small scale occupation

Kids from Revava, a nearby Israeli settlement, raise an Israeli flag over the structures they've built on the former land of a Palestinian farmer from Deir Istya.

A few days ago, we were called to monitor an unfortunately not-so-uncommon situation in the neighboring village. Some youth from the Israeli settlement of Revava had constructed 2 playhouse-like buildings, a flag pole, and a blue 6-foot-high Star of David on the land right below the settlement. The owner of the land, Abdel from Deir Istya, came upon the structures a few days ago: the army says the Revava settlers have papers that leased the land to them. Abdel says this isn't true. Who is believed?

It seems like a youth movement is building in the West Bank. The children of ideological (those that believe the land belongs to Jews/Israel) settlers have taken up the cause of their parents, supporting right-wing causes and traveling in large groups to stand with the to-be-evacuated settlers in the old city of Hebron this week. Reports from Hebron describe teenage girls spitting, kicking, throwing stuff and screaming at Palestinians and human rights activists.

The kids of Revava, along with their mayor who joined them, mostly just sent us hateful glares and rude comments. Again, this entire situation is illegal, according to international UN law: citizens may not be transferred to occupied territory from the occupying country. Settlements in the West Bank require security from Israel, therefore continuing and escalating the military presence in the region.

bullets

A boy in the village of Kufr Ei-Dik holds photos of his family shot with bullet holes. Two days ago, soldiers with military dogs ran into his home (and his 2 uncles and grandfather's homes as well), demanded everyone outside in the rain, and ransacked the place, throwing sound bombs into rooms, and shooting tons of bullets into dressers, clothes, refridgerators, walls... these photos were inside his closet. While in his grandparent's home, military dogs mistakenly attacked his 78-year-old grandmother in her bed - she was taken to a hospital nearby. The soldiers were looking for his 23-year-old cousin and finally found him and took him away, on unknown charges. Different legal systems exist for people living in the occupied Palestinian territories and for those living inside Israel... it's possible for Palestinians to be held in administrative "incommunicado" detention (without being able to speak to lawyers or family or have a trial) for up to 6 months, according to an Israeli legal organization.

Part of the work of IWPS is to monitor and document human rights abuses in the area in which we live, such as recording the evidence and images of the above situation. Inshallah (hopefully), someday there will compensation for war crimes and abuses in Palestine, and there will be some record of what happened...

Bil'in again

Last week's Bil'in demonstration focused on being able to walk, along with Israeli activists and internationals to the village's land (where currently an Israeli settlement is being illegally expanded). It didn't work. Sometimes I think of it like this: pretend are Canadian and you went to Sweden. Maybe you bought some land there and built some houses and sold them to your other Canadian friends. Maybe you even built a little fence around your compound. But is it okay to raise the Canadian flag, impose immigrant restrictions, have the Canadian military protect you, and announce it to be part of Canada? The same thing is happening here and some people think it's just fine.