- 16 apr 2011
Army arrests Hebron child after settlers attack home
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli soldiers detained a child from Hebron's Old City after settlers attacked the boy's home Saturday.
Mu'taz Al-Muhtaseb was beaten by soldiers and arrested, locals told Ma'an.
They added that Israeli forces came to the area after settlers from the illegal outpost Beit Hadasa attacked Mu'taz's home.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that soldiers arrested a Palestinian but said that the army was unaware of any beating or unusual incidents since his arrest.
He also told Ma'an that the incident came after several Israeli civilians hurled rocks at a Palestinian house. "When an IDF force arrived at the scene, they dispersed," the official said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379347 15 feb 2012, 16:19 , Respect -
Maria 19 apr 2011
Nabi Saleh: A tiny village's struggle againt the occupation
(8:38) Creative Resistance in Nabi Salih,
Nabi Saleh, April 8 2011
By Idan Landau | translation: Dena Shunra
In just over one year of unarmed demonstrations in Nabi Saleh, a small Palestinian community in the West Bank, 155 Of the village's 500 residents were wounded (about 60 of them children); 35 homes were damaged and dozens of the village's people were detained. Yet even after the protest's leader was put behind bars by the army, the struggle for the Nabi Saleh's land continues.
The objects seen in the picture: a magazine (known as a tampon) attached to a Tavor gun, and a human skull, attacked to a neck. The gun is vertical; the neck is horizontal. You could say they've made contact.
Inside the magazine: 12 to 16 rubber-coated metal pellets. Inside the skull: soft, gray brain tissue. Thoughts and memories. A soul.
The purpose of the weapon: dispersing demonstrations at a minimal range of forty meters http://fwd4.me/ztT . The purpose of the brain: to live. To remember such moments.
Will the rubber-metal pellets go through that brain? Probably not. However, the thought about it doubtlessly goes through the man's mind. One could say that this is actually happening at the photographed moment. Does pressing the magazine to the head of a man lying on the ground constitutes dispersion of demonstrations at a minimal range of 40 meters?
Pointless question. That is not the point here. The point is sowing fear and terror, emotional terror.
Was the picture taken out of context? Did the demonstrator provoke the soldiers, perhaps by throwing stones? That is a disingenuous question, the very answer for which takes it out of context. As if the provocation and the throwing of stones have no context; as if they do not occur against the background of the basic, unchanging context of occupation and dispossession. What the Hell is an Israeli soldier doing on Palestinian land? Why is he protecting an unlawful settlement that robs its Palestinian neighbors, and how does he even expect the Palestinian to just sit there and do nothing when faced with this scandalous conduct?
This could have been the end of the post. For anyone who knows anything about the events at Nabi Saleh, this is quite enough. But not everyone knows, and truly, what can you even understand from this laconic, routine headline that appears on the Hebrew news sites every Friday, Riots at Nabi Saleh? So it is appropriate to say more. That every Israeli citizen knows what has been done in his name, every week, for 15 months now.
(8:16) Nebi Salah_8-1-10 demonstration against the creeping annexation of the village lands 1 x viewed
The confrontations in Nabi Salah over the past year are considered the most violent in the West Bank. In spite of the fact that the Palestinian side is adhering to the nonviolent popular protest, with women and children participating, Israel's army has broken several records in brutality at Nabi Saleh.
In March 2010, a 14-year-old youth, Ihab Barghoutti, was shot with a rubber pellet in the course of the demonstration. The pellet hit his head and he went into a coma. Of the 500 residents of the village, 155 were wounded since the beginning of the demonstrations; that comes to 30% of the population. About 60 of the people wounded are children. 35 homes were damaged by the shooting of demonstration-dispersing weapons. Fires broke out in seven of these. Based on testimonies from demonstrators, the Israeli army uses live firepower against them, too, in violation of the law.
Just to be clear: throwing stones at an occupying army which prevents you from demonstrating on your own land does not constitutes violent protest. It is the expected response to someone who not only steals your land but also denies you the basic right to protest this. If the army stops acting against the residents of Nabi Saleh and just gets the hell off their lands, no one will throw stones at it.
