Video: Israeli soldiers violently attack Palestinians, international visitors in Hebron's Old City

This account accompanying the video provided by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee:

Israeli Border Police Violently Attack Palestinians and Internationals in Hebron

Twelve were detained and Three were injured after Israeli forces attacked participants of the Bilin Conference on the Popular Struggle who toured Hebron.

Israeli Border Police officers attacked a group of Palestinians and Internationals who participated in the 7th International Bilin Conference on the Palestinian Popular Struggle this afternoon. The incident took place during a tour of the Old City of Hebron.

Eight Palestinians and four internationals were arrested and at least three people were injured by the blows they suffered at the hands of police. One Italian woman suffered an injury to her shoulder that required hospitalization.

About 200 Palestinians and Internationals attended the second day of the Bilin Conference, which today took place at the old city of Hebron. After lunch, which was held at a school off of Shuhada Street, participants began to gather at the entrance of the Old City to begin a tour of the area. Settlers who passed by in their cars noticed the gathering and aggressively honked their horns at the group, but continued without incident.

Two minutes later, Israeli Border Police officers arrived in the area and arbitrarily detained a three of the Palestinians. A second group of settlers then arrived at the scene in large numbers and began inciting the police against the conference participants, calling on the police officers to “eliminate” the them. the Border Police officers, now joined by regular police, then began pushing and beating the conference participants - men and women alike.

During the attack, the officers arrested eight Palestinians and four internationals. While most were released without charge shortly after, two Palestinians and two internationals are still held at the Hebron police station. Among those still held are two Italians and Issa Amro, a well known grassroots activist from Hebron, who was clearly arrested for who he is rather than anything he’s done.

Amro has only recently spent nearly a week in detention after the army evicted Palestinians from a house in the city. The eviction took place despite the fact that the activists had legal claim to the house, which eventually forced the authorities to release Amro unconditionally.

Comments

bilin

Permalink brenda barnard replied on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 15:54

totally reprehensible. I doubt this will be aired on the BBC !!

H1 or H2?

Permalink ritzl replied on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 17:27

Is this taking place in Area A/H1? As I said at Mondoweiss, not that it makes a moral or meaningful difference, but knowing where, specifically, makes it easier to add to the case in conversations, that the Area/Oslo distinctions have come to mean nothing to Israel (if they ever did mean something).

General observation: If you could be specific as to where these travesties occur, it would help people like me who try to start up discussions about how out of control Israel is, and how one-state is the de facto state of this conflict.

Also, is there a street-level (ideally, digital) map of the various "Areas?" Again, people like me who have never been to Palestine could get a better sense of just how pervasive Israel's "encroachment" is, in order to present conversational details to newbies.

Thanks for all you do.