Non-violent protest against Wall in Tulkarem for Land Day Palestine News Network March 30, 2007
The Popular Committee Against the Wall in Tulkarem and the National Action Committee organized a nonviolent march for Land Day, an occasion which Fateh spokesperson in Tulkarem, Samir Naifa said, “remains an immortal part of the Palestinian struggle.”
Thousands of Palestinians gathered after Friday prayers at the gate of the Wall to the west of the city. They came from villages and towns throughout the northwestern West Bank district and included Legislative Council member Hassan Kreisheh and foreign supporters.
The protesters held banners calling for an end to occupation, the restoration of the land to its rightful owners, and the Right of Return. They flew the Palestinian flag and walked armed in arm. Israeli forces intercepted the march and fired gas and shot sound bombs. Some demonstrators began throwing stones and several people suffered from gas inhalation.
Organizer Faiz Al Tanib of the National Action Committee said that similar marches are in the works for several regions suffering from the Wall and land confiscation, or the threat of both. Legislative Council member Taysir Khalid said, “Land Day embodies the historical right of the Palestinians to their land and homes.”
Also today in southern Bethlehem’s Umm Salamuna Village Palestinians held what has become a weekly nonviolent demonstration in the area, while at a western Ramallah demonstration Israeli forces injured 13 people.
Women’s March in Hebron on April 1st ISM Media Team, March 31
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On Sunday, April 1st, the Palestinian Women’s Club will lead a women’s demonstration in the city of Hebron in the West Bank.
The women are planning at noon in H2, where they will then march through the Old City and end at the Ibrahimi Mosque, where they will pray. The women will be joined by international and Israeli solidarity activists.
Nisreen, one of the organizers of the event, is expecting around 100 participants. She also stated that “there should not be any intervention from the Israeli army because we will be marching the ‘legal way,’ through the Old City and to the mosque.” She stressed, however, that the army often invades the Old City.
The Hebron Protocols of 1997 divided the city of Hebron into 2 parts: H1 and H2. There are around 130,000 Palestinians in H1, an area where the PA has limited autonomy. H2 homes nearly 35,000 Palestinians and 600 Israeli settlers. H2 is under complete Israeli military control. The Palestinians in H2 are not allowed to drive cars of any kind, including ambulances and taxis. There is a road that leads directly to the Ibrahimi Mosque in H2. Palestinians, however, are forbidden by the Israeli military to walk down this road to reach the mosque.
Palestinians must take the long way around to reach the mosque, through the Old City. This is the route the women’s march will take on Sunday.
For more information, contact:
Nisreen (Hebron), 0599-081-579
Issa Amro (Hebron), 0599-340-549
Fawaz, 0599-355-286
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 02-297-1824
Update, March 31 As of noon today, the Israeli military has left Zababdeh. There have been no reported injuries or arrests. The army destroyed a wire leading from the main generator, leaving the village without electricity. This same wire was repaired after the army damaged it on Wednesday.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Israeli army is currently invading the town of Zababdeh, in the Jenin district of the West Bank.
Just hours ago, an Israeli hummer exploded when a Palestinian threw a Molotov cocktail inside the vehicle. According to a source in Zababdeh, the Israeli soldiers escaped the hummer before the explosion.
The source has stated that more Israeli jeeps and soldiers are entering the town, and are searching for suspects. The Israeli army is shooting in Zababdeh but there have been no reported injuries or arrests.
For more information, contact:
Refai (in Zababdeh), 0599-557-196
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 054-237-8609
On Land Day, 3 Palestinians Arrested in Village of Rafat from IWPS, March 30
Update, March 31
The three men were released around 10pm last night, with no reports of abuse by the boys while in Israeli custody.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RAFAT, SALFIT – Three young men from the village of Rafat were arrested today by the Israeli Forces following a nonviolent demonstration on their land. At 12:44 p.m., the men—ages 16, 20, and 24—were detained on the road by eight soldiers who were checking IDs. At 1:15 p.m., the men were handcuffed and escorted by five soldiers to five jeeps. The men were taken away in separate jeeps at 1:30 p.m.
150 people joined the demonstration in Rafat as part of the Stop the Wall campaign to commemorate the 31st Land Day celebration in Palestine. Participants marched westward from the center of town towards the Israeli Apartheid Wall. One group of men prayed, while another group of 30 men approached the Wall (made of wire fence, electric sensory wire, and razor wire), broke open a gate, and tore down part of the Wall before Israeli forces arrived on the scene at around 12:15 p.m. All participants retreated to the village and there was no confrontation or clashes with Israeli soldiers during the demonstration.
