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ACT NOW ! Put an end to the ‘Closed
Military Zone’ in Tel Rumeida and
Shuhada Street, Hebron
- December
13th, 2015 | International
Solidarity Movement | Action Alert
The International Solidarity
Movement is calling on the
international community to take
immediate action regarding the
continuous closure of the Tel
Rumeida neighborhood and the part of
Shuhada Street that has remained
accessible to Palestinian residents
since the Ibrahimi mosque massacre
in 1994, in occupied al-Khalil
(Hebron). For more than a month,
Palestinians and internationals have
been denied access to this part of
the city since the Israeli forces
have declared the area a ‘closed
military zone’.
The ‘closed military zone’, first
declared on November 1st 2015, was
designed to include Palestinian
neighborhoods while excluding
adjacent illegal Israeli settlements.
This discriminatory closure is being
upheld by continuously renewed
‘military orders’ that lack official
signatures or stamps. Palestinian
residents were forced to register
with the army or else risk being
barred from their homes, while
Israeli settlers are free to roam
the streets without being stopped.
“This is yet another step in pushing
Palestinians out of Tel Rumeida and
Shuhada street”, says Jenny, from
the ISM team in al Khalil.
Such a restriction of movement
clearly constitutes a collective
punishment on the whole Palestinian
community, illegal under
international law. Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva convention
specifically states that “no
protected person may be punished for
an offence he or she has not
personally committed. Collective
penalties and likewise all measures
of intimidation or of terrorism are
prohibited.”
Tel Rumeida resident Abed Salaymeh
explains : “soldiers and settlers
are making life for the Palestinians
intolerable to force them to leave
their houses voluntarily. This is a
crime under international law. They
are targeting activists to silence
the truth and stop the truth from
reaching the whole world”.
International and local activists
are increasingly at risk of direct
attacks by Israeli forces and
illegal settlers, as they are
specifically targeted for their
efforts to document and report on
human rights abuses.
Activists are denied access to areas
by Israeli forces and face unfounded
arbitrary arrests, such as on the
3rd of November, the 26th of
November, 27th of November, and most
recently on the 28th of november;
purely on Israeli forces’
accusations that lack any evidence.
Human rights defenders, whose work
the United Nations stressed as
important, are increasingly
threatened even inside their homes
and offices or illegally kicked out
of them.
The Israeli forces’ attempts to
silence the Palestinian voice on the
events goes hand in hand with the
closure of Palestinian radio
stations in clear infringement of
the freedom of press and opinion,
acknowledged in the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR)
of 1948, article 19: “Everyone has
the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of
frontiers”.
“It is important to document in
order to expose Israeli crimes”,
explains Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, a Tel
Rumeida resident.
These inhumane measures come after
Israeli forces gunned down Homam
Adnan Sa’id, 23, and Islam Rafiq
‘Ebeido on the 27th and 28th of
October in the Tel Rumeida
neighbourhood. While the Israeli
government claims that both were
‘neutralized’ when attacking Israeli
forces, many eye-witness statements
refute this claim; CCTV footage has
not yet been released by the Israeli
forces. Since the beginning of
October, a total of 112 Palestinians
have been shot and left to bleed to
death without medical aid in a
similar manner in what Amnesty
International refers to as ‘unlawful
killings‘.
The outlined measures, restrictions,
and human rights violations are
focused primarily and exclusively on
making the Palestinian voice – and
in the long run the inhabitants of
the area – disappear altogether.
The ISM calls for:
•An immediate end to collective
punishment and the ‘closed military
zone’ order in Tel Rumeida and
Shuhada Street;
•Cessation of threats and harassment
of Palestinian residents as well as
foreign and local human rights
defenders;
•Removal of restrictions on movement
throughout the Old City of Hebron;
•Application of civilian law instead
of military law on Palestinian
residents as they are civilians;
•Suspension of the EU-Israel
association agreement until Israel
complies with International Law;
•Removal of all illegal Israeli
settlements from Hebron.
•Reconsideration of the status of
“charity” of the Hebron Fund, that
allows people to make tax-free
donations to an organisation funding
the illegal settlement of Israelis
in the city of Hebron
•Cessation of unconditional US Aid
to Israel until it complies with
international law.
•Release of the bodies of
Palestinians killed by Israeli
forces, as provided in article 17 of
the 1949 Geneva Convention I
“[Parties to the conflict] shall
further ensure that the dead are
honourably interred, if possible
according to the rites of the
religion to which they belonged,
that their graves are respected,
grouped if possible according to the
nationality of the deceased,
properly maintained and marked so
that they may always be found”;
If your organisation wishes to
support our call, contact us :
palreports@gmail.com
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