Author: ISM Media

Palestinian youth arrested and 4 detained at Nabi Saleh weekly demonstration

By Naseem Roberts

2nd November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

One Palestinian Youth was arrested and four others: two Israelis and two internationals were detained during the Friday non-violent weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh.

People from the village met in the main square of the village from 11:30am onwards. At 12pm the demonstration began and everyone walked down the main street of the village singing songs and clapping along. Children were in the procession waving flags and chanting into the megaphone.

The demonstrators turned a corner and headed towards their objective: the natural spring to which the people of Nabi Saleh have been denied access to because of the illegal settlement of Halamish. This is the point at which the day turned ugly. In front of the demonstrators was a line of Israeli soldiers. At 12.30pm without any threat to the soldiers and without any warning, the Israeli military fired tear gas canisters directly into the demonstration while they were still inside the village. People carried on walking up the hill undaunted. The soldiers then fired tear gas canisters at head height, missing one person by mere inches. The demonstrators walked up as close as they could to the soldiers, waving flags and putting their hands in front of the guns as the soldiers aimed to prevent them from firing more tear gas into the village. Once more the children of Nabi Saleh came courageously to the forefront of the demonstration, waving their hands in victory signs and holding kaffiyas in front of the soldiers faces to prevent them firing their guns, singing songs and chanting as they did so. The Israeli military were forced back over the hill and down towards the spring, followed all the way by the men, women and children of Nabi Saleh.

At 1.05pm a cry came from behind the demonstrators that the Israeli military were arresting someone in the village. People went back to the village to find that Waed Bassim Tamimi aged 14 had been arrested. Waed’s mother raced to her sons aid. Two Israeli activists, a French journalist and an international activist were detained by the Israeli army while they were trying to support Waid’s mother’s remonstrations with the soldiers. After this seven or eight live rounds were fired at demonstrators in the village.

Only a few weeks ago Waed was injured when struck in the side by a tear gas grenade fired at him during the Friday demonstration. On Wednesday 24th of October Bassim Tamimi, Waed’s father was arrested by Israeli police officers suffering three broken ribs. Nabi Saleh encourages the involvement of the village’s children in their peaceful activities. The Israeli military can imprison the organizers of protests but the culture of non violent resistance lives strongly in the next generation of Nabi Saleh.

Naseem Roberts is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

UPDATE – Freedom for international activists!

30th October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

UPDATE: 2nd November 2012

Great news – Elyana and the other international activist have been released! Thank you so much to everyone who made a donation to make this possible.

The judge ruled that their detention and the attempted deportation was illegal which sets an excellent precedent we hope to carry in future cases. Israeli authorities must be shown that they do not have a license to deport activists with impunity. Elyana and the other activist are still fighting their case and will be called back to court in the coming days.

“Being inside I found myself wondering, “What does it really mean to be free?” Are we ever free, or do we just forget the inherent oppression of this culture when we don’t have the metal bars in our face to remind us? For the Palestinians perhaps it is not so easy to forget when there are reminders (if not literally behind bars) at every checkpoint, every military Jeep, every Israeli flag, every wall, every map that shows (or rather does not show) the disappearance of their beloved country. Now that I am on the outside I find myself wondering, “What will it take for Palestine to be free?” –Elyana Belle

 

PLEASE DONATE – www.palsolidarity.org/donate

Previous reports on the 2 Internationals’ arrests:
https://palsolidarity.org/2012/10/urgent-funds-needed-international-activists-threatened-with-illegal-deportation/
https://palsolidarity.org/2012/10/bassem-tamimi-injured-and-arrested-with-3-others-at-boycott-israel-protest/

A judge today gave a verdict that two international activists should not be deported, deeming illegal the decision by Israeli police to hand them over to immigration authorities despite the fact that another judge had ordered them to be released.

Elyana and the other activist will be freed on Thursday – if we can raise the 10,000 shekel bail for them (€1984/£1600/$2570). As well as needing these funds urgently, there are also extensive legal fees to be paid for the two activists (around 14000 NIS/€2780/£2240/$3600). Because of this, once more we need your help with a donation. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated already, but this is a continual battle. The Israeli system of deporting activists without charge must be challenged legally if it is to end.

