Several demonstrators suffered from tear gas inhalation from canisters thrown at them by the Israeli occupation soldiers in their attempt to suppress the weekly protest of Bil’in citizens and solidarity groups.
The demonstration was called by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and started directly after the Friday prayers. Bil’in citizens were joined by a group of international and Israeli peace activists and together they raised Palestinian flags and banners condemning the occupation, racist policy of building the Wall and settlements, land confiscation, road closures and detention and killing of innocent people.
The Shministim (Hebrew for high school seniors), an Israeli group of activists who are refusing military service, participated in the demonstration. One of the Shministim, Emelia (18) from Tel Aviv, said: ”I came to support the people of Bil’in in their struggle against the violence they continue to face from the Israeli soldiers. I don’t want to be a part of an army that is using violence against people who, in a peaceful way, protest the theft of their land for the expansion of illegal settlements and the Wall. I prefer to be in jail than to be a part of the army.”
In addition, an active organisation of retired Palestinians participated in the demonstration, to express their solidarity with people of Bil’in. They took this occasion to announce a festival they are organizing next Sunday at 3pm in Bil’in in order to support the local resistance in the face of the occupation. They have invited Palestinian actors and celebrities to take part in the festival.
Demonstrators marched through the streets of Bil’in, chanting national songs, condemning the occupation. When they approached a gate at the western side of the Wall, the protestors attempted to enter their land that was annexed by the Wall. The Israeli soldiers closed the gate and prevented the demonstrators from entering, throwing tear gas on them and causing tens of participants suffering from tear gas inhalation.
Earlier this week, a delegation from “Follow the Women” visited Bil’in and heard from the Popular Committee about the experience of the village with the struggle against the construction of the Wall and settlements and about the suffering of Bil’in citizens caused by the Wall. The delegation cycled to the Wall in Bil’in in solidarity with the Friday demonstrations. They were a part of a tour to Palestine, which included visiting refugees camps, villages and cities, places with active local resistance and conflict points with the Israeli occupation. The delegation also visited Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The aim of this ride was to promote peace in region and ending of the occupation of the Palestinian territories, as the delegation coordinator, Dita Reagan stated.
A 29 year old man was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces yesterday, Thursday 22 October, outside Awarta village in the southern region of Nablus. Mohammad Abed Ar-Rahman Qawariq suffered a violent death when he was thrown from his car as it was rammed by a military jeep.
Mohammad, 29 years old, was born and lived in Awarta and worked as a labourer in Israel. He leaves behind a widow and two children, one of 2 years and one of 3 months. At 4pm yesterday he drove to meet his family in their olive groves along a small road (used exclusively for farming purposes and until now has always been accessible to Palestinians) to the east of Awarta and passed two Israeli military jeeps. According to eyewitnesses, the jeeps took off after him, the first immediately attempting to ram his car from behind. The chase continued only about one kilometer further down the dirt track before soldiers fired four shots at the car’s tires, forcing Mohammad to slow quickly or come to a complete standstill, at which point he was rammed a second time by the jeep. This second collision launched Mohammad through the windscreen of his car to where he lay on the ground, convulsing and evidently still alive, as blood poured from his head.
Approximately 20 Palestinian farmers, who were working nearby and heard sounds of the crash, approached the area and witnessed Israeli soldiers, having exited the jeeps, kicking Mohammad’s legs and screaming for him to get up whilst he lay helpless on the ground. As the farmers drew nearer hoping to help him, they were forced back at gunpoint while the soldiers refused to administer first aid themselves. When asked what had happened, the soldiers repeatedly claimed to have ordered Mohammad to stop, and when this was ignored they forced him. One hour passed before an Israeli military ambulance arrived on the scene, and attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate Mohammad. A Red Crescent ambulance arrived a few minutes thereafter from Awarta. The senior military officer present then refused to claim knowledge of the criminal act taken place, and when an army paramedic inquired as to who had been driving the jeep he was rebutted and ordered not to ask. Red Crescent paramedics subsequently attempted a second resuscitation but after an hour of intentional IOF neglect it was much too late to save Mohammad, and he was declared deceased at the site of the crash.
This senseless act of murder highlights the dangers faced constantly by Palestinians trying to live their lives under the illegal occupation of their lands. The Israeli Occupation Forces do not hesitate to handle even the slightest irregularity on the side of the Palestinians civilians with the use of excessive force, and when obvious crimes, such as the one perpetrated this Thursday occur, there is little if any hope that it will lead to a criminal investigation. It has been proven time and time again that the Israeli establishment considers the paranoias of its soldiers and settlers to be much more important than the lives of the Palestinians. Awarta has suffered more than its share of harassment and suffering, this year as well as previous ones, and it is no coincidence – It is surrounded by Israeli settlements. When looking out from atop the village, one sees the settlements of Itamar to the east, Yitzah to the west and Bracha to the east. All of these are illegal under international law and are trying to swallow up more of the Palestinian land around them, making necessary the Israeli army’s presence to protect these criminal land grabs. The tragic killing of Mohammad was but one of the more extreme results of this situation.
