10 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Villagers and internationals assembled in Kufr Qaddoum after prayer time to demonstrate against the blocking of their main road to Nablus. The army cut off the electricity in the entire village as collective punishment  for the ongoing demonstrations in Kufr Qaddoum.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The villagers, including women  and many children, walked up to the top of the village, joined by internationals and press. They stopped about 100 meters from the occupation forces, where they held speeches and sang. The occupation forces started firing a huge amount of tear gas at the crowd as a couple of kids where throwing stones. Many people were affected by the tear gas, that was fired nearly constantly from then on.

Locals and supporters march in Kufr Qaddoum on February 10th, 2012

The occupation forces finally retreated into the illegal settlement, where they kept on taking pictures and filming the protesters. The crowd walked down closer, and gathered under an olive tree, to honour the memory of a man shot dead by a settler 20 years ago in that exact spot. The village was still without electricity as we left.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

11 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The extreme Golani Unit of the Israeli military is escalating its arrests of Palestinian children in Al Khalil (Hebron), targeting boys between the ages of 12 to15 years old with at least 10 reported cases of child arrests made just in the span of one week.

The arrest of Dwaik and Sultan

On February 2, 2012, 12-year old Islam Dwaik and 13-year old Ahsan Sultan were walking near Tel Rumeida. According to the two children, they were on their way to register for English courses. During their walk Israeli military accused the youth of throwing a stone at Israeli soldiers patrolling the area, with 12 soldiers arresting the two boys and walking them through Shuhada Street and into the illegal settlement of Abraham Avino.

Dwaik and Sultan stated that as they were walking, they noticed military was following and “running near them” until they were arrested.

The youth were detained for a total of three hours, which included them being escorted by military to their homes. Once they arrived at their respective households, soldiers threatened that if their children were arrested in the future, that the parents would also be arrested as well.

A local Palestinian stated that as the military paraded the youth into Shuhada street, it was “as if they were making an example of them and their families.”

In another incident on Saturday, February 4th, during a settler tour in the old city of Al Khalil , Israeli military alleged a single stone was thrown towards the heavily armed soldiers while the illegal Israeli settlers and Zionists were returning to their illegal colony. The settler tour is a weekly activity of the Israeli settlers and Zionists, where they take a tour of the Palestinian old city with armed soldiers as escorts, in an attempt to claim heritage, taunt locals, stifle local businesses, and invoke their presence as occupiers.

Volunteers from International Solidarity Movement, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), and The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel  (EAPPI) were on the scene when six Israeli soldiers claimed the stone was thrown, who then sought out Palestinian youth who were in the area. The soldiers found three boys between the ages of 12 to 15 years old, threatening them and their families with arbitrary arrests. International activists and observers were barred from getting near the detained youth, who were later released.

Another incident was reported by an international volunteer on Monday, February 6th. Volunteers from Temporary International Presence in Hebron witnessed the arrest of two boys near Qordoba school, while soldiers threatened their school principal.

Two 11 year old boys from Qordoba school, detained by Israeli military

The  female, international volunteer described the event:

Two 11 year old boys were detained at Qordoba school. Towards the end of our monitoring period this afternoon, as we were leaving the area, the TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) and I saw 6 soldiers armed with M-16′s run urgently up the hill towards the school. We then heard 6 soldiers shouting violently at the children and heard children screaming and crying.

The three of us ran up the stairs to find the soldiers pulling the boys by their clothes to take them to the police station. The teachers from the school were still on the school grounds and surrounded the children to protect them and attempted to talk to the soldiers. The soldiers yelled at the teachers several times to “go away.” Finally, the principal came out and intervened. The soldiers made the teachers leave and allowed the principal to stay and talk to them on the boys behalf, since she told him the parents were at home and not near the school.

The soldiers were accusing the boys of throwing stones at the Israeli settlement (Beit Hadassah Settlement) across the street and down the steep hill from the school. The principal explained that the boys were playing and started to fight with each other and did not intentionally throw stones at anyone. TIPH said while they had been standing near the school, they only saw the boys playing. They did not see anyone throw a stone. The principal pleaded that the boys not be arrested.

The captain for these soldiers, who was negotiating with the principal of the school, threatened her by saying, “Next time if stones are thrown at the Jewish people, I will take the nice little children to the police and I will make a big (something inaudible stated in Hebrew or Arabic) at your school.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

He then told the principal and the students they were free to go.

