Settlements and Occupation: The Case of Hebron and Beyond

 
Video and Edited Transcript 
Issa Amro
Transcript No. 461 (May 9, 2016) 

Zeina Azzam:
We are very delighted to have with us today a very hard working and most courageous young man. He is a human rights defender in Palestine. His name is Mr. Issa Amro. He put us on his list of stops: he has been to New York, he has been here, and he’s going to go to Atlanta and Boston next, all within about ten days time. So we are really happy that you [turning to Issa Amro] were able to include us on this trip.

Mr. Amro said that his inspiration to pursue non-violent activism comes from the work of Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. He’ll be focusing most of his talk today on the West Bank city of Hebron, where there are about 800 Israeli settlers who have settled inside the city itself, and they are protected by about the same number of Israeli soldiers. You can see that this is a very volatile situation, a very important one to be aware of. And as many of you know, these are some of the most ideological and vicious settlers in the West Bank. In this context, Mr. Amro will talk about his work as the coordinator of an organization called Youth Against Settlements, YAS, a Hebron based organization that documents human rights abuses and encourages local families to resist nonviolently and remain steadfast in their homes despite the severe freedom of movement restrictions and ongoing attacks by settlers and soldiers. He will outline his organization’s annual Open Shuhada Street campaign. I know he will be telling us about this, and the new campaign called Families Freedom of Movement, which aims to end the closed military zone restrictions that have placed a stranglehold on Hebron families since November 2015.

In 2009, Issa Amro won the One World Media award for his involvement in Beit Salim’s Shooting Back project. This is actually a project that he started with several colleagues in Hebron, which involved providing video cameras to youth in order to document human rights violations by settlers. These violations are very much under-reported. His own experience also testifies to the pervasiveness of settler violence. Let me quote from an article about Issa from a year ago in The Guardian. These are his words: “Over the years, I’ve had my wrist and nose broken, been arrested dozens of times, and been constantly threatened, both me and my family. I’ve been kidnapped, blindfolded, driven around for hours, then dropped off at home. Yes, this really affects you. For hours you have no idea what is going to happen to you, or whether you will ever go home. You can’t feel safe about yourself, your children, your people. I’ve been shot in the legs three times and have had stones thrown at my head”.

In 2010, he was named Human Rights Defender of the Year in Palestine by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and in 2013 he was declared a human rights defender by the European Union. We will be listening to Issa Amro talk for about 30 minutes. His talk today is called “Settlements and Occupation: The Case of Hebron and Beyond”; and after which, we’ll make time to have questions by our audience here and by our online audience that can tweet questions to @palestinecenter. So please join me in giving a very warm welcome to Issa Amro.

Issa Amro:
Thank you very much for coming today to listen, to take a first-hand testimony about what is happening in Palestine, about how we can all together work to achieve our freedom, justice, and equality in Palestine and all over the world. I know that many of you know what is happening in Palestine, but I try to update you about the current situation and what is going on these days.

I will start my presentation by giving a little bit of news advertisement about what was said in the media about the situation in Palestine. This speech was very recent by the US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro on January 18: “Israel applies two standards of law (Apartheid).” This is the American ambassador in Israel. You will see what was meant by that. I’m explaining what was said here in my presentation.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the prime minister in Germany [said] in April 2016: “I understand why President Abbas continually seeks out the Security Council.” “Germany is wary of unconditional support for Israel.” Both of them – the US and Germany – are the best friends of Israel; both of them are the allies who are really supporting the Israeli politicians and foreign ministry. Both the US and Germany are really not giving us opportunities as Palestinians to use the international tools to make Israel accountable for their war crimes.

The most recent speech about Palestine is from an Israeli Army source. The Israeli Army is the main source of credibility in Israel, which is very important to understand what is said here. [The] Israeli Army deputy chief, Yair Golan, on 4th of May said that, “I see signs of 1930s Germany in Palestine these days.” I will explain to you now the signs and take Hebron as the case study of these signs of [the] 1930s.

