A week of occupation in photos: July 11 – July 17

Prayers Controlled

Pictured here: Several Palestinian women, children, and men wait to be allowed access through a checkpoint that leads to al-Ibrahimi Mosque for Friday noon prayers in al-Khalil. Many seeking to pass through were subject to body searches, ID checks, and bag searches, typical of the control Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have over the Old City and al-Ibrahimi Mosque. Though Palestinians experience this control every week, tensions were particularly high due to the events in Jerusalem earlier that morning: three Palestinian men and two Israeli Police officers had been killed at the al-Aqsa Mosque, resulting in Israeli forces closing the al-Aqsa compound for Friday prayers and thousands of Palestinians being denied entry to pray. Al-Aqsa was not reopened until Sunday, and only with the addition of metal detectors at the gates and much of the Old City in Jerusalem still closed. Many Palestinians responded by refusing to enter through the metal detectors and praying in the streets instead.

(July 14, 2017)

Waiting

Pictured here: The door into an interrogation room of one of the checkpoints near al-Ibrahimi Mosque. On this day, CPT was waiting outside with the brother of a 25-year-old Palestinian man who had been stopped, searched, and detained as he walked through the checkpoint on his way to the hospital where his wife was in labour. The family was given almost no information; the man was held here for almost two hours and then taken to a local police station before his family was informed he would be held for at least three more days for further questioning.

(July 13, 2017)

“Where are you going?”

Pictured here: Two Israeli soldiers from the Golani brigade stand guard as a young Palestinian man is body searched while walking through a market in al-Khalil. This man is one of 17 Palestinian men and boys questioned and body searched during this 1 1/2 hour patrol by the soldiers. These patrols occur daily, sometimes two or three times a day, as a means of controlling the lives and movement of Palestinians. Each person stopped is usually asked, “Where are you going?” by the soldiers, questioned for every move. The questions and searches are invasive and dehumanising, reducing human beings to a supposed “threat.” Young Palestinians have expressed how this is an attempt at making them disappear from the streets, shops, and homes of al-Khalil.

(July 16, 2017)

Restricted Movement

Pictured here: An Israeli soldier stops one of many young boys trying to walk through the tunnels in the Old City. Here, the tunnels were blocked off for ten minutes while soldiers searched and ID checked two men at the top, causing several people to be delayed in their travels.

(July 14, 2017)

Friendly Faces

Pictured here: Three Palestinian men whose shop sits directly across from the gate to the military base in Bab el-Baladyeh. They continue to open their shop each day despite attempts from Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) to shut down businesses in the Old City of al-Khalil. On this day the men requested a photo together. They remain a kind and familiar presence to CPT as friends to chat with as well as suppliers of both water and coffee!

(July 12, 2017)

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON) A week in photos July 11-17

Prayers Controlled

Waiting

“Where are you going?”

Restricted Movement

Friendly Faces

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