The Battle for Hill 26

This past Friday, Palestinian and Israeli activists from various groups executed a direct action protest against a new settler outpost on a hill near Hebron called Hill 26. In response to the new outpost, which is illegal by Israeli law yet the military refuses to evacuate, activists built a Palestinian outpost on the same plot of land. The result: 8 peace activists apprehended by the Israeli police while the settlers continue to sit illegaly in their outpost. Sadly, we see yet again the complete disregard of the Israeli military and police to their own laws. Moreover, we see yet again the manifestation of a settlement expansion policy, in direct contradictions to the international community. On a positive note, this complicated and dangerous non-violent action was attended by around 60 Israeli and Palestinian activists- proving that living together and fighting for a future of equality and dignity in the region is a possibility. More on the action (including videos) by Ta'ayush activist Jseph Dahan below (posted on http://ibnezra.wordpress.com )

"Ta’ayush is on the frontline of the settlement expansion war. We have been observing illegal outposts and settlement growth and, more importantly, have been documenting how the State of Israel is helping and encouraging this process. The official Israeli position regarding settlements is borderline make believe. Yesterday, at a small hilltop outside of the uber-settlement Kiryat Arba, Ta’ayush experienced and obtained proof of this phenomenon. To begin recounting the day, I am placing a video of Amiel explaining the objectives of Ta’ayush yesterday at hilltop 26.

After this video was taken we hiked up the hilltop and stumbled upon 20 or 30 Russians that were on a tour of the outpost. We were expecting to see the usual group of adolescents who hang out there, but were surprised to see a group of Russian-Israelis touring the area. As soon as we began building the structure, individuals from this tour group began using physical violence against us. The Russians were screaming, kicking the structure, and generally being very violent. I was personally pushed, kicked and screamed at as I stood in front of the structure as a human shield. More and more settlers from Kiryat Arba arrived at the outpost. The Palestinians began to sing various chants and then the settlers responded with the chanting of Hatikva.

The singing and insults continued as well as the building of the structure. Eventually the Army came along with what seemed like a unit of radical settlers, among them, the notorious and insane Baruch Marzel. The Russians vanished. It was clear to everyone that the army was going to declare a ‘closed military zone’ and remove us, the Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. It took a long time to get the order and so the Palestinians continued to build the protest structure while the settlers yelled and screamed at everyone that was in earshot. The way that the settlers would talk to the Army was incredible. I have never seen such disrespect and vile comments. They would boss them around with insults, threats and screams. For example, Issa, one of the leaders of Youth Against Settlements and an amazingly brave man placed a Palestinian flag on top of the protest structure. The security officer of Kiryat Arba, Ofer (pictured) began yelling insults at the soldiers, shocked at the fact that they were allowing the flag to continue waving despite his calls to bring it down. He was screaming that the soldiers were weak and were defiling their own identity as Jews. Ultimately the famed settler leader Baruch Marzel climbed atop the structure and burned the flag. The soldiers were commanded to protect the settlers despite the latter’s insults. It was like watching an abusive relationship and I am left wondering why more Israelis and specifically former soldiers, regardless of political orientation, do not come out and say that the settlers are not nice people. Why then do we keep helping them? What have they done for the greater good? As the settlers got more excited, they got more violent. One of the settler children, who must have been about 11 or 12, sat himself just outside the protest structure with a Torah and began chanting holy verses. This obviously created a huge commotion and the police forcibly removed him from the structure. Once this child was removed he ran over to the settler outpost and wrapped some cloth around a stick, set it on fire and threw the flaming stick on top of the structure. A Palestinian was able to quickly throw it off but it was a sign that the settlers were serious and that the army was not going to stop them.

After this incident, Baruch Marzel became violent. He attacked Amos repeatedly, each time pushing, kicking and punching him. The whole time the army did very little to reprimand and remove Marzel. At one point, another settler with Marzel hit the head of a female member of Ta’ayush, Miriam, causing her to fall to the ground. Miriam is a small woman, but has more tenacity then the entire group combined and as soon as she got up she pleaded with the army to arrest the crazy settler, the entire settler group began laughing at her and making fun of her pleas. So picture the scene, a group of ten or fifteen settlers attacking Israeli peace activists, while the army, by this time at least two units, stood by and watched, protecting the settlers. The ‘closed military zone’ order finally came and the soldiers, who had until now been quiet, almost stoic, became instantly violent. They began pushing, shoving and throwing women down to the ground as they commanded us to leave. Ta’ayush wanted to exercise our rights as citizens of the State of Israel and see the order, photograph it, make sure it was legal and make sure that the settlers would be removed as well, in accordance with the order. However we were not properly shown the order and the settlers were not removed. The army began throwing stun grenades at us and pushed us, screaming at us to leave the area or face arrest.

Amiel and Amos decided that they would refuse the order because the settlers were not being evacuated from the outpost and so they sat down peacefully. You can clearly see in the video what happens to them. The Army began then to arrest anyone around Amiel and Amos even if they were walking. You have to keep in mind that we were about fifty or more people trying to walk down a hill with no road. The soldiers would yell WALK! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! And even if you were walking and wanted to leave, there were too many people and you had nowhere to go and so you would be pushed and shoved and kicked. The force was completely out of line and I am deeply saddened when I think of it. The message is clear: the IDF is protecting this outpost, we do not want you to come here and we have the power to beat you up if you come here. Finally we got to an area that the army decided was ok for us to be in and after some more scuffles, the army left. Eight people from Ta’ayush were arrested. The three Ta’ayush members that were not arrested began to call the media in order to get the story out. Luckily, Mairav was able to get a hold of a contact at Haaretz and they agreed to get a story up on the internet. As we were making phone calls the Palestinians living in the area welcomed us for tea which is the standard among Palestinians in the West Bank. Nothing can be done without a lot tea. After some deliberation, we decided that we would go back to hilltop 26 and record the fact that the settlers were still there in clear violation of the ‘closed military zone’ order. Actually, the settlers came to us. They descended the hill into the village as an act of provocation and machismo. I was later told by a resident of village that this is a usual occurrence especially on Fridays. We ran to the hill, thinking that the settlers were going to be violent but they quickly ran back to their outpost. We were able to see a couple of IDF soldiers standing on the hilltop and decided to leave. It was clear evidence that not only is the IDF protecting the illegal outpost but they are actively involved with it continued existence. The members of Taayush in jail were going to be there for a while, and we had to get all the video to the media. So we went back to Jerusalem. At about five in the evening the police released all those arrested. Their crime the were charged with was not obeying the ‘closed military order’. The settlers were also guilty of this crime but that did not wind them up in jail for six hours. The jailed members of Ta’ayush had to sign a document stating that they would not enter the West Bank for six days and they were released. By this point in the evening, Reuters was publishing the story and we considered the action to be a success. "