Month of November in Jerusalem: 5 Martyrs…268 Palestinians arrested and 9 establishments demolished
In the second month of the popular uprising, the occupation authorities continued the policy of murdering Palestinians and continued to detain their bodies concurrently with random arrests carried out in the city of Jerusalem, assaults on Jerusalemites’ property and the sanctity of schools and medical institutions in addition to harassing people in terms of their livelihoods. Wadi Hilweh Information Center (WHIC) said that four Jerusalemite Martyrs passed away in the city including one in Ramallah and one Martyr from Nablus passed away in the Old City of Jerusalem while the occupation authorities continue to detain the bodies of Martyrs who passed away during the last two months. WHIC monitored that the assaults and violations committed by various occupation authorities against Jerusalemites through targeting holy sites, residential houses, commercial stores, medical and educational institutions as well as sports facilities. Martyrs During the month of November, 4 Martyrs passed away in the city of Jerusalem and one in Ramallah in addition to a Palestinian man from Nablus who passed away in the Old City of Jerusalem after being shot by occupation forces or settlers’ guards. Among the Martyrs was a girl and a boy and the Israeli pretext of “carrying out or attempting to carry out a stabbing attack against Israeli soldiers or settlers or even participating in clashes” was always ready to shoot them. In all cases, injured Palestinians are left bleeding on the ground and are not provided with necessary first aid which could possibly save their lives. The Information Center said: “the occupation authorities get busy taking off the shoes and clothes of the injured Palestinian and humiliating him at questioning him at times instead of providing him with first aid.” The first Martyr in November was 37-year old Mohammad Abed Nimer from the village of Esawyeh who passed away on 10/11/2015 after being shot by the settlers’ guard in the area of Al-Musrara in Jerusalem. A recording released by the occupation police showed the young man following the settlers’ guard while holding a knife in his hand but didn’t pose a real threat to require fatally shooting him; the recording only showed the young man following the settler and didn’t show if the young man was insulted or provoked by the guards. Nimer has three children where the oldest is 19 and youngest is 5 years old. The second Martyr was 14-year old Hadil Wajih Awwad from Qalandia. She was shot on 23/11/2015 by the occupation soldiers while she was with her 16-year old cousin Nourhan in Jaffa Street in West Jerusalem. Video recordings showed the two girls attempting to stab Israelis in the area using small scissors and didn’t really pose threat and weren’t able to get close to anyone. They were only waving with the sharp tools and it was possible to arrest them without shooting them but once policeman decided to open fire towards the two girls. The third Martyr was 22-year old Mahmoud Alayan from the village of Anata. He passed away on 19/11/2015 following an injury he suffered in the head during clashes near the settlement of Bet El established on the lands of Al-Bireh in Ramallah. The fourth Martyr was 38-year old Baseem Abdulrahman Salah who passed away on 29/11/2015. He is from the city of Nablus and was shot by the occupation forces and settlers’ guard in Al-Wad Street in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to witnesses, eleven bullets were fired towards the young man who was left bleeding on the ground and first aid was only provided to the soldier who was injured in his neck. The fifth Martyr was 17-year old Ayman Sameeh Abbasi who was shot by the occupation forces in his chest during clashes in the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amoud in Silwan on 29/11/2015. The occupation police claimed to open fire towards the lower part of the Martyr’s body while he was throwing a Molotov Cocktail towards them” but the Martyr’s picture falsified the claims of occupation police as it showed an injury in the upper body part “chest”. The picture revealed the “murdering policy” followed by the occupation authorities against Palestinians as they are targeted in critical parts of their bodies while the authorities claim to only shoot towards the limbs. Detained Martyrs’ bodies The occupation continues to detain the bodies of 14 Palestinian Martyrs; among them a Martyr from the city of Hebron who passed away in the area of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem and one girl and four children. Detaining Martyrs’ bodies was based up a suggestion made by the Internal Security Minister, Gilad Ardan, not