[News] Israel uses deadly force on both sides of Green Line

Wed Jan 19 12:29:01 EST 2022

electronicintifada.net 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-uses-deadly-force-both-sides-green-line> 

  Israel uses deadly force on both sides of Green Line

Maureen Clare Murphy 
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy> - 18 
January 2022

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haj Suleiman Hathaleen confronts Israeli soldiers during a rally against 
expropriation of Palestinian land for the expansion of Carmel settlement 
near Yatta village in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills, March 2021.

APA images

A Palestinian shepherd who was a constant presence at protests in the 
southern West Bank died on Monday two weeks after being struck and 
critically injured by a tow truck escorted by Israeli police.

Haj Suleiman Hathaleen had attempted to use his body to block the tow 
truck transporting cars belonging to Palestinians that were confiscated 
by Israel on the pretext that they weren’t licensed.

Hathaleen’s grandfather was expelled from the Naqab desert in what is 
now part of southern Israel soon after the declaration of the state in 1948.

Following their expulsion, the Jahalin tribe to which Hathaleen’s family 
belongs relocated near the Palestinian town of Yatta, south of Hebron.

Israel has never left the agrarian community in peace, subjecting them 
to land confiscation, home demolitions 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/eu-logo-no-shield-israels-bulldozers/17681> 
and the constant threat 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-orders-destruction-entire-west-bank-village/11461> 
of further displacement.

Residents of the South Hebron Hills frequently protest Israeli measures 
aimed at pushing them off of their land. Hathaleen regularly 
participated in demonstrations in the area, which is under full Israeli 
military control.

Hathaleen, an older man who carried a shepherd’s staff, was a community 
leader and an iconic presence who constantly put his body on the line at 
protests, as others from the South Hebron Hills recount 
<https://www.972mag.com/haj-suleiman-masafer-yatta-police/>.

The man’s family suspects that Hathaleen may have been deliberately 
injured when he was struck on 5 January. He was well known to Israeli 
authorities and had been detained multiple times but never charged.

The tow truck driver hit Hathaleen and dragged him for several meters. 
The police vehicles sped away and the officers provided no assistance.

A Palestinian field researcher working with B’Tselem, an Israeli human 
rights organization, found “fragments of Suleiman’s skull and a few of 
his teeth” at the site of his injury, according to 
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/twilight-zone/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-israeli-police-ran-a-over-palestinian-anti-occupation-protester-and-fled-the-scene-1.10539835> 
the Tel Aviv daily /Haaretz/.

The police claimed that a “militant mob” attempted to harm the police 
force, and thus “it was impossible to stop and assist the injured person.”

They took no responsibility for striking Hathaleen.

    “Racial discrimination par excellence”

Over the past year, three Palestinians in the area, including a toddler 
whose skull was fractured 
<https://www.972mag.com/settler-violence-sukkot-pogrom/>, were 
permanently injured as a result of Israeli police, military and settler 
violence.

In all three cases, “the Israeli authorities quickly closed the case 
without prosecuting anyone,” as Ali Awad and Awad Hathaleen write for 
/+972 Magazine/.

“The Israeli army, police and settlers all work together and 
systematically to ethnically cleanse us from our land,” the writers add.

The same relationships are at play throughout historic Palestine, 
whether in the South Hebron Hills, Sheikh Jarrah or the Naqab desert, 
where police have violently repressed protests against a Jewish National 
Fund afforestation project over the past week.

Israeli police detain a protester in the Naqab on 13 January.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

The JNF and the Israel Lands Authority are planting forests in the Naqab 
“to displace Bedouins, viewed as ‘trespassers,’ from their lands,” 
according to <https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10524> Adalah, a 
group that advocates for the rights of Palestinians in Israel.

“This is racial discrimination par excellence,” Adalah added.

In its crackdown on the protests, Israel used drones that dropped tear 
gas against its citizens for the first time – an “extremely dangerous, 
disproportionate and unlawful” act, Adalah said.

    The Israeli regime army is using drones to drop tear gas on
    Palestinians in the Naqab resisting settler colonisation. They test
    out their latest technologies on us & then sell them to other nasty
    regimes. Watch out, soon coming to a protest near you. #savethenaqab
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/savethenaqab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

    — Dr. Yara Hawari د. يارا هواري (@yarahawari) January 13, 2022
    <https://twitter.com/yarahawari/status/1481646814701170690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Israeli police have also “endangered the lives” of demonstrators by 
using other crowd control weapons like rubber-coated bullets.

    In other news: 39-year-old father of four, Talib Sa’aydeh, was
    targeted and shot by an IOF rubber-bullet which fractured his skull
    and left him in a coma. He’s currently fighting for his life in the
    ICU. #SaveAlNaqab
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveAlNaqab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

    — Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) January 17, 2022
    <https://twitter.com/m7mdkurd/status/1483087719647563780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The Israel Lands Authority allocated land belonging to the al-Atrash 
Bedouin tribe near Sawa to the Jewish National Fund despite registered 
claims of ownership and its use as agricultural land by Bedouin 
residents, Adalah said.

    Harming habitats

The rights group added that Israeli environmental groups object to the 
tree-planting scheme due to its harm to native habitats.

Since 1948, the Jewish National Fund has planted hundreds of millions of 
predominantly European conifer trees 
<https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19171.html> on the remains of 
Palestinian villages depopulated in 1948 and 1967 to erase their 
existence and prevent their residents from returning.

While boasting that its tree planting helps mitigate climate change, in 
reality the European pines and cypress tree species have fueled forest 
fires exacerbated by dryer conditions.

Dozens of residents, including children, have been arrested during the 
Naqab protests, according to Adalah.

    An Israeli settler police officer taking a selfie with a Palestinian
    Bedouin minor from Al-Atrash and say’s “he’s my arrestee”. It’s like
    they are counting heads! #انقذوا_النقب
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%82%D8%B0%D9%88%D8%A7_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%82%D8%A8?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    #كلنا_الاطرش
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D9%83%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%B4?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    pic.twitter.com/URIcQzXdVh <https://t.co/URIcQzXdVh>

    — Riya Al (@RiyaAlsanah) January 12, 2022
    <https://twitter.com/RiyaAlsanah/status/1481206384377176064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

An array of groups in Israel are calling on the government and the JNF 
to stop the “provocative” tree planting on disputed lands and to stop 
the violent police crackdown.

    Along with our partner organizations, we call upon authorities to
    immediately end the "foresting" plans and respect the rights of
    Bedouin citizens of Israel. The purpose of JNF's "foresting" is
    clear: to stop the development of Bedouin communities and prevent
    their recognition.🧵 pic.twitter.com/cgjgjJxoO4
    <https://t.co/cgjgjJxoO4>

    — ACRI (@acri_online) January 16, 2022
    <https://twitter.com/acri_online/status/1482736828348260355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Whether through routine harassment like confiscating cars or planting 
European pine trees on agricultural land, Israel’s policies are aimed at 
pushing Palestinians off of their land and destroying their way of life.

    JNF Canada (@JNFca <https://twitter.com/JNFca?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>),
    which has charitable status in Canada, was "instructed" last year by
    the Canada Revenue Agency not to fund projects in occupied
    Palestinian territory. However, JNF activities 'inside Israel' are
    no less colonial, as we see this week in the Naqab (Negev) 👇
    https://t.co/XuRikXO0Wu

    — Michael Bueckert (@mbueckert) January 12, 2022
    <https://twitter.com/mbueckert/status/1481286463065141252?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

And it’s an aim that Palestinians resist with their bodies and their 
lives on both sides of the Green Line.

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