Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006
Brief report from group

These posts are from a Brighton based activist spending April in occupied Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement, a network of international activists set up to support Palestinian non violent resistance agaisnst Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. In these posts I will be writing short accounts of aspects of the occupation and resistance… Let me know if I'm spamming you

Tel Rumeida Prepares for an Uneasy Shabbat I am currently volunteering with the ISM in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Internationals from the ISM and the Tel Rumeida Project stay in Tel Rumeida as witnesses to settler violence and to non-violently intervene if settlers attack. Tel Rumeida is one of the saddest places I have been in Palestine. It is a tiny district on the outskirts of Hebron separated from Hebron proper by a permanent checkpoint across a narrow street. It feels like it should be a lively and vibrant place but Shuhada street, once lined with shops, now looks like a ghost town. It is flanked by boarded up shops and a military checkpoint at each end. Shuhada street appears empty but in fact it is still home to many Palestinian families living above deserted shops who often feel too intimidated to walk in the street. This is because Shuhada street and Tel Rumeida street (see http://www.telrumeidaproject.org/map_telrumeida.html ) live alongside some of the most violent and extreme members of the settler movement in the occupied territories. These Israeli Jewish settlers live next to the Palestinian inhabitants of who have mounted a campaign of harassment against them with the desired end result of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Tel Rumeida. International volunteers in Tel Rumeida escort Palestinian children to and from the local school. This is to provide protection from settler attacks. Settlers regularly beat and throw stones at Palestinian children, there were 12 incidents of this in December 2005 (see http://www.telrumeidaproject.org/monthly_summary.html for monthly reports). Although the Israeli army have a huge presence in Tel Rumeida they regularly ignore such incidents. Every morning and afternoon Palestinian children must walk through a hostile neighbourhood through IDF checkpoints and barbed wire to reach their school. Simply continuing to live in Tel Rumeida is an act of resistance for local Palestinians. In the short time I have been here I have had stones thrown at me by Settler children and have seen people spat at by the settlers. But things can get much worse, often settlers riot in Tel Rumeida hurling rocks and terrorizing the community (see http://www.telrumeidaproject.org/riots_photos.html ). On Wednesday Israeli holiday time began and will continue until April 21st. During Israeli holidays Palestinians are particularly vulnerable to attacks from settlers, who are often joined by supporters from the wider 'settler movement'. Some of the worst attacks on Palestinians have occurred on Shabbat. I hope that Tel Rumeida will be quiet throughout the holidays but I think the international community should be watching the events in Tel Rumeida in the coming weeks… Inside the Chicken Run - Ramallah Last week I returned to occupied Palestine after three years being away. I thought I'd paid as much attention as possible to the situation here but I still wasn't quite prepared for the twisted nightmare that Palestine is being transformed into. Yesterday I caught my first glimpse of the new Qalandia checkpoint, the main crossing between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Three years ago the crossing was a comparatively crude series of road blocks manned by IDF soldiers. It was an oppressive place where you often found huge queues of Palestinians waiting at the whim of the soldiers and people being detained for hours without reason. Today Qalandia is a huge monstrosity of tunnels and turnstiles which Palestinians call the 'chicken run'. People without permits are forced to leave their cars on either side and walk through what looks like, and is intended to look like an international border terminal. Palestinians passing through the checkpoint no longer see the soldiers manning the checkpoint face to face but hear them barking orders through loudspeakers and squint at them through glass panels. The 'chicken run' terminal is framed by concrete watchtowers, reminiscent of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the apartheid wall on either side. Qalandia is one of many checkpoints which have been converted into these more permanent terminals controlling access into the banthustans of the West Bank. Similar boundaries are being constructed in Bethlehem and Tulkarem. Israel's Apartheid wall has split the West Bank into three non contiguous bantustans separated from each other by walls, fences, terminals and roadblocks. Israel's aim is to annex as much land as possible, including the land between the wall and the 1967 green line, while creating permanent ghettos for the Palestinian population. The Palestinians and their supporters have always said that the wall was not about Israeli security but apartheid and annexation. The 'chicken run' is another indication that they are right.

Sent: Sunday,April 09, 2006
Brief report from group

These posts are from a Brighton based activist spending April in occupied Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement, a network of international activists set up to support Palestinian non violent resistance agaisnst Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. In these posts I will be writing short accounts of aspects of the occupation and resistance… FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fears that settler violence against Palestinian residents will increase over the Jewish holidays came to a head as Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian house on Thursday. The army has refused to remove them until the squatting has been challenged in the High Court and IDF soldiers have been stationed near the house to protect the settlers. Palestinians in Hebron are anxious that settler violence may increase over Passover as settler youths are off school and many people will be visiting the Hebron settlements. There is a trend of increasing attacks on Palestinians over holiday periods. The house is close to the Avraham Avinu settlement near the Hebron wholesale market. In January 2006 the IDF issued eviction notices to settlers who had been squatting there since 2001. The eviction prompted rioting (see www.telrumeidaproject.org/riots.html) by settlers throughout Tel Rumeida and Hebron's old city where masked settlers stoned Palestinians, threw paint bombs and looted Palestinian homes in full view of the IDF. Eventually a deal was reached that the shops would be evacuated but that settlers could return after the Hebron municipality's lease ran out. However, on April 4th the Israeli attorney general ruled that the IDF deal was illegal and the settlers would not be able to reoccupy the market. Local Palestinians fear that this move, combined with Passover, will lead to further violence by settlers. Today in Tel Rumeida, on the first Shabbat of the Passover school holidays, two Palestinian were assaulted by settlers on Schohada Street. One man was punched by a group of settlers and a man had stones thrown at him while returning to his house. International volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement and the Tel Rumeida Project plan to maintain a presence in the area over Passover.