To view original article, published by Maan News Agency on the 16th November, click here
Israeli authorities on Sunday afternoon ordered evacuation of a protest tent near the house of a Palestinian Jerusalemite family that was evicted from their home.
Tension is building in the area as Israeli police and military forces massed near the tent.
International activists have camped out near the Al-Kurd family house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Eight of the international demonstrators were arrested one week ago when Israeli police first forced the family out of their home.
Official and grassroots delegations have been visiting the house in order to show solidarity with the family, drawing concern from Israeli authorities that the international visitors will draw more attention to the eviction.
Um Kamil Al-Kurd, one of the residents who was thrown out of the house last Sunday, has refused to obey the eviction order, and is also staying in the tent.
The house has become emblematic of the plight of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. In July, the United States government lodged an official complaint about the eviction order. The US questioned the legality of terms on which an Israeli Jewish settler group claims to have purchased the land.
Over 100 Palestinians and international activists were attacked by Israeli soldiers with tear gas and sound bombs as they attempted to march to the evacuated Israeli settlement Homesh from the village of Burqa, near Nablus, on Friday 14th November.
The villagers and internationals intended to enter the settlement, which was evacuated by Israeli authorities in August 2005 as part of the so-called Israeli “disengagement plan”, in order to plant trees inside the grounds of the former settlements – lands which legally belong to Palestinian villagers. The tree-planting was to symbolise a reclamation of the land, which, though evacuated, has not been returned to its legal owners, and remains under Israeli military control.
Demonstrators carried placards that read: “We will not allow the nightmare of Homesh back again!”, referring the high-levels of violence enacted by settlers before Homesh was evacuated, and is continued by settlers who visit and attempt to re-occupy the land. This is exemplified by the recent burning of more than 500 olive trees by Israeli settlers at the beginning of this year’s olive harvest; as well as by attacks on shepherds and their livestock which continue despite the settlement’s evacuation.
The demonstration was prevented from reaching the evacuated settlement, however, by Israeli military and police, who immediately threw sound bombs and tear gas into the non-violent crowd, burning two people. After initially fleeing, the villagers returned to stand their ground, refusing to be further intimidated, despite constant threats from Israeli soldiers. Instead, they chanted: “They steal our water and we are thirsty” and “Settlements are the death of our land”, demanding an end to the settlements and the occupation which enables Israeli settlers to steal Palestinian land. Villagers were also demanding the removal of the military checkpoint near the entrance of the settlement, which denies Palestinians freedom of movement.
After speeches from representatives from a number of the surrounding villages who were participating in the demonstration, as well as the Nablus governorate office and various supporting organisations, the crowd began to disperse, at which point the Israeli soldiers again started to fire tear gas into the crowd.
Villagers were not deterred from their struggle by this use of violence by the Israeli army. One local youth remarked “We don’t have guns to fight the army, but we have big hearts for our land”.
Other villagers noted that it was particularly ironic that they were not allowed to enter the evacuated settlement, as it was alleged that an Israeli settler had entered the settlement the night before and erected a tent in which he had slept the night. Villagers claim he was still inside whilst the demonstration took place. Many Palestinian villagers from the region are concerned that the lands will be permanently re-occupied by settlers.
The villagers, however, are determined to continue their struggle, committing to regular demonstrations against the military occupation of their lands.
On Friday November 14th at 10:30am, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists joined together in an action to remove a roadblock outside the village of Deir Izbi’ in Ramallah area. The roadblock is preventing 14 villages direct use of Road 463 and thereby making the transportation time to Ramallah much longer and more difficult.
The action was organised by Ras Karka village council and the National Committees and was supported by the National Popular Committees.
When the activists arrived, they immediately opened a metal gate that also denies villagers access to the road. After that they went about a 100 meters further up the road and started moving the big concrete blocks.
Soon after the Israeli army arrived. Some activists had stayed by the metal gate in an attempt to block the way for the Israeli jeeps, leaving the other activist would had the time to move the concrete blocks, but the Israeli soldiers used sound bombs and teargas to get through. They also shot teargas close to the concrete blocks, making it impossible for the activists to continue their work. At that point they had moved one of the concrete blocks several meters. The army then drove their jeeps up, shot more teargas and attempted to arrest some of the activists, but they did not succeed.
The road-block prevents 14 villages, with around 30,000 people, from traveling directly to Ramallah. The road leading from Ni’lin and Bil’in to Ramallah is unable to be accessed directly by 14 villages including Ras Karkar, Al Janiya, Deir Ammar, Deir Ammar camp, Jammala, Ni’lin, Al Midiya, Budrus ans Shuqba. Instead these villages either have to travel on an agricultural road that links Ras Karkar with Kafr Ni’ma or travel a much longer route to Beir Zeit or through Ni’lin.