to release the bodies of Palestinian Martyrs who passed away while carrying or attempting to carry out attacks in order to “limit attacks against Israelis in the city of Jerusalem in particular as well as other areas” as he says. He also said that detaining the bodies will deteriorate others from carrying out similar attacks especially that releasing the bodies and carrying out special funerals and burying them in well-known cemeteries that will become a “shrine” afterwards only promotes the “attacking” ideas for others- according the occupation authorities’ claims. The Martyrs are: Thaer Abdelsalam Abu Ghazaleh 19, Ishaq Qasem Badran 16, Mohammad Saeed Mohammad Ali 19, Mustafa Adel Khatib 17, Hasan Khaled Manasra 15, Baha’ Mohammad Alayan 22, Ala’ Daoud Abu Jamal 32, Basel Bassam Sider 20 from Hebron, Ahmad Abu Sha’ban 23, Mutaz Ahmad Aweisat 16, Ahmad Hamada Qneibi 22, Mohammad Abed Nimer 37, Hadil Wajih Awwad 14, Baseem Abdulrahman Salah 38. Arrests The occupation authorities arrested 268 Palestinians from Jerusalem during the month of November including 94 minors whom 20 of them are under the age of responsibility (12 years) and 5 girls and 9 women. The distribution of arrests in the city of Jerusalem was as follows: Silwan (69), Esawyeh (56), Old City of Jerusalem (41), Al-Tur (28), Shu’fat refugee camp (17), Beit Hanina and Jabal Al-Mukabber and Shu’fat (7 each) and Sur Baher (8) in addition to arrests from Al-Sowaneh, Kufor Aqab, Sheikh Jarrah and Wad Al-Joz and from Al-Aqsa Gates. In November, the occupation authorities transferred six Jerusalemites to administrative arrests following an order from the Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya’alon, to increase the number of Jerusalemite administrative arrest prisoner to 31; note that they were sentenced for periods between 3 and 6 months. During last month, the Musta’ribeen unit (undercover police) carried out a series of arrests targeting students of Ras Al-Amoud schools in Silwan; nine children aged between 9-13 years were arrested in two days. The students were assaulted, blindfolded and insulted and were detained for several hours without providing them with food or water. They were also not allowed to use the restroom; one student was injured due to being brutally assaulted and is still receiving treatment at the hospital. The forces also arrested 21 students during last month while they were heading to their schools or after leaving schools in Silwan, Al-Tur, Jabal Al-Mukabber and Esawyeh. Nine students were arrested by the Musta’ribeen and one student was arrested from inside his classroom in Ras Al-Amoud School in Silwan; few days later, he was arrested again from the school’s courtyard. The forces also arrested the 11-year old Ali Ihab Alqam after he was shot three times in the stomach, hand and pelvis by the light rail’s guard in the settlement of “Pisgat Zi’ev” while attempting to stab the guard along with his cousin as shown in a recording video. Before he completed treatment, he was transferred to an internal institute in the city of Akko despite being under the age of responsibility (12 years); it is prohibited to arrest or interrogate him but he was detained for 12 days in a room in Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital and was interrogated. His parents were only allowed to visit him three times for 20 minutes in the presence of Israeli police that prevented his family from brining clothes for their son. The 16-year old Nourhan Awwad is still receiving treatment at Shaare Zedek hospital after suffering injuring in the chest area in Jaffa Street. Al-Aqsa Mosque Settlers continued to violate the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque and nearly 1015 extremist settlers broke into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque through Dung Gate which is controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of Jerusalem. They carry out tours in the courtyards under heavy protection from Israeli Special Forces. In November, the occupation authorities isolated three Jerusalemites from Al-Aqsa Mosque for 45 days and one woman for 15 days. For the third consecutive month, the authorities also continued to prevent more than 60 Palestinian women including journalists listed under the “black list” from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque following an order from the Chief of Israeli police in the Old City of Jerusalem, Avi Baytoon, against women who create problems inside Al-Aqsa Mosque. Harassing Martyrs’ families The occupation authorities continues to harass the families of Martyrs and prisoners accused of carrying out attacks against settlers of occupation forces by continuously raiding their houses, taking measurements and checking