Issa’s house is well known for being the first property in Tel Rumeida to be repossessed by its Palestinian owners. First the Israeli Army using it as a look out post, and then the extreme religious Jewish settlers vandalised it, destroying what the soldiers left behind. For two months a Palestinian flag has flown from the upper floor of the property situated high on a hill and flanked by an Israeli military post and illegal settlers.
This defiant gesture of resistance has irritated settlers and the army alike so that a 24 hour watch is needed to protect the house. Jewish settlers who were observing their Shabbat today managed to climb the outside of the house and remove the Palestinian flag. Within minutes the Palestinian neighbours gathered to be sure nothing worse happened. By the evening two Palestinian flags were flying from the upper floor.
The house is being renovated after extensive damage caused by illegal squatting by settlers. It is hoped that the property will be a centre for training the Palestinian young people in the ways of non violent resistance as well as a home for Issa.
Shortly after 10 am, Saturday morning, a troop of 6 fully-armed Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) soldiers, coming from the direction of the military base to the northwest, marched directly across the property of Mohammed Nowaja and his extended family. The soldiers marched in convoy, ignoring all attempts of internationals present to communicate with them, from one end to the other of the property, continuing across the valley and up the next hill onto the neighboring property of Ismail Nawaja’s family. At the tents of this extended family, the soldiers altered their direct line march to instead weave all around the property, making their invasive presence felt everywhere.
During this time, two Human Rights Workers (HRWs) continually attempted to communicate with the soldiers, alternately soliciting the reason behind the soldiers’ hostile raid and reminding the soldiers that the property on which they traipsed was in fact civilian private property, despite the repeated demolitions of their homes and attempts to drive the residents out of the Susiya area, and asking to see an official permit for the soldiers’ raid.
HRWs also emphasized that there were many small children, including numerous infants, who were terrified by the presence of the invading, armed soldiers. The international workers also questioned why the soldiers had determined to invade these many tents on this day, in particular, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. They further inquired why the soldiers were not at least doing what has often been said is their duty in the region: to prevent violence from either the Palestinians or the settlers of the area.
[For the last two days, an average of 8 settlers from the Susiya settlement have attempted to cross onto the property of Jamal Nowaja when his young wife Sanaa was alone with her children, only turning back when they saw a neighbouring Palestinian grazing his sheep near by. HRWs arriving at the scene continued to film these teenage settlers as they ran back towards the settlement and stationed themselves at the soldiers’ outpost, where they continued their verbal threats and harassment, including shouting sharmuta at the young woman attempting to do her work. When HRWs questioned one soldier after the second incidence of these settler youths’ harassment—the settlers still present just meters away—the soldier feigned ignorance, then attempted to brush off responsibility for the youths’ actions, only finally admitting that he should and would prevent their harassment in the future.]
The soldiers never returned communication, aside from a final passing of gas when seated at the military outpost near the Susiya settlement. This elicited a series of giggles from the soldiers, which was the only verbalization HRWs were able to obtain from the soldiers.
Interestingly, the IOF soldiers timed their mini-invasion when UN aid workers were present and witness to the harassment: the roving medical clinic of UNRWA was visiting the Nowaja family and viewed the entire proceedings.
The Hebrew-speaking Palestinians present at Mohammed Nowaja’s tents later told HRWs that they had heard one soldier instruct the other soldiers, in Hebrew, to not speak with the HRWs.
This is the second time in three days—the first being Wednesday night, before the start of both Ramadan and Rosh Hashana—that soldiers have invaded these properties. Wednesday evening they came around 10 in the evening, when most of the family had gone to bed, poking their guns in the faces of two young family members still awake, before continuing across their property towards the settlement.
It should be noted that there is a perfectly usable road which near-parallels the route the soldiers are taking across Palestinian lands, and which would render it faster and easier to reach their destination. It is clear that the IOF walks across the Palestinian land is yet another form of menacing the civilians of the area.
Saturday, September 15th, at 12pm, international and Israeli activists joined Palestinian activists and villagers in the village of Qusin to protest the system of control imposed upon them by the Israeli army. The region has seen a rise in demonstrations of this sort recently, with roadblock removal demonstrations happening also in the nearby town of Sarra.
There is a road that connects both of these towns, and others, to Nablus, and to the Nablus-Tulkarem road. This road has been deemed usable only by Israelis, it turns what is normally a five minute journey to Nablus into at least one hour. This constitutes daily harassment for people going to work, going to school, or even just visiting family.
People gathered together in the village of Qusin and marched towards the roadblock that prevents them from accessing this road, in Qusin it takes the form of a yellow gate chained shut. Villagers with international and Israeli support rallied at the gate, singing, chanting, and opened it for general use.
After some celebrations at the newly opened gate this non-violent demonstration decided to return to the village, but soldiers from an army base nearby spotted them and ran down the hill, preventing them from going back peaceably to their homes. Soldiers began to push the people gathered there, threatening them all alike. The press were threatened and assaulted as much as the demonstrators, with one journalist saying the commander told him “stop filming or I will break your camera!”. The soldiers did not want any evidence of what was going to happen next.
Tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets began to shoot off into the crowd, the demonstrators scattered, unable to reach their home and faced with extreme army violence. People ran down a hill into a field, trying to find an alternative way of reaching their village. The army stood on the road, firing more tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at moving targets below. Some of the soldiers chased people into the fields, and were seen beating Palestinians. They were also caught pointing their guns at people at point-blank range and threatening to fire.