After the incident,  TIPH and I talked to the principal. The children who were involved and another student who had been playing with them were crying hysterically and were visibly traumatized by this incident.

In October 2011 Qordoba school was the scene of Israeli violence against school children, as soldiers obstructed access to the school and assaulted male and female students as they demonstrated for their right to education.

Arrests were also made on February 9th after violent incursions by the Israeli military. The soldiers arrested three youth, whose ages range between 14 and 15 years old. According to WAFA News Agency, the arrests were made following the use of tear gas and sound bombs to raid Palestinian homes.

Palestinian youth have been manipulated through military arrests, according to the Defense for Children International, which launched its  current campaign against such treatment in 2001. According to DCI children are arrested and used to incriminate other Palestinians through typically illegal or forged testifying, applying pressure to the communities of arrested youth to create subservience and fear, and to set an example out of those politically active, enticing entire communities to become fearful of exercising freedom of speech and assembly.  And in some cases, youth are arrested and subdued into becoming informants for the Israeli military.

According to the Palestinian Information Center, a total of 3,200 Palestinians were arrested by Israel in 2011 alone, 383 of those being children. Approximately 350 Palestinian youth are currently imprisoned by Israel. The issue of administrative detention is under fire as Khader Adnan continues to withhold food consumption in an act of civil disobedience against Israeli arbitrary arrests and extensions of its illegal administrative detentions. Yet to further Israel’s lack of regard for international law, the rights of defenseless children are being violated to continue Israel’s illegal and violent occupation as the Golani unit continues to target youth in Al Khalil.

By manipulating arbitrary child arrests as a means to pressure the Palestinian community, Israel stands in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which it is a signatory.

Satu Gustfasson is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

On February 5 the residents of Kufr Qaddoum noticed several soldiers and illegal settlers on their lands who were plotting how to illegally seize land from the village. Upon arrival, International Solidarity Movement received word that indeed the colonizers were planning an action to seize land today.

Zionists attack to steal Palestinian land in Kufr Qaddoum - Click here for more images

Early this morning over 20 Israeli soldiers and Zionist settlers descended up on Kufr Qaddoum’s lands, arresting local villager Abu Ashraf, and dragging him off. Settlers were seen plowing through the land with bulldozers and military present.

In a collaboration between military and illegal settlers,  the main road that Kufr Qaddoum has been advocating to open through its weekly peaceful demonstrations has also been reportedly seized, while illegal, Zionist settlers are currently planting trees in the newly plowed land under the protection of the Israeli military.

Every Friday Kufr Qaddoum has held peaceful demonstrations to reopen their main road. On January 21 the village celebrated their success in peacefully pushing back Israeli Occupation Forces for the second week in a row as they tried to reclaim access to this road.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kufr Qaddoum  is hedged in on most sides by Israeli Jewish settlements, illegal according to international law, the 1993 Oslo Accords, and in some cases even Israeli law.

4 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On the 4th of February International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) attended the replanting of 50 olive trees on the hillsides above the village of Burin, outside of Nablus. The planting went without disturbances from the surrounding illegal settlements of Bracha and Yitzhar.

Replanting livelihood and resistance - Click here for more images

During 2011 around 3700 olive trees were destroyed in the hills around the village of Burin, most of them due to attacks from the illegal settlement Yitzhar. The 50 olive trees replanted today on the hill slopes facing the illegal settlement of  Bracha will not bear fruit for many years but serve as a long term investment for the villagers of Burin. Small as it may be, this initiative marks the relentless struggle to go on with their lives despite of Israeli occupation.

Since the campaign began to raise money for trees, donations were sent nearly daily from Australia, Italy, France, the US, Canada, Sweden, and Finland for example. According to the Trees of Resistance campaign, they  ”have received support from past volunteers, hopeful future volunteers, refugees, tree lovers and just fantastical lovely generous people.”

The Bilal al Najjar youth center in Burin has also received considerable support and volunteered its members to partake in the tree planting.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After the planting volunteers were shown the ongoing construction of a new community center in the center of Burin. Some proud, young men showed volunteers the re-plastered insides of an old stone building about to be transformed by the efforts of the Bilal al Najjar center.

