Author: ISM Media Group

Israeli forces shoot four with live ammunition at Ni’lin demonstration

6 March 2009

On the 6th March Israeli forces attacked the weekly protest against the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the village of Ni’lin, shooting four protesters with live ammunition. Three other people were injured after being hit by tear-gas canisters.

Over one hundred people gathered for an open air prayer in one of the village’s olive groves. After prayer, the crowd marched to the construction site of the Wall which runs through village land.

Villagers began breaking down the razor wire barrier along the construction zone. Israeli soldiers arrived in a jeep and began firing tear gas into the crowd, forcing the demonstrators to retreat. As they retreated, other soldiers positioned in the olive groves attacked them with more tear gas.

One international activist from Sweden was hit in the stomach with an extended range tear gas grenade.

In addition to tear gas, concussion grenades and rubber coated steel bullets; Israeli forces opened fire throughout the day with live ammunition. The Israeli army uses a special low calibre bullet known as the ‘0.22’. The bullets are commonly used by snipers at demonstrations in Ni’ilin.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, four young men were taken to the hospital after being shot with the new live ammunition. The first was shot in the left thigh as the crowd ran from approaching soldiers. The second was shot in the right calf and was taken to hospital in the same ambulance as the first. The third was shot across the lower back and had to be taken away in a private car. The fourth was shot just above the right knee.

Additionally, a young boy was hit with an extended range tear gas canister. The child was hit in the lower leg.

The last injury of the day was a Red Crescent Medic, also hit with a tear gas canister in the lower-back.

The protest continued until dusk, when the soldiers withdrew from the area of the village.

The Palestinian village of Ni’iln faces losing over half it’s land due to Israel’s Apartheid Wall. Every Friday, Ni’ilin villagers are joined by Israeli and international activists to protest against the Wall’s construction.

Israeli forces and settlers attack demonstration in Burin, Nablus region

6th March 2009 | Burin village

Israeli Occupation Forces dispersed a peaceful demonstration in Burin, near Nablus, on Friday (March 6), firing teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at about 100 protesters.The IOF opened fire on the marchers, who were singing, waving banners and Palestinian flags while engaged in a non-violent sit-down close to a Jewish settlement.

The protesters were demonstrating their frustration with the nearby settlement for stealing land that under international law belongs to the village. After a long walk to a piece of land near the settlement the marchers were met by about 40 heavily armed Israeli soldiers and border police, accompanied by a few heavily armed settlers.

The demonstrators sat down to sing and chant, when suddenly, without any provocation, soldiers started shooting teargas and throwing sound-bombs into the crowd, scattering them in all directions. Some minutes later the marchers managed to regroup, only to find themselves almost totally surrounded by the army and newly arrived settlers.

In an attempt to continue their peaceful protest the villagers sent one of their elders to negotiate. Despite being met with verbal threats and pointed guns, he managed to negotiate an agreement enabling the demonstration to continue for another two-and-a-half hours. He was escorted back by a group of soldiers and settlers, who lined up in front of the chanting crowd before again suddenly throwing teargas grenades and sound-bombs into their midst, scattering them for a second time.

On this occasion the soldiers kept following the villagers, repeatedly shooing at them until they had reached the outskirts of Burin. Five Palestinians were injured in the clashes.

The incident was witnessed by two international human rights activists.

Settlers burn Bil’in’s Center for Peace

Kristen Ess | Palestine News Network

The western Ramallah town of Bil’in is known for its unrelenting resistance to occupation, particularly to the Wall that crisscrosses its land.

In the West Bank, the Wall and settlements generally come hand in hand. The Wall is not only routed to take the water supply, but also to bring more territory into Israeli boundaries via the settlements built on Palestinian lands.

During the night a group of Israeli settlers broke into Bil’in’s Center for Peace. It is a room kept by residents to ensure Palestinian presence on the land on the “other side of the Wall” despite harassment by settlers and soldiers.

Until a month ago Bil’iners took shifts 24 hours day. That was until the Israeli soldiers in the area drove them out. Under a ruling by an Israeli court three years ago Bil’in residents are “allowed” to pass through a gate in the Wall in order to reach their land, and that includes the Center for Peace. But last month Israeli soldiers forbade their presence at night. Instead the settlers were given reign to roam freely in view of the soldiers who are omnipresent in this part of the occupied West Bank.

This morning two young men headed out of the center of the village to take their day shift in the room, to enforce their rightful presence on their land and their steadfastness. But what the Bil’in residents found was a Center of Peace trashed and burned.

“They set fire to everything,” said Iyad Burnat of the Popular Committee against the Wall. “They burned the chairs, the furniture, even the Qu’ran.”