The residents of Nabi Saleh are not trying to go to the nearby settlement of Halamish and they are not endangering the settlers. They insist every Friday to demonstrate by a spring that was appropriated from them.
The army does not even wait for the demonstrators to get out of the village. The Israeli army simply goes into the village and starts shooting at anything that moves rubber-coated metal pellets, gas canisters, and other things. Sometimes it sprays entire streets with putrid Skunk water: the houses, the windows, the potable water stored on the roofs. Not only is this collective punishment, this policy exposes the true provocateur: Village residents, who demonstrate without threatening any Israeli? Or the army, which invades their streets? (A quote from the testimony of Hedva Isscar: The first gas canister was shot at us before we had time to get out of the village.)
Like in Bil'in and Silwan, the Israeli army is trying to chop off the head of the popular protest by making arrests (did it help in Bil'in and Silwan? It did not. Does the Israeli army learn anything from this? It did not, either.) Protest leader Bassam Tamimi was arrested a month ago (in the 90's Tamimi was tortured by the Internal Security Service [Shabak], after which he was paralyzed for a month). Like Abdallah Abu Rahme from Bil'in, Tamimi is 10 levels of morality above the army that arrested him. Here is what he says:
We want to offer our people an example and pattern of popular struggle. Since the beginning of the revolution (the establishment of the PLO) and the armed struggle we have made cumulative mistakes which the Israelis used against us, although these were merely responses to the Israeli oppression. We do not have a military answer to Israel. History teaches us that if ever we had even partial success, it was in popular uprisings: in 1936 and in 1987. It is in the popular struggle that we can prove our moral superiority to all and sundry.
People with that kind of dangerous ideas must be put behind lock and key.
The wave of arrests at Nabi Saleh is characterized by the eradication of the difference between adults and minors. Since the protests began, more than a year ago, more than 60 residents of the village have been arrested and imprisoned (that's approximately 13%). 29 of those imprisoned are minors.
In an apparent effort to spare themselves the physical effort of running after demonstrators, Israel's army has developed an original, new method: Army forces invade village homes at night, wakes up boys from their sleep, and photographs them .
(3:20) Children woken by Israeli army
This is how they build up a database that will serve for future arrests and to hell with civil rights and the presumption of innocence. Later, testimonies collected from minors, in violation of the law, without the presence of parents or attorneys and while denying them sleep, are used to incriminated village activists.
Imagine a 14-year-old Israeli youth taken from his home, without parents in attendance, and interrogated for a seven-hour stretch about rock-throwing. Imagine him being put in detention for two and half months. Imagine having one law for you and another for him.
An Israeli soldier takes a nap in Nabi Saleh's pond
Settlers have been coveting the ancient springs in the West Bank for many years. Most of these springs are not natural, it should be noted. They were dug as part of a system of irrigation, pools, and ditches that serve the Palestinian populations. Settlers have already taken over approximately 25 such springs, with the Civil Administration ignoring their actions (This Hebrew piece explains how the system works).
In 2008 the Halamish settlers went down to the Ein Al-Kous spring, placed tabernacles and benches there, marked it up with blue stars of David, and converted it to Judaism: now they would call it Ma'ayan Meir, for Meir Segal, one of the founders of Neve Tzoof, which was the former name of Halamish (it is always a good idea to make an outpost or spring into a commemorative site; this way it's that much harder, politically, to return them). The Civil Administration was recruited to reinforce Jewish control by placing a sign prohibiting entry to Antiquities Site. It later was discovered that the sign had been placed unlawfully, http://fwd4.me/zto without the spot having been officially declared as an archeological site, and without any findings whatsoever found there. In other words, it was a trick to prohibit entry to Arabs. And indeed, a settler-hand soon interpreted the original text and added the following words to the sign: No entry to Arabs. http://fwd4.me/zte
Ein Al-Kous has always-and-forever been part of the heritage of the residents of Nabi Saleh and the nearby Deir Nazzam, and served for watering herds. In January 2010 the residents presented ownership documentation to the Civil Administration and since then the C.A. is in no hurry the documents have been under judicial examination. http://fwd4.me/zts Meanwhile, for more than a year, the settlers and the army have been acting as though the issue of ownership has already been decided in their favor. They are right, of course. The legalistic contortions are meant for foreign eyes, not for practical purposes. The Palestinians are again, as ever, infiltrators to their own land. And even if we were to assume that the land was not legally disposed, how has the spring become prohibited to Palestinians but permitted to Jews?