An international organizer of the All for Burin campaign stated that while “the center provides projects that need to be kept alive… it also gives the youth of Burin a sanctuary. A place that is theirs, where they can work, learn, plan communal activities and unite. These activities have an overwhelming importance within community. To bring children and adults together, to feel united and most of all to have and create new happy memories to be taken with everyone in the future.”

Support the further planting of trees destroyed by Zionists and help Burin’s youth center for continued peace and livelihood for Palestinian villagers that continue to face mounting threats by price tag campaign extremists and the Israeli military which defends them.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

3 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Burqin and Kufr Ad-Dik face daily obstructions in justice as nearby illegal Zionist settlements encroach on the livelihood of local Palestinians. The villages are surrounded by several hilltop illegal settlements and industrial sites with polluting factories and an army base.

“This is a microcosm of Palestinian suffering” stated a resident upon the arrival of International Solidarity Movement volunteers.

Burqin and Kufr Ad-Dik are under siege by settlers and soldiers. The villages are situated in Areas B and C as stipulated by the Oslo Agreement and sit dangerously close to the 1948 Green Line. Burqin has approximately 4000 residents which include many refugees from Al Nakba, or the Catastrophe, known to Palestinians when they faced exile from their villages in 1948 at the creation of Israel.

Kufr ad-Dik face to face with their oppressor - Click here for more images

The village relies on small scale agriculture for its existence. The Israelis from the illegal settlements know this and routinely destroy Palestinian crops often by burning olive trees as part of the extremist “Price Tag Campaign.” They have also released wild boars from their settlements which eat Palestinian crops and are very dangerous, especially to the young of the villages. In an act of callousness the settlers destroyed a newly bought piece of farm machinery about two weeks ago. During this attack they also burned a car and unsuccessfully firebombed the local mosque, leaving threatening graffiti that they will be back.

While a local place of worship, graffiti, and vandalism seem like small offenses, one must keep in mind that these are systematically done to pressure the villages into abandoning what is left of their homes.

As with many of the Palestinian villages who have suffered the injustice of having their lands stolen by Israel in order to build illegal settlements, which continue to expand, Burqin and Kufr Ad-Dik are forced to endure regular attacks from the illegal occupants of their land as well as harassment by the Israeli military. The settlers, soldiers and Israeli government, which is benefiting from and funding the existence of these illegal settlements work cooperatively to forcibly remove Palestinians from their land.

There is an industrial estate, situated on top of a hill, which houses several severely polluting factories. These factories could not gain a license to be constructed inside of Israel due to the pollution that will be created, but they were granted permission by the Israeli government to be built within the West Bank illegally under international law. The waste from these factories is channeled in an open sewer through the villages.

Since the factories began polluting there has been a sharp rise in health problems within the village including an anomaly in cancer cases. A German charity volunteered to pay for the sewer to be covered and managed.

Permission to build this cover was flatly denied by the Israelis. The pollution from the factories has severely affected the surrounding land causing trees to die, crops to fail, and the meat from animals grazed on the land cannot be sold due to fear of contamination.

According to an article published by the Baheth Center for Strategic and Palestinian Studies, information on the size and power of these factories is not available to local Palestinians. In an article published by the Baheth center, they describe the extent of the factory waste:

The waste water and solid waste these industries produce,  provide important clues about the type and extent of industrial activity… Clear evidence that Israeli factories operating in the Occupied Territories do not follow pollution prevention measures is provided by the Barqan industrial zone, which houses factories producing aluminum, fiberglass, plastic, electroplating, and military items. Industrial waste water from this zone flows untreated to the nearby valley, damaging agricultural land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Sarta, Kufr Al-Deek, and Burqin, and polluting the groundwater with heavy metals.

Unemployment is now very high in the villages since much of the land has been taken by settlers and the military. To add insult to the pollution inflicted on the villages, the Palestinians are banned from working the factories surrounding them. With more land being taken away every day, unemployment and poverty continue to rise. Yesterday an army order was issued to take another 60 dunums (1000m squared = 1 dunum) for “military purposes.”  Farmers are now collating deeds to their lands in an attempt to argue their case in court.

Burqin has lost over 8000 dunums to the illegal occupation, most of which was stolen in the last 10 years. The land theft is sharply on the increase. The farm land that is left is still extremely dangerous to farm due to settler attacks and the threat of wild boars.