The photo shows one of the signs: an Israeli soldier who shot an 18-year-old Palestinian girl in Hebron named Hadeel al-Hashlamoun on September 21st. The first version and statement from the Israeli army said that Hadeel tried to stab a soldier, they shot her in the leg, she tried again, and unfortunately she was shot. We, as Youth Against Settlements, managed to photograph the incident from the beginning until she was shot and we showed all over the world how she was not a threat at all, and how she was shot when she was behind a metal barrier around 4 meters far from the Israeli soldier who shot her. The Israeli army reinvestigated the incident and they announced after two months of our campaign to make the soldier who shot her accountable, and said, “We could have arrested her and not kill her, and we killed her by mistake.” But the one who shot her and the commander are not accountable and are free.

These three testimonies, media in the news updates about Palestine, lead us to what I will talk about in this presentation. We, as Palestinians, are using nonviolence in the last six months – protest demonstrations – but the protesters were shot many times in the legs, many times with live ammunition. Unfortunately, we don’t have that much support from outside to say that there are nonviolent protestors. Please support them on the ground. We are labeled as terrorists and we are labeled as if we are waiting for any opportunity to die, or as if all of us are stabbing or violently reacting to the Israeli occupation and illegal settlements. And many people in the world, especially the politicians, are saying, “I understand,” that Israel is defending itself. Israel nowadays is NOT defending itself, it is defending its illegal settlements. Israel is defending its illegal apartheid racism and discrimination and extrajudicial executions. This is what is happening in Palestine. It’s not about Israel defending itself; it’s about annexing Area C, demolishing more houses, attacking Palestinian children – that is what Israel is defending. And unfortunately [it is] blind supported by the American government and by many other European governments. And officially, Israel is well protected from accountability and from international law.

This is a small example of our nonviolent activities in Hebron [in] the last six months. It’s about Palestine, thousands of protesters reaching one of the checkpoints asking to return the Palestinian killed bodies to their families. And you see that [there are] no party flags, it’s a unity demonstration, and we had hundreds of demonstrations in the last six months. But the crucial reaction from the Israeli army, and the violent reaction, was that they were shooting tens of Palestinians in the legs with they live ammunition.

[This is] another protest, massive nonviolent uprising [referring to a slide]. Unfortunately in the media you see a different image about the Palestinians, that they are all violent, but you see it’s only [a] nonviolent protest and it’s five meters from the Israeli checkpoint. You see the blocks are the checkpoints. It’s rare that we can reach that point without being shot.

In the last six months, arresting Palestinian children is a real phenomenon, targeting the children, the minors, without any kind of respect to international law of their rights as children to live in peace. This video was filmed in Shuhada Street where many Palestinian shops are closed, many Palestinian apartments are closed, where the closed military new zone [is] imposed. Well trained, equipped Israeli soldiers, arresting three 11-year-old Palestinian kids in Shuhada Street. Unfortunately we do not see these kinds of films on the media. An international rights defender was arrested for trying to de-arrest the Palestinian kids. His name is Bilal Saeed, and now he is one of the youngest activists in Youth Against Settlements. We are training him to document the human rights violations. He was arrested and deported from Israel.

This is one of the attacks of Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes, and [they are] trying to invade the houses using their M-16s as you will see in this video. It’s all recent videos. They are on the roof of a Palestinian family. It is a private property.

It’s all in Hebron. I’m using Hebron as a case study about what is happening in Palestine. These images are all over Palestine but Hebron is a little bit more obvious, and you can see, and you can film all the time. Two Israeli armed settlers are on a roof of a Palestinian family, scaring them, intimidating them. They tried to break into the house from the roof. They almost shot me too, because as a Palestinian I am under the Israeli military law, and the settlers that are here are under Israeli civilian law. It’s about apartheid as the American ambassador described. The family was scared, terrified, everyone was crying, screaming, about how settlers were able to reach their roof without any accountability for sure.

It’s a little bit hard [this] video, and I know many of you saw how an Israeli soldier executed a Palestinian injured [man], and that soldier will not be held accountable. This is my first speech. I know him personally, that soldier; he got an order to execute the Palestinian and I’m sure about it, and all the Israeli army knows about it because I am talking to the soldiers all the time about how come they shoot Palestinians and leave them without any treatment. It was a phenomenon in the last six months that Israeli soldiers shoot to kill, and they confirm the killing.

