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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://imemc.org/article/video-palestinians-and-british-ismers-hospitalized-in-sadistic-and-brutal-display-of-violence-by-israeli-soldiers-in-east-jerusalem-demolition/">https://imemc.org/article/video-palestinians-and-british-ismers-hospitalized-in-sadistic-and-brutal-display-of-violence-by-israeli-soldiers-in-east-jerusalem-demolition/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Palestinians and British ISMers
Hospitalized in Sadistic and Brutal Display of Violence by
Israeli Soldiers in East Jerusalem Demolition</h1>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time"><span>July 23, 2019</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">
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<div id="post-103112">
<p><img
src="https://imemc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/EJ-July2019-ISM-e1563909780641.jpg"></p>
<p><em>Photo: ISMer’s neck shows strangulation marks where
she was dragged across the floor by Israeli border
police with her Kaffiyeh.</em></p>
<p><strong>07/23/19 | International Solidarity Movement |
East Jerusalem</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<br>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>They used excessive force, seemingly with enjoyment,
whilst firing tear gas into the enclosed space and
brutalising Palestinians and international activists.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<br>
“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<div id="attachment_52661" class="wp-caption">
<p><a
href="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22-_01.jpg"><img
src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22-_01-600x450.jpg"
alt=""
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data-was-processed="true" width="600" height="450"></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-52661" class="wp-caption-text"><em>ISMer
in hospital being treated for a fractured rib</em></p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_52662" class="wp-caption">
<p><a
href="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_11-1.jpg"><img
src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_11-1-600x450.jpg"
alt=""
data-lazy-srcset="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_11-1-600x450.jpg
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https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_11-1-400x300.jpg
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1280w" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw,
600px"
data-lazy-src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_11-1-600x450.jpg"
data-was-processed="true" width="600" height="450"></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-52662" class="wp-caption-text"><em>ISMer
with severe tissue damage to right hand</em></p>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<div id="attachment_52663" class="wp-caption">
<p><a
href="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_02.jpg"><img
src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_02-450x600.jpg"
alt=""
data-lazy-srcset="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_02-450x600.jpg
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450px"
data-lazy-src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_02-450x600.jpg"
data-was-processed="true" width="450" height="600"></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-52663" class="wp-caption-text"><em>ISMer
with bruising on arm and ripped shirt where soldiers
pulled it apart</em></p>
</div>
<p>The four activists were all admitted to Makassed
Hospital in East Jerusalem where they were treated for
their injuries.<br>
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.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>ISM activists from Britain, Spain and Austria were in
another house which was also demolished.</p>
<p>Nine Israeli and international activists were in the
house of Ghaleb Abu Hadwan, with his 4 daughters, son
and grandfather.</p>
<p>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).”</p>
<div id="attachment_52664" class="wp-caption">
<p><a
href="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_04.jpg"><img
src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_04-600x600.jpg"
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data-was-processed="true" width="600" height="600"></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-52664" class="wp-caption-text"><em>ISMer
holds glasses which were broken after being kneed in
the face by a soldier</em></p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_52665" class="wp-caption">
<p><a
href="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_09.jpg"><img
src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_09-450x600.jpg"
alt=""
data-lazy-srcset="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_09-450x600.jpg
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https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_09-300x400.jpg
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1200w" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw,
450px"
data-lazy-src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Image_2019-07-22_09-450x600.jpg"
data-was-processed="true" width="450" height="600"></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-52665" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Spanish
ISMer after being hit in the face with a gun by the
border police</em></p>
</div>
<p>A US activist was kicked in the stomach and Spanish
activist Ivan Rivera was hit in the head with the but of
a gun.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMgHE_JmB-8"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israeli soldiers
laughing and cheering</a> 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.</p>
<div id="attachment_52618" class="wp-caption">
<p><a
href="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/photo_2019-07-23_16-14-13-copy.jpg"><img
src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/photo_2019-07-23_16-14-13-copy-600x450.jpg"
alt=""
data-lazy-srcset="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/photo_2019-07-23_16-14-13-copy-600x450.jpg
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1280w" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw,
600px"
data-lazy-src="https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/photo_2019-07-23_16-14-13-copy-600x450.jpg"
data-was-processed="true" width="600" height="450"></a></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-52618" class="wp-caption-text"><em>Ismail
stands proudly in his beautiful kitchen the day
before its razed to the ground</em></p>
</div>
<p><a href="https://palsolidarity.org/" target="_blank"
rel="noopener"><em>Visit the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM).</em></a></p>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
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