Eight-year-old Alexandra Darby, the niece of Quartet envoy Tony Blair, toured the West Bank this week on a bicycle, peddling an estimated 200 kilometers from Amman to Jerusalem.
Asked what she will tell her school friends about the Peace Cycle journey, Alex reflected, “I’ll tell them that the people here are very nice, not like they say in the newspapers.”
The West Bank is not a usual vacation site for most eight-year-olds. But, as mother, journalist and activist Lauren Booth explained, “She’s been asking me for the last five years why she can’t go to Palestine, and despite the fact that the Israelis can make it bloody trying to get in and out, the greeting here I knew would be so sensational for her that I didn’t have a reason not to bring her.”
Why doesn’t Alex think other kids get to come to Palestine? “Because, of course, the telly, which says Palestinians are not like us, that they are a revolting people, a violent people, a nasty people, it’s mad. In fact it’s the exact opposite, it’s the Israelis.”
Alex and Tony visit Hebron
On Tuesday, Alex visited Hebron with the Peace Cycle Group. As she entered the streets leading to the Old City, she saw her uncle’s motorcade drive away.
While in the city, mom Lauren had heard the Quartet envoy, and husband of her sister, may be in the area. “We tried to wave them down,” she said, but “they thought we were just waving at them [as fans] so they just waved back. They thought people on the streets were waving at them, which was a bit frustrating.”
But it meant Alex had the fortuitous experience of meeting the people who had just escorted Blair around the city. His visit was reported as a chance for Blair to hear about the troubles of Palestinians in Hebron so he could better inform the decisions of the Quartet as it pushes its Middle East peace Road Map.
“As soon as Blair left, we arrived and got to speak to the local dignitaries and to the police who had been part of showing him around, and their disappointment was total,” Lauren explained.
“He was shown into the mosque and cheered in by Israeli soldiers. He went not through the cattle grid and the humiliation of checkpoints that the local population has to go through to get to their own mosque; he went in through open doors used only by Israelis. How is he going to learn, and make any judgment about what the Palestinian people need, if that’s the sort of trip he makes?”
Touring the area with her mom and the group, listening to the way people talked about Blair’s visit, and what he was supposed to be doing, reminded Alex of the Hans Christian Andersen fable The Emperor’s New Clothes. The tale is of a leader who hires swindlers to make him new robes and is fooled into believing they are made of a magical fabric that only the worthy can see.
“Do you know the story of the emperor’s new clothes?” she asks, “Well the emperor is blinded by what they do, because for real there is nothing there. And I think that’s what they are doing, because when he went to visit the Old City, and well, the Israelis didn’t make him go through the metal bit to get into the mosque; he went through the wide bit. So he thinks, ‘Well, then it’s right what they say, these people aren’t poor, these people aren’t under an occupation.’ That’s what they are trying to make him see, so he can make others see the same.”
“The Palestinian Authority is culpable in this as well,” Lauren adds, “they arrange these visits so that he doesn’t have tea with a local family; they go along with these supposed security issues that allow Israel to protect foreign diplomats from the supposedly violent Palestinians and they never get to see the real situation.”
Alex, however, saw the real Hebron.
“I felt a bit scared in Hebron,” she admits, tucking her legs up into the chair, “You never really could be alone. When you came in there are Israelis looking down at you, then we got to one bit, there was this big thing the Israelis could look through just to see far-er, and he had a big gun,” Alex said describing the guard towers that dot the Old City.
“She has been afraid twice,” Lauren explained, “both times because of settlers, and that’s disappointing that she had to feel that. I never want any child to have to go through that, but she did… and it really affected her.”
Going home
Wednesday was the last night for Alex and Lauren in Palestine, so thoughts turned to what would happen when she returned to class.
What did she tell her friends before leaving? “I’ve told them about the siege, but they don’t listen, my best friend listens though.”
What will she tell them when she gets back? “I think it’s a mad idea to build a wall, to think of people getting guns and building a giant wall around France and saying ‘This is England;’ it’s mad.”
Does she think her visit will prompt them to come and see the place for themselves? “I don’t really think they will, because if I tell them about the soldiers they’ll be scared… I think their parents would come first, to get to know some people and make friends, then when they know the people quite well and that they’re nice, then perhaps they’ll bring their children.”