Not satisfied with attacking the food production, the Israelis have destroyed several wells, which are vital to the well-being of the villagers. The illegal settlers have commandeered most of the water supply leaving the Palestinians with critically low access to clean water. A recent study found that the average settler uses 18 times that of one Palestinian villager.

In addition to the destruction of wells several homes have been demolished including a home that the owner worked for 30 years to save enough to build.

Leaving or reentering the villages is high risk as settlers will often throw rocks at Palestinian cars. If the villagers successfully run the gauntlet they then have to pass through harassing Israeli Army checkpoints.

The villages have just started a weekly protest against their oppression in Kufr Ad-Dik. This was met last week with tear gas and steel bullets thinly coated with rubber leaving 10 villagers wounded.

For a recap of this week’s demonstration, check out the following video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The protest will continue every Friday.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

For twenty years now the international donor community has financially supported Palestinian institution-building, infrastructure development, the economy, public employees’ salaries, health and education, social welfare, the police, electricity production, private credit guarantees, and the bigger part of the civil society organizations with regards to democracy promotion, human rights, tolerance, women rights etc.

Peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state have been the declared goals of all the support. But actual results are the fragmentation and pacification of the Palestinian people.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This documentary film, directed by Mariam Shahin and George Azar, and funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, features Palestinian criticism of this externally funded “development”.

During the weekly non-violent protest in the village of an-Nabi Saleh on Friday several injuries were reported including that of a French citizen who was struck in the neck by an Israeli projectile.

The young woman, reported to be named Amessi, was struck in the neck, initially thought to be by a tear gas canister, but later reported to be a rubber coated steel bullet. As of yet reports remain conflicted.The young woman was cut by the shot and lead to bleeding from the wound.

Reports state that the young woman has been transfered to hospital where she is stable.

Israeli military major, Peter Lerner, has claimed via his Twitter account that the young woman was struck by Palestinians throwing stones.

Furthermore, it was reported by activists at the scene and by the Popular Struggle Co-ordination Committee that Nariman Tamimi attempted to film the young woman’s injuries, but was assaulted by Israeli soldiers.

In addition to the injury sustained by Amessi, another international activist was struck in the waist by a tear gas canister. The young man, reportedly, has extensive bruising to the area.

In total residents of the village have reported 13 injuries in an-Nabi Saleh, not including those suffering ill effects from tear gas inhalation.

On December 9th 2011 village resident, Mustafa Tamimi was killed when military personnel shot out of the back of their armed jeep, striking Tamimi in the face with a tear gas canister.

Tamimi succumbed to his wounds.

The firing of high velocity tear gas canisters directly at protestors violates both international law regulating the use of so called non lethal munitions, and Israeli domestic law, yet several activists, both Palestinian and international, have been killed and severely injured by direct shots from tear gas canisters.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In April 2009, Basem Abu Rahme was killed in the village of

Bil’in when shot in the chest with a tear gas canister, and U.S. citizen Tristen Anderson was left disabled when shot in the head by a canister in March 2009.

Anderson was taken to a hospital in Tel Aviv where he underwent brain surgery, having a portion of his frontal lobe and fragments of shattered bone removed.

Updated from:

BREAKING: Woman Shot in Head by Israeli Military in Nabi Saleh
Friday February 03, 2012 16:11 by Circarre Parrhesia – IMEMC News

Activists in the village of an-Nabi Saleh are reporting on Friday that a woman has been shot in the head by a tear gas canister fired by the Israeli military.

Resident of the village Linah al-Saafin stated on her Twitter account that a young woman was shot in the face by the Israeli military, which was followed by information from Deema al-Saafin that the young woman was shot by the military with a tear gas canister and then taken from the scene by the military.

Activists based in the villages that hold non-violent protests regularly update followers as to the events of the protest via their accounts on social networking platforms such as Twitter.

On December 9th 2011 village resident, Mustafa Tamimi was killed in a similar incident when military personnel shot out of the back of their armed jeep, striking Tamimi in the face with a tear gas canister.

Tamimi succumbed to his wounds.

The firing of high velocity tear gas canisters directly at protestors violates both international law regulating the use of so called non lethal munitions, and Israeli domestic law, yet several activists, both Palestinian and international, have been killed and severely injured by direct shots from tear gas canisters.