Palestinian demonstration organizer Bassem Tamimi, is not as lucky as the two international activists – he is not free and is facing a jail sentence of likely more than two years. It is hoped that the judge’s decision to free the two activists, who are from the US and Poland, will help in Bassem’s case as he is facing the same charges – a legal precendent for this occurred in Kufr Qaddoum recently.

Elyana has been threatened with solitary confinement during her time in immigration detention and has been mistreated physically and verbally by guards. She said today “I really see now the sharing of this struggle. This is a fight for all of us – Palestinian, Israeli, American, Italian, British, whatever. We are all fighting against this system of oppression.”

Please help us in this struggle with a donation today – www.palsolidarity.org/donate

In Solidarity, ISM Palestine

Night raid on family – two Palestinians abducted in Shuhada Street, Hebron

30 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Photo of the Abduction from Youth Against Settlements

At approximately 2am Israeli occupation forces climbed down from the roof at the back of a family complex on Shuhada street to apprehend student Abed Al Salayma, age 20. Abed was blindfolded and led from his home a short time thereafter while his distraught mother remonstrated with the soldiers. Thirty minutes later his mother Jamille Hassan Shalaldh, age 50, was handcuffed, arrested and taken away.

After the Israeli military forced entry, they did not provide the family with a written warrant or verbal explanation for why Abed was being siezed, therefore this event is a kidnapping. Hence the mother’s appropriate distress as she followed the soldiers out of her house and onto the street in aid of her son. While expressing her frustration Jamille collapsed on the street at 2.50am and was roughly handled for a number of minutes causing her to breakdown again. A settler got out of his car and spoke to the soldiers during the incident.
One family member brought a chair for Jamille to sit on. The army sat Jamille on the chair and promptly handcuffed her behind her back. She received no treatment from the soldiers during the event. An ambulance was called to the scene but the paramedics were denied entry through the checkpoint. At 3:15 the Israeli Police arrived and a few minutes later she was transported by vehicle to an undisclosed location.

As the situation stands there have been no charges pressed against either Jamille or Abed, and the family continues to be in the dark as to their whereabouts. Speculatively, Jamille is close by at a health clinic and is reported to be surrounded by soldiers.

Five months ago both were arrested, Abed had to pay money to be released. As in this instance there was no apparent reason for why the Israeli occupation forces apprehended them. There have been several instances of conflicts between the Salayma family and settlers, including one that involved a large mirror being brought to the Salayma household and thrown at Jamille.

Abed is Jamille’s only son, he studies at Hebron University and aims to be an English teacher. Before his detainment he translated for EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel).

Team Khalil

Picking olives in a cage

Journal by Ellie Marton

25 October 2012 |  International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

 

I spent Tuesday inside a cage. Not my usual way to spend a sunny Tuesday – but for the Palestinian farmers I was with, this is routine.

This is because their land happens to be near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel – in fact, it is in the Israeli imposed ‘buffer zone’ between the largest settlement in the West Bank and the surrounding Palestinian villages – of course, the buffer zone is created out of land outside of the settlement, effectively grabbing yet more land from the Palestinians.

Many olive trees are trapped in this ‘buffer zone’ between a fence on one side and Ariel on the other. So, during the Palestinian olive harvest, the villagers who own the land must ask for Israeli permission to access their own trees – as is typical across the West Bank. However, they have a second hurdle to cross, as their trees are behind this fence, the soldiers need to let them in and out every morning and evening.

The gate is meant to be opened at six every morning, during the 20 days that villagers have permission to pick olives inside the cage – some farmers have to set off from home before 5am to get there on time to be allowed in. Five soldiers deigned to grace us with their presence at around 6.15, zooming down their patrol road in a military jeep. They opened the first gate onto the road, then past the rolls and rolls of barbed wire separating this from the next gate, eventually coming down to permit access to the sixty Palestinians, who were waiting patiently outside, as the sun rose over the hill.

The soldiers took the ID card of every person who passed, impatiently gesturing at people to hurry up with their guns. When we had all crossed the patrol road and into the third gate into the cage-proper, the door slammed shut behind us. We were locked inside until 4pm, when the soldiers would come and release us.

This length of time has severe implications for the farmers picking inside the cage – if anyone is ill or gets injured over the course of the day, there is no guarantee that medical help would be able to reach them. Children can’t join their families picking olives after school. If families don’t pick their olives within the permission time, they will lose them. Multiple trips can’t be made during the day – any olives that need to be removed have to be taken in one go at the end of the day – and this can be a lot. More than anything, the loss of autonomy and control over your own life and livelihood is devastating.