Now is the time to make the ever-necessary note that is always absent from reports of the riots in the Occupied Territories: Halamish itself is a marvel of unlawfulness. First, it was established on occupied territory, in contravention of international law. Second, it was established by force of a military appropriation order and was deceitfully converted into a civilian settlement. Third, large parts of it were constructed without plans or permits http://fwd4.me/ztu , knowing that they would be retroactively authorized by legal channels. In the confrontation between the residents of Halamish and the residents of Nabi Saleh, Israel's army defends the law-breakers.
Israel's governments, one after another, have specialized in blatant lies to the public. A particularly effective method was the concealment of the merely-colonial expansionist greed behind military excuses. Thus, for example, the government decision dated 2 October 1977 establishing Neve Tzoof/Halamish was phrased: the government records the decision of the Ministers Committee For Settlement dated 17 Tishrei 5738 (29 September 1977). The settlers will populate Army camps in Samaraia [sic] and be employed in accordance with army requirements as workers in service of the army. The government authorizes the deployment of the first nucleus to settlement in the Samaria Camp, today.
Workers in service of the army. What has changed today? That the army works in their service. What's the difference? There is no difference.
Here, too, is the reason for the especially tough measures taken by the military against the demonstrators at Nabi Saleh, in contrast with other places in the West Bank. The Nabi Saleh demonstrations threaten not the separation wall but a territory the settlers have occupied for themselves. The army operates as a militia for retention of the lands by Jews; it perceives the protest as being addressed directly to it, as there is no true difference between the interests of the settler and the interests of the soldiers guarding him. There is no doubt that this is aided by the presence of a senior office in the Halamish settlement - Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Itzik Shadmi, Chair of the Binyamin Settler Committee, a man whose opinions http://fwd4.me/ztv nestle comfortably between ultra-rightwing Rabbi Dov Wolfa and Kahane man Baruch Marzel.
The Israeli army will lose. The settlers will lose. Israel will lose. On the road to that loss they will wound and displace countless Palestinians, but at the end they will lose. And they will lose because they do not understand what they are contending with, despite the fact that it is in plain view, before their very eyes (as you can see in the astonishing movie, below). Sometimes you need a tremendous, superhuman effort to see that there is a human being before you. And then you need another effort, no smaller than the first, to see that what you ask him to relinquish in contrast to what you must relinquish is the recognition of his own value as a human being.
And that, he will not relinquish.
Idan Landau is a linguist at the Beer-Sheba university. This post originally appeared in Hebrew http://fwd4.me/ztw on Idan's blog. It was translated and posted here with the author's permission.
Read more on the protest in Nabi Saleh and the arrest of Bassam Tamimi on Joseph Dana's blog. http://fwd4.me/ztx
http://fwd4.me/ztS 25 feb 2012, 10:58 , Respect -
Maria 20 apr 2011
Union: Settlers, soldiers attack Palestinian journalists
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Three journalists were injured Tuesday when Israeli soldiers and settlers attacked them in the Burin village near the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Wednesday.
Three photographers covering settler violence in the eastern neighborhood of Burin in Nablus city were attacked, the PJS and media watchdog MADA said in separate statements.
Ja'far Zahid Ashtiyeh of Agence France-Presse, Nasser Ishtayeh of The Associated Press, and Wagdy Mohammed Shtayyeh of the APA agency were attacked by stone-throwing settlers.
As they attempted to flee, Wajdi and Nasser were beaten by soldiers.
"We tried to stay away," Ashtiyeh said, but soldiers "beat Nasser to the ground causing severe bruising and savagely beat Wagdy both with their arms and rifle butts, where he sustained a broken and bleeding nose."
MADA condemned the attacks on journalists and the "continued crackdown on their work."