In April 2009, Basem Abu Rahme was killed in the village of Bil’in when shot in the chest with a tear gas canister, and U.S. citizen Tristen Anderson was left disabled when shot in the head by a canister in March 2009.

Anderson was taken to a hospital in Tel Aviv where he underwent brain surgery, and had to have a portion of his frontal lobe and fragments of shattered bone removed.

2 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement

The recent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa have proven that the Arab people are no longer willing to tolerate oppression and tyranny. They send a strong message to Western hegemonic powers and their oppressive regional allies that a new wave of nonviolent civil resistance will ultimately prevail over injustice and occupation. In addition, the Arab uprisings also send an important message to all people of the world that armed resistance is no longer the only option for pursuing change.

One must acknowledge that the recent successes of the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions are a reminder that this inspirational movement for nonviolent civil resistance was actually born in Palestine. As American University of Beirut Professor Rami Zurayk notes, “The Arab uprisings have of course taken their inspiration from the Palestinian Intifada.” But as he further clarifies, the reverse is also true: there is “a constant feeding in from the Arab uprisings to Palestine and from Palestine to the Arab uprisings.”

Professor Zurayk is one of the Lebanese delegates for the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ), a groundbreaking nonviolent civil resistance initiative scheduled for March 30, 2012 in Palestine and the four neighboring countries: Egypt, Lebanon Jordan and Syria. The GMJ is comprised of a diverse coalition of Palestinian, Arab and international activists who are united in the struggle to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem from illegal Zionist occupation. While the GMJ is made up of grassroots movements in each participating country, the march is also internationalized through a central coordinating committee with elected delegates from each region. More than thirty of these delegates met in Amman last December and in Beirut in January to discuss plans for hundreds of thousands of people to peacefully march to the holy city of Jerusalem, or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each neighboring country, for not only Palestinian rights, but the rights of all humans.

In many ways the GMJ has the potential to be a movement of epic proportions, and thus coordinating the march will not be easy. Up until now, most political solidarity movements at both the global and grassroots level have failed to include the majority of Palestinians living in Palestine as well as those countries that border Occupied Palestine. And yet now Palestinians themselves are taking a leading role in the GMJ. Considering the scope of the initiative, internal disagreements are bound to happen. However Ali Ayoub, a Palestinian activist with the Right to Return Committee in Lebanon, stresses that while “there are differences in politics between the many Palestinian parties, what unites them is Jerusalem and Palestine.” Furthermore, he says that the movement also takes strength from the fact that “all the free people of this world are suffering” from what is happening in Jerusalem and in Palestine.

It is very important that a strong contingent of American activists participate in the GMJ. In the United States, American tax dollars are endlessly being funneled into war, military occupation, and dictatorship throughout the Middle East. In addition to financing and arming oppressive regimes that have already been challenged by the Arab uprisings, U.S. tax dollars also continue to finance Israeli settlement expansion in Jerusalem and other such crimes against the Palestinian people. This is why it is essential for Americans to remain active in the push for a free Palestine through non-violent means, and they increasingly are. College campuses across the United States are organizing students to oppose Israeli oppression through non-violent campaigns such as the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement. Hundreds of Palestine solidarity activists from around the U.S. converged last October for a student conference at Columbia University to organize a national campaign. Palestine continues to be a priority for those in the U.S. who seek justice in the Middle East. So while the U.S. government continues to harass American solidarity activists, they must remain steadfast in their support for their Palestinian counterparts through initiatives such as GMJ-NA, the North American division of the Global March to Jerusalem.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The GMJ is focusing on the particular issue of Jerusalem because the holy city has come to embody the violence of an enduring occupation. As Professor Zurayk explains, “What is going on in Jerusalem today symbolizes everything that the Zionist movement has been doing for the past 65 years,” where the state of Israel has “been trying to take the land of Palestine by force as well as through more insidious strategies and tactics.” In this way “Jerusalem symbolizes the struggles of the Palestinian people in opposing the Zionist control and hegemony over their land.”

While the international community has been concentrating on the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the United Nations, and solidarity activists have been engaged in the struggle to end the siege of Gaza, the situation for Palestinians living in the holy city of Jerusalem has been deteriorating at an incredible rate. Over the last few years, Zionist efforts to “Judaize” the city have quickened pace, erasing Jerusalem’s physical, cultural and spiritual characteristics. According to a report released by the Middle East Monitor, this process of Judaization has involved the unrestricted expansion and funding of illegal Israeli settlements, the continued dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property, and the construction of a Separation Wall surrounding the city, all of which have changed the demographics of the holy city from a Palestinian to Jewish majority.

