IDF fatally shoots Palestinian youth in Beit Ummar

Five months after the incidents in Beit Ummar subsequent to the death of the Sabarna cousins, once again a teenager has been killed by the IDF and the IDF's presence at the funeral leads to the injury of more Palestinians. Bekah Wolf of the Palestine Solidarity Project, located in Beit Ummar, gives background for the incident:

The Israeli military has been slowly escalating its intimidation tactics in Beit Ommar over the last three days, often patrolling the streets at sundown, provoking youth by parking outside of the mosque and waiting for young boys to come and throw stones before shooting tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets.

The increasing terrorization of the village culminated at approximately 9:30 pm Friday when a 17 year old boy, Mohammed Anwar Al-Alami, was shot in the heart and killed.

Soldiers first entered the southern West Bank’s town at 4 pm and began slowly circling the village, often stopping in the center of town, shooting a few tear gas canisters, but otherwise staying in their jeeps. They were not searching houses nor made any other indication that they were engaging in any authorized operation. Shortly after sundown, at approximately 9 pm, they began arresting residents: blindfolding and handcuffing nine men in total and bringing them to the entrance of the village. Four were later released, five remain in Israeli custody. Several more jeeps and Armored Personnel Carriers (APC's) entered the village. Young boys began throwing stones and empty bottles which bounced off the armored military vehicles harmlessly. Still, for the Israeli military a rock against reinforced metal is reason enough to end the life of a young man, about to finish his final exams and graduate from high school.

Mohammed was quickly rushed to the hospital, but he had been shot in the chest and the bullet entered his heart, killing him almost instantly.

The account continues from Christian Peacemaker Teams:

On Friday, 27 June around 11:00 p.m., an Israeli soldier in Beit Ummar, a village north of Hebron, shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian youth, Mohammad Al-Alameh, member of a family with whom the Christian Peacemaker Teams has had frequent contact over the years.

The shooting occurred minutes after local contacts in Beit Ummar made a call to the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Hebron, saying that the Israeli soldiers were entering homes and detaining civilians. Two CPTers, Tarek Abuata and Marius van Hoogstraten, rushed to the village by taxi, accompanied by Nathan Harrington, a visitor to CPT, who was on crutches.

When the team arrived half an hour later, rocks littered the main street. Israeli soldiers marched up and down the block with assault rifles held in a firing position, amid clusters of Palestinian men huddled in quiet shock.

Abuata attempted to photograph the troops, but was tackled to the ground without warning by an Israeli soldier. Another soldier knocked Harrington off his crutches when he approached to help Abuata. While Abuata and Harrington sat on the pavement, a third soldier threatened Van Hoogstraten and demanded his video camera. He removed the tape before returning the camera to Van Hoogstraten.

Abuata rose and confronted the soldiers, saying, "You killed a 17-year-old boy tonight. Why? His blood is on your hands." The soldier nearest to him smiled, and Abuata asked, "Why are you smiling? Do you have no conscience? Will you do anything the government orders you to do? Are you not accountable to God?"

More troops emerged from jeeps and advanced up the street. The assembled men of the village did not respond. CPTers followed the soldiers and Abuata continued: "What you are doing is wrong. Why are your fingers on the trigger? How would you feel if a foreign army came to your city with guns drawn? This is an illegal occupation!"

The soldiers finally climbed into their jeeps and raced off, throwing a sound bomb that caused several Beit Ummar villagers and the CPTers to hit the pavement.

The following morning, Van Hoogstraten and Abuata accompanied the Al-Alameh family and a large crowd to bring the body from the hospital in Hebron to the family's house, and then to the mosque. Two armored vehicles parked between the watchtower at the entrance to the village and the cemetery gate. Soldiers stood nearby, including the officer who claimed to have shot the youth.

Community leaders kept young men away from the soldiers, but eventually someone lobbed a stone at one of the jeeps. Though an officer responded by shooting live ammunition, no one was injured.

As the throng returned after the conclusion of burial, the army followed them into the village. Over the next hour, CPTers witnessed intermittent exchanges of stones and gunfire and heard reports that one man from Beit Ummar sustained a head injury and another an injury to the shoulder.

A link to video showing Abuata engaging the soldiers is available at http://www.youtube.com/user/cpthebron.

The story by Christian Peacemaker Teams is reproduced with permission.

