we would spend twenty four hours in jail with a hearing the next day in Jerusalem. As we were talking two members of Knesset called the commander at the police station informing him that the arrest was not valid and not in line with the law. As soon as the commander hung up the phone, he flashed us a grin and mocked us about the fact that the rest of the leftists were trying to help us.
Eventually we were put in the cell. Yehuda and I started to have a conversation about Shabbtai Zvi and Rev Nahum. We were getting comfortable and anticipating a long night ahead of us. Right before we entered the cell, the main commander told us that he would let us go in ten minutes if we agreed not to enter the south West Bank for two months. Yehuda told him that the maximum he was authorized to ban us for was 15 days, not two months. He left for another hour or so. We continued our discussion of Jewish history and finally the commander returned. He rephrased himself to 15 and after deciding to agree, we were free to go. Ezra came to pick us up and we were on the way home to Jerusalem. Yehuda told me that it was obvious that the police did not have a case and though they could legally hold us overnight, the judge would throw the case out and it would look bad for the police.
The bottom line is clear. The state will use every means of intimation and power that they can to bar us despite the fact that the laws of the State of Israel are on our side. We are citizens and we have the right to see what the government does in our name and with our money.
As I was sitting in jail today thinking about Hilltop 26, all the experiences from the last two months flooded into my mind: Ta’ayush members being shoved, hit, settlers spitting on us, the army always there siding with the settlers, etc. It seemed so striking that I was the one sitting in jail. I, an Israeli citizen residing in Jerusalem who wants to document an illegal outpost that I feel harms the safety of the entire state, was in disbelief that while sitting in jail, the settlers were still out there, free to build more and more.
update: I just received this comment as I am writing this post on a youtube video from today. Sorry for the language, it is not mine: From youtube user orrush
you fucking pieces of shit will do everything to make the IDF look like shit. you know what i think of u? u’re lower than my shit fuck u. i have more respect for my dog’s shit then i do to u… leave the IDF alone they’re protecting the state u live in and u have to be a fucking douche bag and make them look like shit… FUCK OFF!
Go IDF!
"joseph dana", hebron, hilltop 26, IDF, Israel, taayush
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