In response, Palestinians have now called upon the international community to join them in this peaceful march on March 30, Palestine Land Day, so that they can preserve the status of Jerusalem as a holy city for all humans. Ayoub says that Jerusalem “means a lot to me as I am Palestinian,” but he also adds that it means something to “all of the humans and free people of this world.”

Indeed, the GMJ principles of unity assert the importance of Jerusalem politically, culturally and religiously to the Palestinian people and to humanity as a whole. These principles of unity also require a commitment to nonviolent civil resistance in this struggle to liberate Jerusalem from Zionist occupation.

The international participants of the GMJ represent a diverse coalition of voices from various Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and other religious and non-religious communities. The GMJ now has endorsements from individuals including Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti, who speaks about the GMJ and its urgency:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also joining these international participants is former US ambassador and counter-terrorism deputy chief Edward Peck, anti-war activist Medea Benjamin, international law professor Richard Falk, and public intellectual Tariq Ali.

As Indian solidarity activist and GMJ architect Feroze Mithiborwala says, “This year in Jerusalem.” We hope to see all of you there in spring.

 Marusek and Gupta are both actively involved with GMJ-NA, an independent and autonomous coalition of North American groups planning to join this non-violent march. Details of this effort can be found at: www.gmj-na.org

26 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Israel demolished the homes of two families in the Bedouin village of Um Al-Kheer in the South Hebron Hills last week, on Wednesday January 25^th.

Demolitions in Umm al Kheer - Click here for more images

The demolition team arrived with a bulldozer at 9:00 in the morning together Israeli soldiers and police. Villagers reported a chaotic situation of shouting and screaming and extremely aggressive behaviour on the part of the Israeli demolition team, soldiers and police. A video of part the demolition was taken by the Italian group Operation Dove:

Click here to view the embedded video.

An international observer for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israeli (EAPPI) who arrived on the scene later the same day, described hearing the news as “the message we had feared for two months.”  A video from later that Wednesday can be found on the Norwegian-language blog, showing  village residents searching through the rubble, looking for belongings.

Um Al-Kheer is a so-called “unrecognised village” of 150 people, situated next to the settlement of Karmel. Its Bedouin residents originally settled in the village after they had been forced out of the Neguib (Negev) in 1948.

One of the houses belonged to a widow and her nine children, who was left crying for their lost home. The second house was home to a young couple and their three children.

Um Al-Kheer has been repeatedly subject to Israeli house demolitions. The events of January 25^th were the fourth such assault on the village since February 2007 and brings the number of Israeli demolitions in the tiny village to a total of sixteen houses and one restroom. The most recent previous demolition was in October 2011.

Village resident Eid Suleymann said of the demolitions, “We die a little bit inside us each time.”

The primary reason for the demolitions is the adjacent settlement of Karmel. Part of the Israeli excuse for the demolitions is the security of the settlers,  but residents feel that the actual purpose is to  “clear this area of people”and to expand the already-growing settlement into it. This settlement is considered illegal under international law.Only a few metres away from the village and the rubble of the house, house construction can be seen under way in Karmel. Several cranes and newly or partly built houses are clearly visible.

While the story of Um al-Kheer is one of tremendous suffering and of inhuman and racist behaviour on the part of the Israel state, it should however also be regarded as an outstanding example of  endurance and solidarity. A temporary metal shack has already been constructed to house the widow and her children. Palestinians and Israeli activists from Ta’ayush worked through the rain on Saturday January 28^th to begin rebuilding of the houses’ stone walls.

Tom is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

25 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza Strip

Gaza was treated to a strange new sight today, not really new, but something that has not been seen in Gaza in a long time: tear gas.  In Gaza protests are not smashed with tear gas and clubs like in the West Bank, they are met with live ammunition.  In a continuation of Israel’s policy to separate the West Bank from Gaza, nothing is overlooked.  The sub-human status they wish to cement in the world’s mind when it comes to the people of Gaza is adhered to brutally.  On May 15^th 2011, when over a hundred demonstrators were shot near Erez, only one canister of tear gas was fired. Before that the protesters faced live ammunition and tank fire.  In the three years that regular demonstrations have been carried out near Erez by the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, regulars tell me that this was the first time they had seen tear gas.