The PJS, which represents Ma'an employees, said it would file a complaint with the International Federation of Journalists, the global organization of which the syndicate is the local affiliate.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=380705
Clashes reported in Silwan
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian youths and Israeli forces clashed Wednesday in occupied East Jerusalem, residents said.
Israeli forces were protecting settlers touring the Silwan area when the clashes broke out, said locals who called the visit provocative.
Young men blocked streets, burned tires, and threw stones, while Israel's forces launched stun grenades and fired tear-gas canisters.
There were no immediate reports of injury or damage in the incident.
http://fwd4.me/0004 26 feb 2012, 11:53 , Respect -
Maria 21 apr 2011
Youth Injured In The Face During Clashes In Silwan
The Wadi Hilwa Information Center in Bir Ayyoub area, in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, reported on Wednesday at night that a Palestinian youth was shot in the face by a rubber-coated bullet fired by Israeli soldiers during clashes that took place in Silwan.
The Center said that the twenty-year-old resident suffered severe wounds as he was shot directly in the face, including a serious wound to his lips leading to massive bleeding. The wounded youth was moved to the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
The clashes spread to other parts of East Jerusalem while clashes also took place in the nearby Al Thoury neighborhood as the army violently attacked the protestors.
Furthermore, soldiers fired teargas canisters and rubber-coated bullets at the protest tent in Silwan as dozens of Palestinians, Israeli and international activists were holding an education seminar.
The soldiers tried to kidnap several children in Bir Ayyoub and Al Bustan, but the protesting youth prevented them from conducting the illegal arrests.
Soldiers and policemen managed to reach the protest tent, that was installed to protest the ongoing Israeli violations, takeover of Palestinian homes by extremist settlers and home demolition. The police forced Palestinian, Israeli and International peace activists to evacuate.
The tent in Al Bustan became a symbol for nonviolent resistance in Jerusalem while the army and police are ongoing with their attacks against the residents and their property.
It also became of target of constant attacks as army wants to remove it, but failed to do so due to the persistence of the local residents and peace activists.
Israel is trying to force the residents out of their homes in order to replace them with fundamentalist Israeli settlers in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and several Arab neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem.
On April 17, the Israeli Central Court in Jerusalem held a hearing into the case of a young Palestinian man and three children who were kidnapped by the army after the soldiers claimed the four hurled empty bottles at them.
The four were identified as Hani Sheiki, 28, Amir Qaraeen, 15, Luay Rweidy, 14, and his brother, Suhaib Rweidi, 17.
The arrests are part of a larger illegal arrest campaign carried out by the police against local residents, society figures and leaders of the nonviolent movement.
http://www.imemc.org/article/61103 29 feb 2012, 12:15 , Respect -
Maria 21 apr 2011
Jerusalemites injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Silwan
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Violent confrontations took place in Silwan town, south of the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, on Wednesday evening between Israeli occupation forces and Jerusalemite youths.
Eyewitnesses said that Israeli policemen fired flare bombs, rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas at the young men who closed roads using burnt tires in a number of Silwan suburbs. They noted that Jewish settlers also took part in attacking the Jerusalemites.
Locals reported that a number of those youths were injured including one who was directly hit in his face and taken to hospital.
http://fwd4.me/001j 4 mar 2012, 09:15 , Respect -
Maria 22 apr 2011
Israeli occupation soldier injured in confrontations in occupied Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Clashes broke out Friday afternoon between IOF troops and Palestinian youth in different neighbourhoods of the occupied city of Jerusalem.
In the Eisaweyah suburb of Jerusalem young Palestinians clashed with occupation forces and burned a military vehicle after it overturned by throwing petrol bombs at the vehicle. Eyewitnesses said that an IOF soldier suffered burns.
Meanwhile, in the Silwan suburb of Jerusalem Palestinian youth hurled stones and empty bottles at occupation soldier who responded by firing teargas canisters and rubber-coated bullets without reports of any injuries.