To view original article, published by The Sunday Herald on the 16th November, click here
A SCOTTISH human rights activist has filmed the Israeli navy firing machine guns at unarmed Palestinian fishing boats in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
The footage, taken on September 6 by Andrew Muncie, who is from the Highlands, shows an Israeli gunboat engaging fishing boats while international observers hold their arms in the air and scream for them to stop firing.
No-one was injured in the incident, but Palestinian fishermen claim 14 colleagues have been murdered at sea by the Israeli navy since the onset of an economic blockade imposed after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel says patrolling these waters is a vital security measure to stop weapons being smuggled into Gaza.
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Muncie, 34, of Dalbreagha, Spean Bridge, is working with the Free Gaza movement and arrived in Gaza last month as part of a group of 40 activists who sailed on two boats from Cyprus in an attempt to breach Israel’s blockade. He was accompanied by an 81-year-old nun, an 84-year-old holocaust survivor and Cherie Blair’s sister, Lauren Booth.
Most of the activists have since returned to Cyprus, but Muncie and eight others opted to stay on and assist local people, including fishermen.
He said the incident with the Israeli navy took place four miles out to sea at 9.30am. “We had barely left Gaza’s coastline behind when the gunboat’s heavy machine gun opened up, spraying the wake around our hull with bullets. I’ve been out with the fishermen on several occasions and seen them the Israeli navy also use explosive shells fired from a cannon, and explosive charges flung into the water near a boat,” he said.
Muncie claimed that in a separate incident on September 3, two fishermen were hospitalised and another fishing boat had been rammed and badly damaged in a separate incident last week.
Muncie’s mother, Margaret, said: “You feel horror first of all seeing the video because you are seeing images of unarmed people being viciously attacked by military might; anger because there is no justification ever for this kind of action, and because it is illegal as well as immoral. Then terror for your own son’s safety, and his friends, and for the brave fishermen who have to face this situation every day.
“And in that mixture of emotions, there is great pride that our Andrew is risking his own safety to defend the rights of others. And I know that John, my husband, feels the same as me, as do our other sons, David and Christopher.”
Last month, the Sunday Herald reported claims by Gaza fishermen that they had been attacked at sea.
The Gaza Strip’s waters have been patrolled by the Israeli navy since a blockade was imposed after Hamas took control of the Strip. Israel allows in limited supplies of food, fuel and aid but last year tightened economic sanctions in response to rocket attacks by militants on Israeli towns near Gaza.
According to the United Nations, the crisis has left the number of households in Gaza below the poverty line at an unprecedented 52%.
Gaza’s fishing industry has been hit particularly hard. Under the 1993 Oslo accords, Gazan fishermen were to be allowed 20 nautical miles out to sea. According to Oxfam, fishermen are now only allowed six miles out to sea – not far enough out to reach the schools of large fish – and risk being shot or arrested if they breach this limit.
The Israeli Embassy in London declined to comment on Muncie’s film.
On November 14th, nine people were injured in a demonstration against the construction of the apartheid wall in Ni’lin.
The demonstration started from the centre of the village at 11.30am and made it all the way to the construction site. The Israeli army, situated right outside the village, did not attack the non-violent action immediately as it has in the last few demonstrations. Instead the soldiers waited until the demonstration had reached the construction site before firing rubber-coated steel bullets straight at the protesters. After that the protesters went back and forth in the fields between the construction site and the village, while trying not to avoid the teargas cannisters and rubber-coated steel bullets that were being shot by the soldiers.
The demonstration ended up in the main street of Ni’lin where the Israeli soldiers that were guarding a flying checkpoint attacked them again. The soldiers stopped all traffic from entering or exiting the village and several times they took cover behind civilian cars with people inside. From this position they shot rubber-coated steel bullets and teargas, not only at the protesters but also into peoples’ homes.
Nine people were injured by the Israeli forces, seven suffering from teargas inhalation, while one was hit in his head with a teargas canister and one was hit in his head with a rubber bullet. They were all treated immediately at the local health clinic.
When the apartheid wall is completed, it will annex 40% of Ni’lin’s land accumulating a loss of around 85% of its land since 1948. It will also completely encircle the village together with two roads that can only be used by Israelis and Ni’lin will then be depended on that one check point will be open to reach their neighbor villages and the rest of the West Bank.