The demonstration started like all the others.  We gathered near the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural College and marched towards the no go zone.  There were about forty of us, men and women together.  As always, the demonstrators were armed only with a megaphone and our voices.  Today, we planned to hike from Erez to the east of Beit Hanoun, near the site where two young men were murdered last week while catching birds and collecting rubble near the no go zone.  The no go zone, which used to be an area of flourishing orchards has been reduced to yielding rubble to recycle into concrete.

Israel bans the import of concrete into Gaza.  Only humans would need concrete to rebuild the thousands of houses Israel destroyed in the 2008-2009 massacres they carried out in Gaza.  In Israeli eyes, Gazans aren’t really full people; they are half people to be murdered at will for even thinking of coming close to the no go zone.

This is why we march, we deny the no go zone, and we deny the occupation.  The refugees of Gaza, thrown from their homes during the Nakba, want to return to their homes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We walked down the muddy road that leads to the no go zone.  As we got close to the no go zone, the shooting began.  Shooting is not unexpected; bullets are the language of the occupation, at least the language that you hear.  Ethnic cleansing, oppression, and torture are also languages the occupation speaks, but the loudest voices of the occupation are the bullets and the bombs.  The bullets passed over our heads; they slammed into the dirt in front of us.  Then, the unexpected happened; the tear gas began to fall.  The clouds of tear gas were smaller than I remember from protests in the West Bank. Perhaps the shells are old, they are used so seldom in Gaza that maybe the inventory is old.

This isn’t an issue in the West Bank, there the protests are coated in tear gas, men are killed or severely injured by tear gas canisters shot at them like Mustafa Tamimi and Bassem Abu Rahma who both passed away, or Tristan Anderson, who survived. Women are suffocated by it, woman like Jawaher Abu Rahma.  It is fired into houses, schools, fields, villages; tear gas is omnipresent.  In Gaza, tear gas is a blast from the past, here the occupation has discarded that language, in Gaza, it only speaks with bullets and bombs.

At first it wasn’t clear if the protest would continue. People were shocked by the use of the new weapon.  Quickly though, a decision was reached: We would continue.  We walked east along the edge of the buffer zone.  Soldiers in concrete towers hundreds of meters away fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters walking on their own land–soldiers in concrete towers built on the land these protesters were ethnically cleansed from.

The black flag that flies over the occupation did not come down after the massacre of Kfar Kassem, it is still there, it is just that it has been flying for so long that no one remembers anything else. the black flag is like the sun, people do not remember a day before it was in the sky.

Walking in the no go zone isn’t easy.  The ground is uneven from the constant destruction of the bulldozers which Israel uses to make sure that nothing takes root there.  The ground is littered with the past: irrigation pipes, metal rods and concrete rubble from the destroyed houses.  Slowly all of this is ground up under the blades of bulldozers and treads of tanks.  We walked east, the shooting stopped for a bit.  Two soldiers appeared on a hill to the north, they raised their guns.  They lost sight of us behind a hill.  We emerged from behind a hill: we saw a tank on another hill.  Jeeps sped along the border.  The shooting began again.  Bullets flew over our heads.

Beit Hanoun demonstration under fire - Click here for more images

We reached the eastern edge of our prison and turned south.  Soldiers appeared again on a new hill.  Shooting resumed, tear gas canisters from 500 meters arced over our heads.  We stopped and reminded the soldiers that this was a nonviolent demonstration by people on their land.

They continued to shoot, then the soldiers on the hill began to yell at us with a megaphone, “Gazans are donkeys.”  Gazans are not donkeys, they are people, but perhaps if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to believe, people like these soldiers.  We passed the carcass of a horse, rotting.  A donkey grazed to the east of the dead horse.  At least the donkey was still alive.

The soldiers continued to shoot at us, bullets and tear gas. Just as Gaza did not kneel after the 23 day massacre three years ago, we will not be stopped by bullets and tear gas.  We will continue to protest until the occupation disappears.  We will continue to protest until we achieve justice.  Without the end of the occupation and true justice, peace is impossible.  We will not accept the peace of silent oppression.  We will never accept the occupation.  Gaza will not kneel.

Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.

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