One international was shot in the hand at a distance of 10 meters by a rubber-coated steel bullet and required medical attention, with blood shooting from her hand “like a geyser” as one witness reported. Under Israel’s own military law, it is illegal to fire rubber coated steel bullets from a distance closer than 40 meters. The soldiers were therefore in direct violation of their own military law when undertaking these actions today. Another international and five Palestinians were also shot but did not need to go to the hospital. While most people had scattered, many international and Israeli observers were on the road asking the military to calm down and use less violence.
After it was clear the demonstration was over, these people were all arrested. In the end six Israeli activists, five international activists, and two Palestinians were arrested. The Palestinians were handcuffed and blindfolded and no information about their status has been confirmed. Three of the international activists and one Israeli are being charged with the false allegation of assaulting an officer while being arrested. Although these claims are entirely baseless lies, journalists were kept away from the scene of the arrest to prevent demonstrators from having proof of their innocence and it will be a case of one person’s word against the other.
***UPDATE*** As of September 19th, all the demonstrators have been released. Those injured and hospitalized have returned to their homes and are recovering. We are still trying to raise money for the Palestinian demonstrators, 8,000 shekels (around 2,000 dollars) are urgently needed to pay for the bail costs for both men. It is extremely important to support the villagers of Qusin who have only begun to wage nonviolent struggle against an illegal and brutal Israeli occupation.
Checks of any amount may be made out to “ISM-USA” and sent to:
ISM-USA
PO Box 5073
Berkeley, CA 94705
If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation, please make your checks of $50 or more payable to ISM-USA’s fiscal sponsor: A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, (with “ISM-USA” on the memo line of the check), and send to the same address above.
You may also use your credit or debit card and use our PayPal account
through www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations/
Donations sent through PayPal are not tax-deductible.
Al Walaja Village, Bethlehem region, inside the Jerusalem Municipality
Today, September 14th, demonstrators against the Apartheid Wall in the village of Al Walaja were met with severe repression by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Walaja, which is located 8 kilometers west of Bethlehem, has taken up nonviolent resistance in protest of the building of the Apartheid Wall, which, when completed, will completely encircle the village. This will sever many villagers from their livelihoods in nearby Jerusalem, resulting in increased rates of unemployment. In Walaja 65 houses and the village mosque are slated for demolition under Israel’s policy of using state-sponsored terror to force indigenous Palestinians to emigrate. The future of the village appears bleak.
In today’s demonstration, around 100 Palestinians, Israeli, and international activists gathered for a march to the Apartheid Wall. After the men of the village finished their prayer, the people marching climbed a hill in an attempt to reach the wall, but they were prevented from doing so by a line of IOF soldiers and military jeeps. While soldiers attempted to push the demonstrators back, the activists linked arms and held their ground. The activists then gathered around a military jeep and began chanting slogans against the illegal occupation of their land.
After about thirty minutes of non-violent demonstrating, the IOF set off a sound bomb in the middle of the demonstration, and soldiers began striking at the crowd with their wooden clubs. Several demonstrators, attempting to retreat, slid on the rocks and fell, and at least one Palestinian man was seen receiving hits repeatedly with a club while he was on the ground. A British activist was beaten several times with a club on his legs, hand, and chest. Soldiers also kicked demonstrators repeatedly. While this was taking place, several soldiers went around the crowd, attempting to arrest at least two Palestinians, seemingly at random. These attempted kidnappings were prevented with the help of other activists.
By this time most of the demonstrators had retreated down the hill, and many were returning to the village. After the violent provocation from the soldiers, some Palestinian youth began to throw a few stones. Before the handful of youth could be dealt with by the much larger non-violent contingent, tear gas canisters were thrown at the activists, effectively dispersing those that remained.
Several villagers from Walaja raised fears that the IOF would pursue the demonstrators into the village, and to prevent this stones and a garbage container were placed in the street as barriers. Fortunately, the military did not invade the village. The demonstration ended with villagers returning to their homes and Israeli and international supporters leaving for other cities. For some Israeli activists however, it did not end there. One group had parked their car within the line of fire of the IOF and returned to find their windows smashed in an apparent case of army-sponsored vandalism.
On Saturday, September 15th, the villagers of Sarra and Qusin, in the Nablus region, are planning in coordination with international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) to hold a demonstration in their region. They are blocked off from a road that leads directly to Nablus by roadblocks. These roadblocks turns a five minute trip to Nablus into nearly an hour. The road they used to use is now used only by soldiers and settlers. This becomes daily harassment, whether a person is going to school, or work, or visiting family, they must go through nearby towns rather than directly to Nablus. They plan to march from their respective towns to a military gate in the middle and hold a joint demonstration there.
This roadblock has been removed twice before, August 20th and 31st. After the first removal, the DCO said they would come the following Saturday to fully remove the roadblock. Not only did they put it back in place, but the army invaded the town, terrorizing villagers through shooting at shop fronts and water tanks, dragging people outside their houses for questioning, and stealing belongings from the people inside.
On August 31st The villagers, together with HRWs, blocked the army from advancing while others removed the roadblock again. It was a glorious day where a village that had spent five years in the cage that is made by roadblocks was finally able to flex its muscles. Later that day however, after the village had peaceably returned to their homes, HRWs witnessed an army bulldozer attempting to replace the roadblock. They climbed onto the one meter squared cement blocks to prevent this from happening, and were arrested. One of them spent a night in and Israeli jail located in an illegal settlement, the other three spent two nights.
This Saturday the village will meet again, with another village joining the struggle. They will not be deterred by Israeli army repression. They will not go quietly into their houses and accept the continued harassment by the Israeli military. They will demonstrate along the military road, and at the military gate, until the DCO removes the roadblock, and leaves the road open for freedom of movement in Occupied Palestine. They are asking for your support! Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists will meet at the mosque in Sarra by 10am.
For more information contact Smith at the ISM Media Office: 0599943157