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune and Daily Kos.

Beit Ummar Update

Saturday 09 February

Fallon, Frederick, Martens, Pritchard and other internationals attended an action in Beit Ummar, a village north of Hebron. The soldiers stood at the edge of Palestinian farmland, near the Israeli settlement fence while Palestinians planted trees on their land. One of the organizers attempted to plant a sapling close to the settlement fence. The soldiers told him he must move back 10 feet to the “line.” Martens asked the soldiers, “Where does his land go to?” They admitted it went up to the fence but said, “This man can plant his trees there tomorrow. We will not prevent him. Only not today, because of the situation.”

Martens spoke with four soldiers about peace for everyone, who responded, “We do not like violence either, but we need to be soldiers because every 10 years there is a war.” Martens responded, “So if this way has not kept you from having a war every 10 years then there must be a better way for peace. You must challenge your government to find this way, as I do with my government when I return to Canada, so that the violence can stop. . .”
...

Wednesday 13 February

CPTers responded to a call from a Palestinian in Beit Ummar that the Israeli military had placed the village under curfew and had been arresting Palestinian men (See Release: Israeli Military Conducts Major Operation in Beit Ummar). Abuata, Martens, Uhler, and Wendeln went to the village.

Israeli police showed Abuata, Matens, and other internationals an order and a map for Beit Ummar as a closed military zone. Israeli authorities stopped CPTers and informed them they needed to leave immediately. By using back routes, CPTers were able to follow and monitor Israeli soldier’s movements. CPTers asked Palestinians about the soldiers’ actions while in the houses and learned the searches had not involved destruction of property or violence.

Uhler and Wendeln learned that the Israeli military partially demolished a stone works shop on Route 60.

Thursday 14 February

...

After spending the night in Beit Umar, Uhler and Wendeln visited the stone store that had been partially demolished the day before. The soldiers had given the family ten minutes notice before bulldozing parts of the store. Uhler and Wendeln then visited a partially constructed home Israeli military had also damaged, including water pipes that the army used for throwing Molotov cocktails.

Then they met the new mayor, who was removing road blocks in the area. Finally, the CPTers went to an office Israeli soldiers had severely damaged. The office made IDs. The CPTers learned that soldiers broke into 55 homes before 2am Wednesday, damaging some of the homes.

*Names changed.

Curfew for Beit Ummar

Christian Peacemaker Teams sent out these releases yesterday about the town of Beit Ummar, a town located between Bethlehem and Hebron with Christian and Muslim inhabitants. CPT has a long history with Beit Ummar and has housed some of its volunteers there in the past. Beit Ummar has been among the leaders of Palestinian Muslim non-violent resistance, pioneering the practice of conducting Friday prayers in the village's fields which Israeli settlers have tried to confiscate.

RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Israeli military arrests approximately 40 Palestinians in Beit Ummar and places village under curfew

By Jessica Frederick

13 February 2008

HEBRON Since 1 am on 13 February, the Israeli military placed the village of Beit Ummar under curfew and arrested approximately forty men between the ages of 18 and 25. Since early morning, Israeli soldiers have been entering homes. The military has closed four different areas inside the village. Soldiers are stationed around the local mosque area and throughout the village, along with two bulldozers and DCO jeeps. The military are denying travel to people in cars or on foot, restricting the freedom of movement for goods and medicine. The military denied entry to an ambulance attempting to enter the village.

Israeli police showed members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in the area an order and a map for Beit Ummar as a closed military zone. Israeli authorities stopped CPTers and informed them they needed to leave immediately.

The Israeli military denied entry to the press and has detained them for an hour and a half.





RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Israeli Military Conducts Major Operation in Beit Ummar

13 February 2008

BEIT UMMAR: The village of Beit Ummar in the South Hebron region continues under curfew and the army has declared it a Closed Military Zone. It will remain thus until tomorrow night, and papers are being distributed stating that a week-long curfew will be enforced.

So far, Israeli military have arrested 55 Palestinians and house to house searches are ongoing, along with sporadic clashes between military and local youth. The stone throwers are met with barrages of tear gas and `rubber' bullets.

Seven streets inside the village have been closed off, and a store at the entrance of the village, adjacent to the military watchtower was demolished by the Israeli military.