And this is one of the examples and it’s a little bit hard. [It shows] how a Palestinian was shot. He’s a school student, and they left him without any kind of medical treatment until he passed away. Not only him, many other Palestinian [deaths] happened that they just shot them and left them without any kind of medical treatment. A soldier filmed this. I got this from Israeli social media. He’s not a human for them. They are interrogating him, asking him many questions. He is shot with many bullets and they are interrogating him. He passed away.

This is one of the old videos [that] shows the apartheid system in Hebron, how Israeli settlers attack Palestinian and then the Palestinians are arrested. It happened with me many times, that I was attacked then the Israeli police arrested me for being attacked because I am under the Israeli military law, and the Israeli settlers who are living close by are under the Israeli civilian law. By law, I am guilty until proven the opposite. Look at what the Israeli police did: they arrested the Palestinians. This is why we are trying as Youth Against Settlements to document this type of thing, first to protect the Palestinians from the biased and apartheid system which is not considering us as a real equal with the Israeli settlers, and then to tell you and show you how is the occupation and how is life under the occupation and how it is real apartheid in Palestine. The Palestinian was arrested.

I will start my presentation about [the] Nakba. As Palestinians, we say that [the] Nakba didn’t end. It is continuous and until now we are facing full displacement and land taking. We are losing more and more land. As you see, here is Palestine, not now, maybe five years ago. It is more yellow. And they are working to make more yellow colors in it. How will they make more yellow colors in it? The main coalition in Israel made an agreement between them to annex Area C to Israel. Area C is more than 60 percent of the left Palestinian land, and they are doing a lot of work now, and the forced displacement plans are doing well. How do they do it? House demolitions, closed military zones, military training zones, and making the life of Palestinians in certain areas incredible to make it as a kind of quiet transfer.

The Nakba which is coming on the anniversary that Palestinians commemorate [May 15],is not finished yet. It’s continuous until now, unfortunately and we are trying to oppose the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land and their homes.

This is Hebron, this is the most important part of Hebron, this is Shuhada Street. We have a campaign calling to open Shuhada Street every year. We hope that next year you participate in our nonviolent campaign. The campaign is on the 25th of February every year, and it is the anniversary Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, when an American Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinians inside their mosque. The result of that massacre was to close all of the area here: 1800 shops closed, more than 1000 apartments closed, more than 100 movement barriers and restricting the lives of Palestinians, more than 20 checkpoints, not checkpoints, they are delaying humiliating points.

They are just making the lives of the Palestinians horrible. I will show you a video about how it is very hard for the people to pass the checkpoints. So all this area is under land confiscation and forced displacement. It is one of the oldest parts of the world and it is very beautiful. I like it more than any other city in the world. I was born here and it is a lovely place to visit and I call all of you to visit and see, and I hope that you come and see it without occupation, to celebrate with us our freedom and justice and, you know, the equality.

That [referring to a slide] is a survey that was made a long time ago but it’s still now the same numbers and the same figures in it. I was the coordinator of this. Forty-two percent of the housing units [are] empty, 77 percent of the commercial and the shops became empty, which made the unemployment rate more than 72 percent in this very rich part of Hebron.

This is the market. When I was a child I remember that my father was holding my arm all the time, not to lose me. Why? Because of the crowds. Nowadays, unfortunately, you see this photo? This is now. Empty. Not only empty even, you see David’s star everywhere, blue and white signs everywhere, and [they are] changing the reality from a Palestinian land to an Israeli land, and they don’t talk about occupation, they talk that it’s part of Tel Aviv, part of Israel. And, according to the peace agreement and the two-state solution, this is in the middle. Hebron is in the middle of the two-state solution and the Palestinian-occupied state. Unfortunately until now it is continuous and they are just working hard to displace more Palestinians. [Here are some] shocking graffitis in Hebron. We have much more, I just chose this one. But we have a lot of other graffiti in Hebron, and the ones who are making it are not accountable at all. This is something very important.

