[News] Palestinians and British ISMers Hospitalized in Sadistic and Brutal Display of Violence by Israeli Soldiers in East Jerusalem Demolition

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://imemc.org/article/video-palestinians-and-british-ismers-hospitalized-in-sadistic-and-brutal-display-of-violence-by-israeli-soldiers-in-east-jerusalem-demolition/ 



  Palestinians and British ISMers Hospitalized in Sadistic and Brutal
  Display of Violence by Israeli Soldiers in East Jerusalem Demolition

July 23, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

/Photo: ISMer’s neck shows strangulation marks where she was dragged 
across the floor by Israeli border police with her Kaffiyeh./

*07/23/19 | International Solidarity Movement | East Jerusalem*

Two Palestinian families lost their homes yesterday in unprecedented 
mass demolitions in East Jerusalem carried out by 900 Israeli soldiers 
who hospitalized Palestinians and ISMers in a sadistic and brutal 
eviction operation.

During the invasion of the two occupied buildings Israeli border police 
shot Palestinians at close range with rubber-coated steel bullets and 
kicked them down flights of stairs. ISMers were stamped on, dragged 
across the floor by the hair, strangled with a scarf and pepper sprayed 
by Israeli border police.

The International Solidarity Movement activists, Bethany Rielly, 25, 
Beatrice-Lily Richardson, 27, Chris Lorigan, 30, and Gabriella Jones, 
20, were carrying out a non-violent action by sitting in the house of 
Palestinian Ismail Obeide with 30 locals in the Wadi al-Hummus 
neighbourhood of Sur Baher, in an attempt to delay the demolition.
12 Palestinians were also hospitalized after being kicked in the back 
down flights of stairs and two were illegally shot at close range with 
rubber-coated steel bullets.

At around 3am yesterday morning 900 hundred Israeli soldiers were bussed 
to the area with trucks of demolition equipment to bulldoze three 
Palestinian apartment blocks, including an unfinished block which they 
spent 15 hours rigging with dynamite.

At around 5am they smashed down the door of Mr Obeide’s house. He was 
standing in the doorway holding his hands out in disbelief when dozens 
of soldiers invaded his home immediately pepper spraying him in the face.

They used excessive force, seemingly with enjoyment, whilst firing tear 
gas into the enclosed space and brutalising Palestinians and 
international activists.

The four British nationals were sitting in a small unventilated bathroom 
with the door closed when a soldier opened the door and threw in a tear 
gas canister.

Chris said: “When the soldiers found us in the bathroom, they threw 
multiple tear gas canisters and shut the door. As we started to 
suffocate in the smallest room in the house, soldiers burst in and 
dragged us violently, pulling at every possible part, regardless of 
safety or policy.
“I was dragged by my feet and lifted up, kicked in the stomach, then one 
soldier in particular stamped on my head four times, at full force, then 
standing on my head and pulling at my hair, he then stamped on my throat 
and others started punching my torso. It was a sadistic display of 
violence by the border police.”

After he told the soldiers he would leave, they continued to beat him, 
throwing him through a table. At one point they also tried to pull his 
trousers off. He suffered a fractured rib, and severe bruising to his 
chest, legs and face.

<https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22-_01.jpg>

/ISMer in hospital being treated for a fractured rib/

<https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_11-1.jpg>

/ISMer with severe tissue damage to right hand/

Beatrice was also dragged out and her hands crushed so badly that she 
suffered severe tissue damage to her right hand which will be 
permanently misshapen unless she gets cosmetic surgery and a fractured 
knuckle on her left hand. She was bruises across her arms, hips and 
inner thighs.

Gaby was severely pepper sprayed in the face and hands and soldiers 
ripped her shirt revealing her bra, leaving large bruises on her right arm.

Bethany was dragged by her Keffiyeh around her neck out of the bathroom. 
Soldiers then pulled her out of the room by her hair. She said: “A 
soldier dragged me by my keffiyeh across the floor strangling me until I 
screamed when he then crushed my neck under his knee. I couldn’t believe 
the pure aggression they were using against us. I was in such a state of 
shock the whole time that I couldn’t open my eyes. As they dragged me by 
my hair as I choked from being strangled and the tear gas I heard them 
laughing at me. We were unarmed civilians using peaceful means to try 
and delay them destroying Ismail and his family’s home that they worked 
so hard to build. Hundreds of soldiers were bussed in to do this. Is a 
house demolition a military operation anywhere else in the world? This 
is the reality of life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.”

