Hebron, Occupied West Bank
On late Monday October 31st, Israeli forces closed the home of Palestinian Human Rights Defender, Issa Amro, to all outsiders. The Israeli army enforced a closed military zone (CMZ) order on an area of roughly 55 square meters immediately surrounding the house of Issa Amro, located in the ancient Tel Rumeida neighborhood.
The army presented the CMZ order a day after Amro attempted to file a complaint at the local Israeli police station about the harassment directed at him from Israeli settlers and soldiers during the local olive harvest. Amro’s house doubles as the community center of the local Palestinian direct action group Youth Against Settlements (YAS). A CMZ order prevents any person from entering without a permit, including journalists, medical personnel and family members. Amro’s house is located directly next to an Israeli settlement and army base. The house is a well known meeting point of international and Israeli delegations, a training center for local volunteers, and a community center for Palestinians living in Hebron’s most restricted areas.
“Israeli settlers have long been asking the Israeli military to close my house in Tel Rumeida,” Amro stated. “They don’t want me to talk to any international and Israeli audiences about the Israeli apartheid and the Israeli occupation.” Amro stated that he is now isolated and afraid to leave the house, and has faced death threats by Israeli soldiers and settlers since the closure.
In the weeks and days leading up to the CMZ order, Amro reports Israeli settlers attacking him and fellow volunteers with big sticks and rocks, taking the phone of another YAS activist, targeting Amro’s house through rock-throwing, and making an illegal bonfire on private Palestinian land. Amro reports multiple death threats from Israeli soldiers. On October 30th, Amro went to the local Israeli police station to file a complaint, but was turned away. Hebron’s yearly olive harvest is vital for much of the communities’ livelihood, as well as an important tradition and part of the rich cultural life of Palestinians.
In late 2015, the Israeli military also declared the house and much of the surrounding Tel Rumeida neighborhood a CMZ. After six months of international campaigning and sit-in protests, the order was lifted and the YAS center was reopened for activity. Yet most military restrictions in the neighborhood have remained in place. Issa Amro is the co-founder and former coordinator of the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements initiative. In 2010, he was declared “Human Rights Defender of the year in Palestine” by the UN OHCHR and he is formally recognized as such by the European Union. In 2016, Amro was indicted by Israel on 18 charges condemned by Amnesty International as “baseless” and “politically-motivated.” Amro was convicted of six charges in 2021, including three counts of “participating in a protest without a permit,” pending appeal.
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