These clashes are the results of daily raids carried out by the IOF and the fanatic settlers into various neighbourhoods of occupied Jerusalem and the harassment of the Palestinian population that usually accompanies such raids.
http://fwd4.me/007l 4 mar 2012, 23:30 , Respect -
Maria 22 apr 2011
Israeli forces attack WB wall protesters
A Palestinian protester is carried away after he inhaled teargas fired by Israeli soldiers during a weekly protest in the West Bank village of Bil'in near Ramallah, April 22, 2011.
Israeli troops have attacked a group of Palestinian and international activists protesting Tel Aviv's separation barrier on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
At least 13 demonstrators were injured on Friday when Israeli soldiers clashed with the protesters in the town of Bil'in, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Xinhua quoted medics as saying.
The incident occurred when Israeli forces fired live rounds, teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the peaceful demonstration.
Among the injured were a journalist and a young woman, who is said to be in critical condition.
Israeli forces also arrested four others, including three foreign rights activists.
A separate anti-settlement demonstration near Bethlehem was attacked by Israeli troops. Several people inhaled teargas, witnesses said.
Bil'in and nearby towns have been the scene of weekly protests by Palestinian and international campaigners against the wall Israel has been building across Palestinian farmland in the West Bank and against the unrelenting expansion of illegal settlements.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/176184.html...Read more 5 mar 2012, 11:59 , Respect -
Maria 23 apr 2011
Israeli policemen beat Palestinian Christians on their way to church
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israeli policemen beat up a group of Palestinian Christians while on their way to visit the Church of holy Sepulcher in occupied Jerusalem on the occasion of "Holy Saturday".
Palestinian sources said that the police manning a barricade prevented the young men from proceeding to the holy site while allowing dozens of foreign tourists to cross in the company of Israeli tourist guides, which led to clashes.
A Christian activist accused Israel of religious harassment against all non-Jews.
For its part, the Sawasiya center for human rights charged that Israel was planning to block entry of non-Jews to occupied Jerusalem.
It said that the Israeli schemes to build more housing units in the holy city pointed to such a plot, adding that they target wiping out Jerusalem's Arab and Islamic landmarks and expelling non-Jews out of it.
The center described the Israeli schemes as an infringement on the freedom of worship and a blatant violation of international laws that prohibit introducing any changes to an occupied territory or forcing its inhabitants out of their land.
http://fwd4.me/009P 6 mar 2012, 17:51 , Respect -
Maria 23 apr 2011
Mocking Jesus on Israeli TV-The Crucifixion of "Yeshu"
From the show "Toffee VeHa-Gorillah" - WARNING!!! Offensive material contained.
(1:52) Mocking Jesus on Israeli TV - ????? ??? - The Crucifixion of "Yeshu" 2 x viewed
10 mar 2012, 18:47 , Respect -
Maria 23 apr 2011
Israeli court imposes house arrest on two Jerusalemite children
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli magistrate court in occupied Jerusalem imposed house arrest on two Palestinian minors at the pretext of attacking Jewish settlers' houses.
The court sentenced Ibrahim Siyam, 15, and Yazan Siyam, 16, to one week house arrest in their homes in Silwan town south of the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
It also ordered their families to escort them to and from school for five days after the conclusion of the house arrest.
Local sources said that the children were detained and questioned over the past two days before they appeared in the court hearing on Friday.
http://fwd4.me/008n 12 mar 2012, 10:25 , Respect -
Maria 25 apr 2011
Health of Palestinian child hit by IOF canister worsening
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The health condition of the Palestinian child Mohammed Bilal Al-Tamimi badly deteriorated on Monday after three days of being hit with a teargas canister directly fired at him by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in his Ramallah village of Nabi Saleh.
Medical sources said that the 11-year-old child was admitted into ICU in the Palestine medical complex in Ramallah city.
They said that Mohammed was suffering from injuries to his liver and kidney in addition to internal bleeding.
The IOF systematically target Palestinian children in violation of all international and humanitarian laws and human rights.
http://fwd4.me/00Dh
Father says son's liver damage came from Israeli tear gas
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Eleven-year-old Muhammad Bilal Abdul Salam At-Tamimi was taken to the intensive care unit in Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, his father told Ma'an, saying the boy's condition had deteriorated throughout the week.
