Christian Science Monitor: Nonviolent protest gains in West Bank

By Joshua Mitnick

A Supreme Court decision in favor of one protesting village has inspired others.

from the September 24, 2007 edition

Al Walajeh, West Bank – “All those who love the prophet should lend a hand!”

Ten shouting Palestinians were pushing against one boulder, but the primitive Israeli roadblock cutting off the tiny Palestinian village from Bethlehem was not budging. Then, with the help of two giant crowbars, an Israel protester, and a Japanese backpacker, the group heaved the stone aside, opening the road for the first time in three years.

“Tomorrow they’ll bring a bulldozer and move it back,” sighed Sheerin Alaraj, a village resident and a demonstration organizer. “Then next week we’ll come back again to protest.”

Inspired by the experience of other Palestinian villages, the Al Walajeh demonstrators are part of a small but growing core of protesters combining civil disobedience with legal petitions to fight Israeli policies.

Earlier this month, the village of Bilin, which has held weekly protests since 2004, garnered widespread attention and praise in the Palestinian press when the Israeli Supreme Court ordered a part of the military’s separation barrier near Bilin to be dismantled. Increasingly, other Palestinian villages are following Bilin’s lead, though it remains to be seen whether this kernel of nonviolence will grow into a full-fledged movement.

“Before Bilin, people never had faith it would achieve anything, neither nonviolence, nor the legal system,” says Mohammed Dajani, a political science professor at Al Quds University. “Maybe this will be a response to the skeptics, that, ‘Look, it works.’ ”

Nonviolence means more attention

While Palestinian militants dominate international headlines through suicide bombings and firing rockets on Israeli towns, residents of Bilin and a handful of other tiny farming villages like Al Walajeh have eschewed the armed struggle. Instead, they have linked arms with Israeli peace activists and chained themselves to trees to delay Army bulldozers cutting a swath for an electronic fence severing the villagers from their land.

Though Palestinians glorify the armed militiamen and those killed in battle with Israel, protest leaders say the nonlethal tactics have one crucial advantage: it attracts Israeli and international peace activists, who in turn bring sympathetic media coverage.

The leaders sound like a Palestinian version of Martin Luther King Jr., and their voices have become more prominent in the ongoing debate about whether peaceful or military actions will win their statehood.

“We use nonviolence as a way of life…. We learned from many experiences: like India, Martin Luther [King], and South Africa,” says Samer Jabber, who oversees a network of activists in the villages surrounding Bethlehem.

Every Friday in Bilin for the past three years the protesters have faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and beatings that have caused hundreds of injuries. Demonstrators sometimes threw rocks, one of which caused a soldier to lose an eye. (While leaders say they’re against such violence, followers don’t always hold the line.)

“The belief in one’s rights is more important than anything else. If I am confident about my rights, nothing will make me despair,” says Iyad Burnat, a Bilin resident and one of the protest leaders. “When you resist an Israeli soldier by peaceful means, their weapons become irrelevant.”

The strategy paid off when the Supreme Court ruled that the current path of the fence around Bilin offered no security advantages. Villagers will now be able to reach their crops without having to pass through gates in the fence manned by soldiers.

In Al Walajeh, Ms. Alaraj says the protests would be meaningless without a challenge in the Israeli courts. Villagers fear that the construction of the separation wall – set to be more than 400 miles long total, affecting 92 Palestinian communities – will leave the hamlet completely surrounded.

Praise from the Palestinian press

Even though the Bilin ruling was not the first time the court ordered a portion of the barrier moved, it has resonated widely among Palestinians.

“It has become obvious that popular civil resistance has become the best way for national resistance from the occupation,” wrote Waleed Salem in an Al Quds newspaper op-ed.

The civil disobedience taps into Palestinian nostalgia for the first intifada in the late 1980s, marked by grass-roots participation and stone-throwing.The current uprising is led by a network of underground militias, most of which have ties to political parties.

A way to heal Palestinian rifts, too

Just three months after Palestinians watched Hamas’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-run militias, nonviolent protest against Israel is being seen as a way to heal rifts among Palestinians.

“Armed struggle has a side effect on the occupied people. Palestinians start to use this tool against the occupation, but in the end they use it against themselves,” says Jabber. “Violence has become part of the culture. We realize that we have to reform.”

In 2002, an open letter by Palestinian intellectuals against the use of suicide bombing failed to trigger a change in the uprising. Now, the demonstrations draw, at best, several hundred protesters – possibly because the protests are taking place in poor and isolated villages.Last Friday, only several dozen came out to move the boulders in Al-Walajeh. Palestinians say that after seven years of daily conflict, people are exhausted. “It’s because of frustration,” says Alaraj. “There’s been real poverty in the last two years. And when you’re not eating, then you don’t think of anything else.”

The opening of the road, organizers hope, will encourage more people to join the protests. “If everyone moves forward toward that objective it will be most effective,” says Abdel Hajajreh, a demonstrator. “Don’t forget, Gandhi liberated an entire country.”

They punish the village by stealing our children

Qusin, September 24th 2007.

After reports of reprisals by IOF against the peaceful inhabitants of Qusin, two ISM activists visited the village today to receive first hand accounts of the harassment the villagers have received. After a non-violent and successful demonstration led by the people of Qusin and supported by international activists, the village has endured two nights of arrests.

Starting on the evening of the 21st, not one hour after internationals left the village, it was invaded by three vehicles of the IOF. They arrested two youths, claiming they had been throwing rocks during the terrifying occupation of Al-Ayn refugee camp several days before. Later that evening around 9pm they returned arresting another three on the same charge.