Apartheid – not only the law is apartheid law and [has] double standards. This is a street. Palestinians, they walk to the left side. It’s very small, narrow, really it’s dangerous for the kids and the women to walk here. And Israelis and internationals, they walk to this side. Look to this wall in Hebron. And when we say, “apartheid,” they say “What are you talking about?” That is the real apartheid. As you saw I am arrested if I walk here, but all the time I challenge them. I walk here. I don’t want, as a Palestinian activist, to be treated in this way. To walk on the side of the road. First, it is a Palestinian city. Second, I am completely against any kind of racism, discrimination, and apartheid. So, if you come to Hebron you will see and you will have the privilege to walk on this side, as well as in Shuhada Street where I was born. All my childhood histories, memories, are there. But I am not allowed to walk in my own street.

That is the main slogan in Israel, and Netanyahu believes in it as a Prime Minister of Israel. “Palestine never existed (and never will).” And this is not a slogan or an opinion of the few Israeli fanatic extreme settlers. No. It’s the opinion of the Justice Minister in Israel. It’s the opinion of the Prime Minister in Israel. It’s the opinion of the, you know, Foreign Minister and it’s the opinion of all the political leaders in Israel. I’m not talking about the Israeli public. And the Israeli government is the main partner of the US government. And US government is agreed to support the two-state solution, but that is the partners who are taking your tax money. So, your tax money is supporting those people who believe that there is no two-state and no rights for the Palestinians. So your tax money in a way or another is supporting the occupation and improving the welfare life of the settlers and really supporting the apartheid in a way or another in Hebron and in all over Palestine. So please, stop blindfully supporting Israel.

The war is not only on the Muslims and the Islamophobia. It’s more than that. The war is [against] anyone— is against anyone who is against the settlements project or against apartheid or discrimination. A settler in Hebron [is] wearing a T-shirt [that says], “Kill all the christians now.” It’s normal to have [such] crazy people as him, but what is abnormal is not to make him accountable. I went to the Israeli police, I took the photo, I told them, “Look. What is this?” They said, “Don’t worry, we can’t do anything to him. Leave it.” And really, he’s free until now and he says more racist speeches, graffitis, and he wears more T-shirts [that incite us] to kill the Arabs, to kill the Palestinians, to kill the Muslims, to kill the Christians, to kill anyone [who] says anything against the occupation. And Netanyahu’s last speech saying, labeling the settlements product, imagine which is something which is part of the international law, as anti-semitism, and it’s kind of boycott. Any act against Israel is— they see it as a kind of anti-semitism and that you are [an] antisemite.

Elisha Key the Justice Minister – there is no justice in Israel – says that to criticise Israelis is the anti semitism. Criticize Israel, to say that it’s not right, it’s wrong, we should — you know — impose the international law, we should respect human rights, that criticism is considered anti semitism. Unfortunately, until now we don’t have any voices from the first friend of Israel saying that it’s wrong, we should make changes and real changes to achieve freedom, justice, and equality in Palestine and Israel.

Kids, they are really targeted in Hebron and all over Palestine, and they are trying — the kids— to be part of our nonviolence movement. We educate them about nonviolence in spite of the huge amount of violence and oppression and intimidation from the Israeli occupation. The main source of violence is the occupation. We are always saying that but in the other hand, we try to use nonviolence as the best tool to end the occupation and to end the oppression and, you know, to educate our children to use it as a tool for change.

Look [at] this kid [referring to a slide]. I took it, I was crying when I was photographing him. You know, the kid was crying really, he was ten years old. And that soldier you know, I don’t think he dares to do that to his son, or to his relatives, and imagine that your son is the son who is arrested. And it’s not important that he, this kid, does something wrong. Maybe he was in the wrong time on the wrong place, you know? That is very important, you know, to address that. And [this was] the worst arrest experience for me, as a human rights defender, they arrest me from time to time. The worst arrest experience, and I don’t like to talk about it, [was] when I was arrested during one of our nonviolence protests, and I met Palestinian children in the police station. It was [a] really hard experience for me as a Palestinian who is used to being arrested. It was, I didn’t adjust it until now. Whenever I think about it, it’s really, you know, hurting me from inside.

