Peace camp spooks Israeli security

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Israeli forces raiding the Sumud Freedom Camp, Sarura, West Bank, May 29, 2017. Photo by Nasser Nawajah.

Israeli forces raid Palestinian-Jewish protest camp for third time in 10 days

By Natasha Roth, +972
May 30, 2017

Israeli soldiers and police officers showed up at the Sumud Freedom Camp in the south Hebron hills on Monday morning, confiscating and destroying property and detaining three Palestinian activists.

Israeli soldiers and Border Police raided the Sumud Freedom Camp in the south Hebron hills for the third time on Monday morning, destroying and confiscating property and detaining three Palestinian activists. The anti-occupation encampment, built and inhabited by Palestinians, Israelis and diaspora Jews, had already been torn down twice in the past 10 days.

Israeli forces damaged and confiscated two tents, along with items such as mattresses, water and generator cables that were inside a cave at the encampment, according to a press release sent out by the organizers. They also destroyed banners that had been displayed at the camp, and confiscated a car. The three Palestinians who had been detained were released after the raid had finished.

Settlers descended from the nearby radical Havat Ma’on outpost to observe the proceedings, and representatives from Regavim — a pro-settler organization that seeks to obstruct Palestinian building in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank — were also at the scene.

An Israeli soldier walks away with a Palestinian flag during a raid on the Sumud Freedom Camp, Sarura, West Bank, May 29, 2017. Photo by Nasser Nawajah

The raid coincided with the third day of Ramadan. Sami Hureini, a local activist from a-Tuwaneh, told +972 Magazine that activists have been marking the holiday by sitting down together for an iftar each evening, and that Palestinian members of the camp who are fasting have been staying up for the night shift to keep watch, going to sleep at 4 a.m. Monday’s raid occurred shortly after they had gone to bed.

Israeli forces raiding the Sumud Freedom Camp, Sarura, West Bank, May 29, 2017. Photo by Nasser Nawajah

Sumud Freedom Camp, inspired by Standing Rock, [Sioux tribe protest against oil pipeline] is located on the grounds of Sarura, a Palestinian village that was gradually depopulated between 1980 and 1998 due to ongoing army and settler violence. The establishment of the camp on May 19 [see below] marked the return of Sarura’s residents to their homes for the first time in nearly 20 years. Mohammad Aamar, the son of one of the residents who had returned to the village, was among those detained on Monday.

The camp is now in its 13th day. Activists have rebuilt after each raid, raising funds to replace and repair damaged and confiscated goods. The coalition of Palestinian and Jewish groups that organized the encampment — local Palestinian committees, the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, the Holy Land Trust, All That’s Left and Combatants for Peace — have continued to call for activists around the world to join them in their nonviolent protest, and stress that the camp will stay in place for as long as possible.

Palestinian women and girls stand around a Palestinian flag, Sumud Freedom Camp, Sarura, West Bank, May 29, 2017. Photo by Nasser Nawajah

“It is clear that the Israeli military is actively working to prevent Palestinians from returning to their lands,” said Antwan Saca, assistant director of the Holy Land Trust. “As a member of a coalition of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists, we will continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Sarura and to nonviolently resist this strategy.”

Palestinian, Israeli and international Jewish activists build a protest camp in Surara, West Bank, May 19, 2017. Photo by Ahmad Bazz/Activestills.org

Palestinians, Israelis and diaspora Jews build West Bank protest camp

Hundreds of activists, organized by a coalition of Palestinian, Israeli and American Jewish groups, built an encampment in Surara, from where Palestinians had been expelled in the 1990s.

By +972 Magazine staff
May 19, 2017

Around 300 Palestinians, Israelis and diaspora Jewish activists staged a direct action in the village of Sarura in the south Hebron hills of the West Bank on Friday, building a protest camp on land from which Palestinians were evicted in the 1990s. The event was also intended to mark 50 years of occupation.

The event was organized by a coalition of groups, including the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, local Palestinian committees, Youth Against Settlements, the All That’s Left Collective, the Holy Land Trust and Combatants for Peace. Members of IfNotNow also participated in the action. Activists arrived in the morning and continued working through to the afternoon, when several people — including Youth Against Settlements’ Issa Amro — spoke about the purpose and impact of the event.

Issa Amro: “American Jews will help us resist the occupation…we, human and civil rights activists are the future” #WeAreSumud. Tweeted by Jewish Nonviolence

In a press release, the organizers said that the “Sumud Freedom Camp” would remain in place for a week, during which workshops on nonviolent resistance will be held. The organizers also called on activists “around the world to hold meetings, demonstrations, solidarity actions, discussion groups and prayer groups aimed at ending Israel’s military occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian, Israeli and international Jewish activists build a protest camp in Surara, West Bank, May 19, 2017. (Photo: Ahmad Bazz/Activestills.org)

Sulaiman Khatib of Combatants for Peace called the action “another step in our nonviolent joint struggle for freedom and respect for everyone in this land.”

Activists taking part in the event updated from the ground, tweeting with the hashtag #WeAreSumud (“sumud” means “steadfastness” in Arabic, and is a central concept in Palestinian resistance to the occupation). Participants also noted that the outpost had been inspired by the Standing Rock protest camps in the United States, established to try and prevent the building of an oil pipeline through Native American land.

Adam Greenberg @pragmactivist
Camp Sumud, inspired by #StandingRock, is underway in occupied Palestine. Hundreds at work now restoring the land and homes. #WeAreSumud.
7:07 AM – 19 May 2017

As the day progressed, activists shared photos of Palestinians returning to the homes they’d had to leave behind 20 years earlier.

Residents of Sarura return to the home cave they were forced out of in 1997. #WeAreSumud
8:40 AM – 19 May 2017 Tweeted by Jewish Nonviolence

Although activists noticed an Israeli army drone hovering overhead as they worked, there were no reports of interference from Israeli security forces or settlers.