Two days later on Sunday 23rd, the IOF again saw fit to harass the villagers of Qusin taking youth from their beds at around midnight. One father who refused to let the soldiers take his son was beaten. Three were arrested that night bringing the total to eight.

This is collective punishment in action. This is blatant repression of the non-violent struggle. These children marched alongside international Human Rights Workers last Friday, they marched with their families and compatriots. They would’ve marched alongside Israelis if the Israelis had not been blocked by the army from coming. They marched also side by side the Israeli army provoking them. But they were not provoked, they did not respond. The demonstration was non-violent, and successful, and this is what has the IOF running scared.

Due to these outrageous actions from the village, of rising up for justice peacefully, the community must be punished. How does the army do it? How will they try to crush the movement? By kidnapping children from their beds in the middle of the night. At the moment the future of these young men (all 18 or under) is unsure. The recent Jewish festival coupled with IOF’s usual unwillingness to help means no-one is exactly sure where they are being held captive, or for how long.

For information on the non-violent demonstration in question click here:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/09/22/five-children-targetted-after-non-violent-demonstration/

You will respect my authority

Tel Rumeida, Hebron
September 23rd, 2007

At approximately 17:00, an incident occurred at the proximity of the occupied house at Kiryat Arba road. Involved were 8 IOF soldiers who were off-duty and running between Tel Rumeida and the area of the incident, and 2 Palestinian men aged 18 and a third one aged 21. The three Palestinian men were walking on Kiryat Arba road when the 8 IOF soldiers who were running claimed they should always cede and step aside in the face of the IOF. The soldiers then proceeded to physically remove the three Palestinian men from the road.

The off-duty soldiers then called the IOF, where a military jeep appeared immediately. The IOF soldiers involved in the incident then claimed the three Palestinian men attempted to gain hold of one of the soldier’s gun. This happened despite the fact that the three Palestinian men were initially allowed to be within the crowd caused by the commotion. Additionally, some of the soldiers involved were even seen to be cheerful and in good humor. Moments after the three Palestinian men were detained and taken to the rear of the occupied house at Kiryat Arba road. There one was handcuffed and all three forced to sit down on the ground facing a wall, moments before Iftar; the daily breaking of the fast during Ramadan.

At 18:10, an ISM activist attempted to give water to the detained Palestinians but was prevented by an IOF soldier even though the men had been fasting all day. Moments later a second ISM activist then approached the detained men with bread and water and was able to give at least a very limited amount. Throughout the detention, Israeli settlers illegally occupying the house at Kiryat Arba road were seen photographing the detained as well as the ISM activists. The Palestinian men were then taken away at 18:45 to the police station.

The ISM activists informed throughout the detention, as well as after it had concluded, both ACRI and TIPH.

Broad Coalition of Human Rights groups speak out against the collective punishment of Gaza

B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Right in the Occupied Territories
Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Physicians for Human Rights
Public Committee against Torture in Israel
HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual
Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights

September 20, 2007

Israeli rights groups condemn proposed state sanctions against Gaza civilians:

Cabinet decision will impose collective punishment on a civilian population, lead to grave breach of International Law

Seven Israeli human rights organizations jointly warn that yesterday’s Cabinet decision to limit the electricity and fuel supply to the Gaza Strip and to further restrict movement in and out of Gaza will exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis there. In addition, the sanctions constitute a grave breach of the foremost principle of international humanitarian law: the obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians. In addition, the decision is liable to constitute a violation of one of the absolute prohibitions of international law: the ban on collective punishment. The coalition believes that these sanctions will also not prevent armed groups from launching rocket attacks on Israeli communities.

The Israeli Cabinet’s claim that the proposed sanctions will not affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is false. Limiting the electricity supply will drastically reduce the functioning capacity of hospitals and health clinics. In addition, limited electricity will reduce Gaza’s water pumping system, and will cripple its sewage system and water supply. Thus, the Cabinet’s decision not to cut Gaza’s water supply is not a humane gesture because the other sanctions will effectively diminish it in any case.

The human rights organizations urge the Cabinet to reverse its decision to impose collective punishment on the Gaza Strip – a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

The coalition of human rights groups consists of: The Association for Civil Rights in Israel; Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights; B’Tselem – the Israeli Information Cent er for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories; Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement; HaMoked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual; Physicians for Human Rights; The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.

For additional details:

Sarit Michaeli, B’Tselem Communications Director, +972(0)50-538-7230

Sarit Michaeli
Communications Director
B’Tselem
+972 (0)2 6735599 (office)
+972 (0)50 5387230 (cell)
http://www.btselem.org/

Planting trees next to the fallen

In the second week of September international peace activists and local volunteers joined together to plant trees in the Nablus region. The trees were received at request from the Ministry of Agriculture, and began to be planted in three days of work. This activity marked the beginning of a larger tree planting campaign for the next months, during which around 100,000 trees are supposed to be delivered for the Nablus region.

For these first days Palestinians and internationals had decided to plant trees in the martyr cemeteries of Nablus city and the refugee camps Al-Ayn and Al-Askar. These sites were chosen to show solidarity with the victims of the occupation and as a symbol of support for the community of Nablus. While the volunteers were working there, some locals who were present expressed their appreciation, some youths and children nearby spontaneously even joined in with the work. This positive feedback raises hope that this shared work will strengthen ties between the Palestinian community and the foreign supporters.

Future plantings are supposed to be carried out mainly in surrounding villages; on lands where trees have been previously uprooted or burned by settlers from neighbouring illegal settlements, and on Palestinian land, that Palestinians are prevented from reaching. Another plan is to use tree plantings during demonstrations against the checkpoints, whereby trees will be planted from both sides of the barrier to symbolically reclaim the land.