Children of the occupation: growing up in Palestine

"She rarely leaves the village. "I used to ride in my father's car. But the settlers stopped us. They beat my father before my eyes, cursing, using foul language. They took our things and threw them out of the car."

Even home is not safe. "The soldiers come in [the cave] to search. I don't know what they're looking for," she says. "Sometimes they open the pens and let the sheep out. In Ramadan, they came and took my brothers. I saw the soldiers beat them with the heel of their guns. They forced us to leave the cave."

Despite the hardships of her life, Nawal is happy. "This is my homeland, this is where I want to be. It's hard here, but I like my home and the land and the sheep." But, she adds, "I will be even happier if we are allowed to stay."

Nawal is one of a second generation of Palestinians to be born into occupation..."

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/08/children-of-occupation-growing-up-in-palestine

Nawal Jabarin wants to be a doctor when she grows up. For now, she lives in a cave with 14 siblings, in constant fear of military raids. We meet the Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation

Nawal Jabarin, 12, and her brothers, two-month-old Issa and two-year-old Jibril, in their West Bank home. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum for the Guardian

 by Harriet Sherwood 

The Guardian, Friday 7 February 2014

The rough track is an unmarked turning across a primeval landscape of rock and sand under a vast cobalt sky. Our Jeep bounces between boulders and dust-covered gorse bushes before beginning a bone-jolting descent from the high ridge into a deep valley. An Israeli army camp comes into view, then the tiny village of Jinba: two buildings, a few tents, a scattering of animal pens. A pair of military helicopters clatter overhead. The air smells of sheep.

At the end of this track in the southern West Bank, 12-year-old Nawal Jabarin lives in a cave. She was born in the gloom beneath its low, jagged roof, as were two of her brothers, and her father a generation earlier. Along the rock-strewn track that connects Jinba to the nearest paved road, Nawal's mother gave birth to another baby, unable to reach hospital in time; on the same stretch of flattened earth, Nawal's father was beaten by Israeli settlers in front of the terrified child....READ MORE

Israeli and Palestinian bands unite in 'metal brotherhood' Joint 18-gig tour by Orphaned Land and Khalas will take message of coexistence through rock'n'roll across Europe

Israeli heavy-metal band Orphaned Land, who are to tour with Palestinian fellow rockers Khalas. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/21/israeli-palestinian-bands-unite-tour

• Harriet Sherwood in Tel Aviv
• The Guardian, Sunday 21 July 2013 11.32 EDT

They are united by facial hair, frayed jeans and a love of heavy metal – plus a belief that music is above politics, religion and conflict. Now the Israeli band Orphaned Land is joining forces with the Palestinian group Khalas to take a message of coexistence through rock'n'roll across Europe.

An 18-gig tour will see the bands perform in six countries, including Britain, this autumn. The musicians will share both a stage and a tour bus for three weeks, proving in practice that their "metal brotherhood" overrides differences of religion and national identity.

At a concert to launch their European tour in Tel Aviv last week, Orphaned Land's lead singer, Kobi Farhi, and Khalas's lead guitarist, Abed Hathut, explained their mission.

"We can't change the world, but we can give an example of how coexistence is possible," said Farhi. "Sharing a stage and sharing a bus is stronger than a thousand words. We'll show how two people from different backgrounds who live in a conflict zone can perform together."

"We are metal brothers before everything," said Hathut. But, he added, "there is no bigger message for peace than through this tour".

Coexistence ventures may be new in the world of heavy metal, but precedent was set in the high-brow realm of classical music more than two decades ago, when Jewish conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian intellectual Edward Said co-founded an orchestra of young Israeli, Palestinian and Arab musicians.

The members of Khalas, which is the supporting act on the tour, and Orphaned Land have "become soulmates" since meeting at a radio station and realising they have more in common than divided them...READ MORE

EU takes tougher stance on Israeli settlements... directive prohibits EU states from signing deals with Israel unless settlement exclusion clause is included

European Union

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/16/eu-israel-settlement-exclusion-clause

• Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 July 2013 05.49 EDT

The European Union has banned its 28 member states from signing agreements with Israel without an explicit exclusion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, in a directive described by an Israeli official as an "earthquake".

The EU guidelines, adopted on 30 June, will prohibit the issuing of grants, funding, prizes or scholarships unless a settlement exclusion clause is included. Israeli institutions and bodies situated across the pre-1967 Green Line will be automatically ineligible.

