The Recent Israeli Seige and Robbery of Nablus

By Citizen Paul

Nablus, not far from historic Nazareth across the “Green Line” in Israel, is one of Palestine’s most important cities on the West Bank.

For more than 40 years now Nablus and the entire West Bank has been under what is called “Israeli military occupation.”

There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world.

And the fact that our own country has been the enabler of this ongoing and brutal military occupation, and what has been done to the people of Palestine as a result, is truly outrageous and must stop.

During these four decades of military occupation Palestinian society has been suffocated and redivided with many institutions and buildings destroyed.

No wonder the people of Palestine want to fight back and bring this to an end.

No wonder they began their courageous “Intifada” after the first 20 years of occupation in 1987; and then their “Second Intifada” in 2001 after the Israelis kept right on building more settlements and taking more Palestinians’ land even after the signing of the Oslo Peace Agreement in 1993.

At this point, approximately 40 percent of the West Bank has been taken over in one way or another by Jewish settlers, military areas, and land closed to Palestinians.

In recent years “the Wall,” bypass roads for Jews only, and all kinds of restrictions on the movement and livelihood of Palestinians have further suffocated and impoverished the Palestinian population of approximately 2.5 million.

Today nearly 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers are encamped in more than 120 settlements and another hundred or so smaller outposts throughout the West Bank.

Furthermore, the settlers have taken over much of the good agricultural lands, most of the water resources, and in fact now have control over much of what is left of Palestine.

Still further, Palestinians are restricted everywhere by more than 500 military barriers and checkpoints throughout the occupied territories.

Palestinians in Ramallah and Bethlehem, and throughout the West Bank and Gaza in fact, can’t even go to nearby Jerusalem to conduct business or shop, to see friends and family, or to pray at the important al-Aksa Mosque.

On my recent trip, I saw for myself how terrible and unacceptable things are for the Palestinians.

And I was deeply moved and impressed when I met with young Israelis and Palestinians who are trying to go about their lives but who are forced to confront and oppose daily what the Israeli government keeps doing.

My report about my trip and my conclusions about what the Israeli government must be convinced, or coerced if need be, to do is now being prepared.

Last week I felt I had to write about the plight of a few of the best students in Gaza, the students awarded prestigious Fulbright Scholarships to come and study in our country (click here for that article).

After great protests from around the world, the Israelis finally agreed to let four of them out of Gaza Prison.  But three of them are still being held because the Israelis refuse to let them leave.  Moreover, thousands of other young students are being prevented from leaving Gaza and going to their universities in other countries, in the West Bank, and in Jerusalem.

There is no excuse for such collective punishment of the Palestinian people.  It violates all norms of international law.  And it should be offensive and unacceptable to our own government, which nevertheless keeps pouring money and arms into Israel, essentially acting as the enabler of what the Israeli government is doing, and thus making our own country an accomplice.

Even as my report is being completed, the Israelis are still escalating their repression and their seizures, and I have to condemn these latest actions this week.

Now in Nablus and other West Bank cities, they have closed more schools, shopping centers, and relief organizations claiming they have “Hamas connections.”

In Gaza, the Fulbright-awarded students are being refused permission to leave Gaza because they have “Hamas family connections.”

Get the pattern!  Simply make claims about the boogeyman, even though the Hamas Party was actually elected to govern by the Palestinian people themselves in elections our own government helped sponsor in 2006, and you can get away with anything, including murder!

Americans need to know what is happening.  Our media and our leaders are not telling us because they are severely pressured by the many arms and agencies of the Israeli-Jewish lobby in our country.

As for the city of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, with origins going back 2,000 years and a population today of about 140,000, the Israelis have literally surrounded it with restrictions, barriers, and settlements.  And in recent days they’ve gone even further in trying to strangle normal commerce and basic life for the citizens of Nablus.

This report from Nablus comes from Palestinians themselves.

• Please don’t read it and shrug it off.
• This has to be stopped once and for all.
• We Americans not only need to know, we need to say NO!

As Israel’s “enabler,” our responsibility as American citizens is great to bring these Israeli actions to an end, one way or another.

The following was written and translated by Palestinians whose English is not their main language — please read with that understanding:

The Recent Israeli Siege on Nablus

City mall, schools, charities, orphanages, health centers, media organisations, mosques…

Since the 7th of July, the Israeli forces have started a new siege campaign on the city of Nablus, by raiding and ransacking several popular organisations and imposing a long term closure on alleged Hamas-affiliated organisations.

After being under siege for more than 7 years, the city of Nablus, northern West Bank, is facing another round of arbitrary agressions.

The heavy campaign against charities and other organisations started on the 7th of July when the Israeli forces closed six charities–including schools for little girls–after ransacking the offices and confiscating computers, documents, equipments as well as cash.

