In Photos: Ni’lin chisels through Zionism

13 March 2012 | by Rune, International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Like every Friday, on March 9th residents of Ni’lin village, west of Ramallah, went to protest the Apartheid wall, which encloses their lands and denies them of basic human rights. A part of the protest was an attempt to break a hole in the wall. Activists were met with rubber coated steel bullets, skunk water and tear gas, sometimes fired directly at the demonstrators.

Dismantling Apartheid - Click here for more photos

Rune is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Idhna: A family without windows

by Peige

12 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

After three years of marriage Amani and Hussein Batran wanted a house of their own, somewhere to raise their two children, 4 year old Khalil and 3 year old Layali.   They took out two loans from the bank and construction began. Now, three years later, the house is still unfinished and no new work has been done for over a year. One year ago, shortly after the Batran family moved into their nearly finished house, they received an order from the Israeli military forbidding further construction, followed seven months later by a demolition order.  The reason given is that their house blocks the view of a camera mounted on the illegal segregation wall Israel has constructed inside of the West Bank.

Without windows in Idhna – Click here for more photos

The sight of glass-less windows and wires protruding from half-sanded walls speaks of dreams put on hold, a family living in limbo. The Batrani family has endured the bitter cold of this Palestinian winter with only plastic sheets covering their windows.  The Israeli government considers installing glass  a violation of the order to halt construction.   Violating the order means risking imminent demolition of their home, so the family must make do with  the inadequate plastic sheets.

They know their fate will likely be the same as Ahmed Jeyowi and his family, whether or not they obey the order to halt construction.  Jeyowi’s home was demolished last month when around 50 Israeli soldiers stormed the house at 6 AM whilst Ahmed was drinking tea and preparing to work his land. The soldiers forced Ahmed’s wife and six children from their beds and gave the family no time to salvage their possessions before they demolished their home.

Ahmed has since been forced to send his wife and children to live with other family members whilst he lives on the ruined site which once was his home, now replaced by a tent provided by the Red Cross. Ahmed is left with no heating or lighting, no gas, no toilet, and insufficient bedding.

Idna has suffered considerably since the Israeli occupation, particularly due to the construction of the segregation wall and the theft of some 3,000 dunums of land since the second Intifada. Idhna is surrounded by the Israeli settlements of Adora and Telem to the northeast, a bypass road that runs through the northern parts of the town, and the segregation wall that borders Idna to the north and the west.  There are currently 40 homes in Idna with demolition orders.

Paige is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

New military gate limits access to Beit Iksa land

12 March 2012 | WAFA News Agency

A new military-controlled road gate the Israeli army had set up on Monday in the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, raised concern of possible takeover of almost 2000 dunums of land as it limits access to agricultural land, according to residents.

The soldiers also took over a house in the area and turned it into a military outpost, said residents.

They said soldiers manning the new gate prevented village residents from reaching their homes for hours under the pretext of security reasons.

Villagers said they expect that the army will not allow them to reach their homes and land behind the new gate without an army-issued permit.

They expressed concern that this Israeli measure aims to eventually seize their land for the benefit of expanding the nearby settlement of Ramot, built illegally on village land.

T.R./M.S.

Caught on Tape: Drunk settlers in Al Khalil assault two international women; Israeli military admits special relationship with violent settlers

11 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On March 9 2012, 6 volunteers of International Solidarity Movement were walking down Shuhada Street near Checkpoint 55 at approximately 11 AM, when drunk settlers attacked the group and injured one international volunteer.

About 5 drunk male settlers began to scream at and surround the internationals, yelling “keffiyah,” the traditional Palestinian scarf, that two internationals were wearing.  Settlers were visibly carrying bottles of alcohol.

The drunk settlers shoved one woman from the back and then threw wine on her.

At the point the group began filming the settlers continued to hit, shove and try to grab the cameras of all 6 people.  A police car drove by and did not stop the attack.  One settler, wearing a dinosaur tail costume on his back put a towel on his face before trying to grab the camera of a Canadian ISM volunteer and then punched a British ISM woman in the face. They then fled shouting.

The British woman fell to the ground and dropped her camera, and another settler picked it up.  The ISM volunteers walked up to 5 or 6 Israeli soldiers sitting about 50 yards ahead and told them what happened.

They laughed and said the internationals had brought it upon themselves by wearing keffiyehs.  The internationals then walked to a police car parked at the next junction. While they were explaining what happened, settler Anat Cohen came up to the internationals and police screaming in Hebrew, and then slapped a Canadian ISM woman on the arm, in front of the police.  The police then sent this woman to retrieve the camera.