Muhammad had been hit by a tear-gas canister during a protest against land confiscations in the central West Bank village of An-Nabi Saleh, and was admitted to hospital at the time but was released the same day.
The child's father said Muhammad's health had deteriorated during the week, prompting him to return to the hospital, where he said doctors ran tests and determined that there were injuries to the liver and kidneys.
He said he believed that the damage had been done by the exposure to tear-gas, but doctors have not confirmed the cause of the condition.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=381868 12 mar 2012, 20:07 , Respect -
Maria 18 mar 2012, 09:00 , Respect -
Maria 25 apr 2011
Israeli Forces Arrest Children, Raid Towns in West Bank
WEST BANK, April 25, 2011 (WAFA)- Israeli soldiers Monday raided Jayous, a town east of Qalqilya and arrested two children, 15 and 16, said local sources.
According to witnesses, military vehicles roamed the streets and neighborhoods of the town, spreading fear and panic amongst the residents.
In Tulkarem north of the West Bank, witnesses told WAFA that intelligence units that accompanied the forces handed several Palestinians summons for interrogation.
They also set up a checkpoint on the road leading to Khirbet Jabara, a village south of Tulkarem, stopped vehicles and checked the identities of passengers and pedestrians, witnesses added.
In Hebron, Israeli forces opened fire at several residential areas, and threw tear gas and sound bombs, according to security sources.
Settlers from Kfar Etzion settelemet, north of Hebron, flooded farmlands with wastewater flowing from the settlement, contaminating tens of agricultural lands belonging to Palestinian farmers of Beit Ummar village, said an official spokesman of Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP).
It should be noted that Etzion settlers committed the same act one year ago, and destroyed 70 dunoms of agricultural lands, a method commonly used to force Palestinians off their lands for illegal settlement construction.
http://fwd4.me/00DV 18 mar 2012, 10:35 , Respect -
Maria 25 apr 2011
Palestinian worker injured by police dogs
HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Palestinian worker Hatem Abdul Razzaq At-Talahma, 42, was injured Thursday morning in the city of Hebron, when Israeli military police dogs bit him at his workplace.
At-Talahma told Ma'an that he believed the dogs were released in order to attack him, as he worked in the area adjacent to a wall separating the city's settler population from Palestinians in the Ar-Ramadeen area.
Medics said the man was treated for dog bites on his limbs and body.
At-Talahma said that following the attack, Israeli forces refused to give him first aid. He was evacuated to hospital by Palestinian Red Crescent medics.
Representatives of the Israeli police in Hebron could not be reached for comment.
Tensions are high in the city, as hundreds of faithful Jewish worshippers travel to Hebron, where a large community of Jewish settlers illegally reside in the city center, as well as in built-up settlements around Hebron.
The Passover holiday sees the Ibrahimi Mosque closed off to Muslims for Jewish-only worship, and parts of the former downtown core are blocked for Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=381899 20 mar 2012, 08:17 , Respect -
Maria 26 apr 2011
When a Palestinian child becomes an enemy
(13:46) Nabi Saleh kids Fighting for freedom ????? ???????? ???????
Muhammad Bilal Abdul Salam At-Tamimi in Nabi Saleh on Friday
Last summer I found myself wading around a pool in the middle of the scorching desert on a Kibbutz in the Negev. I had come to this kibbutz to see an old friend from high school. Over the past 12 years we have developed and maintained a close friendship despite clear political differences which, in this country, can easily destroy personal relationships.
As we swam in the cool water, the topic of conversation turned to his reserve service. This friend of mine, let's call him Avichai, had just finished a round of reserve duty in the Palestinian village of Ni'ilin, where I often attend and cover the demonstrations against the Separation Barrier. I was shocked to hear that he had served there and quickly realized that he had probably fired tear gas, rubber bullets or live ammunition at me. Our conversation took an uncomfortable turn.
I asked him directly, what does it take for you to look at children and shoot at them with tear gas, rubber bullets and live fire? He nonchalantly informed me that they are not children, rather enemies on a battlefield. When I asked him if he considered me an enemy for standing with the children, he brushed away the question suggesting that I was just confused. Sensing his growing discomfort, I ended the conversation knowing that relationships can end over politics in Israel.
