Qaddum. Tarek left his house towards the gym, and snipers shot him on the way
We came to Qaddum village, for we had not visited our friend S. for quite a while and heard that the situation there was getting even tougher.
We came into Omar’s nursery. The place was empty, no customers. Omar says that soldiers at the checkpoint are okay one day and not quite okay the next. That’s why he goes through the Eliyahu Checkpoint. It takes longer but there he is not harassed.
We saw soldiers at every junction on our way. I pitied them, they are so young, wearing the whole “outfit” in this horrendous heat. And they have to be the occupation’s policemen. Surely this is not what they had expected when joining the Israeli army.
S. meets us in his garage and drives with us to the home of Tarek, the boy whom soldiers shot in the head and who thus lost an eye. His uncle says that soldiers now target especially young people. Tarek is 15-years old. He says that the boy didn’t partake in the demonstration but was exiting his home to go to the gym, and snipers sitting in the house on the hill took a shot at him. Now the soldiers are situated in all the houses around the village, especially unmanned ones, and observe all the roads going into the village.
A bit of history:
Qaddum village is ancient, located about 13 kilometers from Nablus.
According to archeological finds there, objects have turned up from the iron, bronze, Helenist and Ottoman periods. The ancient villagers were mainly farmers, growing olives for oil.
In 1976 Gush Emunim (colonizing movement) activists placed their caravans there and began to work 200 dunams, without official permission. When Begin rose to power in 1977, the government gave its approval and the colony of Kedumim was established on the land of Qaddum village.
4,500 dunams were confiscated from the villagers, and another 11,000 are inaccessible to them without the Israeli army’s permission. Thus, their living conditions have greatly worsened.
In 2003 the Israeli army blocked the road leading from the village to the city of Nablus, because the colonists of Kedumim opposed the idea of the road passing close to their homes, that were built only a few years earlier – whereas the road had existed there for 400 years. This move has made travel from the village to Nablus 40 minutes long, instead of 15!
Beginning in July 2011, weekly demonstrations began taking place at the village every weekend, demanding the opening of the road. These protests leave the center of the village in the direction of Kedumim. In order to prevent this, the Israeli army has used all means at its disposal to disperse the demonstrators – including live fire. 165 villagers have been hurt during these years. A young man shot in the head has been lying in hospital, totally paralyzed. Only his heart still beating. Another boy has been maimed after soldiers shot him several years ago as he was playing near his home’s fence.
And now Tarek. He is a quiet, delicate boy. He does not complain, does not express anger. He sits as though accepting his fate. His two brothers join us. One of them brings along his baby son, all joy, garbling in jibberish. What kind of a future is this baby going to have?
The uncle says that when they returned home from the hospital in Nablus, one of the soldiers at the checkpoint asked why Tarek was injured. The uncle said that he fell. The soldier realized that this is not how one gets injured from a fall but from a gunshot. After hearing about the treatment at the hospital in Nablus, the soldier suggested they turn to Buma (Buma Inbar, a peace activist). Interesting, right?We parted with sadness and heartache from this warm and pleasant family.
We went to Burin. Doha promised that she would set up a meeting for us with the head of the almajlis, but when we arrived it turned out that everyone had gone to Nablus.
When you come without an appointment – it’s not polite. When making an appointment, they ignore the visit…
We went back home.
Qaddum
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Qaddum
The village of Qaddum dates back approximately 4,000 years. Today’s villagers mostly work in agriculture and cultivae olive groves. The hilly landscape is covered with olive trees and are dotted with patches of green fields.
Qaddum was attached to the district of Nablus until 1994 at which time it joined the Qalqiliya district. The village is home to 4,000 inhabitants (2013), with 22,000 dunams (5,400 acres) of which 11,000 dunam (2700 acres) are in Area C*. Access to Area C requires coordination with the Israeli army, which means that access is almost non-existent.
The settlement of Kedumim was founded in 1975 on lands belonging to the ancient the village of Qaddum. Since then, Kedumim has expanded to include 5 settlements. The Kedumim settlements separate Qaddum village from its lands and from access to the main road. The road connecting Qaddum village to Route 55 was closed to its residents in 2003. The short ride (1.5 km or less than a mile) between Qaddum and a neighboring village - Jit, turned into a 12 km (7.5 miles) bumpy ride on an unpaved gravely road. Since 2004, residents of the village of Qaddum have been submitting requests to the authorities to reopen the old road leading to Route 55.
On July 2011, the villagers began holding weekly demonstrations in protest of the road closure and of the theft of their lands. They march to the edge of the village and there they stop. There is a regular routine to the demonstration which always follows with a confrontation with the army when it enters the village at the end of the blocked road. The army reacts to the demonstrations with sharp weapons, rubber bullets, tear gas and lately also live ammunition. Villagers are injured and hurt each week and often, dozens are arrested by the army. Young people and children are intimidated by the army when they photos are posted in the village streets.
On 12/7/19 a 10 year old boy was criticaaly wounded after he was shot in the head by live ammunition while standing at the entrance to his home in Qaddum during a demonstration.*Area C is an administrative division of the West Bank established by the Oslo II Accords in 1995. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for medical and education services and Israel is responsible for infrastructure and administration.
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