The Israeli government will be required to state in any future agreements with the EU that settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are outside the state of Israel.

The binding directive, part of the 2014-20 financial framework, covers all areas of co-operation between the EU and Israel, including economics, science, culture, sports and academia. It does not cover trade, such as produce and goods originating in settlements.

An EU statement said the guidelines "set out the territorial limitations under which the commission will award EU support to Israeli entities … Concern has been expressed in Europe that Israeli entities in the occupied territories could benefit from EU support. The purpose of these guidelines is to make a distinction between the state of Israel and the occupied territories when it comes to EU support."

The move follows a decision by EU foreign ministers last December that "all agreements between the state of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967". All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law...READ MORE

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"We know the [Israeli] army follow us on Twitter and Facebook, so we made out we were holding a protest somewhere else."

The tent village in the area known as E1, near Jerusalem. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/12/israel-palestinian-activists-e1-eviction
  Harriet Sherwood in Bab al-Shams 
   guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 January 2013
   
  Israeli security forces prevented Palestinian officials Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat from visiting the site on Saturday. Earlier Ashrawi welcomed the establishment of Bab al-Shams, saying: "This initiative is a highly creative and legitimate non-violent tool to protect our land from Israeli colonial plans. We have the right to live anywhere in our state, and we call upon the international community to support such initiatives, as well as to protect those who are being threatened by Israeli occupation forces for exercising their right to peaceful resistance against the illegal Israeli occupation."

Israeli separation wall threatens world heritage site of Battir's ancient terraces

Palestinian children swim in the ancient spring in the West Bank village of Battir, which Unesco is poised to recognise as a world heritage site. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images

Israeli environmentalists and even the state parks authority are backing Palestinian villagers' attempts to preserve landscape

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/11/israel-palestinians-battir-separation-wall

• Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 December 2012

The future of an ancient agricultural landscape, incorporating extensive stone-walled terraces and a unique natural irrigation system, could be decided on Wednesday when a petition against the planned route of Israel's vast concrete and steel separation barrier is heard by the high court.

The terraces of the Palestinian village of Battir, near Bethlehem, are expected to be declared a world heritage site by Unesco, the United Nations' cultural body, in the coming months.

But, Friends of the Earth, which filed the petition, says Israel's decision to construct the West Bank barrier through a valley running between the terraces threatens to inflict irreversible harm to the landscape....READ MORE

Harriet Sherwood: How the West Bank barrier has starved business and community

"..... Almost all the businesses in the thriving village between Jerusalem and Ramallah closed. Palestinians from East Jerusalem who had bought or rented houses and apartments fled back to the city rather than endure a long roundabout journey, via the massive Qalandiya checkpoint, to jobs which previously had been 10 minutes drive away. Abandoned, shuttered and looted apartment blocks and businesses are now the defining feature of Bir Nabala.

The area was completely encircled by the wall, leaving one road open. Bir Nabala, said Sabah, used to be "a central place, right in the middle", a commercial hub between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Now it is a desolate wasteland.

According to a new report, The Long Term Impact of the Separation Barrier, by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the isolation of Bir Nabala "has caused a mass exodus from the village, abandonment of residential neighbourhoods and economic stasis".

In general, says the report, the barrier has led to "numerous infringements of the human rights of Palestinians, over and above the direct damage done by its construction – including property rights, the right to free movement, the right to a reasonable standard of living and collective right to self-determination."

B'Tselem calls on the Israeli government to dismantle all sections of the barrier already built inside the West Bank and halt further construction.

The report also details the impact of the barrier on Palestinians caught in the "seam zone", the area between the internationally-recognised Green Line and the route of the wall or fence. When the barrier is completed, 9.4% of Palestinian territory will be on the Israeli side.

A complex system of permits is required for Palestinians who need to cross the barrier, in either direction, to reach land, jobs, businesses, educational or health facilities.

Israel says the route of the barrier is determined by security needs, and that its construction is the reason for the decline in attacks by Palestinian militants inside Israel.