<https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_02.jpg>

/ISMer with bruising on arm and ripped shirt where soldiers pulled it apart/

The four activists were all admitted to Makassed Hospital in East 
Jerusalem where they were treated for their injuries.
Three international activists, from Britain, the US and France were 
locked in a different room in the same house with around 15 
Palestinians. Soldiers threw sound grenades into the room and continued 
to throw two more even after the Palestinians said they would leave.

A US national who did not want to be named said: “The Palestinian men 
began saying ‘hallas’, saying they were done, ‘open the door.’ They held 
hands up and then again, a soldier threw a sound grenade in and closed 
the door, and then again. And this was after everyone had stopped 
resisting, but the brutality kept going. Then one by one they very 
roughly, very aggressively, unnecessarily rough, as these men were 
holding their arms up in the air, grabbed the men and shoved them out of 
the door. They grabbed people fingers, it appeared as though they 
intended to break them. Then we got to the stairs and they were kicking 
us down the stairs in the lower back and several of the Palestinian boys 
they kicked so hard that they tumbled down the stairs and this was when 
there was no resistance at all going on.” A video of the moment when 
soldiers burst in is shown below (taken by US ISMer).

ISM activists from Britain, Spain and Austria were in another house 
which was also demolished.

Nine Israeli and international activists were in the house of Ghaleb Abu 
Hadwan, with his 4 daughters, son and grandfather.

Edmond Sichrovsky, an Austrian activist of Jewish origin, who was in the 
house said: “Border police broke into the house and dragged out the 
Palestinians, knocking the grandfather to the floor in front of his 
crying and screaming grandchildren. Everyone with a cellphone was 
forcibly removed from the house. Once there was no one filming present, 
they attacked me and 4 other activists. I was repeatedly kicked and 
kneed, which left a bloody nose and multiple cuts, as well breaking my 
glasses from a knee in the face. Once outside, they slammed me against a 
car while shouting verbal insults at me and women activists, calling 
them whores (Sharmuta).”

<https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_04.jpg>

/ISMer holds glasses which were broken after being kneed in the face by 
a soldier/

<https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_09.jpg>

/Spanish ISMer after being hit in the face with a gun by the border police/

A US activist was kicked in the stomach and Spanish activist Ivan Rivera 
was hit in the head with the but of a gun.

Yesterday’s demolition of Wadi al-Hummus has made national news but due 
to the lack of media presence inside the family homes the extent of the 
violence and sadism perpetrated by IOF on Palestinian citizens and 
international activists has remained largely unreported. ISM activists 
are sharing their personal accounts of yesterday morning’s events 
including being brutally beaten, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, strangled 
and laughed at in the process of non violent resistance even after 
compliance, but urge the international community to recognise the fact 
that the treatment of Palestinians is incomparable.

After everyone was evicted from the two occupied buildings, Israeli 
forces proceeded to destroy them while continuing to put dynamite on 
every floor of the unfinished building. The three buidlings, which are 
in Area A under full Palestinians Authority control, were destroyed 
yesterday for ‘security reasons’ using an Israeli 2011 military order 
that states any house within 250m of the apartheid fence could be 
demolished. The Wadi al-Hummus neighbourhood is on both sides of the 
fence, which is illegal under international law. 17 people including Mr 
Obedi, his wife and their six children are now homeless (a video of the 
demolition of their home is shown below) as well as the family of Mr 
Hadwan. And the 350 people who were to live in the unfinished block now 
have lost their future homes. A video was posted of Israeli soldiers 
laughing and cheering <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgHE_JmB-8> as 
the unfinished block was demolished by thousands of explosives. Evidence 
of the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine is more apparent than ever 
in efforts like the destruction of these three blocks in Wadi al-Hummus, 
and hundreds more demolition orders, by the Israeli government.

<https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/photo_2019-07-23_16-14-13-copy.jpg>

/Ismail stands proudly in his beautiful kitchen the day before its razed 
to the ground/

/Visit the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)./ 
<https://palsolidarity.org/>

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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