As they were leaving the village after the demonstration, seven participants were detained by soldiers for 30 minutes near the center of town, including Medical volunteers in an ambulance and the three men who were later arrested. The three young men were detained as they passed the jeeps on their way home. Soldiers gave no reason for the detention or the arrest and refused to disclose information to human rights advocates. As of 9 p.m., the three men had not been released.
Since 1976, Land Day is marked by Palestinians to protest against the the colonization and confiscation of Palestinian lands by Israel. Rafat is adjacent to the 27-settlement bloc of Ariel, the largest Israeli settlement network in the West Bank. The Wall around the Ariel bloc stretches for 114 km and grabs within it 120,000 dunums of prime aquifer-laden agricultural land which produce about 30 percent of the West Bank’s olive oil production. The Apartheid Wall dips farthest from the Green Line here and deep into the West Bank by about 22 kilometers.
For more information, contact:
International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS)
Hares, Salfit
Telephone: 09 251 66 44, 054-584-3952
Website: http://www.iwps-pal.org
All over the West Bank today, non-violent demonstrations were enacted against Israel’s Apartheid Wall and Israel’s theft of Palestinian land.
Today was the 31st anniversary of “Land Day,” a day when Palestinians commemorate the killing of six Palestinians in the Galilee in 1976. Israeli troops killed these non-violent demonstrators during peaceful protests over the confiscation of Palestinian lands.
Land Day’s encompass the Palestinian struggle against foreign occupation, self-determination, and national liberation. Today’s theme additionally focused on Israel’s Apartheid Wall and the denial of freedom of movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Simultaneously, non-violent and direct actions were taken against Israel’s current system of Apartheid. Palestinians were joined by Israeli and international solidarity activists in the villages of Bil’in, Umm Salamuna, Budrus, and Qaffin, among other places.
In Bil’in, the non-violent demonstrations have endured for well over two years now. Israel’s Apartheid Wall has stolen around 60% of Bil’in agricultural land. Still, Palestinians in Bil’in march every Friday against this obstruction and blatant barrier to peace. With their numbers usually in the hundreds, the demonstrators continue to march to the Wall, where Israeli army routinely responds to the non-violent demonstrators with tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets.
Today, on the commemoration of Land Day, things weren’t very different.
About 150 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals gathered outside of the mosque in Bil’in. Posters were plastered to the walls bearing the message of Land Day.
Half way through the march to the Wall, separating the Palestinians from their land, one could spot Israeli soldiers hiding out under olive trees, lounging out in the backyards of Palestinians, waiting for the chance to intervene with the demonstration.
When I arrived to the gate in the Wall, a soldier was holding up a piece of paper and was speaking in Hebrew. Presumably this was their “Closed Military Zone” order. Palestinian and international press were already on the hill beside the gate. As the rest of the march showed up, slogans were thrown, “No to the Wall. No to Occupation.”
On the other side of the wall, an Israeli police water tank waited to shoot its high-powered hose at the demonstrators. They have used this in the past. Though I have never felt it, others have said that the chemicals the police put in the water make it “feel as if your skin is peeling off when it hits you.”
Demonstrators, demanding to get to their land on the other side of the Wall, began trying to dismantle the barbed wire that the army placed on the inside of the Wall. The police tank then began shooting its hose towards the demonstrators. They fired the hose a few times before the soldiers eventually crossed the barbed wire and into the non-violent crowd.
With their shields and helmets and guns as protection, some soldiers started to push at the demonstrators. Against the soldiers’ armor, some rocks were thrown by some of the Palestinian boys. In response, the army started to throw sound grenades from over the fence in the direction of the demonstration.
The army then crossed the demonstrators who had gathered at the gate and began to fire rubber bullets towards the direction of the rock throwers. The marchers who were still working on getting to the gate began to retreat from the firing, and back toward the village.
This left the demonstration in two parts—a “divide and conquer” tactic I think.
Soldiers tried to arrest one Palestinian protestor but the crowd around him “de-arrested” him by locking extremities. Several Palestinians were forced to the ground with Israeli shields. Some sound grenades were thrown in intervals. Off in the distance you could hear the army shooting rubber bullets at the crowd who had retreated.
Slogans and chants were made towards the army. After about an hour, the demonstration came to an end and people began heading back to the village. Memory told me that the army would continue to fire sound grenades and tear gas as the peaceful demonstrators were retreating. And today was no different.
As the Israeli soldiers were coming back from firing at other section of the demonstration near the village, they crossed us and began to fire tear gas. Three or four Palestinian boys were slinging rocks from the bottom of the hill towards the armed Israeli soldiers at the top, and the boys began their new targets.
But every few meters you would hear a canister hit the ground and see the smoke rise from it. Nearer to the village, I could see a water tank on a Palestinian’s rooftop which had been hit with presumably live ammunition.
Land Day in Bil’in ended with no arrests and minor injuries.