For photos of the Israeli military activity in Beit Ummar, visit: http://www.cpt.org/gallery/album236

Reprinted with Permission
Cross-posted at Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, and Street Prophets

Tragedy in Beit Ummar

On Friday, January 25 two young Palestinian men, Mahmoud and Muhammed Sabarnah from Beit Ummar were killed after entering the Settlement of Gush Etzion. Over the next few days, Christian Peacemaking Teams sent out several reports giving more context to the incident and its aftermath.

25-27 January 2008

The Hebron team responded in many directions as events unfolded in Gaza, Beit Ummar, and Hebron this past weekend.

Friday morning the team received news that two Palestinians were killed as they were attempting an attack in the settlement of Gush Etzion. CPT later learned that the two dead were from Beit Ummar and were closely related to friends of the team. The Israeli army entered Beit Ummar during Friday prayers, surrounding the mosque.

... Dianne Roe and Eileen Hanson traveled to Beit Ummar.

Roe and Hanson learned that the Israeli army was using live ammunition and had killed eighteen year old Mohammed Mahmoud Awwad, and injured several including Musa Abu Maria, a Beit Ummar non-violence organizer. Following the burial of Awwad, shabab (Palestinian youth) threw stones and the Israeli Army responded with tear gas. Roe and Hanson were caught in the teargas and took shelter in the home of a villager. CPTer Tarek Abuata traveled from At-Tuwani to stay overnight in the hospital with Abu Maria. Abu Maria was released Saturday and did not require surgery.

Sunday afternoon Mary Wendeln, Kathie Uhler, and Roe visited Beit Ummar again to call on the families of the two killed at Gush Etzion. Relatives still await the return of the bodies...



Tragedy in Beit Ummar: A closer look

By Dianne Roe

1 February 2008


I sat in the Jerusalem Hotel restaurant last Sunday and read the headline in Ha’aretz (Israeli newspaper): Yeshiva counselor who killed terrorists lives to tell the tale (by Nadav Shragai, Ha’aretz 27/01/2008). In that article Elyakim Kovatch, the counselor who shot the two intruders, used the word terrorist twelve times to refer to the young men he killed.

I left the restaurant, boarded the bus for Hebron, and got off at Beit Ummar to meet the grieving families of the ones the press refers to as “terrorists.” Cousins Mahmoud (21) and Muhammed(21) Sabarnah had entered the library of a Yeshiva at Gush Etzion settlement adjacent to Beit Ummar late evening 24 January and, according to Kovatch, wielded a knife and a handgun, and ordered those in the library to go up against the wall. Another counselor, Rafael Singer, threatened with a gun and the Sabarnah cousins wrestled with Singer, stabbing him. Kovatch then shot and killed the cousins. No Israeli was seriously wounded.

I recognized Mahmoud Sabarnah’s mother when she rose to greet me at the calling hours, eyes filled with tears. The last time I saw her she was smiling and dancing at the wedding of one of Mahmoud’s cousins. I thought of how I first met members of the extended Sabarnah family in the summer of 1997 when the Israeli military issued demolition orders on their homes. Bypass road #60, built on Palestinian land to connect the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, does not bypass Beit Ummar; it goes right through heavily populated areas.

I remember that in 2000 and 2001 I met many of the Sabarnah neighbors, also grieving for their children. Israeli soldiers killed many along road #60 in the early months of the second intifada for the crime of living and walking near road #60.

I remember going with members of the Sabarnah family and other Beit Ummar farmers a few years ago when the Israeli military announced they were placing a security zone around Karme Tsur settlement, in effect more then doubling the size of Karme Tsur, and taking in the plums, grapes and olives of the Beit Ummar farmers. I heard one of the farmers from the Sabarnah family cry, “The land is gone.”

I visited Mahmoud Sabarnah’s sister in 2002 after the Israeli military threatened her husband with home demolition if anyone threw stones from near their home or from the almond grove north of their home on road #60. I remember that shortly after that their six- year- old child cried when the Israeli army uprooted the almond trees.

In 2004 I stayed overnight with one of the Sabarnah families when Israeli soldiers entered their neighbor’s home, forcing the family out at gunpoint, and abducting their son, taking him off to prison.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is against weapons, whether they are carried by soldiers or civilians. But why do newspapers refer to Palestinians as terrorists when they threaten armed settlers, and not use that term when armed soldiers enter homes and terrorize unarmed families?