Sabah smiles bitterly at this explanation. "Israel built the wall for political reasons, to take the land, not security," he says. Without the wall, he reckons the value of his land and building would have doubled by now. "Now no one will buy it. There is no future for this village unless the wall is removed." "  Harriet Sherwood in Bir Nabala

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/05/west-bank-barrier-starved-business-communities

How the West Bank barrier has starved business and community

A thriving wedding venue in Bir Nabala is among many concerns cut off by a policy that turned a thriving village into a ghost town

Bir Nabala was once a thriving community, but the West Bank barrier cut it off from Jerusalem and turned it into a ghost town. Source: B'Tselem Link to this video

Residents of the East Jerusalem suburb of Bir Nabala tell how their lives have been affected by the West Bank separation barrier, which reached the community in 2006. As the 8-metre-high concrete walls encircled the township separating it from the rest of East Jerusalem, businesses declined, leaving a derelict ghost town

Israeli poll finds majority in favour of 'apartheid' policies

Two-thirds say Palestinians should not be allowed to vote if West Bank was annexed, while three in four favour segregated roads

• Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 October 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/israeli-poll-majority-apartheid-policies

Israeli soldiers walk past a settlement in the West Bank. Almost six in 10 Israeli Jews said the country already practised apartheid. Photograph: Majdi Mohammed/AP

More than two-thirds of Israeli Jews say that 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank should be denied the right to vote if the area was annexed by Israel, in effect endorsing an apartheid state, according to an opinion poll reported in Haaretz.

Three out of four are in favour of segregated roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, and 58% believe Israel already practises apartheid against Palestinians, the poll found.

A third want Arab citizens within Israel to be banned from voting in elections to the country's parliament. Almost six out of 10 say Jews should be given preference to Arabs in government jobs, 49% say Jewish citizens should be treated better than Arabs, 42% would not want to live in the same building as Arabs and the same number do not want their children going to school with Arabs.

A commentary by Gideon Levy, which accompanied the results of the poll, described the findings as disturbing...READ MORE

Guardian News: Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians listed as 'terrorist incidents' by US

Palestinians tackle a fire in a West Bank field they say was started by Jewish settlers. According to UN, violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property has increased by almost 150% since 2009. Photograph: Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Sunday 19 August 2012

Violence by Jewish settlers has been cited for the first time in a US state department list of "terrorist incidents", as Israeli political leaders condemned a string of recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The inclusion of assaults on Palestinian targets in the annual report on terrorism reflects growing concern in Israel and internationally that violence by a minority of Jewish extremists could trigger a new cycle of conflict and further damage the prospects of a peace agreement between the two sides.

"Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents, property and places of worship in the West Bank continued," said the Country Reports on Terrorism 2011.  It referred to "price tag" operations, meaning violence committed by radical settlers against Palestinians ...READ MORE 

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[for the report itself page 105, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/195768.pdf ]

Israel subjecting Palestinian children to 'spiral of injustice': Foreign Office-backed delegation of UK lawyers says treatment may stem from belief every Palestinian child is potential terrorist

Israeli soldiers stand guard over Palestinian children arrested in the West Bank city of Hebron. Photograph: Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/26/israel-palestinian-children-injustice

• Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 June 2012 13.30 EDT 

A belief that every Palestinian child is a potential terrorist may be leading to a "spiral of injustice" and breaches of international law in Israel's treatment of child detainees in military custody, a delegation of eminent British lawyers has concluded in an independent report backed by the Foreign Office.

The nine-strong delegation, led by the former high court judge Sir Stephen Sedley and including the UK's former attorney-general Lady Scotland, found that "undisputed facts" pointed to at least six violations of the UN convention on the rights of the child, to which Israel is a signatory. It was also in breach of the fourth Geneva convention in transferring child detainees from the West Bank to Israeli prisons, the delegation said.

Its report, Children in Military Custody, released on Tuesday, was based on a visit to Israel and the West Bank last September funded and facilitated by the Foreign Office and...READ MORE 

[Hussein Ibish and 2 other friends posted about a link]

 

Guardian: Bedouin children hope their West Bank school will be spared Israel's bulldozers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/12/west-bank-bedouin-school-israeli-bulldozers

Nisreen, eight, and her sister Iman, six, in front of the Khan al-Ahmar primary school in the West Bank. Photograph: Harriet Sherwood

Each morning, they scrabble through a drainage pipe under a busy main road slicing through the unforgiving landscape between Jerusalem and Jericho, where hard-baked stony hills roll down to the Dead Sea.

At the end of the school day, they clamber back down to the drainage pipe to pass beneath the thundering traffic on their way home.

But, after today, the last school day in the academic year, the pupils of Khan al-Ahmar primary in the West Bank cannot be certain their school will still be standing come September.

Head teacher Hanan Awad fears that if the building is left empty, bulldozers will rumble up the hill from the main road ...READ MORE