Shuhada Street demonstration`
Shuhada Street demonstration
A press release from Badia Dwaik of Youth Against Settlements in Hebron:
On the 19th Commemoration of the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, hundreds demonstrate to Open Shuhada Street in Hebron
Hundreds demonstrated today, Friday, in Hebron as part of the 4th Annual Open Shuhada Street Protest. Israeli forces quickly attacked demonstrators using tear gas, skunk water, stunt grenades, and some live ammunition bullets. One person was injured in the leg by a live bullet while 12, including one journalist, were injured by rubber coated steel bullets. Many were cleared to the hospital due to gas inhalation.
Demonstrators marched towards Shuhada Street while some tried to scale the barbed wire which blocks Palestinians from accessing what used to be the main commercial district of the city. Marchers chanted for the opening of Shuhada Street, as well as in solidarity with prisoners, all the while calling, “Peaceful, Peaceful, Freedom to Palestine.”
Later in the afternoon, Palestinian Authority police and special forces violently pushed demonstrators away from the Old City and restricted them from demonstrating.
Background:
Palestinian residents of Hebron have suffered for decades from Israeli government evictions, curfews, market and street closures, military checkpoints, subjection to military law including frequent random searches and detention without charge, and lack of protection from rampant settler violence. This pressure and violence has caused approximately 15,000 Palestinian civilians to flee their homes in the Hebron city center, turning it into a virtual ghost town.
The Israeli military closed Shuhada Street, the principal commercial district of the city, to Palestinian vehicles in 1994, after the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre. In 2000, it began a policy of preventing Palestinian residents (200,000) to walk on the street claiming that it was for the security of about 400-800 Israeli settlers occupying the center of Hebron.
More than 500 stores were closed by military order in the center of Hebron, and more than a thousand store owners were forced to close their shops due to checkpoints and closures. At the same time, illegal settlers enjoy freedom of movement in the closed streets and are protected by military forces.
According to +972, the protests were not completely peaceful.
“For much of the afternoon, Israeli forces traded tear gas and sound bombs with stone-throwing Palestinian youth in running street clashes.”
-http://972mag.com/photos-in-hebron-demonstrators-demand-reopening-of-shuhada-street/66506/
RE: “Later in the afternoon, Palestinian Authority police and special forces violently pushed demonstrators away from the Old City and restricted them from demonstrating.”
MY COMMENT: Most of the Palestinian Authority’s storm troopers were trained by the U.S.* and they are often accused of doing Israel’s bidding**! ! !
* SEE: “United States security assistance to the Palestinian National Authority” @- Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_security_assistance_to_the_Palestinian_National_Authority
** FROM WIKIPEDIA [“United States security assistance to the Palestinian National Authority”]
SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_security_assistance_to_the_Palestinian_National_Authority
this is more of the us congress and zionists handy work
Battle for Syria’s Aleppo airport intensifies
heart breaking picture
http://news.yahoo.com/battle-syrias-aleppo-airport-intensifies-131106416.html
How can anyone argue that Israel is not an apartheid government? Hebron is in the West Bank this land is internationally recognized as Palestinian land.
Contact your reps next week every week. Stop aid to the apartheid state of Israel
Dear friend Art Gish (now deceased) spent many a winter in Hebron living with Palestinians and witnessing the horrific crimes being committed by Israel and the illegal Israeli settlers on Palestinian lands against the people, Article of Art’s back in 2003 about what he was witnessing Hebron then. Art standing for peace in the I/P conflict and standing up to Israel. https://www.google.com/search?q=Art+gish+standing+in+front+of+Israeli+tank&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=nQJ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uiUqUfbvF4-vqQHgiICwBg&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=614#imgrc=pDjFhjOehwvUKM%3A%3BwfgO1d9dBgoXeM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fpalsolidarity.org%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252Flegacy%252Fmultimedia%252F2010%252F08%252FGish-Art-in-front-of-tank.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fpalsolidarity.org%252F2010%252F08%252Fremembering-art-gish%252F%3B609%3B421
TERRORISTS AMONG THE APPLES
by Art Gish, Hebron, West Bank
January 30, 2003
http://mideastchristians.virtualactivism.net/articles/amongapples.htm
All of Hebron was under total curfew today. I could sense something was wrong. As I walked up the street I soon realized there was trouble at Al Manara. I was horrified at what I saw. There were two tanks and two bulldozers leveling the produce market which extended over two blocks. Produce lay scattered and smashed everywhere, here in this city where many are hungry. Shop owners were scrambling to save boxes of tomatoes, oranges, bananas, and more.
My first response was to just stand there, weeping and sobbing. The scene was so horrifying, so disgusting, so depraved. I could not emotionally bear it. I felt completely helpless.
Soldiers near Lutheran christmas church
Dec 4, 02
The produce market was at Al Manara because the Israeli military closed the former produce market in response to the massacre of Muslims in the Ibrihimi Mosque in 1994. In every peace accord since then, Israel has promised to reopen the market. It has never been reopened. Israeli settlers now live in that building.
I continued to feel helpless, but I also felt I had to do something. I started carrying boxes of produce out of the way of the bulldozers. I saved maybe 12 crates of produce from being crushed.
I began confronting soldiers. In a loud voice, I asked them if they were proud of what they were doing, if this is peace, if this is what they want Israel to become. I shouted, “Baruch hashem Adonai” (Blessed be the name of the Lord)”
The soldiers tried their best to ignore me, but I am sure they heard me. I ignored their commands for me to leave. One soldier spit at me, so I walked right up to him and invited him to spit on me. He declined the offer.
Three soldiers aimed their guns at and moved toward a group of Palestinian bystanders. It looked to me like they were going to shoot. I quickly jumped in front of the soldiers, raised my hands in the air and shouted, “Shoot me, shoot me, go ahead and shoot me.” The soldiers immediately left.
A tank came roaring toward me, its big gun barrel aimed at me. I raised my hands in the air in prayer, and shouted, “Shoot, shoot, Baruch hashem adonai.” The tank stopped within inches of me.
I then knelt in the street in prayer, with my hands raised. I felt alone, weak, helpless. I could only cry out to God.
Later this afternoon I went back to Al Manara and watched shop owners dig through the huge piles of rubble, trying to salvage what they could. What could I say?
The Israeli military had put all of Hebron under total curfew today, saying they were looking for terrorists. Now I wonder if there really were terrorists hidden among the apples and oranges. Or, are the Israeli soldiers committing acts of terrorism against the civilian population of Hebron?
I fear for what may come next.