The Director of the local nonviolent resistance movement hosts weekly demonstrations against the Wall as he has every Friday, save for the eight times he has been jailed for his popular activities that confront the occupation.

“We called our lawyer who contacted the Israeli police who deal with the settlers from Matayah Mizrah Settlement. They have been on the case recently, before this, because last week the settlers came and broke the windows of the Center of Peace and stole the gas canisters,” Burnat told PNN Tuesday. “It’s been more than four times that the settlers have come at night and broken things, stolen things.”

The people of Bil’in had been guarding their land and their Peace Center 24 hours a day for three years, attempting to protect it from the marauding settlers until the soldiers forbade them last month. The Israeli soldiers themselves are now the only the witnesses to the criminal acts of the settlers.

Burnat told PNN today that the resistance will not be deterred despite what he describes as an increased violence on the part of both the settlers and soldiers who attack Bil’in.

“We are going to fix the room again because we have to have people who stay there and take care of our land, we have to look out for our land.”

Bil’in residents are able to pass the gate in the Wall, however harassment is not rare and there is often a checkpoint in place. The court decision for passage did not return the land to Bil’in, nor did it stop the Wall or the settlements which exist in contravention to international law, the decision of the International Court of Justice, and to existing United Nations resolutions.

Burnat said, “It is clear that the settlers want to destroy the people, our things, our land and lives. The violence is escalating on their part, along with that of the soldiers. But we are still strong in our resistance to the Wall and in protecting our land. We protest the soldiers and the Wall and the settlers. And we will return to our land.”

The Bil’in resident and director of the Popular Committee added, “We are going to return to the room, to the Center of Peace, with new chairs, with new furniture, new everything. We are going to clean it up and fix it. This fire will not keep us away from our land.”

Palestinian youth killed by Israeli military explosive

26 February 2009

On February 26th, one youth was killed and two seriously injured when a landmine, leftover from Israeli military training in the area, exploded near the town of Tubas in the northern West Bank.

The landmine exploded around 3pm, as the three boys were walking home from school in the fields east of Tubas. Fifteen-year-old Jamal Abdel Nasser Al-Fuqaha was killed in the blast, and 16-year-old Mohammed Khalil  Al-Fuqaha and his 17-year-old cousin Munir Khalil Al-Fuqaha,  were injured and taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. Munir who received shrapnel wounds to his head, face, chest, right buttock and left leg, and Mohamed who suffered severe psychological damage  as a result of the blast, but no physical injuries.

The fields east of Tubas are often used by the Israeli military for training exercises. According to the Palestine News Network, dozens of Palestinians have been injured from landmines left behind by the army in the Tubas region.

Soldiers kidnap Palestinian youth in Jayous and impose curfew on the village

On Friday, February 27, residents of the village of Jayous conducted their weekly demonstration despite a torrential downpour. The marchers reached the last intersection before the south gate of the Apartheid Fence carrying Palestinian flags and chanting. They then dispersed to find shelter from the rain.

Despite the kidnapping of dozens of youths the previous week by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and the continued detention of about 15 of them, roughly two dozen approached the gate and began throwing rocks at the Israeli jeeps stationed on the far side.

Unlike some weeks, the youths did not build barricades in the roadway leading into the village. Military jeeps entered the village via that roadway a few minutes later and soldiers gave chase to the fleeing young men. Maher Mohammed Fazi Shamasna was arrested in the immediate vicinity of his home, despite no indications that he had been involved in the stone throwing. His mother stated that he had gone outside to feed the family’s chickens when he was abducted by the soldiers who had not yet been able to capture any of their antagonists.

Maher was placed in a military jeep before any international or Israeli activists could respond to the situation. Soldiers near the jeep threw sound bombs at nearby people. His mother and female relatives pleaded with the soldiers to release Maher and activists who had arrived attempted to question the soldiers as to the reason for the arrest. The Israeli soldiers and border police refused to answer any questions and threatened the international and Israeli activists with arrest. They demanded that no photos or video footage be taken and demanded ID’s from the activists, all of whom refused to produce them for the soldiers.

All of the activists consented to go inside one of the Palestinian homes at the request of the mother of the kidnapped youth, who was attempting to negotiate the release of her son. The jeep carrying Maher had already exited the south gate and returned without the prisoner. The IOF then imposed a curfew on the village and showed a closed military zone order which had been apparently produced in advance of the demonstration. They remained in the village until dark. International activists who left homes in defiance of the curfew were threatened with shooting by the soldiers occupying a rooftop and another group was threatened with immediate arrest if seen on the streets again.

To date, Maher Shanasna is still in custody and is reported to have been transferred to the Huwarra detention center where he may be held for an indefinite period without legal representation or contact with family members.