Suppose the occupier and the occupied changed places. The headline of the event might be Head of Israeli terror group kills two Beit Ummar soldiers as they infiltrate terrorist cell. Or suppose instead of changing places they become equal neighbors, sharing the land with no wall between them and no weapons in their hands.

What is ahead for future Sabarnah cousins? There is a non-violence movement in Beit Ummar. Can Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals help sustain it? Today, 1 February the Red Crescent delivered the bodies to Beit Ummar so they could be buried. CPTers Doug Pritchard and Tarek Abuata went to pay their respects. Their report will be released later today.




HEBRON: Tragedy in Beit Ummar pt II: Rest in peace?

by Doug Pritchard

2 Feb. 2008


On 1 Feb. 2008, Israeli authorities finally released the bodies of Mahmoud and Muhammed Sabarnah to the Palestine Red Crescent Society for burial in their home community of Beit Ummar in the Hebron District. Israelis from the nearby settlement of Gush Etzion had killed the two young cousins during a violent confrontation (see CPTnet article, Tragedy in Beit Ummar pt I: A closer look, 1 Feb. 2008.) Residents of Beit Ummar now worried that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) would disrupt the men’s funeral, just as they had repeatedly harassed and attacked members of the community in recent months.

After noon prayers at the mosque, in memory of the two men, now called “martyrs,” a funeral procession of 3,000 mourners began carrying the bodies towards the cemetery. Six internationals, including CPTers Tarek Abuata and Doug Pritchard and four members of the International Solidarity Movement, positioned themselves almost at the front of the procession. As the procession came within sight of Route 60 and the final approach to the cemetery, the IDF had closed a gate across the street. Before anyone reached the gate, and without any provocation or warning, the IDF began firing on the procession, first with live ammunition, and then with plastic bullets, tear gas, and concussion grenades. Three Palestinians were immediately injured near the internationals and taken away by ambulance as the outraged procession retreated.

Some mourners hurriedly carried the bodies of the Sabarnah men along a back route to the cemetery, while others threw stones at the cement IDF watchtower from which the firing had emerged. Another Palestinian fell and friends carried him away. In the cemetery, IDF soldiers arrived and ordered the mourners to leave immediately. After a hasty burial prayer, the family and remaining mourners returned to the street. IDF jeeps then began moving up the street, firing as they came. Palestinians fled into side streets. For the next three hours, IDF patrols spread through the town, continuing to fire on small groups of retreating Palestinians, some of whom threw stones in return.

By the end of the afternoon 14 Palestinians had been wounded.



Beit Ummar: Why did the Sabarnah cousins go to the library?

By Dianne Roe

4 February 2008


After I wrote a reflection about the Sabarnah cousins (Beit Ummar Tragedy; a closer look, 1 February 2008) several people wrote giving criticism or asking questions. One of those was respected journalist Zel Lurie. Following is his comment and my response.


Dear Dianne

Yes the Sabbaneh family has suffered but the boys did not invade the yeshiva library to learn.

Zel


Hi Zel,

You are right. They did not invade the library to learn. The circumstances of this and their previous intrusion indicate they did not invade the library to kill, either. (About two years ago they entered Gush Etzion, tied up security guards, took their weapons and cell phones and escaped back to Beit Ummar. They were apprehended and were released about three weeks ago after serving two years. They could have killed their captives but did not.) I believe they entered Gush Etzion this time, ready to die. Perhaps they even wanted to die. They were without hope for the future. Perhaps their killer did them a favor.

I have agonized many times about what to say to give hope to young Palestinians. If you can't build a house on your land, you can't get married. If your father's land has been taken, and his fruit trees uprooted you can't harvest crops as he did. Even the schools and universities have been invaded and closed down. They are open again but students who have spent even a short time in prison are reluctant to go to university where they are vulnerable.

The cousins knew that no matter what they did, they would end up back in prison. I also think they were still imprisoned after their release. Freedom of movement is still severely restricted to Palestinians. Parents imprison their newly released children, worrying every time they step out the door that they will be taken at the next checkpoint.

Zel, I believe you already know these things. You have been here and have advocated for Palestinians. For me there does not seem to be an adequate way to express the despair of one more generation of those living under occupation. Yet I believe I must try if I can put the human face on what the occupation does to its victims.

Thank you for writing. Dianne