Avichai's thoughts regarding the use of force against Palestinian children, while shocking, are not that uncommon in my experience in Israeli society.
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli NGO which collects testimonies from soldiers about their service in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, has released a number of first-hand accounts of soldiers who were told by their superiors to treat civilian areas as combat zones. Reading the testimonies, one sees an army that does not always make the proper distinction between enemy and civilian. This policy is on raw display during the weekly unarmed demonstrations against the Separation Wall and Occupation throughout the West Bank.
In the quiet village of Nabi Saleh last Friday, during a weekly demonstration against the Occupation, a child was directly hit by an Israeli tear gas canister. According to eyewitness Jonathan Pollak, the media coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, eleven-year-old Muhammad Bilal Abdul Salam At-Tamimi was standing in a crowd when soldiers began firing tear gas canisters in their direction. Tamimi was hit directly on the side of his stomach and taken to a Ramallah hospital. After a brief stay in hospital, he was released in what appeared to be a good condition.
Two days following the incident, Tamimi began complaining of pain in his stomach and was readmitted to hospital. Doctors found that he was suffering from internal bleeding of the liver and kidneys caused by the tear gas canister injury, his father told Ma'an this morning.
Tamimi's internal bleeding is the latest injury to a child reported in Nabi Saleh. Many children have been injured from tear gas, beatings, rubber bullets and even live fire in the village over the last two years of demonstrations. This type of violence against Palestinian children is not uncommon, and sadly, it is growing as Israel explores new options of ending nonviolent Palestinian resistance to occupation.
Addressing the 6th annual Bil'in conference on Palestinian popular resistance, Advocate Gabi Lasky spoke of how children are being used to implicate the leaders of popular unarmed demonstrations like those in Nabi Saleh and Bil'in. Lasky, an Israeli lawyer who has represented high profile Palestinian political prisoners such as Abdullah Abu Rahmah, told the crowd that Israel has failed to end unarmed demonstrations by military force. The army has killed 21 unarmed demonstrators, including five children, injured hundreds and used collective punishment on villages through the liberal use of violent crowd control measures and night raids. Nevertheless the demonstrations have not stopped. Now Israel is using the military court system to end the demonstrations.
The method is simple and effective: arrest children in military night raids, verbally harass and traumatize them, interrogate them without the presence of lawyers or parents and inform them that the maltreatment will stop as soon as they confess that popular committee leaders instructed them to throw stones. Despite the illegality of these methods, Israel is currently deploying them in Nabi Saleh.
Thinking back to Avichai's comment about Palestinian children as enemies on a battlefield, I have a hard time faulting him directly. He is merely part of a system that is based on a philosophy of control, submission and separation of Palestinians. It is the current status quo of endless peace negotiations, endless occupation and little violence against Israeli civilians which allows this system of violence to continue. If there is one constant in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict now, it is that Israel will go an awfully long way to protecting the status quo.
Victim's family to sue Palestinian medical authorities and Israeli army
The boy, Mohammad Bilal Abdul Salam Al Tamimi, who was standing beside his house in the village, took a direct hit from a steel tear gas shell fired by an Israeli army officer deployed on top of a house in his village of Al Nabi Saleh near Ramallah after a non-violent demonstration had ended in the village.
Ramallah: The family of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, who was admitted to hospital on Monday after sustaining serious injuries in an Israeli tear gas attack, has decided to sue both the Palestinian medical authorities for negligence and medical mistakes and the Israeli occupation forces for unjustified firing.
The boy, Mohammad Bilal Abdul Salam Al Tamimi, who was standing beside his house in the village, took a direct hit from a steel tear gas shell fired by an Israeli army officer deployed on top of a house in his village of Al Nabi Saleh near Ramallah after a non-violent demonstration had ended in the village.
He suffered internal bleeding and finally had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Palestine Medical Complex (PMC). Before that, however, a medical team of the Red Crescent ambulance had rushed him to Ramallah Emergency Hospital where he was wrongly diagnosed with nothing serious and released only a short while later.