That comment prompts an idea in Lauren, who, along with the other members of the Peace Cycle Team, has used the trip to make connections with local initiatives, hoping to pair them with organizations in the UK and Europe. “You need to know the people first, you’re right. Do you think your classmates would want to Skype with the kids in Jenin that you met?”
Alex nods, excited about the prospect of keeping in touch with some of her new friends.
“I have brought the most precious thing in my life to Palestine with the knowledge that she will be loved and cared for,” Lauren says as the buss rolls up to take the group to a school for the blind in Beit Jala, “and that she has found this to be a place where children are adored and not in the least like she would have expected it to be as a child exposed to the news.”
Getting nervous about the visit, Alex asks if we want to hear the song she will share with the children at the school.
“Are you ready?
Free my people Palestine – Sing it loud
We will never let you die – Sing it loud
Palestine West Bank Ramallah Gaza, this is for the child that is looking for an answer
I wish I could take your tears and turn them into laughter
Long live Palestine, Long live Gaza!”
In this short video, produced with the support of the NoVA Center For Social Innovation, Palestine Monitor would like to introduce you to Arafat Kanaan: an inspirational 16-year-old non-violent activist and filmmaker from the West Bank village of Ni’lin.
Every week, Arafat films as his village non-violently demonstrates against the apartheid wall that Israel is building, a wall which has cut off the village from thousands of dunams of its lands, and which has turned Ni’lin into a ghetto. Arafat has filmed as Israel imposed curfews on the village, staged military incursions, humiliated, beaten and assassinated villagers. During the protests, Arafat films as Israeli soldiers respond to non-violent resistance with teargas cannons, rubber bullets, live ammunition, sound bombs and sewage water. Despite harassment from Israeli soldiers, who broke his camera while he was filming an assassination, Arafat continues to peacefully resist – and expose – life in his village under occupation.
Two Jerusalem leaders were harassed and interrogated by Israeli forces Tuesday, marking a steep increase in targeted detentions and raids of organizers involved in the Al-Aqsa Mosque sit-ins and demonstrations during the Jewish holidays earlier this month.
In the latest incident, Israeli police released senior Fatah official and Jerusalem affairs official Hatem Abdul Qader after detaining him for hours at the Allenby Bridge as he returned to Palestine from Jordan on Tuesday.
Abdul-Qader said authorities on the bridge handed him an order to submit to further interrogation by Israel’s intelligence unit at 12pm on Wednesday, an order he said he intended to refuse.
On Thursday Abdul Qader was taken from his car along with Islamic Movement leader Ali Sheikha. The two reported they had been taken by undercover Israeli agents at the Qalandiya military checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah. He said officers disguised as motorists disabled his car and “kidnapped” the two officials. They were taken to Israel’s Russian Compound prison in West Jerusalem.
At that time he was also given an order to appear in front of Israeli intelligence at 10am the following Wednesday.
Abdul Qader called the latest detention “provocative,” since he was on a “semi-official” visit to Jordan in the capacity of a Palestinian Authority representative.
The official has been interrogated four times in the last two weeks, following the Palestinian protest of Israeli extremist action around the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holidays earlier this month.
Israeli forces target home of Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture organizer, seize documents
Prior to Abdul Qader’s detention and interrogation, Israeli Special Forces stormed the home of Al-Quds Capital of Culture organizer and architect Ihab Al-Jallad early Tuesday morning, sources reported.
Al-Jallad was questioned about the Al-Aqsa Mosque sit in that took place more than one week ago, while other masked soldiers ransacked his home and terrified his children, he said. The soldiers took three computers from the home, as well as digital memory devices, CDs and several paper files.
According to Al-Jallad, the Israeli officer questioning him said he and dozens of other Jerusalem leaders were being observed, that all activities in Jerusalem were being monitored – particularly those in the Al-Aqsa Mosque – and that no political or cultural activities would be permitted to go ahead without express permission from Israeli police.
“The officer even mocked our slogan, ‘Al-Aqsa in Danger,’” Al-Jallad said, referring to the campaign launched by Jerusalem religious and community leaders encouraging Palestinians to visit Jerusalem and particularly to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosue in the Old City.
Earlier that morning Israeli forces raided a warehouse used by Jerusalem community groups and event organizers. According to Al-Jallah, Israeli forces vandalized material used for cultural events and seized some goods.
“Israeli forces cannot terrify our children and cannot prevent us from doing our duty for Jerusalem…We will continue our program and activities by God’s will,” Al-Jallal said.
This is the second time in as many months that Israeli forces have broken into Al-Jallad’s home.
Eight-year-old Alexandra Darby, the niece of Quartet envoy Tony Blair, toured the West Bank this week on a bicycle, peddling an estimated 200 kilometers from Amman to Jerusalem.