Look how the Palestinians are living in cage. This family is Abu Aisha family. They live very close to Tel Rumeida settlement. Their neighbors are Americans from Brooklyn. One of them named Baruch Marzel, he’s the [one who] followed Meir Kahane, [the] Kach movement, and they are always going wild. The army describes the house here [referring to a slide] as the “cage house.” I will show you why it’s described as the cage house. In spite [of that] — the family— you know, had a great history of protecting the Jews on 1929. Their name is written in the book called “Svar Hebron,” “Hebron Book.” And that book was written by the survivors of the massacre in 1929, which happened in Hebron. Nineteen Palestinian families protected their Jewish neighbors in their homes and this family protected two Jewish families, and the families wrote [a] greeting to them and they were very happy about how their neighbors protected them. And their photo, the father’s photo, is in the main page of that book. Unfortunately now, I can’t visit them. His sons who left the house, they can’t visit without a permit and [there are] continuous attacks from the Israeli settlers and [the] Brooklyn-origin settler Baruch Marzel and his followers. And the house is caged from all directions. You will see a small video clip. We helped one of the sons of the family to make it, and you know, [it’s a] one-minute video.

Burning Palestinian houses: Doma, Nablus. But this is in Hebron. It’s not only in Nablus. My house was burned in Tel Rumeida. Many other houses were burned. We are afraid all the time as Palestinians, to be burned inside, live and inside our houses without any kind of accountability or real protection for the Palestinians. One time I told one of the Israeli soldiers, “You are here to protect me as well [as] you protect the settlers.” He told me, “I am here only to protect the Jews. I am waiting any opportunity to kill you,” and many other bad words. It was filmed, and, you know, and everybody saw that video. We have many other videos showing how we have no protection, no rights under the occupation.

Look to our Palestinian daily life in Hebron, how the children they fight to go to the school. They fight. You know what it means? Imagine what is the influence and the effect of this kind of thing when you are going to school. In spite of that, one of the Palestinian teachers won an international prize as the best teacher in the world and the best students in the world and I hope that I get the best human rights defender in the world, that would [be] what we want to achieve as Palestinians. We don’t stereotype people according to their color, according to their origins, religion. As Martin Luther King said, you know, “We care about the content of the people, of the person, not the color.” I care about the achievements of the person, about his knowledge, about his education, about his commitment to help the community. Not the color, not the race, not anything considered as [a] kind of racism or discrimination.

The new military zone—you know they extended what you saw? The map, the other map. Now we have around 300 Palestinian families stuck here. Nobody can visit them. They are only numbers at the checkpoints. “Here you have a number? What is your number sir?” “Twelve.” “Ok, show me the ID with the number.” You show the ID and you are not a human being anymore. The numbering system, this is what Ya’ir, the head Deputy Chief of the Israeli Army said. And the army is implementing that. His army. Implementing a numbering system for the Palestinians.

Audience Member
When was this zone set up?

Issa Amro
It was set up on November 1st [2015]. Until now they are expanding and extending it. My house and my—our center. The settlement is here. And who was in Hebron visited this house and this center. Unfortunately [it is] not we [who] sit outside in the field because we are not allowed to visit in our, to stay in our houses, to have you. I am the only one who is allowed in the military zone. As guests I can’t have you in my house. I can’t have you in my Youth Against settlement, in my nonviolence center. It’s closed. It’s a closed military zone. So we have a campaign now, if you go to our page, calling to reopen the zone. It’s on behalf of the Palestinian families, and you know, the families seeking freedom of movement inside that area. And you know a lot of videos [are] coming out from the Palestinian children there, the Palestinian families, the Palestinian women, the Palestinian fathers, you know, parents, asking to intervene. And we are asking the State Department to help us, to send their embassy and consulate, you know, officers to visit and listen to the families directly about how come the Israeli occupation is imposing closed military zones since November 1st. It’s not for security reasons, for sure. It’s for, you know, improving the settlements project. It doesn’t bring any security. Everybody knows [this]. And it’s not about security. It’s about restricting the life of the Palestinians, and many Palestinians [have] left their homes because of that. Around ten percent of the Palestinian families [have] left their homes because of the numbering system, the closed military zone, orders, which is you know, not making them living in a real life. [Here is] a small example: if you have a birthday party, you can’t invite your friends. If you want to bring an electrician to fix your electricity in the house, you can’t bring him; you need a special permit. Something else very important: the ambulance. You skip all the emergency cases of ambulances there. The ambulance needs special permit before it gets there, which means that don’t think about [calling an] ambulance.

