Violence Increases in Wadi Nasara

(CPT Hebron Release)

Settler attacks in Wadi Nasara have increased recently, with at least six attacks reported in the last nine days.

On Aug. 1, a group of about 20 settlers attacked a wedding party at the Jaabari family home. Five Palestinians were injured when they were hit with stones or beaten. Three people, including a pregnant woman, went to the hospital with minor injuries.

The following day, a groups of 25-30 settlers entered the Jaabari land and attacked Palestinians passing in the street. Again five Palestinians went to the hospital with injuries.

Attacks continued over the next week. On Aug. 4, settlers threw stones at two families’ homes in Wadi Nasara. The next day settlers threw stones at a 79-year-old man as he picked almonds on his land and then beat him. When two CPTers visited him four days later, his arm was still covered in bruises.

Settlers attacked again on Aug. 6, throwing stones at a home next to the Kiryat Arba settlement. The Jaabari house was stoned again on Aug. 8, and settlers stole four of the family’s sheep.

“The problem is the soldiers,” said Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights worker with the Israeli organization B’Tselem. “They are backing the settlers up in a horrible way.”

Amro was detained by soldiers on Aug. 1 when he tried to film the attack on the wedding party. He said soldiers in the area consistently allow attacks to continue.

Contributing to the recent escalation were two tents that settler youth erected on Palestinian land in Wadi Nasara, which soldiers removed on Aug. 9. According to Palestinians living nearby, settler youth – including some from outside Hebron – had slept in the tents for more than three weeks. They attacked Palestinians living in Wadi Nasara as well as pedestrians passing by the tents.

On Aug. 8, settler boys told a group of CPTers and Palestinians that the road running next to the tents, which both settlers and Palestinians use, is now for “Jews only.” They shouted threats when the group continued to pass.

CPT and other human rights workers have been visiting Wadi Nasara regularly since February due to the regular attacks against Palestinians living there.

More Bad News

I've been falling behind a bit and hope to write some more about the CPT delegation soon. In the meantime, there are some updates about things I posted already.

Another Palestinian boy was killed in Ni'ilin. Yousif Amira, 17, died Sunday after being hit in the head with two rubber bullets at the funeral for Ahmed Musa (the 10-year-old who was killed) on July 30. Democracy Now aired an interview about the deaths.

As for Musa, Ha'aretz now reports that, according to eyewitnesses, the boy was shot as he went to retrieve a shoe that had been lost in a scuffle earlier in the day. An autopsy showed he was shot in the forehead at close range, Palestinian officials say.

Also, I learned last week that my friend Omar Qassis's administrative detention has been renewed. He is just one of about 730 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails without charge.

Tensions Rise in Hebron

Tent erected by settlers in Wadi Nasara, July 19

Hebron has changed over the past few weeks. About three weeks ago the Golani Brigade arrived here after a stint in Gaza. They are known as "the most aggressive and roughest" brigade in the IDF, according to a former officer with the Golani who is now with Breaking the Silence.

Maybe in response to the influx of more sympathetic soldiers, the settlers have also been acting up recently. Two weeks ago they erected a tent on Palestinian land in Wadi Nasara, a valley bordering the settlement Kiryat Arba. The young settlers who occupied the tent threw stones and attacked Palestinians and internationals who passed by. On July 19, they pepper sprayed and hit ISM volunteers and also broke their camera. Within two days after the tent was erected it was removed - either by soldiers or settlers. But two days later a new tent was up, which remains until now. The settlers there continue to periodically throw stones at passersby.

Not only has settler aggression increased, soldiers are asserting their control and often seem to cooperate with the settlers. When Marius and I arrived to film the July 19 altercation at Wadi Nasara soldiers stopped us from reaching the ISM'ers. "Why are you in my country?" one asked me. "This land is for Jews, not Arabs. Arabs are dogs." On July 29, CPT got a call about young settler boys who were throwing stones at a Palestinian boy flying a kite on his roof. The settler boys were in a soldier's observation tower when we arrived, but the soldier made no apparent attempt to remove them. They didn't throw any more stones, but one boy, who might have been about 12, held a stone in his hand and flicked his wrist toward us a few times as if he was going to toss it. The boys told us not to film them, and when we continued, six more soldiers arrived at the observation tower. They claimed the boys weren't throwing stones and told us to stop filming. When we continued, the soldiers started toward us, climbing across the roofs of houses. (The stone throwing had stopped, so we left before they reached us.)

