Rights and Accountability 15 September 2017
Israeli forces invaded the home in order weld shut one of its two entrances, and Zleikhah tried to stop them.
Zleikhah’s niece Rania al-Muhtaseb lives in the building with her husband Bassem and their three children.
The building has a back door towards Hebron’s market, and a front entrance towards the Ibrahimi mosque.
The front entrance goes out into an area heavily controlled by Israeli occupation forces which family members cannot easily cross except by passing through military checkpoints.
Trapped by checkpoints
When the Israeli soldiers showed up at the house on 13 August, Rania called her aunt, one of the building’s owners, who lives in Hebron’s Old City.
“She arrived within half an hour,” Rania told the human rights group B’Tselem. “The officers were trying to screw the door shut just as she came in. She went up to them and tried to stop them. She pressed herself against the door and held on to it. The female soldier tried to get her away from the door, but couldn’t.”
What happened next can be seen in the video above, filmed by Rania.
Israeli forces did eventually weld the door shut, causing the family considerable hardship.
“Before they welded the back door shut, I would go in and out of the house through the market,” Bassem explained. “Now, I have to get home by walking on the rooftops of the houses near the market. It’s dangerous at night, because the military watches the rooftops in the area.”
The alternative is to go through one of the military checkpoints where Palestinians face long delays and routine harassment.
“On top of this, my wife is pregnant, and I’m worried she’ll go into labor at night and we’ll have to get to hospital,” Bassem added, noting that occupation forces rarely agree to open the emergency gate in the checkpoint.
No excuse
“The excuse provided by the security forces that the measure was needed to prevent ‘suspects’ from going through the house is unfounded and has no basis in reality,” B’Tselem said.
“Even if there were any truth to it, it could not justify such severe harm to the al-Muhtaseb family,” B’Tselem added. “This case is another example of Israel’s policy of segregation and restrictions on Palestinian movement in central Hebron, coupled with abuse, violence and daily harassment by security forces and settlers.”
As a result, life in the Old City of Hebron has become intolerable for Palestinians, and thousands have left the area – likely the intended goal of Israel’s policies.
Several hundred Israeli settlers protected by the Israeli army live in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi mosque, in Hebron’s Old City.
In 1994, an American Jewish settler from the nearby colony of Kiryat Arba massacred 29 Palestinians inside the mosque, which Muslims and Jews believe marks the spot where the bibilical prophet Abraham is buried.
Since then, Israel has attempted to consolidate its hold on the heart of the city with ever tighter restrictions on Palestinians, including segregated roads and violent settler takeovers of homes.
On Friday, Palestinians in Hebron marched after noon prayers to protest Israel’s expansion of municipal services to the settlers in the Old City, a move Palestinians fear will further consolidate their grip.
According to the Ma’an News Agency, Israeli forces attacked the peaceful marchers with tear gas.
Comments
another day, another outrage
Permalink tom hall replied on
The settlers in Hebron (al-Khalil) are among the most pathological and vicious in the entire movement. Many are American followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the notorious racist demagogue. They seem to wield the power of command over soldiers stationed in the Palestinian neighborhoods, and they rule with an iron hand. As for the bandits captured in this video (but alas, not by forces of international justice), try to imagine the mentality of someone carrying out an order to seal residents' doors, forcing them to enter their own homes by clambering across rooftops. And then focus on the spectacle of these heroic defenders of Zion dragging a woman across the floor as she protests this barbaric abuse.
The ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and Hebron has been put into motion at the express command of the Israeli government and with the full backing of the United States and the European Union. There's nothing clandestine or ambiguous about these crimes. They are carried out in full view of the world, each and every day. And that's why BDS is so vital in the struggle against this intolerable injustice- because those who could so easily make a difference refuse to do so.
Devoid of humanity
Permalink JayHobeSound replied on
The Israeli government is devoid of humanity in the systemic mistreatment of Palestinians, but the government policies toward Palestinians destroys the soldiers' personal sense of humanity. The poisoned minds of the soldiers returning to Israeli society is a cancer spreading one at a time. There is no amount of military or police security to protect a society from internal destruction.
hand cuffing old woman
Permalink Tiger Moto replied on
This video shows how the IDF treats the Palestinians on a dailly bases.I hope this video goes viral so that Zionist jews and Israeli supporters know what they are funding and American politicians need to see this to see how their funding is helping Israel commit daily crimes against the Palestinians
In the Westbank soldiers are not allowed to deal with extremist, Zionist ,religious jews,they come under Israeli civil law i.e police..while Palestinians come under harsh military rule.The Westbank is the israel's open air prison supported and aided economically and diplomatically by the West...Where i live the UK the Prime Minister is a staunch ally of Israel and its crimes.She passed a special law so that no Israeli politician can be arrested and tried in a British court for Human Rights abuses