The family that I was picking with didn’t actually own the land – they rented it from another family who live in a village very near to the land. However, because of the cage, it would take them around three hours to reach their trees. So although the majority of Palestinian families have a deep connection to their trees and their land, this family needed to sacrifice this for the practicality of allowing someone who lives closer to farm their land.

Actually picking the olives was trouble free. We saw one settler, jogging past on the other side of the fence – apparently there are sports fields there. At the end of the day, we walked the forty minutes back to the gate and waited for the soldiers to let us back out. This time, they called people one by one, handing them back their ID cards. This took rather a long time. At the end, there was one woman left – for several tense minutes, the soldiers couldn’t find her ID card and held her back. Her relief was tangible when it was found, and she was allowed to follow the rest of her family out of the cage. Palestinians need their ID cards for all aspects of their daily life, to have it go missing would be a big problem.

Israel aims to humiliate and control the Palestinian farmers – with great dignity, patience and steadfastness, the Palestinians gather their olives year after year, waiting until the moment when they will break free from the cages.

 

Ellie Marton is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)

URGENT – FUNDS NEEDED – International activists threatened with illegal deportation – UPDATED

25 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

DONATE HERE: https://palsolidarity.org/donate/

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UPDATE 26th October: international activist Elyana Belle, currently fighting an illegal deportation order, reports on her arrest and detention:

During her arrest, Elyana received blows to her head and injuries to her neck by four Israeli police officers who dragged her from the scene of the non-violent demonstration. Her hands were bound from the point of her arrest until many hours later in the evening – she is still suffering from limited circulation to her hands. She has been shackled hand and foot during transportation.

A police officer threatened to pepper spray her, before forcefully grabbing her and shoving her into a car to be transported to immigration detention – after a judge had ordered that she and the other international activist be released. Elyana was laughed at and ignored by Israeli authorities when she repeatedly demanded her right to be able to contact her lawyer by phone. Thankfully, she has now had access to legal advice.

For the first hours of her detention, Elyana was held with Bassem Tamimi, organizer of the regular demonstration in Nabi Saleh. She reported that he was suffering major damage to his ribs, and could not breathe or speak without severe pain. Elyana demanded to be taken to a hospital so that Bassem would receive the medical attention that he required – he was eventually treated and bandaged.

Elyana has chosen to fight the unjust and illegal deportation that Israel has begun against her, so will remain in immigration detention until she can be seen by the court. Saeed Yakeen, one of the Palestinian men arrested at the peaceful demonstration has now been released. Bassem Tamimi remains in prison, as does a Polish activist, who is also facing deportation.

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Israeli authorities are threatening to deport two international activists, arrested yesterday at a non-violent action at a settlement supermarket, despite a judge ruling that they should be released. They are currently being held in immigration detention.

Earlier today, defense lawyers were informed that a judge had ruled that they should be freed without charge, but this ruling was ignored by Israeli police, who handed the two activists to the Ministry of Interior, to begin the deportation process. They could be flown back to their home countries within hours, despite never having been charged, let alone convicted of any crime. They have also been repeatedly denied contact with their lawyer.

Substantial legal costs have already been incurred. If they choose to fight this unjust deportation, then these will be even higher. We urgently need funds to challenge the Israeli tactic of deporting solidarity activists to prevent our work in the West Bank.

Freedom for international activists can also be key in legal processes for Palestinians who are arrested at the same time. Previously this month, four ISM activists and two Palestinian men were arrested. One of the Palestinian men was released just yesterday, following a judge’s decision that to keep him in prison after the international activists had been freed would be unjust and discriminatory.

Please donate now so that we can continue our work supporting the Palestinian cause.

DONATE HERE: https://palsolidarity.org/donate/

In Solidarity, International Solidarity Movement

Palestinians and Internationals at the peaceful direct action in an Israeli supermarket near the illegal settlement of Shaar Binyami where the 2 Internationals were arrested along with 2 Palestinian men.

 

Dozens of Palestinians and internationals protest at Rami Levy Supermarket near the illegal settlement of Sha´ar Benyamin on October 24th. This direct action aims to highlight the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) Campaign that seeks to promote a boycott of Israeli goods.