Soldier with gun pointed at Deboya checkpoint, July 21

The soldiers' behavior at checkpoints has changed as well. Especially at the Deboya Street checkpoint to Tel Rumeida, people are being stopped and searched more regularly. On July 21, Marius and I were on our way to Tel Rumeida when we found a line of people at the checkpoint. Five people were being detained there, including a 12-year-old boy who had Hebrew writing on his shirt. "He stole it," explained one of the soldiers. They held him there for about half an hour before letting him go.

This is life in H2. Everything is unpredictable. There is power in the soldiers' inconsistency - some days Palestinians can pass a soldier or a checkpoint without a problem, some days they are detained while their ID numbers are called in. Young men, of course, are searched more regularly and detained more often. On July 30, I passed a group of young men stopped on Shuhada Street who said they had been held there for two hours.

A few soldiers have told me that they are cracking down because of intelligence predicting an attack in Hebron. Whether this is the real reason or not, the effect is the same. Every time a Palestinian is held at a checkpoint or subjected to a new restriction he is reminded of who is in control.

Closure in Hebron

The CPT delegation arrived in Hebron on Monday afternoon to find the main road into the city closed. Soldiers had set up a checkpoint around 7 a.m., our cab driver told us, and were letting cars through intermittently. The checkpoint was set up Sunday after a 25-year-old Hamas activist was killed by soldiers who demolished his home on top of him following a 12-hour standoff. ISM reports that another house was also demolished during the operation.

The checkpoint halted traffic both entering and leaving the city. A Reuters photographer told us that a woman had given birth at the checkpoint about an hour earlier, which a Ma'an report confirmed.

Palestinian Child Killed at Na'alin Demonstration

Israeli soldiers have killed a 10-year-old boy in Na'alin as demonstrations continue against the so-called security barrier, which is set to confiscate 2,500 dunams of the village's land. Ahmed Moussa was shot in the forehead at close range, said eyewitnesses. Ha'aretz reports that boys had been throwing stones after the day's protests had mostly subsided, and soldiers responded by firing live ammunition.

Drops of Water

Everyone the CPT delegation has met over the last few days seems to agree that the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is getting worse. The frustration is palpable, and it’s seen on people’s faces and heard in their comments. “Don’t even think about that,” said our host in Bethany, Issa, when one of our team asked what he thought about the prospects for peace. We hear again and again the stories of broken promises and vanishing optimism. The settlement activity that exploded during the “peace process” has not slowed down since the Annapolis conference; construction of the wall continues; the military closes roads, arrests people and raids houses at will.

The suffering is extreme and ubiquitous. Friday we met Saleem in East Jerusalem, whose house has been demolished four times. After one of the demolitions, his 6-year-old son hid for eight hours in a field, and his wife was so traumatized that she didn’t speak for a month. Saturday we talked to Ahmed in the Arroub Refugee Camp, who has spent 10 years in prison, beginning when he was 16. We also met with a family in Beit Ummar with five demolition orders on their house and the mayor of Beit Ummar who spent 11 months in jail, where he was sometimes handcuffed to a chair for 15 hours at a time.

No one we have talked to is expecting a miracle. Rather they are quick to challenge our naivete if we act shocked by Israel’s actions or look for hope in the legal system or negotiations. Incursions, roadblocks, imprisonment without charge and home demolitions have become normal, and the Palestinians are prepared for them to continue.

But in the people we’ve met so far, this resignation hasn’t led to nihilism or defeat. We met Saleem at a workcamp sponsored by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions where he was leading a group of internationals and Palestinians in the rebuilding of two demolished homes. Ahmed raises money to help the people in his refugee camp. Recently they built a playground and swimming pool, and he also helps raise money to send youth from the camp to college. The mayor of Beit Ummar hopes for a time when relations in Palestine will be governed by human rights and equality. “I hate [the Israelis’] behavior,” he told us, “not their soul.”

There is wisdom in these people, born, I think, partly from decades of suffering and being forced to face questions of justice and injustice, life and death. They do not hope for peace and justice to fall down on them like rain in the desert, but they do continue the struggle for their existence. “It is like a soft drop of water that falls on a hard surface,” said the mayor. “If it falls continuously on the same place, eventually it will leave a mark.”

CPTer Attacked in Tuwanni

On Sunday, settlers from Havot Ma'On beat CPTer Joel Gulledge with a rock and a video camera as he accompanied children to a summer camp. A masked settler approached the 14 children and two CPTers and began throwing stones with a slingshot while other settlers came from another direction. The children ran away unharmed, but Gulledge, who was filming the attack, was caught and beaten. Pictures and a more complete description are here.

Settler attacks in the West Bank have been particularly ruthless over the last few weeks, including setting fire to a house in Burin, rocket attacks from a settlement near Nablus, and an attack near Samua' where a man was tied to pole and beaten.