They told the internationals that this woman was the “head of the settlers” and that they had a “special relationship with her.” “We do her favours and she does us favours,” they said.

The camera was not returned so the internationals attempted to file a complaint at the Israeli police station near the mosque, but were told to go to the  Kiryat Arba police station.  When the British woman asked for a police escort they said to take the bus (motioning to the settler bus station).

A police report was filed at Kiryat Arba but was only in Hebrew so the Candian ISM woman and the British woman refused to sign these statements.  The police have instructed them to bring in the film footage after Shabbat.

The attack comes following weeks of warning and aggression towards photojournalists and activists with cameras by Israeli military and police, which have stated to internationals that Israeli law forbids the photography of their operations, or rather, their breach of international law and human rights.

Activists have received these warnings for weeks now, and today’s attack comes parallel to the deliberate targeting by Israeli military of journalists and activists with cameras, by shooting tear gas canisters and bullets directly at them at most West Bank demonstrations.

About a month ago, Reporters without Borders published this statement regarding these warnings and threats.

While this attack is an escalation against internationals in the region, and while it is evident that the Israeli military and illegal settlers are collaborating in attacking Palestinians and internationals,  International Solidarity Movement will not desist from bringing proof of Israeli aggression through pictures, videos, and its continued reporting.

After much injustice, Beit Dajan debuts its peaceful resistance

by Jonas Weber

9 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Several hundred villagers gathered today in Beit Dajan to the first ever demonstration against the roadblock that has been obstructing access to the village since the beginning of the second Intifada. The peaceful demonstration was met with a heavy tear gas from the Israeli military. Since 2000, the main road from Beit Dajan to Nablus has been blocked by the military.

2 martyrs of Beit Dajan

The village of about 4000 inhabitants is located only 9 kilometers from Nablus, but it wasn’t until a new road was built in 2005 that the villagers could access their closest city without taking a 60 kilometer detour. However, even with the new road, travelling to and from Nablus still takes twice the time it used to. It wasn’t until 2009 that anyone could go to Nablus after 5pm without coordination with the District Coordination Office, the link between the PA and the Israeli military.

Not even ambulances have been let through at the checkpoint which has led to a lot of complications with the health care in the village.

Education has also become a problem because of the logistical difficulties set by these Apartheid roads and checkpoints. And water supplies are cut because of the roadblock, forcing the village to now import expensive water from the Jordan Valley. And as if this is not enough, the village has suffered four deaths at the roadblock.

Demonstration by the roadblock in Beit Dajan March 9th 2012

The day before the demonstration the roadblock was enhanced with barbed wire further down the road. To protest the roadblock the village has decided to start arranging weekly demonstrations on Friday to show their discontent. Around noon on the 9th of March, 2012, activists from ISM, Anarchists Against the Wall, and Active Stills met with Palestinian organizers and activists in Beit Dajan’s municipality building to prepare for the first ever demonstration against the roadblock.

“It’s nice to see that it’s just Palestinian flags in this demonstration,” says one of the Israeli activists. “All these party flags are breaking up the popular resistance.”

After the noon prayer the villagers huddled up in cars and vans and drove to the roadblock just a few kilometers out of town. In an orderly manner the demonstration marched towards the roadblock.

When the people of Beit Dajan reached the intersection where the roadblock stands they were met with tear gas thrown towards them. There had been no provocation for this and several of the Israeli activists hurried across the roadblock to question the behavior of the soldiers. The protestors on the other side of the gate tried to stay as close to the roadblock as possible while dodging the tear gas and sound grenades thrown at them. Several tear gas grenades were successfully thrown back at the soldiers. The barbed  wire on the road block was pulled out of the way as the hundreds of demonstrators advanced towards the roadblock. After a while the military switched to firing tear gas from guns and jeeps. One of the Israeli activists said that he had seen the soldiers aiming towards people in the demonstration.

An Israeli protester argues with an Israeli soldier during clashes between locals and Israel military, at a protest against the closure and for the removal of a gate at the entrance of Beit Dajan village, that has been shut since 2011, near Nablus. | Photo courtesy of Alaa Badarneh / EPA

Some people suffered from different degrees of tear gas inhalation but fortunately no one was seriously injured. At 13.22, when the demonstration had been going on for about an hour, the soldiers crossed the roadblock and formed a line on the road, pushing
protesters back. Shortly after this the demonstration was dispersed by the organizers who reasoned that their message had come across clearly enough.

Not a single stone was thrown during the demonstration. Despite this the reaction of the military was just as violent callous as
always.

Jonas Weber is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).