Mahmoud Al Tamimi, Mohammad's uncle, told Gulf News that the condition of the boy deteriorated at night and his parents took him to a private hospital where he was diagnosed with serious injuries in the liver and kidney, which had caused serious internal bleeding and made him unconscious.
Al Tamimi, who is a member at the Palestinian Public Non-violent Resistance Movement (Intifada), said Mohammad was in a critical condition and his life was under serious threat. He had to be admitted to the ICU when he was rushed to the PMC from the private hospital.
Al Tamimi said the medical teams in Ramallah were on strike, which made an already bad situation for Mohammad even worse, but that could not be an excuse for the medical teams in Ramallah hospitals to ignore the boy's case. His admission to the PMC apparently took a long while because of pleading and negotiating with the hospital.
Al Tamimi said Mohammad's family had already spoken with top officials from the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Physicians Syndication and was waiting for the initial medical report to take the necessary legal action against the medical teams that committed the mistakes in diagnosis and neglected the boy's case.
The public resistance movement will press the Palestinian government to conduct all necessary official investigations into Mohammad's case and punish those committed lapses, he added.
Moreover, the Israeli military officer fired the tear gas shell from a short distance, which hit Mohammad square on. Hundreds of people, including international supporters, were eye witnesses to the incident, Al Tamimi said.
The Israeli forces were targeting Palestinian children in an unprecedented manner to force the Palestinian public to end their public non-violent resistance, he added.
"The Israelis are targeting the kids and handle them in extremely brutal ways to force parents to put an end to their resistance. We clearly announce that the non-violent resistance will never end, whatever the cost. Our kids are precious, but our resistance and our land is more valuable," he said.
Al Tamimi said all local, regional and international legal organisations are invited to attend the non-violent activities of the residents of Al Nabi Saleh, and to witness the violence of the Israeli forces on the ground.
As a national movement, Al Tamimi said, the public non-violent movement does not recognise the Israeli courts and judicial system. Therefore, the Israeli army will be sued with the help of some Arab and international legal organisations in international courts only and compensation claimed. "We do not recognise the Israeli courts and consider them just another side of the Israeli occupation," he said.
Mohammad's parents, however, are joining forces with the Beit Shalom, which highlights the atrocities and crimes of the Israeli army.
Al Tamimi said Mohammad's parents believe that their son's plight was a chance to show the brutality of the Israeli forces and the way they treat Palestinian children in a bid to put an end to the Israeli violence. Beit Shalom believes that in putting Israeli soldiers who commit offences on the Palestinians on trial for their brutality. Mohammad's parents will sue the Israeli army with its help and claim compensation in Israeli courts, which, if realised, they would hold to be a partial victory over the Israelis.
Mohammad has two brothers and a sister, and was standing by his home when the Israeli army officer fired a steel tear gas shell directly at him, seriously injuring him in the abdomen, leading to serious internal bleeding in his liver and kidneys.
http://fwd4.me/00HK
Injured boy's family to sue Israeli military, Palestinian doctors
RAMALLAH, April 26 (JMCC) - The Palestinian family of a boy struck by a tear gas canister in the village of Nabi Saleh Friday says they will sue Palestinian medical officials and the Israeli military.
The 11-year-old suffered serious internal injuries that were misdiagnosed at a Ramallah hospital, the family claims, reports Gulf News.
The boy, Mohammad Bilal Abdul Salam Al Tamimi, who was standing beside his house in the village, took a direct hit from a steel tear gas shell fired by an Israeli army officer deployed on top of a house in his village of Al Nabi Saleh near Ramallah after a non-violent demonstration had ended in the village.
He suffered internal bleeding and finally had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Palestine Medical Complex (PMC). Before that, however, a medical team of the Red Crescent ambulance had rushed him to Ramallah Emergency Hospital where he was wrongly diagnosed with nothing serious and released only a short while later.
Mahmoud Al Tamimi, Mohammad's uncle, told Gulf News that the condition of the boy deteriorated at night and his parents took him to a private hospital where he was diagnosed with serious injuries in the liver and kidney, which had caused serious internal bleeding and made him unconscious.
http://www.jmcc.org/news.aspx?id=2631