the walls by engineers and explosives’ specialists a step taken before decision made to either seize or demolish the house. The authorities also issued a decision to demolish and seize the house of Martyr Baha’ Alayan in the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber. The Internal Front Commander also issued a decision to close the house of Akram Abu Jamal where the family of prisoner Bilal Abu Ghanem used to live under a leasing contract. Demolishing nine establishments The occupation municipality’s bulldozers demolished in November nine establishments (residential and barracks for horses) under the pretext of building without a permit. They displaced 16 individuals including 7 children under the age of 18; demolitions occurred in the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber, Beit Hanina and the Old City of Jerusalem. An apartment owned by Samer Idris where 7 individuals live, two barracks used for horses and a room for Yaser Bashir were demolished in the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber, and a 3-storey residential building (3 apartments) owned by Nijem and Dsooqi families was demolished in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina; note that 8 individuals lived in the building. Also, a house for Abu Khalaf family where one woman lives was also demolished. Al-Deesi family was forced to self-demolish the bathroom of their house following an order from the municipality. The occupation authorities also continued distributing demolition orders to residential establishments in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem especially in Silwan. Occupation authorities’ assaults on Palestinian Institutions The occupation authorities also continued their assaults against medical, educational and sports institutions in Jerusalem. The forces and intelligence raided during November Al-Maqased hospital looking for the file of an injured boy concurrently with threats made by the police and Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Ardan, to open an interrogation against the medical staff of Al-Maqased hospital in Jerusalem under the pretext of “treating children who participated in clashes without informing the police”. The forces also attempted to raid the Red Crescent hospital in the neighborhood of Al-Sowaneh but the guards confronted them. Also, the forces raided “Baladna” medical center in Esawyeh and Ein Al-Lozeh medical center in Silwan in an attempt to seize the body of Martyr Ayman Abbasi; they also detained the medical staff, workers and patients for more than two hours. In terms of educational institutions, the occupation forces raided Ras Al-Amoud schools in Silwan and searched the entire classrooms and arrested one student while sitting on his desk; several days later they raided the school and arrested the same child from the school’s courtyard. The occupation forces targeted the schools of the village of Jabal Al-Mukabber with tear-gas canisters and Al-Tur schools at the beginning of the month when soldiers fired a sound grenade towards the school during a sports’ period and injured a 14-year old student with shrapnel in his leg. The forces also deliberately deployed at the schools’ gates in the morning and afternoon hours with their police dogs which terrified the students. The occupation also made sure to obstruct the educational process in Ras Al-Amoud schools in Silwan by directly targeting students at the checkpoint established in the street leading to the schools. Students were stopped, detained and searched resulting in the breakout of daily clashes; Musta’ribeen units also raided the Schools’ Street twice and executed arrests. The forces also raided Mount of Olive Club in the village of Al-Tur in November and confiscated surveillance cameras and also targeted the club’s staff with sound grenades and tear-gas canisters. Harassing peoples’ livelihoods… A state of financial recession occurred in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem last month especially in the Old City of Jerusalem, Silwan, Esawyeh and Al-Tur due to daily raids by municipality crews, tax authorities and Nature and Parks authority. They imposed high fines on merchants and requested them to license their commercial establishments and professions. They also handed some of them evacuation notices in case they don’t obtain the required licenses. Part of the policy of collective punishment practiced against Jerusalemites were high fines imposed on merchants for random reasons such as the presence of empty boxes outside the stores, smoking inside or at the stores’ gates, displaying merchandise outside the stores in addition to imposing fines on merchants because the stores’ signs do not meet required standards.