We have another campaign – we call it “Open Shuhada Street”. Its calling to reopen the closed shops, closed markets, and to give the Palestinians the freedom inside their city and bring life back to Hebron as it was well known [before for] handmade stuff and very beautiful ceramic stores and [a] vegetable fruit market. And it’s every year on the 25th of February, the anniversary of the Abrahami Mosque massacre. This [referring to a slide] is part of our non violent activities, how they just deal with us as Palestinians. He is a lawyer and he is one of our volunteers. He was attacked, beaten when he participated in this non violent protest. Even our beautiful kids are participating and promoting our “Open Shuhada Street” and our main target is the Palestinian youth to convince them to use nonviolence as a tool to end occupation. She [referring to a slide] has a great role, you know, telling them “Let’s go there.”

We do a lot of activities to pick the olives and olive harvest campaigns. I hope that you join us next year. It’s an amazing feeling to pick the olives and then eat the olives and the olive oil. Palestine is well known for their delicious healthy olive oil, so I’m doing some kind of marketing for the Palestinian olive oil and you should try it in your homes. But settlers usually attack the olive trees, cut the olive trees, burn the olive trees, steal the olives. We caught them many times during the night stealing our olives without any kind of accountability. We at Youth Against Settlements are noticing that Palestinian families are not able to bring in electricians, plumbers, any kind of force to their homes, [so] we started organizing volunteering days. We call it Samidun campaign from “steadfastness”. We support the Palestinian families: we go, we paint, we fix their electricity, we do gardening, painting, fencing the land, playing with the kids, eating with them, making a small video clip about them and a media article and personal stories. If you go to our website, you will find a lot of personal stories from Hebron.

Not only that, our media tool is [there] to give the Palestinian families a tool: first, to protect themselves by documenting human rights violations; [and] then to increase the awareness about what is happening to them. This is one of the training for the Palestinian youth in Hebron about how to use the video camera to film and to use the social media, you know, to tell about the human rights violations and about your story. Not only human rights violations, you know we want them to tell about their personal stories, about their life under the occupation, about their birthdays, their parties because as Palestinians we are not stereotyped as an equal human being. We want to show the real image and the real life of Palestinians inside their homes. Women, they are our volunteers, [making] activities for the girls, for the boys, for everyone and you know I am very proud to tell you that a ten year old kid, whenever he sees something, he carries out his camera and starts filming. That culture, we are trying to feed our children and our families with it as a kind of nonviolent tool and I can say that the camera is the most trustful witness. We are using it all the time that we want the trustful, neutral witness which is the video camera.

We are proud to say that as a part of our Samidun campaign, we cleaned this house. You saw that more than 1000 apartments are empty, to make it easier for the settlers to take it over. One of the empty houses was this house. Now it’s a kindergarten, the only public space founded in twenty years. We restored it as Youth Against Settlements, we were working day and night, I was arrested five times because of this nonviolent project. More than sixteen times we were stopped from working in spite [of the fact] that it’s 100 percent legal according to the Israeli law. We were attacked more than 35 times, but at the end we won and when you visit Hebron you will visit this kindergarten where Palestinian children study yoga, [do] kids activities, more kids activities. It’s about community empowerment.

And this film shows you how our kids are improving their filmmaking skills to tell about their life. This film was made by a Palestinian, ten years old, and it is his idea not our idea. We improved his editing, but it was his idea to make it and to compare his life [to that of] living in a cage with a dove.

[FILM]
(Issa Amro commentary during film: “Fences everywhere in the house. The other direction. Fences, more and more fences. His name is Ashraf.”)