According to Ma’an news agency, in one of the Nablusian dispensary ransacked, “the Israeli soldiers destroyed all the contents of the dispensary and stole the equivalent of 5,000 US dollars from the clinic’s safe.” But above the material aggression, the raided associations have been imposed an arbitrary closure for two or three years, depending on the case.

The Israeli didn’t target only charitable organisations: 6 mosques, the municipality Council of the city, along with clinics, health centres, schools and media associations have been raided and ransacked for more than one week. In every place, computers, documents and money have been confiscated.

Israeli attacks affect the whole Community

Most owners of the destroyed places issued press releases refuting the Israeli accusations of them being Hamas-affiliated, highlighting that some of them have been founded even years prior to the creation of the Hamas movement. Needless to mention that arguments invoked by the Israeli are quite light – most of them are just based on assumptions – in comparison with the economic and social consequences of the closure.

Such raids are not a premiere in the Israeli siege policy. It happened in Hebron and Qalqilya before Nablus. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Israeli forces have closed down more than 50 charities over the past two years. But now and for more than 9 consecutive days, the Israeli forces have focused their efforts on the city of Nablus.

The city has always received a “special treatment” from the Israeli forces, by being surrounded by a huge network of checkpoints that cut the city off from the other Palestinian center and by the occupation forces besieging the city – by night military incursions – every night for the last 7 years, imposing de facto a non formal curfew on its 135,000 citizens.

But since last week, the Israeli forces decided to hit stronger: according to Palestinian security sources, 120 Israeli military vehicles stormed Nablus on the first Monday night to raid “suspicious” Palestinian associations in the city.

Closing the city Mall and stealing private citizens properties

In the heart of the city of Nablus – a short distance from the old city where the scars of the latest fights still remain –stands the city’s shopping Mall, a modern 5-story complex comprising of some 50 individual shops and offices, all owned by private owners. But to Israel, the shops and companies located there fund Hamas movement and “encourage terrorism,” an accusation based on the assumption that the head of the Mall administration, Adli Yayish, is affiliated to Hamas.

The Mall has been stormed a couple of nights in the past week, with the Israeli forces destroying and confiscating documents and materials, and sealing some shops. The Israeli army commander posted closure-notices on the windows, stating “anyone found in this center will be considered as working on behalf of Hamas and puts himself and his properties in danger.” The highly arbitrary order will come into effect on the 15th of August, giving no more than a month to the 70 storeowners to remove their businesses and cope with the Israeli order.

Furthermore, the Israeli commander mentioned that the ownership of the Mall will be transferred to the Israeli authorities as of the 18th of August. By carrying such an action, the Israeli occupation forces is not doing anything else than literally stealing the property right from Nablus individuals, highly defying the right of ownership guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights.

Dar El Amal, an investment company located on the first floor, was ransacked five days ago by the Israeli military who sealed off the place. Two other empty shops have been sealed with huge metal bars in order to prevent anyone from renting them and open a new business. One of those has been recently bought for $70,000 by a private owner who won’t be able to take any benefits from his purchase. “This is completely contradictory to the private ownership rights,” deplored Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, who visited the place on Monday to show support to the merchants. “This shop has been bought by a private owner and has nothing to do with any Hamas affiliated connections. That is just his way of earning his living.”

Realistically, how could every single merchant of a public Mall – that includes more than 4,000 shareholders – be linked to politics or Hamas? According to Dr. Jamal Muhseisen, the governor of the city, “70 merchants and 4,000 Palestinians investors, from the Muslim, Christian, and Samarian communities had business interests in the Nablus Mall.

“What we want now, is the PA to support us in denying the Israeli orders. We want a written agreement from their part,” said Omar Khyaf, the spokesperson of the Nablus Mall Committee. While visiting the place, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, stressed on his full support and thanked the merchants for keeping their businesses open. Barghouthi also called on the PA to defy the Israeli decision and the Israeli army’s attempt to close down a major commercial centre and to provide the storeowners concrete support.

Encroaching on Palestinian freedom

But confiscating private property of Nablus citizens is not the only aim of the Israelis. By besieging the place and issuing arbitrary law, they are also attempting on the Palestinian control on the city, as Nablus is located in the A area, a zone designated by the Oslo interim agreement to fall under full PA control. But on the ground, the reality is different and the Palestinian Authority forces are almost powerless to stop Israel’s daily incursions into the area.

The raids last week are another example of the Israeli strategy aiming to undermine the security and stability in Palestinian Authority areas, and are again in violation of the Oslo agreement.

This has been done before, when similar raids took place in in Hebron, Qalqilya, and Ramallah areas since the beginning of the year. But today, the legal sanction means the campaign will now be expanded to other parts of the West Bank.

The legal fight that is now taking place in Nablus against the highly arbitrary Israeli decision represents a crucial stake for the entire West Bank.

“If we win here, they won’t do it in other cities. If we surrender or fail here, then they will spread the policy everywhere else,” said Barghouthi.