[This is] our nonviolence activities. I told you about how I was arrested and the worst arrest was, worst experience was to see [the] kids [in detention]. That [referring to a slide] is a protest [during] when Obama visited Palestine and Israel. We wanted him to visit Hebron. We sent him letters, emails, to ask him to see the real life under the occupation, not only to meet Israeli and Palestinian political leaders. But we wanted them to come to the grassroot, and I hope ‘til now, let’s say, make him to remember the civil rights movement which made him a president. Because we were saying without the civil rights movement, and without Martin Luther King, let’s say hard work and leadership, he would not be the president of the United States. So we decided to bring him in our way. He refused, and there was no way to bring him to Hebron. We wore masks of Obama and Martin Luther King, and we walked on Shuhada Street. We were planning to do it at twelve [noon] and he was landing at twelve. I was arrested at twelve thirty. It was in the media that you know you see Israeli soldiers were arresting someone with Obama’s face as if they arrested Obama and it was in the media, and Obama was landing. And when I reached the Israeli police station, I saw that on the TV, that the Israeli TV divided the screen of the news, one [of] me arrested as Obama and another one [of] Obama walking down from his plane. We achieved a lot at that nonviolent protest, but as I told you I was, from inside, you know hurt when I saw the children how they were treated. That was on Shuhada Street and you know, we do a lot of these kinds of direct actions

[There is] another direct action – what you can do as activists, human rights defenders, Americans, Palestinians, Arabs. First of all, you should visit or encourage your friend to visit Hebron in Palestine to see by your eyes, the Israeli propaganda and how we are living in apartheid. We want your support as human rights defenders as in the grassroot, because we are really in danger as Palestinian human rights defenders. We are under attack, arrest, intimidation. To continue, we need your support and your encouragement because alone we can’t do it. We want you to spread information and to be proud that you are supporting nonviolent resistance and supporting the right of Palestinians of self determination and freedom and justice and equality. Between your friends, your work partners, schools, universities, [and] social media, use it well. Get training about how to use the social media to make a change. Try to follow the normal and mainstream media. Call the editors about their bias and compliance about Israel. Call them and tell them, “Why didn’t you get any Palestinian voices? Why didn’t you take the other side of the story? Where is the Palestinian version?” because we don’t appear a lot in the American media or we are built as terrorists and as people who love to die for their country. I love, and we all as Palestinians, we like our life, and we like it without occupation and without apartheid.

Write to your political representatives. We want you to flood the State Department by emails. Try to meet them from time to time. Remind them of their morals, of their principals to support human rights, to support freedom and justice and equality. Remind that they are really blindly supporting Israel and Israel is misusing their friendship and attacks many of the American people to build more and more illegal settlements and more and more human rights violations in Palestine. For sure, BDS, and be more creative about activities and actions and you know, human rights work in your community, in your campuses, in your work. I know that always human rights activists and defenders are creative and they can create any kind of activity which will bring, let’s say awareness or pressure to change. I believe in making a change. I will end my presentation with two videos: one of them a message from the youth in Hebron to the American people and to Obama, then about the Palestinian life and the Palestinian students’ life under occupation. You can go to our website www.hyras.ps to our Facebook, “Youth Against Settlements” go to our twitter our email. Google us and you will find all the information about us as Youth Against Settlements. This is one of the messages coming out from Hebron.

[FILM]

Issa Amro
That is the message of Abed, as a Palestinian youth asking for the American people and their president to take responsibility of making a change in Palestine, as [the] occupation has been maintained for 49 years until now because of the blind support of Israel. Israel will not be able to maintain the occupation and to continue with the occupation without the support of the American government in the last 49 years. The last video is about the life in Hebron, the students – it’s Khorteba school, and we just uploaded a new video. It’s almost the same, the recent one in our Facebook page [about] how Israeli settlers and Israeli soldiers are blocking the road to the students in the morning to go to their schools with their teachers.

[FILM]

Issa Amro
The last thing I want to say [is] that as Palestinians we will not give up. We will continue resisting the Israeli occupation until we get our freedom and justice and self determination and equality. But we need your support and we continue [to be] in touch until we make a change in the world and we make a change for the kids who are studying to have a better future for all; and a better future in equality and in making people believe in human rights and to be away from any kind of violence. Thank you very much and thank you for everybody for making this happen.